NFL 2020: Draft

Enix wrote:

I was wondering why Carolina brought in a rookie punter last week -- camp leg? -- until news broke today that last year's Panthers punter blew out his ACL during the summer.

The fact that we (OK, me) are talking about kickers means that things are about to get back to normal soon. Right? RIGHT?!

I wonder how many kickers have to come down with COVID for Roberto Aguayo to get another NFL kicking job.

There, you happy?

Not strictly football related, but where else would I post this?

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/MV8270i.png)

https://defector.com/

So, an employee-owned business? As long as they continue to keep politics in sports, The Way It Should Be, I will subscribe.

Top_Shelf wrote:

So, an employee-owned business? As long as they continue to keep politics in sports, The Way It Should Be, I will subscribe.

That's the only way I'll read it. Keep the politics in my sports where it belongs.

Oh, and as long as they bring back "Let's remember some guys".

DSGamer wrote:

Keep the politics in my sports where it belongs.

I know! Sports has never NOT had politics!

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Enix wrote:

I was wondering why Carolina brought in a rookie punter last week -- camp leg? -- until news broke today that last year's Panthers punter blew out his ACL during the summer.

The fact that we (OK, me) are talking about kickers means that things are about to get back to normal soon. Right? RIGHT?!

I wonder how many kickers have to come down with COVID for Roberto Aguayo to get another NFL kicking job.

There, you happy?

Man, 2016 seems like a completely different world to me now.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EeEJDexXYAAvtpx?format=jpg&name=900x900)

garion333 wrote:

Man, 2016 seems like a completely different world to me now.

IN THE BEFORE-TIMES, WE WOULD GATHER IN GROUPS INDOORS TO OBSERVE THE SPORTMEN

Jayhawker wrote:

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"Owned". That game was one Jimmy Garoppolo overthrow away from being known as the worst game of Mahomes' career. His 4th lowest passer rating ever. Came alive at the end, but the only reason it isn't considered a bad game for Mahomes is because the Niners blew their chance to respond (and because of the job the Chiefs defense did to keep them in it long enough while Mahomes got little going for 3+ quarters)

I almost wish Mahomes had just destroyed the Niners for 4 quarters, at least that loss I would have been able to swallow easier.

I mean, I'd rather lose the Super Bowl every year than have to watch Blaine Gabbert take another snap for one of my teams.

I can't wait for Brady's body to start acting its age.

*Legion* wrote:

I can't wait for Brady's body to start acting its age.

I feel like it already is!

Here are his 19/18/17 numbers:

DYAR: 16, 8, 1
DVOA: 17, 7, 2
QBR: 17, 6, 4

Maybe Brucey-Bruce + those targets will rejuvenate him. But I think he's done.

I agree. He was going downhill two years ago which is why Belichick tried to get rid of him. Last year it was noticeable and they did a lot of covering up the shortcomings with their offensive design and playcalling. I think this year will stink for him and a lot of people will blame it on moving to Tampa but it was really just a continuation of his earlier decline.

If a season were to happen, it would have been an interesting experiment to watch Brady; he's older and his offensive line wouldn't be as good, but that's a phenomenally good set of skill position players. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Gronk, OJ Howard, Cameron Brate . . . throw in Arians' pass-happy nature, and it'd be intriguing to see how all of that would help compensate for his decline as he's aged.

I mean, look at Mike Evans' numbers in his career; he's averaged ~80 catches, 1200 yards, and 8 TDs/year, and that's with Captain Interception throwing him the ball, or, more accurately, throwing the ball vaguely in his direction. With actual accuracy so that so many of Evans catches weren't "catch badly-thrown ball for first down and then fall over due to being off-balance", what could he do?

Captain Interception. Hahaha.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I mean, look at Mike Evans' numbers in his career; he's averaged ~80 catches, 1200 yards, and 8 TDs/year, and that's with Captain Interception throwing him the ball, or, more accurately, throwing the ball vaguely in his direction. With actual accuracy so that so many of Evans catches weren't "catch badly-thrown ball for first down and then fall over due to being off-balance", what could he do?

Captain INT was also tops in yardage and 2nd in TDs.

I can't imagine Brady actually pushing anyone's production higher. At best it would probably be the same production on fewer targets.

Captain Interception is really good at throwing balls that people catch, which also includes the other team. It's a shame cause he's not bad at his job otherwise. Unfortunately, it's one of the most important parts of his job.

It's not like he was Bortles who thought there was only three routes to the pass tree.

Very possibly, but, again, it'd be interesting to see. One of the reasons Winston's raw numbers are high is just pure volume, and having to repeatedly throw to make up for early mistakes. His first-quarter stats are definitely a bit more supbar than usual looking at the splits on PFR, so the team frequently starts in the hole. So, sure, high stats, but bad stats. I'm not saying Brady necessarily changes all of that because I have no doubt he'd spread the ball around better, but Evans has ~55% catch rate, and there are a lot of bad balls both caught and not caught there. Having a more accurate passer obviously changes that, and, well, Winston sucked at deep balls, so it's not like Brady's noodle arm is going to impact that much.

I mean, no season, but, well, what happens with that offense. It'd be potentially very fun.

garion333 wrote:

Captain Interception is really good at throwing balls that people catch, which also includes the other team.

QFT

Meanwhile, if Brady throws half as many times this year as Winston did last year, Brady's arm will fall off.

And speaking of noodle-armed NFC South QBs:

Drew Brees training himself to not lick fingers

Meaning, presumably, his own fingers.

Also: Not the Onion.

Something something, toes. Something something, Rex Ryan.

garion333 wrote:

It's not like he was Bortles who thought there was only three routes to the pass tree.

One of which was "out of bounds":

"Keep that sh*t inbounds, bro" is second only to "whoa there motherf**ker".

Damien Williams opts out of 2020.

To me this makes little sense since a RBs shelf life is so short. Guess he's thinking longterm health.

More kicker news: Panthers cut Graham Gano.

But Roberto "Wide Left Wide Right Wide in Every Direction (but not wide like Kelvin Benjamin)" Aguayo shouldn't get his hopes up because the Panthers have a kicker left over from last year. (Gano was on IR all year.)

Meanwhile, the NFL Top 100 is out:

1. Lamar Jackson
2. Russell Wilson
3. Aaron Donald
4. Patrick Mahomes
5. Michael Thomas
6. Christian McCaffrey
7. George Kittle
8. DeAndre Hopkins
9. Stephon Gilmore, CB
10. Derrick Henry

Agree? Disagree? Does anyone care?

Well I certainly agree with #1.

Go Cards. Go Ravens.

FRANKLY, I FIND THIS ENTIRELY SUBJECTIVE ATTEMPT TO CLASSIFY PEOPLE'S SKILLS OFFENSIVE FOR REASONS

Enix wrote:

Agree? Disagree? Does anyone care?

It's voted on by players, which makes it essentially useless.

The players themselves don't take it very seriously:

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More to the point, though, is this one:

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^^^ this right here is what I have been saying for YEARS, and I'm pretty sure I got into an argument with someone on one of the threads here over it some time back. Players (and coaches) are hyper-focused on who is on their schedule, and essentially ignorant of the entire rest of the league. How couldn't they be? There's not enough hours in the day. What anyone not on their schedule is doing is irrelevant to their job, and most players spend their extra free time on something else instead.

NFL teams do employ people whose job it is to keep up with the rest of the league. It's called the pro personnel department, the scouts who follow the players in the league (hence, "pro personnel", as opposed to the college scouting department). Poll those guys and you'll get informed opinions. Poll coaches and players and you won't. They can tell you all about the teams that they played against, but not contextualize them within the rest of the league.

The top 100 is silly, but Mahomes as anywhere other than #1 seems odd to me.

Russell Wilson is placed appropriately though.

garion333 wrote:

The top 100 is silly, but Mahomes as anywhere other than #1 seems odd to me.

He fell because he had a 78.1 passer rating in his most recent game.

*Legion* wrote:

Players (and coaches) are hyper-focused on who is on their schedule, and essentially ignorant of the entire rest of the league. How couldn't they be? There's not enough hours in the day. What anyone not on their schedule is doing is irrelevant to their job, and most players spend their extra free time on something else instead.

That's why I've argued against the coaches poll in college sports. Handing it off to some grad assistant
or the coach random guessing is meaningless. Or in the BCS days, inflating your own schedule by ranking the teams in your conference high. I think they finally dropped it for football but it's still there in basketball, just not carrying any real weight.

*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:

The top 100 is silly, but Mahomes as anywhere other than #1 seems odd to me.

He fell because he had a 78.1 passer rating in his most recent game.

Blake Bortles had a 98.5 passer rating in his most recent playoff game.