NFL 2020: The playoff thread

I am not a football general manager, but I took a look at the Steelers cap numbers and with half the team going free agent in 2021 and Roethlesburger counting $41.3M against the cap ($22M of dead cap if they cut him), I can't see any way they even field a team next year. They have to go full on Jacksonville fire sale at this point, right?

Congrats to the Browns, the clear winners of the Wild Card weekend. That was dominance followed by some Browns-ing followed by more dominance.

Other WCW winners: the Rams defense, Josh Allen and the Ravens (who look kinda terrifying Sunday).

Anyway, here's what next week looks like:

DIVISIONAL ROUND

L.A. Rams at Green Bay Packers, 4:35 p.m. Saturday (Fox)
... featuring the Aaron Bowl.

Baltimore Ravens at Buffalo Bills, 8:15 p.m. Saturday (NBC)
... two great QBs doing great QB stuff

Cleveland Browns at Kansas City Chiefs, 3:05 p.m. Sunday (CBS)
... winning QB gets a new ad campaign

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints, 6:40 p.m. Sunday (Fox)
... Brady vs Brees III; Saints are 2-0 this season against the Bucs

Update: As CarlBear95 reminded me, the Rams-Packers game might (depending on Jared Goff's thumb) feature not one but TWO Cal QBs. No other school has more than one, which in his mind proves that Cal is better than all of the other schools out there, especially Stanfurd, which has no QBs starting any games this weekend.

Anyway, here's the QB breakdown for Sat/Sun:

Cal-Cal

Louisville-Wyoming

Oklahoma-Texas Tech (Big 12 matchup!)

Michigan-Purdue (Big 10 matchup!)

... and note the lack of SEC alumni on this list. Oh, sure, there are a lot of great SEC players in the league, but weirdly almost none of them play QB.

I think the most terrifying thing about the Ravens (aside from a clearly terrifying defensive performance in the trenches) was how perfectly Vrabel called a defensive game and still got royally screwed over for it. That 50 yard TD run by Lamar was against a double spy that clearly should have had him stopped after at most a 5 yard gain and the blitz was getting to him at the right moments, but his human cheat code abilities just made those efforts irrelevant. He had the right plan and the players by in large executed them perfectly. It just didn't matter. Vrabel outcoached Harbaugh and it didn't matter. That has to be infuriating.

Enix wrote:

Other WCW winners

Misread, and immediately thought of this...

IMAGE(https://www.vippng.com/png/detail/516-5166620_wcw-world-heavyweight-champions-nwo.png)

Paleocon wrote:

I am not a football general manager, but I took a look at the Steelers cap numbers and with half the team going free agent in 2021 and Roethlesburger counting $41.3M against the cap ($22M of dead cap if they cut him), I can't see any way they even field a team next year. They have to go full on Jacksonville fire sale at this point, right?

OL, DL and WRs. They're set. The rest are churn.

Vance McDonald is gone, for sure.

Haden and Nelson likely in last year on team, if not cut.

Ben will reneg and save em $10 mil.

JuJu likely gone in tag and trade. Or James Washington. Or both. Don't see how they keep JuJu and then extend TJ Watt.

It's a mess, but there's a way through. Ben is the biggest issue.

Enix wrote:

DIVISIONAL ROUND

L.A. Rams at Green Bay Packers, 4:35 p.m. Saturday (Fox)
... featuring the Aaron Bowl.

Understand the Aaron Bowl... but I think you can do better

Carlbear95 wrote:
Enix wrote:

DIVISIONAL ROUND

L.A. Rams at Green Bay Packers, 4:35 p.m. Saturday (Fox)
... featuring the Aaron Bowl.

Understand the Aaron Bowl... but I think you can do better :)

John Wolford didn't go to Cal!

garion333 wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I am not a football general manager, but I took a look at the Steelers cap numbers and with half the team going free agent in 2021 and Roethlesburger counting $41.3M against the cap ($22M of dead cap if they cut him), I can't see any way they even field a team next year. They have to go full on Jacksonville fire sale at this point, right?

OL, DL and WRs. They're set. The rest are churn.

Vance McDonald is gone, for sure.

Haden and Nelson likely in last year on team, if not cut.

Ben will reneg and save em $10 mil.

JuJu likely gone in tag and trade. Or James Washington. Or both. Don't see how they keep JuJu and then extend TJ Watt.

It's a mess, but there's a way through. Ben is the biggest issue.

There is no way that Ben is walking away from a $41.3M payday. Either they cut him and take the dead cap hit or they pay him a quarter of the payroll. The only other option is to extend him which at this point looks like pure polonium.

Wow. Baker Mayfield is the oldest quarterback remaining in the AFC playoff race.

Paleocon wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

I am not a football general manager, but I took a look at the Steelers cap numbers and with half the team going free agent in 2021 and Roethlesburger counting $41.3M against the cap ($22M of dead cap if they cut him), I can't see any way they even field a team next year. They have to go full on Jacksonville fire sale at this point, right?

OL, DL and WRs. They're set. The rest are churn.

Vance McDonald is gone, for sure.

Haden and Nelson likely in last year on team, if not cut.

Ben will reneg and save em $10 mil.

JuJu likely gone in tag and trade. Or James Washington. Or both. Don't see how they keep JuJu and then extend TJ Watt.

It's a mess, but there's a way through. Ben is the biggest issue.

There is no way that Ben is walking away from a $41.3M payday. Either they cut him and take the dead cap hit or they pay him a quarter of the payroll. The only other option is to extend him which at this point looks like pure polonium.

That's what I mean.

FMIA wrote:

In an elevator at the hotel, masked, he saw someone he recognized. (Blake) Hance was a training-camp cut of Washington in 2019, blocking in camp for quarterback Case Keenum. Now he saw Keenum, the backup to Baker Mayfield.

“I know you, right?” Keenum said, trying to place the face—hard to do, when the face is masked.

“Case, it’s Blake—Blake Hance,” he said.

Whoa. Keenum wondered what this masked man from his past was doing in the Browns hotel the night before the biggest game of the year.

“I’m on the team now,” Hance said.

What a goofy (in a good way) story. (link)

Excellent Enix!

Do they give Pulitzers for sports posts on a gaming website? You have my vote.

Paleocon wrote:

The only other option is to extend him which at this point looks like pure polonium.

An extension seems likely. If he only plays one more year, so be it. The window closes when Ben leaves, so the following year will be a cap health year, where they eat the money they had been deferring on their departed QB's deal. Kind of like what this season was for the Patriots.

FMIA wrote:

In an elevator at the hotel, masked, he saw someone he recognized. (Blake) Hance was a training-camp cut of Washington in 2019, blocking in camp for quarterback Case Keenum. Now he saw Keenum, the backup to Baker Mayfield.

“I know you, right?” Keenum said, trying to place the face—hard to do, when the face is masked.

“Case, it’s Blake—Blake Hance,” he said.

Whoa. Keenum wondered what this masked man from his past was doing in the Browns hotel the night before the biggest game of the year.

“I’m on the team now,” Hance said.

When Andrew Berry made the call to sign and bring him in:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/tzAGPk2.png)

I love Lamar and he is my man, but he can't talk. He needs to just hire Marshawn Lynch to do all his pressers.

Eagles fire Doug Pederson. Meanwhile, could the Texans be developing a case of CALDWELL FACE?

Enix wrote:
FMIA wrote:

In an elevator at the hotel, masked, he saw someone he recognized. (Blake) Hance was a training-camp cut of Washington in 2019, blocking in camp for quarterback Case Keenum. Now he saw Keenum, the backup to Baker Mayfield.

“I know you, right?” Keenum said, trying to place the face—hard to do, when the face is masked.

“Case, it’s Blake—Blake Hance,” he said.

Whoa. Keenum wondered what this masked man from his past was doing in the Browns hotel the night before the biggest game of the year.

“I’m on the team now,” Hance said.

What a goofy (in a good way) story. (link)

Came to post this. The whole thing this week was a good read. Crazy stuff.

Gumbie, please come back, because...

Jim Caldwell to the Texans is getting lots of buzz.

Don't you want to see Legion sad face?

My favorite factoid about the Doug Pederson firing:

Ron Rivera, hired by the WFT on Dec. 31, 2019, is now the longest-tenured NFC East coach. (source)

garion333 wrote:

Gumbie, please come back, because...

Jim Caldwell to the Texans is getting lots of buzz.

Don't you want to see Legion sad face?

Caldwell to the Texans would hurt the Titans too! Gumbie and I should be united on this. Nobody else in the AFC South wanted Houston to ever dump O'Brien.

Rat Boy wrote:

Eagles fire Doug Pederson. Meanwhile, could the Texans be developing a case of CALDWELL FACE?

One of the ways I mentally justified Pederson putting in the backup (already forgot his name) is that he had direct orders and or hinting from ownership to do so.

So I guess it's safe to say they didn't entirely see eye to eye on that maybe.

jowner wrote:

(already forgot his name)

Indiana University legend Nate Sudfeld.

I think Pederson put in 3rd string soon-to-be-FA QB Nate Sudfeld in order to get fired. It was his thumbing of his nose at Howie for giving him a sh*t team to field and wasting a 2nd round pick on a backup QB.

(Not saying Hurts is junk, but he didn't help the team in 2020.)

Apparently Pederson threatened to quit in September after being pressured to fire OC Mike Groh.

For next season, he wanted to make a bunch of internal promotions, including QB coach Press Taylor to OC, and the Eagles (presumably GM Howie Roseman and owner Jeff Lurie) were pushing back against this, wanting him to hire new outside talent to the staff, and cut loose some guys Pederson wanted to keep.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ZIK6Co7.png)

It does seem that ownership and the front office is quite hands-on over there. I imagine this might have come to a head sooner if not for the Super Bowl win. Definitely feeling some shades of Harbaugh vs. Baalke/York.

Way too quiet in here, so . . .

Hey, if Urban Meyer becomes head coach of the Jaguars, he might want to work with a known quantity, so let's start talking about the possibility of him selecting Justin Fields instead of Trevor Lawrence.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Hey, if Urban Meyer becomes head coach of the Jaguars, he might want to work with a known quantity, so let's start talking about the possibility of him selecting Justin Fields instead of Trevor Lawrence.

Boy did you miss the actual nightmare scenario. Hint: Justin Fields was still playing at Georgia when Meyer stepped down as Ohio State's coach. What quarterback was playing at Ohio State during Meyer's last year?

*Legion* wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Hey, if Urban Meyer becomes head coach of the Jaguars, he might want to work with a known quantity, so let's start talking about the possibility of him selecting Justin Fields instead of Trevor Lawrence.

Boy did you miss the actual nightmare scenario. Hint: Justin Fields was still playing at Georgia when Meyer stepped down as Ohio State's coach. What quarterback was playing at Ohio State during Meyer's last year?

And now you know how well I follow college football. I live in the heart of Big Ten country, and had no clue Urban Meyer wasn't at Ohio State.

*Legion* wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Hey, if Urban Meyer becomes head coach of the Jaguars, he might want to work with a known quantity, so let's start talking about the possibility of him selecting Justin Fields instead of Trevor Lawrence.

Boy did you miss the actual nightmare scenario. Hint: Justin Fields was still playing at Georgia when Meyer stepped down as Ohio State's coach. What quarterback was playing at Ohio State during Meyer's last year?

Would that be a certain QB who was fired by Ron Rivera's current team and who visited Rivera's old team just today?

Jax is a pretty straight shot from Charlotte. But ATL is closer and has better clubs so maybe not.

*Legion* wrote:

Boy did you miss the actual nightmare scenario.

Wouldn’t the actual nightmare scenario be if he got nostalgic for his time at Florida?

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Way too quiet in here, so . . .

Hey, if Urban Meyer becomes head coach of the Jaguars, he might want to work with a known quantity, so let's start talking about the possibility of him selecting Justin Fields instead of Trevor Lawrence.

He could always pick up Dwayne Haskins, I hear he is available