NFL 2021: The preseasoning

UpToIsomorphism wrote:
Top_Shelf wrote:

Seahawks signed another basketball player, this time to play TE.

Go Hawks?

Did they get Ben Simmons? Will he have to shoot?

Lol. I feel like Simmons would be PERFECT in a Pete Carroll system. He'd pass when he needed to just ram it down.

jowner wrote:

Was just clarifying if there's any official rules around a team can officially state no Vax no new contracts.

Well, we have an answer to this now. The rules apparently "prohibit considering vaccination status in making employment decisions".

We know this for sure now thanks to Urban Meyer admitting out loud that the Jaguars considered vaccination status as part of their cutdown decision making, and the NFLPA has opened an investigation over it.

For those counting, that's now 3 things that Meyer has managed to get the team in hot water over (the others being hiring disgraced racist strength coach Chris Doyle, and violating OTA contact rules and losing practices next year as a consequence).

Urban Meyer speedrunning his NFL/NFLPA violations count like this is something people joked about when he was hired.

At least for this last one, I don't blame him one bit for doing the thing. The league basically set this whole system up as a Don't Ask, Don't Tell (or, more precisely, The Press Will Ask, but Don't Tell) situation. I just blame him for being the only coach dumb enough to Tell. He still struggles with the concept of having to know the rules.

Anyway, in better news, vaccination rates among players is reportedly around 93%.

When Urban Meyer said it was a factor and Bill Belichick the next day said it wasn't (for Cam)....

Well that pretty much summed up alot of things (it's a factor but you don't say it is)

I'm running a job posting to add another developer to my team, and when I went to Indeed to go through our applicants, the one at the very top of the list was named Matthew Stafford.

It'd be like our own little Michael Bolton. Except none of the other nerds on my team follow sports. I should put some football questions in our screeners.

Hopefully your Matthew Stafford has actually done something in his career before being called the saviour.

Ugh. So the NFL has decided to fine WR James Proche $4567 for, get this, "staring down defender Darryl Roberts after his 3Q TD".

If I were EdC, I would make sure he gets a little extra in his paycheck this week.

Looks like the WFT broke a 19 year drought of Caucasian cornerbacks with the move of Troy Apke from safety. I guess this isn't funny anymore.

I'm going to post a Week 1 thread later today. Here's something to get you in the mood.

ESPN ran 20,000 season sims to come up with its power index for 2021. Here's what happened in one (picked at random? I dunno) of these sims:

* Jags start 4-1 and make the playoffs

* Carolina also starts 4-1, then goes 1-11 and gets the No 1 overall pick

* Saints and Colts are good; Ravens, Seahawks aren't

* The Niners make the playoffs thanks to late-season Trey Lance

* Browns beat the Chiefs in the playoffs, then lose to the Bills

* Bills beat the Packers in SB LVI

Anyway, fun stuff. Can't wait for the season to start.

Did they do it in Madden?

Enix wrote:

* Carolina also starts 4-1, then goes 1-11 and gets the No 1 overall pick

Getting the overall #1 pick with 5 wins seems pretty impressive, even accounting for that extra 17th game. From my "research" it looks like over the last 55 years, the team with the worst NFL record in each season had at most 4 wins and that hasn't happened since the 2003 Giants.

Hrdina wrote:

Getting the overall #1 pick with 5 wins seems pretty impressive, even accounting for that extra 17th game. From my "research" it looks like over the last 55 years, the team with the worst NFL record in each season had at most 4 wins and that hasn't happened since the 2003 Giants.

5 is probably high, but remember that you're comparing the new 17 game season to 16 and 14 game seasons, if you're going back 55 years. Win total averages are going to get an incremental bump upward.

This simulation put both the Jags and Niners in the playoffs though, so it probably is prophetic.

Niners sign Josh Norman as a depth cornerback.

Norman rebounded from a disastrous 2019 to rank 17th in PFF cornerback trading in 2020, but still didn't get much free agent interest.

His 1-year deal is basically slightly above vet minimum but with incentives that could raise it to $2.5m

Hopefully this kind of depth will keep the Niners from having to sign guys off the street and stick in as starters like last year.

Raiders cut Tanner Muse, their 3rd round pick a year ago.

Muse missed his rookie year with a foot injury, but had been taking 1st team reps in camp this year.

Seriously, is any team drafting worse than the Gruden Raiders?

If you follow my comments in these threads, you won't be surprised to find that Muse, a Clemson player, played in that 2019 National Championship game that Gruden picks all his players from.

Also today is his birthday, and the Raiders social media shouted out his birthday right before the news of him being cut. So there's that too.

Hrdina wrote:
Enix wrote:

* Carolina also starts 4-1, then goes 1-11 and gets the No 1 overall pick

Getting the overall #1 pick with 5 wins seems pretty impressive, even accounting for that extra 17th game. From my "research" it looks like over the last 55 years, the team with the worst NFL record in each season had at most 4 wins and that hasn't happened since the 2003 Giants.

In this particular sim, there was a five-way tie for last, and Carolina won (?) some weird tiebreaker.

I say "won," because one of the top QB picks in the 2022 NFL draft will be UNC's Sam Howell, and he has a very Trubiskyesque performance Friday against Va Tech.

But, yeah, I agree, five wins seems awful high for a No. 1 overall pick.

*Legion* wrote:

Raiders cut Tanner Muse, their 3rd round pick a year ago.

Muse missed his rookie year with a foot injury, but had been taking 1st team reps in camp this year.

Seriously, is any team drafting worse than the Gruden Raiders?

If you follow my comments in these threads, you won't be surprised to find that Muse, a Clemson player, played in that 2019 National Championship game that Gruden picks all his players from.

Also today is his birthday, and the Raiders social media shouted out his birthday right before the news of him being cut. So there's that too.

This is so hilarious. Is Derek Carr the only reason Gruden hasn't been fired?

*Legion* wrote:

Also today is his birthday, and the Raiders social media shouted out his birthday right before the news of him being cut. So there's that too.

"So, coach, is my birthday gift wrapped inside of this pink slip? Coach?"

garion333 wrote:

This is so hilarious. Is Derek Carr the only reason Gruden hasn't been fired?

Well, Fresno State players and Carr brothers in particular can do no wrong in my eyes, but the Raiders were 5th in yards per attempt last year. Carr throwing the ball is basically the only football thing the team did well, and so of course they only attempted the 21st most passes, while rushing the ball 11th most (at 19th best yards per attempt).

5th best yards per attempt when Nelson Agholor is your WR1… yeah, I’d say Carr and Waller are holding that entire team afloat. Man do they need Henry Ruggs to become something in a hurry. (Plus, like, an entire defense to start emerging from all those picks. At least, the picks that are still on the roster.)

*Legion* wrote:
Hrdina wrote:

Getting the overall #1 pick with 5 wins seems pretty impressive, even accounting for that extra 17th game. From my "research" it looks like over the last 55 years, the team with the worst NFL record in each season had at most 4 wins and that hasn't happened since the 2003 Giants.

5 is probably high, but remember that you're comparing the new 17 game season to 16 and 14 game seasons, if you're going back 55 years. Win total averages are going to get an incremental bump upward.

I did say "even accounting for that extra 17th game". For the entirety of the 16-game era (1978-2020, minus two strike years), there was only 1 year where the team with the worst record won 4 games: 2003 (San Diego, Oakland, Arizona, NYG all finished 4-12). For that single season, if there were a 17th game and if all four of these teams (which won only 25% of their first 16 games) managed to win in their 17th game, then a 5-win team would have "earned" the #1 pick.

From the eerie coincidence department: that year where the worst record was 4-12 was also the year that Carolina went to the Superb Owl for the first time (after beating the Eagles in the NFC Championship ).

From 1966-1977 it looks like the worst record always involved 2, 1, or 0 wins.

So, yes, it's possible but unprecedented.

*Legion* wrote:

This simulation put both the Jags and Niners in the playoffs though, so it probably is prophetic.

If I learned anything from my Greek Mythology lectures in college, it's that prophecies are usually incomprehensible and intentionally misleading.

I look forward to this little exchange being quoted in the next offseason thread, while we're discussing the Jags' great playoff run and guessing at who 5-12 Carolina will take with their #1 pick.

*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:

This is so hilarious. Is Derek Carr the only reason Gruden hasn't been fired?

Well, Fresno State players and Carr brothers in particular can do no wrong in my eyes, but the Raiders were 5th in yards per attempt last year. Carr throwing the ball is basically the only football thing the team did well, and so of course they only attempted the 21st most passes, while rushing the ball 11th most (at 19th best yards per attempt).

5th best yards per attempt when Nelson Agholor is your WR1… yeah, I’d say Carr and Waller are holding that entire team afloat. Man do they need Henry Ruggs to become something in a hurry. (Plus, like, an entire defense to start emerging from all those picks. At least, the picks that are still on the roster.)

Honestly, ever since they named the O-line "Carr Insurance" it was all downhill for them.

Hrdina wrote:

I did say "even accounting for that extra 17th game".

Yeah but I only skim before replying.

Your post gets a Like from me as penance.

*Legion* wrote:

Raiders cut Tanner Muse, their 3rd round pick a year ago.

Muse missed his rookie year with a foot injury, but had been taking 1st team reps in camp this year.

Seriously, is any team drafting worse than the Gruden Raiders?

If you follow my comments in these threads, you won't be surprised to find that Muse, a Clemson player, played in that 2019 National Championship game that Gruden picks all his players from.

Also today is his birthday, and the Raiders social media shouted out his birthday right before the news of him being cut. So there's that too.

So, no statue alongside the Romanowski ones at Mark's house?

The Ravens are snakebit this year on the injury front.

I finally finished my rookie QB preseason write up, but since it took me until tonight, I’ll wait for Enix’s week 1 post and add it as a comment in there.

Is the week 1 thread up yet?