NFL 2021: The playoffs thread

Brian Flores may have earned his firing a bit more than previously believed.

Apparently his relationships both with the front office and with his own players weren't great. So much so that he and Tua reportedly got into a locker room shouting match following the Titans game a week ago. Apparently that kind of thing wasn't an isolated incident.

He's still not a Matt Patricia trash-tier coach, but it's feeling a bit like he's more like a Jim Harbaugh. Creates success, but burns bridges and eventually wears on the players. (I'd still take Harbaugh in Jacksonville though, and I wouldn't snub Flores either.)

Vector wrote:

Giants have fired Joe Judge.

Like, the big issue is still the ownership, but for now:

Vector wrote:

Giants have fired Joe Judge.

Which brings Matt Rhule's career record against NFL coaches who have been fired this week to 0-6.

*Legion* wrote:

Brian Flores may have earned his firing a bit more than previously believed. ...

The Ringer had an interesting piece yesterday on the Flores firing. There's no inside scuttlebutt but rather an examination of how Flores lost the relationship game.

Vector wrote:

Giants have fired Joe Judge.

RIP Joe Judge's New York Giants 2022 season job security:

January 10, 2022 - January 11, 2022

Ok, Getts and Judge are gone, as much as I don't like to see people lose their jobs - this one makes me excited. Now on to hiring a GM who will in turn pick their head coach. Let football folks do their job!

The new Giants GM is going to have their work cut out for them. The G-Men have one of the worst cap situations. They have the 5th lowest amount of cap space (a few hundred thousand in the red according to OverTheCap's tentative projections), but the teams beneath them have some big contracts that they can rework or get rid of. The Giants have used guaranteed salary pretty aggressively, and there's only a couple deals that stand out as being able to offer any significant relief. (Don't get attached to James Bradberry or Blake Martinez, Giants fans.)

Tip to whomever that GM turns out to be: See what the Panthers did with Darnold and the 5th year option? Do the opposite with Danny Dimes.

*Legion* wrote:

It's ridiculous how much better off they would be without Darnold squatting on over $18m of their cap room.

If the Saints had kept Teddy and shipped T Hill they'd be in the playoffs and well... guess that doesn't help Carolina. But still.

Speaking of the Saints, Twitter says they just signed BORTLES to a futures deal.

What a weird QB room that is.

Another QB that's better than their highest paid QB.

Enix wrote:

Speaking of the Saints, Twitter says they just signed BORTLES to a futures deal.

What a terrible QB room that is.

FTFY

Enix wrote:

Speaking of the Saints, Twitter says they just signed BORTLES to a futures deal.

What a weird QB room that is.

Makes sense, lots of good bars in New Orleans.

Bad for the team, though.

*Legion* wrote:

The new Giants GM is going to have their work cut out for them. The G-Men have one of the worst cap situations. They have the 5th lowest amount of cap space (a few hundred thousand in the red according to OverTheCap's tentative projections), but the teams beneath them have some big contracts that they can rework or get rid of. The Giants have used guaranteed salary pretty aggressively, and there's only a couple deals that stand out as being able to offer any significant relief. (Don't get attached to James Bradberry or Blake Martinez, Giants fans.)

Tip to whomever that GM turns out to be: See what the Panthers did with Darnold and the 5th year option? Do the opposite with Danny Dimes.

Yep, Gettleman left them in a horrible position - other than getting that extra 1st rounder. Although they have a lot of work cut out for them, I think the Giants will be patient with their next hire. Loving the candidates they are looking at since most have little to no ties to the Giants org and come from winning programs they helped build.

Looking forward to the playoffs this weekend as there are some good games to watch! Pulling for the Bills!

*Legion* wrote:

The new Giants GM is going to have their work cut out for them. The G-Men have one of the worst cap situations. They have the 5th lowest amount of cap space (a few hundred thousand in the red according to OverTheCap's tentative projections), but the teams beneath them have some big contracts that they can rework or get rid of. The Giants have used guaranteed salary pretty aggressively, and there's only a couple deals that stand out as being able to offer any significant relief. (Don't get attached to James Bradberry or Blake Martinez, Giants fans.)

Tip to whomever that GM turns out to be: See what the Panthers did with Darnold and the 5th year option? Do the opposite with Danny Dimes.

Fun experiment!

James Bradberry: Cut
Leonard Williams: Restructure or trade
Saquon Barkley: Immediate trade. I see no reason to keep him, or extend him.
Nate Solder: You're stuck with him for 2022.
Andrew Thomas: Hey! A good player! Maybe extend early.
Danny Dimes: You're stuck with him in 2022.
Blake Martinez: Cutting ILBs to save a ton of money is the easiest thing a GM can do.
Adoree' Jackson: He's staying. Restructure/extend next year.
Sterling Shepard: WHY IS A 3RD/4TH STRING WR MAKING SO MUCH?!?
Kyle Rudolph: Immediate cut. Terrible signing.
Kenny Golladay: Trade to a sucker! Most likely gonna be restructured and on the team for the next three years.
Logan Ryan: Probably plays out 2022, then released. Gettleman f-ed the team with this contract.
Graham Gano: Yeah, whatever.
Devontae Booker: I didn't even realize he was still playing. He's OK and you'll need him after trading Saquon.

After that it's a bit of the ol rookie contract and depth guys I'm not even gonna bother with.

With numerous cuts I don't think the Giants are in super dire straits with their cap and 2023 is looking bright as long as they don't screw up the qb situation.

garion333 wrote:

....2023 is looking bright as long as they don't screw up the qb situation.

Vector wrote:

Giants have fired Joe Judge.

So you can actually get rid of a bad Judge in this country.

garion333 wrote:

Fun experiment!

James Bradberry: Cut
Leonard Williams: Restructure or trade
Saquon Barkley: Immediate trade. I see no reason to keep him, or extend him.
Nate Solder: You're stuck with him for 2022.
Andrew Thomas: Hey! A good player! Maybe extend early.
Danny Dimes: You're stuck with him in 2022.
Blake Martinez: Cutting ILBs to save a ton of money is the easiest thing a GM can do.
Adoree' Jackson: He's staying. Restructure/extend next year.
Sterling Shepard: WHY IS A 3RD/4TH STRING WR MAKING SO MUCH?!?
Kyle Rudolph: Immediate cut. Terrible signing.
Kenny Golladay: Trade to a sucker! Most likely gonna be restructured and on the team for the next three years.
Logan Ryan: Probably plays out 2022, then released. Gettleman f-ed the team with this contract.
Graham Gano: Yeah, whatever.
Devontae Booker: I didn't even realize he was still playing. He's OK and you'll need him after trading Saquon.

After that it's a bit of the ol rookie contract and depth guys I'm not even gonna bother with.

With numerous cuts I don't think the Giants are in super dire straits with their cap and 2023 is looking bright as long as they don't screw up the qb situation.

What your 'fun experiment' demonstrates is the negative cumulative impact of numerous, individually justifiable decisions.

In reality, however, the current Giants roster cannot be fixed in a way that will create a seriously competitive team (and I'm only talking about within the NFC East alone!!) The only solution is a complete rebuild.

My goal would be to have an entirely new roster by 2025, and then to use that as the basis to create another a solid core of a team by 2027 (retaining only perhaps a long-term QB, two-thirds of an Offensive Line, a couple of Defensive Linemen and a good pass rusher, and a kicker). I'd hope to be competitive again by 2029.

For me, that would mean an interim GM/Coach pairing to clear out the stables, and then another different pairing to do the actual winning.

Sadly, team owners don't tend to be that patient; bar the LV Raiders, they only seem to think it two-/three-year time horizons.

So unless a playoff coach gets fired, the open jobs are

Las Vegas*
Jacksonville
Denver
Miami
Chicago
Minnesota
New York Giants

Did I miss anyone?

The latest name in the Panthers' OC search: Klint (not Gary) Kubiak, who is two years older and has less NFL OC experience (one year) than the guy that Carolina just fired.

Hey Legion! You know anyone in Jax who can hook me up with some clown gear?

I got you...

IMAGE(https://c.tenor.com/PkiKG0CBF5AAAAAC/baker-mayfield-clown.gif)

Might as well rank them by appeal. I'm assuming Bissacia is retained as HC, as well as they've played. So . . .

1. Denver (solid team, some skill position players, a QB away from being relevant but tough division)
2. Minnesota (good owner, used to losing anyways)
3. Chicago (not sold on Fields but you'll get a few years to try)
4. Jacksonville (have to believe Baalke gets burned alive by fans at some point, plus Touchdown Jesus)
5. Miami (it's not a completely awful roster, but is a completely awful owner)
6. Giants (that team is awful, it's been a clown show for a decade and the media pressure is overwhelming)

Jags interviewing BOB. Billy says he has no interest in making personnel decisions. Considering that may leave those up to Baalke, I'm not convinced that's a good thing.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Might as well rank them by appeal. I'm assuming Bissacia is retained as HC, as well as they've played. So . . .

1. Denver (solid team, some skill position players, a QB away from being relevant but tough division)
2. Minnesota (good owner, used to losing anyways)
3. Chicago (not sold on Fields but you'll get a few years to try)
4. Jacksonville (have to believe Baalke gets burned alive by fans at some point, plus Touchdown Jesus)
5. Miami (it's not a completely awful roster, but is a completely awful owner)
6. Giants (that team is awful, it's been a clown show for a decade and the media pressure is overwhelming)

I don't know, I'd probably move the Giants up, Jacksonville down (outside of QB situation this doesn't look like a place anyone would want to be EVER), put Jacksonville and Miami at the bottom and float Chicago higher than Minny.

Tiers probably work better

Tier 1
Denver

Tier 2
Chicago
Minny
NY G

Tier 3
Dallas

Tier 4
Miami
Jacksonville

Oh, I think breaking it into two tiers of "Potentially OK Situation" with Denver, Minnesota, and Chicago vs. "Might Be Better Than Being Set On Fire" with Jacksonville, Miami, and the Giants works easily. A huge part of Jacksonville being the best of the bad gigs to me is Lawrence. You need a QB, and he very well could be that, and it's a have/have not league. Yeah, Baalke is terrible and Khan's personnel hiring history is just godawful, but Lawrence means you can literally have a chance to improve. Look at the Giants roster; how many of those players would you want starting for your team at their current contract? It's up there with the worst in the league.

Are we not considering Vegas an opening because the interim got them to the playoffs?

On the bright side, this time around the current coach won't have to face Jon Gruden at any point in the playoffs.

I think everyone agrees that working for the Raiders is clearly trash tier below everyone else simply due to the owner.

I think everyone agrees that working for the Raiders Washington is clearly trash tier below everyone else simply due to the owner.

FIXED!

So many bad owners in the league. If they really wanted parity, they'd either trash all the bad owners, make everyone like Green Bay, or make sure all the owners are bad for the drama ratings.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Are we not considering Vegas an opening because the interim got them to the playoffs?

Yep, at this point. If they don't keep Bissacia (and I think they will), then the Raiders job jumps to the top of the list. There's a lot of talent there even with the stench of Fresno State hanging over that offense . . .

If Bisaccia is an interim HC, is the Raiders HC job technically open after they are eliminated from the playoffs (or win the SB -- lol)? If so, does that mean they still have to interview minority candidates because of the Rooney rule even if they intend to keep Bisaccia?

PFF's final O-line grades and ranks are out.

Best five O-lines: 'Boys, Bucs, Niners, Eagles and Chiefs.

Trash fire O-lines: Raiders, Texans, Giants, Panthers and Dolphins.

No surprise that Carolina was next-to-last. That O-line was painful to watch.

What's disappointing is that Carolina played three of these teams and lost to two of them. They got four sacks against the Texans in Week 3 but only two each against the Giants (Week 7) and Dolphins (Week 12).

All the attention right now is being paid to Carolina's offense, and rightfully so. But there's a big red flag waving over the D. They started the season great (against some pretty bad teams), held in there OK through about Week 10 and then fell apart at the end of the year.