NFL 2023: The preseason / predraft thread

Mekhi Becton, from Louisville, also tweeted out what a great agent she is. Maybe he should let his former teammate know.

She was only the third woman - and the first black woman - to represent a 1st round pick in the NFL draft, in 2019 with Quinnen Williams.

She got on Hurts radar by sending him an unsolicited DM on Instagram prior to the 2020 draft to offer her services as an agent, further proving Gen Z will literally conduct their entire lives via social media DMs.

It sounds like the Panthers have told Bryce Young that he's the guy, because Young has canceled his remaining pre-draft visits.

The BetMGM odds for Young as #1 overall jumped from -350 this morning to -2000.

*Legion* wrote:

Also a fun tidbit: Hurts' agent is Nicole Lynn, and this deal is supposedly the largest deal negotiated by a female agent in sports history. Hurts' entire management team is women.

This really stood out to me, so I looked for more information and found a couple of quotes from Hurts.

On appointing Nicole Lynn as his agent:

I know the agent world in the NFL, and all sports, is very male-dominated,” he told Sports Illustrated. “But Nicole was really on top of her stuff. She was prepared. She knew what she was talking about. She was hungry. And she was determined. And I feel that determination like that never rests. Once you come across such a determined individual, that just hits me a little different.

On his wider management team:

"I have a team of straight hustlers," he told Sports Illustrated last October. "And that's how I am on the field and off the field."

He went on to say: "I admire anyone who puts their head down and works for what they want. And I know women who do that daily, but they don’t get the same praise as men — they don’t get the praise that they deserve ... I see it all the time. And they deserve their flowers too."

Thoughtful guy. I like him. Despite the fact that he'll be - metaphorically - flicking his towel at the buttocks of my Giants, twice a year for the next half decade...

Damar Hamlin has been cleared by doctors to fully resume his NFL career.

I'll take "Things that are not a good idea" for 2000, Alex?

Well, either Hamlin has a pre-existing heart condition that would have been noticed in the incredibly extensive scans and examinations he's had, or this was a complete freak accident that medically isn't likely to happen again to anyone, let alone him. If he's clear, he's clear, and they do a lot of cardiac testing even at the combine medical reviews, and I'm sure Hamlin has had every single test that exists for heart stuff. If they say he's not at more risk than another player, then he's not at more risk.

I can only imagine the anxiety/PTSD he would feel stepping foot back in a stadium.

But maybe that's just me?

Hope he gets to do what he wants and if football is it, more power to him.

I ran into a doctor friend at a party just after it happened and apparently ‘freak accident’ is how it’s covered in med school. He said the example they usually give is someone getting hit in the exact right part of the chest with a baseball.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuGq6UNXwAAvaDq?format=png&name=small)

Qaaron gonna be a lot of fun in NYC.

Little ol Green Bay is going to feel quaint!

Apparently Matt Patricia is joining the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff, which makes a lot of sense since he already helped them win a Super Bowl.

As a "senior defensive assistant". DEFENSE, Bill. Defense.

That whole situation last year was one of the stupidest unforced errors in team management I think I've ever seen.

3 years ago, the day Mahomes signed his 10-year contract extension:

*Legion* wrote:

I think the deal is fine for now, but I think the odds this deal isn't torn up and replaced halfway through to be rather small. People have (mostly) clued in on the fact that contracts should be judged by the annualized average rather than the total lump sum figure, and this deal feels like it was made to exploit that. It makes for a $10 mil jump over the previous highest QB annual average, but it achieves that by using 2026-2031 dollars that nobody else's deal is.

Today: Brett Veach: After a couple more QB deals get done, we’ll assess where we are with Patrick Mahomes:

“But I think that this organization and the relationship we have with Pat will always be working to make sure that we’re doing right by everybody. There will be a couple more contracts that still have to get done — Burrow and Herbert — and once they do, I think you kind of look at everything and assess where you are and what you can do and take it from there.”

The 10-year length of the deal made no sense at the time, and it makes no sense now. The player's never going to be happy on the back end when they've fallen so far behind the market rate. Even nuttier: Mahomes has actually only played ONE year of that extension, because the extension years were 2022-2031. So we're not even through year 2 of 10 and already the deal is getting looked at.

*Legion* wrote:

3 years ago

Washington started the process that ended up with the name "Commanders" and yet Snyder still isn't officially out of that door.

This could be in either thread, but for those of you who don't read the baseball thread, the Oakland A's are moving to Las Vegas. GUESS WHO ISN'T A FAN.

“I won’t forget what they did to us in Oakland,” Davis told Katsilometes on Thursday. “They squatted on a lease for 10 years and made it impossible for us to build on that stadium. . . They were looking for a stadium. We were looking for a stadium. They didn’t want to build a stadium, and then went ahead and signed a 10-year lease with the city of Oakland and said, ‘We’re the base team.’”

That move, in Davis’s mind, killed the Raiders’ chances of remaining in Oakland.

“They marketed the team as ‘Rooted in Oakland,’ that’s been their mantra through the whole thing,” Davis said. “The slogans they’ve been using have been a slap to the face of the Raiders, and they were trying to win over that type of mentality in the Bay Area. Well all they did was f*ck the Bay Area.”

Davis got what he wanted, a sweetheart deal for a taxpayer stadium in an arguably better market. But he still blames the A’s for the relocation of the Raiders.

“For them to leave Oakland without anything is pretty [screwed] up,” Davis said. “Because that site that the stadium was on was a good site. . . . We ended up in Las Vegas, which is absolutely fantastic and couldn’t be better. But the A’s never gave us a real good chance to stay up in Oakland.”

If/when the A’s come to town, Davis has no interest in cooperating with the baseball team.

“Not with that management group,” Davis said. “I just have, again, a lot of personal animosity toward the front office. But with a new management group? Absolutely.”

The A's current lease with the Oakland Coliseum or whatever it's called runs out in 2024. Guess they're not going to rent the Raiders' Roomba in Vegas.

NFL suspends multiple players for violating the league's gambling policy:

Via Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, the league has suspended multiple players for violating the rules regarding gambling, including most notably Lions receiver Jameson Williams.

Williams is suspended for six games. Lions receiver Stanley Berryhill also received a six-game suspension.

Three other players have been suspended for at least one year, including Lions safety C.J. Moore and receiver Quintez Cephus, as well as Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney.

The reasons violations aren’t clear at this point. Previously, the NFL has imposed one-year suspensions for those who placed bets in violation of league policy.

I'm shocked that there's gambling going on in this league that's partnered with gambling.

The Lions have cut Moore and Cephus, so the lesson here is if you're going to gamble, be better than they are.

If Calvin Ridley bet like $1500 and was suspended for all of last year, how much did Jameson Williams bet? A nickel?

*Legion* wrote:

If Calvin Ridley bet like $1500 and was suspended for all of last year, how much did Jameson Williams bet? A nickel?

Apparently the 6 game suspensions were for betting on college games but from the Lions facilities...

Arizona has new jerseys...

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/NIwdZqn.jpg)

"Hey guys, remember those CLEVELAND jerseys that the Browns couldn't get rid of fast enough? Let's make our home jersey be that."

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/BkFh4td.png)

At least they didn't pull an Atlanta and just make it a giant AZ.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/gw01HIq.jpg)

There's no angle at which the ARIZONA doesn't look Photoshopped on. It really is hideous. The jerseys would be boring but inoffensive otherwise.

EDIT:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/fD74Pju.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/GmEiUUF.jpg)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/0Mis5ud.jpg)

You won't see if when players are wearing them, but I'm taking off extra points.

The Arizona uniforms aren't great, but, even worse, are they really all that different? If you're going to change, maybe really mix it up? I mean, I'm not saying go full crayon-vomit alarm clocks, but they just don't look that different at all.

I saw the announcement about the new uniforms but I can't tell the difference. Also, IDGAS about Arizona so maybe that is why.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

The Arizona uniforms aren't great, but, even worse, are they really all that different?

If you take the ARIZONA out, the new ones are definitely cleaner. Compare to the previous home jersey with all those unnecessary outlines and the little white wedges by the armpits:

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

And the old away unis with red all over the shoulder and down the torso sides, plus little white wedges and outlines again:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/4KXcsuX.png)

If you took off the ARIZONA, and then wore the home uniforms with the white pants, and the road unis with the red pants, I would consider both of them to be simple but excellent improvements. But the ARIZONA is crap, and I also don't love the monochromatic red/red or white/white - especially the whites, where the 49ers '94 throwback road alternates are the same thing done better by another red-colored team.

I don't want to say the Cardinals are forgettable, but I had literally forgotten what their uniforms looked like, and just presumed the new ones were basically about the same.

And, yes, it'd look much better with red jerseys/white pants or white jerseys/red pants; these things look like Color Rush uniforms, and none of those were good.

Are we sure that ARIZONA in the first picture isn't photoshopped on and they are actually wearing a real jersey? It really looks like it.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I don't want to say the Cardinals are forgettable

I have literally forgotten the Cardinals before when trying to list the NFL divisions. Them and the Chargers.

I can still vaguely remember when they were in the NFC East for some time.