NFL 2020: Week 8

2 days ago, Ronnie Stanley signed a $99 million contract extension.

Today, he hurt his ankle and is out for the year.

Talk about timing.

One nice thing about the dumpster fire that is 2020: I have a much healthier relationship with sports.

Now when good things happen I marvel at it and say, "Good."

And when bad/crazy things happen I say, "It's good Bart did that thing."

*Legion* wrote:

2 days ago, Ronnie Stanley signed a $99 million contract extension.

Today, he hurt his ankle and is out for the year.

Talk about timing.

Yeah, and bye bye Super Bowl hopes.

That's a good way to earn a pink slip, Mr. 7th Round Pick.

Is it sad that I want the Browns to lose enough games to draft Justin Fields?

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Is it sad that I want the Browns to lose enough games to draft Justin Fields?

At 5 wins, Cleveland is already out of that race.

I will forever be skeptical of an Ohio State QBs NFL prospects. The rest of the offensive players are so consistently good anybody QB is going to look decent compared to other college QBs.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

I will forever be skeptical of an Ohio State QBs NFL prospects. The rest of the offensive players are so consistently good anybody QB is going to look decent compared to other college QBs.

Sometimes you get a bonus punter out of the pick though.

Folks, I literally have no idea who the QB is for the Cowboys.

garion333 wrote:

Folks, I literally have no idea who the QB is for the Cowboys.

Not sure they do either. They keep running reverse hand off weird trick plays to let someone else pass

Give it a couple weeks and it'll probably be Jerry.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Is it sad that I want the Browns to lose enough games to draft Justin Fields?

Still, is Mayfield the best QB of that draft class?

I'm not counting Lamar Jackson. I think most teams, including the Browns, would not have brought out his potential.

Hooooooooooooooow 'bout dem Cowboys?

Nate Tice on today's Athletic NFL podcast: His nickname for Joe Burrow is "Dak Pennington." He runs around and is a volume thrower like Dak Prescott but he has the arm strength of Chad Pennington. Ooof.

Meanwhile, last night's DAL-PHI game was the first matchup of I-AA QBs since who knows when. DiNucci played like one, too. So did Wentz, tbh.

Enix wrote:

Nate Tice on today's Athletic NFL podcast: His nickname for Joe Burrow is "Dak Pennington." He runs around and is a volume thrower like Dak Prescott but he has the arm strength of Chad Pennington. Ooof.

Meanwhile, last night's DAL-PHI game was the first matchup of I-AA QBs since who knows when. DiNucci played like one, too. So did Wentz, tbh.

1-AA QBs aren't that rare; off the top of my head, Kurt Warner, Steve McNair, and Tony Romo all fit that bill. Flacco went to Delaware, which is I'm pretty sure FCS/1-AA. Have to be a few more in the league.

Edit: Just googled it; Ryan Fitzpatrick (so few people know he went to Harvard, you'd think it would get mentioned on broadcasts) and Legion's beautiful San Francisco boy Jimmy G both fit as well.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Edit: Just googled it; Ryan Fitzpatrick (so few people know he went to Harvard, you'd think it would get mentioned on broadcasts) and Legion's beautiful San Francisco boy Jimmy G both fit as well.

Which means there was a I-AA QB battle three weeks ago when Miami played San Francisco, at least for the first half, as Jimmy G tried playing on that bad ankle and only made it to halftime.

*Legion* wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Edit: Just googled it; Ryan Fitzpatrick (so few people know he went to Harvard, you'd think it would get mentioned on broadcasts) and Legion's beautiful San Francisco boy Jimmy G both fit as well.

Which means there was a I-AA QB battle three weeks ago when Miami played San Francisco, at least for the first half, as Jimmy G tried playing on that bad ankle and only made it to halftime.

So the "when" in this case is three weeks ago and the "who" is Legion. I'm glad someone is paying attention because I sure as sh!t didn't remember that game.

It makes sense that Legion and I know more about smaller-school QBs, as with the colleges we went to we're used to following institutions that play outside of the big leagues. I mean, your expectations are just lower when you go to a school that's unlikely to do anything notable or memorable from an athletic perspective.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

It makes sense that Legion and I know more about smaller-school QBs, as with the colleges we went to we're used to following institutions that play outside of the big leagues. I mean, your expectations are just lower when you go to a school that's unlikely to do anything notable or memorable from an athletic perspective.

I'm still waiting on someone from Fresno to do anything notable or memorable. One day...

garion333 wrote:
MilkmanDanimal wrote:

It makes sense that Legion and I know more about smaller-school QBs, as with the colleges we went to we're used to following institutions that play outside of the big leagues. I mean, your expectations are just lower when you go to a school that's unlikely to do anything notable or memorable from an athletic perspective.

I'm still waiting on someone from Fresno to do anything notable or memorable. One day...

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/WCEK3Fh.png)

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

It makes sense that Legion and I know more about smaller-school QBs, as with the colleges we went to we're used to following institutions that play outside of the big leagues. I mean, your expectations are just lower when you go to a school that's unlikely to do anything notable or memorable from an athletic perspective.

Uh, Mike Tomlin, Sean McDermott and Joe Brady would like to have a word? Maybe we can get Marv Levy on the call, too.

Enix wrote:

Nate Tice on today's Athletic NFL podcast: His nickname for Joe Burrow is "Dak Pennington." He runs around and is a volume thrower like Dak Prescott but he has the arm strength of Chad Pennington. Ooof.

That's funny, but a bit disingenuous. Burrow's short game is and was his strongest facet, but while he lacks the arm and velocity to make elite Flacco-like throws outside the hash he does have a good deep arm. Problem is he can't ever find enough time to throw the ball deep thanks to his OL.

The Bengals are winning games because he is able to avoid pressure and get the ball to his guys, even if it's a borderline dump off. The Bengals D has been playing better than earlier this season, but if Burrow wasn't so damn good at recognizing pressure the Bengals would be mentioned in the same breath as the Jets.

Rat Boy wrote:
garion333 wrote:

That's a good way to earn a pink slip, Mr. 7th Round Pick.

A deep dive into why Javon Wims went after Chauncey Gardner-Johnson.

Wims suspended two games. Even more time to plan a half-assed way of getting back at Chauncy Gardner-Johnson.

I thought GOD HATES JAGS but apparently GOD HATES NINERS this year.

As if the injuries to this point haven't been enough, Garoppolo is now expected to miss 6 weeks from re-aggravating the clearly-wasn't-healed high ankle sprain, and George Kittle will miss 8 weeks (basically the rest of the season) with a foot fracture.

In good news, the Niners managed to dump Kwon Alexander's contract in a trade with the Saints, getting a 5th round pick and injured LB Kiko Alonzo in return (Alonzo is on PUP and his inclusion was mostly just to help the Saints fit Kwon on their 2020 cap). The Niners scored pretty big on mid-late round picks at all 3 linebacker positions, so Kwon and his 3rd largest cap figure on the team was a prime target for cap relief. Getting a draft pick back on the salary dump is excellent.

*Legion* wrote:

I thought GOD HATES JAGS but apparently GOD HATES NINERS this year.

As if the injuries to this point haven't been enough, Garoppolo is now expected to miss 6 weeks from re-aggravating the clearly-wasn't-healed high ankle sprain, and George Kittle will miss 8 weeks (basically the rest of the season) with a foot fracture.

In good news, the Niners managed to dump Kwon Alexander's contract in a trade with the Saints, getting a 5th round pick and injured LB Kiko Alonzo in return (Alonzo is on PUP and his inclusion was mostly just to help the Saints fit Kwon on their 2020 cap). The Niners scored pretty big on mid-late round picks at all 3 linebacker positions, so Kwon and his 3rd largest cap figure on the team was a prime target for cap relief. Getting a draft pick back on the salary dump is excellent.

Kwon Alexander was a perfectly fine player worth about half what the 49ers paid him. That was some inexplicably high contract.

As for JIMMAH, I guess with Minshew out you get to root for a combo of Nick Mullens and someone named Jake Luton.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

As for JIMMAH, I guess with Minshew out you get to root for a combo of Nick Mullens and someone named Jake Luton.

*Legion*, week 1 2019 wrote:

WHY CAN'T I HAVE A QUARTERBACK

Word on Garoppolo is that he's actually been playing on torn ligaments and may be headed for surgery.

Been a busy month since I had time to swing by here, but some NFL thoughts:

Steelers:
Pittsburgh WRs in fantasy are turning into NE/SF/Rams RBs. I was wondering when opposing defenses were going to stop doubling Juju, as the rest of the squad is talented enough to be the open man if you do that. Looks like last week they doubled Claypool with butler, and today DJ looked like he got extra attention. I just hope our OL can stay healthy enough to last the season, or Ben is going to be even more of a checkdown specialist than he's turned into this year. I never thought I'd see the day where Ben is leading the league in shortest time to throw, by a mile. We've already lost Banner for the season, and we've had 4 linemen miss time due to injuries.

Our Defensive injuries just keep piling up though, and with Devin Bush out for the season, the DL needs to compensate. The 4 stars in our front 7 this year have been Heyward, Watt, Bush, and Alualu. Watt might the only one to dress for week 9. Buggs really stepped up for us in the 2nd half coming in for Alualu, but you could see the Ravens just run it up the middle for the entire first half. I was pretty annoyed how the announcing team kept talking about how the Ravens were down 2 linemen, yet miraculously having close to 200 yards of rushing in the first half, without mentioning our NT (Alualu) leaving the game, and while Spillane (ILB) has been great, he isn't Bush.

Pats:
What happened to Cam after week 3? Lingering illness? Limited playbook from joining in July? Is he just done? Is he simply not as good as Carson Wentz at throwing to receivers you've never heard of, that were on practice squads last month, while his backup linemen fail to stop the rush?

(I don't think he's done, but Belicheck has been forced to send out the B team if you think of all the opt-outs as dead cap, on top of the actual brady/brown dead cap. How is a kicker the #3 dead cap for a supposed genius GM anyway? On a serious note, the pats have not had a lot of options to fix their roster when both covid hit and brady left. Between the covid opt-outs and the 2021 salary cap, pats might not finish retooling until 2022.)

Cowboys:
Wasn't Dalton supposed to be playing behind the best OL of his career? He's always done best in a clean pocket. It's too bad that can't get fixed mid-season.

Bucs:
I swear the Bucs GM is assembling a circa 2015 fantasy dream team. Didn't Gruden try this in 2017?

Ravens:
Kudos to Eric DeCosta, who managed to quiet down the Lamar Jackson and Marquise Brown calls for Antonio Brown for the low low price of sacrificing a practice squad slot to Dez Bryant. They're my favorite rivalry, and I wish their GMs weren't so good. Patrick McQueen looks like a steal at the end of the 1st, compared to the 1.10 we had to pay for Bush for what look like comparable talents.

UPSET ALERT: Giants seem kinda inspired tonight, and the Bucs don't look so hot.

Hey, if the Rams, Packers, Titans and Titans can lay an egg this week ...