NFL Season 2020 Football • Page 1618

Watson is more likely to make the playoffs in Houston than New York

 

not to be optimistic, because I currently cheer for the worst owner in the league ATM, but Tennessee just lost their OC that helped Tannehill turn it around, and Rivers just retired.. if neither roles get filled adequately the AFC South can be won by anyone...

I love football because it typically has the highest variance in playoff churn over.. get a competent coach here and the AFC South is definitely in play, because of Deshaun.

 

The MIA/NYJ thing is my favorite little game theory thing Ive seen in the NFL. Its worth so much more for MIA to keep Watson away from NYJ (and presumably NE too...but, that seems unlikely) precisely because if their division gets multiple great QBs and Tua flops, they're screwed. Conversely, if the NYJ lose out on Watson to MIA, they're the 4th place team in the division til Belichick or Watson retires.

Post-rookie cap, 1st round picks are so valuable that you never really see a scenario where a team should give up 3 of them...yet, heres two teams where its hard to argue they shouldn't.

 

Anyone know who Tennessee is even looking at to replace Smith? Thats a huge loss.

 

Pep Hamilton is interviewing thats all i know

 

I think I’m going to take time away from this thread because I can’t handle the absolute awful takes about Stafford and the large amount of Lions shitting on. Like yeah, we’re awful and have been and it’s not fun and now I’m losing the second of my two favorite football players of all time. Idk. It just sucks man.

 

at least I have good takes about Stafford - didn't see that one coming

but honestly this shit sucks man

 

Damn I take a break for a few hours and you people have to argue stafford vs jimmy g for 10 pages.

 

it wasn't really an argument - only one poster thought that haha

 

I give you shit but I get it. I’m just sad man. I know it’s probably for the best but idk. It’s hard to be passionate about the Lions, I’ve finally reached peak sadness on this team

 

I wish ben would retire. Then I could at least dream of getting a new qb.

He'll probably retire after the trades are done and the draft is over like an asshole.

 

Your boy

 

The Jets are fine on the offensive line. We could use a guard for sure, but Elflein made a huge difference once he took over as a starter. Both tackles are good.

The scheme (and the quarterback) were more of an issue than the actual talent on the offensive line.

 

Lets see what Tony Pauline has to say about this

 

Here I thought something happened seeing I needed to catch up on 10+ pages from this morning but nope.

If I was a betting man I’d say Stafford to Denver. Elway would love to recreate the magic of bringing in a veteran QB and hoping that results in success (again), they have offensive weapons and then focus FA on defense.

 

It's a pipedream, but say the Jets acquire Deshaun Watson and Allen Robinson signs with the Jets. Maybe someone like Will Fuller too.

Robinson
Mims
Crowder
Fuller

That's a solid group for 2021.

The Jets would have to give up a ton to get Watson, but a trade doesn't impact what's looking like $80M plus in cap space.

 

Not too many NFL Draft personalities worse than Matt Miller (Pauline is). Is he still stealing money from people with that fake NFL GM "school" that he runs?

"I'll teach you how to watch free Youtube highlight videos for $49.99. For an addition $50, my mouthbreather brother tell you about his favorite IPAs!"

 

I'm really going to miss Matthew Stafford. It's hard to capture in stats or measure his success vs. the league because yeah, he never won a playoff game as a Lion and most years he wasn't a top 5 QB, but he was usually in the 6-10 range and if you watched the Lions week in, week out, it was clear that if you swapped him with a random starting QB in the league, guaranteed you're probably losing 2-6 wins a year from that year's Lions W/L record. Sincerely. Not only that, but he was tough as hell. Everyone knows the Browns mic'd up but even this year, when the season was lost, he was out there playing because that's the kind of guy he's been, if his teammates are out there giving everything they've got, then if he was able, he was doing the same thing. He made throws that made your jaw drop, he nearly single-handedly dragged the Lions into games they had no business being competitive in. He's imperfect. He's not the most gracefully footed guy in the pocket, though he could sometimes be more mobile or athletic than you'd guess he was. He threw some inexcusable picks in his time here, but even those, he's playing on a team that is usually losing in the fourth quarter and some of those picks were symptomatic of a guy who was determined to make something happen, to use his arm to try and create a miracle. Sometimes he should have been smarter about it, but sometimes it worked. While I know there are even some Lions fans who would say he was never going to be the guy, I can't agree. I watched almost every Lions game he started, and he was really, really good.

The bar for white athletes speaking out on racial justice is on the floor, but it's rare that they even clear that. Stafford penned an op-ed for the Player's Tribune about how he can't "stick to football". He donated to racial and social justice initiatives at his alma matter and in Detroit. Just about any player I can think of who played with or against him spoke about him with respect. At quarterback, it is extremely hard to find someone who is even a partial combination of all those things I've talked about, let alone all of them. No, he's not "elite", he has flaws in his game. But it could have worked. That's what might get me the most. When you watch Joe Flacco, Nick Foles, and Jared Goff go to Super Bowls, you can't watch Stafford and say he doesn't have what it takes. It's hard to build a team that will compete deep into the playoffs, but the Lions seem especially inept at coming close. They've found a few special talents in the last decade: Calvin Johnson and Ndamukong Suh are especially notable. But no one impacts a game like a quarterback does. Every offensive play hinges at who lines up under center, and there are exceptionally few people I would have rather had since the Lions took him first overall in 2009.

It's probably the smart thing for both the Lions and Stafford, but it doesn't suck any less that it's happening. I'm not sure I can even say that it hurts, because it's too bleak for that. It just sucks. It doesn't feel good. He's a good quarterback and a really likable guy, and maybe it's because before he came around I was watching the likes of Charlie Batch, Ty Detmer, Mike McMahon, Jon Kitna, Jeff Garcia, and Dan Orlovsky, so my perspective is skewed, but it's hard to imagine the Lions being worth watching without at least a Stafford-esque quarterback. The NFL is a massively flawed, extremely frustrating entity to devote time into every year. If you're a fan of a historically unfortunate/inept team, it's even harder. Stafford almost by himself made it feel worth investing in, and I don't know if there's much higher praise you can give a pro athlete than that.

 

I’ve never rooted for a good QB lol so I don’t really know the pain of losing one

Feel real bad for my Lions fans in here @Joe4th @Anthony Brooks @Nathan @DrAlanGrant but at least it gives y’all a green light for a real fresh start and not another annoying Patricia-Esque or Caldwell-esque patchwork one. Which honestly y’all definitely need to get out of this slump.

 

Wall of text, i'll probably have to write one of those soon

 

I love John Matthew Stafford. I fucking hate Matt Patricia. I feel for all the Lions homies and want nothing but the best. And you’re a good person for caring.

but ya boy is an Eagles fan.

 

woops lol my bad

 

Who’s the other Lions fan I’m forgetting then?

 

livethesounds

he'll love the sympathies

 

Don’t ever feel bad for caring. You’re a good person