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National Football League

Page 735 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
He was actually projected as a late 2nd round until his DUI arrest a couple of months before the draft. That was the 2016 draft where Goff & Wentz #1 & #2, and the Cowboys took Ezekiel Elliot with their 1st rd pick.
Anyone remember Paxton Lynch ? First round QB pick for Denver in 2016 at 26th pick. See below :

On April 5, 2023, the San Antonio Brahmas claimed Lynch off waivers from the Orlando Guardians.[50] He was not part of the roster after the 2024 UFL dispersal draft on January 15, 2024.[
 
...the teams were both sub standard and play calling was better than high school but only by a little...
How much did you honestly watch? The first game (Birmingham vs. Arlington) the Renegades OL was leaky, and the Birmingham offense mostly ran the ball. Not very exciting, but it wasn't terrible. Not much worse than watching, say, the Falcons week 12 win over the Saints last year. What made it disappointing is these two teams were league champions last season. Oh well.

The second game (Michigan vs. St. Louis) got off to a slow first half, but once it got going it got more exciting, with a very dramatic 4th quarter and some very impressive plays by both teams. Nail biting last few minutes.
 
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Watched some indoor football today. Two teams from Arizona. Not my cup of tea but the crowd was enjoying themselves. Lots of throws going over the fence haha..............
We had an arena league football team (Boise Burn) here for a few years and tickets were only $5 so I went a few times. It was entertaining, but almost not really football. The crowd here was a hockey mob so it was a bit dicey in the seats! :)
 
Uncle Rico must have been one of the quarterbacks playing.
Josh Freeman maybe? King of the overthrow.


josh-freeman-the-king-of-the-overthrow
 
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Anyone remember Paxton Lynch ? First round QB pick for Denver in 2016 at 26th pick. See below :

On April 5, 2023, the San Antonio Brahmas claimed Lynch off waivers from the Orlando Guardians.[50] He was not part of the roster after the 2024 UFL dispersal draft on January 15, 2024.[
Ouch!...don't reopen old wounds. Lol. This was Elway's prized pick that was supposed to instantly turn the Broncos back into SB contenders. A monster of a man at 6-7, 245 lbs with a howitzer cannon. The draft "experts" had Lynch as the 3rd best QB! Lol. Elway was so high on this guy that it wasn't even funny. This has to be a top-10 all time QB bust.
 
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Watched some indoor football today. Two teams from Arizona. Not my cup of tea but the crowd was enjoying themselves. Lots of throws going over the fence haha..............
Wow...they're still playing arena football? Is there like 6 franchises or something that don't get any TV exposure? It must be more like a recreational league where players just make enough money to buy their gas & pay for parking at the arena. Lol.
 
How much did you honestly watch? The first game (Birmingham vs. Arlington) the Renegades OL was leaky, and the Birmingham offense mostly ran the ball. Not very exciting, but it wasn't terrible. Not much worse than watching, say, the Falcons week 12 win over the Saints last year. What made it disappointing is these two teams were league champions last season. Oh well.

The second game (Michigan vs. St. Louis) got off to a slow first half, but once it got going it got more exciting, with a very dramatic 4th quarter and some very impressive plays by both teams. Nail biting last few minutes.
I actually watched most of the 2nd half of the San Antonio vs DC game & a little of the 1st half of Memphis vs Houston today. I didn't know 76 yr old Wade Phillips was still coaching (I thought he actually had passed).

The games were kind of interesting. It moves faster than the NFL which is refreshing. I like the fact that kickoffs are treated like punts. Saw some decent talent out there with some positions. Ta'amu looks like he has an NFL caliber arm & great physical skills (former Ole Miss player). I found myself having to look up a lot of these players that I never heard of to find out a little about them.

On the downside the attendance looked bad. The Alamo Dome for the San Antonio game was very empty with the attendance announced at only 13,000. Rice stadium where the Houston game was played at looked really empty also. The league is going to have to get fannies in the seats & start selling out these venues to survive.
 
Anyone remember Paxton Lynch ? First round QB pick for Denver in 2016 at 26th pick. See below :

On April 5, 2023, the San Antonio Brahmas claimed Lynch off waivers from the Orlando Guardians.[50] He was not part of the roster after the 2024 UFL dispersal draft on January 15, 2024.[
Or the Brock Osweiler experience when they were gearing him to start when Manning retired and he went to the Texans for the money only to get the boot after a year.
 
No doubt Osweiler retired cashed up.............
Oh definitely, $37m guaranteed from Texans plus the year he played there then add his other salaries. All due to him playing those games Manning was out/benched and most cert the overtime win against the Patriots at Denver that helped secure their win in the AFCCG that year with home field. But compared to other backups that won a Super Bowl, he was a driving part of their success that year so has that.
 
Ouch!...don't reopen old wounds. Lol. This was Elway's prized pick...
Beat out by Chase Garbers, Quentin Dormandy, Tom Flacco, and Jack Coan. Ooooof!
I actually watched most of the 2nd half of the San Antonio vs DC game & a little of the 1st half of Memphis vs Houston today. I didn't know 76 yr old Wade Phillips was still coaching (I thought he actually had passed).

The games were kind of interesting. It moves faster than the NFL which is refreshing. I like the fact that kickoffs are treated like punts. Saw some decent talent out there with some positions. Ta'amu looks like he has an NFL caliber arm & great physical skills (former Ole Miss player). I found myself having to look up a lot of these players that I never heard of to find out a little about them.

On the downside the attendance looked bad. The Alamo Dome for the San Antonio game was very empty with the attendance announced at only 13,000. Rice stadium where the Houston game was played at looked really empty also. The league is going to have to get fannies in the seats & start selling out these venues to survive.
Ta'amu, like Matt Corral, Luis Perez, or Chase Garbers for that matter, is one of the many "almost" guys. Looks and plays mostly like a legit NFL QB, but there's also a reason these guys have never really made it in the NFL, or just got kicked around practice squads. Garbers did look quite good though on many throws for San Antonio. He was the Raiders practice squad QB who looked good in the NFL pre-season, and Josh McDaniels spoke highly of him...until letting him go to sign Jimmy Garappolo and Bryan Hoyer as part of his infinite genius. A microcosm of his path to unemployment, celebrated by Raider Nation worldwide.

But I'll say what I did before, there are really just slivers between the talent of Ta'amu, AJ McCarron... and Tommy DeVito, Tyson Bagent...Mitch Trubisky :oops:.

The only team that looked bad to me in all games was the Roughnecks. Their offense looked like they were really unprepared and just trying to figure it out. Though Arlington's OL was run over by Birmingham.

13,000 isn't bad, really. You're making the same mistake everyone else makes, thinking the UFL needs to compete with the NFL and get close to NFL (or big NCAA, like the SEC) numbers. They don't. They need to get numbers (and ratings) close to MLS, mid-week MLB or NHL games, or lesser-conference NCAA games (think: Tulane, Butler, Utah St. etc.). That's it. Next week's home opener in St. Louis is likely to get triple that amount, and will be as loud as an average NFL game. This will both impress casual fans, and also make "experts" think the UFL needs to have all games sell big like this. But by sheer numbers, as in revenue, they do not.

Put as best as I can: All the UFL needs to do is sustain a profit. The USFL did the last two years, and at least in theory, the UFL should be able to do the same in the same manner. Perhaps a better comparison is either the Arena League, which yes, is still alive, or maybe even how the NHL hovered around 8 teams for many, many years, just scraping by with some loyal fans, until in the late 60's and early 70's it expanded and grew.
 
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Beat out by Chase Garbers, Quentin Dormandy, Tom Flacco, and Jack Coan. Ooooof!

Ta'amu, like Matt Corral, Luis Perez, or Chase Garbers for that matter, is one of the many "almost" guys. Looks and plays mostly like a legit NFL QB, but there's also a reason these guys have never really made it in the NFL, or just got kicked around practice squads. Garbers did look quite good though on many throws for San Antonio. He was the Raiders practice squad QB who looked good in the NFL pre-season, and Josh McDaniels spoke highly of him...until letting him go to sign Jimmy Garappolo and Bryan Hoyer as part of his infinite genius. A microcosm of his path to unemployment, celebrated by Raider Nation worldwide.

But I'll say what I did before, there are really just slivers between the talent of Ta'amu, AJ McCarron... and Tommy DeVito, Tyson Bagent...Mitch Trubisky :oops:.

The only team that looked bad to me in all games was the Roughnecks. Their offense looked like they were really unprepared and just trying to figure it out. Though Arlington's OL was run over by Birmingham.

13,000 isn't bad, really. You're making the same mistake everyone else makes, thinking the UFL needs to compete with the NFL and get close to NFL (or big NCAA, like the SEC) numbers. They don't. They need to get numbers (and ratings) close to MLS, mid-week MLB or NHL games, or lesser-conference NCAA games (think: Tulane, Butler, Utah St. etc.). That's it. Next week's home opener in St. Louis is likely to get triple that amount, and will be as loud as an average NFL game. This will both impress casual fans, and also make "experts" think the UFL needs to have all games sell big like this. But by sheer numbers, as in revenue, they do not.

Put as best as I can: All the UFL needs to do is sustain a profit. The USFL did the last two years, and at least in theory, the UFL should be able to do the same in the same manner. Perhaps a better comparison is either the Arena League, which yes, is still alive, or maybe even how the NHL hovered around 8 teams for many, many years, just scraping by with some loyal fans, until in the late 60's and early 70's it expanded and grew.
Didn't realize that ex 49er Reuben Foster was playing in the UFL. He made some nice plays.
 
13,000 isn't bad, really. You're making the same mistake everyone else makes, thinking the UFL needs to compete with the NFL and get close to NFL (or big NCAA, like the SEC) numbers. They don't. They need to get numbers (and ratings) close to MLS, mid-week MLB or NHL games, or lesser-conference NCAA games (think: Tulane, Butler, Utah St. etc.). That's it. Next week's home opener in St. Louis is likely to get triple that amount, and will be as loud as an average NFL game. This will both impress casual fans, and also make "experts" think the UFL needs to have all games sell big like this. But by sheer numbers, as in revenue, they do not.
13,164 isn't bad in a 65,000 seat stadium? Lol. Of course, the UFL isn't directly competing against the NFL, but the UFL is competing for their fans to watch & develop an interest in the league.

To illustrate how bad that opening week number is the NBA San Antonio Spurs averaged over 16,000 fans last season in a 19,000 seat arena. The Univ of Texas San Antonio football program (FBS - American Athletic Conference) plays it's home games at the Alamodome and averaged 28,876 fans for it's 6 home games last season! So, the SA "Brahmas" couldn't even out sell the number of fans at a Spur's game & couldn't even come close to the attendance of a UTSA game - a lower-tier FBS program!

The Houston game was even worse. The official attendance was a pathetic 9,257 in 40,000 seat Rice University stadium. The Rice University football program averaged about 20,000 fans for it's 6 home games last season. Granted, Houston has the big 3 sports franchises (NFL/MLB/NBA) but this is a huge metropolis of 7.1 million people - and only 9,257 folks showed up for the game?...sad.

If Denver had a UFL franchise, I would definitely go to some games. But I like to watch all levels of football - pro, college & HS. But take your typical NFL football "junkie." He becomes hooked & zombified during the very long NFL season from Aug through the SB in Feb. Then he goes into hibernation only to emerge for the draft - which has now become a gala event - that brings in very high ratings for ESPN (this is one of their highest rating spring sporting events). Our junkie returns back to hibernation only to emerge again in early Aug at the start of preseason. Lol. How is the UFL going to sell their product to the typical NFL fan?

Empty stadiums for televised games look really bad & usually parallel poor TV ratings. People aren't going to tune into UFL games that has very little interest from the franchise's potential home base. Avertisers aren't going to paying ESPN & the networks to market their products with such low interest & poor ratings (keep in mind ESPN is already struggling financially). The UFL is not off to a good start, IMO.
 
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Maybe they should just play in small stadiums and fill them, because it will look good to fans like you. Even though it will cost the league money. Or do you think they should just fold now, quit? Glad you're not the commissioner!

Keep in mind, it was Easter Sunday. That didn't help. Yes, the season should have started after the Super Bowl, but the merger paperwork wasn't even done then.

As I said before, way back when. I like the idea of the UFL. If you don't, then don't watch it. But trashing it because you don't like it is just wasting everyone's time, including your own.

Vontae Davis has passed away at the young age of 35. :(

NFL.com has an article on where Zach Wilson may land. KC, Denver and the Chargers are high on their list. All in the same division.

Bucky Brooks at NFL.com has ordered an second round of Koolaid about how in Pittsburgh Russell Wilson can get back on track to his Hall of Fame career. I posted a couple weeks ago my prediction that Wilson will finish roughly 20th overall in QBR and most other stats when you round it all off. I'm sticking to this one, regardless of where he plays.

As we approached FA, I figured as long as KC signs Chris Jones, tagged or kept Sneed, and got a WR, I was going to predict they go 16-1 this coming season and three-peat, losing only to the Raiders mid-season. Well, they kept Jones, but lost Sneed, got Brown, but now Rice may be an issue. But they also lost Willie Gay who is an excellent coverage LB, and now guard Nick Allegretti, who was their platoon OL, but played a lot of snaps last year. The also lost nickel safety Mike Edwards, but were able to keep Dreu Tranquill. 16-1 seems less plausible now. But it looks like most of their core is in tact, with several players signing one-year extensions, which isn't a bad way to approach this off-season.
 
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How retired are we talking? Brady, Fletcher Cox, Rex Burkhead, AJ Green, all likely would have done quite well. Edelman and Moss retired years ago, and likely would not have made a team. Remember, Paxton Lynch couldn't cut it in the UFL. No team wants him. He's not good enough. Ochocinco looked at joining the league, but no one was really interested. Josh Gordon played last year in the XFL, he did quite well before going to the Tennessee Titans, where he didn't play much, and has now retired. A large number of players from last year's XFL and USFL tried out for NFL teams, and quite a few made it. Brandon Aubrey made the NFL pro bowl.

I think the depth of talent in the NFL is staggering. The difference between the best and worst player on almost any position (aside from QB probably) is razor thin. The UFL may have quite a few good games with good play, but it is not going to match that, ever. However, the guys in the UFL are mostly slivers below the NFL, not a bunch of cast-off losers. Even some QBs are at NFL back-up level. Matt Corral, AJ McCarron and Jordan Ta'Amu come to mind. Chase Garbers is QB for the San Antonio Brahmas, and looked very much the same player he did in the pre-season for the Raiders, and at Cal in college. I wasn't really joking when I said the Raiders should have just kept Aiden O'Connell and him, and never signed Jimmy Garappolo and Brian Hoyer, neither of whom played well at all.
 
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How retired are we talking? Brady, Fletcher Cox, Rex Burkhead, AJ Green, all likely would have done quite well. Edelman and Moss retired years ago, and likely would not have made a team. Remember, Paxton Lynch couldn't cut it in the UFL. No team wants him. He's not good enough. Ochocinco looked at joining the league, but no one was really interested. Josh Gordon played last year in the XFL, he did quite well before going to the Tennessee Titans, where he didn't play much, and has now retired. A large number of players from last year's XFL and USFL tried out for NFL teams, and quite a few made it. Brandon Aubrey made the NFL pro bowl.

I think the depth of talent in the NFL is staggering. The difference between the best and worst player on almost any position (aside from QB probably) is razor thin. The UFL may have quite a few good games with good play, but it is not going to match that, ever. However, the guys in the UFL are mostly slivers below the NFL, not a bunch of cast-off losers. Even some QBs are at NFL back-up level. Matt Corral, AJ McCarron and Jordan Ta'Amu come to mind. Chase Garbers is QB for the San Antonio Brahmas, and looked very much the same player he did in the pre-season for the Raiders, and at Cal in college. I wasn't really joking when I said the Raiders should have just kept Aiden O'Connell and him, and never signed Jimmy Garappolo and Brian Hoyer, neither of whom played well at all.
Edelman and Moss haven’t turned into Andrew Luck though post retirement. Lynch was a miracle to make it to the NFL the way he panned out and was a big bust. We also have to consider if any team wants to deal with Ochocinco’s personality, he can be taxing at times.

But these players weren’t your run of the mill or below par NFL players, they were top 10 or more in their position/skillset. With practice/offseason to work together they could do a number to a UFL team. Now what would be interesting to see is best college team vs UFL.