National Football League

[jmdirt]

Refs have missed 2 delay of games

Its shocking how often the clock will hit 00, then one-two seconds and no call. All of a sudden though, it just hits 00 and out comes a yellow flag.

Related, resetting the play clock needs to be 'regulated' better.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Could easily be done electronically. Same with a whole lot of other technology; the NFL is stuck in the 1970s.

To no one's surprise, Doug Pederson fired. Trent Baalke has survived once again, keeping his GM job.

Lou Anarumo fired as DC of the Bengals. Seattle fired OC Ryan Grubb. It looks like Brian Daboll will keep his job for the Giants. No news from the Raiders on Antonio Pierce, yet. Nothing on Mike McCarthy in Dallas, yet.

In really bad news for the Packers, Christian Watson apparently tore his ACL, and more damage. This is after Dobbs is already banged up. Packers will have a very tough time beating the Eagles.

Deshaun Watson suffered a setback. I'm calling it now, he won't play, and may not even suit up, for the Browns in 2025, and will spend the entire season on the PUP list. After 2025 the Browns will finally cut him. I also now expect the Browns to draft either Ward or Sanders in the draft. If I were the owner and drafted a new QB, I wouldn't even let Watson back in the building ever again. Giants will obviously want to draft one of those two QBs. Unsure what Tennessee will do.

 

[Sciatic]

Some potential great games next week : Rams v Vikings, Green Bay v Eagles and Buccs v Washington. all in the NFC.

Agreed. There are unpredictable elements/issues for all of those teams so the outcome isn't a given, especially if Hurt can't play or is not 100%. I guess we'd still expect Eagles to win. Rams are pretty hot right now, while Vikings not only looked vulnerable last night but were also an inadvertent facemask penalty on a sack away from losing to the Seahawks.

 

[Nomad]

I'll take the Chargers over the Texans, unless Herbert folds.

This is a must win for the Chargers or the season will be a failure and "holier-than-thou" Harbough isn't so great. The Chargers are 2.5 point favorites going into Houston. Herbert started and played in all 17 games this year dodging the injury bug. He posted his best season record at 11-6. He threw the ball well posting his career highest rating & career low 3 picks. He also had career highs in rushing attempts & yardage. There are no excuses to not win this game. Remember Staley was "one & done" in the 2022 playoffs & could only manage 5 wins in 2023 - insert Harbough to save the franchise.

Interesting making of a QB controversy at NE. Maye was pulled just after the first series (not injured) & Milton III played for the remainder of the game - basically his first career start. Exceptional performance beating the Bills. Even Krafty when asked about Maye being pulled for Milton jokingly said "It Looks like we lucked out - we maybe have two quarterbacks." All jokes aside, there could be something to this. After all, who would have thought Krafty would run Bilichick not only out of NE but out of the entire league. Lol

Patriots rookie QB Joe Milton III finds Kayshon Boutte for 48-yard TD in NFL debut

Milton scored his first career TD earlier in the game on a 1-yard rush. The QB was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round.

www.espn.com

 

[SHAD0W93]

I think Bill, Ravens, Chargers, Eagles, Commanders, and Rams are all moving on to the divisional round.

 

[BullsFan22]

I think Bill, Ravens, Chargers, Eagles, Commanders, and Rams are all moving on to the divisional round.

Rams over Vikings?

 

[Nomad]

Weiterleitungshinweis

Am I reading this correctly - no picks in this game??? (this should have been breaking news on the ESPN ticker. Lol).

All joking aside, I guess he played pretty well though he had no TD passes & he botched several red zone opportunities. But it's something to build on going into preseason next year. If Lance could win the backup job that would be a step in the right direction giving him more opportunity to play. We shall see.

 

[Nomad]

Chiefs made sure the Bengals were out of the playoffs..............

I disagree with this. This is assuming the Bengals would go into Hallmark & beat the Bills. No way - the Bills were undefeated at home. I think KC is the only team that could go in there and beat them (they played in a close one at Hallmark this year). I even think Baltimore couldn't go in there & win.

What the KC-Denver game showed is how significant of a dropoff exists between the starters & backups (I think someone here alluded to that in reference to the SF injury situation). I always knew there's a big dropoff between the starting & backup QBs on most teams in this league. But apparently that applies to other positions as well.

Think about it: Reid sits almost 2/3 of his defense - including some All-Pros - and Mahomes, Kelce, Worthy, Hopkins & Pacheco/Hunt sit which is most of the offense. Denver comes in with a full compliment of starters hungry & motivated to get 10 wins & make the playoffs. So, you essentially had the varsity beat up on the JV in a scrimmage game. Lol.

Now here's the problem. If KC loses it's opening round playoff game & the starters look rusty, he'll be criticized for sitting them. If he played all of his starters in the Denver game and one or more sustained a major injury, he'd be criticized for that decision (look what happen to Watson tearing his ACL in the GB game). And if it was Mahomes who was to get injured, Reid would be run out of town.

So, damn if you do...damn if you don't

 

[SHAD0W93]

Rams over Vikings?

Rams can get after Darnold like the Lions just showed you could and I think he’s going to be even more on edge. It's probably going to be a sub 20 game.

I disagree with this. This is assuming the Bengals would go into Hallmark & beat the Bills. No way - the Bills were undefeated at home. I think KC is the only team that could go in there and beat them (they played in a close one at Hallmark this year). I even think Baltimore couldn't go in there & win.

What the KC-Denver game showed is how significant of a dropoff exists between the starters & backups (I think someone here alluded to that in reference to the SF injury situation). I always knew there's a big dropoff between the starting & backup QBs on most teams in this league. But apparently that applies to other positions as well.

Think about it: Reid sits almost 2/3 of his defense - including some All-Pros - and Mahomes, Kelce & Pacheco/Hunt sit which is most of the offense. Denver comes in with a full compliment of starters hungry & motivated to get 10 wins & make the playoffs. So, you essentially had the varsity beat up on the JV in a scrimmage game. Lol.

Now here's the problem. If KC loses it's opening round playoff game & the starters look rusty, he'll be criticized for sitting them. If he played all of his starters in the Denver game and one or more sustained a major injury, he'd be criticized for that decision (look what happen to Watson tearing his ACL in the GB game). And if it was Mahomes who was to get injured, Reid would be run out of town.

So, damn if you do...damn if you don't

While there is a gap and sometimes major, Chiefs also didn’t try at all. Chiefs didn’t care to do anything besides call basic plays to not give anything away and keep everyone as healthy as possible. The weather didn’t even want them to leave to Denver. I’ve never seen a game finish and the other games still have 7 plus minutes left in the game. Chiefs could have did better if they wanted to, albeit maybe not win. Steele, Juju, Watson, and Gray are all good backups.

We saw last year Chiefs playing against 2nd to 4th stringers spanking the Dolphins 26-7 and squeaking by the Bills 27-24. We just saw what the Lions put together with all of their injuries. Then off the top of my head NE getting by with all of the injuries to their starting defenders in 2017 and Chiefs getting by 5 or 6 games with their depleted oline till the Super Bowl in 2020.

I think it was good they rested. This isn’t the first time they’ve done it and many of their big pieces have been battling injuries on top of Mahomes newborn coming at any week. Reid is also one of the best coaches coming from a break from playing. They also have no worry in the divisional round if there is rust bar Chargers due to it being a divisional matchup and they play the Chiefs tight. We’ve seen Bucs and Jets get swept and destroyed in one of the regular season games win in the playoffs. Vikings have the chance to do it to.

 

[movingtarget]

Ranking NFL head-coach openings in 2025 hiring cycle

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I agree this is a must win for the Chargers. In fact, the expectations there have to be they will then go to KC, and give the Chiefs a run for their money. If they get by Houston, then lose handily to the Chiefs, it may as well be 2022 all over again.

The Bills can beat anyone in the NFL. But the two teams that I think can beat them are Baltimore, who has done so a couple times (including earlier this year, 35-10, where the Bills could not stop Lamar, or Henry), and KC, at least in KC, though they have done it in Buffalo too.

I'm not sure about the Ravens beating KC. I'll believe it when I see it. They almost did in week 1. But last year Harbaugh was easily outcoached by Reid, Lamar didn't play well, and they couldn't stop Mahomes.

The Bills rested a lot of players, but I was impressed by how accurate Joe Milton was!

KC hasn't had anywhere near the loss of players the Lions have. It's not even close. Injuries are generally a wash, unless you have one elite player, and they go down (the year Peyton Manning was lost, and Curtis Painter was the Colts QB). But the Lions have been devastated by injuries, and still won. Starters or not, injuries or not, the Chiefs are still the champions, until someone knocks them off.

I'll take the Vikings over the Rams. Probably. The Rams are really hard to predict. If the Rams offense is in sync, and the game becomes high scoring, the Rams have a better chance. But I think the Vikings got beat this week by a damn good team, with an incredible offense. NFL.com rates the Eagles higher than the Lions in the NFC. I'm not sure what they based it on, because the Lions had a harder schedule for sure, but we may find out soon enough.

There seems to be no historical best solution to resting players. I seem to recall one year the Colts rested everyone, and looked like garbage 3 weeks later hosting the Steelers, and lost. There was another year when the Colts had a bye, but Manning played at least the first series, or first quarter of the last game of the season, to avoid rust. Not sure what happened that year (probably eventually lost to the Patriots in the playoffs! ).

Lance played as much because Rush would have achieved a $300,000 bonus if he had played and completed a few passes. Nothing more. Jerry Jones is cheap.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Raiders fire Antonio Pierce after one season as HC. A day after he gave a press conference sounding like he felt his job was safe. Considering that GM Tom Telesco was hired after him, and Mark Davis gave Telesco a seal of approval, hopefully Davis will be smart enough to get out of the way and let Telesco do his job and hire the next HC. With Davis making the primary decisions in the past it's an annual revolving door.

 

[Nomad]

While there is a gap and sometimes major, Chiefs also didn’t try at all. Chiefs didn’t care to do anything besides call basic plays to not give anything away and keep everyone as healthy as possible. The weather didn’t even want them to leave to Denver. I’ve never seen a game finish and the other games still have 7 plus minutes left in the game. Chiefs could have did better if they wanted to, albeit maybe not win. Steele, Juju, Watson, and Gray are all good backups.

Steele isn't that good of a RB. He's slow, not very agile & can't catch the ball. He wasn't that great at UCLA. He's more of a FB type in the old run orientated I-formation offenses (he's a baby bull monster powerlifter). I'm not sure why he made the 53 as a backup RB unless he's a good special teams player & contributing there. Agree on Juju, Watson & Gray. However, they're in the rotation, so are they really backups in the true sense? (if a player is in the rotation, I don't consider them a backup).

What do you think the score would have been & how much closer the game if the backups/rotators had played hard & took the game seriously? And here's one for you: If Reid sat only Mahomes & went with Wentz - do you think they win the game? How about if Mahomes sustained a season ending injury in week #1 & Wentz is the guy for the entire season - do you think KC has the same success? Do they still win the division?

As I said before, this was a bad game to have to be played. The commissioner could have had KC just forfeit the game and save the embarrassment & humiliation of a team not wanting to play the game in the first place. The game made the Broncos look way better than they are. It made Nix look way better than he is. Granted, the Broncos are improved over last year & Nix looks promising as the franchises QB, but there's no way the Broncos are going to shut out 38-0 any NFL team with Nix completing virtually every pass he throws. Lol. The game made the Chiefs look like complete CHUMPS. Now they have a shutout on their record under the Mahomes era. Lol.

 

[movingtarget]

Lions RB David Montgomery (MCL) expected to be back for Divisional Round

 

[Nomad]

There seems to be no historical best solution to resting players. I seem to recall one year the Colts rested everyone, and looked like garbage 3 weeks later hosting the Steelers, and lost. There was another year when the Colts had a bye, but Manning played at least the first series, or first quarter of the last game of the season, to avoid rust. Not sure what happened that year (probably eventually lost to the Patriots in the playoffs! ).

I think it's more beneficial with the longer season they have now. Mainly you can rest guys with nagging, chronic injuries, give them a head start on rehab & recover, go off of pain meds, etc. Also, keep in mind that during this long 3 week down period, the strength & conditioning coaches will be working these guys out hard. There will be no drop in conditioning & strength when they resume play.

I suppose that a long layoff like this can take some players out of their rhythm with their weekly preparation for each game. That's why I think you see some of these players dropping passes, fumbling the ball, lineman missing blocks, QBs missing wide-open receivers, etc, when teams play that first game after a bye & long layoff.

 

[Nomad]

Former NFL Star Trashes Trevor Lawrence Over Jaguars Firing Doug Pederson

Lawrence has won just one playoff game in his NFL career.

www.si.com

This is what you get when "the next Payton Manning" doesn't live up to expectations. Lol.

 

[Nomad]

Raiders fire Antonio Pierce after one season as HC.

Jon Gruden back in Black & Silver?

 

[SHAD0W93]

Steele isn't that good of a RB. He's slow, not very agile & can't catch the ball. He wasn't that great at UCLA. He's more of a FB type in the old run orientated I-formation offenses (he's a baby bull monster powerlifter). I'm not sure why he made the 53 as a backup RB unless he's a good special teams player & contributing there. Agree on Juju, Watson & Gray. However, they're in the rotation, so are they really backups in the true sense? (if a player is in the rotation, I don't consider them a backup).

What do you think the score would have been & how much closer the game if the backups/rotators had played hard & took the game seriously? And here's one for you: If Reid sat only Mahomes & went with Wentz - do you think they win the game? How about if Mahomes sustained a season ending injury in week #1 & Wentz is the guy for the entire season - do you think KC has the same success? Do they still win the division?

As I said before, this was a bad game to have to be played. The commissioner could have had KC just forfeit the game and save the embarrassment & humiliation of a team not wanting to play the game in the first place. The game made the Broncos look way better than they are. It made Nix look way better than he is. Granted, the Broncos are improved over last year & Nix looks promising as the franchises QB, but there's no way the Broncos are going to shut out 38-0 any NFL team with Nix completing virtually every pass he throws. Lol. The game made the Chiefs look like complete CHUMPS. Now they have a shutout on their record under the Mahomes era. Lol.

Steele has come up big for them in short yard situations and with his blocking. Juju and Watson are definitely 4 and 5 behind Hopkins, Worthy, and Brown and I think Gray is 2nd(?) but they still played this game.

I think it would have been a one score game with it most likely being by 7 or 8 points either way. Spag is a great coordinator and he can dial up some good blitz schemes that the broncos could have had trouble with and Reid could work something out. They just didn’t want to have anyone get hurt and not give anything up for the playoffs. I’m sure both sides of the ball has 5-10 plays minimum they haven’t shown this year yet they’re planning on. Now if the only swap is Wentz for Mahomes and this game meant the one seed vs Bills, they would find a way to win the game.

I think without Mahomes they’d be a 11-12 win team with the most likely loses either the Ravens, Bengals, Falcons, Bucs, Chargers, or Broncos. Mahomes wasn’t playing good the first 4 games, he was what like 6 tds to 8 ints? The biggest loss would be his scrambling ability but the Chiefs will run the ball more. Reid and the team obviously thought highly enough of Wentz to bring him in. The division win is up to how they do against the Chargers and Broncos

I agree Broncos looked a lot better than they are, Chiefs were pulling a Lynch. It does stink this loss is during Mahomes period but he didn’t start the game so at least that’s not on his record.

 

[Nomad]

I haven't seen Steele come up big in short yardage situations. He's not even in the rotation Shadow. Pacheco & Hunt are in the rotation with Perine coming in on some situational passing downs. Both Pacheco & Hunt can get the short yardage - they're jacked & pound for pound just as strong as Steele. But...they have the blazing speed & can catch the ball (Pacheco is 4.3 burner!). Steele is a stiff & a special teams player at this point. Maybe he could switch to LB or something if he wants more playing time.

WTF - are you serious about Wentz? "11 or 12 wins?" You really think Wentz has Mahomes' playmaking ability, competitiveness & leadership skills? If it's less than a minute in the game with no TOs & KC needs a score to tie or win, do you really think Wentz can march them down the field & score? C'mon man. Lol.

I would have KC completely tanking with Wentz at the helm. For one, I doubt he could even make it through the season without being injury & unable to play anyway. He's just another big stiff & who was way overrated. He's no Joe Flacco. He was tagged as the next "Big Ben" because some stupid scout said "he's as big as Big Ben & throws the ball just like him." Lol. Another #2 OA bust that couldn't live up to expectations.

My question is if Wentz is so good in your opinion - why isn't he starting for another team? You know the shambles some teams are in with poor QB play - why haven't these teams signed Wentz as their starter?

Do you think Wentz can come anything close to the competitiveness & toughness that Mahomes has? Look at this here, FFS, he's one tough competitor:

View: https://youtu.be/CFKbDp-GRsM?si=RcGUIud1iWn5mTVp

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Carson Wentz had about 9 good games one season (the year Foles won the SB for the Eagles), and that's about it. Otherwise he's been pretty bad, or really bad, no matter what opportunity he has been given. Frank Reich was the OC that year with the Eagles, and even when Reich was the HC for the Colts and tried to resurrect Wentz career, Wentz still collapsed there. I'm honestly surprised he's QB2 in KC. And I'll be surprised if he is next season. Peter King wrote something on him after that season in Indy after talking with him a bit, and Wentz seemed borderline toxic, with a huge ego. King said Wentz believed the statue of Pederson and Foles outside of Lincoln stadium really should have been a statue of him.

If the Raiders hire Jon Gruden back it may set the franchise back another several years. I can only see Mark Davis doing that, and if he does, GM Tom Telesco may just quit. I can't see Brady wanting Gruden back in the door either. My guess is the Raiders try to pursue Liam Coen, OC of the Buccaneers.

 

[jmdirt]

I wish that coaches couldn't interview until the day after the Superbowl.

 

[Unchained]

I look to be an outlying Charger fan. Don't think it's a must win and think overall they like the Harbaugh outcome, sure going to next round is certainly preferred but Holy Harbaugh has delivered to some degree..

 

[Nomad]

I don't see how a Charger loss wouldn't be a complete failure of the season & a huge black eye on Holy Harbaugh.

Let's start with some team stats: The 11-6 Chargers post their best record since 2018 when they went 12-4 under Rivers & HC Anthony Lynn. (they won the WC round game but lost in the divisional round).The Chargers this year have the #1 scoring defense & #11 scoring offense. Those are SB contending type numbers.

Herbert, top 10 in salary, played & started in all 17 games dodging the injury bug. He had solid stats posting a career high in QB rating, Y/A, rushing yardage & career low 3 picks. Dobbins played most of the season & is the team's leading rusher posting career highs in rushing attempts & receptions/yardage. He did miss some time with the MCL but looks like he's fully recovered.

This isn't like Harbaugh is breaking in a rookie QB or that Herbert has been injured & not playing well for most of the season. He has Herbert playing injury-free ball & at the top of his career.

The Chargers are 3 pt favorites going into Houston. I can't see any situation where a loss to Houston would be considered okay & that Harbaugh "has delivered to some degree." A loss & they're no better than the 2022 team with Staley that lost to the Jaguars in the WC round of the playoffs. Lol.

 

[Nomad]

Titans fire GM Ran Carthon after 2 seasons

Tennessee has seen a seesaw of leadership changes in recent years, firing its GM in 2022, coach in 2023 and now, the GM again.

www.nytimes.com

This is what you get for drafting Levis & finishing with the worst record in the league. Lol.

 

[Nomad]

My guess is the Raiders try to pursue Liam Coen, OC of the Buccaneers.

Any chance they look at Carroll if the Bears don't hire him?

Bears to interview Pete Carroll for open HC position on Thursday