This belongs in an entirely other thread (which I think is now dead), but you do realize the plutocratic greed and money grabbing from the upper, upper echelon has stretched far, far beyond sports owners, yes?So I haven't sought out any information, but after hearing that the LA Lakers took money from small businesses....
As Movingtarget said, I don't see that, because they have Hoyer, who is a similar QB, maybe not quite as good, but one who knows the Pats and their system.Bengals released Andy Dalton...I wonder if Bilichick is interested?
He's going to go #1, even if the NCAA doesn't have a season (quite possible), he's the most sure-fire, future NFL prospect since Andrew Luck. So he's looking at Jacksonville, Carolina, Detroit, Washington, Miami and Cincy again should be contenders. The Pats look like an 7-9 maybe 9-7 team to me. Let's not forget they still have a stellar defense and the best coach ever. It's possible that Belicheck does look at this season as a total rebuild, but even then they'd have to really tank, or make a major trade, or a bit of both, to get the #1 pick.As for the Patriots will they be one of the teams looking at Trevor Lawrence in 2021 ?
Flacco should be done. Dalton and Cam should be able to get back-up jobs and will. Trubisky has likely lost his job in Chicago to Foles and will just sit. Even if they get away from an RPO type offense that favors Foles, Nick would have to likely get injured to lose the job, he's way, way, way more of a leader than Mitch ever was.Flacco, Dalton, Cam...Trubisky might be another one on the outer soon and Mayfield needs to get a good start to the season as well, now that Keenum has joined the Browns.
The Browns look like they are set-up to run a lot more to me. They have Chubb, and Hunt, who should now be up to speed with the team. They added Jack Conklin at RT who is one of the best run blocking tackles in the league, then took Jedrick Wills with their top pick (another RT, though Wills protected Tua's blind side at Alabama), whom Sporting News called "the nastiest run blocker in this draft", though 'Bama ran a lot of RPO. The system Stefanski ran in Minnesota (with Keenum, Cousins too) was straight-forward, with a balance of run/pass, and not a lot of risk taken by the QB. One of Keenum's strengths is that he's always been an unselfish guy who could quickly go through progressions and pull the trigger, rarely making blunders that kill drives. Mayfield has been much more apt to try to extend plays and see what he can make of things, often leading to mistakes. Was this his doing? Freddie Kitchens coaching? Probably both. Having four HC's and OC's in three seasons is a lot to ask any QB. My guess tells me Mayfield is the starter there for sure, but if he can't keep his mistakes down, understand they are built to pound out a lot of yards running, while he plays mistake free, and be the leader of such a strategy, he'll be gone and Keenum will take his job. Having said all that, to be honest the Browns still look like they need work, I question just how in sync they'll be on offense, and how well their defensive can stop big plays, plus they play in a division where Baltimore looks every bit as good as they did last year, plus Pittsburgh looks like they may have improved, plus will have Ben back at full health. So the Browns still look like maybe a 9-7 team to me.
The one thing I will say about Cleveland though is that they finally do seem to have the staff they need. While his title is only Chief Strategy Officer, Paul DePodestra has been pushing the team for a few years now to follow his Sabermetric vision. While others around him were fired in all this turmoil, Paul has kept his job for quite a few seasons now. A year ago he wanted Stefanski, and was overruled when they promoted Kitchens. Now he has his guy. They also hired Andrew Berry as GM, who also fits DePodestra's calculating mindset (Masters degree in computer science from Harvard). Unless the Browns absolutely stink this year, and the next, this core unit should mostly stay in place, which should help them in the years to come as some of these players mature.
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