~2017 NFL Thread~

[Mdot21]

Stafford will be 30 next season.  If they max out the next 3-4 years with him, I'll take that.  He's really really good, but he's not Brady or Brees or Rodgers.  He's not going to be elite at 40.  This is his window.

Oh I agree 100%. He's probably got a solid 5 years left playing at a high level.

He's not Brady or Rodgers. NOBODY in the fricken league is though. Those are probably two of the top 5 best QB's to ever touch a football.
I think he's right there in that same tier below those two guys with Brees, Roethlisberger, Matt Ryan, Russell Wilson.

I'd love to see them take a RB in the 2nd round or 3rd rd. This a good crop of RB's in the 2018 draft. Might be able to grab a Nick Chubb, Damien Harris, Derrius Guice, Sony Michel, Ronald Jones, Bryce Love, Royce Freeman, or Bo Scarbarough in the 2nd or 3rd.

[Mdot21]

Bills new coach Sean McDermott benches starting QB Tyrod Taylor in favor of 5th round rookie QB Nathan Peterman. Looks a little from the outside looking in like he's looking for a scapegoat to take pressure off his own ass. 

Taylor isn't a stud QB or anything, but it's not like he's completely awful and throwing pick 6's and stinking the joint up. He actually plays too conservatively if anything- the guy has only thrown 7 INT's in his entire career 6 1/2 year career. I don't think he's a franchise QB but he just might be the best back-up QB in the league. Bills have way more problems then just the QB. Never bought the hype on them when they were 5-2 and were a "surprise" team. They've got 6 games left- they're probably going to lose 5 of them.

It's a 6-10 roster. They basically let all of their talent go. Didn't re-sign Robert Woods. Traded away Sammy Watkins. They actually traded FOR an over-weight, slow WR who doesn't get separation and drops too many passes in Kelvin Benjamin. Carolina's offense looks night and day better with him gone. Cam isn't forcing the ball to his BFF Benjamin and Funchess- who is just a better, more athletic non-fat version of Benjamin has had some nice games and they are starting to get Dylan McCaffrey and Curtis Samuel's speed involved in the passing game as well.

Bills are a mess. Seems like it's pretty unfair to pin that on Tyrod Taylor.

[ELA]

I don't think of it as a scapegoat, as knowing he's fired on the current trajectory, so he has to change something up as a hail mary to turn it around.  If it works, awesome.  If it doesn't, well he was going to get fired anyway, so who cares if it actually makes them worse.

Yes, it's unfair to Taylor though.

[Mdot21]

I don't think of it as a scapegoat, as knowing he's fired on the current trajectory, so he has to change something up as a hail mary to turn it around.  If it works, awesome.  If it doesn't, well he was going to get fired anyway, so who cares if it actually makes them worse.

Yes, it's unfair to Taylor though.

I can see both sides to the argument. It's McDermott's first year with the Bills, so I don't think he's in any real danger of being fired, not like the season was a disaster like the 49ers or Giants or Browns where you're looking at 0 or 1 wins. This is why I feel like he's just trying to buy himself more time and scapegoat Taylor.

You just have to really question a lot of their front office personnel decisions. They traded away probably their most talented defensive player in Marcell Dareus for a ham sandwhich. I get that the guy is a handful off the field, but he's a big-time talent.

Taylor isn't great but it's not like he's got a lot of receiving help either. For some inexplicable reason they actually traded for Fat Benjamin, meanwhile two guys the Bills threw away- Robert Woods and Sammy Watkins- are looking excellent for the Rams and are sparking a turnaround and bringing Jared Goff to life. Outside of Julio Jones, there probably isn't a more physically gifted specimen at WR in the entire NFL than Sammy Watkins and they basically gave up on him.

[ELA]

I don't know why I was thinking he was on the hot seat.  Yeah, no, I take back what I said

[betarhoalphadelta]

Taylor isn't great but it's not like he's got a lot of receiving help either. For some inexplicable reason they actually traded for Fat Benjamin, meanwhile two guys the Bills threw away- Robert Woods and Sammy Watkins- are looking excellent for the Rams and are sparking a turnaround and bringing Jared Goff to life. Outside of Julio Jones, there probably isn't a more physically gifted specimen at WR in the entire NFL than Sammy Watkins and they basically gave up on him.

I've been watching Watkins and the Rams somewhat closely as I drafted him for my fantasy team this year, and dropped him midseason for Robert Woods.
The Rams' are criminally under-using Watkins. Woods has more receptions than Watkins has targets, and Kupp has almost as many receptions as Watkins has targets. They're throwing the ball barely more than three times a game to Watkins (and he's catching 2 passes a game). Both other WR far outstrip Watkins' yardage too. 
I don't for the life of me understand why the Rams bothered to trade for Watkins when you barely treat him as anything more than a "run a vertical route as a decoy" guy every play. 

[Mdot21]

Jerry Jones about to go to war with the gigantic douche nozzel known as Roger Goodell? That's what ESPN is reporting. Say what you will about the guy as a GM, he sucks, but when it comes to business no one has done more for the NFL. Jerry helped turned the NFL into the money machine that it is- he was a pioneer in a lot of ways in terms of sponsorship, endorsement deals, TV contracts, and bringing big-time corporate money into the NFL. LINK

favorite excerpt from the article....apparently Jerry called Robert Kraft a pussy. LMAO.

Finally, according to sources with direct knowledge of the call, Jones broke the silence. He aimed his words not only at Goodell's decision but also at his role as judge, jury and executioner in the case. "I'm gonna come after you with everything I have," Jones said. Then he mentioned Deflategate. "If you think Bob Kraft came after you hard, Bob Kraft is a p---y compared to what I'm going to do."

Go get 'em Jerry. It's absolutely f'ing RIDICULOUS that Goodell has been making as much as he has and he was asking for an extension of $50 million per year, a life-time use of private jets, and life-time health insurance for himself and his family. The players don't even get life-time health insurance. What a fricken ASS HOLE. NOBODY is worth that kind of money. A million idiots could do that job. The NBA commissioner is making $9 million a year. You mean to tell me the NFL commissioner is worth $50 million + benefits like life-time private jet and life-time health insurance? You're making $50 million a year. Charter your own f'ing jets and buy your own health insurance. Makes perfect business sense to not extend Goodell. He's not worth that kind of money. Nobody is. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people who could do that job and for a lot less money. ANYBODY could do that job. $50 million a year plus a life-time private jet plus life-time health insurance? GTFO Roger.

[MrNubbz]

I hope & pray the NFL bellies up.Brazen unyielding greed F@#!$)*%^& them all

[Mdot21]

Lions survive the Bears to move to 6-4. Setting up a huge home game with major implications for the division and playoffs on Thanksgiving against division leaders 8-2 Vikings. Who would've thought Vikings would be 8-2 at this point without starters Sam Bradford at QB or Dalvin Cook at RB? Not me. 

Lions need this one bad. All I can think about in a game like this is how much better they would be had they not drafted that bum Eric Ebron with the #10 pick in the 2014 draft. Next 3 picks? LT Taylor Lewan, WR Odell Beckham Jr, and DT Aaron Donald. All 3 have made multiple Pro Bowls and all 3 were ranked by other players in the NFL Networks Top 100 players of 2017. Could've got one of those 3. Instead got a waste of space TE who can't catch.

WR wasn't a huge need seeing as how nobody could've imagined Calvin walking away so suddenly, but OL and DL definitely were. Especially with Suh in the last year of his contract and a deal not being close to done. 

I just keep imagining a Lewan/Decker tackle duo and get real pissed off. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

.

The Browns still have a 1 in 19,649,922,085,696,900,000 chance of making the Playoffs
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/good-news-browns-your-chances-of-making-the-playoffs-are-only-1-in-19-quintillion/


First, Cleveland wins out — that’s the easy part. Then the Browns need the following: Week 12 wins from Kansas City, Tennessee, New England, Houston, Dallas and Carolina; Week 13 wins from New England, Denver, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Detroit and the Giants; Week 14 wins from Indianapolis, the Jets, Kansas City, New England, Chicago, Washington and San Francisco; Week 15 wins from Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Minnesota and Dallas; Week 16 wins for Baltimore, Kansas City, San Diego, New England, Pittsburgh and Washington; and Week 17 wins for Kansas City, Indianapolis, New England and Cincinnati. Also, the Broncos and Raiders need to tie in Week 12, and the Bills and Dolphins need to tie in Week 17.
If all this happens, there would be four AFC teams with a record of 5-10-1 and five more at 5-11. The Patriots, Steelers, Chiefs and Titans would win their respective divisions, and the Jaguars would get the first wild card at 12-4. That leaves the Ravens and Browns tied for the last spot at 6-10. The Browns would win the tiebreaker because their Week 15 win over Baltimore would split the season series, and Cleveland would have a better record in the division.

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[FearlessF]

Case Keenum and the Vikes are pretty good

[ELA]

Holy shit.  Think Antonio Brown saw the show Julio put on earlier?

[Mdot21]

Holy shit.  Think Antonio Brown saw the show Julio put on earlier?

how the F was he a 2 star recruit with little to no college offers and wind up at Central Michigan and then go in the 6th round?

[ELA]

He wasn't even anything like this at CMU.  He was an elite returner, but as a WR he never struck me as more than just a solid MAC WR.

I can now point to him being on that 2009 team that beat MSU, but honestly I remember Dan LeFevour, who had a cup of coffee with the Bears, being the much bigger factor.

At least Julio was an all world Bama player.