~2018 NFL Thread~

[Kris60]

I was watching Aaron Donald last night and struck by how many elite NFL players Pitt has produced in the last 20 years and how little it has helped elevate the program.

[Mdot21]

Odds on Brady and/or Gronk retiring?

Gronk is done. He's a beaten down, broken down shell of his former great self. Best TE to ever play the game and it's not close IMO- but he's finished. I'd be shocked if he was back in New England with the way that Belichik operates. He gets rid of a guys a year or two early, and right now it looks like he's held onto Gronk a year or two too late. Gronk was almost traded to Detroit this off-season and he nixed the trade. He said he's only playing with Brady or he's going to retire so the deal fell apart. 2019 is the last year of his deal and he's due $9+ million in 2019 and he's going to count $11.5+ mil against the cap if he's on the roster. They can cut him and save $9.5 million against the cap. He gone. And he's not playing for anyone else but New England imo, so he'll just retire.
Brady isn't going anywhere for at least 2-3 more years imo. They don't have any other legit QB's on that roster. They aren't cutting bait with an old Brady for Brian freakin' Hoyer. My guess is they probably draft someone with one of their 12 draft picks this upcoming draft in the 2nd or 3rd or 4th round and develop him over the next 2-3 years then they get rid of Brady. They just don't have any other options at this point. This QB draft sucks outside of Haskins- and he'll be gone in the top 10 and they pick at #32 every year.

[Mdot21]

I was watching Aaron Donald last night and struck by how many elite NFL players Pitt has produced in the last 20 years and how little it has helped elevate the program.

I was watching how little impact Aaron Donald had on that game last night and I was struck by how over-hyped he is. I've got to say, did he even play at all this entire playoff run? Because I didn't see him do anything all playoffs except cheap shot Brady and get away with what should've been a roughing the passer.

[Anonymous Coward]

Odds on Brady and/or Gronk retiring?

I agree with MDot:
Brady, <1%
Gronk, >75%

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not a big fan of any commercial aiming to lower the bar for society. And that's all this dilly-dilly crap is. So I wasn't a fan of those Bud Light commercials, even though I thoroughly enjoy GoT. But I liked several others, even the Miller Lite one with ASMR. I also thought the NFL's commercial (with the tackling shenanigans in the ballroom) was among the most enjoyable SB commercials in my lifetime. The spoofs with Michael Bublé and Big Lebowski were good too. It's hard to remember them all.

[Brutus Buckeye]

Why would Brady retire? Dude's been to 8 straight AFC CGs. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Why would Brady retire? Dude's been to 8 straight AFC CGs.

Because his arm is rapidly approaching "wet noodle" stage... 

[Mdot21]

Because his arm is rapidly approaching "wet noodle" stage...

we must be watching different things, because his arm looks the same as it ever has to me. His arm was never huge, it was always merely above average and it looks about the same. Drew Brees is the QB whose arm I'd say has already gotten to wet noodle stage. Brees' arm was already wet noodlish before that major shoulder injury which required surgery. He got it back to maybe 90% of it was, and now at age 39 that thing is just shot.
Brady was the MVP of the league last year and threw for a playoff record 505 yards in the Super Bowl. Most yards ever thrown in a playoff game period- forget Super Bowl. If Brandon Graham doesn't make that incredible play to rush the pocket up the middle and strip sack the ball- Brady probably would've lead the Pats to a 40-38 victory that game.
This year without much in the way of an offensive supporting cast he got them to the Super Bowl with a flawless game vs the Chargers in the divisional round and then pulled off a miracle in 4th QTR and OT on the road in Arrow Head to get them to the Super Bowl. He didn't play his best game in the Super Bowl. But I didn't see any "wet noodle" in that arm- especially on the game winning drive in the 4th QTR where he dropped a couple of dimes down the field to Gronkowski. Rams by the way do happen to have the best starting tandem at CB in the entire league with Talib and Peters, and probably the best starting front 4 in the entire league as well. Suh and Donald are future HOF'ers both playing at extremely high levels, and the ends Brockers and Fawler were both high 1st round picks. Wade Phillips is also arguably the best DC in the league. Rams DB's owned the NE wide receivers on the outside and the Rams interior DL was able to get pressure on Brady up the middle- really the only way you can pressure him at all. Edge pressure doesn't get to him because he gets rid of the ball way too quickly. Chargers and Chiefs have some of the best edge rushers in the leauge and weren't able to get a finger on him. Rams on the other hand were getting shots on Brady. ESPN showed a stat graphic- when Eldeman was pressed at the LOS he had 0 catches. All of his catches came in the slot on free releases. When the Rams DB's pressed the Patriots receivers they straight up owned them. Hogan, Dorsett, and Cordarelle Patterson all got shut down on the outside. Rams also took away the passing game to the RBs that New England loves to go to. James White was a non-factor that game. They just don't have the weapons on offense to go toe to toe with a defense with as much talent as the Rams and a DC as savvy as Wade Phillips. Honestly Pats kinda just got lucky that Gurley was still banged up, that McVay shat the bed and made zero adjustments on offense, but most importantly that Jared Goff turned back into who and what he really is- a wannabe not built for the big moment. Rams will never win shit with Goff.

[Anonymous Coward]

If Brady has lost zip on intermediate throws (his highest velocity attempts), I haven't noticed. But that may not be what bwar meant. His post could also be saying that eventually everyone hits wet noodle arm time. P. Manning hit that phase by this age. Even if there aren't any obvious signs yet, you know it has to be coming for Brady, too.

[betarhoalphadelta]

If Brady has lost zip on intermediate throws (his highest velocity attempts), I haven't noticed. But that may not be what bwar meant. His post could also be saying that eventually everyone hits wet noodle arm time. P. Manning hit that phase by this age. Even if there aren't any obvious signs yet, you know it has to be coming for Brady, too.

I watched more Patriots this year than normal as I had Josh Gordon on my fantasy team. 
Gordon was there to be a stretch the field / take the top off the defense guy. And it seemed that every time Brady tried to throw it deep to him, it was underthrown. Whether that was a lack of arm strength or just a miscalculation of where the ball was supposed to be, I don't know. But I can't imagine Brady not hitting Randy Moss in stride back in the day.
And yes, the same thing happened to Manning. His final season he made the Super Bowl being a smart player and having a great defense to support him, not because he had any arm strength left. 
Brees is about a year and a half younger than Brady. I haven't seen any degradation of his deep ball yet, but I think the fact that he's set the single-season completion percentage record 4 times might suggest that scheme-wise, they're trying to give him a lot of high-percentage throws and not make him rely on the deep ball as much. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

More to being a QB than having a rocket arm. 

I'd at least wait until he drops a game in the Conference semifinals before predicting an end date. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

More to being a QB than having a rocket arm.

I'd at least wait until he drops a game in the Conference semifinals before predicting an end date.

And yes, he's done pretty darn well with his current arm...
Some players tend to drive themselves beyond their prime, and you'd think that going out on your 6th ring [more than any other player] would be leaving on a high note. 
Does he want to end his career on top? 

[Anonymous Coward]

My guess is that Brady thinks he can finish with at least 7.

[MrNubbz]

 Honestly Pats kinda just got lucky that Gurley was still banged up, that McVay shat the bed and made zero adjustments on offense, but most importantly that Jared Goff turned back into who and what he really is- a wannabe not built for the big moment. Rams will never win shit with Goff.

I agree Gurley banged up allowed N.E. to focus on Goff.Not ready to throw Goff under the bus just yet as it took Peyton and the Colts a while, but he's paid rather well to deliver the goods and he seemed to choke Sunday.N.E. schemed good but Goff lost his season swagger for sure