The NFL Thread

[Dan]

And now we have North Carolina giving Clemson a game with their true freshman QB. Sam Howell looking very promising early on in his college career.

Some good games today - Alabama are playing Ole Miss, Notre Dame are home to Virginia & Washington are playing USC at the minute, there's also one of the good mid-tier clashes in Wake Forest/Boston College, and we have Ohio State against Nebraska later tonight, along with Mississippi State against Auburn & Kansas State/Oklahoma State, with Washington State/Utah as the 'PAC-12 AFTER DARK' game.

In NFL news, Melvin Gordon will be playing on a snap count this week.

EDIT: Chazz Surratt is making plays on the North Carolina defence, which is even more impressive as he's a converted QB now playing linebacker. His brother Sage has been just as impactful as a WR for Wake Forest (they actually played against each other a week or two ago), so keep an eye out for them in the 2021 draft (probably).

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[Giggles]

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[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Should be kicked out of the league.

[Giggles]

Does nobody here watch the NFL any more?

[Dan]

Yeah, we just all talk about it on Discord now.

Vontaze Burfict is still a sack of shit & Baltimore have collapsed when I needed them are the two main things to take away from the early games.

[John]

Nick Chubb.

Get fucked Mahow.

[Giggles]

Yeah, we just all talk about it on Discord now.

Vontaze Burfict is still a sack of shit & Baltimore have collapsed when I needed them are the two main things to take away from the early games.

I always thought Discord was a work thing like Slack. Though I'm suppose that would still work.

[Ian]

Discord is predominantly a gamer thing.

If I'm not watching the Denver game I tend to be watching Redzone while doing other stuff.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Our defence, bar Judon and Humphrey, is rancid right now.

Tony Jefferson needs to be cut.

[Foe]

Nick Chubb.

Get fucked Mahow.

Georgia really did have it good with rbs. Gurley, Chubb, michel and now even swift.

Funny that the NFL guys thought the ravens were special after dismantling the dolphins. Nope. The dolphins are just 0-16 worthy.

[Foe]

How about Kyle Allen at Carolina by the way? The panthers took will grier #100 in the recent draft and injury aside, he’s not getting near the field any time soon. Even heinecke didn’t look that bad either.

[Ian]

Denver first team in NFL history with no sacks or takeaways in the first three games? Yaaaas.

And yet I'm sure I read that going into this week the defense was still somehow ranked 9th or something like that.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Probably on yards.

[Foe]

And there’s Von.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

A wild sack appears!

[Foe]

Another qb buckled in trubisky.

NFL will ban tackling next year to prevent this.

[Ian]

A sack!

Probably on yards.

Yeah I just meant it's unusual to only do it incompletions and run stops with nothing big, as such.

Also the guy who's doing the colour commentary on the Broncos game sounds like Fozzy Bear.

[Ian]

And one for Chubb too. That's more like it.

[Ian]

Well that was nearly an unpleasant turnabout after the crap Flacco throw.

[Ian]

Some of the attempts to bring Minshew down this half.

[Ian]

Well this is all getting a bit unpleasant.

[John]

Minshew and Daniel Jones both look a good deal better than Kyler.

[John]

Bucs v Rams is a proper game.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Marcus Peters almost had his head removed by an O-Lineman.

[Ian]

The players must have really enjoying chucking away the Bears game at the last minute given they're now trying to reeanact it. Twats.

[Dan]

DEFENCE

Teddy almost ruined everything taking that horrible sack, and the line probably gave up more penalty yards than we had passing, but that’s two huge wins the defence has stepped up without Brees & getting Sheldon Rankins just helps that extra bit.

Can’t wait for us to bottle it against Arizona & Jacksonville now.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Burfict out for the rest of the year.

Goodbye dickhead.

[bruhnaldo]

Between fines and lost wages Burfict has lost over $5m from on field incidents. FUCK!

[Foe]

Nice start for mike mayock as GM.

I was looking at the schedules and redskins @ Miami is very definitely the best chance either has at a win this season. The loser could legitimately go 0-16.

Arizona have enough about them they’ll scape a win somewhere. The redskins didn’t have anything against a giants team with a rookie qb and no barkley. Miami are just devoid of talent.

Miami would be best placed to just concede the game to get the #1 pick. Otherwise they’ll end up having to trade the redskins for it.

[Gray Fox]

The only difference between Redskins and the Dolphins is that the Redskins are actually trying.

Their game is going to be the ultimate shit-off.

[Dan]

Nice start for mike mayock as GM.

I was looking at the schedules and redskins @ Miami is very definitely the best chance either has at a win this season. The loser could legitimately go 0-16.

Arizona have enough about them they’ll scape a win somewhere. The redskins didn’t have anything against a giants team with a rookie qb and no barkley. Miami are just devoid of talent.

Miami would be best placed to just concede the game to get the #1 pick. Otherwise they’ll end up having to trade the redskins for it.

The general thought seems to be that Mayock had control over the draft, while Gruden was responsible for the free agents, hence all the guys in the draft being guys with great football character & the free agents being Burfict & AB.

In other news, Bradley Chubb tore his ACL yesterday & is done for the year

[Gray Fox]

Bradley Chubb gone for the season. Miller back to doing it all himself.

[Foe]

The general thought seems to be that Mayock had control over the draft, while Gruden was responsible for the free agents, hence all the guys in the draft being guys with great football character & the free agents being Burfict & AB.

In other news, Bradley Chubb tore his ACL yesterday & is done for the year

You’re probably right there, given the clelin Ferrell pick and draft call.

Will be interesting if the giants turn out to have been right all along about qbs and jones turns out to to be the best of the first rounders.

Haskins looked extremely shaky. Then again, he doesn’t have a lot to work with.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Haskins is a project for sure, Jones looks a lot more polished.

[Dan]

You’re probably right there, given the clelin Ferrell pick and draft call.

Will be interesting if the giants turn out to have been right all along about qbs and jones turns out to to be the best of the first rounders.

Haskins looked extremely shaky. Then again, he doesn’t have a lot to work with.

Haskins was a one year starter, and he's not very mobile. He's the Josh Rosen of this class - you need to put weapons & a line around him, but if you can develop him he's a franchise pocket passer.

Daniel Jones is a great example of fit being as important as talent (if not more in a lot of cases). He absolutely is not the most talented QB of the bunch, but he's a solid all rounder who got the perfect fit in pretty much every way, so you're probably going to end up getting the best possible Daniel Jones in New York, whereas you might not end up getting the best possible Dwayne Haskins or Drew Lock (or Josh Rosen again) just because their situations don't turn out to be as good.

[Dan]

I got bored earlier so just for @Foe here's my current CFB top 25:

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1. Ohio State
2. Alabama
3. LSU
4. Oklahoma
5. Clemson
6. Georgia
-
7. Auburn
8. Wisconsin
9. Texas
10. Notre Dame
-
11. Florida
12. Penn State
-
13. Iowa
14. Washington
15. Oregon
-
16. Utah
17. UCF
18. Michigan State
19. Virginia
20. Oklahoma State
21. Wake Forest
22. Boise State
23. Michigan
24. USC
25. Texas A&M

I had Alabama top for the last couple of weeks but Ohio State look every bit as good on offence & are probably better on defence right now. LSU sneak over Clemson for the same reason, with Georgia at the bottom of tier one because they're the most conservative by far & I don't think they can score with the other five teams ahead of them, but they still have a strong shot at grinding out a win against any of them. I don't like having Clemson down at five, but they've not been firing on all cylinders so far & I can't really say I'm convinced they'd beat any of the teams ahead of them if they played on a neutral field tomorrow. They're going undefeated & winning the ACC though, so they'll be in the playoffs & by that point they should be rounding into some proper form.

Top 10 teams were easy, then after that you quickly descend into a huge bunch of teams who are all basically as good as each other - I could probably just put the next 20 teams in a random order within one huge tier & feel okay about it, so there will probably be some big fluctuations between those teams until a few of them start to separate themselves from the pack.

Current playoff picture is Ohio State, Oklahoma & Clemson as dominant champions of their conference, then whoever gets out of the SEC from the other three.

[thommo]

A bit of a shaky start last night with a fumble on the first drive and a turnover on downs in midfield on the second, but the Steelers got it together in the end. Some interesting formations and play design (with a fair bit of wildcat) and the two RBs were great all night.

The Bengals look truly awful though. The offensive line were under so much pressure throughout and when they did get the ball moving on a couple of occasions, they ended long drives with really bad turnovers.

[Dan]

Yeah, the Bangles would have had as much chance in that game.

RIP JuJu though.

[Foe]

Really interesting development in college with California putting it into law that colleges cannot prevent student athletes gaining endorsements from 2023. NCAA is going to have to get involved and relax their rules or the recruitment will be so swathed by whichever states allow similar laws.

Right now, athletes will be fancying UCLA/Cal/USC so that they can earn their way in case it goes wrong with injury or not quite making the grade for the draft.

Other PAC 12 schools are raging.

[Ian]

I've somehow only just seen the Burfict hit.

Honestly I'd just ban him for life.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Also it's crazy that this hit didn't result in any penalty yards due to offsetting penalties and the player wasn't banned/fined:

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[thommo]

Heaven forbid me ever defending anything to do with the Patriots but the other camera angle does show Jones leading with his shoulder. Allen is also getting tackled from behind, dragging him down and causing the helmet to helmet contact. Just really unfortunate it ended up with Allen having to go off.

[Dan]

Yeah, I thought that one was more unfortunate than malicious. They really do need to figure out a way of protecting people from ducking their heads though, as defenders are pretty much helpless if the ball carrier decides to duck at the last second.

Also, that California law will be the breaking point that forces other states to change their laws to help avoid schools losing loads of top recruits - USC just got a commitment from a 5 star QB in the last few days, so you can already argue it’s making a difference. Good on them really - I think Josh ‘selfish rich boy’ Rosen was part of the group campaigning to push it through as well.

[Foe]

Yeah, I thought that one was more unfortunate than malicious. They really do need to figure out a way of protecting people from ducking their heads though, as defenders are pretty much helpless if the ball carrier decides to duck at the last second.

Also, that California law will be the breaking point that forces other states to change their laws to help avoid schools losing loads of top recruits - USC just got a commitment from a 5 star QB in the last few days, so you can already argue it’s making a difference. Good on them really - I think Josh ‘selfish rich boy’ Rosen was part of the group campaigning to push it through as well.

Yeah it’s a bit mental. I mean it’s 4 years away so it’s not going to help any of the current bunch. I get schools not wanting to pay players directly, it’s an education system, they feel they shouldn’t and actually it prevents big rich schools just throwing money at recruits.

Mental that a player can’t get an endorsement or profit from their image elsewhere though. As long as it’s adequately protected like it seems so there’s no competing obligations it should work. The amount that your likes of tua/swift/etienne/Clemson qb I’ve forgotten the name of would get is wild. Actually it might make players fancy going to slightly smaller schools where they can play, rather than sit as a backup at a huge college. Was it Leonard fournette or Todd gurley that nearly got banned for their family selling signed merchandise? That’s mental. If the college don’t like it and think it’s going too far, stop playing the kid and play someone else. But winning.

Ohio state look scary good this year. Clemson stuttering so would be interesting if they continued to stutter but win, would a 1-loss non SEC champ get in ahead of them? Ie if bama lost to LSU and LSU won the SEC undefeated...

[bruhnaldo]

There's no scenario where an undefeated Clemson falls to #5 tbh.

[Dan]

They’ve been less impressive than any of the other teams in their tier, including Georgia, and probably even Auburn & Wisconsin.

As the undefeated national champions & knowing they’re almost guaranteed to win the ACC without a loss again this season it’s hard to imagine them ending the season outside the top four, but right now - assuming we’re ranking on who the best teams have been this season - they have no business being ahead of Ohio State & Alabama, at least.

Also didn’t realise the endorsement thing was that far in the future. Plenty of time for a million appeals.

[Foe]

Think it’s more likely the ncaa tries to manipulate their rules, rather than appeal. California law is California law, if the governer wants it (and why wouldn’t they if it can attract top talent to the state) then it goes through.

[igor_balis]

Any good websites for match reports?

[Foe]

You not like nfl.com ?

It’s pretty comprehensive.

[Giggles]

The yanks don't really do them, not well anyway. You'll get a generic AP description that everyone will carry and then it's all HOT TAKES and FIVE REASONS, etc.