The Weird, Wacky and Awesome World of the NFL - General Banter thread V3

Brett Favre in a bit of hot water. He's a defendant in a civil suit brought by the State of Mississippi over the alleged misappropriation of welfare funds to build a volleyball arena in his Alma mater Southern Miss.

There's a number of people involved in this, some who have been criminally charged and some who've already pleaded guilty. We are talking other sports stars, the Governor of Mississippi and others.

The day is finally here. Who is ready for a Mitch Trubisky vs Jacoby Brissett Thursday Night Primetime Shootout? Over / under 38 points. I take it we are all staying up?

Brisett o/u 182.5 passing

Trubisky o/u 200

Gross

Im a Steelers fan and was being a little sarcastic but tonight’s matchup is definitely not going to whet the appetite of the casual fan. It will probably be a bit of a grind it out win for whoever comes out on top.

Trubisky has been poor so far, he hasn’t been making horrible mistakes but he hasn’t been making any plays either. He has some good receivers who do get open but he either doesn’t see them or he just keeps checking it down as he is afraid to make a mistake. Somebody posted his passing chart on Twitter after the recent Pats game and it was an absolute joke, albeit I am sure some of it is down to the playbook.

I don’t think he will be the starter after the bye unless something changes for the better.

They've tweaked that. Patriots play Vikings in late game on Thanksgiving this year, and also play Bills the following Thursday. Though it definitely used to be the way you suggest.

I just read that the Steelers are 0-5 without TJ Watt.

Did he always have the happy feet running out of the pocket? The pass protection seems to have been fine but Trubisky has no interest in it. It nearly feels like a lot of basics are missing from his game.

In his defense or possibly another knock is that they seem to be running a massively basic play book.

He completely lost his confidence in Chicago. It's very hard to find your way back from that.

If you seen him in college you wouldn't believe this is the same guy.

Go and look at his last season in college and then tell me what happened to that kid.

It is relevant because there are certain QBs you just know are good enough. If you can find my opinions on Andrew Luck and Derek Carr you'll see how certain I was that both would make it.

Mitch had some of that about him in college but something went wrong in the NFL. It may be a simple case of him throwing a couple of picks and the coach telling him to never throw the ball unless he's certain it'll get there and to tuck it and run. He didn't run that often in college, he ran a good bit, and he wasn't nearly as indecisive either.

Something happened, I don't know what but he was badly affected by whatever it was.

Below is game tape from one of his games. I couldn't get the Georgia game which would be really good to look at where he impressed against a tough defense in that game in a 40-24 loss. He didn't have much yardage in the game and didn't throw any TDs either but looked after the football and rushed for one TD.

One of the big things in college was his reaction to pressure, if the sack was coming he accepted it and lost as little yardage as possible if he didn't have the opportunity to throw it away.

I could put up highlights but you don't get to make decisions off highlights.

Pre-draft profiles are a complete joke. You have a pair of eyes and have watched enough football to have a good opinion yourself. A lot of these guys are clueless about the QB position.

If you look back at these drafts you'll see that some of them had it right about defensive lineman, some did well with linebackers, others with safeties and so on. You'll find that very few were on it about QB's.

These guys, nearly all of them raved about Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. I said both were overrated and shouldn't be picked high in the draft. I said Derek Carr was the best QB in his draft class ahead of Bortles, Manziel and Bridgewater who were all first round picks. I called Andrew Luck the most surefire success that I'd seen since Peyton Manning when he was in the draft, most agreed with that. I've done pretty well judging QB's over the years, I've got it badly wrong sometimes but overall my record is better than most of these evaluaters.

You just have to study the position and watch game tape of successful starters and then put a list together of what you think are the most important attributes for success.

My list starts with decision making under pressure. That's simply because I don't believe you can make positive changes in that department. The amount of highly touted QB's I've ruled out before I go any further than this category is quite large and none of them have made it in the NFL.

My next one is how fast you can check down. This one isn't so easy because in a lot of cases college QB's on good teams don't check down because their no.1 target is just miles better than the defenders so he has no need. It's the games where it's not easy that you have to watch. This is another area where it's very difficult to improve.

So decision making under pressure, what does this mean? So defenders are coming, what's the best option? Throw the ball away. If you don't have time to throw it away? Go down and take the sack and try avoid injury by not getting hitting hard.

What's the worst things to do? Run backwards trying to get away, you lose big yardage doing this most of the time. Try and create a little space to throw it away, this leads to interceptions, fumbles and big losses of yardage.

So you just have to make up your list of skills and rate them and you'll be every bit as good, if not better, than most of these so called draft gurus.

You don't read the field post snap for defensive changes, you just check down to try and find an open look.

You look for changes, blitzes and stunts pre-snap. You'll have your mind made up before you snap the ball about what's coming and your first look depends on that. You'll hear the QB calling out who is the Mike pre-snap, you'll hear them calling an adjustment or changing the play pre-snap after reading the field.

In college against the likes of Georgia and Alabama it's just like NFL football because you don't get the time as their defenders are generally a lot stronger than your offensive line and they call stunts, blitzes etc. quite often.

Mitch looked dreadful in his first four games in the NFL. A guy coming in would have a lot of confidence normally and his accuracy would be decent but he was very poor throwing under 50% in most of those games. Something happened between the time he left college and first started in the NFL. I'd suspect Loggins was the problem, just look at his record with QB's as an offensive co-ordinator, Bears with Mitch, then with Tanehill in Miami, Ryan got traded to for a 4th round pick going to Miami and a sixth going to the Titans after a season under him. Then he goes to New York for two years and ruins Darnold.

You realise the QB has about three seconds to get rid of the ball if he has an okay offensive line? If he has a less than average one he doesn't even have that long. You don't have time to read a defense after the snap. All you are doing is checking down for the open receiver. Obviously the greats can buy more time by moving around in the pocket but there's very few that can do that.

For instance Brady makes it so simple by stepping up past the pass rush on his right , he sends bullets to his right and high floaters to his left to prevent picks. He's buying time to have more opportunities to find a receiver. Obviously he'll see trouble coming but that's not a post snap read, it's what's in your face.

What you are talking about is one specific look, not at the whole defense. Pre-snap reads are the whole defense. Individual reads are part of the check down. You are only looking one way. You sometimes can see what the safety is at if he isn't eyeing you. As you said it's part of a second, a very small part and it doesn't mean your read is right either.

Pre-snap you identify the Mike, you see how close or deep the free safety and the corners are, if the corners are standing off or up close to the line. You see what the guys on the edge are at, where the strong safety is, deeper in pass protection, in tackle mode or in blitz mode. You can't do that stuff post-snap.

So where are all these guys who laughed at me when I said Cooper Rush is good enough to be a starter?

Can you find that post? I never said he would or could be better than Dak, I said he was capable which he showed in a few starts for the Jets. I also said that Rush would be a decent starter and was laughed at for that comment. I said that if Prescott was out that he'd do a good job and of course I was accused of saying he was better than Dak just like with White which I didn't say either time. I may have said that given the chance that you couldn't predict how good White could be but that wasn't saying he was better than Dak.

I'm waiting for Trask to get his opportunity which I think could be next year as I am pretty confident the GOAT will retire at the end of this season, and for good this time. I remember how lowly you rated him.

Look it's quite simple, I'm eliminating any QB from consideration based on the first thing I look at which is how they react under pressure because you can't change that. It's why I was wrong about Mahomes, he did crazy things when under pressure and I immediately decided that he wouldn't get away with those things in the NFL and I was wrong. I've a better record though than any of the so called draft experts in calling it on QB's coming out of college. I wouldn't be able to match their level with cornerbacks, linebackers or defensive edge rushers. I think I'm good with defensive tackles and safeties and definitely with wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, offensive tackles and centers, especially centers. I'm not very good on guards though. I'm not saying I'm better than them in any area outside of QB's though. I'm definitely better than them at that though and if you go find all my pre-draft posts regarding QBs you'll find that I'm not bluffing here.

You liked your guy wtih the niners, he's gone for the season now and I'm telling you he'll never be a starter in the NFL. I think Shanahan is quietly delighted he's gone because he can put his failure down to injuries. I told you I didn't like him or Fields and it's looking like I'm right on both.

I never said in that post that White was better. My comment is ' they might even get lucky and find they have a better QB on their roster.' How is that considered saying that Mike White is a better QB than Dak Prescott? I said they might get lucky. At no stage did I say that White was better or even close to Dak's level. I just wanted to see them throw him in and hope he did well enough to get Dak to stop his ridiculous demands.

So I'm making this stuff up you say. Here's some reading for you.

Best QB in that draft class by a long way. Bortles, Bridgewater and Manziel were all taken in the first round. Carr in the second.

Yes I was all about Matt Ryan. Still going after 14 years.

As you can see above I was very high on Andrew Luck over a year before he entered the draft.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/59972695/#Comment_59972695

As you can see I liked Stafford, didn't rate Sanchez and didn't even have Bradford in the top 20 picks.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/92629969/#Comment_92629969

There you see me not being sold on the guys that went 1 and 2 in the draft. While I mentionied others they were going to go very deep in the draft. I wasn't projecting that they'd be starters.

First two QB's taken and I didn't like either of them. I'll admit that I liked Barkley and had a belief that he'd make it if he got to sit behind the right QB for a year or two. He got to sit behind Vick and Foles and I can't really say whether that was a good thing or not.

Watson was being projected as a third round pick and I said your team should take him there.

I'm sure you remember that my two favourites last year were Lawrence and Mac Jones who I think have been the best two to this point in their careers. I wasn't against Wilson either but didn't rate Fields. I said I thought Jones was a better prospect than Lance.

I believe we were of the same mind about this draft class in that there was no outsanding pick and that Pickett was probably the best prospect in the class.

I looked for my thoughts on Kyler Murray but couldn't find them, I didn't rate him and still don't. I couldn't find my thoughts on Patrick Mahomes but I didn't think he'd make it. I couldn't find my post about Cooper Rush either.

When was the last time you posted on this forum? Have you ever posted here? What do you know about the game?

I'm posting here for over 15 years. I'm following the game for 39 years. I was a season ticket holder at Foxboro Stadium for three seasons when I lived in the US. I played amateur football while I was there too.

The post just above where you posted I showed my comments on many QBs before they were drafted as I was told I was making it up. I also admitted that I got it wrong on one of the greatest ever and some other good ones too.

So off with you back to wherever you came from and don't come back here spouting crap on a subject you haven't a clue about. That subject is me in case you are not smart enough to get that.

I'm done, I was told I was bluffing/lying and provided proof I wasn't.

You mean drag you up to my level where you haven't a clue and I'm talking specifically about you.

Remember you posted this?

Tom Brady is going to be 41 at the start of next season. Hes in exceptional shape for his age, but his performance is going to crash sooner rather than later. Betting on the 26 year old Garoppolo would have been a far better move for the Patriots.

Well if somebody new is going to insult me you hardly expect me to ignore it? I didn't call anybody a liar/bluffer. I didn't call anybody stupid or post insulting stuff about them. I'll respond to these things if they are about me.

I confine myself to talking about football unless somebody starts doing stupid crap.

I just proved how cluless you are. I have a life and I don't spend all day on the computer. I do spend a lot of time watching football. I've often watched every snap from every game in a week and that's on top of watching about six college games per week.

I only sleep four hours per night so I've loads of time for everything.

Have you anything to talk about besides bitching and moaning about what's going on? Like if you start a conversation maybe it'll move things on.

The last time you posted anything besides giving out was the over/under passing yardage for two QB's on 22nd September, and just complaining or disgusted by it. That was hardly worth responding to.

Really don't see the issue with a debate. It's not as if there'd be much else on the forum to read midweek otherwise (other than the tedious 'list of predictions and I'm 46 - 42 for the year' posts). If you aren't interested in the debate then it's very easy to just scan the posts and see its a continuation and ignore it.

That fella definitely has CTE. Not the full shilling in any case.