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

After giving up so many picks to get Wilson, now these ... where will Denver get better players from?

Payton will have to work wonders with what he has?

Yeah, that's a strong possibility.

And as this is a banter thread, I'll add Pete Carroll could probably win a game with Josh Johnson as QB :)

Tis the season

Or else it'll be like the Patriots and we realise the HOF QB had an awful lot to do with making Saints competitive for all those years

Aaron Rodgers is at Pebble Beach for the golf and he said this....

“I'm just going to say that the predominant team that we hear as we're walking is Raiders. A lot of Raider fans are encouraging me, a lot of 'Davante misses you' comments. We're having some fun with it”

He's currently spending 4 days in a room with no light or external stimuli and hoping to gain enlightenment on his next career move. Yep. I genuinely hope he's taking the piss with this type of thing and laughing at reporters reporting this tripe but from previous ~opinions I'm not convinced.

I saw that and had to check a few times if it was a parody news story

From the man himself he can wear adult dippers or there's a small toilet. No nightlight. Back to reality or lack there of as a Jets fan give me Carr over Rodgers unless we give little for Rodgers, he could be gone in a year if he arrives at all. Carr is in his prime, controversial opinion but I think there's an element that he doesn't get love around the league because of his older brother being a draft bust and the organisation he's being with for his career to date. You get more shots with a capable QB over say a 4 or 5 year contract rather than Rodgers. A playoff berth next year keeps Joe Douglas and particularly Bobbie Salah in a job to build on year 4.

Playoffs...Playoffs... They could win it all🙂

Same with Hester, who should have been first ballot anyway.

I'd be surprised if Willis got in tbf. Undoubtedly he was a HOF talent, but he retired early without winning anything.

Himself and Luke Keuchly will go down as the 2 best inside linebackers of the last 10 years, but both will struggle to get a jacket due to shorter careers and a lack of rings.

Zach Thomas as taken a looong time to get in, he's 5th all time in career tackles.

Wilfork deserved a nod too, but looking at the list of who got in it's hard to say who should have been left out in his place. I'm sure he'll get in in the near future.

People should not under-estimate how bad Hackett was as a HC - he was probably top 5 worst ever. Jerry Rosburg showed what an adult in the job can do in two games. When he took over after Hackett was fired one of the first things that he did was fire Butch Barry - the OL coach - when Rosburg announced it at a team meeting then entire roster cheered. In those last two games Wilson actually looked a decent QB.

One thing that is clear from the season is that Wilson is not a pocket QB, no matter how much he wants to 'cook' - he needs a strong running game and a good OL to be effective. The Broncos were down to fourth-string players along the OL by the end of the season.

Payton is noted as a coach who builds O lines - that is his forte - and he is capable of designing an offence that maximises Wilson's skillset and will minimise his weaknesses. I do think that Wilson is capable of being a top ten QB under Payton. If it turns out that he has fallen off a cliff then the Broncos will dump him after next season.

A much bigger concern is who Payton will have as his DC. Evero should have stayed in Denver - he had a winning defence to work with and would have been a hot HC prospect after next season. Instead he behaved like a petulant child, blowing interviews by defending Hackett. Denver does seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel by interviewing Vance Joseph. Rex Ryan is apparently the front-runner - the big question if he gets the job is not his ability as a DC (he was one of the best ever) - but whether the game has passed him by in the 7 years he has been out of coaching. Messing up the DC hire could undermine everything that Payton is capable of doing with the offence.

The Franchise tag pay for this year.

I can see the Giants and Raiders tagging Barkley and Jacobs at that money. Tight end and safety pretty friendly too. No issue at QB either.

Quarterback

$32,416,000

Linebacker

$20,926,000

Wide receiver

$19,743,000

Defensive end

$19,727,000

Defensive tackle

$18,937,000

Cornerback

$18,140,000

Offensive line

$18,244,000

Safety

$14,460,000

Tight end

$11,435,000

Running back

$10,091,000

Kicker/punter

$5,393,000

$10mn for RB tag is a good price. If the Giants are smart they'll tag Barkley and give him a big year this year then let him go. Giving a massive contract to an injury prone RB as hes hitting his late 20s is surely at this stage accepted to be a bad idea.

If I'm a GM, I'd never do these type of deals. Do they every work out? Middling Veterans going to another team?

Just keep shooting in the draft until you get your Allen/Mahomes/Lamar etc

Yeah I understand it from the coach's position, that's why I said "If I'm a GM...."

I guess it comes down to what the drive is, if it's just keep a job and have an income for 3/4 years you can understand it, most coaches aren't keeping their jobs more than 3/4 years anyway with 8-8 records and a veteran QB acquired via trade like Goff, Ryan, Carr, Cousins, Tannehill, Wentz. I think to build something special you need to take a shot with a Ridder, Malik, Zach Wilson, Fields and hope it works out.

I'm not sure Carr gets that New Orleans team any more wins than the 7 they got last year with Winston/Dalton. I certainly don't think they're contenders. Why not take a shot with a young guy, if it fails, you've a top 5/10 pick in 2024 draft to build something big

I'm not putting him in the same category now, I mean Indy giving up a 1st rounder for Wentz as a veteran, Washington giving up a 2nd+3rd for Wentz as a veteran, Indy giving up a 3rd for Ryan as a veteran. Point is they rarely work out for those mid-level guys.

I like Saints, and they've a very soft division, but Kamara's getting suspended, Thomas will inevitably be injured, Juwan Johnston is leaving in FA, not convinced they're getting to the playoffs with Olave, Shaheed and Adam Trautman. I'd be very surprised if he passes last years 7 wins

The problem isn't the two firsts trade price for Jackson. Its the fact hes insisting on a contract in excess of $230mn, *fully guaranteed*. And that as a QB that relies on his legs and is entering his 6th season in the NFL already - so one whos a very risky bet for all that guaranteed money.

It doesn't require collusion for most GMs to see that as a bad deal. Just common sense.

The Jones deal makes the Mahomes contract look like even better business.

Mahomes knows he has more endorsements but also he can look at what Kansas has done for him. He started off with Reid, Hill and Kelce which made a massive difference to his development. Not that he isn't great by himself but Kansas have really put in the effort to get the most out of him. I think that earned them a hometown discount. A lot of teams seem less interested in winning and would nearly be more interested in Mahomes for his star power as opposed to playing ability. I think Mahomes knows this and is happy where he is, remember he has stated he called up the Chiefs because he was worried the Texans would take him.

If a friend of mine decided to jump off a cliff and he got terribly injured, and myself and his 31 other friends all decided not to do likewise is that conspiratorial collusion? Or is it us seeing a terrible decision and deciding "nope, thats not for me".

The idea that 31 NFL owners are all acting in collusion is a huge leap of faith when its far more likely they're just acting rationally. Lets look at the key points:

• Jackson is a run dependent QB, entering his 6th season in the NFL, whos missed significant chunks of the last two seasons to injury
• Jackson thinks so highly of himself that he refuses to get an agent, and is instead negotiating on his own behalf. Which would suggest (and is apparently the case) that hes not going to negotiate realistically
• The Watson contract is objectively terrible value for the Browns and Jackson is on the record as saying he expects an even higher (massive) amount of guaranteed money

Its completely logical for the Ravens to have told Jackson to go out and see what he can get on the open market because they know the lack of demand will soften his cough and make his demands more reasonable. And its completely logical for other teams to not want anything to do with him given the above factors.

Jackson has far worse red flags in terms of ego/attitude, and in terms of likely injuries/age impacting his play style, than Watson had. Both which are of far more relevance to NFL team management than sexual assault claims, unfortunately.

Theres plenty of upside to jumping off a cliff too - lots of people do it every day into the sea.

As far as I'm aware its only a handful of teams who've announced theyre not interested in Lamar, not practically all of the teams in the NFL. Which, again, is perfectly rational give his circumstances, and his apparently incredibly hard to meet demands.

The Ravens 'know' other teams likely won't be interested because they know how outlandish Jackson's demands are after dealing with them for months, and how difficult hes apparently being to negotiate with.

Its slightly hilarious to think that all 31 other NFL teams are engaged in a grand conspiracy against him based on zero evidence of that. Occam's razor would suggest its actually down to that hes a high risk, injury prone, high ego athlete demanding the most expensively guaranteed contract ever in the history of the sport, and insisting on negotiations entirely through him and not an agent. Which is a combination that results in teams not being interested until his expectations are dampened. Because we actually have ample evidence of all of that.