The Weird, Wacky and Awesome World of the NFL - General Banter thread V2

I really don't get that move, Bortles made a huge improvement last year but very much looks like he has hit his ceiling. To be fair, that ceiling is higher than most of us expected, but it's still just around the premium backup/decent stopgap starter (like a Fitzpatrick, McCown, Kaepernick, etc). He had some excellent games last year too, but at the end of the day he was summed up perfectly in the later part of the NE conference game where it was just 3-and-out, 3-and-out, 3-and-out over and over again (maybe I'm forgetting a first down or two, but it was still far from good enough).

That defense is right up there with the Bucs in the early 2000s, Seahawks in the early 2010s, and Broncos of the mid 2010s as being as good a defense as I've ever seen. Fournette looks to be a superstar RB, the guys behind him are solid too, they may not have an Antonio Brown but do have decent pass catching options and a much improved line last year. It's a shame because I just can't see them winning it all with Bortles, whereas Eli would have given them a better opportunity and Cousins would have been ideal and set them up at QB for a good 6-10 years to grow with that young team (so long as they could fit under the cap correctly - even if his red zone numbers aren't great, consistently getting them into FG range is enough for that defense to beat about anybody). Alex Smith had never even crossed my mind, but he would have been better than Eli and maybe even Cousins in my opinion, he just seems like he would fit their offense like a glove.

Huge, huge waste in my opinion. I'm guessing they draft a QB in the first 2-3 rounds and hope to develop them correctly rather than throw them into the fire as happened with Bortles and Gabbert before him.

Patww79 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yup 2019

https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/968192854957936640

Always Be Closing wrote: »

2nd and 4th for Peters

Absolutely shocking deal for us

We've been rightly mugged off here

Very true but the Chiefs had no bargaining power as it was clear as day they wanted shot of him. Arguably the best CB in the league but his character issues were starting to shine through. Same sh1t he pulled on the field in December he did throughout his college career. Gives you a couple of solid years and then becomes a dick and acts out like a child. Which is a shame because the guy is fantastic player

Always Be Closing wrote: »

Great post

With that being said, I'd have kept him for 2 years and let him walk for nothing

He wasn't going to last another 2 years though. He would have thrown his toys out of his pram a few more times gotten disgruntled and then the Chiefs have a wasted roster spot and nothing to show for it. Best to cut your loses get something for him and move on.

Mad thing is also the Rams apparently were the only team that showed any interest.

eagle eye wrote: »

Last season Eli Manning had a 6.1 yard average with a 61.6% completion rate for 3468 yards with 19 tds and 13 ints over 15 games.
Bortles averaged 7 yards per pass with a 60.2% completion record for 3687 yards with 21 tds and 13 ints.

Also Manning had OBJ for four games, he had Shepard, Marshall and Engram.

Bortles had Marquise Lee, he had an injured Allen Hurns for 10 games and then a bunch of nobodies. Allen Robinson missed the whole year.

One is on the slide and the other has improved. You stick with Bortles if you have the choice.

Cousins is a talented QB and would almost certainly improve the Jags but they have no chance of keeping any of the star players on that defense if they pay him the money. Their best option is to draft a QB this year and again next year if it doesn't work out.

Bortles had good talent around him last year - I wouldn't go calling Leonard Fournette a nobody and they have depth there in Yeldon and Ivory, and he had a better line. Having perhaps the best running game in the league makes life a lot easier for a QB, rather than the 7th-worst Manning had, especially when in the lead very often with the league's second best defense for points allowed (easily #1 when you factor in defensive TDs) and the third highest turnover percentage and second most takeaways total to help field position, as opposed the defense with the 7th most points allowed and ranking bottom 10 in turnovers and turnover percentage. This is why Eli was just 10 pass attempts off most in the league last year (3rd total) despite missing a game and the Giants had the fourth highest pass play ratio of offense, while Bortles wasn't in the top 10 for attempts and the Jags had the lowest pass play ratio in the entire league.

Keelan Cole was also more impressive last year than any Giants player on offense.

The Giants were a complete mess last season - the 2009 Vikings could easily have said the same about a 39/40 year old Brett Favre after his season with the Jets before that, and that is what Manning would basically be doing in Jacksonville, game managing, giving ample experience, and making the big plays when needed under pressure (like some of those third downs late vs the Pats). That said, Eli being 38 vs 36 does change the situation somewhat there. Especially as the Jags don't appear to have any particularly important players up for FA this year or next (bar Lee/Robinson at WR, so keep one and let the other go most likely).

I do agree though if they don't manage to land Cousins and since they passed on Smith that a QB in the first 3-4 rounds (pref. 1st or 2nd if someone falls to them) is something they can't look beyond. But to say a team with a star QB cannot have any star players elsewhere on the field is incorrect - it would make the cap situation a hell of a lot more difficult but that can be managed around and a QB is more important than any other position. By the looks of it, their current cap space for 2018 is actually just over $30mn.

eagle eye wrote: »

How about Bortles made Keelan Cole look better than the average player that he is.

Well then we'll just say that about every WR Manning has, won't we? And how come we've not seen Bortles make all his other options look this good?

Also to add, Keelan Cole had the second highest YAC per catch of any WR or TE with 40+ catches in the entire league.

Also you are now defending Eli by blaming the players around him.

Yeah, I don't subscribe to this "an NFL team is a QB + 52" concept... of course the players around the QB matter. That was actually one of the main points of your last post?

How good was the Jags line is pass protection last season? Not very is the answer

Fifth best as per FO - http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol . There was quite a bit noted by journalists and commentators last year about their improvement.

but Bortles still did a decent enough job.

He did, the improved offensive line that got a good deal of attention last year also helped, but getting out of the pocket to scramble is one area Bortles has been underrated in his career.

In the playoffs he was even better and in the AFCCG he was sacked three times which ultimately cost them the game.

Meanwhile, what actuallyt cost them the game was changing their coverages late on which Brady was able to take advantage in a huge way, and the run game getting stuffed forcing Bortles to keep up without a dominating run game, which he wasn't able to do.

Against the Steelers he had 214 passing yards and 1 TD... not bad, but that's not why his team put up 45 points.

Against the Bills... well how quickly some forget. His 88 scrambling yards made much of the difference in the end, but he only had 87 passing all game.

Let's not pretend he had some excellent showing in the playoffs. He did decent, and like much of the season better than was expected for sure, but he was not close to anything special and the team around him is what was winning the Jags games this year (because yes, it is a team sport).