NFL 2015

[Paelos]

Graham to the Seahawks. LULZ Saints.

[Paelos]

Ngata to the Lions. OOOOKAY.

[Paelos]

Supposedly the Eagles want to trade Foles for Bradford. Chip Kelly is secretly working for the Cowboys if that's true.

[Paelos]

Falcons sign LBs Justin Durant and Brooks Reed.

I have no idea who these people are which fits perfectly with the Falcons. And one of them was a Cowboy.

[HaemishM]

Graham to the Seahawks. LULZ Saints.

I guess the Saints weren't satisfied with being second shittiest team in their division. This both helps Seattle a great deal (even though he'll likely miss 4-6 games each season) and it's not like they needed a lot of help.

The Eagles want to ship Foles off for... Sam "OW MY KNEES" Bradford?



At least Ngata to the Lions makes SOME sense. He isn't nearly the player he once was, nor nearly the player Suh is, but he's probably the best replacement available that still gives them some cap room to add in areas they desperately need.

[HaemishM]

Didn't even see this story until now, but the Jake Locker era in Tennessee is over. Locker is to retire before he gets cut. 

[Paelos]

Everybody out of that draft other than Cam was dogshit.

[K9]

If Andre Johnson goes to the Colts that's going to piss some Houston folk off haaard

[WayAbvPar]

All sorts of other sports in mid or preseason and the NFL blows them all off the sports page in 5 minutes of transactions. Wow.

I am going to miss Unger, and REALLY going to miss the first round pick, but Graham is a goddamned monster. When he is healthy. I gotta hand it to Schneider and Carroll- they don't do things half-assed. I hope this works out better than Percy Harvin did.

[Johny Cee]

What the hell is your metric for fucking up? In the past 14 seasons they've only been under 10 wins once (2002, 9-7) and they've only missed the playoffs twice (2002, 2008). They've been to the Superbowl six times, winning four. Of their 12 playoff seasons, they've only been knocked out without at least one win twice.

I get that you have some festering hatred for Bill Belichek, but to describe this as fucking up is baffling. At the levels of the playoffs over this span most of the teams are fielding HOF QBs and other players; the man has achieved stupid amounts with often very raw talent.

You want me to give them a medal for dominating the AFC East? Because I won't do that. They basically got a free playoff spot a year minimum unless the AFC went completely insane like 2008. For 13 years. That's not just them being good, that's being top dog in a dumpster fire. Even now the best shot to unseat them is what? Buffalo? Good lord.

By fucking up I mean losing in the playoffs many times as a prohibitive favorite to inferior teams, and not winning since getting busted for spying. This was their best shot to prove it because Tom is almost done and the team has to retool again soon.

If he lost this year, they would have been described poorly by everyone, including many Boston fans for not living up to the hype. Is that fair? Well, nobody gives a shit about regular season titles, and NFL fans are greedy. He's a great coach, but don't get it twisted, this Super Bowl saved his legacy.

EDIT: I mean fuck, these are the articles you see about that division. http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/football/patriots/tim-benz/2015/03/09/because-tom-brady-even-worst-case-scenario-offse It's literally the worst division in the NFL, possibly in sports over the last decade.

Dude, you're consuming too much sports talk.

Even if the Pats were in a competitive division, they had the record to clinch a wild card in most of those years...  and they still went on to WIN playoff games.  If the Pats lost this year, there would be a bunch of chin-wagging about it but at the end of the day the Belicheck run produced 3 rings and a bunch more Super Bowl appearances that came down to a coin toss, along with a perfect season and overall an amazing record.  In a sport that is as flukey and any given Sunday as football, and somehow doing that in the cap era where your teams get sliced up every off-season, is amazing.

It's the same shit that gets thrown at Peyton for not winning more Superbowls.  It's talk radio fodder, and something for ESPN to beat to death.

[Nevermore]

The Patriots did not have a perfect season.

[Mithas]

[Rasix]

Supposedly the Eagles want to trade Foles for Bradford. Chip Kelly is secretly working for the Cowboys if that's true.

Kelly is insane.  Bradford was done 2 years ago. Foles can't run his offense, but a guy with 2 ACL surgeries and a history of injury problems isn't going to do it either.

[Bungee]

The @NFL has literally turned into a Fantasy Football league and the @Browns are the guy that never logs in. (@JasonLawhead)

[Bunk]

The only way the Eagles trade makes any sense in my head is if the Jets told Kelly they wanted Bradford instead of Foles in a package for the 6th pick.

Also, I'm pretty sure Kelly thought he was signing Gore when he let McCoy go. Now... lulz.

[Bunk]

The only way the Eagles trade makes any sense in my head is if the Jets told Kelly they wanted Bradford instead of Foles in a package for the 6th pick.

Also, I'm pretty sure Kelly thought he was signing Gore when he let McCoy go. Now... lulz.

[Cyrrex]

But that implies that Bradford is more valuable in such a package than Foles is, right?  I have said from the beginning that Foles was not what everybody thought he was in his debut season when he took over that offense, but Bradford is pretty much a dumpster fire.  As a Seattle fan, I am sad to see him go.  Foles is the more valuable commodity in just about everyone's opinion.  Except possibly Chip Kelly's.  No, I think he has some misplaced man-crush on Bradford.  And now haven't they gotten rid of all their WR talent AND their RB talent?  Or am I forgetting something?  The only fast paced anything Bradford is going to be pulling off in that offense is a fast track to injured reserve.  Or a fast track to the bench.

Also, he is probably going to over-pay for Byron Maxwell.  For anyone who watched a lot of the Seattle games, among the starters on that entire defense in their normal packages, he was the clear weak link.  I mean, he might indeed be an above average corner in this league, but it is pretty much a guarantee that he was made to look better than he was by the other people on that defense, and even then he was far from spectacular.

I wonder how Graham is going to fit in on Seattle.  From a pure chemistry point-of-view.  He strikes me as a prima donna (actually, he strikes me as a giant douche), and they have already had pre-game altercations with him, and then proceeded to make him their bitch during their last couple of games against the Saints.  I love the move from a football POV, but I still wonder.

[Paelos]

The Chip-bots are already spouting the DONTPANICTHERESAPLAN! Party line.

I personally think the guy is an idiot who has too much control and he's going to get exposed for the college system asshole he is.

[Nebu]

Let's not forget the Seahawk fans' reaction to the hiring of Pete Carroll in 2010. They thought Carroll was a terrible idea. 

American fans, for all their blathering, know little to nothing about American football. 

[Malakili]

Ryan Fitzpatrick to NY Jets.  How many solid second string QBs have the Jets had over the past 5 years now?

[WayAbvPar]

Let's not forget the Seahawk fans' reaction to the hiring of Pete Carroll in 2010. They thought Carroll was a terrible idea. 

American fans, for all their blathering, know little to nothing about American football. 

I admit I was wrong about Carroll. I still think he is an unctuous cheerleader douche, but I give him (and John Schneider) a lot of credit for having a clear vision of what they want to do and then having the balls to go out and do it.

[HaemishM]

Ryan Fitzpatrick to NY Jets.  How many solid second strong QBs have the Jets had over the past 5 years now?

None. 

Fitzpatrick to the Jets sort of makes sense. He's still going to turn the ball over only slightly less than Geno Smith and if they draft Mariotta, he'll be a decent "role model" QB. And they paid less than a goddamn ham sammich for him, so why not?

While I think Nick Foles certainly overperformed in his 27/2 year, I still think he's a decent QB and could be decent in Philly. I think Bradford is a decent QB from the belly button up, but he's got to prove his knees are made of something stronger than tissue paper before I'd spend a pick on him, much less ship my starting QB out for him. I cannot for the life of me figure out what the fuck Kelly is doing. The only move that makes sense is adding talent to that defensive backfield because they were awful last year. Maxwell may have been the weak link in the Seahawks defense but that still makes him good enough to start for probably 28+ other NFL teams.

[Paelos]

Let's not forget the Seahawk fans' reaction to the hiring of Pete Carroll in 2010. They thought Carroll was a terrible idea. 

American fans, for all their blathering, know little to nothing about American football. 

And he's the outlier. American fans have been right more than not about failed college coaches coming to the NFL. Jimmy Johnson is the other one.

Petrino, Spurrier, Saban, Switzer, Erickson, Butch Davis, Mike Riley, Rich Brooks, Greg Schiano, Lou Holtz, Lane Kiffin, Carroll failed with Patriots before too.

And then you can go into the 80s with some of the other coaches that are less known now. But still, the college jump fails more than it works. And it works even less if you try to do something really bizarre that has been tested and failed in the NFL.

[Trippy]

Pete was a successful NFL defensive coordinator before he was a College head coach, though.

[HaemishM]

I think like QB's, coaches capable of not only holding a head coaching job in the NFL but SUCCEEDING in that job are few and far between. Even less so if you look at coaches that are also GM's in the salary cap era that can succeed. I think you have Belicheck and... yep, that's about it.

In 2-5 years time when both Manning and Brady have retired, Rodgers is approaching 36 and the end of his Green Bay contract, I don't see any QB that's currently in the league now having the kind of insane sustained success (regular and postseason) we've become used to with these HOF QB's. Maybe Andrew Luck if the owner doesn't continue to cheap out on the talent around him. The rest of the good ones are either on teams that can't get their heads out of their asses (Matt Ryan, Tony Romo), haven't proven able to win outside their system (Russell Wilson) or may be too inconsistent (Cutler, Cam).

[Paelos]

I think the next crop of great HOF QBs are probably 5-10 years away from hitting the NFL. The college systems are pushing kids into these stupid non-pocket-passing-mobile-QB shit that doesn't play in the NFL. As such, until they stop running that, NFL people will have to get QBs from smaller schools or schools that run more pro-style sets.

And eventually college defensive guys will figure out how to beat it by recruiting faster, smarter, lighter guys who can pursue and contain. Then the offensive guys will switch back to heavier sets with more passing, and the dance will continue.

[Trippy]

In 2-5 years time when both Manning and Brady have retired, Rodgers is approaching 36 and the end of his Green Bay contract, I don't see any QB that's currently in the league now having the kind of insane sustained success (regular and postseason) we've become used to with these HOF QB's. Maybe Andrew Luck if the owner doesn't continue to cheap out on the talent around him. The rest of the good ones are either on teams that can't get their heads out of their asses (Matt Ryan, Tony Romo), haven't proven able to win outside their system (Russell Wilson) or may be too inconsistent (Cutler, Cam).

Ben Roethlisberger (though he's 2 years older than Rodgers) might be one if his body holds out. Matthew Stafford has a chance if the Lions can continue to improve.

[HaemishM]

I don't think the Rapist's body is going to hold out, but yes, he'd be one. Stafford is in the inconsistent category, as well as being on a team with head-in-ass syndrome.

[Ingmar]

NFL head coaches "fail" at a high rate regardless of whether they're college coaches or come out of the assistant ranks with no college time. I think it's a pretty meaningless distinction.

[Malakili]

I think it's fair to say that, if we are looking at young QBs, only Andrew Luck appears to be great.  There are other young starters in the league who are probably fine.  But with Brady/Manning being at the top of the class for so long, and with Rodgers being the heir apparent, we've been spoiled for quite a while now.  I'm pretty young, but my NFL watching career transitioned pretty smoothly from Montana/Elway to Manning/Brady.  It just doesn't feel like we've got anyone on that caliber, besides Luck, waiting in the wings.

[Paelos]

NFL head coaches "fail" at a high rate regardless of whether they're college coaches or come out of the assistant ranks with no college time. I think it's a pretty meaningless distinction.

Depends on how they fail. Bad college coaches have tended to bust out entirely or head back to college. Bad NFL coaches get recycled back into the league it seems.

[WayAbvPar]

Andre Johnson to the Colts. Gets to play his old team twice a year. Well, his team will. He will blow his hamstring in accordance with his usual schedule.

[HaemishM]

Why would Indy get a second aging wideout? Does Reggie Wayne not spend enough time on the sidelines these days or did he retire?

[Trippy]

He wasn't re-signed by the Colts. He did want to play one more year for them.

[HaemishM]

So they traded one aging set of hamstrings with the tensile strength of silly putty for a slightly less damaged version?