Golden Tate

Listen, I'm not a NYG fan by any means. But, if they get a solid D they have enough O talent to win some games. I also am not a fan of Eli - way overrated. They need to draft a QB and start phasing that dude out.

Olden Tate is on the downside of his career and there's no way on Earth he's good enough to make Eli look good at this stage of the game.

$23 million guaranteed huh?

Strange move for a rebuilding team. Why not just Pay OBJ?

Hey i agree with you 100% so no need to try and make me look bad lol. Now if i can just get you to agree that your team sucks also we would all be good. The Browns will always be the Browns even if they do win a few games, and Mayfield will always be a douche bag asshole and Beckham will always be a cancer to any team he plays on.

Everyone seems to know the Giants are rebuilding except the Giants front office.

Those odds are largely set based on where the public is expected to put their money. The Browns are suddenly the darling of the NFL. The hilarity comes in when every fan thinks they're the only one that sees it, and they can bet on the "dark horse" to win it all. At 14-1? No thank you. Let's not forget they have a brand new HC and some of the biggest personalities of any team to wrangle. Those odds are flat out bad.

Yeah, what do those bums in Vegas know anyway? From now on, if I want my gambling info I'm going to the one place where it just makes sense: a website dedicated to pinball.

Eight games for Hunt. No appeal. Says he respects their decision.

Fresh legs for the second half of the season!

You're not getting it - read it again. The oddsmakers DO know what they are doing, just not in the way people may think. The Browns odds are bad, and they can set them that way because people are still going to put their money there.

If you could get a candid conversation with an oddsmaker, I'm sure they'd tell you that those odds are lower than they should be. But, why would they give you 25-1 when you'll take them at 14-1?

Foles to Jacksonville. He’s going to need more weapons and targets to actually throw to if he’s going to succeed there.

I think hell do ok there. I’ve been super impressed by him the last two seasons.

Who's he throwing to again? I like Foles but he's screwed.

it's hard to judge the Jags receivers fairly given who they were saddled with.

I wish o-din hadnt taken his ball and gone home. Id like the opinion of a fins fan on the end of Tannehill and a possible tank season

*chills*

What's your take? It wasnt a move I was expecting the Titans to make. Who do you perceive to be your starter?

I like it a lot. The Titans had Gabbert at backup, and this is a significant upgrade for basically a 2020 4th round pick. When your starter is Mariota, backup QB is a critical position!

They made it clear Mariota will definitely be the starter. But this is a great opportunity for Tannehill. With Mariota's injuries, Tannehill will almost certainly get meaningful reps and the Titans GM didn't draft Mariota. TBH I think it's just as likely for Tannehill to be the QB in 2020 as Mariota. Probably moreso.

All this talk....we all know it's the Bucs and Famous Jameis winning it all this year!

Rule change approved by a vote of 31 to 1. Only one team voted against the change (the Bengals).
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/nfl-will-review-all-pass-interference-calls-noncalls-in-wake-of-nfc-championship-game-000351212.html

This is going to end badly, typical NFL knee jerk reaction.

Now games will be 3-1/2 hours long

Yep, it already takes several minutes to overturn obvious calls. Pass interference is not always clear cut like the missed call in the playoffs.

I'm just not sure there's another solution. Nothing is worse than obviously blown calls. When there's a call (or no call) on the field and millions of people know it because they are watching on TV it's bad for the sport.

How many "I'm done with the NFL!!!!" posts did we see here after the Rams stole that game?

It's probably time to get rid of kickoffs altogether, that'll help balance it out time wise. They are almost all touchbacks now anyway and I don't remember the last time I saw an exciting kick return.

tbh, since they changed the kickoff rule which severely limits onside kicks, the kickoff is pretty pointless. No more flying wedge and move the kickoff up? It's become more ceremonial than anything else at this point.

They aren't already?

Right. And alternatives for onside kicks (which almost ALWAYS fail now) have been discussed. Give the team a 4th and 15 play from their own 35 and if they get it they keep the ball. Would certainly make it more interesting.

It amazes me the NY NFL office that supposedly watches each game live with officials, can't pick up a red phone and overturn such a major error as was made in the Saints/Rams game. Replay on pass interference is not the right call here as it can be subjective at times. Should they replay holding calls too? (happens EVERY play).

There had to be a better answer. Ugh.

Well what do you want them to do? Red phone or not if it's not in the rules it can't happen. And you can't just have a "red phone rule" where some guy in NYC (even if it's me!) calls in to disrupt a game and overturn a call. Can you imagine the outrage when that happens? And when it doesn't?!

"Tom Brady ALWAYS get's the red phone call in his favor while my team always gets screwed!!!!!"

I'd think at some point soon you'll see experimental review on personal foul calls as well. The action is too fast, and the results of these flags are too drastic.

I wonder how the last two minutes are going to work. No coaches challenges; so is every pass play going to be booth reviewed for OPI and DPI? Can't see how that would add to anyone's enjoyment of the game

Also, if the final replay call is made in NYC what's the point of having the head referee go the sideline and pretend to stare at a screen? Just give him the answer and move on.

It allows time for Bill's Venmo payment to be received and approved by the league.

thOPKKDA01 (resized).jpg

Seems super Arena-ish and unfairly prioritizes QBs over the rest of the team in a league that already went to that extreme. An onside kick should be ridiculously hard to achieve. It's a gimmick, a stunt. I would guess a top QB may convert this situation 30% of the time and it that devalues what happened in the previous 58 minutes of play. So I fully expect this to be a rule at some point

Hows the new football league coming along? Did it tank yet or is it gaining popularity?

I was excited as anyone for the AAF. I watched every game the first 2 weeks. I updated my cable pack shortly after that, and no longer get CBS sports or NFL Network. I was never going to clear my calendar to watch, but even a minimal barrier such as having to look into alternate viewing options kept me from finding the games.

I watched this past weekend. I watched the last 5 minutes of a game and it took a legit 35 minutes. It seemed as though the refs had a vendetta, and called EVERYTHING in those last 5 minutes. It was absolutely brutal to watch.

I'll try to keep an eye out for games this coming weekend. The guys on the field are certainly showing some passion. I'm hoping for some fun viewing when their playoffs roll around.

I only got to watch the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games this week and they both sucked. Final score of the one game was 8-3.

Kind of losing interest since the majority investor threatened to shut the league down. Plus it's baseball season.

I've watched a few games over the past month and I haven't been impressed at all. The AAF is suffering from the same thing the XFL did, lack of talent at the skill positions. I'll continue watching if a game is on and I have nothing else to do, but it's just not all that good of football.

AAF QBs: overthrowing or throwing behind the receivers

AAF WRs: can't catch the damn ball

AAF RBs: can't get through the hole and get stopped at the line of scrimmage

AAF Punters: League MVPs

Source: AAF to immediately suspend operations
http://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/26423928/source-aaf-immediately-suspend-operations

I didn’t know a single person who was paying any attention to AAF.

Why do they keep doing this?

XFL will fail also. Again.

So what? 469K tuned in to last Saturday's game on TNT.

The series finale, as it turns out!

I sure hope the Hawks don't fuck this up buy not signing Wilson...

Lmao

Is that supposed to be a lot?

Its just so weird to me that a guy who made a movie about the failure of the XFL and saw his dad fail miserably with the XFL has this takeaway: wow - a bad pro football league is a great idea!

In the end all we remember about XFL was He Hate Me. AAF doesn’t even have that.

I guess the brief revival of spurriers career is what I’ll remember. And hey I guess he’s the champ by default, best record in AAF history.

Who could have foreseen such a turn of events? Oh, almost everyone here. Any business that is ready to go tits up unless they secure additional funding a few weeks in isn’t ever going to last long. It had no hope.

Isn't that pretty much what we have right now?

I enjoyed this "What happened in Green Bay" article on B-R. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2828649-what-happened-in-green-bay

Seems that a number of people close to the team feel it will be an epic waste if Rodgers ends up with just 1 superbowl. I tend to agree. Some think Rodgers is a dickhead (Jennings!). Debatable if that's a detriment IMO. And many think McCarthy was terrible.

This quote made me laugh:

And if Rodgers isn't Brady as a leader, McCarthy sure as hell never managed like Bill Belichick. Whereas Belichick despises the limelight and "removes himself" every way he can, this player says McCarthy loved anointing himself as a quarterback guru. The coach often bragged to players about his time with Joe Montana...in Kansas City.

"He tried to bill himself as this quarterback master," the player says. "It was like, 'Buddy, I just want to let you know, Joe Montana did a lot more before he was in Kansas City.'"

Yeah, a nice glimpse into our dysfunction. Most of us blame Mark Murphy (still at the helm) for letting Thompson continue despite clear health issues. He's too involved in football ops now, he wants to be an owner, and has taken control by making GM and Coach both his direct reports.

So this is nice...former AAF players fucked on medical, hotel costs. Vendors unpaid. Total fiasco for everybody involved except the three rich people who hatched the plan.

Classy shit league Ebersol!

https://deadspin.com/the-aafs-sudden-collapse-left-players-high-and-dry-with-1833813021

How in God's name are we gonna allow this to all happen again next year with the XFL?

If your reaction to this stuff is anything but "it's bullshit and I'm ignoring it" next year you are part of the problem!

Well, if we ignore it, isn't that doing our part to guarantee that happens?

If anything, this is all on your head, Levi!

Hmmm, the XFL is going to be a Spring League which puts their championship game suspiciously close the NYC Pinball Championships. Lots of people watching the big game and not playing pinball, lot's of sponsors shifting their marketing budgets to buying television commercials. If I'm just "following the money" and not using any common sense I would argue that Levi has a pretty lucrative reason to try and tank the XFL. Full disclosure LEVI!

I guess the NFL is sticking with (4) pre-season games again this year.
Thought that maybe NFL was gonna drop it down to 2 or 3 pre-season games.

I just got an email announcing Saints upcoming pre-season opponents.

Week 1, home, vs MN Vikings
Week 2, away, at Chargers (remember, that means at Los Angeles, not San Diego, ...or are they gonna move again?)
Week 3, away, at NY Jets
Week 4, home, vs Miami Dolphins

$$$$ - It is a forced buy for season ticket holders. That is not going away unless the season gets extended for free by the NFL Players Association. Which means never.