2020 NFL: Offseason News and Notes

Soxy

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Ha, I've actually filled up my car at that gas station a bunch of times. Used to drive by it all the time on my way home, which was more or less down the street from there.

That's a weird area for an NFL player to be partying. Fort Mill/Tega Cay isn't exactly known for its nightlife. Of course, maybe that's they were drinking beers in their car and smoking blunts at a gas station.
 

Euclis20

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My point was teams with really good QBs still sometimes draft other QBs early instead of getting said QB more weapons. But PTI was up in arms at the affront to Rodgers.
The similarities are pretty eerie. Brady/Rodgers were 36, both appeared to be in decline, and both were 9 years removed from their last super bowl victory. It's a matter of degrees, but there is still a big difference between drafting a QB with the 26th pick vs the 62nd pick, let alone the fact that they gave up additional assets to move up. The draft value chart says the 26th pick is almost 2.5 times more valuable than the 62nd pick. Moving up to draft a QB in the mid 20s is a far louder statement than drafting a QB at the end of the second round, it's worth the additional bandwidth being discussed.
 

Soxy

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What an idiot. Everyone in Kansas City knows that if you’re going to assault someone, you should make sure it’s a pre-verbal infant who can’t testify against you.
It's also probably not a great idea to let the police go through your phone, find texts about drug deals, and then refer to yourself as a "marijuana enthusiast."

I'm no lawyer, but I think legal counsel would advise against that.

Edit to add:

30587
 
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Cellar-Door

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The similarities are pretty eerie. Brady/Rodgers were 36, both appeared to be in decline, and both were 9 years removed from their last super bowl victory. It's a matter of degrees, but there is still a big difference between drafting a QB with the 26th pick vs the 62nd pick, let alone the fact that they gave up additional assets to move up. The draft value chart says the 26th pick is almost 2.5 times more valuable than the 62nd pick. Moving up to draft a QB in the mid 20s is a far louder statement than drafting a QB at the end of the second round, it's worth the additional bandwidth being discussed.
Th Favre comparison is the one more people make, but that is quite different as well. It was a projected top 3 pick falling to the 20s, and there had been speculation that Favre was going to retire in a year or two, rather than a player under contract for 4 years who has been vocal about planning to play at least that long and who has been at odds with the front office over one of the league's lowest investments in skill position players
 

BaseballJones

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So it turns out that Gronk had the Tampa playbook weeks before he got traded, which means Tampa tampered with Gronk in an effort to woo him.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/04/29/gronkowski-boasts-that-he-had-buccaneers-playbook-while-still-under-contract-with-patriots/
Time for us to wonder what the penalty would be if the Patriots signed the greatest player ever at his position, from another team's roster, by so overtly tampering to the point of sending that player their playbook. There HAD to be plenty of communication between them and Gronk in order for them to feel ok about sending him their playbook.
 

E5 Yaz

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So it turns out that Gronk had the Tampa playbook weeks before he got traded, which means Tampa tampered with Gronk in an effort to woo him.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/04/29/gronkowski-boasts-that-he-had-buccaneers-playbook-while-still-under-contract-with-patriots/
Time for us to wonder what the penalty would be if the Patriots signed the greatest player ever at his position, from another team's roster, by so overtly tampering to the point of sending that player their playbook. There HAD to be plenty of communication between them and Gronk in order for them to feel ok about sending him their playbook.
He's already walked back that claim
 

Cellar-Door

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Been quite an offseason for the Bucs, Gronk claims he had the playbook then walks it back. League buys that Brady was "just picking up the playbook in a brief visit" when he went to his coaches house with duffle bags full of equipment.
 

Super Nomario

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So it turns out that Gronk had the Tampa playbook weeks before he got traded, which means Tampa tampered with Gronk in an effort to woo him.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/04/29/gronkowski-boasts-that-he-had-buccaneers-playbook-while-still-under-contract-with-patriots/
Time for us to wonder what the penalty would be if the Patriots signed the greatest player ever at his position, from another team's roster, by so overtly tampering to the point of sending that player their playbook. There HAD to be plenty of communication between them and Gronk in order for them to feel ok about sending him their playbook.
Gronk had the Bucs playbook because he took it from Belichick's locker of stolen playbooks, obv.
 

E5 Yaz

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Gronk had the Bucs playbook because he took it from Belichick's locker of stolen playbooks, obv.
You laugh, but on the Rich Eisen Show this morning he asked his resident "Patriots apologist" if he wanted to explain this one. As though it's a given that NE had been the dirty party here
 

BaseballJones

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You laugh, but on the Rich Eisen Show this morning he asked his resident "Patriots apologist" if he wanted to explain this one. As though it's a given that NE had been the dirty party here
Yeah it's kind of amazing that Brady got NO benefit of the doubt with Deflategate, but he gets ALL the benefit of the doubt with Tampa. And now Gronk gets the benefit of the doubt too, even though he is the one who said himself that he had the playbook in advance.
 

SMU_Sox

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I know this post isn't the same thing Gronk was accused of but it's crazy how much playbooks matter. If you don't have the playbook how do you know the Pats run Hoss-Y-Juke a lot or that the Rams run a ton of outside zone or that Deebo Samuel ran (and excelled at) slants? No wonder the Patriots defenses have been so good.

On a serious note: You remember that Watson interview after some loss when they asked him about a throw against edit: Cover-4? You can fool a team on offense or defense but it isn't usually because the team that is fooled didn't know or practice against whatever concept you had was (there are (Philly) special exceptions to that of course). One of the most common forms of deception is the play-action pass. You can see it in a play-book and guys still take the cheese...

Yeah yeah of course learning the playbook for an individual player on a new or current team is important. I get that. I just don't get the whole the Patriots have everyone's playbooks argument because I think all teams more or less know the others teams capabilities and what they like to run week to week. Another reason it is nice that the Patriots are so game-plan specific is it makes it slightly harder to plan against minus some of their staples. They will use Hoss-Y-Juke. They will use stunts and twists and have single high man coverage reps, etc. Sorry to derail.
 

luckiestman

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What nfl podcasts is good? I tried listening to the ringer one today, I made this mistake last year and it is still beyond awful. Had to shut it off.

I like Lombardi, Love when Sal is on with Simmons. So I guess I need a podcast to tell me something I don’t know or be entertaining, both would “be best” (shout-out First Lady) and I find the ringer one neither entertaining nor informative.
 
What nfl podcasts is good? I tried listening to the ringer one today, I made this mistake last year and it is still beyond awful. Had to shut it off.

I like Lombardi, Love when Sal is on with Simmons. So I guess I need a podcast to tell me something I don’t know or be entertaining, both would “be best” (shout-out First Lady) and I find the ringer one neither entertaining nor informative.
"Around thehe NFL" is the NFL podcast I enjoy listening to the most - usually the same four guys who work for NFL.com, and they have great chemistry together

"The MMQB NFL Podcast" is the most informative NFL podcast I sometimes listen to (less frequently now than I used to), although its cast of characters changes from episode to episode - I've tended to only listen to the episodes with Andy Benoit and Gary Gramling.

"The Bill Barnwell Show" is somewhere in between - it's not exclusively NFL-related, but given Barnwell's background it usually is, and it's always Barnwell and a (quality) guest talking to each other.

Aaron Schatz and a guy from Sports Info Solutions also do a podcast which, depending on your tolerance for Schatz and Football Outsiders, can be worth listening to. (I listened to that one every week during the season when I was hosting NFL games, but it has dropped out of my rotation in the last year or two.)

I hope that helps!
 

luckiestman

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"Around thehe NFL" is the NFL podcast I enjoy listening to the most - usually the same four guys who work for NFL.com, and they have great chemistry together

"The MMQB NFL Podcast" is the most informative NFL podcast I sometimes listen to (less frequently now than I used to), although its cast of characters changes from episode to episode - I've tended to only listen to the episodes with Andy Benoit and Gary Gramling.

"The Bill Barnwell Show" is somewhere in between - it's not exclusively NFL-related, but given Barnwell's background it usually is, and it's always Barnwell and a (quality) guest talking to each other.

Aaron Schatz and a guy from Sports Info Solutions also do a podcast which, depending on your tolerance for Schatz and Football Outsiders, can be worth listening to. (I listened to that one every week during the season when I was hosting NFL games, but it has dropped out of my rotation in the last year or two.)

I hope that helps!

I listened to MMQB once or twice but forgot about it. I will check it out again.

Just added Around the NFL to my feed.
 

Captaincoop

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I know this post isn't the same thing Gronk was accused of but it's crazy how much playbooks matter. If you don't have the playbook how do you know the Pats run Hoss-Y-Juke a lot or that the Rams run a ton of outside zone or that Deebo Samuel ran (and excelled at) slants? No wonder the Patriots defenses have been so good.

On a serious note: You remember that Watson interview after some loss when they asked him about a throw against edit: Cover-4? You can fool a team on offense or defense but it isn't usually because the team that is fooled didn't know or practice against whatever concept you had was (there are (Philly) special exceptions to that of course). One of the most common forms of deception is the play-action pass. You can see it in a play-book and guys still take the cheese...

Yeah yeah of course learning the playbook for an individual player on a new or current team is important. I get that. I just don't get the whole the Patriots have everyone's playbooks argument because I think all teams more or less know the others teams capabilities and what they like to run week to week. Another reason it is nice that the Patriots are so game-plan specific is it makes it slightly harder to plan against minus some of their staples. They will use Hoss-Y-Juke. They will use stunts and twists and have single high man coverage reps, etc. Sorry to derail.
Not to mention teams turn over like 30% of their roster every year. It's not like the playbook information is kept in some top secret circle of lifetime intelligence agents.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Plus, teams can stumble over their own playbook:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxFWU3yTRNM
Thanks for posting, I had not seen this video before. It is a fun watch, primarily because it really explains how the Colts ended up making that incredibly dumb play

It also shows how great Belcihick is, in three ways

First, you can tell that the Colts felt the need to take risks. So that's why the play is there and why they ran it. Force mistakes.

Second, the detailed description of how the Colts screwed up---didn't communicate, subbed in the snapper without fully explaining the design, and Pagano saying something to the special teams unit different than the play theory assumed. Execution in football is hard; you see the Pats approach and realize how much they simplify communication and practice execution. And then you watch a play where the Colts screw up multiple things and it kills them (my favorite detail is that the Colts, in spite of practicing it many times, lined up wrong and were actually in an illegal formation so even if the play worked, it would have been called back)

Third, the defense---not talked about a lot--reacted perfectly. Almost no chaos at all. I've read elsehwere as soon as Colts started moving guys off the Pats called 'alert' and defaulted to a man-to-man. And then guys just waited and did their job when the Colts surprisingly snapped it. No one jumped offside, no one was looking around crazily, no one was looking to sideline, they knew their responsibility. The difference between the offense's ability to execute and the defense's could not have been starker.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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Not a bad play for him. Dak still hasn’t signed long term deal so if things get stickier, he’s joining a loaded offense. And he gets to return home.
I disagree. Daltons best play was to sign with a team like Jacksonville or New England and put himself in a position to win the starting job and rehabilitate his image, so he can turn around next offseason and get a 2-3 year deal from someone who sees him in a new light as a starter.
 

BigSoxFan

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I disagree. Daltons best play was to sign with a team like Jacksonville or New England and put himself in a position to win the starting job and rehabilitate his image, so he can turn around next offseason and get a 2-3 year deal from someone who sees him in a new light as a starter.
The guy turns 33 in October. Teams know what they’re getting in Andy Dalton. I think his days as a starter are over so I don’t blame him for going back to his home state and being next in line with behind Dak and a loaded offense. Not sure scuffling in NE or JAX really adds much value to him. Hard to know what’s motivating him in this deal though.
 

luckiestman

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I think Dalton is pretty good. I’d like to see him try to play in a good organization but it looks like he wants to cash checks as a back up. Good for him if that’s what he wants.
 

axx

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That's a lot of cap space devoted to QB if Dak signs his tender.
 

Super Nomario

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I disagree. Daltons best play was to sign with a team like Jacksonville or New England and put himself in a position to win the starting job and rehabilitate his image, so he can turn around next offseason and get a 2-3 year deal from someone who sees him in a new light as a starter.
I don't think he's going to rehabilitate his image playing with a suspect supporting cast in New England or Jacksonville. But Dallas is loaded offensively. His path to reps is less clear, but if he gets some, he's way more likely to thrive.
 

djbayko

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That's a lot of cap space devoted to QB if Dak signs his tender.
Maybe he’s just Dak hold out deterrence / insurance. In that sense it’s a great signing for Dallas. If Dak holds out, they have a legit starter. If he doesn’t, they can always consider trading him to the next team which inevitably needs a starter mid-season
 

Marciano490

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Eh, I’d say it’s the third shittiest thing he‘s done after sexually harassing Jenn Sterger and throwing that pick that sent the Giants to the Super Bowl.
 

SydneySox

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I like that the way he thought was a good way to spend his birthday was in bed with his brother and some other people that weren't his wife.

Seems like a good guy.