Coach Hardo is way too much man for Tepper to handle. Too alpha. Tepper would never have his insufficient penbis size be tested like that.
Yeah but only one of them has literal brass testicles on his desk.
Hardo would have to one up that by breaking all the remaining blood vessels in his face.
It would be GLORIOUS.
to pick any fan to run the franchise? —-odds are it’s an upgrade on Tepper trying to do so
I don't know man. All that Hardo Testosterone would cause a nuclear explosion. I would be concerned for the entire city of Charlotte, it would be razed to the ground.
There actually can be TOO much Hardo.
View: https://twitter.com/MikeGarafolo/status/1742625120873566623?s=20
The #Rams will start Carson Wentz at QB Sunday against the #49ers, sources say. Sean McVay gives Matthew Stafford a breather before the postseason while Wentz gets his first start in just over a calendar year.
I mean I understand that Stafford may need a break and he was injured, but are they losing on purpose?
The #Rams will start Carson Wentz at QB Sunday against the #49ers, sources say. Sean McVay gives Matthew Stafford a breather before the postseason while Wentz gets his first start in just over a calendar year.
I mean I understand that Stafford may need a break and he was injured, but are they losing on purpose?
Rams have clinched a playoff spot. Stafford being heathy is far more important than anything else to this team. Without Stafford, the Rams turned into the Patriots or Carolina.
Yep, that is my take as well. He has been playing through injuries to get to this point so two weeks off can really help him and the Rams in their opening road game.
https://apnews.com/article/joe-flacco-jeff-driskel-cef24eb3244faa3753da0fc648c18e68#:~:text=BEREA, Ohio (AP) —,for the team this season.
Browns announce they are sitting Flacco and a bunch of other starters.
Jeff Driskel will be the 5th different QB and 5th different starting QB for the Browns this season. Kevin Stefanski is, and should be, the odds on favorite for coach of the year.
Browns announce they are sitting Flacco and a bunch of other starters.
Jeff Driskel will be the 5th different QB and 5th different starting QB for the Browns this season. Kevin Stefanski is, and should be, the odds on favorite for coach of the year.
That's one week. They don't have a bye, but I get it.
Also, Purdy is not playing either.
The Rams are at best the # 6 seed.
I think Wilson is still in the concussion protocol which is why he is sitting. Well that and he sucks.
2 weeks from his last game played is what I mean. I realize it's one week of the season.
Fire breaks out at Tyreek Hill’s house.
https://theathletic.com/5177587/2024/01/03/dolphins-tyreek-hill-mansion-fire/?source=user_shared_article
That’s a shame.
https://theathletic.com/5177587/2024/01/03/dolphins-tyreek-hill-mansion-fire/?source=user_shared_article
That’s a shame.
"No one was in the house when the fire broke out and all of Hill’s family members are safe, per the report"
Happy that his family is ok.
As for Tyreek himself,
Happy that his family is ok.
As for Tyreek himself,
Semantics really. All good.
At the end of the day they do not have a shot at playing at home in any round (unless both 6 and 7 advance to the NFCCG) and only a matter of who they play in the 1st round, and the 2 and 3 seeds are not set.
Stafford, Mahomes, Purdy, Flacco (!).
Am I wrong or are there many more QBs sitting out in meaningless final week games this year than in prior years? Are there simply more irrelevant final week games this year? Or is my memory is just colored by the Belichick/Brady approach?
Am I wrong or are there many more QBs sitting out in meaningless final week games this year than in prior years? Are there simply more irrelevant final week games this year? Or is my memory is just colored by the Belichick/Brady approach?
Oh yes, I'm not saying there's no reason for it -- I would start screaming for Brady to be benched early in the 4th quarter of a lot of games -- but in general I thought the NFL culture was still biased toward playing guys for at least a half even in meaningless games.
If my math is right, we're at 61 different starting QBs this season.
Last year we were at 68. This isn't perfect to measure injuries, because I don't know how many of those are due to being benched vs. injuries, but it's the easiest way to check.
I did find this article from Dec 11th that mentions the amount of different QBs starting games has been on the rise since 2018. It mentions 69 starting QBs last year, but I see 68.
Well, he is undefeated against the Jets in his career.So youre saying the Patriots should be forced to play Mac Jones?
I'm all for resting our starter Bailey Zappe if that's the status quo this week. But instead of Mac, the Pats should be able to reward long-time season ticket holders with a chance to take a snap against the Jets.So youre saying the Patriots should be forced to play Mac Jones?
Zero Patriots on AFC Pro Bowl Roster
Miami dominated skill positions
KC dominated OL/TE
Ravens dominated defense up the middle
Roquan and Queen both MLB, Madu at DT (reserve) and Hamilton at SS
Miami dominated skill positions
KC dominated OL/TE
Ravens dominated defense up the middle
Roquan and Queen both MLB, Madu at DT (reserve) and Hamilton at SS
No pro bowlers for the Pats is more ammo for the anti-BB as GM crowd, but it's more of an indication of the W/L record. The representation among the bottom 5 teams in the league in general is sparse. Also last time this happened was 2000, and the next year worked out pretty well!
That is also a factor. The # 1 seed is set in both conferences. I think the #2 seed is also very important even without the bye because you get to host both games before the Championship game (of course this is assuming you heat the #7 seed), whereas the # 3 seed may go on the road.
Absent a bye making sure certain players are healthy is important too.
This team isn’t anywhere close to the 2000 team in talent. One of the biggest crocks is BB took over a team with no talent and that wasn’t even the case.
Would they have had a pro bowler if first round pick Gonzalez wasn’t hurt, or if free agent signing Judon didn’t get hurt? Ya know, the guy that made it last year and had 4 sacks through 4 games.
The 2000 team had some talented players on defense (McGinest, Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Bruschi) and a place kicker. But it had an aging offensive line (Bruce Armstrong was washed, as was Max Lane) and was very thin at WR and RB. And the DL was weak, hence Bill's drafting of Hall of Famer Richard Seymour in the first round of the 2001 draft. The team was in a bad salary cap situation at the time, so no real chance to bring in any decent free agents until the following year, during which he added Vrabel, Pfifer, Antowain Smith, David Patten, and a handful of former Jets.
Who knows if Gonzalez would have hit a rookie wall later in the season and it’s also possible Judon falls off in the second half of the season like he did in year 1 with New England. You can’t play the what if game especially on a rookie corner. The roster is what it is which is bottom 5 in the league.
Definitely good to dismiss any talent on the roster. In every thread. Over and over again.
It’s understood there is a talent problem, especially on offense. Particularly at QB where multiple close games were lost with a dumb turnover. It should also be understood there is a good amount of talent when healthy, which we did not have the luxury of the year.
The amount of Pro-Bowlers is meaningless, there are guys who would have definitely made it had the team around them performed better in the W/L column, but while the roster isn't completely bereft of talent, it kind of is (in terms of players under contract for 2024) at the positions that have most impacted team record for a while now (QB, WR, OT). The comparison to 2000 makes very little sense if that's someone's view of a positive outlook for next year, when you account for Brady becoming the starter, that was likely the most a team has added in terms of impact talent in a single offseason, I don't really anticipate Bill (or whoever is in charge) finding the Seymour, Vrabel, and Brady equivalents in the coming months. If he does, then yes, the 2024 Patriots will contend.
I do agree. But both CG and Judson got hurt a LONG time ago. Their 2023 seasons were lost seasons.
I don’t really have a point but it just shows how cursed this season was. The two best players got hurt early in the season and their best offensive player, Rhamondre, got hurt immediately In the game when he was looking the best he’s looked all season.
The Pro Bowl = no talent thing is ridiculous. McCourty, Hightower, Light had 33 cumulative seasons with the Pats and accounted for a total of 7 pro bowl appearances. In 2018 when they won the Super Bowl, they only had 2 pro bowlers (Brady and Gilmore)
the idea that they’re lacking elite star talent isn’t a new one and it’s not a controversial one. The idea that the lack of pro bowlers suggests there isn’t talent on the roster is just false. The defense has a talent distribution pretty similar to their great teams of the past. A couple blue chippers (Judon and I’d include Gonzalez but YMMV) and a lot of unsexy good players who do their jobs well but don’t get national recognition for being “stars” (Peppers, Barmore, J.Jones)
the talent on offense, specifically at QB and WR is deficient as has been discussed ad nauseum and I don’t think the lack of pro bowlers really changes that discussion in any meaningful way.
the idea that they’re lacking elite star talent isn’t a new one and it’s not a controversial one. The idea that the lack of pro bowlers suggests there isn’t talent on the roster is just false. The defense has a talent distribution pretty similar to their great teams of the past. A couple blue chippers (Judon and I’d include Gonzalez but YMMV) and a lot of unsexy good players who do their jobs well but don’t get national recognition for being “stars” (Peppers, Barmore, J.Jones)
the talent on offense, specifically at QB and WR is deficient as has been discussed ad nauseum and I don’t think the lack of pro bowlers really changes that discussion in any meaningful way.
I think the OL injuries in camp and overall turmoil on that group where it really seemed like a “anything which can go wrong did go wrong” situation since July had a massive trickle down effect on the team.
On the rare occasions they had Brown, Strange, Andrews, Sow and Onwenu healthy at the same time, it looked like a decent and functional (not great) unit. OL talent is so sparse across the league though that it’s hard for me to think BB really screwed the pooch with the approach to building that unit for 2023. His strategy seemed to make sense and was in line with what has worked in the past (obvious hole at one spot he tried to patch with veterans to avoid having to draft someone early if the board didn’t fall favorably, backfilled with developmental guys)
Strange getting hurt in camp slowed his development and the cohesion of the unit. Onwenu took a long time coming back from his off-season procedure. Anderson had the illness. Reiff got hurt and fell even further into decline. Brown has had myriad illnesses, personal things, injuries. Andrews’ decline phase has become more obvious. Lowe was an emergency option who was unbelievably bad. Wheatley, another emergency option, is apparently so bad he can’t even suit up or take snaps.
Some of those things were inherent and known risks - Andrews is getting old, Brown has struggled to be an every game player, Reiff was old and declining, Onwenu’s procedure was early in the off-season, but all of them simultaneously blowing up along with unpredictable things (Anderson, Strange) tanked that unit almost from day 1 with no real chance at recovery. You just can’t find multiple adequate external stop gap OL in this league once you’re past the draft. Combining a sieve of an OL with a QB (Jones) who really needed protection and stability, and things collapsed and I don’t think he will ever recover. He might have (probably would have) still sucked anyway, but he never got a great chance in 2023 to show if he could improve because the line was a horror show most of the time he started
for all the talk of BB’s failings on offense (WR specifically as personally I don’t see the Jones pick as a bad move when it was made), the one decision that if changed would have had the biggest impact to this roster would have been to pay Thuney and move on from Mason one year earlier. He clearly didn’t want to have two very highly paid guards (especially with then-questions about LT) which made some sense but he chose wrong.
This is pretty much it.
People know who the offensive skill players are going to be halfway through the season. Defensive players are pretty much based on sacks or reputation. Offensive linemen are based on team record/player reputation.
Thats basically it. If @jsinger121 wants to keep ignoring everyone and repeat how the team has "no talent" and the roster is "bottom 5 in the league", it is what it is. I mean, I could probably go through the standings now and pick out 10 teams who are in a worse roster situation rolling into next season than the Patriots, but...well, I'd just be wasting my time.
Ravens get even stronger.
View: https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1743029200057970881?s=46&t=ZAV_cHcUClrN1Zdq09T1Aw
View: https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1743029200057970881?s=46&t=ZAV_cHcUClrN1Zdq09T1Aw
he wasn’t on IR when the line was at its worst, put on IR 10/14 with a grand total of 0 snaps played on offense.
Regardless, the same point still stands. Going into the off-season, it looked like the Pats had 3 pretty good starting OL (Brown, Andrews, Onwenu) with some known risks but nothing major. They had Strange penciled in, as expected from a first rounder who showed at least some promise down the stretch last year. All they needed was for those guys to basically give mostly reasonable outcomes and to have one of the Reiff, Anderson, Sow (ignoring Mafi and J.Andrews) work out. When it was clear those guys looked bad in camp/were sick/injured, they got 2 more guys who who couldn’t even give below average performances - just one non factor and one abjectly terrible player.
literally every single OL who has suited up this year has given bad or worst case scenarios. Some decline from Andrews could be expected but he’s looked a lot worse than usual. Some inconsistent from Brown could be expected but he’s been in and out or hobbled or rotating a lot. Onwenu didn’t get back to being full time and looking like himself until mid season. Strange was hurt, finally looked healthy and maybe settling in and got hurt. Sow looks decent (at times) now but was awful early. Mafi looked overwhelmed and awful early. Anderson mystery illness, Reiff injury and looked totally cooked in camp pre-injury.
In the entire BB tenure, I can’t think of too many position groups where virtually everything they tried failed. Maybe 2011 CB, 2006 WR, a few others probably exist but very rarely. Even this year’s WR group at least had a positive outcome for Douglas. The “throw enough crap at the wall and you’ll probably get enough to stick to at least be functional“ approach has served BB well over the years. This year, it flopped miserably
he really can’t be any worse than Melvin Gordon, almost by default he has to be better. But barring a miraculous return to form, theyre still a pretty mediocre RB group especially with Mitchell lost to the knee injury.