NFL 2021

[Your Mom]

Does Apple just talk a lot of shit or something? Why do people hate him?  

[Schlitzbrille]

Just now, Your Mom said:

Does Apple just talk a lot of shit or something? Why do people hate him?  

He tends to be spat towards not cool people.

[gunnar hendershow]

Apple's a quintessential average CB who talks a big game. Prime Richard Sherman with half the talent.

He also got beat on a goal line fade in 2022. Which is, shall we say, bad.

[The Buscher]

Apple not only doesn’t back up his shit talk but also has his mom fight his battles for him on Twitter. 

[Schlitzbrille]

So he's a discount Jalen Ramsey?

[gunnar hendershow]

Discount Jalen Ramsey is also very apt.

[Lineker]

 

[Krabby]

If I was a Bengals fan I would care less about the refereeing last night and be way more concerned with the terribad short yardage calls that the offense was making - multiple "3rd/4th and 1s" with some really stupid play calling. YOU NEED ONE YARD - why are you getting overly and unnecessarily complicated?

[Szumi]

 

 

[The Buscher]

10 hours ago, damhausen said:

This is absolutely hilarious. It implies Eli Manning never won anything.

Revisiting this, I'm glad to see people have largely been dunking ESPN for it.  I get they were trying to show a player from each team they played for but Eli won rings and Landry and OBJ were friends...surely Mayfield would've made more sense.

I actually think Eli's HOF case gets better every year.  Critics will point to the .500 record but QB record is a bit of a bogus stat and it's tough for anything to overshadow 2007 and 2011.  Brees retired with only one ring, Rodgers is still stuck on one ring, Ben and Peyton each got two rings but only one MVP between them.  Rivers never got anything.  Hell, Mahomes is super young and has a long way to go but two years ago people were talking like he's got the next five championships wrapped up.

It's just rarified air for today's league.  Two rings and two Super Bowl MVPs is no joke when you finally take your mind off of Tom Brady. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Eli's going to have a strong case against him, stronger than basically all his contemporaries. But Super Bowls do count for something when you're a QB. And I know it's a different era but if Joe Namath was a surefire Hall of Famer because of one game and like 3 seasons then Eli has to be in.

But it's going to get congested with QB inductions over the next few years and if he doesn't get in immediately it might take him a few years as Brees, Rivers, Big Ben, and of course Brady are all ahead of him most likely. Not to mention still active players who will get in like Ryan and Rodgers.

[The Buscher]

I think the HOF committee of 10 years ago would put Eli in first ballot without much debate.  The rings, retiring top 10 in the traditional passing stats, the Iron Man streak, face of the franchise for a NY team etc.  That it's even a question now is representative of the younger voters putting a bigger focus on advanced stats.  That will especially true if Rivers goes in before Eli.  Like, I can objectively acknowledge he was the best pure QB of the class of 2004 but it would also kinda piss me off as well if it happened.

Of course, QBs are a different animal.  Warner was voted in by the regular committee on his third try and if memory serves, he was the last man out in his first two tries, one of those classes featured Favre.  Not counting Senior Committee guys, you have to go back to 1990 (Griese) to find a modern era guy voted in outside of his first year.  The visibility if the QB position makes it one where the committee is likely to just lead off by asking "is he a Hall of Famer?" and if the consensus is yes, they get one of the five spots immediately.

[gunnar hendershow]

Thinking through the playoffs and it's entirely possible all 4 conference finalists miss out on the playoffs next year. LA might have a spate of retirements and free agency departures. Cincinnati has a much harder schedule next year, multiple key departures from their defense, and had a ton of injury luck this year. KC defense was bad and barring miraculous drafting is going to be even worse next year. SF is going to make a QB change that could go in any direction. Not to mention the Divisional Round teams. Tampa Bay and Green Bay both had their windows slam shut. Tennessee is due a drop-off. Buffalo looked brilliant at times but also bad at times this year.

Then you have teams that missed out this year. Miami is going to keep getting better, the Chargers should finally get over the hump next year, Indianapolis maybe addresses QB, Rodgers to Denver is a possibility, Baltimore and Cleveland are lurking in the North. NFC has two absolutely wide-open divisions, a Seattle team that could make quick tweaks to return to relevancy, a Philadelphia team that should be even better, and a Washington team that might be a QB away.

I think we got accustomed to the inevitability of New England, Indianapolis/Denver, and Pittsburgh that we kind of forgot about how much parity there is in the league. Both conferences are extremely wide open now. AFC because of how many good QBs are in the conference now. NFC because of how much rapid turnover the marquee teams have undergone.

Next year feels like it'll be a year heavy on mediocrity again, but that tends to make for some bonkers football. 

[The Buscher]

While it's certainly possible the league is wide open next year, as simplistic as it sounds I do think that elite level QB play is still your best bet to at least getting to the playoffs.  Unless the rest of your team is really that much of a dumpster fire to overcome or your coaching is next level incompetent, or an injury to the QB of course, it's usually hard to screw up at least getting a playoff lottery ticket.

So I still expect the Chiefs and Bills to be in the playoffs and with three wild cards I feel like the Bengals will be in a nice spot even if they regress a bit.  If he's not traded I think Green Bay will make it again too, they are in cap hell but money can always be shifted around and re-allocated, Rodgers and Adams staying on the field should still be enough to win in a weak division though you can see another playoff failure coming from a mile away.

[LL!]

The Bengals have a ton of cap space (4th in the league I believe) and if they feel like striking right now, given they almost won the SB, can probably attract some good talent during the off-season.