NFL 2023

[Szumi]

This is an interesting one! A hire on Black Monday, and from the NBA!

 

 

[Pooker]

Can he take Draymond Green with him?

[JasonM]

12 minutes ago, Pooker said:

Can he take Draymond Green with him?

Pro bowl punter, except for the part he'll be suspended for half a season at least for following through into the nads of whoever is rushing him.

[The Buscher]

Giants fired the pair of coaches pretty much everyone wanted to in ST coordinator Thomas McGaughey and OL coach Bobby Johnson.  Special teams were awful this year and the OL gave up the 2nd most sacks in NFL history with basically no signs that any of the 3 OL they used early picks on in the last 2 years is improving.

Daboll said he "expects" Mike Kafka and Wink Martindale to both return.  Reports had suggested Daboll's relationship with both had soured to the point where it was a real question on if there'd be a full house cleaning.  They've phrased things in such a way where it sounds like they might still give both guys the opportunity to exit their contract if they wanted, which would be a pretty bad look for Daboll.  Guess we'll see.

I guess the benefit of a voluntary early separation vs. a firing is they could possibly work out terms and conditions of the release.  If there's any way to ensure Wink can't go within the division that would be ideal, because otherwise I'd say he'd land with the Eagles in 5 seconds.

[Lineker]

2 hours ago, VerbalPuke said:

Ben Johnson sucks, nobody wants that bum. 

Yeah, that'll do.

 

[gunnar hendershow]

Seems like they're the hottest of the coordinator candidates. Mike Macdonald will surely get a lot of interviews but with the Ravens having a bye teams will rush in the Lions coordinators, Dan Quinn and Jim Schwartz might get meetings before Wed too but they're more known commodities. Frank Smith and Bobby Slowik could also get interviews before the wild card round. Jim Harbaugh presumably starts getting interviews on the calendar later this week.

Some people are indicating Todd Monken will be a popular name but I can't envision a guy nearing 60 goes anywhere near a team also trying to rebuild/reset. So he's basically the "fallback" for the Chargers at most.

Belichick hinted today he might relinquish some control over personnel. Very, very curious if that's his public way of pushing blame onto Kraft if it turns into a messy divorce. If Kraft wants a change he'll need to make it today, if this lingers the top candidates are gone. And maybe he wants a Schwartz or Quinn or Flores who has been a HC before to at least stabilize the ship for a few years. But if he's trying for a total reset, has to act now.

[Krabby]

Any word on what the Raiders are planning to do with Antonio Pierce?

[The Buscher]

I'll go ahead and throw playoff predictions in here:

Wild Card Round

-Browns over Texans:  "defense wins championships" is the old adage and with that in mind I think I have to take Cleveland's stellar defense over the inexperienced Texans offense, but I think this will be the first of many playoff trips DeMeco Ryans' squad, he was a home run hire.

-Chiefs over Dolphins:  this one feels easy, Chiefs are a far cry from last year but the Dolphins have lost a ton of edge rushers.  A 10 degree weather game might set up a big Mostert/Achane ground and pound showing but I just don't know that this team is prepared to go into such a hostile environment and win.

-Bills over Steelers:  honestly the Bills being a 2 seed feels so shocking with how mediocre they've looked all year.  I have my doubts on the Steelers going in there and winning without Watt and their QB situation is of course a huge question mark, so I'll say Buffalo but it might be closer than the betting lines indicate.

-Cowboys over Packers:  feels like the biggest lay-up of the first round.  The final seeded NFC team was always gonna be a bit mediocre - Dallas just have too many weapons for Green Bay to keep up with.

-Rams over Lions:  One look at the Lions' subreddit and they are all completely dreading this game.  It has "Stafford revenge game" written all over it and so even though I do think the Lions are better I can just see Stafford and Co. putting in a monster outing.

-Eagles over Bucs:  The Eagles have obviously been sputtering for a while and it looks like almost anyone can beat them.  Their terrible defense vs. Evans and Godwin could be a scary matchup - but the Bucs didn't do jack offensively against the Panthers either.  All the pressure in the world is on the Eagles in this one, I think the offense rises to the occasion and wins an ugly one to avoid the one-and-done humiliation.

Divisional Round

-Ravens over Browns:  The Flacco revenge game narrative will be fun going in and the last Ravens/Browns outing was a bit of a doozy.  But I don't think the Ravens defense will fold the way they did in that last matchup.  I'll take the Ravens here.

-Chiefs over Bills:  I can't really call this with any conviction given what I've seen out of both teams this year.  This is merely a gut instinct, proven winners vs. team with a tortured history.  Even in Buffalo, Chiefs win.

-Niners over Rams:  Pretty straightforward here, Niners have dominated the Rams for years and even their backups nearly beat the Rams yesterday.  Niners in a pretty comfortable win.

-Cowboys over Eagles:  Eagles narrowly beat Dallas in their first outing, then their season went south and Dallas blew them out last go around.  Who knows what can change in 2 weeks but I'd need to see a huge Philly outing in Tampa to think they could win in Dallas.  Gotta go Dallas here.

Conference Title Games

-Ravens over Chiefs:  Gotta admit, if this game actually happened I'd probably lay some money on the Chiefs just because I could easily see it being a close game that comes down to a few questionable calls that will have everyone screaming that the NFL wanted Taylor Swift in the SB.  But again, while you never know if Mahomes will get the offense peaking at the right time, I've seen nothing to suggest they match up well with this year's Ravens team.

-Niners over Cowboys:  Just sticking with the chalk here.  Again, the playoffs are a different animal but the Niners have not only been so good this year but they also laid waste to most of their possible NFC opponents during the season.  It's just tough to bet against them until proven otherwise.

Super Bowl

-Ravens over Niners:  This would mark the second straight year that the #1 seeds get to the Super Bowl.  It rarely ever actually works out like this and I'd say the AFC is more open than the NFC.  But it feels right this year.  Going by my own logic of weighing in the regular season meetings, the Ravens throttled the Niners just two weeks ago.  Obviously the Super Bowl is a long way out and there's plenty of time to make adjustments.  The betting line would be fascinating because you'd be considering their last meeting + the Niners looking like the best team in the league for a lot of the season.  I'd like to think this game is close, but if Lamar puts up a few scores early I don't know I trust Purdy enough to lead a big comeback.  I'll say Ravens take it and Lamar achieves the rare feat of league MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same season.

[gunnar hendershow]

Total team DVOA closed with Ravens, Niners, Bills, and Cowboys in that order. While the Ravens and Niners are historically great teams (through 16 games only the 07 Pats and 91 Washington team had a higher DVOA than Baltimore), getting 1-1 in the Super Bowl in consecutive years feels tough considering it happens about 25% of the time. Though, obviously it's the most common SB matchup.

Have to say I'm more afraid of Buffalo than Cleveland. There's a lot of narrative with Cleveland but even the capitulation against them earlier this season required an incredible amount of weird things to happen (including a pick 6). The Flacco renaissance is nice but he throws a ton of picks and the Ravens led the league in takeaways. Allen also makes risky throws but I think that ceiling is so much higher because of how well he is at making the "playoff" plays. Flacco for all the "postseason magic" has as many terrible late game plays as he does memorable late game heroics in the playoffs. A lot of his wins in January have been team wins.

From a talent perspective Dallas is a lot closer to SF than I think people give them credit for. But Mike McCarthy is a complete doofus. Feel like barring something terrible happening to McCaffrey, Williams, or Purdy there's zero chance SF loses a game prior to the Super Bowl.

[Maxx]

2 hours ago, gunnar hendershow said:

Seems like they're the hottest of the coordinator candidates. Mike Macdonald will surely get a lot of interviews but with the Ravens having a bye teams will rush in the Lions coordinators, Dan Quinn and Jim Schwartz might get meetings before Wed too but they're more known commodities. Frank Smith and Bobby Slowik could also get interviews before the wild card round. Jim Harbaugh presumably starts getting interviews on the calendar later this week.

Some people are indicating Todd Monken will be a popular name but I can't envision a guy nearing 60 goes anywhere near a team also trying to rebuild/reset. So he's basically the "fallback" for the Chargers at most.

Belichick hinted today he might relinquish some control over personnel. Very, very curious if that's his public way of pushing blame onto Kraft if it turns into a messy divorce. If Kraft wants a change he'll need to make it today, if this lingers the top candidates are gone. And maybe he wants a Schwartz or Quinn or Flores who has been a HC before to at least stabilize the ship for a few years. But if he's trying for a total reset, has to act now.

He's probably just going to hire Josh McDaniels

[Lineker]

 

3 hours ago, Krabby said:

Any word on what the Raiders are planning to do with Antonio Pierce?

Sounds like they're very open to keeping him and the interim GM on, but they still have to satisfy the Rooney Rule throughout the process. 

[The Buscher]

1 hour ago, gunnar hendershow said:

Total team DVOA closed with Ravens, Niners, Bills, and Cowboys in that order. While the Ravens and Niners are historically great teams (through 16 games only the 07 Pats and 91 Washington team had a higher DVOA than Baltimore), getting 1-1 in the Super Bowl in consecutive years feels tough considering it happens about 25% of the time. Though, obviously it's the most common SB matchup.

The Bills being 3rd legitimately shocks me.  As someone who has watched a good amount of their games it just felt like they weren't really ever passing the eye test.

As much as I'd find it funny to see either team get knocked out in the wild card round, Chiefs/Bills in Buffalo is likely and I do think it's a good thing for that fanbase to get that game.  KC would've had to travel to either Cincy, Buffalo, or both last year if not for the Hamlin situation.  With how the Chiefs have looked this year, the Bills will be pretty well out of excuses if they can't beat that team at home this year.

[The Buscher]

5 hours ago, Busch Wyatt said:

Daboll said he "expects" Mike Kafka and Wink Martindale to both return.  Reports had suggested Daboll's relationship with both had soured to the point where it was a real question on if there'd be a full house cleaning.  They've phrased things in such a way where it sounds like they might still give both guys the opportunity to exit their contract if they wanted, which would be a pretty bad look for Daboll.  Guess we'll see.

WELP.  About an hour ago the Giants fired Drew Wilkins and Kevin Wilkins, both handpicked Wink guys.  Drew in particular has been Wink's right-hand man for years.  Seemed like an ominous sign.

And sure enough, it's now confirmed that Wink and the Giants "mutually parted ways".  He'll try to get some head coach interviews again but I don't know if I see a 60-year old guy who has been in the head coaching cycle for years finally getting the chance.  I just hope he doesn't land in Philly.

Guess I should've figured this would happen when Jay Glazer reported over a month ago that he and Daboll basically hated each other.  No matter how much everyone involved tried to downplay it, Glazer doesn't miss.

[LL!]

Lots of talk about how Buffalo won't be making it to the Super Bowl while conveniently ignoring the fact that they are 6-1 since Sean McDermott radicalized the team into joining Al Queda. 

[Krabby]

I'm predicting Browns vs 49ers in the Superb Owl - 49ers crush everyone in the NFC's hopes, meanwhile Browns go on a miracle run. They lose the Super Bowl game in tragic fashion though so no one forgets that they signed Deshaun Watson.

[Schlitzbrille]

On the other hand, a Browns SB win means Elite Joe gets another ring

[gunnar hendershow]

4 hours ago, Busch Wyatt said:

WELP.  About an hour ago the Giants fired Drew Wilkins and Kevin Wilkins, both handpicked Wink guys.  Drew in particular has been Wink's right-hand man for years.  Seemed like an ominous sign.

And sure enough, it's now confirmed that Wink and the Giants "mutually parted ways".  He'll try to get some head coach interviews again but I don't know if I see a 60-year old guy who has been in the head coaching cycle for years finally getting the chance.  I just hope he doesn't land in Philly.

Guess I should've figured this would happen when Jay Glazer reported over a month ago that he and Daboll basically hated each other.  No matter how much everyone involved tried to downplay it, Glazer doesn't miss.

Hate to tell you this but it's a bad sign if Daboll and guys from the Baltimore defensive assistant machine have a falling out.

[The Buscher]

1 hour ago, gunnar hendershow said:

Hate to tell you this but it's a bad sign if Daboll and guys from the Baltimore defensive assistant machine have a falling out.

Nope.  There’s immediate talk that defensive players on the team are absolutely livid about this since Wink was so well-liked.

There’s rumors already making the rounds supposedly being passed around from friends of the Wilkins family that Wink during an argument basically called Daboll an overrated hack to his face and said, supposedly a direct quote, “your offense never got one fucking yard on my defense in practice” and that he’s largely just been counting down the days since then.

I think the Giants defense has some solid core pieces to build around in Lawrence, Thibodeaux, Banks, and Okereke.  In theory it would be an attractive start to draw in a new DC but not if the well-connected Wink is telling everyone Daboll’s a nightmare to work for.

[Krabby]

Messing around with Pro Football Network's Mock Draft - here's how I did as the Vikings:

Spoiler

• Pick 25: LB Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Clemson
  • Traded out of Pick 11 with the Eagles to get Picks 25 and 50 (and a 2nd next year)
• Pick 42: DT T'Vondre Sweat, Texas
• Pick 43: QB Michael Penix Jr., Washington
  • Traded up from 50 with LAC by swapping a 3rd next year for a 6th so I could guarantee getting Penix here
• Pick 107: S James Williams, Miami (FL)
  • Traded the Titans Pick 104 for Pick 107 and Pick 199
• Pick 124: RB MarShawn Lloyd, USC
• Pick 153: CB Jaylen Simpson, Auburn
• Pick 154: T Matt Goncalves, Pitt
• Pick 161: G Isaiah Adams, Illinois
• Pick 199: EDGE Steve Linton, Texas Tech
• Pick 202: T LaDarius Henderson, Michigan

I feel like as a Vikings fan I would be extremely happy with this draft. Trotter was Clemson's D MVP and we need better LB depth. Sweat brings back some beef up front, didn't feel like Harrison Phillips did enough. I got Penix Jr. like I am hoping for, even if Cousins is signed that's a good situation for us. Williams is a wild playmaker on defense. Lloyd gives us a dimension at running back that we don't really have. Then took some swings on the O-Line later in the draft. I like Simpson as a CB from Auburn and the Vikes could always use some depth there. Linton could get in the pass rush rotation and if he develops well might be a late steal at EDGE/LB. Plus we ended up basically flipping a 3rd for a 2nd next year plus and extra 6th.

 

[Lineker]