2014 NFL Offseason Thread

[Plubby]

IT'S TUEL TIME!

[Dan]

What a Tuel.

[Plubby]

The Doctor of Tuelonomics is in the HOUSE!

[The Buscher]

I love baseball and hockey and everything but I really just live for football.

[Lint]

"Listen big guy, we know you fumbled the ball, but you gotta go back it!"

"NO! DON'T WANNA! COACH YELLED AT ME!"

[Meacon Keaton]

"Listen big guy, we know you fumbled the ball, but you gotta go back it!"

"NO! DON'T WANNA! COACH YELLED AT ME!"

"Damn it, Eli. If you hate Sour Patch Kids so much, stop buying Sour Patch Kids."

[The Buscher]

The New York Football Giants are on pace to go 24-0 this season!

[SeanDMan]

"Listen big guy, we know you fumbled the ball, but you gotta go back it!"

"NO! DON'T WANNA! COACH YELLED AT ME!"

"Damn it, Eli. If you hate Sour Patch Kids so much, stop buying Sour Patch Kids."

"I wish you were your brother."

"I wish I was dead."

[gunnar hendershow]

"Listen big guy, we know you fumbled the ball, but you gotta go back it!"

"NO! DON'T WANNA! COACH YELLED AT ME!"

My face after a bad League of Legends game.

[The Buscher]

Anyway, onto the game itself. The running game seemed to be an improvement from last year straight away. I liked what I saw out of Jennings and especially Andre Williams in the first quarter when the starters were in. Williams is that much more important this year with David Wilson's NFL future extremely questionable. I had read only like 30% of the Ben McAdoo playbook had been installed, mostly runs, and it showed. Not much at all to talk about in the passing game as they stuck to routine dump offs an such, but I do see that they're focusing on implementing a quick release passing game. Between that and a having a better O-line I think Eli won't be getting swarmed on nearly every pass play.

First string D seemed pretty crisp for this early in the preseason. Again not much to go off of but I did love the moves they made in the offseason and it's nice to finally have some depth in the secondary, so here's hoping they can get through preseason healthy.

Oh and I was pumped that the one big pass play from the Giants was a bomb of a TD to Corey Washington. I tried taking a guess at the 53-man roster on the Giants message board and was one of the few to pick him for the team. The Giants WRs are undersized and while that isn't everything, if the big 6'4" kid can have a big preseason he'd be a guy to mix in, plus I'm not sure he'd clear waivers for the practice squad.

[livid]

Bengals sign Dalton to a 6-year, $115 million extension.

No word on the guaranteed $$$ yet but wow.

[The Buscher]

Nice investment in mediocrity there, Cincy.

[Dan]

I see Dalton as a Joe Flacco guy. Never going to put up huge numbers but a solid enough quarterback to build a team around, they've improved a lot with him at QB even if he isn't brilliant.

[livid]

They really haven't though. They've been in around the same spot since Lewis took over and Dalton still hasn't even won a single playoff game.

[Maxx]

But for Cincinnati, that's like going to 4 straight Super Bowls.

[gunnar hendershow]

That's pretty average pay for an average QB.

[Dan]

They really haven't though. They've been in around the same spot since Lewis took over and Dalton still hasn't even won a single playoff game.

Getting to the playoffs in his first 3 season isn't bad though, similar to Flacco in his first few years.

[livid]

Difference being, Flacco actually won playoff games.

[Dan]

Sure but the stats are comparable, in Flacco's first 2 play-off runs he had a 1/6 TD/INT ratio, the same as Dalton has after his 3 play off games.

Playoff wins are important but for a guy to make the playoffs in his first 3 years isn't bad, they need to push on with him either this year or next year and get that playoff win.

[livid]

My point is that Flacco and Kaepernick got the deals they did because they've had success in the playoffs (not as much as their teams would like, for sure, but success nonetheless) so it's weird for a franchise like the Bengals to award a guy with a similar deal who hasn't even won one playoff game.

The reality is the contract is likely to be similar to Kaepernick's in that the Bengals can get out of it with relative ease in a couple of years, I'm just surprised that the line between the two isn't more distinct.