2017 NFL Off-Season Thread

[Maxx]

I jumped in at the "Well who would you rather have a for a single season, while making a Super Bowl push" portion, and my answer was oh, Rice even more then.  Particularly 1987 Rice who was essentially scoring a TD on every 3 catches.

[Your Mom]

Can you imagine if Moss was with Brady his whole career though?  

[Maxx]

I imagine he'd still have a shitty attitude and get dumped by Belichick just how it happened.  Moss had the chance to continue to play with Tom Brady, he decided to act the same way he did for his entire career, ruin it, and get dumped.

The flaw in all these scenarios where Moss is better or could be better than Rice is that they involve Randy Moss not acting like Randy Moss. 

[Meacon Keaton]

I can't even imagine what Rice would have done if he had played in the the last fifteen years instead of the 80's and 90's. If he had played on a team with a quarterback who threw the ball 50-60 times a game like some QB's do nowadays. Rice did what he did with Montana and Young throwing the ball like 30 times. And Rice had to go across the middle when receivers were still getting laid the hell out. And Rice played when you weren't allowed to wear gloves that are essentially sticky grip. 

In short: Rice is by far the best receiver ever. Moss may be #2, but a Rice vs. Moss comparison isn't even close.

[gunnar hendershow]

Moss would be a certain #2 if he didn't waste away in apathy for a number of years during his prime. I don't really know how I'd rank a top 5 WRs outside of Rice being a certain #1. Moss, Owens, Johnson are all probable locks for that just due to each being such a physical freak they could blow a game wide open on their own. Tim Brown deserves a nod, as do a few other of the late 80s, early 90s WRs who still had to compete with a game still heavily focused on the ground game and passes over the middle. Not to mention the illegal contact rule completely opened it up for downfield receivers in the past decade.

There were great WRs before Rice mind you, but hard to say any of them are really in the top 5 all-time. 

[TCO]

On 7/22/2017 at 02:23, Meacon said:

 And Rice played when you weren't allowed to wear gloves that are essentially sticky grip. 

Wasn't Rice (along with others at the time) notorious for using stickum on his gloves which is so effective it was banned?

[Your Mom]

Yeah I remember Rice admitting that and people kinda freaking out

[Lineker]

RG3 working out for the Chargers.

[Lineker]

NFL.com just got a massive redesign. Much more mobile/tablet-friendly now. 

[The Buscher]

Out of 178 donated brains of former football players studied, CTE was found in:
3 of 14 high school players
48 of 53 college players
110 of 111 NFL players

[Meacon Keaton]

Jesus.

[Pooker]

Is it really that surprising tho? You're wearing a helmet, you're getting hit over and over, and you're expected to just man up and keep playing. I would be more interested to know what positions those players played.

It really sucks because outside of totally changing the game, there's nothing that can be done about it.

[The Buscher]

Unsurprising?  No.

But despite football being one of my biggest passions, those numbers make me question whether the sport should even be played anymore.

[TCO]

I think as long as much as possible is being done in regards to safety and the players know the extent of the risk then it'll never stop. There's too much money on the table for the players to not play. 

For some its this or a life of struggling. Its a simple choice.

What will be interesting is the rise of association football in the states. It's a much safer, kid-friendly sport that is doing nothing but growing. It'll be interesting to see where the youth goes in the future.

[Pizza]

3 hours ago, Busch Strowman said:

48 of 53 college players

Presumably these are players who never made it to the NFL. That's what freaks me out. The amount of people who destroy themselves for a dream they never attain and never get paid a dime for it. 

[Pooker]

I wonder how that could play into the college players should be paid argument.

[livid]

I am curious what the results of these tests will look like in the future as the tweaks for safety become larger and more important but it may very well end up being negligible. 

This topic is tough for me because while I love football, I also have a personal history with concussions (including having post-concussion syndrome for the better part of a year) and it's hard not to wonder if the hits to the head from playing football have altered my brain chemistry. That being said, I'm still not sure I wouldn't play it again.

[gunnar hendershow]

There's a part of me that think there's a safer helmet out there that will prevent concussions. But there's also a part of me that knows as long as guys move as fast as they do and are as big as they are there's gonna be a whiplash effect from collisions of any kind.

I do think you'll see more of guys pursuing other sports, with football as a last resort for talented multi-sport athletes. The money in football is less than that in baseball and basketball already. 

[Lineker]

So Lucky Whitehead didn't do it - he was cut anyway though!

[gunnar hendershow]

He's had a rough couple of weeks and afaik the NFL has no way for a team who cut a guy to uncut him.

If there's a silver lining for him it's that he'll get signed somewhere. And since Andrew Hawkins just retired the Pats need a WR. So maybe he wins a Super Bowl out of this whole deal.