2020 Miscellaneous NFL News

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm going to go out on a small to medium-sized limb and predict that the Chiefs will not make it to the Super Bowl.

 

This was a popular discussion with my family yesterday- the question was 'are the Packers good enough to beat the Chiefs,' and my response was that I'm not sure the Cheifs make it there. They remind me a lot of the '11 Packers, honestly. Ugly defense, great QB/offensive play, but may have played their best football too early in the season and kind of 'uglied' their way into the playoffs. I think you can make a really good case for 4-5 of the AFC teams to make the Super Bowl, and I think the pathway there is harder than in the NFC.

I don't disagree with you, but I looked at the numbers just now. The AFC went 35-28-1 against the NFC this year. That is a pretty good margin, and to have 7 teams with 11 or more wins makes their playoff field look strong. But, three of the four divisions went exactly .500 (24-24) head to head in their intra-conference games. The AFC North got to feed on the NFC East, and three of their teams made the playoffs because of it. BAL, CLE, PIT went 11-1 against the NFC East. I think Pittsburgh has been exposed in the last month, and, without knowing tiebreakers, if either Baltimore or Cleveland plays any other NFC division, they probably don't go 4-0 and one of them probably isn't still alive today.

 

The Packers meanwhile embarrassed the 4th seed in the AFC, easily beat Houston, looked like crap against Jacksonville, but would have gone 4-0 without that laughable self-destruction in Indy, another playoff team.

 

The Bills might be more of a matchup issue for the Packers than the Chiefs. But if the question is can the Packers beat ___? I think the answer is yes, they can beat anyone...whereas last year there were a couple teams I would have said no to that question.

[PeaveyFury]

Chargers fire Anthony Lynn. If you knew that Anthony Lynn was the Chargers' Head Coach, you're one better than me....

[pacopete4]

Another minority fired at the first sight of trouble. Continues to be a terrible look for the NFL.

[PeaveyFury]

Another minority fired at the first sight of trouble. Continues to be a terrible look for the NFL.

 

He was 5-11 last year, so I'm not sure 'first sign of trouble' is fair....

[jerichoholicninja]

Another minority fired at the first sight of trouble. Continues to be a terrible look for the NFL.

 

He's been bad for a couple years. If a trainer doesn't puncture Tyrod Taylor's lung they probably would have been battling for the #1 pick.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Another minority fired at the first sight of trouble. Continues to be a terrible look for the NFL.

 

He was their coach for the last 4 seasons - they went 9-7, 12-4, 5-11, and now 7-9. Before this year Lynn signed just a 1-yr extension through 2021 after a 5-11 season, which in NFL terms is a put up or shut up type deal for a coach. Had they canned him at the first sight of trouble he would have been fired last year.

[adambr2]

Yeah the race card is not a good look on this one. Had you used Jim Caldwell/Matt Patricia as your example I could see that.

 

Lynn is also so woefully inept at clock management that that alone is a serious detriment to his ability to coach a team.

[homer]

Yeah Lynn is just a bad coach.

[owbc]

There's way more to diversifying an organization than hiring POC coaches and hoping things work out. They have to invest in mentoring and training. Otherwise there will never be enough qualified candidates. I know the NFL has some initiatives in that vein which is a good thing.

[GAME05]

1st and 10 with 22 seconds left and Seattle completes a pass instead of taking a knee. Pretty sure SF was out of timeouts. Was a small scuffle at the end of the game, but can't believe that didn't cause an all out brawl.

 

The guy who caught the pass was one catch away from triggering a contract bonus. That one additional catch made him $500,000. I'd venture to guess Wilson takes a knee if he's not open and that a bigger brawl isn't started because many on SF probably knew the deal.

 

I heard it was $100K, but I guess Wilson did it on his own and Pete didn't know about it. Either way, after hearing the full story I have no issue with it and I doubt the 49ers do either.

 

Yeah it could well be that amount and not what I'd quoted. The story I heard it in listed off a good few players who hit or missed incentives, so it's more likely I mixed some of them up.

[adambr2]

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/eagles-players-reportedly-had-restrained-170940811.html

 

Losing the respect of your team is a big, big thing.

 

There's no way I'll be convinced that this Doug Pederson/Sudfeld/Hurts thing is just a big nothing burger that won't matter next year.

[jerichoholicninja]

If Doug really wanted to tank the game wouldn't it have been easier to just call bad plays? The whole thing seems stupid regardless of what his real reasons were.

[HarveysWBs]

So Kevin Stefanski and two other Cleveland coaches tested positive today (or perhaps yesterday?). Perhaps the celebration of a successful pandemic season for the NFL was just a tad premature. Play callers and/or star players going down would ruin the postseason in a heartbeat. You have to figure being in a small market, less dense urban area with fewer tempting and risky social environments could be another advantage for the Packers. Here’s hoping they can dodge the plague bullet for three more games!

[jerichoholicninja]

Instead of Running Out the Clock Against the 49ers, Russell Wilson Showed Remarkable Leadership

 

I don't know if I would say that changing a play to spend $100,000 of someone else's money is remarkable leadership.

[adambr2]

Hopefully the Allen family can find a way to make ends meet without that 100K.

[jerichoholicninja]

I agree it's pennies for an NFL team. If he would have went to Caroll and said we need to get him a catch for his bonus so let's run a play for him or paid out of his own pocket or got his teammates to pool their money to pay the bonus that would be leadership. Even though Wilson didn't benefit from what he did it seems like an awfully selfish act.

[CheezWizHed]

I'm glad there was at least a "positive" reason for doing this, but he needs to realize that he makes himself look like a tool for when he did it in the game.

[adambr2]

I'm glad there was at least a "positive" reason for doing this, but he needs to realize that he makes himself look like a tool for when he did it in the game.

 

I doubt anyone was even aware of it until the end. I'm sure Moore was not reminding people about the clause hoping to get the ball, and it was a competitive game with a lot at stake where I'm sure the Seahawks had bigger things in mind most of the game than individual incentives. You really wouldn't force a play like that until garbage time.

 

I don't have a problem with it at all. I still would have found a jumped route and pick 6 to be hilarious, though.

[Underachiever]

It was as contrived as Strahan's sack of Favre.

[adambr2]

It was as contrived as Strahan's sack of Favre.

 

That one I did have a big problem with. Your offensive line worked very hard to make sure that that record didn't happen on their watch and you just hand it to an opponent.

 

Also, I would look at any record obtained this way a little differently than an incentive. If that was David Moore's 150th catch of the season and he obtained it that way in a victory formation time I would have had a lot more issue with it.

[HiAndTight]

Instead of Running Out the Clock Against the 49ers, Russell Wilson Showed Remarkable Leadership

 

I don't know if I would say that changing a play to spend $100,000 of someone else's money is remarkable leadership.

 

I would guess to the players, they view it as remarkable leadership. You're talking about a guy who could very well be out of the league next year and who hasn't made that much money. That's a giant bonus for him to hit.

 

I'm a fan of that move...and I think it's the exact type of thing Rodgers would do.

[nate82]

Pederson has been fired.

 

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/doug-pederson-fired-as-eagles-head-coach-three-years-after-leading-franchise-to-super-bowl-per-report/

[PeaveyFury]

A little surprising, I guess. I assumed he was doing the 'organizational soldier' thing with the last game, but I wonder if the push-back was far more severe than their F.O. expected.

 

He'll get another crack at it for sure. Honestly, I'm glad in a way that Zimmer and Nagy are safe, as Pederson seems likely to have success elsewhere and I don't want him close to the North.

[bjkrautk]

A little surprising, I guess. I assumed he was doing the 'organizational soldier' thing with the last game, but I wonder if the push-back was far more severe than their F.O. expected.

 

He'll get another crack at it for sure. Honestly, I'm glad in a way that Zimmer and Nagy are safe, as Pederson seems likely to have success elsewhere and I don't want him close to the North.

 

Zimmer, I understand, as the Vikings scrapped the expensive parts of the defense, and plugged in a lot of rookies, particularly in the secondary.

 

I have no idea what the "plan" is in Chicago, where their starting quarterback is now a free agent, and the backup QB they traded for to replace that QB was benched for said mediocre starter....who only managed to put up 9 points in a playoff game the team backed into (6 of which were scored on the last play of the game).

 

Considering Foles is on the roster for another 2 years, I have to wonder whether today's firing gives Chicago's front office something to think about.

[GAME05]

I wonder how much of a say the NFL had in it. Obviously, losing on purpose hurts the brand. Maybe they would have told the Eagles owner there would be an investigation and they could lose a draft pick, and that became the tipping point to firing him and avoiding all that.