NFL 2018
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@Sneakdefreak Lewis recommended his friend Hue Jackson for the HC role. Only if they've taken leave of their senses should they consider him
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God bless twitter! For all its toxicity it sometimes helps a brother out especially if that brother supports the 49ers.
So with rumours swirling that WR Antonio Brown wants out of Pittsburgh, 49ers star TE George Kittle sends an innocent tweet to Brown to which he replies:
So now the entire sports media is speculating that Brown is heading to the 49ers, which helps the 49ers' chances in acquiring him. Thanks twitter!
The 49ers also get the 2nd overall pick in this year's draft (Arizona has the first overall pick) which is a highlight on an injury-plagued season. Their receiving corps is pretty good going forward with the best TE in the game in Kittle, rookie Dante Pettis appears to be a legitimate WR1 in the making and Marquise Goodwin has a good rapport with Jimmy G. Adding former Central Michigan star Antonio Brown to the mix would strengthen it of course.
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@Sneakdefreak said in NFL 2018:
Bunch of head coach firings today. Some were obvious like Tampa Bay (Dirk Koetter), NY Jets (Todd Bowles) and Denver (Vance Joseph). Others were a surprise like Miami (Adam Gase) and Arizona (Steve Wilks) where Wilks had only one season in the role.
The big one is the firing of Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis. Many felt he should have been fired years ago as the Bengals struggled in the playoffs but anyone who remembers the Bengals before Lewis will probably know why they hanged onto him for so long.
Lewis and the Bengals apparently was a mutual decision. Eric Bieniemy apparently would choose Bengals over any other vacancy so that might be a factor here.
Todd Monken looks like the strongest HC candidate for my money.
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@Sneakdefreak from what i read, it might cost the Steelers too much to trade him out.
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@mariner4life They might not have a choice, he's just unfollowed them on instagram. That's like, oh mi god, like ya know, a big deal.
Something is definitely rotten within the Steelers organisation when their star RB and now star WR want out for good.
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Mike Mayock (NFL Network draft guru) is the new GM of the Raiders.
It kind of sucks from a fan point of view as he won't be doing the NFL Draft coverage/analysis anymore but it will be fascinating to watch.
You'd have to think the Raiders will be favourites to be on Hard Knocks - Gruden, Vegas, Mayock, 3 x first round picks.
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@Sneakdefreak said in NFL 2018:
@mariner4life They might not have a choice, he's just unfollowed them on instagram. That's like, oh mi god, like ya know, a big deal.
Something is definitely rotten within the Steelers organisation when their star RB and now star WR want out for good.
Hate to see the talent leave but happy to see the divas go - WRs and RBs are replaceable - especially in the NFL unlike NBA - half the NFL is com[posed of undrafted players and many of the gun players were not high draft picks anyway
Steelers need to clean house - they can get away with some high maintenance players but AB and LeVB were just too much and symptomatic of a problem that was a fair while coming - Martavis Bryant, Leveon, Antonio, Big Ben, - way too many high maintenance players
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@SynicBast said in NFL 2018:
@Sneakdefreak said in NFL 2018:
@mariner4life They might not have a choice, he's just unfollowed them on instagram. That's like, oh mi god, like ya know, a big deal.
Something is definitely rotten within the Steelers organisation when their star RB and now star WR want out for good.
Hate to see the talent leave but happy to see the divas go - WRs and RBs are replaceable - especially in the NFL unlike NBA - half the NFL is com[posed of undrafted players and many of the gun players were not high draft picks anyway
Steelers need to clean house - they can get away with some high maintenance players but AB and LeVB were just too much and symptomatic of a problem that was a fair while coming - Martavis Bryant, Leveon, Antonio, Big Ben, - way too many high maintenance players
at what point does Tomlin have to take some responsibility for the mess?
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at what point does Tomlin have to take some responsibility for the mess?
Tomlin has to take some blame in that he has let some of this develop by passively condoning behaviour however in ABs case, the threshold looks to have been reached - the issue is that Tomlin doesn't construct the contracts for players and some of the issue lays with the perception that the divas can go to management over the heads of the coach.
Hence the need to draw a line in the sand - They got rid of Leveon Bell - multiple drug test failures, high cap hit, lots of miles on the clock, great player but...
Now it looks like they can get rid of AB - who also has major issues - some of which are actually more debilitating to the team - not showing to practices, only cares about personal stats, not team outcomes, off-field incidents that could have been way worse, great on field player and work ethic (when he's showing up).
Roethlisberger only has 3 years at most left - he's the last of the Gunslingers -a long and porud tradition but he's also high maintenance - however he is a HoF talent at a position that is the central point in a team - and while he's not the most popular guy in the team - he has not held the team to ransom salary wise - Steelers were only able to get some of the overall talent they have because he took a lower salary package than the market would have expected.I think the Steelers have to start looking at getting a new QB (Dobbs is not the answer at this stage) and Tomlin has to change the team locker room culture for the 2019 season or he will probably get released - Steelers don't change coaches for the sake of it but Tomlin may need to go sadly if the culture cannot be fixed or Steelers are facing a very scary Ravens, resurgent Cleveland Browns plus so many of the non-AFC North teams are getting stronger
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Well, wild card weekend was a mixed bag. Just finished the bears-eagles game.
Spoilers below...
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Eagles win after last seconds field goal hits the upright! Iced by Doug Pedersen - he called his final timeout and iced teh kicker. Good fun game to watch, good defences going at it
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Well, wild card weekend was a mixed bag. Just finished the bears-eagles game.
Spoilers below...
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.
.
.
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Eagles win after last seconds field goal hits the upright! Iced by Doug Pedersen - he called his final timeout and iced teh kicker. Good fun game to watch, good defences going at it
Sounds like the Eagles are coming right at the perfect time
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Well, wild card weekend was a mixed bag. Just finished the bears-eagles game.
Spoilers below...
.
.
.
.
.
.
..
Eagles win after last seconds field goal hits the upright! Iced by Doug Pedersen - he called his final timeout and iced teh kicker. Good fun game to watch, good defences going at it
Sounds like the Eagles are coming right at the perfect time
Foles, eh
Was a deflating way to end a good game. Both sides played well down the stretch - just not sure why that kicker muffed it; everything lokoed good on the hold and snap, and range wasn't a huge problem. Poor bloody bears though, it's a real bummer after the season they ahve had.
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I'm going to go Stephen A Smith right now and state that Nick Foles WILL be the starting Quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles next season and it will be Carson Wentz who is traded for a swag of picks - most likely from a desperate AFC team like Jacksonville or Denver.
Philadelphia is in the business of winning now and Nick Foles allows them to do that. Plus Carson Wentz has had too many serious injuries for the Eagles to think of him as a long term franchise QB.
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Well, wild card weekend was a mixed bag. Just finished the bears-eagles game.
Spoilers below...
.
.
.
.
.
.
..
Eagles win after last seconds field goal hits the upright! Iced by Doug Pedersen - he called his final timeout and iced teh kicker. Good fun game to watch, good defences going at it
Sounds like the Eagles are coming right at the perfect time
Foles, eh
Was a deflating way to end a good game. Both sides played well down the stretch - just not sure why that kicker muffed it; everything lokoed good on the hold and snap, and range wasn't a huge problem. Poor bloody bears though, it's a real bummer after the season they ahve had.
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Well, wild card weekend was a mixed bag. Just finished the bears-eagles game.
Spoilers below...
.
.
.
.
.
.
..
Eagles win after last seconds field goal hits the upright! Iced by Doug Pedersen - he called his final timeout and iced teh kicker. Good fun game to watch, good defences going at it
Sounds like the Eagles are coming right at the perfect time
Foles, eh
Was a deflating way to end a good game. Both sides played well down the stretch - just not sure why that kicker muffed it; everything lokoed good on the hold and snap, and range wasn't a huge problem. Poor bloody bears though, it's a real bummer after the season they ahve had.
Watched it all live and was going for the Bears. Clearly the timeout called by the Eagles just as the ball was snapped and the first attempted kick was good got to him. The wait and pressure clearly got into his head and he fluffed it.
His first, successful, attempt never looked like missing but the second never looked good but that it might sneak in past the left hand upright when bang, off the upright it goes.
And not just upright, but it bounced off the upright, then hits the crossbar and then bounces back into the field of play meaning a miss. If it hit the crossbar and over the other side, the Bears would have won.
And this was the same kicker who hit the uprights 4 times in a game against the earlier this season to lose a game against the Lions.
Then, he did it again, in Minnesota, during the Bears’ final regular season game of the season. So he has form on the board.
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Some interesting coaching hires in the NFL.
It's a copycat league so a lot of teams are looking for that young hotshot offensive mind ala McVay, Shanahan, Nagy.
The Browns have promoted their new Offensive Coordinator Kitchens to Head Coach. Kitchens only took over playcalling partway through the season after Todd Hayley was fired. I can see why they've made the move - he was very successful with Baker Mayfield after taking over the playcalling and this way Baker doesn't have to learn a new offense. Kitchens probably would have been snapped up in another year for another head coaching job if he had stayed as Offensive Coordinator and had success so can see why the Browns made the move now. Plus the interim head coach Williams was the main player in the Saints BountyGate saga a few years ago so I don't think the league would be happy with him as a head coach.
Cardinals hired Kliff Kingsbury whose offenses put up huge numbers in college and he worked with some big time QBs like Mahommes and Baker Mayfield. The issue is as a head coach his college team didn't win and he got fired. I get the sense Cardinals are hoping Rosen makes the same year 2 jump that Goff and Trubisky made.
Meanwhile the Green Bay Packers have hired Matt LaFleur as head coach (insert Dodgeball quote here). He worked under both Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay and the hope is that he can challenge/stimulate Aaron Rodgers. LaFleur wasn't great as Offensive Coordinator the Titans this year but the Titans didn't have much to work with.
On the other end of the scale the Bucs have hired veteran head coach in Bruce Arians. It feels like they'll have 1 last year to make Winston work as the QB otherwise they'll move on. If Winston can't succeed with Arians as coach he is a bust. And Denver have hired veteran Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio as head coach. Not a great week for Chicago - they now lose their Defensive Coordinator. Fangio is an elite defensive coordinator and this was probably his last shot to be a head coach. They will also have veteran OC Kubiak running the offense it seems. The issue in Denver is Elway as GM is by all accounts a control freak so the head coach ends up being a puppet.
The Jets, Bengals and Dolphins are the 3 head coach openings still vacant.
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@KiwiMurph There's a lot of dart throwing there. Kitchens has at least shown he can work with Mayfield. Arians is a good hire, so much for retirement eh? Kingsbury is a big punt, seeing as he hasn't even posted a winning record in college, and he benched Mayfield and couldn't get the best out of Mahommes. New GB coach Matt LeFleur's only claim to fame is his connection with McVey and Shanahan, but GB have Rodgers so don't need a guy whose specialty is developing a QB. Their main problem is they haven't bought any players to surround him with, and their defence is pus. I reckon they would have been better to hire Fangio to run the D as HC and give the offense reins over to Rodgers to run with a guy of his choice. But who knows, perhaps Aaron signed off on the new kid, you would like to hope so or it could end badly
