NFL
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@canefan and who knows how less pressure and more chips on shoulders from late selections play out
And you generally end up with a worse team, coach and organisation when drafted early
completely. No surprises that Mahomes and Brady went to good organisations, while others (Lawrence, Fields) wound up in burning dumpsters.
And Aaron Rodgers. He burns about being passed over by the 49ers but they were crap, and Alex Smith barely escaped the ordeal.
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Teams are on a hiding to nothing. College Football is so very different to NFL football, and yet that is your only way to evaluate. Which is fine for every position on the field except QB.
QB play in this current iteration of the NFL is the single biggest driver to success. If your QB is even a little off, you are cooked. And these gun QBs come out of college where they rack up huge stats, and then they go to pro days and show advanced mechanics (if i hear one more time about Wilson's 50m cannon at his pro day...) and teams have to take them.
And then they get to the NFL as 23 year olds. Most of them go to organisations that are failing everywhere, but the fans and the owners pin their hopes on this fresh faced kid. And these boys face 17 games a year against teams stacked with the very best athletes on the face of the planet. Every team has at least two elite pass rushers. Every team has corners that can lock your passing options away. THe chances your team has an elite run game are low, so you're it kid.
And you are fundamentally aware that every down of the season counts. Most games are no more than 2 score games. An entire season can be undone by one bad play. No pressure kid.
Even the best need help. Joe Burrow is regarded as one who has lived up to expectation. Does that view hold if he doesn't have Ja'marr Chase to just bomb the ball up to so he can make a play? Honestly probably not.
If the kid does look even half the part then the organisation is under instant pressure to pay over the top money to keep them. And that contract becomes a millstone if progress stalls (i am looking at teams like Philadelphia here).
You pick a reveiver in the first round and he busts out? No one but your own fans remembers. You miss on a QB and everyone is talking about it.
It's not all bad though, these busts usually end up on a roster for along time as even a 3rd guy making a few million to carry a clipboard.
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And not to mention the system is stacked against the top guys, as they are more often than not drafted into failing franchises without the support to actually help them develop.
So they end up succeeding in spite of those around them.
Would be an interesting experiment to get in the time machine and see what happens if Mahomes was drafted by the Jets.
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biggest story so far
The Falcons trading for Kirk Cousins
The Falcons drafting a QB in the first round. -
@mariner4life said in NFL:
biggest story so far
The Falcons trading for Kirk Cousins
The Falcons drafting a QB in the first round.Falcons paying Kirk big time ($180M, 4 years) THEN drafting. Remarkable.
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some defensive steals going now.
Draft just showing what we already knew about the most important pieces in constructing a team
QB play
O-line to protect them
Difference making receivers.Then edge rushers and smothering corners.
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and the Chiefs trade up to get a freak speedster receiver for Mahomes to play with
fuck
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@mariner4life intersting aswell that they've also signed up LRZ as a pet project.
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I thought that Cousins had signed a 3 year deal, so at first thought this was just the Packers move - draft in the first round, and sit them for three years while they develop. But nope, Cousins blocks the whole rookie deal (there is an option for the 5th year, but that's a much less significant discount and has to be exercised at the start of year 4.
Ultimately picks are judged by what they do on the field, so if he's good all this will be forgotten.
