kungfoodude

This isn't a good Bills team, though. That's the rub. I think if Sean Payton really pushes to run the ball down their throats, they can easilu beat Buffalo. But....I don't think Payton has that in him. He is too arrogant about his offensive playcalling prowess to just sit back and play 3 yards and a cloud of dust. The NFC is brutal. You have a ton of exceptional defenses but only one elite QB(Stafford) and one potentially elite QB(Williams). Darnold and Purdy are just trying to not fug it up. Purdy can catch some magic but IDK if it can be sustained the whole playoffs. Darnold is just waiting to implode. He has been in the bottom quarter of QB's in the NFL statistically since the 49ers comeback win. That is what is gonna be interesting to watch about Houston and Seattle, if they are able to overcome having such bad QB's.

J. Stew is mostly homer and also isn't ever going to be a neutral party for a ton of reasons. On the Panthers payroll, ACTUAL fan of the team, experience as an NFL player, etc, etc. Leave the man and his opinions alone and don't trash a former Panthers great for something so trivial. You don't have to agree. He isn't trying to brainwash anyone.

It's divisional eve, so let's get some early thoughts and predictions in. Predictions Buffalo 24, Denver 23 San Francisco 20, Seattle 12 Houston 27, New England 13 Chicago 31, St. Louis(yes) 28 Thoughts - Josh Allen has probably never had an easier path of opposing QB's in his NFL career. Nix and Stroud/Maye are all very young, very unproven in the playoffs and haven't been in the same big game situations that Allen has. I am not saying this is his year, but I am not envisioning many years in the future where he is going to avoid Jackson and Mahomes. - SF vs. Seattle is a fun test of two extremely TO prone gunslingers. I give the edge to SF, despite their elite defense because I suspect that Darnold will be unable to recover from his mistakes the same way Purdy sometimes is. Darnold is averaging 174 yards passing and has 0 total TD's against SF this season. - CJ Stroud was exceptionally bad versus the Steelers. 3 sacks, 5 fumbles(2 lost) and 1 INT. Maye also struggled tremendously with 3 TO's. Which defense will be able to take advantage of the young QB's more effectively? I am leaning towards Houston and their +17 TO differential defense(2nd in the NFL). - Bears/Rams just has Rams blowout written all over it. Sound familiar? We also were able to make St. Louis(YES) have to fight and claw for a victory. In a gunslinging battle, that obviously favors Matt Staf.... Caleb Williams has amassed an incredible 7 4th Quarter Comebacks and Game Winning Drives in the 2025 regular and postseason. And these aren't Bryce Young GWDs. He has seemed to have an extra gear that is hard to fathom considering he had the lowest CPOE in the NFL during the regular season and an insane -14.0 CPOE in the comeback win versus Green Bay. There is just something about this kid. Bears win.

Media jobs pay so much that unless he just has a truly unquenchable competitive fire, he has no reason to return.

People sometimes forget that not only is the NFL a large corporation but it has 32 vice presidents that own a fug load of non-NFL corporations. It's basically a corporate country club.

https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-coaching-gm-tracker-latest-news-interviews-developments-2026-hiring-cycle The NFL has a great tracker for a the candidates and openings.

They operate the exact same way as most large corporations do, TBH.

Tua is a much worse situation than Bryce. Tua continued to improve to being elite or near elite, garnering a mega deal and face of the franchise hype. Then the wheels fell off for various reasons. With Bryce, he has improved from absolutely dreadful to just simply bad. There shouldn't be an illusions about being elite or a mega deal being the face of a franchise. Well....if we had logical or rational people leading the franchise anyway.

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47622479/inside-pittsburgh-steelers-coach-mike-tomlin-decision-walk-away-step-last-game Great article, worth the read. It does sound like he made the decision to step down weeks ago and he has no intention of coming back at least for a year. I wouldn't be surprised if he has a path similar to Cowher and never returns.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/47625428/oklahoma-qb-mateer-lb-lewis-return-final-season

It's called being in the NFC South. You forgot that quickly how we got in, huh?

Yes, I provided it. You didn't.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/47625428/oklahoma-qb-mateer-lb-lewis-return-final-season There goes another one.

There was. I remember because of how much fun I made of it at the time.

Maybe. This was also supposed to be a very strong QB class and it turned out not to be(I never bought into this idea, FWIW). We will see how it goes and who is available.

Hunt should probably be left alone and then moved after 2026 or restructured to make that cut less cap impactful. We cannot keep paying a guy that much at RG, especially when he isn't a truly elite IOL. Brown is definitely a candidate for some restructuring and maybe an extension. Horn's deal is freshly inked and it's very favorable for us. We can get out of it with fairly miminal cap implications in 2027. I wouldn't touch that one.

Yes, this has happened several times already. Moore being a current example. It is overwhelmingly a net positive for the NFL.

You also have the option to punt and tag him the next season if he doesn't get any field time. For some context, Rashawn Slater also suffered a patellar tendon tear prior to the 2025 season. So we might get an advanced look at that recovery to an extent. I do think an OT SHOULD have been in the early draft plans even prior to Ikey's injury. Moton's situation alone should have made that a priority.

I have a mistrust of both QBR and Total QBR because of the opaque nature of them. They aren't terrible to bounce off other QB measures/metrics but I would agree none of these are a good idea to use in a vacuum.

The concussions spaced so close together is very worrisome.

QB quality has been up and down long before the NIL. In the end, I think it will have a big net positive NFL impact on QB specifically as it has kept QB's that would have been incentivized to leave early to stay in school and either get more development or get more game tape to evaluate properly. This has already been evident with a lot of players dropping precipitously as they stay in college and prove they are not first round caliber QB's. The transfer portal has also had a big net positive impact on prospects overall because it gives you the ability to evaluate them in different systems and situations. It has removed a ton of risk from NFL evaluations as a result.

It makes no sense to have two ultra high priced OG's and Lewis is actually exceptional in run blocking and pass protection. Hunt is basically an exceptional run blocker only.

I think we will know. Neither Dan nor Dave came from heavy 3-4 defenses in their background. If we go 3-4 defensive coordinator again, I believe you have your answer.

If any of the things were true about Brian Flores, I would add him. Edit: Brian Daboll, as well. What a raging cVnt that guy was.

It's gonna be an interesting one to see that search. One has to assume they will go young coach again. Likely defensive, so Minter, Weaver, Evero all fit that mold. It could be that Evero is a better HC than he is a DC but I question how someone who seems so poor at talent evaluation and has a very flawed defensive strategy will excel at that. Hey, hopefully we find out. I know it could certainly get worse on that side of the ball for us but I suppose luckily it can't actually get that much worse than being dead last and below average. As many changes as we can make to our coaching staff, all the better.