trueblade

Fields might have to site that one out. He hurt is non-throwing shoulder on Sunday. That injury is a bigger deal for a QB like Fields who wants to use his legs and arm to beat you.

I think people misunderstood. It's not a list of changes I hope they make. I'm not a fan of any of them. It was a list built on the presupposition that the NFL will want changes this off-season to increase scoring and speculating on what those changes might be.

That wasn't the question.

They could implement any of these: 1. Relax the rules in pre-snap motion. Things like allowing two players to be moving at once or allow an offensive player to move towards the line of scrimmage before the snap. 2. Eliminate the punt. Boring play and would change play calling. Plus some short fields create cheap points. [Patriots probably not a fan of this after today...] 3. Make DL twists and stunts illegal. 4. Make the mugg look (LBs in the A-gaps) illegal. 5. Make it illegal for the Mike Linebacker to go more than 5-yards down field until the ball is passed or handed off.

Pretty easy to get knocked back down to 8 or 9. I don't see much point in worrying about draft position yet.

January 2020: Is Joe Burrow just a young quarterback catching magic in a bottle for one spectacular season thanks to the cast surrounding him full of future NFL receivers? This is the same guy who lost to Feleipe Franks, got skunked by Bama.

One issue you can run into is that kind of offense can lead to this: Another is you just won't be able to hang with a top flight offense (which Green Bay isn't this year.)

Flip a coin. They are pretty close in the projections and have decent matchups.

Fitterer/Rhule demonstrated too large of an appetite for free agents to hope for compensatory picks. If that continues with Fitterer/new HC, we will sign enough to offset any losses. That said, I've been really happy that they did sign Bozeman and Corbett because the line has been much improved.

This is from February of 2021 so it might have changed since then, but this is what they were saying then: "In ranking the top-10 most aggressive head coaches by Nick Shook of NFL Network, Reich rounded out the list at No. 10. Reich put his team’s fortunes in the hands of his veteran signal-caller in 2020, trusting Philip Rivers to get the job done in a variety of aggressive categories. He turned to Rivers to convert on fourth down, going for it at the seventh-highest rate of the entire league and converting 17 of 26 attempts. He also put his faith in Rivers when going for two, tying for 11th in two-point conversion attempt rate at 10 percent, and landed 14th and 15th, respectively, in downfield pass percentage (32.2) and total downfield passes (178). This created an interesting balance between aggressive passing and taking the open man, as Indy finished with an air yards to sticks of +0.5, which ranked 27th in the NFL. When Reich could add in rookie Jonathan Taylor’s second-half breakout, it made for a well-rounded offense that could afford to take risks. Defensively, it was more bend but don’t break, with the Colts blitzing at a rate of just 19.1 percent (31st). The offensive-minded Reich put his daring ambitions on the shoulders of the group possessing the ball, and it got Indianapolis back to the playoffs."

The larger concern I have is that the team seems to be already putting out (through Gantt, who they employ) that they may pass on a QB.

Gantt chose a draft that supported his point. If he wanted to make a different point, he would have used 2005. It's just what people in his position do. Here's how he could have written it: In 2005, the Raiders, because “QBs are risky, so let’s just take the “sure thing” player and enjoy them because it’s better than taking a QB and failing," used their first round pick on cornerback Fabian Washington. The Packers settled for Aaron Rodgers. Two picks later, the Seahawks , because “QBs are risky, so let’s just take the “sure thing” player and enjoy them because it’s better than taking a QB and failing," took center Chris Spencer. One of those cats is going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday soon, and it ain't Fabian Washington or Chris Spencer.

Andrews sat out the Saints game, but has the potential to return this week. Be sure to check his practice participation throughout the week.

Decided to expand to all 32 because of trade ups: Highly likely to draft a 1st round QB- 4 WAS, NO, IND, CAR Somewhat likely to draft a 1st round QB (current guy is nothing more than a bridge) - 3 DET, ATL, SEA Possible they take a 1st round QB - 2 HOU, TEN Unlikely to take a 1st round QB, willing to or have to roll with their current QB - 6 PIT, NE, NYJ, DEN, MIN, SF Unlikely to take a 1st round QB, but that could change before the draft - 7 GB, ARZ, LV, TB, BAL, NYG, LAR No chance they take a 1st round QB - 11 PHI, JAX, CHI, KC, LAC, MIA, BUF, CLE, CIN, DAL

Of those 13 teams, only PHI definitely won't take an early 1st QB. PIT, JAX, CHI also seem unlikely to take an early 1st round QB. I could see any of the others taking an early 1st round QB.

Off-topic, but I don't know how you guys survive games like MIN-BUF yesterday.

Panthers starting QB.

I fear the Ravens game will look a lot like the Bengals game.

[decloak nerd mode] Chess uses an ELO system (a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess). I don't knw if it has specifically happened in chess, but in other games that that do use an ELO rating system to determine opponents, there have been plenty of instances of people "down ranking" - throwing games to get an easier opponent. [reengage nerd cloak]

The Cincinnati game was enough for me to say we definitely need to look somewhere else. Beating another bad team in Atlanta didn't really change my opinion much.

It's important context. Bosa has equaled Burns production and played a full season less games.