NFL General Discussion 2023

Well the Lions go into Arrowhead and get the win on opening night. I wasn’t sure to believe the hype but looks like they will be a tough out this year.

They looked ok but still had many moments they looked like the lions. Chiefs let it slip away chief fans will be roasting that WR Toney. No Kelce makes a huge difference. Lions in our division should be ok but still not going to get to hyped up yet.

A win on the road definitely impressive the crappy nfc north might have a contender

Hoyt4 wrote:

chief fans will be roasting that WR Toney

Man did that guy have an awful game. Dropped passes every time and one that directly led to a pick 6 for the Lions. They need to bench him. They have capable other receivers that can actually catch a ball that hits them in the hands.

The Lions look like the team that won 8 of their final 10 games last season, and finished 9-8. A lot of people seem to forget that. I have them pegged at 11-6 and winning the north. Restore the roar.

What about Jawaan Taylor False Starting virtually every passing play? I’m not totally on board with him lining up behind the belt of the guard. I never got a good eye on that. But the false starts were extremely obvious and I think he was only called once.

The false start deal was repeatedly pretty obvious. My guess is that as an official on opening night, AT KC the defending SB champs in a tight game…there is pretty big pressure to NOT impact the game from an official’s perspective. It should have been flagged from the very start so that it was addressed.

As for the lining up in the backfield, this too was an obvious penalty. However it is widespread and abused every single game in the league. I’d equate this penalty to the travel in the NBA. It’s not enforced as intended from years ago and gives the offense a uniform advantage all around. Today’s edge rushers are now the NFL’s worst enemy. They have the ability to change the course of an entire franchise and cost the league money on every single play with 280# dudes running 4.5 40s going after $200 million+ quarterbacks. I think the NFL is just looking the other way on that rule solely knowing it helps to protect QBs from most teams’ best athletes.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Hoyt4 wrote:</div>
chief fans will be roasting that WR Toney

The Lions look like the team that won 8 of their final 10 games last season, and finished 9-8. A lot of people seem to forget that. I have them pegged at 11-6 and winning the north. Restore the roar.

Exactly. And you still have guys in the Vikings thread ripping the Lions and saying the Vikings are a 11-12 win team…Lions pretty much man handled the Vikes in December last year so that should have given you a hint of what was in store. Lions are just a more talented team than the Vikings at this point.

stout93 wrote:

Exactly. And you still have guys in the Vikings thread ripping the Lions and saying the Vikings are a 11-12 win team…Lions pretty much man handled the Vikes in December last year so that should have given you a hint of what was in store. Lions are just a more talented team than the Vikings at this point.

I could see either team winning the division to be honest. I just personally also think that the Lions are a better team on paper and we got a taste of that last night. They are the betting favorites to win the division, and have the 4th best odds to win the NFC at 22-1, behind the Eagles, 49ers, and Cowboys.

Lions 11-6
Vikings 10-7
Bears, Packers somewhere below that

I’m a Vikings fan, but I don’t see how they would have won on the road last night against the Chiefs.

Agree Toney was miserable and probably cost them the game.

Honestly i think both the Lions and Chiefs played pretty poorly last night, although the Lions played better. If Kelce plays the Lions dont win that game. If Kelce and Chris Jones play in that game the Lions might have lost by double digits. Dont get me wrong, im not a Lions hater. I am very tired of hearing the hype and i dont even want to watch the NFL media national pundits this week slobber all over them saying they are the next dynasty but they are a very talented team that seems well coached.

Its a long season. This was a great win for them. I expect them to finish the season with a winning record but im not ready to punch their ticket to the SB yet

The Lions did not impress me that much last night, offensively anyway. The win will be big for NFC North implications imo. Vikings and Lions will have very similar records is my prediction.

I would not put too much stock into final season predictions on a Week 1, TNF game.

Last year to start the season the 49ers lost to THE BEARS by 9

I think the Chiefs are a playoff team, but would probably not be my SB pick from the AFC with the current WRs as assembled. Their defense is opportunistic but not a real top tier NFL unit by any means.

I think the Lions will be in a dog fight with the Vikings to win the NFC North. The best coached teams seem to really change as the season progresses (see 49ers & Lions last year). I think the Vikings could do the opposite of their usual season and start off with a mediocre or even poor record before turning it on and figuring things out with that coaching staff and young defense. For years it’s seemed when they’re 4-0 or 6-1 Vikings faithful were talking SB before things fell apart. This year’s scenario seems the opposite. The Packers have a favorable schedule to start but are a team that I don’t see accelerating through the finish and faltering around 7-10 or 8-9. The Bears are still the Bears in my book. I’ve heard writers and fans professing their gratitude that they “finally found a qb” while to me it seems like a do or die year for Fields. Some nice rushing stats and athleticism has yet to amount to wins. The rest of the roster still has a long ways to go.

wins on the road in the NFL are legit. Lions deserved it as they played better. In the end Lions will do Lion things and probably wet the bed. Campbell is a hard guy to root against tho. wouldn’t even hurt my feelings if they win the division.

Anyone but the Peckers………..FTP

The refs embarrassed themselves, as did that KC receiver. The Lions were opportunistic. It’s tough to win when a receiver who can get open can’t catch a ball. Those no-calls on the false starts and that crappy receiver just sucked the life out of the game for me.

I absolutely believe the Lions probably have a better squad/coaching staff than they have in a very long time. That said, I still view the Vikings as favorites in the division, “valid until proven fraudulent” if you will.

If the Lions do take the division I think they will do so on the backs of the offensive/defensive lines, and likewise I believe the only way the vikings make a significant regression is due to shoddy performance at the line of scrimmage.

Vikes have probably the least talented RB, DL and LB groups in all the NFL..

stout93 wrote:

Vikes have probably the least talented RB, DL and LB groups in all the NFL..

You glean that nugget from watching the pre-season games?

yes they lost some vets on D but the defense cannot be any worse than last year. No way!

BFlo was the best signing on the defense. I expect a mid of the road D and an above average offense. Vikes will be a favorite to win the division

eyeguy507 wrote:

BFlo was the best signing on the defense. I expect a mid of the road D and an above average offense. Vikes will be a favorite to win the division

Even a middling defense would be a massive improvement on defense. I’d personally be happy with about a 20th ranked defense instead of 31.

The offense will be top 10, maybe top 5. I don’t think Mattison for Cook is that much of a downgrade at RB, and Osborne/Addison isn’t a downgrade from an aging Thelen.

The Lions are favored in the division though. That was the case when training camp started, in the preseason, and still is the case today. You can check the odds of you want to.

eyeguy507 wrote:

yes they lost some vets on D but the defense cannot be any worse than last year. No way!

BFlo was the best signing on the defense. I expect a mid of the road D and an above average offense. Vikes will be a favorite to win the division

Folks are seriously over estimating what Flores will be able to do with the defense. You still need talent.

By the way…Vegas favors the Lions to win the division….

Thought that the 49ers, Packers, and Cowboys all looked very impressive yesterday. The Giants got embarrassed on national TV last night. The Dallas defense is just swarming.

We’ll find how if the Jets play tonight can match their offseason hype when they host the Bills.

The Giants are going to regret all that $$$ handed out to Daniel Jones. Their roster is just not that good – period. I think they vastly overachieved last year and are now going to be a 8 win team.

I would not be shocked to see Dallas win the NFC East. The Eagles are good, but are not immune to losing to competitive teams. There is a lot more film out there on their packages, Hurts tendencies, and so on after last years’ run.

The Bears are going to be bad yet again.

The Bengals got embarrassed.

buckybadger wrote:

I think they vastly overachieved last year and are now going to be a 8 win team.

They only won 9 games last season you know. 8 wins this year would only be 1 game worse. Based on what I saw last night, they might be lucky to get to 5 or 6 wins.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
I think they vastly overachieved last year and are now going to be a 8 win team.

They only won 9 games last season you know. 8 wins this year would only be 1 game worse. Based on what I saw last night, they might be lucky to get to 5 or 6 wins.

They made the playoffs by winning 9 games in a tough division and they beat someone in the playoffs too…

Yes 8 would be probably be remarkable without some drastic changes from what happened last night.

buckybadger wrote:

The Giants are going to regret all that $$$ handed out to Daniel Jones. Their roster is just not that good – period. I think they vastly overachieved last year and are now going to be a 8 win team.

I would not be shocked to see Dallas win the NFC East. The Eagles are good, but are not immune to losing to competitive teams. There is a lot more film out there on their packages, Hurts tendencies, and so on after last years’ run.

The Bears are going to be bad yet again.

The Bengals got embarrassed.

Would you rather be the Giants with Daniel Jones as the guy or the Bears with Fields? Bears will have to cut bait or do a similar deal to Jones’ with Fields, and just traded the #1 pick.

Plenty of film out there on every team that returns their starting QB and Coach. Hurts is more likely to get injured, but pretty doubtful any team does anything with a backup QB.

I know people love overreacting to the NFL, but it really is any given sunday. And as Zimmer used to say, you don’t know anything about anyone until after week 4. Carson Wentz thru for 300 yards and 4 TD’s in week one LAST YEAR! ;-P

Tough to say. One could argue the Bears have more flexibility, and if BOTH teams have a dismal year – that’s the upper hand. The Giants have the better roster as assembled but after watching a bit last night have a definite ceiling.

The Bears still have the freedom to evaluate and make the decision. If he is terrible this year or they deem they cannot win with him there are a lot more options in the draft this year than the previous year. The Giants now have “their guy” for better or worse. Even if they tank they have guaranteed money at a spot tied up that they cannot win with.

If I am the Bears GM and they don’t win 7+ games, I’d be loading the draft picks back into the box and giving it another shake at QB.

Agreed Bucky, I think the Bears are in a better situation and will be going after another QB at the top of the draft. Third time since Trubisky was drafted in 2017. FYI Cousins threw for 344 yesterday, which is 59 yards more than Fields best game as a pro.

Josh Allen is overrated.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Josh Allen is overrated.

Might be jumping the gun a bit there, but he sure had a rough one last night! Jets Defense is legit tho and will do this to a bunch of teams this year. Tom Brady flying out to the Meadowlands today?!?

The power rankings have the Cowboys at the top after week 1, followed by the 49ers, Dolphins, Lions, Eagles, and Packers. Hard to argue that the Cowboys and 49ers don’t deserve the top 2 spots after what they did in week 1.