NFL General Discussion 2023

Remember that year when the Chargers lived up to the annual hype and met or exceeded their expectations for the season?!?!?!

….yeah, me neither

man the bills are runnning all over the dallas defense. think they got 175 yards onthe ground already!

Dallas is a juggernaut at home but they are only a .500 team on the road. If they finish as the 5 seed all their playoff games will be on the road. That’s a tough sell to win 3 games as a road team in the post season.

They also play the Dolphins next week, on the road.

The only thing that salvaged an ugly weekend of football was that buffalo put a beat down on the Cowboys. I hate the cowboy !!! Even worse than Greenbay, and that’s saying a lot

I heard the Cowboys have 1 win vs a team with a .500 or better record. This is the worst year of football I remember, especially among the “best” teams. They are all beatable. Some lower seed is going to get hot at the right time and take a trip to the SB this year I think.

BigWerm wrote:

I heard the Cowboys have 1 win vs a team with a .500 or better record.

Its actually 2 because when they beat Seattle, the Seahawks had a .500 record. The other one was 8 days ago when they throttled the Eagles (at home).

Until yesterday’s game, Prescott was the leading candidate for MVP. Now its Brock Purdy.

fishthumper wrote:

The only thing that salvaged an ugly weekend of football was that buffalo put a beat down on the Cowboys. I hate the cowboy !!! Even worse than Greenbay, and that’s saying a lot

x2 !

-J.

And that beatdown should stop the silly talk about Dak being MVP….

BigWerm wrote:

Some lower seed is going to get hot at the right time and take a trip to the SB this year I think

Right now that Team could be Buffalo. They are starting to play good football at the right time. Its been a crazy year this year. Top teams seem to be getting beat almost weekly.

big_g wrote:

And that beatdown should stop the silly talk about Dak being MVP….

Here are the current Odds of the MVP race:

Favorites to Win NFL MVP
NAME TEAM ODDS NEXT WEEK OPPONENT
Brock Purdy 49ers -200 Cardinals (Sunday, December 17)
Dak Prescott Cowboys +600 Bills (Sunday, December 17)
Lamar Jackson Ravens +600 Jaguars (Sunday, December 17)
Josh Allen Bills +1000 Cowboys (Sunday, December 17)
Jalen Hurts Eagles +1100 Seahawks (Monday, December 18)
Christian McCaffrey 49ers +2000 Cardinals (Sunday, December 17)
Patrick Mahomes II Chiefs +2200 Patriots (Sunday, December 17)
Tyreek Hill Dolphins +2500 Jets (Sunday, December 17)
Tua Tagovailoa Dolphins +2500 Jets (Sunday, December 17)
Trevor Lawrence Jaguars +3000 Ravens (Sunday, December 17)

If you ask me this should be the year where its a Non QB winner. My vote at this time would be McCaffrey. That said, its exciting to see what Purdy is doing in SF

Where is Tommy Devito ???

McCaffrey (1) or Hill (2) would be my choices for MVP, but there’s no way a non-qb will win.

I like Purdy and what he has done, but the weapons, coaching staff, defense, and so on make his role very plug and play compared to others. If you take Purdy off San Fran, they are still good. If you take Lamar off of the Ravens, they might not be .500

I don’t see a non-QB winning either anymore. Hasn’t happened since 2012 when Adrian won it.

Even Derek Henry couldn’t win when he eclipsed 2000 yards a few years ago. If he can’t win doing that, no non-QB is going to.

Prescott was leading the league in TD passes until yesterday. His TD to INT ratio was a whopping 28-6. He could definitely still win if he puts together a couple more monster games. The problem is that he and the Cowboys flat out struggle away from Dallas.

Some interesting playoff scenarios set up for the final week.

AFC
Buffalo at Miami. This is the most interesting matchup IMO. The Bills already beat the Dolphins, and throttled them. If the Bills beat the Dolphins again, they will win the division, dropping Miami to a wild card spot. Whoever ends up losing this will likely be the top wild card team and will visit the Jags.

Browns are locked into the 5 seed in the AFC, and the Chiefs are locked into the 3 seed. Whoever wins between Indy and Houston will likely claim the final wild card spot.

NFC
Green Bay can earn the final spot with a win. If they lose, that opens the door to a bunch of other teams: Seattle, New Orleans, or even Minnesota.

The Ravens and Niners have earned the top seeds and will be resting some players. The Cowboys can clinch the NFC East and the 2 seed by beating the Commanders. If the Cowboys lose, and the Eagles beat the Giants, the Eagles clinch the 2 seed and win the NFC East.

The Lions are pretty much locked into the 3 seed. They need to win and a lot of help to move up to the 2 seed. Its looking like they will host the Rams in round 1. Stafford will return to Detroit for the first ever playoff game at Ford Field.

gimruis wrote:

Green Bay can earn the final spot with a win. If they lose

2 years in a row of missing the playoffs while losing to a NFC North team in the last week of the season would be great!

While the Ravens have looked great down the stretch, and outside the Ravens game, the 49ers have as well, I still think this year is a total crapshoot in the playoffs…which means it’s pretty likely to go chalk

BigWerm wrote:

2 years in a row of missing the playoffs while losing to a NFC North team in the last week of the season would be great!

I know, its eerily similar. Last year the Lions had nothing to play for other than keeping Green Bay out. This year the Bears have nothing to play for other than keeping Green Bay out. Deja Vu

My Predictions:

I think the Bills knock off the Dolphins to get into the playoffs. The Dolphins are really banged up, and then just lost another starter (Chubb @ DE) to an ACL injury when they were up by 30 in the second half. Their coach should have faced some tough questions on that one as the game was well over, and the Dolphins have playoff aspirations.

I think Houston will beat Indy and get into the playoffs. DeMeco Ryans is the Coach of the Year and has taken a team that couldn’t get out of its own way to playoff contention, with an extremely young roster that isn’t overflowing with talent compared to the upper echelon teams in the league.

The Cowboys will lock up the NFC East with a win. The Eagles are a mess and should probably be picked to lose in the Wildcard Round.

I could see the Lions losing to the Rams at home in the playoffs. It’d be the most “Lions” thing imaginable, but Stafford has the Rams playing extremely well.

I think the Bears come into town and beat the Packers, knocking them out of the playoff race. The Bears have won 4 of their last 5 including beating the Lions by 2 scores. Their only loss in over a month has been to the playoff-bound Browns by 3 points late.

buckybadger wrote:

The Eagles are a mess and should probably be picked to lose in the Wildcard Round.

buckybadger wrote:

The Bears have won 4 of their last 5 including beating the Lions by 2 scores.

.

buckybadger wrote:

Stafford has the Rams playing extremely well.

The NFL is so crazy. The reason I quoted you Bucky is because earlier in the season the opposite of your three statements was true. The Eagles seemed poised to make another deep run, the Rams appeared to be having a down year and the Bears were almost a lock for fourth place in the division.

It was mentioned in the Vikings thread I believe, but count me among the group that enjoys the NFL’s parity model, and I’m not one of those considering this season full of “bad” football. I think it more so reflects a league where you can’t take your foot off the gas, you can’t give a superstar an extra week of rest during the season because it’s a weaker opponent, etc. Fun stuff that creates a lot of storylines.

And this could be an entirely different topic…but damn, the Bears…..earlier this year it seemed they’d bottom out and draft Caleb Williams or Drake Maye. Now Fields has been playing better and with a look at all the backups playing in the NFL, it certainly looks like Fields should definitely be starting somewhere. Ryan Poles in Chicago has a tough call to make. Draft a very early round-1 QB that doesn’t live up to his draft position while Fields has a decent career somewhere else? Or keep Fields and he never rises above what we’ve seen, while Williams and Maye have good careers elsewhere? Maybe let someone trade into that #1 spot (via the Panthers trade) again and get yet another haul of picks? Good problem to have I guess, tons of options, but lots of opportunities for it to go wrong too.

Dan wrote:

Good problem to have I guess, tons of options, but lots of opportunities for it to go wrong too.

Yeah, totally agree with your questions on what to do, Poles has put them in a pretty awesome position. I, and most everyone I’d imagine, anticipate them trading either Fields or the #1 overall. Tough to trade Fields when he’s the closest to a drafted franchise QB they have ever had (Cutler was traded for), but at the same time this is supposed to be a GREAT QB class that they have their pick of. And while Fields is a phenomenal athlete, he has not shown the pocket presence or ability to read a defense that is expected out of the position in today’s NFL.

Here’s a question.

Which team in each conference is most likely to go into the top seeds home venues and knock them off?

AFC- Balitmore, NFC – San Franciso

I think Buffalo is the team that could beat the Ravens on the road.

Its difficult for me to see another lower seed in the NFC beat the Niners though. Dallas isn’t a good team on the road and Philly is a mess. San Fran already walloped both of them this season. That leaves the Lions. But since the Lions are likely the 3 seed, they mathematically wouldn’t be playing at SF until the NFC title game, if they can make it that far. The Rams? Maybe the Rams could do it in the Divisional Round if they beat Detroit in the wild card.

gimruis wrote:

Here’s a question.
Which team in each conference is most likely to go into the top seeds home venues and knock them off?

That is a question. I don’t think it’s really worth debating since we don’t know who is going to be in the playoffs yet, and of those, half the teams will be eliminated before the Ravens/SF even have to play a game. Plenty of way stronger looking #1 seeds have gotten beat, so I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility for anyone to beat them. Plus if Lamar or Purdy get hurt, it’s over for either squad, as we know from San Fran’s last playoff.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dan wrote:</div>
Good problem to have I guess, tons of options, but lots of opportunities for it to go wrong too.

Yeah, totally agree with your questions on what to do, Poles has put them in a pretty awesome position. I, and most everyone I’d imagine, anticipate them trading either Fields or the #1 overall. Tough to trade Fields when he’s the closest to a drafted franchise QB they have ever had (Cutler was traded for), but at the same time this is supposed to be a GREAT QB class that they have their pick of. And while Fields is a phenomenal athlete, he has not shown the pocket presence or ability to read a defense that is expected out of the position in today’s NFL.

We all know there’s tons of subterfuge leading into the draft, but I would imagine Poles will shatter that record, and he pretty much has to. If everyone knows he wants to stick with Fields and build around him he won’t get as much for that #1 pick. He needs those QB-needy teams to think he’s gonna take the best QB. Conversely, if he starts backing up Fields and talking about a future with him, he’s likely just inflating his value for a trade.

Somewhat hard to believe the Eagles are just falling apart this badly. But I am enjoying it I can’t stand Philadelphia.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Somewhat hard to believe the Eagles are just falling apart this badly. But I am enjoying it I can’t stand Philadelphia.

Ya it doesn’t bother me either. They may not even be favored at the lowly Bucs next week.

lindyrig79 wrote:

Somewhat hard to believe the Eagles are just falling apart this badly. But I am enjoying it I can’t stand Philadelphia.

Love seeing Philly fall apart. Their fans are the definition of obnoxious in the dictionary.

Current odds posted for all 14 teams to win the Super Bowl. If I was a betting man I’d take the Rams on this at 50-1. Pretty solid team with long shot odds.

49ers 2-1
Ravens 3-1
Bills 6-1
Cowboys 8-1
Chiefs 9-1
Eagles 15-1
Dolphins 16-1
Lions 18-1
Texans, Browns 35-1
Rams 50-1
Bucs 55-1
Packers 90-1
Steelers 150-1

What a classless act by the Saints at the end of the Game against the Falcons. If I was a NFL owner or coach and was playing the Saints and they ever lined up in a victory formation in a game, I’d tell my players to hit the QB and any other player possible as hard as possible at the snap of the Football. To be honest it does not surprise me. They have been a classless organization every since the bounty scandal in 2011 and even before that. For the coach to say it wasn’t his fault and his players just went rouge on their own is BS. If the players did go rouge then Dennis Allen as a coach sure does not have much control of this team.

Whatever QB “System” the Packers have in place, it is working. Two great QB’s and another in the works! Congrats!

-J.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Whatever QB “System” the Packers have in place, it is working. Two great QB’s and another in the works! Congrats!

-J.

I guess that’s what happens when you draft a young QB and allow him time to learn and develop under a good veteran QB. Something that it seems like the Vikings have never done. At least not in a rather long time

fishthumper wrote:

I guess that’s what happens when you draft a young QB and allow him time to learn and develop under a good veteran QB. Something that it seems like the Vikings have never done. At least not in a rather long time

Most teams that draft a quarterback don’t have the patience to keep them on the sidelines with a clipboard and a headset for at least one season. They want immediate results, so they throw them right into the fire as a week 1 starter.

Mahomes sat for a whole season behind Alex Smith in KC before he was the declared starter.

Green Bay has a pretty good track record of being a lot more patient with their QB of the future recently. Rodgers sat for several seasons behind Favre, and Love did the same with Rodgers. Its a much better recipe for success. Its just not a model used very much in the modern NFL.