NFL Talk

All of that is fair. I always maintain it takes patience and the right staff to make a star quarterback. After 1 year I thought Josh Allen might be a bust. Mahomes didn't play his rookie season and got to spend a year learning from Reid before taking the reins. Mayfield had to wait for his third stop to be any good. As long as Caleb is coachable and wants to learn from Johnson he may be salvageable.
 
Misfit said:
A lot of quarterbacks over the weekend, established and not, didn't exactly light it up and looked tentative out there. I don't think they have their timing and it feels like more and more each year that September turns into a second preseason.
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Absolutely true.

It makes players like Lamar and Josh Allen all the more valuable. Even Burrow, the consensus fourth-best QB in the league, had 113 yards passing on Sunday.
 
Damn that was a great opening for TNF. I missed it last week but wow that is a great modern update to the opening theme with Shaboozey. Tonight should be a contender for game of the week. Doubt it can top my Bills last week against the Ravens, but it should still be a great game.

These Commanders are not the Redskins of the past decade+ and the Packers are the Packers at home. Let's go.
 
I'm going to assume the Packers are the class of the NFC until someone proves otherwise.

Note: Philly @ GB on November 10.
 
Daniels looked awful last night. So many throws in the dirt and behind the intended target. I expected him to have a bit of a sophomore slump, bit he has not looked good through two weeks. They were lucky to win last week and looked outclassed yesterday. The pass rush of the Packers contributed, certainly, but I think Daniels is going to find this year a bit harder than last.
 
Pats/Dolphins had a wild one today. I love the new kickoff rules as we had a punt return TD followed by a KO return TD and that sort of thing had been all but eliminated from the game. Both teams were sloppy though and the defenses had a tough time. For the Patriots, they could not cover Miami’s backs in the passing game and the safety play was abysmal. For Miami, they just plain couldn’t do anything on D. That unit smells and needs a lot of work. They began the season with 12 consecutive scoring drives against them and it felt like the only times the Patriots didn’t score today it was because they couldn’t stop committing penalties. Maye had a good game, easily the best of his young career, and a sloppy win on the road is still a good win.

Caught the end of NY and Dallas which was wild and now settling in for Eagles at Chiefs. I think the Eagles are gonna smoke ‘em, but hopefully I’m wrong and it’s a good one.
 
Week 2 of the 2025 season is apparently the week when several quarterbacks went down. Burrow, McCarthy, Daniels, and Fields all suffered injuries this week. McCarthy is out for the next couple of games (he may benefit from a reset, he was awful on Sunday) while Burrow needs surgery on his toe that will keep him out into December. That's a huge blow. The Bengals offense might be able to keep its head above water since it's loaded with talent, but I don't think their defense is good enough to make up for the drop in scoring and that's a brutal division. Fields is in the concussion protocol while Daniels tweaked a knee and right now seems doubtful for week 3. I like Daniels as a player, but he terrifies me because he looks so tiny on a football field and I worry he's just too small to hold up long-term.
 
We finally had some weird results. The NFL is well and truly back.

Are the Colts... good? The Colts and Seahawks (!) are the two best teams according to DVOA. Small sample size, but still.

If the Rams meet the Eagles in the playoffs this year, they have to win, right? They should've won the last two meetings.

Are the Texans cooked this season?

I think I successfully predicted the end of the Chiefs in the AFC West, but I had the wrong usurper. The Chargers look a hell of a lot better than the Broncos.
 
I almost mentioned the Green Bay loss. That one at least makes sense to me. They should've put the game away before the Browns came back. Cleveland's defense is really good.

Is Sam Darnold good now? It's tragically funny that the Panthers let Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield go, and both turned into top 12 (top 10?) QBs.
 
Sam Darnold being good may be a stretch. He has some arm talent but more importantly is mistake averse and that is good enough to keep his team in games, especially as good as their defense is rounding out to be. But Darnold is also still a guy who can look like he did in week 18 and the wild-card round last season, which is a guy too small for the big moment. I'm glad the 49ers already beat them in Seattle.. . They weren't able to run and hide like it looked like they might. Ari,ona made that a nail biter.

My poor team is just injury cursed. If we can get thru the first half at 6-2 we'd start to get a smidge healthier. The loss of Bosa is enormous, but maybe Salah can work some magic with young guys. If the Dolphins lose to the Jets on Sunday maybe they'd be willing to trade away Jalean Phillips and SF could bring him in to help. They haven't looked tremendous thus far... but if they can keep winning ugly maybe it starts to look better. The Jaguars have been feistier than expected, so hopefully SF can squeeze out another one.

I'm intrigued by the Lions-Browns game. Can the Browns defense grind that high powered offense to a halt like they did with the Packers?

Rams-Colts is also an intriguing match up. Will the magic dust for Indy wear off against a decent defense?

I love football.
 
Watching Darnold down the stretch last year was painful. I know he's already made a lot of money in his career, but those last few games was like watching a man light a stack of money on fire Joker style because he just came apart.

The Packers having a hiccup was not a surprise. Their offense still needs some fine tuning and losing Reed didn't help. I'm still not sold on Love, he needs to make a leap this year if they want to realize their potential. The Colts are a legitimate surprise. I'm not ready to buy them and Daniel Jones as a real threat, but they're sitting pretty in a weak division. I'm not ruling out a run by Houston at some point. They seem a little snakebit right now. The NFC West is still the most competitive division in the NFL so I think those teams will be battling it out all fall. It's going to be hard for any of them to compete for the top seed because they're going to beat each other up.

The league right now really feels like the Bills, Eagles, and everyone else. Right now, there's a drop-off after those two down to the Baltimore, Green Bay, and Detroit level. There's a big middle in this league and I'm not sure I'm ready to elevate some of the teams off to a good start (Seattle, LA Chargers) out of it. I am ready to declare Tennessee as the worst team in the league. They stink. My Patriots get a chance to prove they're not among the worst of the worst as they play the Panters, Titans, and Giants in three out of the next four weeks. They should have defeated the Steelers over the weekend, but they were completely inept when it came to hanging onto the football.
 
Misfit said:
The league right now really feels like the Bills, Eagles, and everyone else. Right now, there's a drop-off after those two down to the Baltimore, Green Bay, and Detroit level. There's a big middle in this league and I'm not sure I'm ready to elevate some of the teams off to a good start (Seattle, LA Chargers) out of it. I am ready to declare Tennessee as the worst team in the league. They stink. My Patriots get a chance to prove they're not among the worst of the worst as they play the Panters, Titans, and Giants in three out of the next four weeks. They should have defeated the Steelers over the weekend, but they were completely inept when it came to hanging onto the football.
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Because the Panthers suck, I always wind up rooting for the Bills in January. I'm drawn to tortured fanbases and I really like Josh Allen.

I have serious concerns about their ability to win the Super Bowl. The AFC is undoubtedly stronger than the NFC, but the best teams in the league might be in the NFC. I could see their defense being a real impediment in a potential Super Bowl matchup against Green Bay, Philly, or Detroit.

I could see them being the presumptive favorite in December before getting waxed in February.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
Because the Panthers suck, I always wind up rooting for the Bills in January. I'm drawn to tortured fanbases and I really like Josh Allen.

I have serious concerns about their ability to win the Super Bowl. The AFC is undoubtedly stronger than the NFC, but the best teams in the league might be in the NFC. I could see their defense being a real impediment in a potential Super Bowl matchup against Green Bay, Philly, or Detroit.

I could see them being the presumptive favorite in December before getting waxed in February.
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I’d love to see them in the AFC Championship against Lamar and the Ravens in a “something’s gotta give” matchup. I do worry Buffalo has let that team deteriorate too much around Allen, but their offense at least seems like it’s on an upswing. I don’t know if they were in on him, but that’s a team that should have pushed the “Fuck It” button and did the deal for Parsons. That guy would have put them over-the-top.
 
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