nfl 2023-2024

[Gromnir]

brown paper bag edition

so, draft day is here...

https://www.nfl.com/

https://walterfootball.com/index.php

"* After parting ways with Zeke and with Pollard on the roster, muh Boys move up and draft Bijan."

not seeing why this is funny. recent zeke production has been uninspired and the cowboys remain idiosyncratic a run-first team. bijan robinson is the only guy from this draft we feel confident predicting as a likely future hall of fame inductee... barring injuries 'course. trade up to get the best player in the draft makes sense. is hardly shocking both the patriots and cowboys appear interested in the texas rb.

as usual, the most predictable funny is gonna be how teams way overreach for quarterbacks, although is not gonna be necessarily funny in 2023. the raiders jamarcus russell pick were funny, but on day 1 o' the 2007 draft, pundits were split on the wisdom o' choosing russell and few woulda' suggested the lsu qb did not deserve a first round grade.

how far does he fall stories is funny... and sad. am not feeling sorry for jalen carter dropping 'cause he is carrying so much baggage. even so, would not surprise us if a team which talks 'bout character and the importance o' team leadership nevertheless selects the georgia star. 

converse, is gonna be a terrell suggs or zach thomas player who had world beater stats in college but cause o' less than impressive measurables he is predicted to slide. suggs ended up going tenth in the first round in spite o' a terrible forty time. zach thomas ended up in the hall of fame, but his terrible combine performance included a woeful vertical leap and bad forty time so he dropped to the fifth round. 

gonna take the safe bet and suggest the most immediate draft funny will be related to something improbable a draft expert says. mel kiper and booger mcfarland is obvious picks for a "what did he say," award. suzy kolber, who frequent interviews round 1 players immediate after they has been selected, has been known to ask asinine questions. 

in any event, the most amusing story is gonna be qb overreach, 'cause it happens almost every year.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Gromnir

[Gfted1]

Oof, it would be expensive for Dallas to move from 26 up to where I see projections for Bijan. Most mocks Ive seen have them taking one of the TE's.

[Gromnir]

3 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

Oof, it would be expensive for Dallas to move from 26 up to where I see projections for Bijan. Most mocks Ive seen have them taking one of the TE's.

the texas rb is a curious selection because while expert consensus is he ranks as the best rb prospect since saquon barkley, rb is having such diminished value that it is difficult for many teams to invest any first round pick on an rb. few people would be surprised if bijan robinson dropped to the later half of the first round, 'cause is only a handful o' teams willing to draft him round 1. by the same token, he could go in the top ten.

as for te, michael mayer is a guy much like the aforementioned suggs and thomas in that his athletic measurables are not elite, so it will be interesting to see just how far he drops.

edit:  jahmyr gibbs, the alabama rb, is rating as a top-ten overall prospect on many team draft boards. we would not be shocked if he were drafted round one.

also, tyree wilson has been dropped complete from a few team draft boards as there is reported unresolved medical issues related to his foot. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited April 27, 2023 by Gromnir

[Bartimaeus]

I saw a tweet that explained the reluctance to draft a RB high fairly well:

Quote

The 5th pick in the NFL will sign a contract worth about $8.3M per year. Here is where that ranks based on annual value among all players:

Center - 9

Running Back - 11

Tight End - 12

Right Tackle - 12

Linebacker - 14

Guard - 17

Left Tackle - 19

Safety - 19

Quarterback - 22

Cornerback - 28

Interior Defensive LInemen - 29

Edge - 30

Wide Receiver - 36

Money and positional value plays a lot into when players are drafted, and RB is the second lowest non-specialist position (...I'm not really sure why centers are the lowest, especially given that bad centers are thought to be causative of bad QB play*), so it just doesn't make sense to draft them high. The money paid in the first round does drop off quite a bit though, so once you get to the end of the first round, you do have a bit more freedom to choose whom you like. 1st pick: $41m, 5th pick: $31m, 10th pick: $21m, 20th pick: $14m, 30th pick: $12m. Once you're in the 20s and beyond, it's a lot easier to pick a RB.

*On the other hand, it's not really fair to directly compare a single person position like center to a multiple person position like WR in this manner. There's always only one center on the field, but there's almost always at least 2 WRs on the field and often 3, sometimes 4 or even 5. So these numbers are slightly misleading, as QBs are obviously more expensive than WRs on a positional basis.

(e): RBs picked at #8 and #12 by the Falcons and Lions respectively, tho

Edited April 28, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[Gfted1]

[Keyrock]

1 hour ago, Gfted1 said:

He's been arrested in the past, he'll fit right in with our locker room.

[Gfted1]

The Dallas run defense was atrocious last year so hopefully big boy will plug some holes. I know it wont happen, but I have visions of sugarplums and it would be awesome if Levi fell to 58 (or close).

[Keyrock]

I'm not going to pretend I watched much college football last season, but Mazi Smith was rated anywhere from the 2nd to 5th best DT prospect in the draft on various boards. Hopefully he's good. He's a fellow gun owner, so he gets bonus points from me. 

[the_dog_days]

Well, apparently there are 2 dumb franchises this year: Atlanta and Detroit 'cause both burned 1st round picks on running backs.

[Keyrock]

10 hours ago, the_dog_days said:

Well, apparently there are 2 dumb franchises this year: Atlanta and Detroit 'cause both burned 1st round picks on running backs.

I have no issue with the Falcons taking Bijan. Sure, running back is a deprecated position in today's NFL, but I think Bijan is special enough to warrant picking him that high. The Lions taking Jahmyr Gibbs at #12, I can't defend that.

[Keyrock]

I'm fairly happy with muh Boys draft so far. Nothing splashy, but they've all been solid, sensible picks. Had Dalton Kincaid, who seems to be the consensus best ball catching TE in the draft, been on the board, I'm fairly confident we would have taken him, but Buffalo snatched him up. Rather than reaching for another TE, or doing something risky like taking Will Levis, muh Boys took the best available player at DT in Mazi Smith then we got our TE in the second round with Luke Schoonmaker, who seems to be a solid overall prospect, not elite in any area, but capable in all the facets of the position like run blocking and pass catching. In the 3rd round we got LB DeMarvion Overshown. The word on him is that he may not be strong enough to hold up in trying to stop the run but should excel when dropping back into coverage as a former safety.

I'm salty that the Iggles got Jalen Carter. If you remove the extracurricular stuff from the equation, he's the top prospect in the draft. There was no way he was going to fall all the way to 26, but did the f'n Iggles have to get him? *sigh*

Edited April 29, 2023 by Keyrock

[Gromnir]

there are a few jalen carter issues not specific related to his multiple off-field character incidents. against ohio st., carter looked a bit chubby and his performance deteriorated during the game. in retrospect, jalen carter were almost never asked to play nfl analogous pass rush snaps per game while he were in college. ohio st. represented the most such pass rush efforts he ever faced in college. lack of conditioning showed. furthermore, at his pro day, jalen were in poor shape. am guessing more than a couple teams had football specific questions 'bout choosing jalen carter number one.

at number nine? based on nothing save football, is doubtful any team would second guess choosing carter at nine. 

'course a young man with a history o' character problems and accusations o' being lazy is a questionable hire for any job. give that same young man millions o' dollars with the expectation his character and work ethic will improve is borderline insane. maybe jalen carter finds jesus or has some kinda football epiphany, but am thinking absolute nobody will be shocked if jalen carter busts and is not playing football after his rookie contract expires. 

dallas has a history o' taking guys with character/legal problems, and then people wonder why dallas consistent underperforms. in college the service academies typical overperform in spite o' a lack o' on field talent. the value o' character in football is less mysterious than many suggest. yeah, no amount o' character is gonna turn air force into a perennial national championship contender, but with the draft scheme utilized by the nfl, every team may select nfl quality players who also show discipline and character.

as for grading drafts, is always best to wait a couple years and consider in hindsight. most teams is happy with their selections immediate after the draft.

was nothing 'bout the dallas draft which were headscratcher horrible or fantastic. overshown might be the player we were most curious 'bout o' the dallas day 1 & 2 picks. the bad v. the run and plays soft is legit criticism for overshown if you look at his college career. however, is difficult to overstate just how much the lb improved in his final year at texas. based on athleticism measurables, overshown may be close to hitting his ceiling, but if overshown improves as much as a dallas rookie as he did during his final year at texas, then dallas picked a win in round three. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

The character issues are a concern, but reportedly Jalen Carter has a big

I feel that's a lot more important.

[Gorth]

5 hours ago, Keyrock said:

The character issues are a concern, but reportedly Jalen Carter has a big

I feel that's a lot more important.

She actually did... being the pro she is, she just continued very fast past that "slip of the tongue"

[Gromnir]

2023 NFL Draft UDFA Signings

tyson bagent, qb to chicago and andre carter ii olb/de to minnesota are a couple names which caught our attention.

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

46 minutes ago, Gorth said:

She actually did... being the pro she is, she just continued very fast past that "slip of the tongue"

I like to think that she's just a really thorough investigative journalist. She did the leg work. She went around and talked to many people, checked with her sources, and took extensive measurements, then cross-referenced those measurements against a database. It's this kind of in-depth analysis that's been missing. I mean, we get measurables such as 40 yard time, amount of bench press reps, vertical leap, and so on. Those are all well and good, but this dedicated reporter went above and beyond to give us the stat that we really care about. 

[Keyrock]

The season is almost upon us. As is my custom, I have been ignoring the NFL as much as possible since the draft. I haven't watched a single second of preseason (why would I?) and the only move muh Boys made during the offseason that I'm aware of was getting Trey Lance. Sucks for the Niners given all they spent to get the guy and what they got in return was 4 starts in 2 years and now a 4th round pick. Good get for muh Boys, though, given that it cost us almost nothing and there's still a chance he could wind up being good, we have so little data on him. If nothing else, he could be a trade asset in the future.

Anyway, I've been through this before, I know how this is going to go. I'm going to start out by writing that I'm tempering my expectations, and I am. Muh Boys will hopefully win week 1 against the Giants because we're definitely losing week 2 to the Jets; if there's one thing you can always count on it's Ayahuasca Enthusiast Aaron Rodgers beating the Cowboys. After that muh Boys will play well enough to sucker me into believing just so that they can immediately exit the playoffs in excruciating gut punch fashion.

Cowboys football, get the sensation!

Edited September 5, 2023 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

Stress-free Packers football for the first time in close to a decade, it should be a nice respite for a season...but hopefully not much longer.

[Keyrock]

It's time for week 1 overreactions: We might as well hand the Lombardi Trophy to the Detroit Lions. @BartimaeusHow bothersome is it to have a division rival as the next Superbowl Big Game champion?

[Bartimaeus]

43 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

It's time for week 1 overreactions: We might as well hand the Lombardi Trophy to the Detroit Lions. @BartimaeusHow bothersome is it to have a division rival as the next Superbowl Big Game champion?

If past history is anything to go by, they should be back to being bad by next year at the latest.

[Keyrock]

It's week 1, not particularly indicative of how we'll fare in the season on the whole, but I am thoroughly enjoying watching muh Boys smoke the Giants. Doing it in their stadium makes it even sweeter. Daniel Jones was either getting sacked or on the verge of getting sacked on seemingly every passing down. Either our pass rush is amazing or the Giants ran an experiment to see what would happen if you played a game without an offensive line.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

Welp, the Jets had an actual quarterback... For all of 4 plays. On the one hand, I hate to see anyone get injured. On the other, I'm happy muh Boys get to face Zach Wilson next week.

On a more humorous note, I got a good chuckle out of Compulsive Pass Dropper Kadarius Toney trash talking his old team (Giants) on Instagram despite losing a few days earlier in an absolutely ATROCIOUS outing by him. He wouldn't let a bad day get in the way of his spite. You gotta respect that kind of hustle.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

Sorry, @the_dog_days, load of total crap for your Jets as per usual. Saw lots of Jets fans basically saying "well, yeah, we're the Jets, so it was pretty much what we already expected".

[the_dog_days]

1 hour ago, Bartimaeus said:

Sorry, @the_dog_days, load of total crap for your Jets as per usual. Saw lots of Jets fans basically saying "well, yeah, we're the Jets, so it was pretty much what we already expected".

Oh I expected Rodgers to get injured (we have no depth at offensive line and its been over 800 days since the last time our starting 5 have playeda down together in the regular season), but I thought it would happen 4 or 5 weeks into the season so to get our hopes up first.

[Bartimaeus]

56 minutes ago, the_dog_days said:

Oh I expected Rodgers to get injured (we have no depth at offensive line and its been over 800 days since the last time our starting 5 have playeda down together in the regular season), but I thought it would happen 4 or 5 weeks into the season so to get our hopes up first.

Silver linings that you weren't allowed to build up much hope, I guess. I think he'll be back next year, can't see him wanting to leave the game like that, but who knows if he'll be able to do it physically anymore at that point even if he does. Anyways, that's a long ways off, not worth worrying about right now.

Very unfun fact: Jordan Love was pressured twice over the entire Packers-Bears game...Aaron Rodgers three times in the four snaps that he played.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Bartimaeus