NFL 2023 Preseason Thread

The Game Room
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With training camps underway, I thought I’d open a new omnibus thread for the preseason, as a successor to the off-season thread.

The selection committees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame have announced the results of the first round of narrowing candidates for the “senior” (older players who retired no later than 1998, and weren’t inducted previously) and “coaches and contributors” categories. The lists will be further narrowed next month, to three seniors and one coach or contributor, who will be evaluated, along with more recent players, during the final voting in January.

For the seniors list:

  • RB Roger Craig
  • QB Ken Anderson
  • LB Randy Gradishar
  • WR Otis Taylor
  • WR Art Powell
  • LB Maxie Baughan
  • OT Joe Jacoby
  • DB Albert Lewis
  • DT Steve McMichael
  • DB Eddie Meador
  • WR Sterling Sharpe
  • OL/DL Al Wistert

McMichael, who was a member of the Bears’ 1985 championship team, was a two-time All-Pro; his candidacy has been getting a fair amount of press here in Chicago, as he is suffering from ALS, and can no longer can move or talk.

The narrowed list of coaches/contributors candidates:

  • Mike Shanahan (coach)
  • Tom Coughlin (coach)
  • Mike Holmgren (coach)
  • Bucko Kilroy (player, scout, team executive)
  • Robert Kraft (owner)
  • Buddy Parker (player, coach)
  • Dan Reeves (player, coach)
  • Art Rooney Jr. (owner)
  • Marty Schottenheimer (player, coach)
  • Clark Shaughnessy (coach)
  • Lloyd Wells (scout)
  • John Wooten (player, team executive)
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Robert Kraft seems like a pretty safe bet.

Mike Holmgren feels like the best of the coaches but that could be a bit of recency bias on my part. Reeves and Shanahan might get a serious look but I’m not sure either had enough success outside of Denver to get over the top. Coughlin might get a bunch of support but he feels like an uninspired choice in spite of his rings.

I’m torn on McMichael. I don’t think his resume really warrants a spot but being a centerpiece of those Bears teams definitely elevates him. And I wouldn’t be a real Bears fan if I didn’t want to see another guy from that 85 team in the hall. He’s also a uniquely shitty human so that doesn’t help. His current illness probably gains him some sentimental favor. Then again, there isn’t anyone else on that list that feels like a home run so if someone is going to get in Mongo is as deserving of it as any of the finalists.

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Joe Burrow was taken off the field today on a cart. But the injury report was a strained calf muscle.

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The Off-Season thread already covered Saquon’s signing, which is all I really cared about, but I just saw this about Burrow:

Non-contact injuries always make me anxious. I hope it isn’t anything serious.

Railer13 ninja’d me so I’ll just echo that I think Kraft is probably a lock.

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Looking at yhe HoF list, only one of them would even get close to “best player at their position when played”: my mancrush Sterling Sharpe. Its a shame he’d have to get in on the “seniors” ballot.

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When I hear “carted off with a calf injury” my immediate thought is Achilles. Hopefully it’s just a strain but the cart makes it sound a lot scarier than that.

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Of the seniors, my choice would be Art Powell. Fantastic receiver, and advocate for racial reform.

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A reporter brought up today that a lot of these fields are pretty far away from the rest of the facilities, so it’s common to use the cart for even minor injuries.

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That would make sense. Though if that’s the case, the phrasing of the report seems a bit sensationalized.

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I’m not letting my franchise quarterback walk on even a stubbed toe during practice. I’m bringing the cart out for him regardless.

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It’s ESPN and I don’t know that there’s much else going on in the world of pro football to get attention.

Hopefully it is something minor, Burrow certainly has had his share of injuries.

(He’s a fun QB to watch and I hope he has a long and fruitful career.)

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That Jalen Ramsey injury is a big blow to Miami, as the link upthread says he could be out until December.

But now I’m seeing that it’s possibly a 6-8 week recovery time. Still not good, but it doesn’t cut into as much of the regular season; he’d only miss the first 2 games.

Dolphins fans have high hopes this season. C’mon football gods, don’t dash them so soon!
…
As for the OP’s list, I think Roger Craig belongs in the hall. He was a dual threat running back before it was common for them to catch a lot of balls - he was the first to run for more than 1,000 yards and catch more than 1,000 yards in the same season. He showed up in Super Bowls (much to my dismay) and was a key part of the 49ers dynasty of the 80’s.

I’d also vote for Ken Anderson (remarkable accuracy before completion percentages were as high as today) and Joe Jacoby (one of the Hogs).

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Craig only had 3 1000 yard rushing seasons and only broke 1100 once. While he got a lot of press for the 1000/1000 season, that only happened once and he never broke 700 yards again receiving. He led the league in total scrimmage yards just once (ironically, that wasn’t his 1000/1000 season). For comparison, Walter Payton never rushed for less than 1200 yards in any season where he played more than 14 games. Payton’s the GOAT so perhaps an unfair comparison, but Craig was a contemporary and that’s who he’ll be measured against.

Craig was an important player on some truly great teams, but there’s a lot of RBs in the hall already. He wasn’t really special enough to stand out for anything except the original way in which he was used by that West Coast system.

That said, plenty of players on Dynasty teams get into the hall with less than remarkable counting stats. And being the workhorse RB on 3 Super Bowl winners is tough to ignore.

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And, he spent much of his 49ers career sharing the rushing load: first with Wendell Tyler, then with Tom Rathman and Dexter Carter. I was a big fan of the Montana-era 49ers, and loved Roger Craig…but I agree. I think he was an excellent RB/receiver, and a perfect fit for that Niners offense, but I’m not at all sure that he’s Hall-worthy.

Looking at the rest of the Seniors candidates, the only guy on that list whom I think should be in is Ken Anderson, whom I think has gotten overlooked for consideration because his teams were often mediocre, and he never won a ring.

Even Sterling Sharpe, who played for my Packers, i think just wasn’t good enough for long enough. Sharpe had the misfortune of playing at the tail end of the Packers’ long journey through the wilderness, though despite that, he was a crazy-good receiver. He also had the misfortune of being forced to retire due to a neck injury after only seven seasons, which meant that he missed Brett Favre’s three consecutive MVP seasons, and the Packers’ two Super Bowl appearances in that era.

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Joe Burrow’s calf strain looks likely to keep him out for several weeks.

It could be worse, it could have happened closer to the end of training camp/pre-season, but still, it’s not great news.

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He led the league in receptions 3 times, yardage once, and TDs twice, while being in the top 5 at his position almost every year. Hell, he even found success with Don frickin Majikowski “passing” him the ball. All while Jerry Rice was active.

I think his skills alone are enough for the regular HoF, but I completely understand that it likely will have to be a seniors thing for him because of his injury shortened career. I think of him as a Gale Sayers exception.

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Well put.

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Don’t get me wrong – Sharpe was a great player, and probably my favorite Packer in those years.

He had three outstanding seasons ('89, '92, '93), in which he led the league in receptions, and was a first-team All-Pro; in the latter two, he was also a finalist for MVP and Offensive Player of the Year. His final season ('94) was also extremely good, and he led the league with 18 TDs (tying Mark Clayton for the single-season record at that time). From '92 to '94, he was pretty clearly one of the top two WRs in the league, alongside Rice.

In his other three seasons ('88, '90, '91), he was good, but not at that same level, undoubtedly due in part to mediocre QB play for the Packers.

Given what his final three seasons were like, and the upward trajectories of both Favre and the Packers in those years, I have no doubt that, if Sharpe had been able to play a few more years, and kept producing at or near that level, he should have gotten into the Hall the first time around. But, that’s what I meant by “not good enough, for long enough.” He had three or four stellar seasons, and another three good ones.

Sayers (and Terrell Davis) are good comparisons, but they are also continual subjects of debate among football fans, because injuries meant that their bodies of work were relatively small.

Sharpe likely also suffered from being at a position (WR) where, as the passing game exploded in the 1990s, Hall voters began to struggle to figure out how to evaluate WR candidates: there were so many guys who were hugely productive, by historic standards, but that didn’t necessarily mean that they belonged in the Hall. It’s part of why guys like Art Monk and Tim Brown (drafted the same year as Sharpe) waited a long time to finally get tapped for the Hall.

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In other training camp news:

  • Vikings DE Danielle Hunter is unhappy with his contract – he skipped the team’s offseason program, and isn’t practicing at training camp. The Vikings are now open to trading him.
  • Free agent RB Ezekiel Elliott is visiting the Patriots today, apparently the first time he’s made a visit with another team since being released by the Cowboys. The Patriots are looking thin at running back, and they also talked with Leonard Fournette and Darrell Henderson in recent days.
  • A number of players, including Justin Herbert, Cole Kmet, Andrew Thomas, and Trevon Diggs signed contract extensions this week. Herbert’s new contract (5 years, $262 million) makes him, for now, the highest-paid player in the league.
  • Aaron Rodgers agreed to a salary reduction with the Jets, cutting his salary by $35 million over this year and next.
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And, in, “I had not heard about this” news: TE Jimmy Graham, who didn’t play in 2022, came out of retirement to sign with the Saints, his original team.

He’ll be 37 in a few months, and when he was with the Packers (2018-19) and Bears (2020-21), he seemed to be already on the downside of his career.