He’s getting a ton of well-deserved attention after today.
I would not be surprised to see him in the Hall of Fame after his career. However underrated he might be, by the numbers he ranks among some of the best receivers in NFL history.
I would be. I see him as in the Hall of Very Good. He’s played in the league for nine seasons, and while he’s gone to the Pro Bowl four times, he’s never been named All-Pro, and never led the league in a meaningful statistical category; an average season for Cooper is 75 catches, a little over 1000 yards, and 7 touchdowns.
Compare that to one of his contemporaries, Davante Adams. Adams has been All-Pro three times, led the league in touchdown receptions twice, and caught 100+ passes four times. This season, despite the fact that the Raiders have had a revolving door of bad QBs, Adams is still producing: he has 85 catches and nearly 1000 yards through 14 games.
We’re in an era where a lot of WRs post good numbers. Cooper’s a very good receiver, no doubt, but I don’t think he’s among the very best among his contemporaries, which is what a player needs to be to have a legit shot at the Hall. (Or, they need to have a great track record in the playoffs, but that doesn’t help Cooper’s case much; he’s only been in four playoff games so far in his career, with 21 catches.)
In addition, Packers CB Jaire Alexander, who played today for the first time in weeks, screwed up the coin toss, by telling the officials that the Packers wanted to start on defense, rather than “defer” (which is now what most teams do). The referee asked Alexander to clarify, as the ref had previously been given instructions by Packers coach Matt LaFleur as to the call he wanted to make if the Packers won the toss.
When interviewed after the game, Alexander still didn’t sound like he understood:
I start to suspect that he may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
The sound of a doink is more sonorous than expected.
https://old.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/18qa5u8/this_is_the_greatest_missed_fg_ive_ever_seen/
My issue with that was that the person who posted the video said it was a missed FG but that was the extra point. (The kicker did miss a FG earlier in the game but it went very wide to the right, not even close. No doink.)
Even listening to the video, they’re talking about it being an extra point try.
…Though that kicker did make a last moment FG to win the game so he got better.
Very happy about this. Now let’s just hope the Lions can get their first playoff win since 1992.
Browns are all but guaranteed to make the playoffs now and they’ve still got a shot at the division and actually not a ridiculous long shot to get the #1 seed. I think they’re a team no one wants to play in the playoffs - they beat the 49ers and the Ravens and so they’ve proven they can play with anyone, and with the elite dragon returning to form they’re potentially peaking at the right time. And you’ve got to deal with Playoff Joe Flacco.
I can’t believe this team is winning this much with so many injuries and their 4th QB. Stefanski should be strongly in the running for coach of the year. I can only imagine what this team would be like if they had Nick Chubb and a healthy O-line.
While it’s true that Alexander botched the wording or didn’t understand, I think the refs should simply present the question with differing wording instead as well - a simple “Do you want to receive now or receive later?” - or something to that effect. Obviously, no team would ever choose to kick off twice. So despite Alexander flubbing it, the ref should (and did) know that there’s no way he would mean kicking to start both halves.
Reading through this tread, its there any interest in a thread dedicated solely to playoff scenarios?
That would be a fun thread. There are still two weeks to go and this is an unusually tightly-packed contender field. So many 8-7s in the AFC and 8-7 to 7-8s within the NFC.
I don’t think we’ve seen such a closely-packed group since 1999.
While I agree with @Velocity, I’m not sure we need a separate thread, as playoff scenarios will change with virtually every remaining game. For example, all three games today have playoff implications. And most of our conversations in the next two weeks will be about playoff possibilities and matchups anyway.
But if somebody wants to start a separate thread, I’m sure I’ll participate.
Scenario Thread started
Sure enough, I hadn’t even noticed. I was watching live, sort of, and and the noise from the TV was really jarring.
Holy crap! Patrick Mahomes just got two touchdowns in 7 seconds!!!
…Unfortunately for the Chiefs, they were Raiders touchdowns…
If they do, I hope it’s not against the Cowboys again 
. I’m still not sure how that Lions team managed to dismantle the Cowboys so thoroughly one week and then lose so convincingly to the Redskins the next week.
Going into the half, the Chiefs are getting booed by their fans.
Merry Christmas fellas!
The Redskins were really, really good, and they were at home.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys had mentally checked out. I recall reading a Jeff Pearlman book in which one player said (best as I can recall): “Coach Johnson would be furious if it were said out loud, but I felt that we’d achieved everything we set out to that season (by beating the Bears in the wild card) and anything beyond that was just gravy.”
Chiefs don’t even look like a playoff team, let alone a SB contender.
Taylor Swift and Kelce. He’s playing well (okay) but I’m getting vibes like in “The Natural”. Memo (Swift) is actually distracting the rest of the team.
Pure fantasy on my part.
Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, for Mahomes to start out his career by hosting 5 consecutive AFC championship games at his team’s stadium is absurdly good. We might not see another quarterback ever duplicate that feat again.