The ankle protocol is to check if he can walk, so it’s better to claim an ankle hurts and pretend your head is fine.
The Guardian ranks the hopelessness of the worst NFL teams. Browns are #1 at 10/10, Panthers are 9/10, and the Jets are coasting along at 8/10.
Cleveland Browns
Hope for the future: There is none. Cleveland have the worst starter at the most valuable position on the field – and they’re paying him more than anyone else at the position. Watson is still owed $132m last offseason, it would cost the team more to cut or trade him in the offseason, eating up roughly two-thirds of the team’s salary cap for next season. With Watson’s contract on the books, there is precious little the Browns can do to upgrade their roster. They’re unable to move on from the quarterback, and they’re running out of ways to finagle the salary cap without making things even more painful in the future. It is not hyperbole to say it’s the bleakest situation for any franchise in pro sports. And that’s before we get to the ethical questions of giving hundreds of millions of dollars to someone with serious allegations against him.
Hopelessness rating: 10/10. Full marks for the weight of the Watson contract, in football and moral terms. This stench will hang around the franchise for quite some time.
Am I reading my google search returns right? If Cleveland cut Watson in 2025, they’d take a $172 million dead cap hit?
I never thought I’d see a release that made Russell Wilson’s departure from Denver look affordable.
Yup, that’s what it looks like.
The main issue is the contract is fully guaranteed and 70% of that is in years 4 and 5, which are the two coming up.
Yeah, when they signed Watson to a mega deal, I thought it was the dumbest move I’d ever heard of in the NFL. They mortgaged everything for a guy who was once a very promising QB but who not only had done things that should have already destroyed his career, but hadn’t had a good season in a while. It was so bad you’d think it was one of those April 1st joke news articles.
I thought it was a mercy that Watson couldn’t play most of last year.
I am a bit shocked by the line of the Bears/Jags game. The 3-2 Bears are only giving 1.5 to 2.5 points to the 1-4 Jags. Sure the game is in London, so there’s no home team advantage, but unless the Bears have a major letdown, they should win easily. I can’t believe I may actually have to put money on the Bears. That’ll jinx them for sure.
Jets interim head coach has stripped offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett of play-calling responsibilities, giving them to quarterback coach / passing game coordinator Todd Downing.
While Hackett remains on the staff, and retains the OC job title for now, it’s not clear what his actual role with the staff now is. Making things even more interesting is that Hackett is friends with Aaron Rodgers, and was said to have been one of the reasons why Rodgers wanted to go to the Jets in the first place.
I think this mainly is a signal that the oddsmakers think the Jags are a better team than their record indicates. Lots of outlets had the Jags winning the AFC South, or at least challenging the Texans. They got off to an ugly start, but they are mostly healthy and their skill positions are starting to perform.
The Bears are without Brisker on the backend which might free up Thomas for some splash plays. I also think the working assumption is that the Jags will have an effective home field advantage in London, but I would bet that this crowd will be 60-40 in favor of the Bears. We have a huge following in the UK. The line suggest that these teams are viewed as an even matchup with the Jags getting about half the typical homefield advantage.
In my against the spread league (where you pick one team each week to win against the spread) the Jags and Bears have each been picked twice. I’ve gone for the commanders (three picks vs none for the Ravens), I think Washington are underestimated based on low expectations pre season, Daniels is looking really good.
It isn’t just the oddsmakers that decide the odds, if the punts go more for team than the other the odds will quickly shift to reflect that.
Demonstrably incorrect call on a turnover play.
I have no idea how that wasn’t overturned. Obviously hit the guy’s thumb.
“We didn’t have the enhanced shot that showed it so clearly,” is the excuse from the NFL. I didn’t watch the game, so I can’t judge the veracity of the statement, so I’ll leave it for the teeming millions.
The NFL replay department head has been a bit of a revolving door position for a few years.
They were getting pretty respectable (not perfect but getting good) under Mike Pereira, but there was a noticeable drop after he left. Since then, there have been 3 or 4 different people in charge.
That kind of turnover isn’t a good sign. Not only are they not finding the right person for the job, they haven’t had stability in their replay operations for a few years now.
I don’t get how the TV broadcast is better quality than what is available to the replay officials. Aren’t they the same cameras?
That has always been my understanding: the NFL’s replay team has access to all of the TV networks’ videos, and that’s what they use. AFAIK, the league doesn’t have a separate set of live video cameras that are solely used for video replay.
Correct. According to the NFL website:
Ahead of the 2021-22 season, the NFL installed Hawk-Eye’s SMART system in Art McNally GameDay Central and stadium replay booths across the league. With this technology, replay officials at the stadium and AMGC staff in New York can now review multiple camera angles at the same time throughout the game and during replay reviews.
The system uses camera angles provided by the NFL’s broadcast partners, who set up and operate cameras throughout the stadium on gamedays.
Bolding mine.
Looks like those who questioned the soft line for the Jags vs. the Bears may have had a point.
Jags don’t get credit for how bad they are for some reason. They will, soon.
I honestly don’t give a shit if the Browns win or not. This should be a close exciting game, but who cares really. The Browns offense is still useless, it’s mostly the Eagles making stupid mistakes and the Browns defense still occasionally being very good.
Surprisingly, the Colts ended up beating Tennessee 20-17 with Joe Flacco as the starting quarterback again.
I love Indy, but I really don’t have much confidence in them this season.