Last week the Niners beat the Seahawks and lead the NFC West with a 3-3 record. The Bears, Packers, and Lions all won; everybody in the NFC North is over .500. The Bucs put 51 on the board as the Saints dropped their 4th straight. The Ravens defeated Washington in a highly competitive game, while the Cowboys got thumped in a non-competitive game (Happy 82nd birthday, Jerry Jones, will there be a coaching change in Dallas during their bye week?) And last night the Jets lost to the Bills by a field goal; the Jets kicker managed to hit the left upright on not one but two second-half 3-point attempts.
This week, both undefeated teams, the Chiefs and Vikings, are coming off bye weeks and will have tough outings to keep their records unblemished. KC visits the Niners in a Super Bowl rematch, while Minnesota hosts Detroit. The Jaguars get to play a second consecutive game in London, this time as the host team against the Patriots in a must-see game between two 1-5 teams. Houston visits Green Bay in what could be one of the better games of the weekend. Once again, there are two Monday night games, as the Bucs host the Ravens and the Chargers visit the Cardinals.
This week’s games. All spreads taken from ESPNBet on Tuesday, October 15 at 9:35 am CT.
The New York Jets just traded a conditional third round pick to the Raiders in exchange for Davante Adams. The Packersification of New Jersey continues apace.
That’s still not going to help his tendency to forget RBs exist and reduced ability to deal with a collapsing/collapsed pocket. Unless Adams can chip like nobody’s business.
I think they only have three former Packers on the active roster at this point (Rodgers, Adams, and Allen Lazard), though I may be missing some reserve or offensive lineman. WR Malik Taylor is on IR.
Last season, they had at least six: Rodgers, Lazard, Taylor, Tim Boyle, Randall Cobb, Adrian Amos.
The Patriots contine to inflict heavy losses on our former colonial masters. What a game coming up. A springboard from their current doldrums (not sure which team though). Momentum for a playoff run. I’ll sleep late and miss the excitement.
Doesn’t fix the sieve of the Jets offensive line, either. Your 41-year-old HoF QB shouldn’t be taking taking so many sacks.
Rodgers is playing like absolute shit, though. His passer rating alone (highest in history - so far) has dropped almost 10 points since he left the Packers - and that last season was his worst at that point.
Jake Hanson. I could have sworn Tyrod Taylor suited up for Green Bay at one point, but turns out it was DeShone Kizer. Zero idea how I got them confused.
Maybe they can convince David Bakhtiari to come out of retirement?
Busy day. The Browns trade Amari Cooper to the Bills. They’re packing it in early this season
Also, Woody Johnson quoted after being asked about the Adams trade: “Thinking is overrated” before saying something about instinct and Talladega Nights. If I were a fan, I know that would inspire a lot of confidence the team was being run the right way.
Amari has to hate Watson. He played so well last year and you can see him just half-assing it this year as well as obvious frustrated body language. I would hate to let him go except who gives a shit at this point. I’m kind of hoping they’ll trade Myles just so he can go somewhere and get the recognition and wins he deserves.
… yep, this team is such a fucking dumpster fire that I’m actually rooting for them to get rid of their best players for the sake of the happiness of those players.
Just cut/trade everyone worth a damn, including Watson. Use the $30 million or whatever they have left in cap space to sign replacement-level players and turn the season into a minor league baseball atmosphere - mascot fights, dachshund races, and the like. It’s already a joke of a franchise, might as well lean into the chosen role.
That’s part of the problem - cutting Watson alone (~ $175 million dead cap) much less any other players, they wouldn’t have enough to pay even replacement level players. That’s the problem with dead cap - they’re on the hook not just for the contracts on the current year but parts of future contract years for any player on multi-year deals. And it’s the players worth a damn who have the biggest dead cap numbers. Cut the biggest ones, and they may well end up underwater on their cap number without getting any new players.
They’re literally better off financially keeping him on the roster for the next two seasons (still $100 million dead cap after 2025) and hoping he does something to give them an out without being on the hook for all of that money.
I’d have more faith with Will Ferrell and John C Reilly owning the Jets for sure.
Browns traded Cooper for basically pocket lint. It had to be draft choices because getting someone to leave Buffalo (hard as this was to say) would get a resounding chorus of, “Hell no, I’ll retire first”.
The Packers, who cut both kickers they had in training camp (Greg Joseph, and last year’s kicker, Anders Carlson) during roster cut-downs, had gone with rookie Brayden Narveson, whom they had picked up on waivers from the Titans. Narveson has struggled, missing five field goals so far, and it’s been generally assumed that the Packers have been considering options.
They have apparently just signed veteran kicker Brandon McManus, who has been a free agent since June, when a lawsuit was filed against him by two women who claimed he had sexually assaulted them last season, while he was with the Jaguars, during a team flight to London. Two weeks ago, the league announced that they had not found sufficient evidence to indicate that McManus had violated the league’s personal conduct policy.
While I think the Packers need to move on from Narveson, I’m still a little uneasy about McManus, given the allegations.
You’re not wrong - the Browns are already ~$40m over the cap next season, and are underwater on most of their contracts. I don’t know that even Mickey Loomis could save this. The cap increase should relieve a bit of pressure, but the restructures and pressure in the following years might be brutal.
Yeah, it’s why the Cooper trade is a good idea in general. He’s in a contract year, and they can’t afford him anyway and he was disgruntled, so they got that out of the way and got some future value for him. By the time those draft picks are either re-traded or turn into 2nd or 3rd year players, the team will be in much a better position.
Of course, they’re still on the hook for something like a dead cap hit of $22 million (!!!) for next season on his contract, but that was happening no matter what after his most recent restructuring.
If they straight up cut Watson after the season, that’s nearly $200 million dead cap for 2025 alone just between for those 2 players. It’s over $200M for this season for Watson alone if they cut him now.
Sometimes I get the feeling maybe they’re not so hot on the business side of football in Cleveland, either.