He may not be mostly to blame, but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily part of the solution. He’s been in charge through 3 drafts, and while he doesn’t have control of the roster, he’s definitely involved in all the evaluations, the overall roster construction and player development. And if he’s not…that’s almost more damning, if you aren’t able to exert influence over your GM when he’s making mistakes, that makes you part of the problem.
Daboll might still end up as a successful coach under a different GM, likely on a different team, but when you’re one of the 2 key decision makers, you own the failure. If Daboll is the kind of coach who needs an elite front office to support him, that’s usually workable, but it’s a limitation to be aware of.
You can’t prorate guaranteed money that way when doing a comparison, it’s not apples to apples. I don’t understand why OTC even includes that metric in their charts. 2 years guaranteed on a 5-year deal and 2 years guaranteed on a 3-year deal are essentially the exact same deal.
Digg’s $26M guaranteed puts him in the Darnell Mooney/Gabe Davis range of contracts which seems pretty much exactly where he belongs all things considered.
I think there’s an even more reasonable way to look at this. Stefon Diggs, even with the considerable question marks, is the best available WR on the free agent market. Like it or not, NFL contracts are a supply and demand business. And if the Pats decided to hold firm on Diggs, their next best options would be Keenan Allen, Diontae Johnson and Amari Cooper.
The Pats likely had a choice, give Diggs 3/$68M with $26M guaranteed, or give him something more like 3/$50M with $35M guaranteed. Of the two, I much prefer the deal they signed. Or they could have drove a hard bargain, had Diggs go elsewhere and then end up being forced to negotiate with one of the other guys with even less leverage.
Diggs got basically the exact same deal that Davante Adams got. If I had my choice, I’d certainly prefer Adams, but I’m sure Adams preferred Los Angles over New England. It is what it is. What would the Pats gain by bargain hunting at WR - the Krafts pocket a little extra money and Drake Maye’s growth gets stunted a bit? If Diggs is cancer, or if his knee is cooked, it was a failed experiment and they can try again next year with little to no dead cap.
Couple rule changes today. OT has been changed so both teams get a possession. Touchback on kickoff was moved to the 35 yard lane (so there should be more returns now). Tee tush push ban failed.
“Some people are better at it than others and it’s not fair” isn’t a very compelling argument.
I think they tried to argue that there was a safety issue but people aren’t getting hurt doing it (except emotionally) so that’s not a very good argument either.
Steelers owner/president Art Rooney II is saying that the team is still very interested in Aaron Rogers, and that there are signs that Rodgers will be joining the team soon:
Yup. The only change was to guarantee both teams get a possession, which was already the case in the playoffs. There’s still only a single OT period in the regular season, which can still end in a tie.
In the playoffs, they play as many OTs as necessary to determine a winner, which is effectively the only difference now.
That’s not compelling at all to me. The rules are always different between the defense and offense. For example, offensive linemen can’t even flinch before a ball is snapped, but the defense can wiggle and twitch as much as they want. That is an argument that makes zero sense. They try to balance things as much as they can by having enough advantages and disadvantages on each side that it evens out in the end more-or-less, but “they can do it and we can’t” only deserves a response of, “So what?”
As above, if there were legitimate statistics on injury, that would be one thing.
But the objections all seem to be “we can’t defend it and don’t want to train our guys to handle those situations”. That’s BS. In gamer parlance, ‘git gud, n00b’
Not every rule is intended to reduce injuries or avoid an unfair advantage. Some rules are there because they make the game more enjoyable for spectators.
The tush-push is a boring play to watch. I don’t think it rises to the level of needing a rule against it, but I can understand if some people do.
That is a subjective judgement. I get excited when I see them. They aren’t guaranteed and when they fail, they can fail spectacularly. Even the vaunted Eagles who seem invincible with it don’t always succeed.
I really like it as a play. It is another kind of play used in specific situations that adds variety to the game, and I think of its inclusion as a positive development. It makes the game more interesting.
To be pedantic, if the first possession in a playoff OT ends in a safety, the game ends there. Which makes sense - after a safety the team which was scored upon has to kick it to the team that scored, with no on-sides kicks allowed, so it’s nearly impossible for the kicking team to recover.
Yeah, the reason for that oddity is that both teams have technically had possession and it’s no longer a tie.
I think safeties are so rare that it’s probably not worth the effort to come up with a reasonable exception.
And I don’t see that it’s any different than Team A winning the toss, receiving the ball, throwing a pick six and the game is now over because Team B scored after Team A already blew their shot.
