There’s an article in the Boston Globe today that suggests - without any direct evidence, mind you - that Brady pushed Arians out. The implication is that his “un-retirement” was conditioned on the Glazers forcing Arians to retire.
It seems like all the Brady/Arians tension rumors came from one reporter a few months ago that pretty much everyone denied. And now that Arians retired they’re just dragging back up the same rumor with no real source.
Wagner signs with the Rams and immediately has a chance for another ring.
I gotta say, good for Bobby. He’s a hell of a player, whatever team he’s on.
On the Brady-Arians thing, I’m operating under the assumption that Brady and Arians weren’t on the same page. Brady wanted out and wanted to go to San Fran, but the logistics either wouldn’t work or the Bucs were unwilling to take whatever the Niners were offering. So Brady floated the idea of retiring to the Bucs thinking that would be some leverage. The Bucs leaked it to Schefter which put Brady in a shitty position. He denied it and then eventually was forced to follow through on his threat once it was public. The Bucs ownership started doing some work to fix the relationship while Brady was retired and ultimately convinced him to come back and either Arians would get with the program or he would leave. They’ve been working on fixing that and now that free agency started and the draft is approaching they realized that they can’t get there, so Arians is forced out.
No evidence to support any of it, but I’m treating this as the truth until proven otherwise.
Well, Arians just had his farewell press conference and ended it by basically accusing Florio (who started all the bad blood rumors) of making up stories.
Longtime suffering Dolphin fan checking in here.
The pick of Tua Tagovailoa over Justin Herbert at QB has the potential to go down as one of the worst draft decisions in franchise history.
Miami is sitting on 2 first round draft picks next year (which they could package to move up in the draft), so this is Tua’s make or break year - either he’s the franchise quarterback they were hoping for when he was drafted, or they’re going to go in a different direction next season.
So, to their credit, they’re giving him a chance to succeed. Where Tua has been good (and he’s actually been really good, statistically speaking) has been when he gets the ball out of his hand quickly. Some of that has been by necessity - the offensive line has been porous - but Tua is highly accurate, and a good decision maker, at short range (which is good, because he doesn’t have a really strong arm and some have said that he doesn’t read defenses all that well when he has to sit back in the pocket).
So, the team now has the fastest starting wide receiver duo in the league. Opposite Tyreek Hill will be Jaylen Waddle (with the league’s best touchdown celebration- he makes like a penguin and waddles back and forth), who also has blazing speed. They’ve also added to their line, (Terron Armstead) and grabbed a running back (Raheem Mostert) in free agency. Oh, and they also put the franchise tag on their talented tight end, Mike Gesicki, with the great hands. And added an offensive guru at head coach for good measure.
I guess they figure they’ll just run quick slants all season (with an occasional jump ball downfield), and Tua will either win everybody over or he goes the route of Marcus Mariotta - first rounder praised for his intangibles who ends up a career backup.
I wouldn’t give up on Tua yet. He’s not an instant superstar, but most QBs aren’t, even some of the greats. He was a backup in 2020 to Fitzpatrick (not that unusual for a rookie) and didn’t get too much of a chance that year. Much of the time he had to sit back as Fitzmagic did his stuff, and then he jammed his thumb late in the season, which made him miss a game but also that sort of thing has a tendency to make a QB less than his best. I don’t think you can judge him much by that year.
2021 he was named the starter, and started the year with a win over the Patriots. Then Week 2 he got taken out with multiple rib fractures. He came back Week 6, but I think much like Russell Wilson the same year, he was still not fully ready to come back when he took the field.
If he can make it through a whole year relatively healthy, then maybe you can see his real potential. But then again, people kept saying that about Andrew Luck who retired pretty early after being too banged up year after year. So we’ll see. But I wouldn’t call him a bust, not yet.
That’s a fair statement, and I hope you’re right.
It’s really quite absurd that a team would be looking at the 5th overall draft pick in the 2020 draft as being on the bubble in 2022, but Justin Herbert was picked 6th, and he’s a pro bowler. So Miami has this warped view of Tua.
You are very right that he hasn’t even had a chance to show his potential. He was injured coming into the league - and hampered by Covid restrictions (he later admitted that he didn’t have a great grasp of the playbook his rookie year).
As a fan, my hope springs eternal. He was having games last year with 80% completions. With the weapons the team has, and if they’re smart enough to bolster the line with some quality mid round draft picks, Tua has the chance to get to the next level.
Which would be awesome. I’d love it if the team could use their great draft position next year (in addition to having San Francisco’s 1st round pick along with their own, they picked up an extra 3rd rounder when they traded injury prone Devante Parker to the Patriots, and they have the Bear’s 6th round pick for Jakeem Grant) to fill whatever holes that are keeping them from being on a championship run.
But, if instead Tua gets hurt (again), or the offense is anemically throwing every pass at or behind the line of scrimmage (again), I don’t expect him to be the starter next season.
Tua’s 7.0 intended air yards was the third lowest in the NFL, ahead of only Jared Goff and Ben Rothlisberger. His time to throw was at 2.52, again the third lowest in the NFL. His aggressiveness percentage (throws into “tight coverage”) an NFL leading 19.1%. Also, Miami led the league in RPOs that were “pulled” to make a pass.
All told, it looks to me that Tua was tasked mostly with making quick, short, one-read throws regardless of coverage. And, as his completion percentage indicates, he did it quite well. It’s the whole “get the ball into the hands of your playmakers as quickly as possible” thinking.
I think the real question is why the Dolphins opted for this kind of offense. If it was because of the horrid running game or because a putrid offensive line couldn’t give them time to throw downfield, then there’s hope for Tua. But if it was because the coaching staff doesn’t trust Tua to know and execute a more challenging playbook, then there is a big issue. It reminds me of Mitch Trubisky, who made a Pro Bowl thanks to a fantastic defense and a simplified offense that never really challenged him to be great downfield.
Should be an interesting year for him and the Dolphins. McDaniel, Frank Smith (who comes from the Chargers) and Darrel Bevell (he of Russell Wilson fame) will likely challenge Tua more. How he responds will be something to see. The Dolphins, coming off a winning season and with their attention grabbing headlines by signing Tyreek Hill, Terron Armstead, and Edmonds/Mostert, will be a very popular pick by “experts”. Could be fun.
Eagles and Saints swap a bunch of picks.
Eagles send the No. 16 overall pick, No. 19 overall pick and a 6th-round pick to the Saints for the No. 18 overall pick, a 3rd-round pick, a 7th-round pick and a 2023 1st-round pick and a 2nd-round pick in 2024.
Saints now have multiple 1st rounders and the Eagles still do. Not a good draft for QBs but I guess it’s thick at the top with… ? There’s two or three guys they really love I guess.
That trade makes NO FUCKING SENSE.
It makes sense for the Eagles at least. They’ll give Jalen Hurts one more year to prove himself. He’s on a cheap rookie contract anyway. And the QB market next year looks better than this one. They’re not losing a lot here and getting a head start on next year.
Not really sure what the Saints are thinking though. Jameis Winston doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence and Andy Dalton backing him up isn’t exciting anybody either. At least they ditched Bortles. Maybe they think they can somehow contend within their division (despite Brady) with the addition of another starter or two.
Depending on how you value future picks, it’s pretty even. New Orleans has something in mind right now, the Eagles had three 1st Rounders in a light draft and opted for trading one for the future.
Yeah, it makes some sense for the Eagles. They get to spread their picks out a little more evenly and avoid a situation where they have 3 1st rounders coming up on a second contract in the same year. And since New Orleans doesn’t really have a great prognosis for '23 and '24 those future picks have a great chance of escalating in value.
But for New Orleans…another in a long line of short-sighted choices. And now they don’t even have the Drew Brees window as a justification for it.
Probably the bigger problem is that the Eagles almost certainly would have been better off dangling those picks on draft day. Teams are way more prone to overpaying when they see some prospect they’re enamored with slipping and a division rival sitting there 2 picks ahead of them. If this were a QB heavy draft maybe the Eagles are more patient, I can only guess that they figured they’d be left holding the bag this year if they didn’t work out a deal now.
The 49ers pre-draft trade was monumentally stupid at the time…this one is maybe less stupid since it’s mid-round picks at stake and the Saints aren’t targeting a QB to be named later, but it’s still in the same family. Just wait until the Saints package those two picks up to move into the top 5 for a QB.
Speaking for Eagles fans everywhere, I’m pretty sure they would have avoided that situation anyway based on their historic drafting prowess.
Former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens will be playing in a new seven-on-seven pro league, Fan Controlled Football, which starts its inaugural season later this month. He’ll be playing for the Zappers team, along with quarterback Johnny Manziel.
Owens is 48, and last played in the NFL with the Bengals in 2010. However, he has continued to hope for a return to the NFL, and claims to still be able to run a 40 in 4.4 seconds; it’s pretty clear that he hopes that he can parlay this into a chance to return to the NFL.
Thanks for the laugh.
Though, I wouldn’t put it past him (or especially somebody like Jerry Rice) to be able to play 1 game and still be decent or even pretty good.
Too bad, then, the NFL season is 17 games.
So, I was mistaken: Fan Controlled Football had their inaugural season last year, when two of their star players were Manziel and Josh Gordon.
As a person who spends too much time on various socials listening to NFL fans…the very last thing anyone needs is a fan controlled league. Yikes.