That comes up a lot.
He could have, if he wasn’t being held during every negotiation!
Brady’s going to be throwing to a disturbing number of rookie receivers this year. Sure, Thompkins, Dobson, Sudfeld, and Boyce, all of them later picks or FA’s, have all looked fine so far in practice, and against a rebuilding Eagles D that was playing vanilla, but there could be some rough spots once the games get real. And who knows how dependable Gronk will ever be anymore.
I think the Pats might not win the AFC East this year.
The Fins might theoretically have a chance with a lot of luck, but that’s hardly the way to bet. 
The Jets are a trainwreck still, the Bills don’t have a passing attack and really want to start a rookie QB, and the Dolphins have Ryan Tannehill as their QB. No way the Pats don’t win their division again.
Another Pats note" evidently, Tebow will make the roster.
Just watched the first half of the Saints v Raiders. Brees is still Brees. The offense was moving the ball well, even on the ground. 2 TDs and 3 FGs on the board. I suspect in the regular season at least one of the FGs would have been a TD. Payton wasn’t going to show anything much about his red zone offense in this game.
The big story was the defense. 5 sacks in the first half, with starters from both teams in the game. Will Smith seems to have adjusted to his position change nicely. He’s lost weight, and covering a lot of ground.
On the downside, they did get shredded on the last drive of the half, giving up a TD to the Raiders.
Following the 49ers preseason game at the Chiefs, the teams continued their love affair by trading each other’s 1st Round disappointing receivers, AJ Jenkins and Jon Baldwin. If Baldin even makes the 49ers final 53 man roster, they will have gotten the better end of the deal.
I mock-drafted Jenkins in 2011 in a multi-user mock over on reddit, only I picked him the 4th Round. I was stoked the team picked a guy I picked, but he was a big reach at #30. He couldn’t beat press coverage and couldn’t get open downfield. Baldwin has size and speed, but apparently bad hands and questionable route running.
So, I’ve been really busy this summer and haven’t been posting much. I’ve followed the NFL pretty closely, just not able to spend much time around here or thinking about Fantasy Football which is a shame.
But, since I’m procrastinating work a little to get some bookkeeping done for the keeper leagues I figure I can post a few quick and dirty thoughts about the Bears so far this preseason.
Prepare for a stream of consciousness, no promises of coherence, cogent analysis or creativity. Yes, that was some bitching alliteration though.
[ul]
[li]I’ve been extremely pleased with what I’ve seen from the Bears draft picks so far. Kyle Long looks like physically he’s ready to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the NFL. In the preseason he’s been consistently dominant and probably is the Bears best lineman already. I said this about Carimi at one point in his rookie year too, so take it with a grain of salt, but I can’t complain too much. Of course, the preseason is a different animal than the regular season and we’ll see how durable Long is and how well he adjusts to the mental aspects. [/li][li]Bostic is playing like a man possessed. He’s had a bunch of highlight reel plays already and has generally been sound. Still a long ways to go in getting to the deep middle and diagnosing routes, but he’s always around the ball.[/li][li]Greene hasn’t flashed as much as Bostic, but if I were a betting man I’d say he’ll win the starting SAM job out of camp. Neither Williams or Anderson has shown much, but they haven’t been asked to. [/li][li]Neither Cornelius Washington or Marquess Wilson have been impressive, but they haven’t flopped either. Eager to see how the next 2 games shake out for them. [/li][li]Jordan Mills was a little bit of an afterthought coming out of the draft, but right now it looks like he’s going to win the starting RT job from Webb who was just asked to take a pay cut. He hasn’t been in as many cut-ups as Long, but the reports all seem pretty positive. Like Long the big question will be about how he adapts to the mental aspects and adjusts in real-game action. [/li][li]Both big name FA acquisitions have been quiet. They haven’t been tested much, I suspect this weekend will be educational. [/li][li]Some UDFAs has shown well, Michael Ford looked great on special teams and has a burst as a 3rd back and will probably steal Armando Allen’s job. Zack Minter got some nice work in Melton’s absence. [/li][li]Tress Way was a guy I was hoping would show Podlesh the door and that’s not going to happen. [/li][li]The D-Line is in for a big transition and I’m worried about depth. Wootten looks awesome replacing Idonije, but I’ve said repeatedly that I think McClellin sucks. He was OK against the Chargers this weekend, so we’ll see. Behind those guys there isn’t much if Washington doesn’t get cooking. [/li][li]Same story on the inside. It’s Melton and Paea, with Collins rotating and not much else. [/li][li]Kelvin Hayden is out for the season and I couldn’t care less. [/li][li]Some of “Lovie’s guys” are actually looking solid in the secondary. Sherrick McMannis and Isiah Grey both seem to be ready to step in at the Nickel and Dime. [/li][li]Cutler still looks like the same guy so far, that’s not good. Plenty of positive chatter out of camp and he’s been productive in limited action in the preseason, but he’s not spreading it around enough and I’m not seeing a ton of west-coasty things. [/li][li]Jury is still out on Trestman. Looks like a pretty traditional offense so far. That’s not inherently bad, but I’m not seeing a big reason to think it’ll explode. [/li][li]Mel Tucker = Rod Marinelli. At least so far, if they are 80% as good as last year we’re golden. [/li][li]Marshall is a beast.[/li][li]Jeffery still has a long ways to go to be Marshall 2.0. He looks like he’s in great shape at least, which was a concern about him coming out of the draft. Seems like he’s quicker in and out of his breaks. [/li][li]Joe Anderson could be a super sleeper as the slot. [/li][li]Hester so far is a complete non-factor. Wonder how this is going to shake out. [/li][li]Briggs hasn’t lost anything, expect a All-Pro year from him. [/li][li]Wonder who the Melton Memorial Red-Shirt will be this year, CJ Wilson maybe? [/li][li]Who the hell is going to play fullback? I’m hoping the Bengals cut the Terminator or something because we’re in rough shape at FB. I would have expected Unga to be the choice, but so far he’s been nowhere. [/li][li]I think the running game is going to be solid with some big upgrades to the line, the TEs and some health at RB. Still wish they had a guy back there who scared teams with his speed, maybe Ford can be close to that guy. [/li][li]Last point, I don’t remember the last time I was so unclear about the direction the team was taking at this point in the preseason. Part of that was that Lovie was always so conservative and you generally knew the safe bet was getting the job, but that also cost us because we rarely caught lightning in a bottle. Thus far we still have a ton of positions undecided and I wouldn’t be at all shocked to see some roster moves happen as players around the league are marginalized and released. I worry about depth everywhere and for once I can envision some youngsters stealing jobs from vets, a rarity under Lovie. 2 games left to get some clarity, it’ll be interesting.[/li][/ul]
Luke Kuechly is a beast.
I only caught about a quarter of that game, but that Star Lotulelei looks like a stud too. There seems to be hope for that defense (although getting 4 turnovers always makes a defense look great). Too bad that offense is still struggling.
The Lions follow up last week’s 3 personal foul game against the Browns with a 5 personal foul game against the Patriots, including a couple late hits, a taunting, a chop block, and an unnecessary roughness. My dislike for Jim Schwartz continues unabated, and I will greatly enjoy another meltdown season by the Lions. They have enough talent and skill on both sides of the ball to be very competitive, but they’re also bunch of head cases coached by a douchebag.
I came in to post this, almost word for word. That whole team is a bag of dicks from the coach on down.
Don’t hate on Izzy! Of course, if Lion’s history is any indication, Idonije will get a DUI, get busted for pot, and will get 4 or 5 personal foul penalties this year.
The Packers cut Vince Young so they only have a practice squad qb as a backup. I guess they didn’t want to guarantee Young’s contract and they can sign him after week 1, but what happens if Rodgers goes down in the first quarter of the first game? Might the Packers sign someone who was just cut from another team or are they going to risk starting the year with just one experienced qb?
That was a shock to read this morning. I guess they didn’t see enough progress in the 4 games, not like VY’s contract was going to hurt. The Chiefs game was pretty brutal offensive-wise. My guess is they’re expecting someone else to get cut in the 53 man shakeout to target for the main #2 role. BJ Coleman is still a project and no one was going to claim him between the 53 man cut and practice squad signing where “everyone” expected him to spend another year. Very interesting.
The Packers had really better hope that Rodgers doesn’t go down early in their first game. Wallace is fine for a back up, but giving him a few days to learn a new system means he’ll be running a high school level game if he gets forced into duty on week one.
Each and every legitimate Super Bowl contending team better hope their starting QB doesn’t get injured.