I also wonder about Steve Young, who came up and then stayed after Montana’s elbow injury. Montana had a great final season with SF.
It reminds me how different that era was. Free agency didn’t really exist as we know it until 1993. Players were essentially trapped on their teams unless the team decided to trade them away.
They knew Young was going to get the position eventually. He was in his 3rd? 4th? season in SF and was already generating a QB controversy. Montana held on for a few more years and it was only after he missed nearly 2 full seasons due to that elbow injury that they moved on when Young didn’t want to play backup after basically being “the” guy for that long and won the locker room.
It’s not like Steve Young was some overnight success. He already had his own more than solid record before Montana’s injury.
Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill is under investigation by the league due to domestic abuse allegations made by his estranged wife. Hill has a history of such incidences, dating back to college. Probably due to this, he has always struck me as an excellent player who is also a complete knucklehead.
Kaepernick was an unheralded, 2nd-year backup when he stepped in for an injured #1 draft pick, Alex Smith. Brock Purdy was 3rd string his rookie year when he stepped in and won 8 straight before his injury in the conference championship. Garoppolo didn’t immediately start, either.
So let’s hope Mr. Jones can continue this tradition, because
What should be the good, competitively close games this week? Maybe …
49er at Saints?
Broncos at Colts?
Eagles at Chiefs?
Chargers at Raiders on Monday night?
And the Bills have displaced the Ravens for the top team, so far, to win Super Bowl LX.
Super Bowl LX Winner
Buffalo Bills +700
Baltimore Ravens +700
Philadelphia Eagles +700
Green Bay Packers +750
Kansas City Chiefs +1000
Detroit Lions +1800
Washington Commanders +1900
Los Angeles Rams +1900
Los Angeles Chargers +2000
San Francisco 49ers +2000
Minnesota Vikings +2200
Cincinnati Bengals +2200
Denver Broncos +2500
Tampa Bay Buccaneers +2500
Houston Texans +3000
Arizona Cardinals +4000
Jacksonville Jaguars +5000
Chicago Bears +5000
Pittsburgh Steelers +5000
Indianapolis Colts +5500
Dallas Cowboys +7000
Seattle Seahawks +8000
Atlanta Falcons +8000
New England Patriots +10000
Miami Dolphins +10000
Las Vegas Raiders +10000
Carolina Panthers +20000
New York Giants +22500
New York Jets +22500
Tennessee Titans +25000
Cleveland Browns +30000
New Orleans Saints +40000
Green Bay and Washington could be a barn burner. The line is basically a wash with home field advantage. I think the Commanders are better than they played Sunday.
J.J. McCarthy was out today waiting for the birth of their son. Nice to read some happier player news.
My guess is that the Seahawks at Steelers might be, but at the same time, I’m not 100% sure how good either team really is yet.
This KC fan thinks that the Eagles will handle the Chiefs and it may not be close.
I’m feeling like Daniels is poised to have a Stroud-like sophomore season. He badly missed wide open guys against the Giants last week. And now I just tuned in to him missing a wide open guy followed by a terrible drop. Dude had both hands firmly on the ball; gotta catch that. So he’s not even getting help from his receivers. The short week can’t be helping.
Shout out to the Amazon recap, showing me five highlights from the first quarter. (None of which were beautiful Jayden Daniels completions that I recall.)
I kind of want to bail on this game and just watch the condensed version in a couple hours.
Jordan Love starting to put on a show. I thought offenses were going to be weak for both teams because of the short week.
For good close games my picks are:
Eagles @ Chiefs, the chiefs aren’t the team they were but with home field advantage and while I favour the Eagles I could see a repeat of one of their close games decided on a fluky play right at the death that they had a few of last season.
Buccs @ Texans: I’m a little surprised the Texans are favorites here Mayfield looked a little rusty in the first half last week but shook it off in the second.
Pats @ Dolphins: Competive and close just not so sure about good. Two of the worse teams in the league not sure who will come out on top.
The Commanders’ Austin Ekeler dropped to the ground without being touched late in the fourth quarter last night; watching it in real time, I thought to myself, “that guy just tore an Achilles tendon.” That does appear to be the case.
NFL slapfight.
Packers with a nice win last night. Love is still a bit inaccurate, but he’s better than last year. And the defense is looking very good. The Packers have oftentimes had difficulty with containing running QBs, but they did an excellent job with Jayden Daniels after floundering a bit with Caleb Williams.
I’m getting excited for this year. That concerns me.
Those AFC East matchups over the years have yielded some interesting games and outcomes. I can’t list any games off the top of my head but my old fart brain seems to recall that.
They look scary good to me, and while it’s only week 2, I expect them to be at the top of the NFC North, or at least competing for the spot up until the end of the season. Barring anything like bad injury luck. Their defense in particular is a monster.
Browns defense is playing extremely well and it doesn’t matter because the offense is horrific. I always feel bad for a defense when they’re absolutely playing out of their minds and it doesn’t matter because the offense and special teams just put them in bad situations again and again.
Cowboys are lucking out with red-zone defense right now (or maybe the Giants are bad at red-zone offense.) New York ought to have been leading 28-17 right now rather than trailing 16-17.
A lone Clevelander rooting for the Ravens.