That’s the statement I think I have a problem with. When Flacco signed for huge money, then Cutler, then Dalton, and all of these middle of the road QB’s started making huge money, it seemed to me that the NFL GM’s just shrugged their shoulders and decided that’s what they had to do. I don’t like that. I think the improvement of an Andy Dalton over a guy like Kyle Orton or Ryan Fitzpatrick or Brian Hoyer, or the rest of that huge blob of middling QB’s, simply isn’t worth that kind of money.
I’m not sure the success rate of any player in the later rounds is as high as those taken at the top of the draft. I also believe in the development of a QB is important and a sorely underdeveloped part of most NFL teams.
But we’re not talking about “star” QB’s. If you want to trade or pay, a star QB, go ahead. They’re worth it. What I’m talking about is the group of middlin’ QB’s who are getting huge contracts because they’re better than bad QB’s.
Again, I disagree. If the goal is to win a championship, having a ton of money tied up in an slightly better than average QB isn’t much better than having a crappy QB. The one distinct advantage I see with it is the hope that, for a few games, your average QB can be very good (and very lucky) when it counts, ala Flacco or Eli. It’s not likely Alex Smith or Kyle Orton or Ryan Fitzpatrick can do that. But for an extra 8 million a year? I’m not sure it’s worth it. Give me that money and cap space to develop the rest of my team.
I think this will lead to NFL hell, where your team doesn’t suck, but you don’t win anything while you hover around 7-9 to 9-7 with maybe a playoff game or two every few years.
NFL Hell is otherwise known as “the dream” for the Jaguars and Raiders, and “the goal” for the Bills, Browns, Buccaneers, Chiefs, Dolphins, Jets, Lions, Texans, Rams, Redskins, Titans and Vikings.
It’s hard to take QB opinions from a Packer fan. Not that you don’t understand, but as a Packer fan you haven’t had to feel any real anxiety about your QB position for over 20 years. That’s quite the luxury. As a Giants fan, I can look back at the 90s and shudder at the memory of Dave Brown, Danny Kanell and Kent Graham, and remember how happy I was with Kerry Collins. He certainly wasn’t great by any stretch, but he was a real, legitimate QB, and in the end, that’s all I want. Getting a Tom Brady just isn’t realistic.
If I have to back up the brinks truck to pay a guy like Kerry Collins, or can save money with a guy like Dave Brown, I’m (over)paying Kerry Collins without hesitation or regret.
There’s been two flurries of “don’t have to overpay him” QBs to win championships that I can think of: Doug Williams, Jeff Hostetler and Mark Rypien in the late 80s/early 90s, and Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson in the early 2000s. The league has changed since then; I’m not sure the philosophy you’re advocating is valid in today’s game. Unless you consider Russell Wilson in that category – I don’t – in which case, fair enough.
Not “who is our QB” anxiety, but, up until Rodgers, “when will our QB throw yet another interception to cost the team a game or a playoff run” anxiety was everywhere.
You’re describing it quite well. As long as a QB doesn’t suck, he’ll get paid, because they want to cater to the fans’ desire to have one guy be the sole focus of a team game.
Go ahead. And when your QB throws 4 interceptions in the biggest game of his career and you’re losing in the playoffs again and your QB has a 75 career playoff passer rating, you can always say “well, at least we made the playoffs”, while some team with a great defense and a third round QB goes on to win the Super Bowl.
You must be joking. Obviously there was never any doubt about “whom” the QB was going to be in the Favre era (until there WAS…ha ha ha!!!), his query was more about the quality of QB play, an issue Packers fans haven’t had to really deal with much since Dan Majewski.
Which is yet another weird Bengals parallel. Killed Bo Jackson, jump started Favre, etc.
To be fair to Cam Newton, he’s never had a good supporting cast on offense, and I think a good case could be made that it’s gotten worse every year since he’s been in the league. Late-career Steve Smith, an average-ish receiving TE, and a big pile of crap besides will tend to depress one’s numbers; Wide Receivers are really important.
A QB who puts up league-average passing numbers at ages 22-24, along with elite running value, surrounded by a below-average supporting corps, is probably not actually an average QB.
300 pound Billy Winn just hurdled the field goal blocking team to block it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a block like that before, but now I wonder why not. Check out out the highlight on that.
The Browns went from the best O-line into the league to being a near disaster on inside runs since Mack went down. They used to be able to trip behind the line and gain 3 yards - now they struggle to get back to the line of scrimmage. Very frustrating. Had no idea Mack was so critical.
Browns aren’t going anywhere unless they pull a center out of their ass. They might win today and go 5-3, but they’ve been unable to run at all on 3 of the worst teams in the league and their big play passing game is predicated on their ability to run, which they no longer have. The defense has picked up the slack a little bit, but their excellent running game was the thing they could use to keep it close against games with good teams. Without that, they’re going to get exposed. I would be surprised at this point if we beat any good teams for the rest of the year.
That was an odd sequence of events. Browns have 4th down and about 4.5 to go near the goal line. Bucs get encroachment penalty, which is half the distance to the goal, which is about 4 yards. Officials move the ball, then measure it for a first, and then deny it.
I don’t recall ever seeing a ball moved for a penalty and measured with the chains. That seems like a weird procedure. It seems like they’d just pick a yard line and then move it up 5 yards.
Also seems like there should be a rule along the lines of “if you have a penalty that gives half the distance to the goal, but would’ve otherwise given enough yards for a first down, you move the ball half the distance but award the first down”, otherwise it creates situations that are too advantageous for the team committing the penalty.
Bad idea. Should a false start when backed up inside the 5 be a safety? No. Yardage on penalties just gets reduced, tough. It’s a free play for the offense, too. Just deal with it.
The last 4 or so Browns game have actually been really well officiated. I have almost no complaints. But then Terry McAuley comes to town. He’s still got a grudge from bottlegate.
Edit: Right as I say that, he gifts TB a drive extension on a phantom illegal contact.
I’d nominate Blake Bortles. A 68.3 passer rating, twice as many interceptions (12) as touchdowns (6), and a 1-8 record. Granted he’s a rookie, and it’s always rough, but he is, right now, the worst starting QB in the NFL.
Skins gave away an easy win today to the lowly Vikings. RG3 looked avg, which is fine I suppose. If they would have won today it would have kept the skins fans grasping though. At least now we know we have no chance of doing shit this year.
There was a play that kind of bothered me. Second-and-goal on the three, RB runs into a wall of DBs and DTs, then a bunch of linemen come in from the back, and the whole scrum pushes the RB across the goal line.
Thing is, when four or five defenders get on a ball carrier and push him back, the play is blown dead with forward progress. This scrum looked like a pretty dangerous situation, especially for the guy in the middle of it. There were players on offense who were trying to grab defenders to exert progressive leverage on the scrum, which seemed a bit wrong, like holding or illegal use of hands.
I mean, it was kind of cool to watch, a brute-force shoving match like you might see in rugby, but the risk of injury looked pretty high.