2016/2017 NFL thread: The Final Countdown

[DarthSkywalker]

The Washington Racial Slurs just lost their shot at the playoffs thanks to their elite QB.

 

[SuperBatman]

Due to the Steelers inevitable tendency to play down to the level of their competition and lose to grossly inferior teams, Oakland will beat the Steelers should they play.

Pretty Sure the Only way Oakland plays the Steelers is if they meet in the AFC Championship game.

 

[TheCommissioner]

such a Redskins play

haha

Lets Go Giants

 

[Dr. Evil]

Good to see Matt Sanchez back as Matt Sanchez today.

 

[Slushy]

Rams fans, I'm mourning for you.

 

[Kaleb]

 

[The Big G]

I'm curious to see how this Crabtree/Talin feud plays out.

If someone grabs your gold chain during the play...well...that's on you for wearing it.

But if they get up in your face...after the play is clearly over...reach in and grab it too break it...how is that not destruction of property? It wasn't an accident...it was intentional.

I think Crab should sue.

 

[Kanon]

how Rodgers escaped that sack and almost gets a first down is beyond me

 

[Kaleb]

 

[Matt]

Kelly officially out in San Fran

I gotta say, I'd have given Kelly one more year for PR purposes, if nothing else. This move really does make the 49ers, a storied franchise, look like a club that is as clueless as the Browns or Jags.

First they force out a coach who is two years removed from the Super Bowl (and made the NFC championship the year before his firing) over an 8-8 season. They proceed to replace him with a yes man, who, while a good D-line coach, has no business being an NFL head coach. After one 5-11 season he is fired and replaced with a high profile hire. At the time, they knew a rebuild was needed and seemed to commit to Kelly as the guy to lead the rebuild. They then fire him after one season, before he even has the chance to acquire the talent needed to run his system or put his long term rebuild plans into effect.

The Yorks may not have liked where Kelly was leading the franchise, but they knew what they were getting when they signed him. This wasn't an unknown. They saw what he did with the Eagles and knew what his vision would look like. To fire him after one season makes the Yorks coming off as reactionary, wavering, and incapable of committing to a long term plan. I really cannot see why any quality coach, or free agent, would want to go there. It is quite clearly a toxic front office that is cannibalizing itself from within.

 

[Kaleb]

Man,Aaron Rogers is peaking at the right time looks unstoppable right now.

 

[Matt]

One year after winning a Super Bowl, Gary Kubiak is retiring

I did not see that one coming. I wonder if Peyton is still looking to get into coaching.

 

[Lantern Venom]

Kelly officially out in San Fran

I gotta say, I'd have given Kelly one more year for PR purposes, if nothing else. This move really does make the 49ers, a storied franchise, look like a club that is as clueless as the Browns or Jags.

The Yorks may not have liked where Kelly was leading the franchise, but they knew what they were getting when they signed him. This wasn't an unknown. They saw what he did with the Eagles and knew what his vision would look like. To fire him after one season makes the Yorks coming off as reactionary, wavering, and incapable of committing to a long term plan. I really cannot see why any quality coach, or free agent, would want to go there. It is quite clearly a toxic front office that is cannibalizing itself from within.

The 49ers' D allowed more points and rush yards than any other season in their 7-decade history. That's how far away this team is. It took the 49ers nearly a decade to become contenders after they fired Mariucci, and as impossible as this sounds, they're even worse now than in 2004. There will be many rookies taking 49er jobs in the next couple of years, which will only be the start of a lengthy rebuilding process.

I'm just glad this season is over so I can completely shift my focus to pro and college basketball now. Those of you still interested in the playoffs, enjoy. I'll see you in September after I try to purge all remnants of this season from my angst-ridden heart.

 

[Kaleb]

Wildcard matchups

 

[Matt]

So with Kubiak out, a lot of talk in Denver is turning to Kyle Shanahan. It would certainly make a cute little story, but I think it would be Josh McDaniels 2.0. Shanahan isn't mature enough to be a head coach, and frankly, I am not sure he ever will be. His feud with RG3 was absurd. Yes, RG3 was in the wrong, but as the coach, Shanahan should've been above that. Instead he made it very ugly and, worse, very public. I get the impression from Shanahan of a pampered kid who rode his father's coattails to success while being told he is never wrong and he brings that mentality to the teams he coaches. If the players disagree or don't fit his system, he will hold his breath and stomp his feet until they do (or until the front office replaces them with players who will).

Oddly, I think the best coach for Denver is Josh McDaniels. Yep, McDaniels 1.0 was a disaster in Denver. But he was also young, immature, and being forced to work with Tim Tebow for one of those seasons. Plus, let's face it...to some extent, hasn't McDaniels been validated in the Cutler feud? We've seen what a diva Cutler is in Chicago. At the time, everyone was so eager to point the finger at McDaniels. Maybe he knew something we didn't. I think McDaniels would make perfect sense for Denver if the two sides could bury the hatchet and leave the past in the past.

 

[Matt]

Wildcard matchups

- Seattle over Detroit

- Green Bay over New York

- Houston/Oakland could go either way...its gonna be a **** show.

- Miami over Pittsburgh (feels like one of those trap games for the Steelers, that they walk into as favorites but lose due to complacency...plus, Roethlisberger has played like **** since his injury. Yeah, he's thrown touchdowns but also a lot of interceptions)

 

[Kaleb]

I have to think that where ever Josh goes it will be to some team that will be willing to trade for Jimmy Garoppolo (spent 3 seasons under his system)

 

[Immortalfire]

I was at the Falcons game today. It was loud.

 

[Dr. Evil]

There are rumors of Sean Payton to the Rams because he has a daughter out there in California.

Well, the 49ers and Chargers jobs are also open and Chargers could be in Los Angeles soon.

 

[CELTICPRED]

Packers homer. We are blessed to have Rodgers. Always have been. Would love to see him win his 3rd MVP. Doubt he will, I think it will be Ryan, and I'll be fine with that. Dude was straight up surgically efficient. He did it quietly, and a touch more consistently than Rodgers did. Sadly that 4 game losing streak where the defense gave up at least 26 points a game, and 40 points twice will land back on Rodgers. "MVPs don't have 4 game losing streaks." But then you see what Rodgers has done the last 6 games. The last minute drive over Chicago, throwing no interceptions, at the time playing 4 top 10 pass defenses, on top of that, has been able to carry this swiss cheese, marching out corpses for defenders defense, and I'm still amazed. Feeling the momentum clearly shifting in the Lions favor and then rushing the team to the line with the Lions subbing and getting that penalty call, the dude just runs s***. I don't expect much from the Packers this post season, that defense is going to let them down sooner than later, but damn it's been a special year.

 

[Kaleb]

There are rumors of Sean Payton to the Rams because he has a daughter out there in California.

Well, the 49ers and Chargers jobs are also open and Chargers could be in Los Angeles soon.

Colts most likely as well (will probably find out tomorrow on Black Monday)

 

[Immortalfire]

There are rumors of Sean Payton to the Rams because he has a daughter out there in California.

Well, the 49ers and Chargers jobs are also open and Chargers could be in Los Angeles soon.

People used the same logic a few years back about Bill Cowher, that he was going to coach the Panthers because he lives in Raleigh.

 

[Spider-Gnome]

- Miami over Pittsburgh (feels like one of those trap games for the Steelers, that they walk into as favorites but lose due to complacency...plus, Roethlisberger has played like **** since his injury. Yeah, he's thrown touchdowns but also a lot of interceptions)

Of course, that would make me happy, but yesterday the Dolphins looked terrible. Yeah, I know it was the Pats, but the Dolphins look like they have been doing it with smoke and mirrors all season. Hopefully, Ajayi can run for 200 yards for a second time against the Steelers, like they did against Buffalo. But I doubt it.

 

[Rowsdower!]

In case anyone missed it, this is a letter that Bill Belichick wrote to Trump on the eve of the election.

“Congratulations on a tremendous campaign. You have to help with an unbelievable slanted and negative media and have come out beautifully. You have proven to be the ultimate competitor fighter. Your leadership is amazing. I have always had tremendous respect for you for the toughness and perseverance you have displayed over the past year is remarkable. Hopefully tomorrow’s election, the results will give the opportunity to make America great again.

Best wishes for great results tomorrow,

Bill Belichick”
​

I used to think that to be an exceptional head coach (even one who CHEATS CHEATS CHEATS LIKE A CHEATING CHEATER), you have to be a pretty sharp guy, even if your specialty is coming up with new and innovative ways to sweep things under the rug. And as someone who writes and edits for a living, I know that spelling and grammar aren't necessarily good indicators of a person's intelligence. Still, LOOK at that letter. I had to read it two or three times to make sure that I wasn't just misreading it. I'm not sure how much money Belichick makes, but I'm sure he's among the highest paid head coaches in the NFL, if not THE highest. I'm sure he has a personal assistant who could proofread this kind of sh** before it goes out (and if someone DID proofread this, that guy should immediately be fired).

But there is a difference between a few typos and writing something that is, at times, so incoherent that it's difficult to discern exactly what the hell is being said. As Will Leitch over at Deadspin pointed out, it's shocking that Belichick writes in the same cadence that Trump speaks. I suppose Trump supporters will point to this and say, "SEE! HERE'S PROOF THAT YOU CAN PRODUCE WORD SALAD EVERY TIME YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND STILL BE GOOD AT YOUR JOB! HARF HARF HARF!"

However, I would posit that this is just further proof that the majority of people who voted for this man, regardless of how successful they may be in their professional lives, are nonetheless lacking in very basic skills and completely delusional. Look at Bill's references to "an unbelievabl[y] slanted and negative media". Oh, you mean the media that hired Trump surrogates and devoted hours of programming to letting them spew lies without fear of fact-checking? The media that ignored the growing momentum of other candidates to focus a camera on an empty lectern because some time in the next couple hours, Trump was scheduled to come out and say stupid racist nonsense?

Oh, and let's not ignore Bill's statement that Trump came out "beautifully" through it all. Yes, refusing to denounce the KKK when they endorse you or getting caught bragging about sexually assaulting women ALWAYS makes someone look like the kind of guy we want leading the country.

**** sake, man. Sorry to get political here, but it's relevant because it's Belichick we're talking about here. **** him and **** Trump.

/takes drink, braces for looming apocalypse

 

[Kaleb]