NFL 2020

[DrGreggles]

Thought I'd set this up early because HOLY SHIT the trades/free agency signings that have been happening are fucking insane!
It's almost as if some kind of global crisis has made all the owners go mad.

https://nfltraderumors.co/list-of-2020-nfl-trades/
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001106399/article/2020-nfl-free-agency-tracker-teambyteam-additions-trades

This is why the salary cap needs to be introduced into football.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Still reeling at Tom Brady going to the Bucs. Some of my Patriots-hating Bucs fan friends in Florida are very unhappy about it. Although they'll change their tune if he takes them to the Superbowl..

[DrGreggles]

I'm surprised he didn't go to the Chargers, but offence wasn't the Bucs problem last season.
Jameis Winston is erratic as fuck, but the points and yards he put up were fantastic.

I still think, given a better team and more protection from his O line, he can become a top QB.
It'll be interesting to see what happens with him in New Orleans if Brees gets injured again.

I'd have taken him in Pittsburgh, as Big Ben won't be the same again and the defence is already decent.

[Wentworth Smith]

30 interceptions last season is the issue with Winston, that's a ludicrous amount and I don't see how you can trust him to not do something similar again.

Whats the deal with Cam Newton? Why is nobody signing him: injuries? He's done well without much help throughout his career so seems a bit odd nobody is taking a chance on him, he's better than quite a few starters if fit.

Read an interesting theory that the reason the Packers drafted the way they did was because they don't expect there to be a season this year. They have loaded up on the offensive line and drafted a running back as they will have a load of contracts up in 2021 for those positions and they could then play Rodgers for a year before cutting him, and replacing him with Love, without a massively onerous amount of dead cap space. Seems a bit 5D chess to me but I like the idea of it. More likely things didn't fall their way in the draft and they just brought in who they thought were the best players.

[Old Thrashbarg]

The thing with Cam is that no-one knows anything about his fitness. The few games he played at the start of last season, he didn't run at all. Likely due to his foot injury, but was his shoulder holding up to contact also a concern? And then his passing in those games was pretty terrible as well. So even if he has fully recovered from his foot injury and can run at anything like his previous standard, we still don't know if his shoulder is up to playing at NFL for any length of time.

[DrGreggles]

30 interceptions last season is the issue with Winston, that's a ludicrous amount and I don't see how you can trust him to not do something similar again.

That's why he needs better coaching - the talent is obviously there.

I suppose the 1 year deal with the Saints makes sense in that respect.
If he can't learn and improve by working alongside someone like Drew Brees, then he never will.

Read an interesting theory that the reason the Packers drafted the way they did was because they don't expect there to be a season this year. They have loaded up on the offensive line and drafted a running back as they will have a load of contracts up in 2021 for those positions and they could then play Rodgers for a year before cutting him, and replacing him with Love, without a massively onerous amount of dead cap space. Seems a bit 5D chess to me but I like the idea of it. More likely things didn't fall their way in the draft and they just brought in who they thought were the best players.

It's similar to how they brought Rodgers in to replace Favre 15 years ago.
A couple of years learning the playbook as backup, then move him up to first choice QB.

The next couple of years will see the retirement of a lot if big name QBs, so I can sort of get why the Packers would do this now, but the current team needs a lot more work in other positions than that one that Rodgers joined.
It's difficult to go 13-3 and look unimpressive, but somehow they managed it. The relatively easy schedule helped, but 8 of those wins were by 8 points or less though, so you could say they were resilient - or you could say that they weren't too far off being 5-11...