2020 NFL offseason thread

[caketastydelish]

The Chargers currently have an awful offensive line. But the Pats, Steelers, and Colts could make good destinations as things stand.

edit: He could also potentially be the next Nick Foles in Philadelphia.

 

[rah]

Ummmmm....Mitch Trubisky would be a perfectly adequate quarterback too if he was handing the ball to Walter freakin' Payton.

Amen brother

That kind of gets back to this theory that Trubisky is the only thing holding the otherwise great Bears back. Trubisky is a raw and possibly only middling talent...but he's still quite possibly the MVP of the Bears offense.

Only because the offense sucked so bad that the bar is set really really low.

The point is that if they give up on Trubisky and he goes somewhere as a backup and gets the right coaching for a couple years the Bears could wind up as the team that spent a number two draft pick on someone else's great quarterback

They do have to much invested in him to give up on him too early. I understand, but it's really painful to watch.

 

[caketastydelish]

That's actually not a bad idea. The worst scenario is that Rosen ends up being trash even with all that help, in which case they (Chargers) get another high draft pick the following year they could use to fix the QB problem.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

In general grabbing players like Rosen or other unproven guys is better than going with veteran retreads. If they break out, great. If not, at least you're not wheezing to 6-8 wins and locked into what is still a pretty hefty veteran QB contract with a mediocre draft pick. Titans' situation is exceptional, but even in their case they didn't give big money before he did anything for them.

Exceptions are guys like Brees, Peyton Manning when they hit FA market. Bridgewater too has a pretty solid pre-injury and post-injury track record. QBs like these on the market are rare but can be worth if you have the cap. Even Cousins arguably was, but now I've stated the majority of the good veteran FA QB options in the past decade or two.

So if you're not going with something like that, taking fliers on guys like Rosen hoping one emerges is reasonable.

 

[Sommerswerd]

They do have to much invested in him to give up on him too early. I understand, but it's really painful to watch.

This was exactly the position I was stuck in for years watching the 49ers/Alex Smith saga unfold... in retrospect, they probably should have stuck with ol'reliable clock-manager Smith. He was a perfect fit for the Ground & Pound style team they were running.

Trubisky could be a perfectly capable clock manager stewarding a Ground & Pound to consistent playoff runs... he just needs to settle in, hand the ball off a lot and don't try to do too much. Take the easy check-down passes the defense gives him, drain the clock. Job #1 is just don't throw picks. Trubisky could do it... but as @Timsup2nothin says... they need the workhorse back(s) for him to hand off to.

 

[caketastydelish]

Maybe in free agency they could get someone like Melvin Gordon.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Problem there being that Nagy is about as likely to install a ground and pound offense as he is to sprout wings and fly, even if they had the backs for it. Nagy's offense will work, with Trubisky, if they can do three things; improve his fundamentals which will improve his accuracy, get a back who knows how to be a threat in that passing game, get a couple better than average receivers, on who can threaten deep and one who can reliable move the chains. Oh, and a decent O-line would certainly help. Sign Trub to a reasonably friendly contract and those things are doable, even with their lack of draft capital.

See all that is way more expensive and complicated... the Ground-and-Pound is faster, simpler and cheaper to implement than a Power Passing attack. The Bears could do the Ground & Pound now if they went all-in on a star back or a core of backs to be their back-by-committee. They wouldn't have to make many other changes because their defense is solid and they already have a QB that can clock-manage. You need elite, expensive Tackles (and Guards TBH) to deliver the necessary protection for a Power Passing game.

 

[caketastydelish]

Jason Garrett becomes the offensive coordinator of the New York Giants. I think that’s the amount of responsibility he can handle and deserves.

 

[caketastydelish]

Based on my limited knowledge of the 2020 draft (only going off of someone has payed close attention to mock drafts and what sports journalists have been saying I don’t watch college football.)

It seems this draft will have more talent offensively than there has been in a long time. If the analysis are right, expect a lot more touchdowns.

 

[caketastydelish]

I’m also impressed with this years crop of QBs as well. Tua and Joe Borrow seem to be sure things but there are several other promising ones.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Annual Superbowl trash-talk thread is up.

 

[caketastydelish]

Eli Manning retires. Personally, I think he’d have done decently as a free agent on a one or two year contract, but he decided to hang it up for good.

 

[Sommerswerd]

It was the right call for the sake of his legacy. He really should have done so last season while he was still at or above .500 lifetime record. Brady should retire too, rather than pull a Montana.

 

[rah]

And the stat I heard this morning was that he was the highest earning QB ever so i guess he didn't need the money bad enough to go through being a back up.

 

[Serutan]

It was the right call for the sake of his legacy. He really should have done so last season while he was still at or above .500 lifetime record. Brady should retire too, rather than pull a Montana.

If it were'nt for Von Miller & friends, you'd be saying that about Eli's brother instead of Montana.

The one and only nice thing about teams being more ruthless about getting rid of players is that we are unlikely to see
another Unitas with the Chargers or Namath with the Rams - both of which were much worse than Montana in KC.

 

[Sommerswerd]

If it were'nt for Von Miller & friends, you'd be saying that about Eli's brother instead of Montana.

The one and only nice thing about teams being more ruthless about getting rid of players is that we are unlikely to see
another Unitas with the Chargers or Namath with the Rams - both of which were much worse than Montana in KC.

Oh he waited too long to retire too, he just ended up getting a windfall. Manning should have retired when he hurt his neck that last time instead of sitting out the 2011 season and then mounting a comeback. He ended up lucking out and getting a fairytale style ride-into-the-sunset ending, courtesy of the Broncos Defense. I thought Brady would take his Fairy-tale ending ride-into-the-sunset too when they beat the Falcons, but I guess he is going the Montana/Favre route.

 

[Serutan]

Brady had another chance for that last year and passed it up, too.

 

[caketastydelish]

Oh he waited too long to retire too, he just ended up getting a windfall. Manning should have retired when he hurt his neck that last time instead of sitting out the 2011 season and then mounting a comeback. He ended up lucking out and getting a fairytale style ride-into-the-sunset ending, courtesy of the Broncos Defense. I thought Brady would take his Fairy-tale ending ride-into-the-sunset too when they beat the Falcons, but I guess he is going the Montana/Favre route.

He had two more Super Bowl visits, one of which got him another ring, both of which wouldn’t have happened if he retired after Atlanta. Even this year they had a great regular season record and at least made the playoffs. So far, not retiring hasn’t been a bad decision.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Brady had another chance for that last year and passed it up, too.

Absolutely correct, but by then I was sure that he wouldn't quit while he was ahead. The comeback win over Atlanta was a perfect mic-drop opportunity, particularly given Goodell's suspension of him and he gave it up, so I figured then that he was really just going to play until he was 45, or the wheels fell off, whichever came first.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

See all that is way more expensive and complicated... the Ground-and-Pound is faster, simpler and cheaper to implement than a Power Passing attack. The Bears could do the Ground & Pound now if they went all-in on a star back or a core of backs to be their back-by-committee. They wouldn't have to make many other changes because their defense is solid and they already have a QB that can clock-manage. You need elite, expensive Tackles (and Guards TBH) to deliver the necessary protection for a Power Passing game.

The reason run-heavy schemes have declined in usage is that you need more people to outright win/not lose for it to work than passing schemes. Single OL simply not moving/winning outright vs target DL can be a massive problem in run game, but in passing situations he has to outright lose for it to be a problem.

One reason the Shanahan stuff is so effective is how the run + pass stuff interchange. Play action is a very effective pass type on average, and run action vs pass often force the LBs to move in different directions to cover one vs the other (forced hesitation or badly out of position with wrong guess). There are fewer reads on this sort of play and potential target WRs tend to be more open, even against man. There's more to it than that but it makes a big difference.

But when it comes to difficult of pass blocking vs run blocking, run blocking is harder. PFF stats tell us this, but I also experienced it myself. Moving someone equal/higher strength is a lot more difficult than preventing them from moving you significantly.

You need a very elite running team and a very bad passing attack for running to have higher expected value on average. But unless the rules change drastically there will always be room for running as constraint plays. Defenses are using nickel as their base package now. What if they use dime? Quarters? At some point running will have more EV if you keep doing that and wind up with 3 DL and 1 LB with 7 DBs. But right now passing is still more valuable, even average passing.

Oh he waited too long to retire too, he just ended up getting a windfall. Manning should have retired when he hurt his neck that last time instead of sitting out the 2011 season and then mounting a comeback. He ended up lucking out and getting a fairytale style ride-into-the-sunset ending, courtesy of the Broncos Defense.

While he did fall off a cliff in terms of production and ultimately got carried to his 2nd ring, Manning was amazing in Denver for more than a year, and at least during that period was worth his contract (for both sides).