Post by spiderfan on Sept 11, 2023 20:13:12 GMT -8
Happy NFL Kickoff Sports Coast to Coast! It is time for me, the official NFL analyst of this great forum, to talk about NFL football. Without further ado, let us begin!
A Stupid Situation
Here's how NFL GMs should operate in the event of a contract renewal: Pay the player wanting a new contract OR trade the player to someone who will give them a new contract. Either way resolves the situation, does not become a distraction, and is ultimately a positive, at least in the short term with the optimism of the draft picks, with the potential of it being a long term positive depending on how the draft picks go, and obviously if the player stays and does great it pans out. Even if a player doesn't pan out, as previously stated the contract situation isn't a distraction from the team. A team deciding to play a financial game of chicken to prove some point about how your team can with without said player, especially one of the best players on your team is ridiculous.
The Kansas City Chiefs management decided it was a good idea to not give DE Chris Jones a contract extension after winning Super Bowl 57. Upon this decision being made, Chris Jones made his own decision to hold out. And so, on opening night of the 2023 NFL season against the Detroit Lions, the Chiefs were without their best defensive player in what ended up being a 21-20 loss. Yes, Chiefs TE Travis Kelce was out with a bone bruise to his knee that he suffered during practice, and yes without him it turns out that the Chiefs WR corps looks a bunch of guys who are inferior to some XFL WR corps, but the fact of the matter is Lions QB Jared Goff was not near under the pressure he would have been if Jones was in the game, and the Lions interior run game would not have been as effective as it was in key moments. Considering that they ended up resigning him by adding a bunch of incentives to the last remaining games of his contract, this was an unnecessary loss for the Chiefs. Oh, and they should make Justyn Ross WR1, because based on his training camp and preseason he is by the far the best WR the Chiefs have.
I do want to also add that despite Jones' holdout and the Chiefs' weak WR corps, the Detroit Lions do deserve credit for going into a hostile environment and giving the ghost of Bobby Layne a metaphorical punch in the nose, by coming out of Arrowhead with a win, because I know if they had lost, I would have talked about how that once again proved the Curse of Bobby Layne is alive and well. Maybe the curse days are over.
The Read on the Rookie QBs
On Sunday, 3 rookie QBs each of whom happened to be selected in the Top 5 of this year's draft, were starting for their respective ballclubs. Bryce Young for the Carolina Panthers, CJ Stroud for the Houston Texans, and Anthony Richardson for the Indianapolis Colts.
Bryce Young went 20 of 38 for 146 passing yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. It was first regular season game and the Panthers offensive line play late was not good. However, his interceptions were ugly and they ended up in 10 Falcons points, making the score of Panthers 24-10 loss is kinda misleading as the Panthers were in it for a vast majority of the game. I'll give him a D grade.
CJ Stroud went 28 of 44 for 242 passing yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. Considering the Texans were playing a good team on the road, and considering Stroud played better than he did in the preseason, I'll give him a C grade.
Anthony Richardson went 24 of 37 for 223 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception, he also had 40 rushing yards and 1 rushing touchdown. Even though he turned the ball over, of all the rookie QBs, Richardson looked the most likely to be able to lead his team to victory. Thing is, the Colts ended up losing anyway. Even so, I came away impressed and with the view that he is the best of the rookie QBs so far. I'll give him a B- minus grade.
40-0
I didn't want to overreact. I didn't want to make the mistake last year of writing off and mocking them early in the season, only for them to have a 10-7 season resulting a playoff win or two. I didn't want to write yet another long segment about whether or not my mocking is fair and deserved. I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt and move on to a new phase of my analysis of the NFL, where they were a team that was deserving of praise and not mockery, a sign that I wasn't like what Skip Bayless is to LeBron James. Coming off a very good last season which had a playoff win, a coach who won Coach of the Year, a contract extension for their quarterback of the future Daniel Jones, they entered Sunday Night Football against their hated division rival Dallas Cowboys in a rain soaked MetLife Stadium filled with the emotions of the anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Even if they didn't win, because of the nature of the weather and the quality of the team, it seemed likely that they would play a competitive contest. They would show they were Giants... AAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNDDDDDD THEY SHRANK!
The New York Football Tinys opened the season with a laughably bad performance. First drive ended in a block FG returned for a TD for the Cowboys which because of a missed extra point made the game 6-0. Then a three and out which led to a Cowboys FG, 9-0. Very next series, pick six which with the addition of an extra point made the game 16-0, with the only positive thing being that because the aforementioned earlier missed extra point the game was still a two possession game despite the horrendous start. It would get worse as after another three and out the Cowboys would get yet another FG. 19-0 was the score until after another interception the Cowboys had a short field and scored another touchdown which made it is 26-0. The Tinys finally got into scoring range and tried a FG which went so wide, the ball looked like it went from New Jersey to New York state. 26-0 at half would become 33-0 after an opening TD drive by the Cowboys. The Tinys had yet another drive where they could have kicked a FG, but with it being 33-0, why not go for it? The conversion failed and the Cowboys capitalized with yet another TD drive making the game 40-0. Trying to avoid the shutout the Tinys still tried to score and all that resulted in was a fumble on the first play of the possession after the Cowboys went up 40-0, that cemented me wanting to write this segment.
Offensively, defensively, and on special teams, the Tinys shrank in every way possible. The NFL is weird and who knows they may end up winning the Super Bowl. But for right now the New York Football Tinys are back, and it feels right to open the season and this year's Red Hot Gridiron column talking about them.
Other Thoughts
-The Browns-Bengals game set football back decades. The 24-3 score is really misleading because it was close to pretty close until the Browns managed to pull away at the end. Don't read too much into the Browns or the Bengals after that game.
-The Steelers are overrated. Nothing on Sunday suggested anything different to me.
-It should be Will Levi's time in Nashville. It won't be, but it should be because it long past time for them to move on from Ryan Tannehill.
-It was cute to see Russell Wilson look like he wasn't washed for the first time in years on account of Sean Payton's gameplan of running the same bootleg play action pass play over and over again. Shame for the Broncos that play didn't work in the red zone and the Raiders won.
-Jimmy G looked good for the Raiders, as I said during my preview, if he stays healthy he is going to take them places.
-Kayshon Boutte forgot that you need two feet in bounds in the NFL. A rookie mistake that the Patriots WR coach should work with him on.
-I don't why the Seahawks' offense goes hot and then Antartica levels of cold, but as a Seahawks fan it is completely frustrating and makes their games near unwatchable. A waste of a good defense if you ask me.
-The Rams are back in business.
-For as awesome as it was to see Tua completely ball out against the Chargers, in large because Tyreek Hill showed why the Chiefs should have never traded him in the long term, call me when Tua is balling out late in the year, because we've seen early season greatness from Tua that hasn't amounted to anything.
-How about those Packers?
-If you get the opportunity and/or can afford it, I highly recommend getting NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube. The quadbox where you can watch 4 games at once is great. In the early window when there were 4 games coming down to the wire in the last 5 minutes, it was the best football viewing experience I've had.
-Aaron Rodgers torn achilles means my Super Bowl pick of the Jets is down the drain. Maybe next year!
ROAD TO 0-17
16 teams are currently 0-1. I will keep doing this segment until every team has a win or a tie. Teams currently without a win or tie are:
New York Football Giants
Seattle Seahawks
Arizona Cardinals
Chicago Bears
Carolina Panthers
Buffalo Bills
New England Patriots
Los Angeles Chargers
Kansas City Chiefs
Denver Broncos
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cincinnati Bengals
Tennessee Titans
Indianapolis Colts
Houston Texans
Obviously the headline of the opening ROAD TO 0-17 is the appearance of the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Setting my fandom aside, there is a very low chance they stay on this list as long as other teams. I gotta say I thought the Cardinals would pull out the win and avoid being here, despite all the talk of them tanking. They choked at the end, and the tank appears to be full speed ahead which is why they are IMO they are the most likely team to go 0-17.
ROAD TO 17-0
16 teams are currently 1-0. I will keep doing this segment until every team has a loss or a tie. Teams currently without a loss or tie are:
Miami Dolphins
New York Jets
Las Vegas Raiders
Cleveland Browns
Jacksonville Jaguars
Washington Commanders
Philadelphia Eagles
Los Angeles Rams
San Francisco 49ers
Green Bay Packers
Detroit Lions
Atlanta Falcons
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Even though it is just Week 1 it was nice to see the Buccaneers vindicate my confidence in them. Sure the Vikings were overachievers last year, but the Buccaneers were clutch and I have no reason to think they won't keep winning. 17-0 is a stretch though. I wanted the Jets to be here but with that having gone down the drain as previously mentioned that is off the table despite them being on this list. While most would probably say the most likely team of the undefeateds to go actually go undefeated would be the 49ers, I'll stick with the team that was undefeated for most of last season, the Eagles as the team that is IMO the most likely to go 17-0.
And with all of that said that is all for this week's Red Hot Gridiron. I hope ya enjoyed and I hope to ya throughout this NFL season. As Week 1 showed there a lot of unexpected things that happen and I think that is one of the things that make football the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.
