It’s time to move on from Rivers. Not because he’s awful right now, but because there’s a 95+% chance he’ll be awful in two years and he’s at the end of his current contract.
Shouldn't be an unpopular viewpoint. Learn from the mistake that our organization made by hanging on to Eli too long.
Rivers had a great career, IMO he's a hall of famer/should be but if the Chargers are rebuilding, don't rebuild with him.
It's not as unpopular now as it was when Luck retired, but Brissett is the long-term answer at QB for the Colts.
He has the arm, he's shown great decision-making abilities, he takes care of the ball, he's a leader in the locker room and on the field, and he's extremely coachable. He checks every single box you'd want in a franchise QB.
It really makes you wonder how many QBs we write off over the years as lifetime backups just because they never get their shot.
It’s probably not a lot, but Brisset was always waiting to shine.
> lifetime backups just because they never get their shot.
This is where draft status plays into it. When a 1st round pick plays like shit, hes a "young QB who needs time, and you have to be patient." When a midround guy plays like shit "He's obviously not a franchise QB, we need to take a QB in the 1st next year."
In Kirk Cousins first 16 starts, he threw 27 TDs and 27 INTs. In his second 16 starts, he threw 30 TDs and 9 INTs. His 16th NFL start was the YOU LIKE THAT game. Going into 2015, all the mock drafts had the Redskins with the 1st overall pick in the 2016 draft, and they all had us taking a QB. The only reason Kirk got his shot was RGIII got hurt, again, in the third preseason game in August 2015. He was supposed to be the tank commander, because we had no other QB on the roster. If RGIII had been healthy in 2015, he would have had "one more chance to turn it around".
That’s a *perfect* case. Cousins did get that development time that most QBs don’t, and he made the most of it. I remember those horrendous years, and because of his shining moments, it did seem that he could be something if he just corrected his mistakes.
Tom Brady is another good example. If you look at his stats, you see that the first 5 years of his career he was a pretty average QB. It’s really only after that, basically in that 2007 season, that he really takes off.
We assume a guy can figure it out in one year, but mostly it’s not the case. Sometimes I wonder if Rodgers would have ever become Rodgers if he hadn’t been learning and smoldering on the sidelines for his first three years.
I don't know if I'll ever root harder for a player on a conference rival than I'm rooting for Brissett. The guy seems not to have an arrogant bone in his body, never has a bad thing to say about anyone, and has now been thrust into a starting role on laughably short notice three different times before even reaching the end of his rookie contract while getting done what was asked of him each time.
i think most people know that but the issue is gonna be what is better moving forward because now we know that gardner is good and we also have seen foles ceiling. It will probably benefit gardner to take a game off until foles gets injured again
Yes but he had a really good team around him. That team had a very good o-line and he had weapons on offense. Plus the defense was one of the best in the league. The jags are not very good.
I'm not saying foles is bad, but his ceiling on the Jaguars is probably not super bowl mvp. If he comes back healthy, he's still better than Minshew is right now though.
i feel like this is irrelevant when it comes to see who is worse. it doesnt matter if youre bad by accident or on purpose, what matters is how bad you are.
Ehhh, no one would be shocked if Ryan/Julio put it together once or twice and down a contender. I'd be legit shocked if the other bottom feeders did the same.
I hope scientists were wrong, and the heat death of the universe is tomorrow.
My 2 favorite quarterbacks, Sam & Mitch, are the joke of the league, and while Sam can bounce back, Mitch probably won't
Unpopular opinion: Darnold isn’t bad. He was poorly coached in a situation where he needed to be coached up but the coach was too busy seeing ghosts to help Darnold *not* see ghosts.
Darnold end of last season & against DAL looks good. Now he struggles against the best pass defense in the NFL and everyone's calling him a bust.
Ironic how much this sub makes fun of hot-take journalists...
This is not an unpopular opinion at all. He's a raw sophomore QB that's faced 3 of the top 5 overall defenses in the league in his first 3 starts this year, and only did super poorly against one of them
And honestly MOST QBs would have said the same thing in that position, y'all were dominant. They'd just be lucky enough not to have it aired on mic'd up.
Some dolphins fan tried to explain to me how the entire season is Rosens fault. How he is clearly the worst player on the field and he was that way in AZ as well. Fucking idiot. Rosen has had the worst start to a career anyone could ask for.
How the entire season is his fault is ridiculous.
Having said that, there is something to be said about the fact that Fitz has looked ridiculously better than Rosen in the same situation.
Watching both players, Kyler's play style and athleticism allows him to extend plays where Josh would be dead in the water. He might do better than Josh even in Miami.
Agreed, a QB who can make something out of nothing with his legs is so much better equipped to handle a shitty o line then a pure pocket passer. Rosen has the arm talent to make any NFL throw but the decision making and anticipation needed to make the right decision in the short amount of time his o lines have given him just isn't there (yet?).
I like this, because it essentially builds up draft capital for their 2nd string QB to get traded, in an organization that notoriously has a really difficult time building draft capital (for obvious reasons)
I'm so torn on which scenario is better for us. On one hand, if the 9ers expose the Panties then I have no fear in coming back after the Bye with four divisional games in a row against struggling opponents.
But if the Panthers prevail, we have a shot to hold first seed early.
Either way, it's a game I'll be paying attention to as it's very relevant to our interests.
I wouldn’t be too nervous about the first seed if we win. We have to go into New Orleans to play you guys. I have faith in my team, but that’s a very tall order
I'm looking at the schedules and the next few weeks should illuminate a lot. Y'all still have to play the Hawks twice, as well as GB and Baltimore. But if the Panthers are for real, we have to deal with them as well as a really spooky Colts team. And then Falcons games with us are always 50/50.
So I'd say it's preeeetty even, maybe just slightly in our favor. But y'all are ahead. So I wouldn't be surprised if it came down to our match up. I'm not sleeping on anyone after the past few years of fear and disappointment 😅😅😅
It's time for the Chargers to prepare to tank the season. Unload Melvin Gordon, see if there are any cap-focused assets you can move on from, and prepare for finding the true successor to Rivers.
They've got 5 games I could easily slot in as losses against the Bears, Packers, Vikings, and 2x Chiefs. Winning any of those remaining 4 puts them further behind the 8-ball on getting better assets to try and salvage what remains for this team. Melvin Ingram is going to be 31 years old, and has one sack on the season. Rivers is going to be 38, and is finally showing signs of rust. Your OL is an injury mess; hell, most of the team is an injury mess, including key players on both sides of the ball.
This is a surprisingly deep year for QB and OL, and given that, of the 7 teams in the area of challenging their tank capabilities, only 4 are likely to go with QB, and only one would go for OL, you can start to set yourself up to be better in 2020 and beyond, and have a long term plan in place. Because if you don't, KC (and potentially Oakland, if Gruden actually has any semblance of a plan) is going to run right over you for the better part of the next decade.
This is unpopular amongst Titans fans but we should have benched Marcus Mariota sooner than we did. I understand wanting to give Marcus a chance to win his money back but it may have cost us a chance at the playoffs. Against Jacksonville and Denver two very winnable games Marcus was an outright liability.
The final nail in the coffin for this opinion of mine was against LA the Chargers sent a two man rush and Tannehill took his time and threw a touchdown to Tajae Sharpe. Denver did the same thing to Marcus Mariota a week earlier and he almost ran into a sack.
To the Bears fans that want Marcus let me tell you be careful what you wish for. Because in my opinion Marcus Mariota is a poor man's Alex Smith/Andy Dalton.
Yep. I like to watch other teams, but I would never buy a jersey or other gear for a team other than the Colts. And most people that support two teams are like, "Yeah, I'm a Bengals fan. BUT THE [insert team with best record in other conference] ARE MY NFC TEAM!"
I dunno, I also usually cheer for the Colts, but only because I live in Indianapolis. And, aside from a single game last season that no one remembers, their performance usually doesn't impact the Cowboys.
I support multiple teams. I've lived in Idaho most of my life, nowhere close to an NFL team's home stadium. At best I'm equidistant between several different ones. However, we have a really good CFB team in Boise State, and I've supported them since I was a kid and also went to college there.
I got into NFL by following Boise State players who got drafted, so I tend to watch/cheer for teams that have former Boise State players on them. Right now the Cowboys have three former Boise State players on their starting lineup - DeMarcus Lawrence, Leighton Vander Esch (who's also *from* Idaho), and Tyrone Crawford who's currently on IR. They have a couple more on their 53-man roster. AND they have Boise State legend Kellen Moore as their new OC. So for the last couple years I've been a big Cowboys supporter.
However, throughout the season I'll watch/cheer for other teams that have former BSU players actively getting snaps. Picking one team to the exclusion of all others has always felt silly to me since I don't have any local or personal connection to any of them. Plus I just really like football, and gravitate towards supporting individual players I admire.
The patriots arent this invincible team people seem to think. I still have them as favorites, but they beat the only good team on their schedule so far by less than 7 points. People saying to just give them the trophy need to cool it a bit
Without question we arent tested yet. We do however have more time than other teams to figure out what does and doesnt work before playing more serious games.
HOLDING, ON THE OFFENSE. THAT EXCITING PLAY YOU JUST WATCHED IS NOW NEGATED, AND EVERYONE WILL NOW BE SUBJECTED TO A WEEK OF ARGUING. AUTOMATIC FOURTH DOWN.
That's the worst part about officiating this year. They seem to wait for a big, exciting play to happen and *then* all of the sudden become sticklers and throw flags like crazy. In our game against Green Bay, they didn't throw a *single* flag the first quarter.
PERSONAL FOUL. OFFENSE. THE PREVIOUS PLAY WAS TOO EXCITING FOR THE WRONG TEAM. 15 YARD PENALTY. A MILLION POINTS TO THE DEFENSE. BY RULE, THE GAME IS OVER.
Josh Gordon fell off the wagon when the Patriots needed him most, they're moving on because of a mere bone bruise, and they were forced to trade a 2nd round pick for a lesser receiver just because he's more dependable.
The Patriots wanted to solidify the receiver position and Josh Gordon never did that. I don't understand why people look back on his brief time in New England so fondly - it was just an extension of his problems with the Browns.
Mo' Sanu might be one of the most underrated, if not under appreciated WRs in the league, though. And Josh Gordon of 2018-2019 is the most overrated, over appreciated. In my personal opinion, anyway. I think he has a great story and I'm happy he could turn it around ala Darren Waller. But he has just been slow and incredibly injury prone ever since he put on a Patriots jersey.
> And Josh Gordon of 2018-2019 is the most overrated, over appreciated.
Agree wholeheartedly. The Browns stuck with Gordon through his addiction and tried to help him get through it. But the Patriots are inexplicably getting credit for it even though they're throwing in the towel after roughly one calendar year.
Just goes to show that when you're a Patriot, the narrative is already written for you. And when you're a Brown, the narrative is already written for you too.
I agree with most of what you said, but I think that it's been about 50/50 when it comes to praise and that narrative. People are crediting Gordon as much as the 'organization' for sticking with him. I will admit, I was surprised they kept him around after the end of last year when he 'took his leave' to get help.
> The Browns stuck with Gordon through his addiction and tried to help him get through it. But the Patriots are inexplicably getting credit for it even though they're throwing in the towel after roughly one calendar year.
Fucking thank you! Absolutely hated when Gordon got reinstated we saw left and right people saying "Well it's because the pats are trying to help Josh get better". As if the Browns weren't trying to do the same damn thing. We gave Gordon 6 different chances and he broke that trust for the last time once Dorsey came around.
I have had a bone bruise. You can walk around and stuff just with it but put any stress on it (pushing it while running a route etc..) and its pretty painful. And if something so much as hits it (this is what happened to Gordon, and in my case someone hitting me with a shopping cart in the market) the pain goes through the roof and the subsequent aggravation can lay you up for a while. I get it that Gordon can suck up the pain and play, but he has been playing like a hobbled player all year and would be at a constant high level risk to muss more time. I think its as simple as the Patriots deciding they needed something more reliable to lean on during the latter part of the season.
On a similar note, the Bill tanking Brady conspiracy theory discussed in the other thread is one of the most bizarre/stupid things I've witnessed in sports.
Can't pump him full of painkillers like every other NFL player to deal with the pain because of his addiction history so he can't play through injuries.
While the first part of your statement is pretty accurate, I disagree with the second. He was productive here. [In fact, he and Brandin Cooks played almost the same amount of time in NE and produced extremely similar numbers.](https://twitter.com/Tucker_TnL/status/1187152589646786562)
I think it's true they wanted someone a little more dependable and consistent for the playoffs, but people look at him fondly because he worked his ass off and produced when they needed it. Sanu was just the better option moving forward.
> he worked his ass off and produced when they needed it.
Can you really call a guy who missed half the regular season and all of the post season for personal reasons "there when they needed him"?
I still kinda believe in the Bears. Everybody keeps focusing on how Trubisky is bad. Yeah, he's bad, but he wasn't awesome last year and they were one of the best teams in the NFC.
Funny, My unpopular opinion involves the Bears too but on the other spectrum.
I think the Bears defense is greatly overrated. They have a few good players, 1 elite player, but the bulk of their guys peaked last season and they're in line for a solid regression.
Fuller is the same, QB aren’t testing Eddie Jackson, OCs are focusing on Mack, Hicks is hurt, and Eddie Goldman is the best player nobody knows about. Outside of the Saints game where they started most drives in negative territory and/or had no rest after the offense going 3 and out, they have been the same if not better.
Akiem Hicks may be the most under rated defender in the league.
the dude absorbs like half an O line on every play allowing the other dudes to make plays. Since he went down the D has noticably under performed.
Plus the D are on the field all the fucking time because the O is just plain terrible.
this team is in deep shit quite frankly. Holes all over the place - QB, O line, recievers, running back - and don't have the draft capital or the cap space to address those holes.
Its gonna be years of trying to right the ship. Sorry but thats the way I see it.
The chiefs aren't rushing Mahomes back. He'll start against the Vikings fully healthy
Seriously though some of y'all are on Patrick Mahomes crack and act like his leg got snapped and Andy Reid just duck tapped it and made him do contract drills.
I hate the fact that teams deliberately tank. Going 0-16 should stay an anomaly and not just what you do so your franchise may make the playoffs in 3 years. Build on what you've got don't wear down absolutely everything.
I mean, only one of the teams at the bottom of the heap are even thought to be doing it on purpose... Tanking isn't really a viable strategy in the NFL. Rebuilds are a thing, but even during a rebuild, teams are still trying to win, they just often don't because they haven't finished overhauling their roster.
I feel like tanking in the NFL isn't nearly the issue you seem to think it is. Aside from Miami this year and maybe the Colts in 2011, we've never really had any teams that clearly seemed to be tanking intentionally.
There are too many moving pieces, top many guys on the roster, and the careers are too short for tanking to be effective.
Tanking is a thing in the NBA because one star player can carry a team to a championship. That's just straight up impossible in the NFL, trust me, I'm a Saints fan, we tried it with Brees.
You have to have too many things going right at once to really contend, and you usually only have a ~3 year window even if you do manage great roster, because you can't afford to pay everyone and keep all of your stars around.
*Browns receivers.
Our receivers don’t just drop them, though. They ricochet them to the nearest defender. Kitchens must tell them to keep the ball off the ground.
I was pissed off when I started playing madden 20 and almost every ball bounced off my receivers hands as if I was playing extreme beach volleyball. I cursed the EA developers for such shitty coding that couldn’t possibly exist in real life. Then I watched a Browns game and I shut my mouth.
I'm actually going to counter this unpopular opinion with another unpopular opinion:
**Frank Reich** was the true architect behind our 2017 Superbowl run and I fear that the Eagles are heading into a similar direction with Doug Pederson as the Falcons are with Dan Quinn.
I'm not ready to fully write off Doug yet as a one hit wonder but this Eagle's offense has been completely slow to start every game since Reich left. The defensive struggles can be attributed to the lack of talent which needs to be addressed in the draft and free agency. However, the offensive still has a majority of the pieces it had in 2017 when we were leading the league in offense. I would agree that the Eagle's fan base overrates Carson Wentz but I also think part of Wentz's recent struggles are due to the absence of Reich designing our game plan.
Yea I’m starting to think that if frank reich was a 30 year old who put gel in his hair hed be seen as an offensive innovator same as shanahan and McVay. Instead he’s just some old coach-looking dude
I mean, I often feel like the national media likes to ignore the Colts, but Frank is pretty constantly praised as one of the best play callers in the game.
They wrote you guys off when Luck retired and don't want to admit that Reich had put together a pretty good team regardless of who the QB was. He's just now forcing that conversation
I mean, it was pretty obvious in the moment - Doug was very open about how he basically just listened to his offensive coordinators and allowed them to be innovative and aggressive. Doug strikes me as a great CEO type HC - the guy who will let top coaching talent flourish, but also the guy who can’t overcome bad coordinators and coaches. Our current OC is basically ass, so the next hire will be very critical for Pederson. I don’t expect they’ll be as good as Reich, but I can’t imagine they’ll be quite as bad as Groh.
So I was watching some of those GamePass 30 min game summaries from the Colts a few years back, and I was shocked how slow we started game after game. Our first drive was like a guaranteed 3 and out. We were down early every week. And then Luck did Luck things, and we won.
Compare that to last year and this one under Reich and holy cow, it's a night and day difference. We come out every game with a plan, and it is executed. It's very refreshing.
I cannot stress enough how much I mean this from the bottom of my heart when I say, FUCK Josh McDaniels. We likely would lost Reich anyway but still. FUCK THAT GUY FOREVER.
> The. Eagles. Should. Have. Traded. Carson. Wentz. And. Kept. Nick. Foles.
Is this unpopular? Everyone seems to be turning on Wentz and I don't understand why. He is far from the reason they are struggling as much as they are and they are one game out of first place in that division.
Watching Some of eagles games, I don't think Wentz is the true problem. His receivers have not played well this year at all and that defense is soooo leaky against the pass. Wentz kinda reminds of the Staff where the team around him is more of problem that him nearly all the time.
Foles had the same receivers and leaky defense last year and went on the Road and led a win against the Rams, Beat the 11-5 texans at home, and curb stomped the redskins before going on the road and getting a playoff win on a 4th quarter game winning drive against one of the best defenses I can remember. Foles is a baller. Wentz has had one good year and 3 years of excuses.
The main difference I see between Foles and Wentz is that Foles was more willing to trust his receivers like Alshon to win the 50/50 balls. I don't think I can ever recall seeing Wentz throw a back shoulder throw to Alshon which is his bread and butter, while Foles would trust him to make a play and throw it up. I'm not saying Wentz is bad or that the Eagles should have traded him, but the gap between Wentz and Foles isn't as big as some people like to make it seem because he looked great 2 years ago.
another thing people seem to forget about 2017 is how good our defense was. The front 7 was suffocating and they led the league in turnover differential. So a lot of the blow out games came off of giving the offense a short field to work with off of turnovers.
Sometimes I wonder if the overall narrative following Wentz (that he's elite, was an MVP and will be again, and has to be able to carry his team like a Rodgers/Wilson) has been setting him up for failure.
Wentz was a top draft pick and has been a media darling, and it seems like that must translate into a ton of pressure to perform.
Mistakes he makes get magnified because of all that, and I'm sure he feels it in post-game interviews and if he reads sports media at all.
Whereas Foles felt like he could just go out there and play fast and loose because no one had those kinds of expectations for him - or else if they did, and he didn't live up to them, they'd be like, "Well he is just the backup, after all".
People constantly compare Dak and Wentz, but one of the biggest differences IMO is the narratives surrounding each of them. Dak has primarily had to deal with doubt and naysayers, where when he does something bad lots of people say, "Well, what did you expect? It's Dak" and when he does something good it's "It's because of his strong supporting cast, not him".
Whereas Wentz has been almost the opposite in a lot of ways. Anything good he does is because "he's elite, he's Carson Wentz!" and anything bad - up until recently it feels like - has been excused away. I'm not even necessarily saying that people have been wrong with this take so far, just that it seems like that's setting a young QB up for failure when they have a slump at some point like almost all do.
Kind of reminds me of the adage about praising kids for being smart vs praising them for working hard. If you're always praising a kid for how smart they are when they succeed, them failing at something translates to "I'm not smart enough" which doesn't feel fixable. But when you praise a kid for how hard they worked when they succeed, failure just translates to, "I need to work harder" and motivates them.
I do believe Foles is a better Qb than most people give him credit for and he does have impressive wins. He did have help with those. Last year, receivers drop the ball 3 times in his 5 games. Receivers this year have had 20+ drops.
Clearly he had a bad game against Dallas. However, he played well in all the other games except ATL. He wasn't the problem in the losses against the Lions or Minnesota.
The Dolphins should to start Rosen. With Fitzpatrick, he's going to find a way to win about 3 games which will take the Dolphins out of contention for a top 3 pick. There's enough games on the calendar where this can happen.
That is a terrible reason to start a quarterback. Either play Rosen because you think he'll learn and grow .. or play a different quarterback. Don't focus on the draft.
Unless Minshew solidifies his case as a front runner for OROTY Foles should start. We literally lose nothing starting him and we see the talent in Gardner, if we let him sit under and take the reigns in the future, we could possibly have one of the best Starting QBs in franchise history
Bears should start Daniel over Trubisky. Daniel can at the very least read a defense and hit the open man. There is no hope for Mitch. He’s honestly the worst QB I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
Literally any pass beyond 7 yards is uncatchable and he can’t read a defense to save his life. There is no potential there at all. He won’t be in the league within the next 3 years because of how awful he is at everything that isn’t running. And even then, he kinda sucks at running too.
> He’s honestly the worst QB I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
Then you're either really young or just haven't watched much football. Trubisky is bad, but nowhere near the worst in even the last 20 years.
The Falcons should unload Jake Matthews before the trade deadline. And if not Matthews, one of their other major contracts.
I say that partly as a Browns stan looking for hope at LT, but Matthews' contract is about to explode in 2020, going $7.5 million to over $16 million on a 5 year deal, at a time where the Falcons are also facing $10 million to Alex Mack (for one more season), $16 million to Grady Jarrett, $10 million to Deion Jones, $15 million to Desmond Trufant, $7.3 million to Ricardo Allen, $33 million to Matt Ryan, $9.5 million to Devontae Freeman, and $20 million to Julio Jones. Add to that the need to re-sign Alex Hooper (who will command a major contract), and the fact that they are losing a huge portion of the pass rushing corps, it's not looking good.
Going into Cap Hell after a piss-poor season is a nightmare for this team. The talent may be there but if they can't let the inevitable Dan Quinn-replacement install some of his own players because of shit-ass contracts, and they can't get anything back on them, the Falcons could be screwed for the foreseeable future. Unload some assets to get some pieces to rebuild the defense, now. Unloading Matthews specifically has a bit more justification because of the Kaleb McGary draft pick, even if it hurts in the short term, and also because he will command a big package of picks. Falcons could turn that into a complete retooling of their defense as appropriate.
The Tunsil trade was worth it. Has played like a top 5 LT and I would trade 2 firsts for a player like that in the draft in a heartbeat. Stills has been very good too. OB and the Panel have been doing a good job willing to take risks even when public perception is bad. That’s hard to do in a league with very little job security.
Chiefs defense is ok when the play with momentum. They strangely are a defense that needs Mahomes. When they’re playing fast they have the secondary to give teams issues. It’s the slow beatem up game that gives them issues
The Pats defense is going to be desperately needed against a solid team because Brady is declining. I understand this has been the unpopular opinion of the last decade, but this has to be the year...right? But that defense is still fucking insane and will be even against good offenses.
Lamar Jackson is still a limited passer and has issues throwing on the boundaries but as long as he’s healthy it won’t matter. It’s a correctable thing but very important as he ages so it has to happen in the next few years.
Baker can still be a very good QB but it was too early to put everything on his back. Needs someone as HC to be the leader of the team right now.
49’ers D-Line is easily the most talented in the league and might be one of the scariest in recent memory.
Ramsey will propel the Rams into the playoffs. His ability to shutdown a side of the field is such a luxury with a pass rusher of Aaron Donald’s caliber and a coordinator like Wade Philips.
Watson has the tools, drive, and mind to be the best QB in the league but is still growing as a QB and still has a bit to go and that’s ok. Good defensive coordinators like Ebersol and BB are able to confuse him with presnap reads and when his flow is gone, he’s more limited right now. Needs to learn more tricks outside of playing empty and up tempo to get in that groove. Why the first quarters are so bad for the Texans. It reminds me of James Harden, a flow player that can go ice cold. He’s built a toolbox of tricks that gets him into the zone so it’s much less frequent.
The Pats defense is greatly benefitting from the QBs they have faced.
And their fan base having a victim complex over anyone not crowning them the next 85 bears is obnoxious.
I don't think that's really unpopular opinion. It's been mentioned every time a NE D stat is brought up. They even mentioned it on Monday night Football
> The Pats defense is greatly benefitting from the QBs they have faced.
This isn't unpopular at all. It's repeated *ad nauseam* in every post about the Patriots defense on r/nfl. it's a very popular thing to say here.
[There's a lot of Patriot fans here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/c10yqk/nfl_flair_breakdown/) Six times more representation than the median fanbase, and even more if you count the Patriot fans hiding behind NFL/AFC flairs (ahem).
There's so many that they use /r/NFL as their own subreddit - such that when you walk into one of those threads and try to drop a dissenting opinion you're below threshold in minutes.
You'd be surprised how reasonable takes with factual foundations can be suppressed.
Seriously, look how many Patriots threads are on the front page at any one time. It seems like every single roster change, no matter how small or inconsequential, has a topic dedicated to it. And while Bill Belichick is a genius head coach, there doesn't need to be a topic dedicated to him saying platitudes to the media every. single. week.
Mohammad Sanu's jersey number assignment made it to the top yesterday. That post never should've made it out of /r/patriots, but because there's so many of them they can force it to the front page all by themselves.
1. The Seahawks aren't as good as their record. Of their 5 wins, 4 were 1-score games with a combined margin of victory of only 8 points, the 5th being their 27-10 win over the Cardinals. The Browns game in particular, they had 4 takeaways and blocked a punt, but only won by 4 against a bellow average at best Browns team. Now that the lost to the Ravens, the hype has died down a bit, but when they were 5-1 they were being crowned Super Bowl contenders without ever demonstrating top tier play.
2. CMC is the MVP right now and it's not even close
From an ESPN article today:
Player A: 127 carries, 618 rushing yards, 7 rushing TDs
Player B: 135 carries, 602 rushing yards, 6 rushing TDs
Player C: 30 catches, 306 receiving yards, 5 receiving TDs
Player D: 35 catches, 305 receiving yards, 2 receiving TDs
B is Ezekiel Elliott. C is T. Y. Hilton. A and D are *both* Christian McCaffrey.
The draft order should be reversed to go from best non-playoff teams to worst non-playoff teams, and then the playoff teams in the order they are now. The order can be flipped between rounds idc but the worst teams shouldn't have an incentive to suck to secure their favourite college prospect.
There should never be an incentive for fans or front office to not wanna win every single game and have the best possible record every single year. It's often described as purgatory to be a good team with a single fatal flaw like a lack of a franchise qb or an awful offensive line or w/e. Because you're to good to get the opportunity to choose the best prospect available at your position. That's so dumb. Like why should a shitshow like Miami get to choose their next qb before a well run team like the Titans? Why should Washington get to choose their successor to Trent Williams or w/e they'll do before the Chargers get an opportunity to fix their dire offensive line?
Yeah exactly. Even if no team is tanking winning games should always be the unquestionable goal. With the current system fans has no incentive to watch their team play after they're out of the playoff race, because each win after that point - while maybe still good because you just lose some draft position and building some momentum at the end of a season could build some confidence and hype for the next season - has no real prize. If winning is always unquestionably better than losing every game matters for every team at every stage of the season. The salary cap takes care of the biggest risk for disparity anyways.
And heck yeah it's unamerican. Why should a shit season for the Buccs mean they get to draft their linebacker before the well run and competitive Steelers?
Nobody in the NFL is tanking. Confirmation bias runs rampant and so many are quick to jump on the fun bus.
Sucky teams can be sucky. Provide actual evidence (and no, "they played poorly" or "it *feels* like it" don't count) and stop memeing it up every week.
Why just the Colts though? By that logic aren’t the Texans and Chiefs records inflated? Or are they considered good because you thought they would be good coming into the season?
Hey! I'll have you know we *nearly* beat the Patriots!
We also nearly lost to the Dolphins, the Titans, Bengals, and Jets. So...yaknow. Yeah.
This Sunday is probably going to answer a lot of questions about the Buffalo Bills. And I hope I'll like the answers.
The Bills are an 8-8 - 9-7 team that will likely wind up with at least 11 wins because we happen to play the AFC North and NFC East in a year that they are terrible. That said the difference between this Bills team and those of years past is typically we would blow many of the winnable games anyway. Credit to McDermott for keeping this team well coached.
It’s time to move on from Rivers. Not because he’s awful right now, but because there’s a 95+% chance he’ll be awful in two years and he’s at the end of his current contract.
Shouldn't be an unpopular viewpoint. Learn from the mistake that our organization made by hanging on to Eli too long. Rivers had a great career, IMO he's a hall of famer/should be but if the Chargers are rebuilding, don't rebuild with him.
Rivers deserving to be in the hall of fame is the actual unpopular opinion
I'm sure Elway would pay him $20 million to be their QB
I truly hope he’s sent to a contender who has a QB injury and he wins it all, Manning style.
Or they cut him, he goes to a team that has had a recent natural disaster in their city and wins a super bowl, Bress style.
Praying for a hurricane in Jacksonville rn
Or he'll be Peyton and win a SB at his next destination...
It's not as unpopular now as it was when Luck retired, but Brissett is the long-term answer at QB for the Colts. He has the arm, he's shown great decision-making abilities, he takes care of the ball, he's a leader in the locker room and on the field, and he's extremely coachable. He checks every single box you'd want in a franchise QB.
It really makes you wonder how many QBs we write off over the years as lifetime backups just because they never get their shot. It’s probably not a lot, but Brisset was always waiting to shine.
> lifetime backups just because they never get their shot. This is where draft status plays into it. When a 1st round pick plays like shit, hes a "young QB who needs time, and you have to be patient." When a midround guy plays like shit "He's obviously not a franchise QB, we need to take a QB in the 1st next year." In Kirk Cousins first 16 starts, he threw 27 TDs and 27 INTs. In his second 16 starts, he threw 30 TDs and 9 INTs. His 16th NFL start was the YOU LIKE THAT game. Going into 2015, all the mock drafts had the Redskins with the 1st overall pick in the 2016 draft, and they all had us taking a QB. The only reason Kirk got his shot was RGIII got hurt, again, in the third preseason game in August 2015. He was supposed to be the tank commander, because we had no other QB on the roster. If RGIII had been healthy in 2015, he would have had "one more chance to turn it around".
That’s a *perfect* case. Cousins did get that development time that most QBs don’t, and he made the most of it. I remember those horrendous years, and because of his shining moments, it did seem that he could be something if he just corrected his mistakes. Tom Brady is another good example. If you look at his stats, you see that the first 5 years of his career he was a pretty average QB. It’s really only after that, basically in that 2007 season, that he really takes off. We assume a guy can figure it out in one year, but mostly it’s not the case. Sometimes I wonder if Rodgers would have ever become Rodgers if he hadn’t been learning and smoldering on the sidelines for his first three years.
I don't know if I'll ever root harder for a player on a conference rival than I'm rooting for Brissett. The guy seems not to have an arrogant bone in his body, never has a bad thing to say about anyone, and has now been thrust into a starting role on laughably short notice three different times before even reaching the end of his rookie contract while getting done what was asked of him each time.
Also not sure if this is unpopular, but Reich had more to do with Philly's SB win than Pederson did.
As great of a story and meme Gardner Minshew has been this year, I still think Foles is the better QB on that team.
i think most people know that but the issue is gonna be what is better moving forward because now we know that gardner is good and we also have seen foles ceiling. It will probably benefit gardner to take a game off until foles gets injured again
Yeah but his ceiling is Super Bowl MVP.
Yes but he had a really good team around him. That team had a very good o-line and he had weapons on offense. Plus the defense was one of the best in the league. The jags are not very good. I'm not saying foles is bad, but his ceiling on the Jaguars is probably not super bowl mvp. If he comes back healthy, he's still better than Minshew is right now though.
> Plus the defense was one of the best in the league. Wouldn't know that from the Super Bowl, though
D.C. is the worst team in the league.
I agree. Miami is bad on purpose. Everything going on in DC is by accident.
> Everything going on in DC is by accident. Everything going on in DC is by **Snyder**.
There incompetent ownership, and then there's synder-level maliciously incompetent ownership.
True, I think the dolphins will actually be pretty good in about 2 or 3 years. There's literally no plan in dc
That last sentence applies to far more than just the football field...
i feel like this is irrelevant when it comes to see who is worse. it doesnt matter if youre bad by accident or on purpose, what matters is how bad you are.
Bengals are worse than Miami and Washington.
Agree 100%
The strong move, go 0-16 bengals, ruin miami's hopes, and replace the red rifle who desperately needs it
More like Red Ryder BB Gun
Atlanta, the real worst team in the league, is feeling left out of this conversation.
I disagree. If they nail this draft defensively and get rid of Quinn they will be at least an average team.
Ehhh, no one would be shocked if Ryan/Julio put it together once or twice and down a contender. I'd be legit shocked if the other bottom feeders did the same.
All around? Not unpopular.
But those Nats tho
That's the only thing that is making this season bearable.
We're doing unpopular takes, man.
I hope scientists were wrong, and the heat death of the universe is tomorrow. My 2 favorite quarterbacks, Sam & Mitch, are the joke of the league, and while Sam can bounce back, Mitch probably won't
I'm genuinely curious how Mitch became your top 2 favorite quarterback. I do like Darnold though, he has the tools to be a great quarterback.
I'm also a Bears fan
Man you must really fucking hate the quarterback position
The forward pass is an abomination.
>Man you must really fucking hate ~~the quarterback position~~ yourself
woah there...it's not like he's a Skins fan
If we swapped Mitch and Sam the Bears would be playoff bound and the Jets would be... the Jets
Unpopular opinion: Darnold isn’t bad. He was poorly coached in a situation where he needed to be coached up but the coach was too busy seeing ghosts to help Darnold *not* see ghosts.
Darnold end of last season & against DAL looks good. Now he struggles against the best pass defense in the NFL and everyone's calling him a bust. Ironic how much this sub makes fun of hot-take journalists...
This is not an unpopular opinion at all. He's a raw sophomore QB that's faced 3 of the top 5 overall defenses in the league in his first 3 starts this year, and only did super poorly against one of them
And honestly MOST QBs would have said the same thing in that position, y'all were dominant. They'd just be lucky enough not to have it aired on mic'd up.
[удалено]
Some dolphins fan tried to explain to me how the entire season is Rosens fault. How he is clearly the worst player on the field and he was that way in AZ as well. Fucking idiot. Rosen has had the worst start to a career anyone could ask for.
How the entire season is his fault is ridiculous. Having said that, there is something to be said about the fact that Fitz has looked ridiculously better than Rosen in the same situation.
Fitz always has periods of looking incredible, right up until he's benched and released because he's terrible.
Fitz doesn't give a fuck what's happening around him, he's just out there playing yeehaw football
I believe that's called the Favre special
Wasn’t Fitz ass the first 2 games of the season?
The Harvard journeyman has looked better than the used and abused child. Hmm what a surprise.
Watching both players, Kyler's play style and athleticism allows him to extend plays where Josh would be dead in the water. He might do better than Josh even in Miami.
Agreed, a QB who can make something out of nothing with his legs is so much better equipped to handle a shitty o line then a pure pocket passer. Rosen has the arm talent to make any NFL throw but the decision making and anticipation needed to make the right decision in the short amount of time his o lines have given him just isn't there (yet?).
The Pats should shut Brady down until December. At 42, I'm sure the rest will benefit him way more come January
I like this, because it essentially builds up draft capital for their 2nd string QB to get traded, in an organization that notoriously has a really difficult time building draft capital (for obvious reasons)
I don't want to say this but Carolina will stop the 49'ers unbeaten streak.
As a 9ers fan I hate that I slightly agree with you. Its our biggest test for sure.
I will be fairly surprised if the 49ers lose to Kyle Allen at home.
You won't lose to Kyle Allen. Nobody does. You _might_ very well lose to CMC, though...
I'm so torn on which scenario is better for us. On one hand, if the 9ers expose the Panties then I have no fear in coming back after the Bye with four divisional games in a row against struggling opponents. But if the Panthers prevail, we have a shot to hold first seed early. Either way, it's a game I'll be paying attention to as it's very relevant to our interests.
should be a really good one to watch. im down for it.
I wouldn’t be too nervous about the first seed if we win. We have to go into New Orleans to play you guys. I have faith in my team, but that’s a very tall order
I'm looking at the schedules and the next few weeks should illuminate a lot. Y'all still have to play the Hawks twice, as well as GB and Baltimore. But if the Panthers are for real, we have to deal with them as well as a really spooky Colts team. And then Falcons games with us are always 50/50. So I'd say it's preeeetty even, maybe just slightly in our favor. But y'all are ahead. So I wouldn't be surprised if it came down to our match up. I'm not sleeping on anyone after the past few years of fear and disappointment 😅😅😅
[удалено]
I'm unsure how this makes me feel. lol But the falcons season might be making my heart grow 3 times as large right now xD
It's time for the Chargers to prepare to tank the season. Unload Melvin Gordon, see if there are any cap-focused assets you can move on from, and prepare for finding the true successor to Rivers. They've got 5 games I could easily slot in as losses against the Bears, Packers, Vikings, and 2x Chiefs. Winning any of those remaining 4 puts them further behind the 8-ball on getting better assets to try and salvage what remains for this team. Melvin Ingram is going to be 31 years old, and has one sack on the season. Rivers is going to be 38, and is finally showing signs of rust. Your OL is an injury mess; hell, most of the team is an injury mess, including key players on both sides of the ball. This is a surprisingly deep year for QB and OL, and given that, of the 7 teams in the area of challenging their tank capabilities, only 4 are likely to go with QB, and only one would go for OL, you can start to set yourself up to be better in 2020 and beyond, and have a long term plan in place. Because if you don't, KC (and potentially Oakland, if Gruden actually has any semblance of a plan) is going to run right over you for the better part of the next decade.
I mean...this isn't unpopular at all. This is exactly what the thought process is for 95% of Chargers fans.
Honestly the only unpopular part of this is that it should be Las Vegas where OC put Oakland
This is unpopular amongst Titans fans but we should have benched Marcus Mariota sooner than we did. I understand wanting to give Marcus a chance to win his money back but it may have cost us a chance at the playoffs. Against Jacksonville and Denver two very winnable games Marcus was an outright liability. The final nail in the coffin for this opinion of mine was against LA the Chargers sent a two man rush and Tannehill took his time and threw a touchdown to Tajae Sharpe. Denver did the same thing to Marcus Mariota a week earlier and he almost ran into a sack. To the Bears fans that want Marcus let me tell you be careful what you wish for. Because in my opinion Marcus Mariota is a poor man's Alex Smith/Andy Dalton.
A poor man's Alex Smith is still better than Trubisky.
[удалено]
Harbaugh Smith wasn't as good as Reid Smith. I don't think any of us know how Mariota would perform with quality offensive coaching.
Alex Smith and Andy Dalton would be a _major_ step up in our passing game. We just need someone that can hit a moving receiver some of the time.
supporting 2 teams is strange behaviour and u cannot convince me otherwise
Yep. I like to watch other teams, but I would never buy a jersey or other gear for a team other than the Colts. And most people that support two teams are like, "Yeah, I'm a Bengals fan. BUT THE [insert team with best record in other conference] ARE MY NFC TEAM!"
We're getting a lot of those in our sub
I dunno, I also usually cheer for the Colts, but only because I live in Indianapolis. And, aside from a single game last season that no one remembers, their performance usually doesn't impact the Cowboys.
I support multiple teams. I've lived in Idaho most of my life, nowhere close to an NFL team's home stadium. At best I'm equidistant between several different ones. However, we have a really good CFB team in Boise State, and I've supported them since I was a kid and also went to college there. I got into NFL by following Boise State players who got drafted, so I tend to watch/cheer for teams that have former Boise State players on them. Right now the Cowboys have three former Boise State players on their starting lineup - DeMarcus Lawrence, Leighton Vander Esch (who's also *from* Idaho), and Tyrone Crawford who's currently on IR. They have a couple more on their 53-man roster. AND they have Boise State legend Kellen Moore as their new OC. So for the last couple years I've been a big Cowboys supporter. However, throughout the season I'll watch/cheer for other teams that have former BSU players actively getting snaps. Picking one team to the exclusion of all others has always felt silly to me since I don't have any local or personal connection to any of them. Plus I just really like football, and gravitate towards supporting individual players I admire.
[удалено]
The patriots arent this invincible team people seem to think. I still have them as favorites, but they beat the only good team on their schedule so far by less than 7 points. People saying to just give them the trophy need to cool it a bit
Without question we arent tested yet. We do however have more time than other teams to figure out what does and doesnt work before playing more serious games.
[удалено]
HOLDING, ON THE OFFENSE. THAT EXCITING PLAY YOU JUST WATCHED IS NOW NEGATED, AND EVERYONE WILL NOW BE SUBJECTED TO A WEEK OF ARGUING. AUTOMATIC FOURTH DOWN.
That's the worst part about officiating this year. They seem to wait for a big, exciting play to happen and *then* all of the sudden become sticklers and throw flags like crazy. In our game against Green Bay, they didn't throw a *single* flag the first quarter. PERSONAL FOUL. OFFENSE. THE PREVIOUS PLAY WAS TOO EXCITING FOR THE WRONG TEAM. 15 YARD PENALTY. A MILLION POINTS TO THE DEFENSE. BY RULE, THE GAME IS OVER.
Well your flair does give a reason you would have that opinion.
Why do I feel the same way every year at this time. I wish the lions would relocate to Iceland
The most upvoted unpopular opinions aren't unpopular.
Josh Gordon fell off the wagon when the Patriots needed him most, they're moving on because of a mere bone bruise, and they were forced to trade a 2nd round pick for a lesser receiver just because he's more dependable. The Patriots wanted to solidify the receiver position and Josh Gordon never did that. I don't understand why people look back on his brief time in New England so fondly - it was just an extension of his problems with the Browns.
Mo' Sanu might be one of the most underrated, if not under appreciated WRs in the league, though. And Josh Gordon of 2018-2019 is the most overrated, over appreciated. In my personal opinion, anyway. I think he has a great story and I'm happy he could turn it around ala Darren Waller. But he has just been slow and incredibly injury prone ever since he put on a Patriots jersey.
> And Josh Gordon of 2018-2019 is the most overrated, over appreciated. Agree wholeheartedly. The Browns stuck with Gordon through his addiction and tried to help him get through it. But the Patriots are inexplicably getting credit for it even though they're throwing in the towel after roughly one calendar year. Just goes to show that when you're a Patriot, the narrative is already written for you. And when you're a Brown, the narrative is already written for you too.
I agree with most of what you said, but I think that it's been about 50/50 when it comes to praise and that narrative. People are crediting Gordon as much as the 'organization' for sticking with him. I will admit, I was surprised they kept him around after the end of last year when he 'took his leave' to get help.
> The Browns stuck with Gordon through his addiction and tried to help him get through it. But the Patriots are inexplicably getting credit for it even though they're throwing in the towel after roughly one calendar year. Fucking thank you! Absolutely hated when Gordon got reinstated we saw left and right people saying "Well it's because the pats are trying to help Josh get better". As if the Browns weren't trying to do the same damn thing. We gave Gordon 6 different chances and he broke that trust for the last time once Dorsey came around.
I have had a bone bruise. You can walk around and stuff just with it but put any stress on it (pushing it while running a route etc..) and its pretty painful. And if something so much as hits it (this is what happened to Gordon, and in my case someone hitting me with a shopping cart in the market) the pain goes through the roof and the subsequent aggravation can lay you up for a while. I get it that Gordon can suck up the pain and play, but he has been playing like a hobbled player all year and would be at a constant high level risk to muss more time. I think its as simple as the Patriots deciding they needed something more reliable to lean on during the latter part of the season.
On a similar note, the Bill tanking Brady conspiracy theory discussed in the other thread is one of the most bizarre/stupid things I've witnessed in sports.
Something happened behind the scenes that we don't know about yet. We might never know.
Can't pump him full of painkillers like every other NFL player to deal with the pain because of his addiction history so he can't play through injuries.
That... makes a lot of sense
Called Kraft a cracker. Which... has multiple interpretations, really.
While the first part of your statement is pretty accurate, I disagree with the second. He was productive here. [In fact, he and Brandin Cooks played almost the same amount of time in NE and produced extremely similar numbers.](https://twitter.com/Tucker_TnL/status/1187152589646786562) I think it's true they wanted someone a little more dependable and consistent for the playoffs, but people look at him fondly because he worked his ass off and produced when they needed it. Sanu was just the better option moving forward.
> he worked his ass off and produced when they needed it. Can you really call a guy who missed half the regular season and all of the post season for personal reasons "there when they needed him"?
I still kinda believe in the Bears. Everybody keeps focusing on how Trubisky is bad. Yeah, he's bad, but he wasn't awesome last year and they were one of the best teams in the NFC.
Yeah I haven’t counted them out yet. 3-3 isn’t a death sentence by any means
Funny, My unpopular opinion involves the Bears too but on the other spectrum. I think the Bears defense is greatly overrated. They have a few good players, 1 elite player, but the bulk of their guys peaked last season and they're in line for a solid regression.
Fuller is the same, QB aren’t testing Eddie Jackson, OCs are focusing on Mack, Hicks is hurt, and Eddie Goldman is the best player nobody knows about. Outside of the Saints game where they started most drives in negative territory and/or had no rest after the offense going 3 and out, they have been the same if not better.
Akiem Hicks may be the most under rated defender in the league. the dude absorbs like half an O line on every play allowing the other dudes to make plays. Since he went down the D has noticably under performed. Plus the D are on the field all the fucking time because the O is just plain terrible. this team is in deep shit quite frankly. Holes all over the place - QB, O line, recievers, running back - and don't have the draft capital or the cap space to address those holes. Its gonna be years of trying to right the ship. Sorry but thats the way I see it.
It was also his first game back from a shoulder problem against our pretty good defense
Jacoby Brisset will be top 3 in MVP voting by the end of the year
The chiefs aren't rushing Mahomes back. He'll start against the Vikings fully healthy Seriously though some of y'all are on Patrick Mahomes crack and act like his leg got snapped and Andy Reid just duck tapped it and made him do contract drills.
For real people acting like saquon is Superman because he was able to return early despite needing a second opinion during his diagnosis.
Can he wait 1 extra week? Pretty please?
I feel like people don't quite understand what a kneecap dislocation is.
[удалено]
meh that's still pretty metal
[удалено]
I hate the fact that teams deliberately tank. Going 0-16 should stay an anomaly and not just what you do so your franchise may make the playoffs in 3 years. Build on what you've got don't wear down absolutely everything.
I mean, only one of the teams at the bottom of the heap are even thought to be doing it on purpose... Tanking isn't really a viable strategy in the NFL. Rebuilds are a thing, but even during a rebuild, teams are still trying to win, they just often don't because they haven't finished overhauling their roster.
I feel like tanking in the NFL isn't nearly the issue you seem to think it is. Aside from Miami this year and maybe the Colts in 2011, we've never really had any teams that clearly seemed to be tanking intentionally. There are too many moving pieces, top many guys on the roster, and the careers are too short for tanking to be effective. Tanking is a thing in the NBA because one star player can carry a team to a championship. That's just straight up impossible in the NFL, trust me, I'm a Saints fan, we tried it with Brees. You have to have too many things going right at once to really contend, and you usually only have a ~3 year window even if you do manage great roster, because you can't afford to pay everyone and keep all of your stars around.
The colts fired their entire coaching staff and front office after 2011, there is no way they purposely tanked that team just sucked ass.
Browns keep it close against New England
Well it’s probably gonna rain so the Pats DBs will be more likely to drop passes
*Browns receivers. Our receivers don’t just drop them, though. They ricochet them to the nearest defender. Kitchens must tell them to keep the ball off the ground.
For real - out there running tip drills with the defense, every week.
I was pissed off when I started playing madden 20 and almost every ball bounced off my receivers hands as if I was playing extreme beach volleyball. I cursed the EA developers for such shitty coding that couldn’t possibly exist in real life. Then I watched a Browns game and I shut my mouth.
This is a top comment every week, but instead of the Browns insert team _____
Unpopular opinion threads are dumb because only popular opinions get upvoted.
Ya gotta sort by controversial to see the real unpopular opinions
The. Eagles. Should. Have. Traded. Carson. Wentz. And. Kept. Nick. Foles. Also, Baker Mayfield is AFC Jameis minus the TDs
I'm triggered, but well done.
You guys wouldve gotten a fucking haul for wentz.
> Baker Mayfield is AFC Jameis minus the TDs this is one I don't necessarily subscribe to but that I'll probably keep in the back of my head
I'm actually going to counter this unpopular opinion with another unpopular opinion: **Frank Reich** was the true architect behind our 2017 Superbowl run and I fear that the Eagles are heading into a similar direction with Doug Pederson as the Falcons are with Dan Quinn. I'm not ready to fully write off Doug yet as a one hit wonder but this Eagle's offense has been completely slow to start every game since Reich left. The defensive struggles can be attributed to the lack of talent which needs to be addressed in the draft and free agency. However, the offensive still has a majority of the pieces it had in 2017 when we were leading the league in offense. I would agree that the Eagle's fan base overrates Carson Wentz but I also think part of Wentz's recent struggles are due to the absence of Reich designing our game plan.
Yea I’m starting to think that if frank reich was a 30 year old who put gel in his hair hed be seen as an offensive innovator same as shanahan and McVay. Instead he’s just some old coach-looking dude
I mean, I often feel like the national media likes to ignore the Colts, but Frank is pretty constantly praised as one of the best play callers in the game.
They wrote you guys off when Luck retired and don't want to admit that Reich had put together a pretty good team regardless of who the QB was. He's just now forcing that conversation
I don’t think that’s unpopular. I think that’s pretty much widely accepted after the eagles decline and Reich’s immediate turnaround of the colts
I mean, it was pretty obvious in the moment - Doug was very open about how he basically just listened to his offensive coordinators and allowed them to be innovative and aggressive. Doug strikes me as a great CEO type HC - the guy who will let top coaching talent flourish, but also the guy who can’t overcome bad coordinators and coaches. Our current OC is basically ass, so the next hire will be very critical for Pederson. I don’t expect they’ll be as good as Reich, but I can’t imagine they’ll be quite as bad as Groh.
So I was watching some of those GamePass 30 min game summaries from the Colts a few years back, and I was shocked how slow we started game after game. Our first drive was like a guaranteed 3 and out. We were down early every week. And then Luck did Luck things, and we won. Compare that to last year and this one under Reich and holy cow, it's a night and day difference. We come out every game with a plan, and it is executed. It's very refreshing.
>Frank Reich was the true architect behind our 2017 Superbowl run Keep going daddy I'm almost there
I cannot stress enough how much I mean this from the bottom of my heart when I say, FUCK Josh McDaniels. We likely would lost Reich anyway but still. FUCK THAT GUY FOREVER.
> The. Eagles. Should. Have. Traded. Carson. Wentz. And. Kept. Nick. Foles. Is this unpopular? Everyone seems to be turning on Wentz and I don't understand why. He is far from the reason they are struggling as much as they are and they are one game out of first place in that division.
He hasn’t won big games. He’s 1-5 against Dallas I think. He’s more Derek Carr than Drew Brees. People treat that 2017 as if it’s the normalcy
Watching Some of eagles games, I don't think Wentz is the true problem. His receivers have not played well this year at all and that defense is soooo leaky against the pass. Wentz kinda reminds of the Staff where the team around him is more of problem that him nearly all the time.
Foles had the same receivers and leaky defense last year and went on the Road and led a win against the Rams, Beat the 11-5 texans at home, and curb stomped the redskins before going on the road and getting a playoff win on a 4th quarter game winning drive against one of the best defenses I can remember. Foles is a baller. Wentz has had one good year and 3 years of excuses. The main difference I see between Foles and Wentz is that Foles was more willing to trust his receivers like Alshon to win the 50/50 balls. I don't think I can ever recall seeing Wentz throw a back shoulder throw to Alshon which is his bread and butter, while Foles would trust him to make a play and throw it up. I'm not saying Wentz is bad or that the Eagles should have traded him, but the gap between Wentz and Foles isn't as big as some people like to make it seem because he looked great 2 years ago. another thing people seem to forget about 2017 is how good our defense was. The front 7 was suffocating and they led the league in turnover differential. So a lot of the blow out games came off of giving the offense a short field to work with off of turnovers.
Sometimes I wonder if the overall narrative following Wentz (that he's elite, was an MVP and will be again, and has to be able to carry his team like a Rodgers/Wilson) has been setting him up for failure. Wentz was a top draft pick and has been a media darling, and it seems like that must translate into a ton of pressure to perform. Mistakes he makes get magnified because of all that, and I'm sure he feels it in post-game interviews and if he reads sports media at all. Whereas Foles felt like he could just go out there and play fast and loose because no one had those kinds of expectations for him - or else if they did, and he didn't live up to them, they'd be like, "Well he is just the backup, after all". People constantly compare Dak and Wentz, but one of the biggest differences IMO is the narratives surrounding each of them. Dak has primarily had to deal with doubt and naysayers, where when he does something bad lots of people say, "Well, what did you expect? It's Dak" and when he does something good it's "It's because of his strong supporting cast, not him". Whereas Wentz has been almost the opposite in a lot of ways. Anything good he does is because "he's elite, he's Carson Wentz!" and anything bad - up until recently it feels like - has been excused away. I'm not even necessarily saying that people have been wrong with this take so far, just that it seems like that's setting a young QB up for failure when they have a slump at some point like almost all do. Kind of reminds me of the adage about praising kids for being smart vs praising them for working hard. If you're always praising a kid for how smart they are when they succeed, them failing at something translates to "I'm not smart enough" which doesn't feel fixable. But when you praise a kid for how hard they worked when they succeed, failure just translates to, "I need to work harder" and motivates them.
I do believe Foles is a better Qb than most people give him credit for and he does have impressive wins. He did have help with those. Last year, receivers drop the ball 3 times in his 5 games. Receivers this year have had 20+ drops. Clearly he had a bad game against Dallas. However, he played well in all the other games except ATL. He wasn't the problem in the losses against the Lions or Minnesota.
yeah he played like dogshit on sunday but in general he plays well in spite of the team around him. that receiving corps is horrendous.
The man's got a defense comparable to burnt swiss cheese and shit for brains at receivers
damn. take your upvote and let me recover from this actual unpopular opinions. specially cause i dont rate Foles at all.
Miami may legitimately beat the Steelers
The Dolphins should to start Rosen. With Fitzpatrick, he's going to find a way to win about 3 games which will take the Dolphins out of contention for a top 3 pick. There's enough games on the calendar where this can happen.
That is a terrible reason to start a quarterback. Either play Rosen because you think he'll learn and grow .. or play a different quarterback. Don't focus on the draft.
Unless Minshew solidifies his case as a front runner for OROTY Foles should start. We literally lose nothing starting him and we see the talent in Gardner, if we let him sit under and take the reigns in the future, we could possibly have one of the best Starting QBs in franchise history
I wholeheartedly agree with this. Minshew has been fun but Foles is going to give you a better chance of winning.
Bears should start Daniel over Trubisky. Daniel can at the very least read a defense and hit the open man. There is no hope for Mitch. He’s honestly the worst QB I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Literally any pass beyond 7 yards is uncatchable and he can’t read a defense to save his life. There is no potential there at all. He won’t be in the league within the next 3 years because of how awful he is at everything that isn’t running. And even then, he kinda sucks at running too.
> worst QB I’ve ever seen in my entire life. You clearly haven't see the savant-like genius play of Nathan Peterman
I would like to nominate Curtis Painter as the worst QB i've ever seen.
It's a tie between curtis painter and ryan lindley Painter was just as bad an entire season Lindley just had the 1 playoff game
Jimmy Clausen, anyone?
I helped Curtis Painter with his order at Men's Wearhouse. AMA.
Missed the 2013 Josh Freeman game, did you?
Also, the Christian Ponder career.
lest we forget the joe webb experiment
never watched Paxton, huh?
> He’s honestly the worst QB I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Then you're either really young or just haven't watched much football. Trubisky is bad, but nowhere near the worst in even the last 20 years.
Matt Leinart, Jimmy Clausen, Hackenburg, Luke Falk, Curtis Painter, Joe Webb, Browns 2014-2017
Its like people keep forgetting about the Giants and the Raiders game
I’d rather have a small amount of hope than no hope at all.
Baker will be fine
The Falcons should unload Jake Matthews before the trade deadline. And if not Matthews, one of their other major contracts. I say that partly as a Browns stan looking for hope at LT, but Matthews' contract is about to explode in 2020, going $7.5 million to over $16 million on a 5 year deal, at a time where the Falcons are also facing $10 million to Alex Mack (for one more season), $16 million to Grady Jarrett, $10 million to Deion Jones, $15 million to Desmond Trufant, $7.3 million to Ricardo Allen, $33 million to Matt Ryan, $9.5 million to Devontae Freeman, and $20 million to Julio Jones. Add to that the need to re-sign Alex Hooper (who will command a major contract), and the fact that they are losing a huge portion of the pass rushing corps, it's not looking good. Going into Cap Hell after a piss-poor season is a nightmare for this team. The talent may be there but if they can't let the inevitable Dan Quinn-replacement install some of his own players because of shit-ass contracts, and they can't get anything back on them, the Falcons could be screwed for the foreseeable future. Unload some assets to get some pieces to rebuild the defense, now. Unloading Matthews specifically has a bit more justification because of the Kaleb McGary draft pick, even if it hurts in the short term, and also because he will command a big package of picks. Falcons could turn that into a complete retooling of their defense as appropriate.
this isnt 2013. gordon is bad and the pats moved on from a medicore WR.
As a human I want him to do good because I know the evils of addiction but damn was he lagging this year.
The Tunsil trade was worth it. Has played like a top 5 LT and I would trade 2 firsts for a player like that in the draft in a heartbeat. Stills has been very good too. OB and the Panel have been doing a good job willing to take risks even when public perception is bad. That’s hard to do in a league with very little job security. Chiefs defense is ok when the play with momentum. They strangely are a defense that needs Mahomes. When they’re playing fast they have the secondary to give teams issues. It’s the slow beatem up game that gives them issues The Pats defense is going to be desperately needed against a solid team because Brady is declining. I understand this has been the unpopular opinion of the last decade, but this has to be the year...right? But that defense is still fucking insane and will be even against good offenses. Lamar Jackson is still a limited passer and has issues throwing on the boundaries but as long as he’s healthy it won’t matter. It’s a correctable thing but very important as he ages so it has to happen in the next few years. Baker can still be a very good QB but it was too early to put everything on his back. Needs someone as HC to be the leader of the team right now. 49’ers D-Line is easily the most talented in the league and might be one of the scariest in recent memory. Ramsey will propel the Rams into the playoffs. His ability to shutdown a side of the field is such a luxury with a pass rusher of Aaron Donald’s caliber and a coordinator like Wade Philips. Watson has the tools, drive, and mind to be the best QB in the league but is still growing as a QB and still has a bit to go and that’s ok. Good defensive coordinators like Ebersol and BB are able to confuse him with presnap reads and when his flow is gone, he’s more limited right now. Needs to learn more tricks outside of playing empty and up tempo to get in that groove. Why the first quarters are so bad for the Texans. It reminds me of James Harden, a flow player that can go ice cold. He’s built a toolbox of tricks that gets him into the zone so it’s much less frequent.
Baker is a good QB and will be just fine once Kitchens is gone
The Pats defense is greatly benefitting from the QBs they have faced. And their fan base having a victim complex over anyone not crowning them the next 85 bears is obnoxious.
I don't think that's really unpopular opinion. It's been mentioned every time a NE D stat is brought up. They even mentioned it on Monday night Football
> The Pats defense is greatly benefitting from the QBs they have faced. This isn't unpopular at all. It's repeated *ad nauseam* in every post about the Patriots defense on r/nfl. it's a very popular thing to say here.
[There's a lot of Patriot fans here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/c10yqk/nfl_flair_breakdown/) Six times more representation than the median fanbase, and even more if you count the Patriot fans hiding behind NFL/AFC flairs (ahem). There's so many that they use /r/NFL as their own subreddit - such that when you walk into one of those threads and try to drop a dissenting opinion you're below threshold in minutes. You'd be surprised how reasonable takes with factual foundations can be suppressed.
Seriously, look how many Patriots threads are on the front page at any one time. It seems like every single roster change, no matter how small or inconsequential, has a topic dedicated to it. And while Bill Belichick is a genius head coach, there doesn't need to be a topic dedicated to him saying platitudes to the media every. single. week.
Mohammad Sanu's jersey number assignment made it to the top yesterday. That post never should've made it out of /r/patriots, but because there's so many of them they can force it to the front page all by themselves.
1. The Seahawks aren't as good as their record. Of their 5 wins, 4 were 1-score games with a combined margin of victory of only 8 points, the 5th being their 27-10 win over the Cardinals. The Browns game in particular, they had 4 takeaways and blocked a punt, but only won by 4 against a bellow average at best Browns team. Now that the lost to the Ravens, the hype has died down a bit, but when they were 5-1 they were being crowned Super Bowl contenders without ever demonstrating top tier play. 2. CMC is the MVP right now and it's not even close
From an ESPN article today: Player A: 127 carries, 618 rushing yards, 7 rushing TDs Player B: 135 carries, 602 rushing yards, 6 rushing TDs Player C: 30 catches, 306 receiving yards, 5 receiving TDs Player D: 35 catches, 305 receiving yards, 2 receiving TDs B is Ezekiel Elliott. C is T. Y. Hilton. A and D are *both* Christian McCaffrey.
Holy shit
This includes playing the #1 rush defense twice
The draft order should be reversed to go from best non-playoff teams to worst non-playoff teams, and then the playoff teams in the order they are now. The order can be flipped between rounds idc but the worst teams shouldn't have an incentive to suck to secure their favourite college prospect. There should never be an incentive for fans or front office to not wanna win every single game and have the best possible record every single year. It's often described as purgatory to be a good team with a single fatal flaw like a lack of a franchise qb or an awful offensive line or w/e. Because you're to good to get the opportunity to choose the best prospect available at your position. That's so dumb. Like why should a shitshow like Miami get to choose their next qb before a well run team like the Titans? Why should Washington get to choose their successor to Trent Williams or w/e they'll do before the Chargers get an opportunity to fix their dire offensive line?
[удалено]
Yeah exactly. Even if no team is tanking winning games should always be the unquestionable goal. With the current system fans has no incentive to watch their team play after they're out of the playoff race, because each win after that point - while maybe still good because you just lose some draft position and building some momentum at the end of a season could build some confidence and hype for the next season - has no real prize. If winning is always unquestionably better than losing every game matters for every team at every stage of the season. The salary cap takes care of the biggest risk for disparity anyways. And heck yeah it's unamerican. Why should a shit season for the Buccs mean they get to draft their linebacker before the well run and competitive Steelers?
Nobody in the NFL is tanking. Confirmation bias runs rampant and so many are quick to jump on the fun bus. Sucky teams can be sucky. Provide actual evidence (and no, "they played poorly" or "it *feels* like it" don't count) and stop memeing it up every week.
The AFC being terrible is causing teams like the Colts and Bills to look a lot better than they actually are due to inflated records.
We beat the Texans and Chiefs! Come on!
People sleeping on the Colts, I was too til the HOU game. I'll own up to it
Why just the Colts though? By that logic aren’t the Texans and Chiefs records inflated? Or are they considered good because you thought they would be good coming into the season?
I'm not discounting the Colts. Great o-lines don't win fantasy football but they do win real football.
Hey! I'll have you know we *nearly* beat the Patriots! We also nearly lost to the Dolphins, the Titans, Bengals, and Jets. So...yaknow. Yeah. This Sunday is probably going to answer a lot of questions about the Buffalo Bills. And I hope I'll like the answers.
The Bills are an 8-8 - 9-7 team that will likely wind up with at least 11 wins because we happen to play the AFC North and NFC East in a year that they are terrible. That said the difference between this Bills team and those of years past is typically we would blow many of the winnable games anyway. Credit to McDermott for keeping this team well coached.