The 2013 NFL Thread

[Pies4shaw]

Much of the the free-agency movement is finished, the Pack have extended Clay Matthews' contract (and are thinking of robbing a second bank so they can also extend A-Rod's), the NFL draft is on next Thursday and the season schedule has just been released:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/schedule

The season proper kicks off on Thursday, 5 September (Friday, our time) with Flacco and the boys trying to put Peyton Manning's Broncos to the sword in Denver and on the Sunday (Monday, our time), the 49ers host the Pack.

Only 3 and a half months to go!

[OEP]

Just crazy:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000162196/article/new-york-jets-trade-darrelle-revis-to-tampa-bay-bucs

All the Jets ended up getting for Revis was a 2013 1st rounder (13th overall) and a 2014 4th rounder (which may become a 3rd rounder if certain conditions are met).

The mind boggling part is what the Buc's are paying him $96 million over 6 years, that's @ $16 million per year . It's makes him the highest paid CB in the history of the game. Given the fact he's 27 years old and coming off an ACL that's a massive investment and an even bigger chunk of their salary cap spent for the next 6 years.

[OEP]

On Clay Matthews contract....well my view is his agent should be jailed for Grand Larceny, $13 million per year for a LB that is an above average blitzer, an average field tackler, average run stopper, and a poor pass defender.

Basically their paying him for his pass rushing prowess.

Given what GB are paying Matthews I can only guess what AR is going to get, my guess would be in the vicinity of $30 million a year at least (I mean if Romo can get $120 million over 6 years with $52 million guaranteed and he's not a great QB). Personally I don't know where GB are getting the salary cap space but hey that's why they pay their accountants so much.

On the Romo contract my view on it is:

a) the Cowboys looked ahead and realised their weren't any franchise QB's in this draft or the next few and decided it was better the devil you know so they signed Romo, and

b) by seriously over paying him they've ramped up all the other league QB contract that are currently being negotiated of soon will be, meaning teams like GB, Atlanta, San Fran, etc are going to be paying huge money for their QB's and using up cap space they wanted to save.

OR

c) the front office of Dallas need psychiatric evaluating as their obviously off their rockers.

[Pies4shaw]

[OEP]

I think this years draft could be a very interesting one with a number of teams looking for franchise QB's even though there are none in this draft (including Geno Smith), which might mean you see QB's (like Geno Smith) being taken in the 1st round instead of the 2nd or 3rd rounds. If this happens the end result could be that the smarter teams get some real bargains.

Also there in this draft there is some massive depth at DL, CB, DB, and Safety meaning teams want have to rush for a decent player and can sit pat waiting for the cards to fall with the teams desperate for players in positions with less depth, then move up or down the draft as required to secure players they may not have been available otherwise.

San Fran has been heavily linked with Tavon Austin with some experts believing they intend to move up the draft board to secure his services. Personally I hope this doesn't occur because the need for defensive players of high quality is greater at the SS, CB and DL. With Boldin coming into the fold and Crabtree finally showing his All-Pro abilities, plus A.J.Jenkins (hopefully being able show his skills), also Manningham and Williams coming back off ACL's the 49ers are well placed for depth at the position. Plus they could pick up a decent depth WR in the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

If the 9ers want to really go nuts and dramatically trade up then I hope they go for either Star Lotulelei or my defensive player wet dream Sharrif Floyd

Anyway only 2 days to go and I feel confident at the end of this years draft there's going to be some real talking points.

[Funkadelic]

I really like Dion Jordan, OLB from Oregon. Dude moves like a shark. Where do you see Dion going?

[OEP]

[Funkadelic]

Thanks for that OEP. I saw geno smith with John Gruden on his QB camp, seems like when things go bad they go real bad. E.J Manuel was on mike an mike yesterday he's a big unit 6 4 225, he's been invited to the draft so they think he could go round 1

[OEP]

My view on this years crop of QB's is that it's full of NFL backup QB's. That's to say you don't want them to start for you but if your QB got a short term injury you'd be happy for them to take the reigns until your starter returns.

Most young QB's coming from the colleges are brash and force the ball into areas they shouldn't, but that's a symptom of the system their function in. College football is all about big plays, entertaining the young, teen fans...not like the NFL which is mostly about conservative play making (yes even the big plays are often conservative in their constructions and execution) and winning ugly rather than losing pretty.

For me the greatest knock on a college QB is not so much that they force the ball but how often they do it and how bad a situation it was to throw into, i.e. was it a 50/50 ball or was there no chance of a reception, or (worse) was it likely an interception would occur. Plus how easy do they get flushed out of the pocket, do they keep their head and move out of the pocket when forced or when the field opens up for a run, or do they panic and not trust their OL to protect them. Also what type of action do they have, are they a ball tapper, do they look off their target or watch them the whole way (telegraphing the pass), do they have the smarts to pump fake an defensive player to get them to sit on a pass or get a DL player to move, etc.

Unfortunately the more you look at this group the more you see of the negative, and as you already stated with Geno, when it goes bad it goes really bad. If their doing that at the college level they'll get murdered in the NFL.

There definitely ain't no Andrew Lucks or RG3's in this lot, or even Russell Wilsons or Kaepernicks

[ANNODAM]

Go BIG BLUE!

[OEP]

The Bills take E.J.Manuel with pick 16 - WTF.

[Funkadelic]

My boy Dion going to the dolphins, poor geno smith could be sitting for a while.

[Funkadelic]

Wonder who takes manti teo? Surely not big blue!

[OEP]

While I'm not unhappy with Eric Reid, in fact I'm very happy with his selection, I'm surprised they traded up for him (even though they didn't give up much to do it).

When the trade occurred I thought they were going after Sharrif Floyd who would've made our D-Line an unbelievably destructive force.

Players I'm hoping they target now are:

Jesse William - DT or
Cornellius Carradine - DE

D.J.Swearinger - SS (but likely converted into a CB)

Travis Kelce - TE

Marcus Lattimore - RB

Arthur Brown - ILB (pipe dream)

[OEP]

Justin Pugh is a really intelligent and solid pick for the Giants. Other players were still on the board that would be considered higher grade, such as Floyd, but they also had greater risk.

Pugh can play left or right guard, or left or right tackle and his greatest con is a lack of strength which is easily corrected.

Personally I think from a Giants perspective it's a great pick because it gives them a potential starter and at the very least depth at every O-Line position, except Centre.