2016 NFL Football

[PokerFace]

What PEG said^

Crowder is redskins number #2 wr I 'think'. Jackson is #1 and garcon is #3. If you factor Reed into this that further effects Crowder placing further back

Pryor is currently browns 1 wr. Is QB on some plays. This 'could' result in scores, passing, running, receiving the ball. Pryor may fall to #2 wr when Gordon returns but won't undo the possibility of Pryor throwing a td pass to gordon

[PJ.]

I figured with Coleman and gordon coming back, it was over for pryor.

[Wraith]

After this showing I can't possibly believe Pagano and Grigson will survive the season. Colts OL is an abomination.

[Bella]

Grigson should have been done around the point he traded a first round pick for Trent Richardson. His acquisition of players has been abominable. Pagano, eh... you can only do so much with the players you have.

[Bella]

I'm currently wishing the Pats had started Edelman at QB.

[PokerFace]

Colts gave Paggano a lot of money at end of last year. Don't think they'd cut ties with him so soon. Grigson is likely out though

Edit: Nevermind, that deal extended Grigson through 2019 too. With all the money tied up I don't think they get rid of them that fast

[Bella]

3-1 without Brady is pretty good - better than most predicted - but the way the Pats lost today is disappointing. It was a mistake to try and work through on the back of Brissett alone when Jimmy G went down - and when Jacoby was hurt, they really should have brought in a QB. He clearly wasn't healthy today, and it limited the already limited playbook he was running. It's not a big deal because Tommy's back, but eh, you still wanna win every game, especially division games.

[PokerFace]

Houston gonna win south, take back what I said. Won't be easy with watt out but they'll still do it

[xRECKONERx]

what the fuck is wrong with cam newton

(ps- fire Sean McDermott)

[Antihero]

forget cam newton. where the hell was the defense?

[pickemgenius]

the defense is in washington dc now.

[PJ.]

lol

[Antihero]

speaking of josh norman, excessive celebration/taunting penalties are a joke. shooting an imaginary bow and arrow. whatever the hell antonio brown did. these are penalties?

why is this a thing now?

[Wraith]

This is glorious

[Papa Zito]

welcome to the No Fun League

[PokerFace]

Penalties on excessive celebration only bug me as they are not all inclusive. If you are going to flag some then you should flag them all. If you are going to not flag some than you should not flag any. Taking the time to debate, what is and what is not excessive, is what is truly excessive.

[Kublai Khan]

http://uproxx.com/sports/nfl-teams-as-pokemon/9/

[Bella]

The Pats one is superb, it even captures Belichik's expression when he's facing questions he doesn't want to answer.

[Kmd4390]

The Raiders didn't get made fun of in theirs. Times are changing.

[Bella]

Clipboard Jesus is playing QB for the Browns because Kessler is hurt. if Kessler's out next week, it's time for starting QB number 27 since they came back into the league...

[T-Bone]

I hear Matt Flynn is looking for a job.

[PJ.]

Holy shit man, Phillip Rivers seriously must be the vice president of the throw for 350 yrds and lose club

[Bella]

Casual 400 yard game from Tommy on his return. It's important to remember it's only the Browns, and the real test will be when he faces an actual NFL team, but still... Tommy's back!

[PokerFace]

I bet against the browns for my eliminator league. Most other players did the same. Gonna find another team to cheer for this year

AFC championship gonna be NE vs PIT

NFC up in the air

[Wraith]

So I'm bored right now and feel like sparking some football discussion somewhere. We're almost through week 5 so I guess I'll talk about the concrete impressions I'm starting to form for each team.

AFC North

PIT:

We alone are kings in the North now, and damn it feels good. This is the most confident I've felt about the team in a long time - in 2014 and 2015, every week was an exercise of cardiac arrest as I couldn't predict whether or not we'd drop the ball against any given opponent. That feeling's still there this year to some extent - this whole stretch from Philly to next week in Miami has felt like a bunch of trap games - but going into every game I've got a very high confidence level that we'll win and have only been proven wrong once so far. Probably the only game I'm already writing off as a loss in advance is the one against the Pats two weeks from now. Even then, in our own house a loss isn't out of the question. Offense is still looking terrifying despite several injuries already. Defense has been more shaky, but it's been working. Us, the Broncos, and the Pats are obviously the teams to beat in the AFC this year, and with the Bengals apparently imploding we should be easy favorites to win the division and likely even a playoff bye.

BAL:

I'm pretty surprised the Ravens botched their game yesterday against the Skins. Firing Trestman will likely improve their offense immediately. They have a lot of potential there in the receivers and should go off in the coming weeks. Trestman has an awfully strange pattern of putting out a good performance offensively in his first year with a team and then that offense suffering heavily from a sophomore slump, similar to Kyle Shanahan (ironically enough for this year). With the Bengals imploding at the moment, the Ravens are my easy favorite for a Wild Card berth.

CIN:

I don't really know what's happening to this team. I thought last year put to rest the notion that Dalton was a mediocre quarterback, but now I'm starting to have second thoughts. Did he just have one really good year, an outlier? Or is Tyler Eifert's absence from the lineup

that

crippling? All I know is, with a 2-3 record and brutal match-ups vs the Pats, Steelers, Ravens twice, Giants, Eagles, and Texans looming on the horizon, Cincy's chances to return to the playoffs look pretty bleak. If they miss the playoffs this year, is that curtains for Marvin Lewis?

CLE:

Not much to say here. They weren't going to be good this year, but they have had the worst injury luck save for perhaps the Chargers.

AFC East

NE:

Fucking Pats. Fucking Belichick. Fucking Brady. I was hoping this year would be one to shake up the AFC and this division in particular, but it doesn't look like it.

BUF:

After an awful start, the Bills are starting to look surprisingly solid. They're leaning heavily on McCoy now and it's paying off. If he gets injured, though, they're screwed. They could yet again be on the playoff bubble this year, unfortunately, if other teams keep on their current trajectories.

NYJ:

The poor Jets show that you can't rely on Fitzpatrick week-to-week or season-to-season to keep your team competitive. But Fitz isn't the sole source of problems for this team. Revis's age catching up to him has left their secondary a glaring weakness, as our game against them yesterday showed. They're currently on track for a high draft pick. Todd Bowles made some seriously questionable decisions yesterday, but I think a lot of Jets fans (on the internet at least) are being awfully reactionary by calling for his head so soon.

MIA:

I'm honestly shocked that the Dolphins are this much of a dumpster fire. Tons and tons of people are already circlejerking about how "Tannehill is not a franchise QB" and they think the Dolphins should move on from in. But Tannehill isn't the problem. The Dolphins have consistently failed, for

years

to provide Tannehill with a competent offensive line. I still think Adam Gase is a good coach, but it'll be more clear after this season and another one whether or not he's best as a coordinator. But IMO this team needs time and a couple of drafts to try and get that O-Line and defense in competent shape.

AFC South

HOU:

I'm really disappointed in the Texans. They're still likely to win the division, but they're apparently going to limp to that finish line rather than stride confidently. They've shit the bed when they've played a real contender this year. They should be performing better in the games they've won. And frankly, as much as I think people have been overly harsh on Brock Osweiler over the course of the past year, I do feel a lot of the blame for this must fall on his shoulders. He hasn't performed as advertised by his price tag. Is it just early season jitters? Or was he never any good? I'm convinced that he's better than he's been performing and just needs more time and experience, but only time will tell for that.

IND:

The Colts are in extremely bad shape right now. In their only two wins, they

barely

pulled them out, and they were against a pair of cellar dweller teams. Luck seriously looks like the only good part of this team at all. Even if they manage to limp to an 8-8 record, I can't possibly see Pagano or Grigson surviving the season. The Colts badly need a more competent GM and a couple good drafts to put their defense back at the average level.

TEN:

I don't really know much to say about this team. Mariota has not looked great stat-wise for most of these early games, but he bounced back this week against the Dolphins. If the Texans continue to struggle offensively, the Titans here could actually sneak into a division win. They have a defense whose competence constantly flies under the radar. I feel this team is mostly held back offensively, they seem to live and die by how Mariota performs, and have leaned a lot of Murray so far as a result.

JAX:

I'm really disappointed in the Jags. Their defense has shown some improvement this year, but improving from "more porous than Swiss cheese" to "sometimes forces 3 & Outs" isn't much of an improvement. Their offense that showed explosiveness last year has been much less impressive than expected. I've felt the Jags have done the right thing by giving Gus Bradley so much time to get the house in order, but at this point they're still so consistently underperforming that it begs the question of if bad coaching is what's holding them back.

AFC West

OAK:

I'm glad to see my prediction of the Raiders actually being good this year is coming to fruition. Derek Carr looks absolutely fantastic and has been carrying this team on his back every week. The thing is, though, the Raiders right now are a very precarious house of cards. They've started strong, but their defense has not been good. There's an insane stat floating around - they're 4-1, but have allowed 2,200 yards and 130 points so far, the only team to do so in 40 years. That's fucking nuts. That's half a season's worth of yards and points allowed in 5 games. With the Broncos looming, I don't expect them to win the division anymore, but I still hold out hope for them to make the Wild Card. But unless the defense gets its act together, I think a midseason collapse that might drop them out of contention is inevitable.

DEN:

I'm honestly pissed that the Broncos are doing so well. I'm tired of us missing a playoff bye because the Pats and Broncos get them every year. And thank god the Vikings defense has stepped up because the "DAE dat Broncos D?" circlejerk has become completely unbearable. But yeah, if Siemian continues to provide very solid QB play the Broncos are a lock for winning the division, and potentially a playoff bye as well at the expense of the more volatile Steelers. Their remaining schedule isn't particularly scary, with only the Pats and their division rivals looking like threats. I personally favor the Broncos against all their division rivals, but the way divisional games tend to go you can't really predict them. But I think the loss to the Falcons this week (which I totally called, to toot my own horn) demonstrates that they aren't defensively infallible. While it was largely their offensive struggles that held them back because of Siemian's absence, I think the Falcons being able to hang so many points on their vaunted defense proves that a good enough offense can still overcome their stifling D. Exhibit B is last year's game against the Steelers.

KC:

The Chiefs should rebound after their bye, they're still a solid team. Definitely still Wild Card contenders, but with stiff competition in the AFC in the form of the Raiders and Bills, they might actually find themselves on the bubble this year.

SD:

The Chargers have just had the most atrocious luck. I called their botched FG attempt at the end of yesterday's game (though I thought it would be a shanked kick, not a botched hold) and couldn't stop laughing for a good five minutes straight. They're not pushovers, that's for sure. But they're certainly not going to be contending this year. Bosa at least looked

really

good in his first start, which IMO doubles down on demonstrating how stupid and atrocious their penny-pinching FO is.

This took a lot longer than I expected. I'll do the NFC later.