NFL Thread 2019

MrMarcello said:
Heard Matt Rhule's name the other day. I know zero about him.
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How common is it for head coaches to come over to the NFL from College football and be successful? Thinking about Rhule and Riley here..
 
Carl said:
How common is it for head coaches to come over to the NFL from College football and be successful? Thinking about Rhule and Riley here..
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Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Pete Carroll (I'm sure there are others), have won Super Bowls after leaving college teams to coach in the NFL.
 
Raoul said:
Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Pete Carroll (I'm sure there are others), have won Super Bowls after leaving college teams to coach in the NFL.
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Switzer shouldn't count. He had been out of coaching for five years and won with Jimmy's leftovers.

Carroll and Johnson went straight to the NFL. I'd wager the majority fail - it's a huge leap.
 
MrMarcello said:
Switzer shouldn't count. He had been out of coaching for five years and won with Jimmy's leftovers.

Carroll and Johnson went straight to the NFL. I'd wager the majority fail - it's a huge leap.
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Literally nearly every coach fails in this regard (ie. winning a SuperBowl) whether they are coming from college, are former NFL assistants, or any other background. JJ was a special coach with Fergie-esque mentality that he brought along with him. Agree on the bit about Switzer.
 
This is awesome - Seahawks legend motivating a 3rd string rookie who got an improbable start in the most important game of the season.

 
MrMarcello said:
I'd wager the majority fail - it's a huge leap.
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I don't think it's as huge a leap as it used to be. Some of the best college teams run 'pro-style' offenses, and some of the best NFL teams run a lot of concepts straight from college coaches.

There are many coaches that could only work in college of course. One is in the national championship game.
 
Sam Wyche - former passing game coordinator for the 49ers who won Super Bowl XVI, head coach of the Bengals (when they lost Super Bowl XXIII), the Buccaneers, and credited as the guy who brought the no-huddle offense to the mainstream of football offenses has died at 74.

I was lucky enough to know him through coaching and he was a really great guy. Spent a lot of time playing and coaching in the NFL and in college, but was one of the most humble people you’ll ever meet.
 
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Good article on Brady heading into the playoffs:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...s-to-seek-tom-bradys-fall-bakers-crucial-year

TOM BRADY'S DEMISE: Shockingly, New England has the worst QB in the playoffs
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I didn't think that I would ever see the day when Tom Brady was viewed as a liability for the New England Patriots, but the 42-year-old is the worst quarterback in the playoffs.
I know the Twitterverse will scorch me for disrespecting the G.O.A.T. after all that he has accomplished during a spectacular 20-year run that includes six Super Bowl titles, four Super Bowl MVP awards and three NFL MVPs, but there's no way that anyone can take an honest look at his 2019 performance and not reach the same conclusion.
Brady not only enters this single-elimination tournament with the second-lowest passer rating among playoff quarterbacks -- 88.0, ahead of only Josh Allen's 85.3 -- but his play over the last half of the season puts him at the bottom of the entire quarterbacking barrel. Since Week 9, TB12's completion percentage (56.9), yards per attempt (5.9) and passer rating (80.8) all rank 28th or worse (among quarterbacks who attempted at least 100 passes in this period). During that span, Brady had a lower completion percentage than Allen, a lesser yards-per-attempt figure than Duck Hodges and a worse passer rating than Mitchell Trubisky.

Wow!


If that's not enough to make you queasy, just take a look at his numbers from the 2019 season after he torched the Patriots' first three opponents (the Steelers, Dolphins and Jets) with spectacular play from the pocket (SEE: 67.9 percent completions, 303.7 pass yards per game, 8.6 yards per pass attempt, 7:0 TD-to-INT and a 116.5 passer rating). Since Week 4, Brady's completion percentage (59.4), yards per attempt (6.2) and passer rating (82.0) all rank among the bottom six in the league, and his passing yards per game (242.0) and touchdown-to-interception ratio (17:8) certainly don't stand out as elite production.
If we took the name off the back of Brady's jersey, there's no way that you would fear the Patriots' QB1 in a matchup against any of the elite quarterbacks in the tournament. Brady would be the underdog in one-on-one matchups against Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson, and you can at least make a very strong case for Jimmy Garoppolo, Ryan Tannehill, Kirk Cousins and Josh Allen (running skills give him the edge) in shootouts against TB12.

I'm not being a hater. If you make the assessment strictly on how each quarterback performed on the field this season, you can't make Brady the favorite in any of those matches. Despite his playoff greatness and legendary status, he hasn't outplayed the competition, and the numbers speak for themselves. While you can make the case that Brady hasn't been helped out by a supporting cast that's struggled with the dropsies -- New England's 34 drops rank as the second-most in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus -- the quarterback hasn't performed up to the TB12 standard and it has seriously limited the Patriots' offense.
Brady used to carve up defenses attempting to rattle him with blitzes, but now he wilts under the pressure. After posting a 52.1 percent completion rate under pressure from 2016 to '18, per Next Gen Stats, he's only completed 37.4 percent of those passes in 2019 -- the third-lowest mark in the league this season. Brady has also struggled to throw the ball to the outside. He has the lowest passer rating (67.4) among 32 qualified quarterbacks on throws to wide targets, along with a 53 percent completion rate and a 5:6 TD-to-INT ratio on these tosses. Compare those numbers to Brady's production in the past three seasons:
2018: 63.4 comp%, 11:2 TD-to-INT, 101.4 passer rating.
2017: 61.1 comp%, 10:5 TD-to-INT, 96.2 passer rating.
2016: 60.8 comp%, 9:1 TD-to-INT, 101.6 passer rating.

Studying the All-22 Coaches Film, I observe more accuracy and ball-placement issues from the veteran QB than I've ever seen before. Brady repeatedly misses open receivers down the seams or along the boundary on vertical throws, and his inconsistencies have prompted defensive coordinators to come after the 14-time Pro Bowler with reckless abandon.
"He's not the same player," a former NFL defensive coordinator who routinely faced Brady told me. "He's not as accurate and he's missing more throws than ever. Plus, he's more affected by pressure because he doesn't want to get it. The pieces around him aren't as good, either, but he definitely is not the player that made you pause before dialing up a pressure."

The Patriots have been able to win Super Bowls in a variety of ways during a remarkable two-decade run, but hoisting the Lombardi Trophy this February will require them to play around their quarterback. Despite his unparalleled resume, Brady will have to hope the squad can carry him to the title as the team's weakest link.
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No doubt he has regressed. But I also question just how much of that is fully because of Brady becoming worse or other factors.

In my view, Brady definitely is missing a step on accuracy. And he’s definitely more afraid of being hit.

But other relevant factors too are we lack a real run game, which makes it much easier to defend against us. Remember in the past we had an efficient run game, and with Gronk a downfield vertical threat. With both of those gone, teams can focus on our short passes.

That issue is exacerbated by the fact that, Brady doesn’t have a connection with these receivers. Which means he’s less confident in throwing ahead of breaks. Our current receivers also don’t entirely fit our typical passing offence.

The reality is it’s a combination of a natural decline in Brady’s play, and these other factors. Issues which I said many weeks ago are not fixable this year. But if Brady does stay another year, and we address these issues, I don’t think his deterioration is as bad as the statistics say. I think it’s just a combination of both. I think it’s a tad incorrect to say he’s the worst QB in the playoffs, more that we have the worst offence in the playoffs.
 
rpitroda said:
No doubt he has regressed. But I also question just how much of that is fully because of Brady becoming worse or other factors.

In my view, Brady definitely is missing a step on accuracy. And he’s definitely more afraid of being hit.

But other relevant factors too are we lack a real run game, which makes it much easier to defend against us. Remember in the past we had an efficient run game, and with Gronk a downfield vertical threat. With both of those gone, teams can focus on our short passes.

That issue is exacerbated by the fact that, Brady doesn’t have a connection with these receivers. Which means he’s less confident in throwing ahead of breaks. Our current receivers also don’t entirely fit our typical passing offence.

The reality is it’s a combination of a natural decline in Brady’s play, and these other factors. Issues which I said many weeks ago are not fixable this year. But if Brady does stay another year, and we address these issues, I don’t think his deterioration is as bad as the statistics say. I think it’s just a combination of both. I think it’s a tad incorrect to say he’s the worst QB in the playoffs, more that we have the worst offence in the playoffs.
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Don’t you guys have offensive line issues too?
 
Hopkins first team All-Pro over Julio is so undeserved this season. Julio has been snubbed multiple times in his career imo. The RB/Flex thing is weird as well, think CMC should be Flex and Henry as RB.

Don't know all the O-line metrics but I thought Yanda and Hudson would be chosen above Martin and Kelce this season as well.
 
And apparently there's a "winter storm" called Henry hitting Foxborough tomorrow evening :lol: Couldn't make it up.
 
Picking Bills, Titans, Saints & Seahawks to win on Wildcard Weekend.
 
Picking the Bills and Patriots today. Expect BB to come up with something, and hopeful Brady will turn it on just enough for the playoffs. If Fuller plays I think Houston might nick it but think the Bills D will be able to do just enough if they take away Hopkins.
 
Having said that the game really does depend on our D. Need to strike a balance between being able to stop Henry, and not allow big plays to AJ at the same time. On paper I really don’t like our match ups, but like I said, just hoping BB has a plan and Brady can do enough. Hoping we can also get Michel going.
 
rpitroda said:
Having said that the game really does depend on our D. Need to strike a balance between being able to stop Henry, and not allow big plays to AJ at the same time. On paper I really don’t like our match ups, but like I said, just hoping BB has a plan and Brady can do enough. Hoping we can also get Michel going.
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I think you'll be fine because Gilmore can swipe out AJ Brown and your other DBs have more than enough to nullify their passing attack. Will be a whole difference problem next week in Arrowhead though since you always need to account for Hill's speed.

No Fuller tonight is a blow, if only he could stay healthy for some time... QBs making their first playoff start since 2002 are 14-30 though, so hopefully that trend continues.
 
No way that gets overturned. Poor challenge.
 
I assume I will be in the minority here rooting for the Bills :smirk:
 
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