Topic: Official NFL Discussion: If You Only Count The Legal Points, KC Wins

[NWR_insanolord]

Huge blockbuster trade tonight. The Rams acquire Matthew Stafford from the Lions in exchange for two future 1sts, a 3rd, and Jared Goff. The Rams have been mortgaging their future to win now for the last few years, and now they're doubling down on that strategy. The last time the Rams had a first round pick was 2016 (which was Goff, who's now gone), and now they won't have one until at least 2023.

Also, if Stafford is worth that much, how much can Houston get for DeShaun Watson, who's younger and better and under contract for longer?

[nickmitch]

Gonna be really interesting to see what happens with Watson.  Was Houston already shopping him around?  I'm wondering if Stafford was the best trade available right at that moment, or if the Rams just wanted him more, or if Houston's asking price is that much higher.

[NWR_insanolord]

Detroit had committed to trading Stafford already while Houston's still acting like they might not trade Watson. I don't know if the Rams had enough ammo to get Watson anyway, especially if it turns into a bidding war. We've never really seen anything like this before, so it's hard to tell how it will go.

[Ian Sane]

My brother and I have gotten into the habit of referring to Goff as "Jared Goof".  The guy got badly exposed in the Superbowl a few years back.  The Patriots realized that Goff was relying entirely on Sean McVay's playcalling so they would hold off on setting their defensive formation until after the headsets were turned off.  Unlike good quarterbacks, Goff couldn't react on the fly to the defense and the offense went nowhere.  Oddly enough Goff's huge contract came AFTER he was exposed as a fraud and the Rams organization would logically have known he was a fraud the entire time.  Never made any sense to me.

Goff is a quarterback that succeeds because of the organization around him while Stafford has probably succeeded despite it.  So in theory the trade makes sense for LA.  There is a lot of risk involved of course.  But if they win a Superbowl I doubt Rams fans will care if they have no first round draft pick for several years.  I suppose in theory if this all fails and they need the picks back they could probably get them by trading Aaron Donald or flipping Stafford again since there is always someone desperate for a quarterback.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Nothing on 7 time Superbowl champ.
First time home team on home field in Superbowl.
Blowout of the Chief's, bouncing balls off receivers facemask in the end zone, Superbowl LV that aired tonight?

.... Ok
How about that halftime show though?
He spent an extra $7M of his own money on that....

No, no one cares about that either... Ok.

[Ian Sane]

At half time my entire family was cursing out the refs for some iffy calls on the Chiefs, but they had the second half to come back and couldn't seem to do anything right.  Their first drive in the second half looked promising and then both Hill and Kelce slipped on downs that looked like easy receptions, despite it not having raining and no one else slipping and sliding everywhere.  It was just that kind of game.  Ever have a situation where you rave about this restaurant you've been to and when you finally get friends of yours to go there with you it's the one time the food gets burnt and the waiters mess up your order and your friends and all like "what's the big deal with this place?"  That was the Chiefs last night.  I tell my parents they're the most impressive offense ever and then they completely **** the bed in the one game my parents watch.

I don't care for Tom Brady but my brother made a good point that one thing you have to give Brady credit for is that he does not squander opportunities.  If you slip on a banana peel he will finish you off, and I've seen hundreds of games where one team was just begging the other to defeat them and they didn't do it.  The guy always shows up ready to play and takes advantage of whatever opening there is.

[nickmitch]

That game was hard to watch at times.  Some pretty bad missed calls at the beginning, and no offensive line for Mahomes all night.  The play of Mahomes throwing the ball while horizontal only to hit his receiver in the facemask is a pretty good summary for the night.  He played the best football he possibly could, but it was clearly not enough.

KC couldn't do too much on defense either, but that TB12 pick getting called back didn't help.

[BlackNMild2k1]

The face mask bounce has to become a meme that goes viral.

and can't forget "he can't keep getting away with it".jpg for Brady.

[Ian Sane]

The play of Mahomes throwing the ball while horizontal only to hit his receiver in the facemask is a pretty good summary for the night.  He played the best football he possibly could, but it was clearly not enough.

Last night was a textbook example of a superstar player being let down by his teammates.  While the calls were ticky-tacky, Mahomes was on the sideline while his defense gave up two touchdowns almost entirely on penalties (including lining up offside on a field goal, what the hell?).  His offensive line couldn't block **** and then he would escape and throw some miracle pass only for his receiver to drop it.  It really shows his composure that he didn't throw his teammates under the bus in post-game interviews or have a Philip Rivers-style freak out on the field.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Mahomes is confident that they gonna be back again.
Brady's clock only has so many ticks left.

speaking of which, did Brady sign a multi-year?
Is he gonna try for 1 more next season? or is he gonna retire on top?

[nickmitch]

It was a two-year deal.  He could go out on top, but I guess only time will tell.  I don't think he wants to retire though.

[nickmitch]

The play of Mahomes throwing the ball while horizontal only to hit his receiver in the facemask is a pretty good summary for the night.  He played the best football he possibly could, but it was clearly not enough.

Last night was a textbook example of a superstar player being let down by his teammates.  While the calls were ticky-tacky, Mahomes was on the sideline while his defense gave up two touchdowns almost entirely on penalties (including lining up offside on a field goal, what the hell?).  His offensive line couldn't block **** and then he would escape and throw some miracle pass only for his receiver to drop it.  It really shows his composure that he didn't throw his teammates under the bus in post-game interviews or have a Philip Rivers-style freak out on the field.

Some of those penalties were bad calls from the refs, but the stupid mistakes (especially that FG offsides) were downright embarrassing.  He had every right to go after his teammates, but I think he recognizes that not every QB gets to call out his teammates in front of the press like that.

[NWR_insanolord]

Most of the penalties were legit, but the problem is Kansas City was playing that way all season and they chose this moment to start calling them on it. If officiating had been consistent over the course of the season the Chiefs either would have cut that out or not been in the Super Bowl.

[nickmitch]

So, uh, Jon Gruden lost his job today . . .

[Ian Sane]

So Russell Wilson got traded.  Broncos are giving the Seahawks Drew Lock, Noah Fant, Shelby Harris, 2 first round picks and 2 second round picks.  They also get a fifth round pick but give Denver a fourth rounder so that's kind of evening it out.

I am not currently in a good mood.  Yeah, Seattle missed the playoffs last year but it was only the second non-consecutive season that they missed the playoffs since Russell arrived and he was hurt for a lot of last year.  That doesn't indicate a need for a rebuild to me.  But Russell has been making passive-aggressive remarks about moving to a different team for years so I assume he asked for the trade.  His phony politician-nice-guy personality is going to be a lot harder to tolerate when he's on another team.

I think that's a pretty good haul for the guy but draft picks are no sure thing and while the Seahawks nailed their drafts when they built the Superbowl team, they've been pretty lousy at it since.  So while lots of draft picks CAN turn out great if you blow them you gave up your franchise QB for pretty much nothing.  And I am not in the mood to go into QB limbo.  Some teams are stuck like that for decades and you cannot accomplish much without that position figured out.  Traditionally teams would blow up everything else and keep the star quarterback because they knew it would be extremely difficult to find another one.

There were rumours about Pete Carroll and Wilson not getting along.  If it became a "him or me" scenario they backed the wrong horse.  Carroll has been great and he'll be a hero in the Pacific Northwest forever but he's 70.  As much as he would hate to admit it he's on borrowed time and will almost certainly be retired before Russell is.  So in that scenario I think you need to pick the player.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to read up on this year's draft as this suddenly is important to me.

[Stratos]

I read he had issues with the team not just the coach. Like he had trouble "trusting" the team. I imagine it was make a good trade for him or lose him on worse terms.

[Ian Sane]

So last night was kind of my Superbowl.  With the Seahawks clearly in a rebuild mode I was fearing the worst and figured we would be "contending" for the number one pick.

And we probably still are but with the win last night the worst case scenarios have been averted!

1. We beat Russell Wilson in his first game as a Bronco, thus shutting up any talk about Wilson showing up his former team.  He didn't get to rub our face in it and we got a little bit of revenge for him wanting out.  This was the one Seahawks game that the general NFL viewer was interested in all season and we won!

2. Having had the first win of the season already under our belts, we can't go 0-17.  That's the ultimate fear when a team doesn't look like in can contend - the winless season.  Can't do it now.  Nice to have that off our back so soon rather than when you're 0-8 and thinking "will we win a game this year?"

Now the margin of victory was literally 1 point and frankly it took some extremely convenient goal line fumbles and some ridiculously incompetent decisions from the new Denver coach but a win is a win.  I don't think we're making the playoffs but they gave me good moment at the start of the season.

[nickmitch]

I missed the game last night, but the comments on it confused me. Did the Broncos really have all their timeouts on that final drive? Did they really run the clock down to 20 seconds at the end? What was the point of that? If you miss, the other team will kneel. Why not put your $200M QB to work on getting your kicker a better chance at winning the game?

I understand being new at your job, but that seemed more like incompetence than inexperience.