2023 NFL Regular Season Through Super Bowl LVIII

[DustDevil61]

4 hours ago, BottomlessPitt said:

Tepper is another one of these hedge fund goofs. He's from Pittsburgh too (ashamed). Owned a tiny minority in the Steelers. His bid to buy the Panthers was hastenly pushed through over another group who actually had ties to the Carolinas. He's going kill football & soccer in Charlotte. 

You mean he hasn’t already?

[Lights Out]

13 hours ago, the admiral said:

Yeah, just watched him throw his drink on a fan.

 

The ultimate legacy of the Spanos family is that, no matter how many new and creative ways this Tepper clown finds to embarrass himself, he'll still only be the second-worst owner in the NFL.

[BBTV]

As absurd as it sounded 11 months ago (or even 2 months ago), the snowball is rolling down the mountain and I think that there's a possibility - not a probability, but a greater-than-zero-percent chance that Nick Sirianni is fired, which to my knowledge would be unprecedented for a team that's locked up a playoff spot.  

 

The way they work, they'll probably give him two options - come up with a plan to replace the coordinators ASAP or get lost.  If they don't like his plan (which would need to come from within since obviously can't install new terms in week 18) or if he pushes back, they'll fire him.  That's basically what happened with Doug Pederson, who stood up to them and said "no, if I'm coaching here then I'm picking my assistants."

 

Even if he survives the season, they're going to put him in that position immediately afterwards, and likely come to him with their hand-picked coordinators from outside the org.  He'll have the choice to be a puppet or leave - and I think he's killed his chances at another job anytime soon, especially since he can't even be hired as an OC because of how poorly that went when he tried to call plays here.

 

The Eagles aren't the first team that's collapsed during a season with high expectations.  We see it in baseball all the time with the Mets folding towards the end.  But this is different, and I think Howie and Jeff Lurie will do whatever it takes to try and salvage the season, even if that means taking unprecedented (to my knowledge) action.

 

Pure speculation on my part.

 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

14 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

The way they work, they'll probably give him two options - come up with a plan to replace the coordinators ASAP or get lost.  If they don't like his plan (which would need to come from within since obviously can't install new terms in week 18) or if he pushes back, they'll fire him.  That's basically what happened with Doug Pederson, who stood up to them and said "no, if I'm coaching here then I'm picking my assistants."

 

I've been down on McDermott all season, but firing OC Ken Dorsey has turned around the Bills' season. That or it's a fortunate coincidence.

 

I'd still prefer Harbaugh though.

[BBTV]

9 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

I've been down on McDermott all season, but firing OC Ken Dorsey has turned around the Bills' season. That or it's a fortunate coincidence.

 

I'd still prefer Harbaugh though.

 

If McDermott gets the boot, I wouldn't mind bringing him back here, whether as HC or DC.  He got a raw deal his first go around, being put in the unenviable position of replacing Jim Johnson (who died), when he simply wasn't ready.  (irrelevant to this discussion, but then-bone-headed Andy Reid replaced him with their offensive line coach.  That's right, offensive-line coach promoted to defensive coordinator.  It went as well as you'd expect it to.)

[The_Admiral]

I don't think they'll give up on Sirianni immediately but I can see a good chunk of his staff getting flushed. Non-zero chance, as you said.

 

Not sure whether the Bears are dumb enough to bring back Matt Eberflus after two of his coaches got fired for HR violations and the team started the season looking like they'd go on to be a historically bad team. But it seems like Justin Fields was able to pad his stats in enough meaningless games on a last-place schedule that they're going to keep everyone together.

[BBTV]

3 hours ago, the admiral said:

I don't think they'll give up on Sirianni immediately but I can see a good chunk of his staff getting flushed. Non-zero chance, as you said.

 

Do any other front offices have as much influence over the coaching staff as opposed to allowing the HC to handle it?  I always felt like the GM was mostly roster and cap, and the HC was on-field stuff.  Here, Howie actually decides the game-day 53 after the coaches tell him the gameplan and he checks the contracts to see if there's any implications for some 4th-stringer dressing or not.

 

Hell, back in 2016, they hired Jim Schwartz to be the DC well before hiring Doug Pederson as HC.  The prevailing thought was that Doug was "safe" to them and would do as he's told.  Then he won a championship, turned out to actually be a good coach, and they couldn't control him so they publicly embarrassed him then fired him.  When Sirianni was hired, again - the perception was that he was going to be a puppet, and would be happy about it since he wasn't on anyone else's radar and didn't even have any interviews.  I guaran-damn-tee that Howie and Lurie already have a list of assistants that has been vetted and ready to present to Sirianni the day after they lose their WC game.  

 

It'll be one of those "here's a list, the final decision is yours, as long as it's this guy, and I'm also going to have sex with your wife.  You can watch as long as scream "It's HOWIE SEASON!  Get her, cap master! Get her!"

[The_Admiral]

1 hour ago, BBTV said:

Do any other front offices have as much influence over the coaching staff as opposed to allowing the HC to handle it?

I remember the Bears went over Matt Nagy's head to retain Vic Fangio. Three big winners in that sentence. 

 

Outside of the NFL, the Blackhawks always did this to Joel Quenneville, where the assistants were hired from above and didn't really report to him. This included the video nonce.

[GDAWG]

On 1/1/2024 at 5:32 PM, BBTV said:

 

Do any other front offices have as much influence over the coaching staff as opposed to allowing the HC to handle it?  I always felt like the GM was mostly roster and cap, and the HC was on-field stuff.  Here, Howie actually decides the game-day 53 after the coaches tell him the gameplan and he checks the contracts to see if there's any implications for some 4th-stringer dressing or not.

 

Hell, back in 2016, they hired Jim Schwartz to be the DC well before hiring Doug Pederson as HC.  The prevailing thought was that Doug was "safe" to them and would do as he's told.  Then he won a championship, turned out to actually be a good coach, and they couldn't control him so they publicly embarrassed him then fired him.  When Sirianni was hired, again - the perception was that he was going to be a puppet, and would be happy about it since he wasn't on anyone else's radar and didn't even have any interviews.  I guaran-damn-tee that Howie and Lurie already have a list of assistants that has been vetted and ready to present to Sirianni the day after they lose their WC game.  

 

It'll be one of those "here's a list, the final decision is yours, as long as it's this guy, and I'm also going to have sex with your wife.  You can watch as long as scream "It's HOWIE SEASON!  Get her, cap master! Get her!"

 

Cowboys back in the 1990's.  Barry Switzer (who's lasting memory for me is screaming like a maniac when he held the Lombardi Trophy) was forced to keep most of Jimmy Johnson's staff, or at least the staff that didn't leave with Norv Turner and Dave Wannstedt.

 

 

 

[Red Comet]

Welcome to Week 18, which is an absolute abomination that shouldn’t exist. All credit for maps go to 506Sports.com. Go support them. 

 

 

CBS 1:00 PM EST/12:00 PM CST

 

Red: Jaguars at Titans

Blue: Falcons at Saints

Green: Browns at Bengals

 

 

CBS 4:00 PM EST/3:00 PM CST

 

Red: Bears at Packers

Blue: Eagles at Giants

Green: Chiefs at Chargers

 

FOX 1:00 PM EST/12:00 PM CST

 

Red: Vikings at Lions

Blue: Buccaneers at Panthers

Green: Jets at Patriots

 

 

FOX 4:00 PM EST/3:00 PM CST

 

Red: Cowboys at Commanders

Blue: Rams at 49ers

Green: Seahawks at Cardinals

Yellow: Broncos at Raiders

Edited January 6 by Red Comet

[BBTV]

LOL @ Carson Wentz getting a start this weekend.  He'll do just enough to convince some team to give him a chance next year.

 

My money is on the Vikings.  Might as well Photoshop the Ginger Jesus into purple now.

[SFGiants58]

Just now, BBTV said:

LOL @ Carson Wentz getting a start this weekend.  He'll do just enough to convince some team to give him a chance next year.

 

My money is on the Vikings.  Might as well Photoshop the Ginger Jesus into purple now.

The Niners seem to be resting anybody worthwhile for next week (“scheduled loss” in football terms), so it wouldn’t surprise me for Wentz to have a passable garbage time game.

[BBTV]

4 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

so it wouldn’t surprise me for Wentz to have a passable garbage time game.

 

Nor would it me, which is why I thin the Vikings would be like "we got our guy!"

[Fowler2]

29 minutes ago, SFGiants58 said:

The Niners seem to be resting anybody worthwhile for next week (“scheduled loss” in football terms), so it wouldn’t surprise me for Wentz to have a passable garbage time game.

 

They need it. They're always banged up around playoff time. Pretty much a double bye with this week and next week. 

[Fowler2]

16 minutes ago, BBTV said:

 

Nor would it me, which is why I thin the Vikings would be like "we got our guy!"

 

At least he would be closer to North Dakota

[ruttep]

Darnold vs Wentz. And Darnold doesn't get to rely on CMC, since he's out as well. Neither team cares, since both are locked into their playoff position. Starters will probably be pulled at some point regardless of score.

 

This will either be the greatest game of all time or the worst game of all time. I can't wait.

[TrueYankee26]

Dalvin Cook to Baltimore

[DG_ThenNowForever]

56 minutes ago, TrueYankee26 said:

Dalvin Cook to Baltimore

 

Nice and easy ring. Good for him!

[BBTV]

AJ Brown spoke to the media for the first time in a month, and said that people shouldn't be all over the coaches for the final play against Seattle that resulted in an interception (even though Sirianni embarrassed himself by saying "we... uh... were just trying to get a PI penalty... yeah, that's the ticket") because the players themselves had no confidence in whatever idiotic play call Brian Johnson phoned in so they said F-it and made up their own.

 

Not in those exact words, but that was the gist of it.  Thanked Sirianni for taking the bullet even though it made him look like an idiot, but did say that they heard the play and were like "nah dawg, we ain't doin' that".

 

Fire BJ right now.  I don't even care who calls plays.  This has gone beyond being a joke.  When the players themselves are laughing at the play calls and changing them in the huddle - not even an audible at the line - that's it.  It's over.

 

Defensive players also said that switching play callers mid season has messed them up, and they know it was bad before, but changing mid way has made it worse.

 

This team is a complete clown show.  There's teams that are 5-11 in better shape than these idiots.

[BBTV]

As worthless as the Pro Bowl is, usually players are excited because at the very least, they get bonuses or something.  These guys are so checked out that they don't even give a single F.  Not sure I've ever seen complete apathy like this.