2009-10 NFL off season thread

[quantum]

As I've said before, IMO McNabb lacks the emotion that a winning QB would and should have. I agree with BBTV's assessment. And if fans can see it, I'm sure plenty of league insiders see it too, which is why even struggling teams are showing tepid interest at best. I don't see McNabb as enough of a game-changer, especially at the price, to make a deal for him. Changing team chemistry is what the Eagles need. Unless the Eagles become more reasonable with trade demands, McNabb is going nowhere.

[DDR]

Fantasy Owner Alert!

Do not draft Reggie Wayne, Pierre Garcon, Austin Collie or Anthony Gonzalez. The Colts have just hired Ron "Playbook Poison" Turner as WR Coach.

[BBTV]

As I've said before, IMO McNabb lacks the emotion that a winning QB would and should have. I agree with BBTV's assessment. And if fans can see it, I'm sure plenty of league insiders see it too, which is why even struggling teams are showing tepid interest at best. I don't see McNabb as enough of a game-changer, especially at the price, to make a deal for him. Changing team chemistry is what the Eagles need. Unless the Eagles become more reasonable with trade demands, McNabb is going nowhere.

Yes - everyone sees it... except for the media. He's very personable and accommodating to the national media (not the local). In fact, the same goes for Andy Reid. I think they're given direction to bend over backwards for the national guys, and give the middle finger to the local guys. That's why ESPN, FOX, etc. always give these guys the benefit of the doubt, and rarely (if ever) do they criticize McNabb or Reid. I think this is part of the reason why the average non-local fan has such a different view of these guys, since the national coverage is all they see.

[The_Admiral]

That's actually a really savvy strategy for Philadelphia sports. You'll never appease Eskin or the mutants, so why try? Just bend over backwards for ESPN and you can coast for years. Guess I never thought about it that way.

[BBTV]

Actually, Eskin is the Eagles' front office's biggest cheerleader. It's only been recent that he's been of the opinion that McNabb should go, but he doesn't think it's going to happen.

[dfwabel]

The NFL will permanently reposition umpires to the offensive backfield beginning with the upcoming 2010 season, in a move designed to protect its most vulnerable on-field officials, the league confirmed Sunday at the annual owners meetings.

Outgoing vice president of officiating Mike Pereira and his successor, Carl Johnson, revealed the plans Sunday in an interview. A league official added that the competition committee unanimously recommended the move last week but it had not been yet publicly announced.

Ompires to be repositioned

[HedleyLamarr]

Hmm....this could be a lot bigger move than most folks think. For one, now that the umpire's viewpoint will 180-degrees from where they were before. This could either greatly increase or decrease the number of holding calls made.

[NJTank]

You know I think they may be able to spot more holding calls from behind the QB, and the move also gets them out of the way of pass patterns. I think it is a good move by the NFL.

[TFoA]

Well, the OT format has been changed for the playoffs:

-If the team that wins the coin toss accepts the ball & scores a FG, the other team will have a chance to either match it or score a TD to win the game.

-If the team that wins the coin toss accepts the ball & scores a TD, game over.

They're gonna work on the OT format for the regular season in May.

[rams80]

Well, the OT format has been changed for the playoffs:

-If the team that wins the coin toss accepts the ball & scores a FG, the other team will have a chance to either match it or score a TD to win the game.

-If the team that wins the coin toss accepts the ball & scores a TD, game over.

They're gonna work on the OT format for the regular season in May.

Refs will this up once this season.

[Eye]

Well, the OT format has been changed for the playoffs:

-If the team that wins the coin toss accepts the ball & scores a FG, the other team will have a chance to either match it or score a TD to win the game.

-If the team that wins the coin toss accepts the ball & scores a TD, game over.

They're gonna work on the OT format for the regular season in May.

Now would the bolded portion only apply on the first possession?

The overtime rules were fine before; there was no need for a change.

[OnWis97]

I guess the conspiracy theorists were right...it happened to Favre, so they changed it. Most people here like it as is, so I suspect most fans feel the same. But I really don't know [sarcasm]This is a product of the wussification of America. Life's not fair. Some are born poor, some rich. Some teams win coin flips, others lose them. Deal with it. Don't make it "fair". That's derivative of communism. [end sarcasm]

I don't like it the way it is, but I am a wussy health-care for all person who is just one step away from declaring both teams winners. I recognize that football is at a disadvantage vs. baseball and basketball...it's just not as easy to come up with a great overtime, since playing a full quarter is quite long in such a violent sport.

I know defense needs to stop offense and you always have the right to open OT with an onside kick, but I like a move toward fairness. In and of itself, this rule is better than the current rule.

But the rule needs to be the same for regular season as the playoffs. I'd rather they leave it as is for now and come up with something well-thought out for next year. In a league with a 16 game regular season, one loss can mean out of the playoffs, so they should not deem the regular season as "not important enough." Change it all or leave it all alone.

[The_Admiral]

I really don't like that the rules change for the playoffs. Yes, most of us love how hockey overtime expands to extra sudden death periods as opposed to 4-on-4 for 5 then a shootout, but that's okay because the principle of sudden death stays the same, and with tight 82-game seasons it's, if not impossible, certainly not ideal to run guys into the ground like that for six months. This is acknowledging that the system is broken and then choosing not to fix it most of the time. Even this system is flawed: it feels like a total cop-out when a team kicks the field goal on one possession, but touchback/chuck it/touchdown cheats the opponents out of a possession just as much as a field goal drive does, even if it's flashier. Both teams need to touch the ball.

[Don]

I really don't like that the rules change for the playoffs. Yes, most of us love how hockey overtime expands to extra sudden death periods as opposed to 4-on-4 for 5 then a shootout, but that's okay because the principle of sudden death stays the same, and with tight 82-game seasons it's, if not impossible, certainly not ideal to run guys into the ground like that for six months. This is acknowledging that the system is broken and then choosing not to fix it most of the time. Even this system is flawed: it feels like a total cop-out when a team kicks the field goal on one possession, but touchback/chuck it/touchdown cheats the opponents out of a possession just as much as a field goal drive does, even if it's flashier. Both teams need to touch the ball.

Solution to that: play defense.

[BBTV]

With the rule changes that they seem to make every year, defenses are constantly being put at more of a disadvantage, so "just play defense" is just an easy "tough guy" way to avoid actually addressing the issue. All it takes is a long bomb and a PI and you win the game. I agree that even if a touchdown, both teams need a possession. In fact, I'd say that both teams need to receive a kickoff. Whoever wins the toss could drive maybe to the opponent's 40, out of field goal range (since field goal range would shrink a bit in this scenario) and could just punt and play field-position - an option that the kicking team never had. If the point of this is to give each team an equal shot, then shouldn't it really be equal in all cases, and not just when one team scores a FG?

[jc...]

They should have just moved the kickoff to the 35. Thats when this supposed "problem" started when they moved the kickoff to the 30. I hate silly gimmicks and I thought the system was fine. Now its turned into a "youth soccer lets go over to moms minivan and eat oranges and drink juice boxes after and make it fair for everyone league"

[TFoA]

Refs will this up once this season.

Not before McNabb does.

Well, the OT format has been changed for the playoffs:

-If the team that wins the coin toss accepts the ball & scores a FG, the other team will have a chance to either match it or score a TD to win the game.

-If the team that wins the coin toss accepts the ball & scores a TD, game over.

They're gonna work on the OT format for the regular season in May.

Now would the bolded portion only apply on the first possession?

If I'm understanding it right, yes. Basically, if the coin toss winners score a FG or fail to score, the other team gets the ball & sudden death 'begins.'

All I have to say is, I cannot wait for the complaints that are sure to happen when a team ends up losing because they lose the coin toss & the coin toss winners take the kickoff return to the house. I guess I'll wait until they unveil the OT changes for the regular season to give an opinion, but for now I'm not too impressed.

[The_Admiral]

but touchback/chuck it/touchdown cheats the opponents out of a possession just as much as a field goal drive does, even if it's flashier. Both teams need to touch the ball.

Solution to that: play defense.

Not sure how many more times it has to be said that the league is being steered toward a passing game by rule changes and very liberal interpretations of pass interference, but keep on saying that it's totally fair for half a team to never take the field in overtime.

[BlueSky]

On Sirius they quoted the owners as saying "the stats" really convinced them to change the OT rules. What stats? That 60% of the time the coin-toss winner wins the game? That sounds convincing, doesn't it, that a change is needed? But it turns out that the coin-toss winner only wins on the first possession 35% of the time. How is that unfair and why would it need to be changed?

Nobody wanted a change after the Cardinals beat the Packers. Nobody wanted a change after the famous Seahawks-Packers "We want the ball and we're gonna score" game, or after The Great Brett Favre threw the Giants a pick a couple of years ago or after any other heartbreaking OT loss in the history of the NFL. But let St. Brett sit on the sideline one time while the other team wins and suddenly the NFL is running around bleating like a bunch of old women whose bridge game has been canceled.

You also have to wonder what happens if the teams trade field goals and then the defenses settle in and four quarters later it's still tied when it would have been over under the old rules. Unlikely, but it could happen.

This is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to one game that pissed off the powers that be who wanted a Favre-Manning Super Bowl. My dream scenario is for the Saints and Vikes to meet again in the playoffs this season, go to OT, and for the Saints to win again. I will L...M...A...O.

[BBTV]

Andy Reid has acknowledged for the first time ever that they're "listening" to offers for all of their QBs, including McNabb. The common response may be "well, duh", but this is a big deal for the fatass to actually admit it, since the two are essentially joined at the hip.

Word on the street is that the Eagles are lowering their asking price for McNabb to a second rounder plus additional, as opposed to a first plus.