2013 NFL Off-Season Thread

[fouhy12]

10 minutes until the schedule release!

[dbadefense1990]

I find it amazing how much attention there is for the NFL schedule release. Hell, even earlier this week, I noticed all the attention on talk radio when the NFL announced the date of the announcement of the schedule. Announcing the announcement; that's inception right there.

I bet there are Super Bowl-type parties for this.

[Rockstar Matt]

I know it's early, but the Cowboys schedule looks like they can get at least 6+ wins in the first 10. I'm hopeful they can get at least 10 wins this season. Their schedule isn't nearly as tough as last season.

[dfwabel]

I know it's early, but the Cowboys schedule looks like they can get at least 6+ wins in the first 10. I'm hopeful they can get at least 10 wins this season. Their schedule isn't nearly as tough as last season.

Last season, DAL had back-to-back road games three times in the first 10 weeks. This season, only one time. Plus, they actually have Weeks 1 and 17 at home.

They are also a older team with depth issues who will not have their BYE week until Week 10. They have not had it that late since 2008 and average it on Week 5.

[rams80]

Oh look, the entire country can see how little St. Louisans care about division games. At least the Rams get two primetime games now. I guess "they're people."

EDIT

Dear Roger Goodell, I would be most appreciative if the Rams did not finish the season in Seattle for awhile after this season. Please oblige.

[ninersdd]

First 5 are pretty tough for the Niners: vs Packers, @ Seattle, vs Indy, @ Rams, and vs Texans. The Pack are always tough and Seattle humiliated them before Christmas last year. Indy overachieved, but still made the playoffs, and the Rams should've swept the 49ers last year. Finally, the Texans won't be a picnic by any means either.

[Island_Style]

Im happy. I had a feeling the Houston game at home would be our primetime game.

[Rockstar Matt]

I know it's early, but the Cowboys schedule looks like they can get at least 6+ wins in the first 10. I'm hopeful they can get at least 10 wins this season. Their schedule isn't nearly as tough as last season.

Last season, DAL had back-to-back road games three times in the first 10 weeks. This season, only one time. Plus, they actually have Weeks 1 and 17 at home.

They are also a older team with depth issues who will not have their BYE week until Week 10. They have not had it that late since 2008 and average it on Week 5.

We aren't that old. The only key Cowboy players above 30 are Romo, Ratliff, Witten and Ware. Our defense is pretty young.

The only thing that can stop the Cowboys from getting at least 10 wins is our shotty offense line. By having Ratliff slide over to the DT position plus having Ware and Spencer move to the defensive end position should alleviate our crappy d-line play from last year.

10 wins is a reasonable goal for this Cowboys team.

[BlueSky]

Falcons at Saints, Week One. Awesome.

[dfwabel]

I know it's early, but the Cowboys schedule looks like they can get at least 6+ wins in the first 10. I'm hopeful they can get at least 10 wins this season. Their schedule isn't nearly as tough as last season.

Last season, DAL had back-to-back road games three times in the first 10 weeks. This season, only one time. Plus, they actually have Weeks 1 and 17 at home.

They are also a older team with depth issues who will not have their BYE week until Week 10. They have not had it that late since 2008 and average it on Week 5.

We aren't that old. The only key Cowboy players above 30 are Romo, Ratliff, Witten and Ware. Our defense is pretty young.

The only thing that can stop the Cowboys from getting at least 10 wins is our shotty offense line. By having Ratliff slide over to the DT position plus having Ware and Spencer move to the defensive end position should alleviate our crappy d-line play from last year.

10 wins is a reasonable goal for this Cowboys team.

The better teams are not extending players who are age 30+, while the Cowboys extend the Whittens, Wares, and Romos to create more cap hell without being prepared for the future. Their drafts from 2008 and 2009 have not produced multiple players, and some draft picks like David Arkin have been deactivated 70% of the time.

Next week, they have six draft picks and the following needs: OG, OT, Safety (both for the Tampa-2), backup RB, 3rd WR, backup TE and DT. Unless there they are going to make up additional cap space on June 1, they cannot miss on more than one of their six picks. You must win with young, cheap labor and those guys do not hit the field under Jerry and Garrett.

[tBBP]

Tampa got two primetime games...a Thursday nighter and a Sunday nighter.

How that happen??

[TheOldRoman]

Tampa got two primetime games...a Thursday nighter and a Sunday nighter.

How that happen??

Well, everybody plays a Thursday game. There are 14 weeks of Thursday Night Football and two earlier games on Thanksgiving. 16 games, 32 teams, each team plays once. As for the Monday night game, MNF has lost all its prestige and the best match-ups end up on Sunday Nights now.

[IceCap]

Yeah, last season's Monday Night lineup was downright embarrassing.

[tBBP]

Tampa got two primetime games...a Thursday nighter and a Sunday nighter.

How that happen??

Well, everybody plays a Thursday game. There are 14 weeks of Thursday Night Football and two earlier games on Thanksgiving. 16 games, 32 teams, each team plays once. As for the Monday night game, MNF has lost all its prestige and the best match-ups end up on Sunday Nights now.

So again, my question...how that happen???

[Sport]

Not happy about the Bengals signing Harrison. I've never liked the guy. Anything he does over the next two years will be met with a shrug from this Cincinnati fan.

3 primetime games for the Bengals. Two of them a monday nighter and a sunday nighter against Pittsburgh. Now that I like.

[DG_YouKnowWhatThatMeans]

Tampa got two primetime games...a Thursday nighter and a Sunday nighter.

How that happen??

Well, everybody plays a Thursday game. There are 14 weeks of Thursday Night Football and two earlier games on Thanksgiving. 16 games, 32 teams, each team plays once. As for the Monday night game, MNF has lost all its prestige and the best match-ups end up on Sunday Nights now.

So again, my question...how that happen???

I just finished the ESPN biography "These Guys Have All the Fun," and they touch on that for a bit. I'm summarizing here, but essentially, when ESPN had the opportunity to buy football rights that season, there were two distinct packages, Sunday and Monday. They assumed they were getting both, so took their time putting an offer together. At the same time, ESPN was determining what crew it wanted for primetime football -- either the old MNF crew (including director, etc.), or a group of guys more loyal to ESPN. (This was around the same time as the ESPN takeover of ABC Sports, and there were plenty of hurt feelings on both sides.)

Anyway, NBC swooped in and picked up the former MNF crew and won rights from NFL. ESPN was left with the MNF package and Al Michaels, but traded Michaels away for rights to some old cartoon character (seriously). The NFL saw that its premium crew was on NBC, and scheduled games accordingly. ESPN was left dicking around with Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser, Joe Theismann and the celebrity flavor of the month. They wanted to go in an entertainment direction, the NFL wanted to remain in a football direction, and now we have what we have. The transition to SNF being the big game was pretty immediate.

"These Guys Have All the Fun" isn't the best book I've ever read, but worth checking out to get a retrospective of how and where ESPN came from. Plus you can read just how into herself Erin Andrews is (spoiler: a lot).

[BlueSky]

For those who didn't hear it, there was a Sirius NFL Radio interview recently with the NFL's schedule guru. He explained how the schedule is created. They have to consider a lot of variables including stadiums that are unavailable on certain dates (*cough* Baltimore), network requests & balance (nobody wants to be stuck with a majority of crappy games), team requests (not sure what that means), and so on. He said when all is said and done they end up with about 18,000 "rules" or parameters that are considered.

The computer first spits out over 100,000 playable schedules.

That's whittled down to over 10,000 possibles and finally something like 100 finalists before the actual schedule is chosen. He emphaszed that they have nothing to do with who plays who or even where - that's all prearranged. All they so is set the dates and times. The first step is to populate (his word) the prime time games and they go on from there.

Not sure if it's available anywhere online but it was a pretty interesting discussion.

[Island_Style]

team requests (not sure what that means),

The Jags got their team request granted for this schedule. They wanted to play @Oakland and @ Seattle back to back. They want to stay and practice on the west coast for the week. Saves on travel spending and jet lag.

[theSLVRBCK]

I'm not in love with the schedule for the Jags ... but then again, I don't see them winning more than 4 games to begin with.

4 road games in the first 6 weeks (2 in cali, 1 in denver) is a pretty gnarly start for a team that has not historically gone west and done much of anything in a positive way. Then we get to come home before crossing the pond to get manhandled by San Fran. They also get to play Houston twice in 11 days.

Best case scenario, I see 6 wins if Gabbert turns out to be more than what he has shown so far and MJD is back to his old self.

[chuckymack]

Revis to Bucs for several draft picks is a done deal, according to my ESPN app. Revis and the Bucs have also agreed to contract extension parameters.