2013 NFL Off-Season Thread

[Kramerica Industries]

Godspeed, stone hands.

[NEW.ERA]

Teebs is done playing football.

[NJTank]

Tim Tebow 2014 Grey Cup MVP

[Gothamite]

He should be so lucky. I'm expecting the Arena League.

But we'll see what he does now that he won't have a professional team watching out for his image.

[TheOldRoman]

Yes, Goth, we get it. You have a Glen-Close-in-Fatal-Attraction-type obessesion with Tebow. No, the CFL isn't beneath him. As Admiral said previously, if Henry Burris is considered an all-time great in the CFL, Tebow would destroy that league, even with his many shortcomings.

[NEW.ERA]

Tim Tebow 2014 Grey Cup MVP

If he couldn't cut it in the NFL with no arm strength. He has no chance in hell of being successful up here. A league that depends on a 4500-5000 yard QB.

I'm with Gothamite, Arena League if he's lucky. Maybe ESPN could use another unneeded mouth for NFL coverage?

[CS85]

I'm pretty sure some team will pay him minimum dollar to be a 3rd stringer, his sole purpose to sell jerseys.

[DG_YouKnowWhatThatMeans]

I'm pretty sure some team will pay him minimum dollar to be a 3rd stringer, his sole purpose to sell jerseys.

Right. I wonder what the break-even point is between signing Tebow jerseys and wholesale shipments of 15 jerseys to megachurches. There must be a good economic option for a team that needs the money (Buffalo, I'm looking at you).

[CS85]

I'm pretty sure some team will pay him minimum dollar to be a 3rd stringer, his sole purpose to sell jerseys.

Right. I wonder what the break-even point is between signing Tebow jerseys and wholesale shipments of 15 jerseys to megachurches. There must be a good economic option for a team that needs the money (Buffalo, I'm looking at you).

Well the jersey sales thing doesn't matter (re: revenue sharing) but it opens the doors for increased ticket sales and would let the team say "Our uniforms are among the top 5 in the NFL," etc.

[OnWis97]

I'd say he's done. And I kinda feel bad for him. Was the Tebow hype overdone? Sure. But I never viewed it as his doing. He sort of capture America by storm at Florida for a few reasons and it never stopped following him. I don't think he really wanted it or tried to make it happen.

And now the Jets seemingly waste an entire year of his life. And nobody else will take him because they don't want the "circus". Sports media has spent so much effort on this guy that they killed their own story and they did it at his expense.

When last we say Tebow. I mean really saw him, he was QBing wins in Denver. His bad luck that Manning fell to them. But it is my opinion that he'd get a shot to be somebody's #2, but that no team will do it because of the circus. And that's quite unfair.

Tebow and I would probably not be to tight on politics, but I think he's a hard-working, dedicated guy who just wants a shot (and then to win). I'd really like to see him on somebody's depth chart. I'd like to think that he could settle into even a 3rd-string role on a less-followed team and maybe the hype would go away. I am not smart enough to know whether he has a shot to succeed, but remember Joe Webb starting the playoff game for the Vikes last year? Tebow cannot be worse than that. That hype served him very poorly and it's quite unfair.

[Lights Out]

I'd say he's done. And I kinda feel bad for him. Was the Tebow hype overdone? Sure. But I never viewed it as his doing.

He shoulders a lot of the responsibility. He has always been a publicity whore, whether it was his crying meltdown on camera, his obnoxious Super Bowl ad with his mother, or his innate ability to seek out the nearest camera to pray in front of.

[pmoehrin]

I don't know if he's done in the sense that he won't be an NFL player.

I do think that he's done in the sense that he will be an NFL QB though and while he may or may not be willing to accept that fact, it pretty much is a fact at this point.

This is where I actually think his celebrity hurts him some, because if he wasn't such a big name he probably could quietly sign on with somebody as a backup ala a Byron Leftwich, a Joey Harrington, a Chad Pennington and potentially get a second chance to start down the road. But nobody is taking on that kind of baggage for a backup. You sign Tebow he has to start, otherwise you don't sign him and there isn't a single team in the NFL that looks at Tim Tebow and thinks of him as an upgrade over their current starter. If there was he would have been traded instead of released.

He may go to the CFL, but I wouldn't even take it as a given that he could start there. I would like to think any halfway decent starting QB in the CFL could be an NFL backup. And I would think much the same would apply. Is there a CFL team out there that looks at Tim Tebow and thinks of him as an upgrade over their current starter? if not, he probably doesn't get signed there either.

But if he said he was willing to come into a camp as a tight end or a fullback, he probably would get some calls. Hell Denver I think would be one of those teams interested in him again if he were willing to move to either tight end or fullback.

I think your going to find out how much he really loves the game. Is he willing to accept playing a position where he is not going to ever be a star? And he also has other options as well beyond football which I don't think anyone would blame him for pursuing over being essentially another grunt which is exactly what he would be if he became a fullback or tight end. Tough call. May not be worth it.

It is going to be fun reading the reaction from all the bible thumpers out there who think its a league wide conspiracy that Tebow isn't playing because of his christian values.

[Gothamite]

Yes, Goth, we get it. You have a Glen-Close-in-Fatal-Attraction-type obessesion with Tebow. No, the CFL isn't beneath him. As Admiral said previously, if Henry Burris is considered an all-time great in the CFL, Tebow would destroy that league, even with his many shortcomings.

I don't know why you're making this about me; the Montreal GM - who owns his rights up there - said that he'd have to compete to be a backup.

So yes, I think the CFL is a stretch for him.

[TheOldRoman]

Well, Montreal does have the best QB in the league (as is my understanding from Marc Trestman's backstory). I guess we would see if it came to it. But Henry Burris is one of the worst QBs I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot with the Bears from 1996-2004 or so. I assumed he would one day figure out that he was actually left handed, and that guy was a star in the CFL. I know the style of play is different than in college football, but I don't know if the actual talent level is superior to the SEC. Anyway, I guess we would see if it comes to that.

[CS85]

[Cosmic]

This has to be one of the worst times of year for a QB to be released, right? Any team that needed a QB already fixed that either through free agency or through the draft. I feel bad for Tebow in that respect, at least.

[dfwabel]

I'd say he's done. And I kinda feel bad for him. Was the Tebow hype overdone? Sure. But I never viewed it as his doing.

He shoulders a lot of the responsibility. He has always been a publicity whore, whether it was his crying meltdown on camera, his obnoxious Super Bowl ad with his mother, or his innate ability to seek out the nearest camera to pray in front of.

Regardless of his faith and how that equated into his NFL popularity, we have no idea what went on during NYJ practices. Plus, remember that Super Bowl ad was before he was drafted and there would be a line of athletes who would have slightly lessened part of their (or their parent's) moral fiber to receive the money for such ad. And the Jets hired Tony Sparano in January 2012 to be the OC then trade for Tebow nine weeks later and expect a first time OC to be able to manage all of that? Tannenbaum and Ryan led a subordinate to failure.

This has to be one of the worst times of year for a QB to be released, right? Any team that needed a QB already fixed that either through free agency or through the draft. I feel bad for Tebow in that respect, at least.

I think it all depends on when one's roster bonus, or other bonuses are due. Cash is cash. Before his trade to NYJ, he was given about $6M in advanced salary from DEN which he does not have to pay back. A CFL team salary cap is around $4.5M. If he wants to play in the CFL, he will do so just knowing that it assist his parent's ministry/mission.

Plus, because of Tebow's NFL tenure (less than four seasons), the technical term for his is that, he was waived today.

[CS85]

Warning: head-scratching rambling prophecies ahead

I've slept 4 or 5 hours in 3 days, and I'm stuck here at work until 7AM. To kill time I've decided to go through every team with their updated depth charts and rank each franchise according to 10 different variables each ranked out of 10 along with a negative impact depending on the difficulty of their division.

For example, the Bills:

BUF - 57.9/100

QB: 6.7

HB/FB: 7.5

WR/TE: 6.8

OL: 7.1

DL: 8.4

LB: 7.5

DB: 6.9

ST: 7

HC: 4

DIV: -4

Here's what the results dictated:

AFC NORTH (-3.5)

BAL - 70.2

PIT - 62.8

CIN - 62.4

CLE - 57.8

AFC SOUTH (-4)

HOU - 72.6

IND - 64.5

TEN - 61.7

JAX - 56.4

AFC EAST (-4)

NE - 71.9

MIA - 65.6

NYJ - 58.2

BUF - 57.9

AFC WEST (-3)

DEN - 73.4

SD - 67.2

KC - 65.1

OAK - 60.4

NFC NORTH (-5)

GB - 70.7

CHI - 68.2

MIN - 67.1

DET - 65

NFC SOUTH (-4)

ATL - 71.1

NO - 67.7

CAR - 66.1

TB - 59.4

NFC EAST (-6)

NYG - 72.3

WAS - 65.8

DAL - 62.7

PHI - 62.4

NFC WEST (-3.5)

SF - 74.5

SEA - 66.7

STL - 65

AZ - 64.5

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Using these ratings, I then applied Random Events, including drawing 3 teams that would suffer injuries (giving them a -5 to their overall rating), 4 teams that would underwhelm slightly (-3), and one team that would be a complete meltdown (-8). In addition there was one Exceeded Expectations team (+3) and one Surprise team (+5). All these bonuses would apply gradually over a period of weeks dependent on the bonus amount.

I did those using random lottery, each team getting more opportunities for good and bad based on their rating. The results for that were as follows:

INJURY: Colts, Saints, Dolphins

UNDERWHELM: Cowboys, Chiefs, Falcons, Raiders

MELTDOWN: Bears (of course, I couldn't believe that )

EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS: Rams

SURPRISE: Bengals

This leaves the end-season standings as follows:

AFC NORTH

Baltimore - 11-5

Cincinnati - 10-6

Pittsburgh - 6-10

Cleveland - 3-13

AFC SOUTH

Houston - 14-2

Tennessee - 8-8

Indianapolis - 8-8

Jacksonville - 2-14

AFC EAST

New England - 11-5

Miami - 5-11

NY Jets - 3-13

Buffalo - 3-13

AFC WEST

Denver - 14-2

San Diego - 11-5

Kansas City - 7-9

Oakland - 6-10

NFC NORTH

Green Bay - 12-4

Minnesota - 10-6

Detroit - 8-8

Chicago - 4-12

NFC SOUTH

Atlanta - 9-7

Carolina - 9-7

New Orleans - 6-10

Tampa Bay - 5-11

NFC EAST

NY Giants - 15-1

Washington - 10-6

Philadelphia - 7-9

Dallas - 6-10

NFC WEST

San Francisco - 14-2

St. Louis - 12-4

Seattle - 9-7

Arizona - 7-9

NFC PLAYOFFS

1. NY Giants

2. San Francisco

3. Green Bay

4. Atlanta

5. St. Louis

6. Minnesota

AFC PLAYOFFS

1. Houston

2. Denver

3. New England

4. Baltimore

5. San Diego

6. Cincinnati

Implementing new playoff variables drawn from a hat (good/bad luck bonuses), the Superbowl randomly came down to the St. Louis Rams vs. the New England Patriots, with the Pats winning.

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Obviously you're reading all this and you're like "what the ?" but believe me, this was a solid way to kill 4 hours and if it comes true next season I am a genius and unquestionable football god.

[chuckymack]

That. Was. Amazing.

Easily the coolest thing I've seen on this board in months.

[ninersdd]