NFL 2013

New season, new thread! EVERYONE IS TIED FOR FIRST!

Detroit kicked off the next NFL year by immediately cutting Titus Young, which they should've done after he deliberately lined up in the wrong position in early December. Or after he sucker punched the team's best DB in practice. Or... etc etc etc. What a waste of potential.

Fun speculation type questions to amuse us during the offseason:

- What team is going to surprise us by being way better than they should be?
- Which will surprise us by being bad?
- Will either team from the Super Bowl suffer from Super Bowl hangover? Lately the losers curse hasn't been operative....

Oakland. Of course, they only have to go 5-11 to clear this bar.

While I don't think they'll be outright bad, I suspect the Redskins will have a worse season than they did this year -- even if RG3 comes back full strength, teams have plenty of film on him to study and prepare.

Niners will be very tough again next year; Ravens will be a very, very different team without Lewis and Reed (I'm assuming that he'll get snapped up by someone else) -- so, gotta go with Ravens on this one.

Cullyshouldbethirdstring

Will the Pats re-sign Wes Welker?

Who will take a gamble on Tebow? He's already shilling for Jockey, so if the LFL went co-ed, it would be a natural fit.

What will Sanchez's TD:INT ratio wind up being this year?

Who's most likely to get arrested on aggravated assault charges (that can't be substantiated) stemming from an incident at a nightclub in [insert city here]?

Picked up by the Rams. Probably cut by training camp after he decks Cortland Finnegan.

Fucking Rams.

Maybe Young and Finnegan can knock each other out for the season.

Finnegan talks a lot of shit but I think Young is bigger than Andre Johnson, and we know how that ended:

Young is a low-risk proposition for the Rams -- the Lions have already paid most of his money, so if he flakes out, cut him, nothing lost other than the time spent evaluating him. While he's definitely a head case, if Fisher can knock some sense into him, he really is a gifted receiver. Just not as gifted as he thinks he is.

Hopefully, for his sake, having only one team express interest picking him up for basically nothing will get his attention. And, Fisher definitely seems to handle those sorts of guys better than most, so who knows.

And yeah, training camp with Finnegan and Young will be kittens and smiles all 'round.

Saints are looking for quite a lot of coaching personnel, the biggest one has to be a new Defensive Coordinator. According to nfl.com it's either Romeo Crennel or Rob Ryan and I think I'll prefer getting Crennel, thank you. Also rumors (ie wishful thinking) that Ed Reed would want to finish his career closer to home.

In order,

1. Yes
2. The Chiefs
3. 2/3
4. Let me dig up the Ravens' roster... I'll get back to you.

While I suspect Welker will be resigned, I think there's a significant (say, 25%) chance that he won't. He's going to be expensive, the Patriots are generally a pretty value-focused team, and they really lack a valid downfield threat. I would not be surprised if they let Welker walk.

Is the world ready for someone like Regular Joe Flacco as the face of Raven Nation?

I'm not. Not after years of it being Ray's totally unselfconscious semi-crazy intense-stare "WHOMSOEVER JESUS HAVE STRENTHENED, LET NO MAN... UNSTRENTHEN" sideline preacher shtick, Suggs' malevolent mouth-breathing heavy-lidded gape, Bolden with his perpetually angry-and-aggrieved I been dissed bad boy thing, and the ghost of fatass D-Line clown Tony Siragusa hanging mopily over the whole weird Bmore fanbase.

I really like Joe, but having him be the front man for that thing seems like... having Joe Dumars be the first thing that pops into your head when you think of the late 80's Detroit Pistons.

I don't know if you find that comforting but Joe Flacco hilariously told his teammates to run in and tackle the SF kick returner "if he breaks (free)" on the very last play of the Super Bowl. He didn't know that would have given SF a TD so he just kept on saying it. If the clip becomes available you have to check Pitta's face when he understands what Flacco is actually saying. "Wait, what? Are you crazy?"

Wait, he was saying that to the other guys on the sidelines that weren't in on the free kick? That's so stupid that it took me a minute or two to understand that's what you actually meant -- my brain refused to parse the concept at first.

It would've been the greatest super bowl ending EVER if Flacco had come barrelling off the bench to tackle the returner at the twelve yard line.

Here ya go.

Wow.

I mean, I understand the pressure Flacco must've been feeling, Super Bowl and all, but wow.

Boldin must really like being a Raven. He says he'll retire if he's cut.

Hahaha, that actually is reassuring. Pick up that mantle, Joe.

Explain in 20 words or more why Rex ROB Ryan is a good to great hire for the Saints? To me he looks like Gregg Williams Mk II with nicer hair and an even bigger mouth. Anyone with insight feel like sharing?

I think you meant Rob Ryan. He's actually a pretty good defensive coordinator. But then again, so was Gregg (extra G for Genius) Williams. It's not like the Saints hired someone lame like Monte Kiffin.

Plus, Rob is a pretty good quote. After being fired by the Cowboys, he said:

Separately: nice comma, ESPN.

Oh Gods. Of course I meant Rob. Sorry. Edited my post.

Well this is a surprise; Vick has agreed to a restructured one year deal with the Eagles. Not that QB play was their biggest issue, but it suggests that they felt there weren't any better options.

Saw in a footnote to that same story that Johnny Knox was released. I'm a long-time Bears hater, but I always liked Knox and hoped (irrationally) he'd be able to come back from that back injury. Egad, just thinking about that thing makes my stomach turn. As a long-long-time Seahawks fan, I'm used to seeing all kinds of ugliness on the field, but ugh was that one awful. Worse than Joe Theismann Rubberleg.

Oh goddamn, I wish I hadn't googled that.

I'm shocked he can walk much less play ball.

People aren't really supposed to bend like that...

The Rams have already decided to cut Titus Young and the Packers have released Charles Woodson.

Read: this guy is a nutbar

That at least makes more sense than claiming him in the first place. I guess they had to put the waiver claim in before they could have him in to find out first hand how giant of a tool he is.

I guess anyone hoping for the end of the Goodell era can kiss that dream goodbye. The owners seem real happy with him.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/sports-general/20130215/NFL-Goodell_s.Pay/

I think BigSlowTarget is the best username I have ever seen on a kinda-sorta gaming forum ever. I've been meaning to say that since the first time I saw it, but I kept waiting for the proper time. The proper time still hasn't happened, so I'm just gonna throw it out here.

On the NFL topic, Goodell is very hard to judge, other than he comes across as a total asshat, a megolomaniac, that clearly isn't worth 30 million a year unless you happen to own an NFL team. Until we walk a mile in the solid gold shoes of the NFL owners we have no right to judge. Solid gold shoes are fuckin' heavy.

Thanks. I picked it up back in the UT '99 days trying to play Insta-Gib CTF with a 400 ping. Someone joked that I should switch to a Juggernaut skin(those were the lolhuge skins) and I said I would and change my name to BigSlowTarget. I got to be known by the name so I kept it.

Yeah, I don't care for the guy myself but he isn't there to please the fans. Still, $30mil seems excessive.

The 49ers have fourteen draft picks for the 2013 draft.

Yoiks!

It'll be 15 if anybody's dumb enough to cough up for Smith. I hope they trade up in the first round and get one of these d-linemen the draft is supposed to be so deep in.

You mean smart enough. Alex Smith isn't Tom Brady level but he's a hell of a lot better than the shit half the teams are calling starting quarterbacks. Looking at you Buffalo, Cleveland, Arizona, New York and so on and so forth. There is no way they're drafting that many though. I suspect they'll draft half of those away to move up or for a pick next year. Same with trading Alex Smith. It would be best for a pick next year unless they're looking to try and move up in the first round this year. But then if the draft is so deep at the positions of need they could just wait it out instead of moving up.

Smith is an upgrade for such teams, but you get into various questions about resource allocation. Many of those teams aren't going to be competitive with or without Alex Smith, so it may not make sense to cough up a high draft pick for a QB you don't see holding on to for the long term.

Nope*, nope*, nope**, and won't happen*. He's a certain upgrade over Yo-Gabba-Gabbert but that's about it considering the cap impact he may (reading into it as a straight trade and not passing though waivers) have. I'd be shocked if anyone trades anything over a second round pick for Smith, and that's both considering his cap impact and that this is a poor QB year.

It's supposed to be deep at D-line and (depending on how you score these things) at O-line. Not exactly weak positions for the 9'ers, although I don't think you're ever really deep at either of these.

*None of these teams are a half-decent QB away from a Super Bowl. Alex Smith is Brad Johnson for them; it's not really helping them.

**Alex Smith is Jeff George in this scenario.

Ha, no. I would be happy if they can get even a fifth rounder for him, I predict they will cut him outright. So far the only rumours of interest are coming from Kansas City. One team does not make a bidding war. Furthermore, if Smith does start for a bad team next year, I predict he will regress from the efficient and safe game manager of the last two years. We've seen how good he can be with all of the pieces in place, but we've also seen how he plays when the rest of the team isn't Super Bowl calibre, and he can't just rely on his defense and running game to carry him. I don't see why anyone would expect him to play like New Alex when he's on a team like Old Alex.

The Niners need to find Justin Smith's successor. You don't get guys like that later in the draft.

As I've said before, the one team I think Alex Smith would be a fantastic fit for would be the Vikings. They were a playoff team despite Ponder, not because of him. Imagine how good they'd be with quality QB play.