NFL/NCAAF Thread

[GrizzlyB]

So who wants to be the deflating footballs thing only comes down to a 4 game suspension for Brady that's brought down to 2 on appeal?

I'll take the under on that bet.

They basically said the only punishments will be for Brady and the two ball deflator guys.

Did they? But, as Sean Payton and the Saints know all too well, "ignorance is not an excuse".

I do like how Brady's dad is calling it "framegate", Brady's agent said it was a set up, and Brady's team's owner is saying that science is wrong.

I love the quote from Brady's agent, where he whines about the officials not warning the Patriots that they were going to be on alert for cheating. Because if you want to catch someone in the act, priority #1 is to always alert them to the fact.

I've also seen the formula for the ideal gas law more times on sports message boards then I ever thought possible. Of course, most "ideal" laws probably don't apply to football game settings, but, y'know, SCIENCE.

 

[celestial phantom]

Watch, Brady's gonna get like a slap on the wrist or something, Goodell doesn't know how to hand out suspensions that make sense. If he did make an example out of Brady, I'd be surprised as heck, but I really don't see more than a possible few game suspension coming if one comes at all. And, as a Colts fan, I'd rather just forget about that game and all that anyway. I mean, if deflating balls a bit was an intention to cheat, well didn't matter much since even after half time the Pats got 4 scores to my team's none. Was an all around bad day for having some rain to play in, and an actually decent temperature day from the look of it, and we just played poorly there. Of course they shouldn't go unpunished, but in the longest run, it didn't matter at all.

Also, Mye, about your predictions on both the Titans and Bucs, of all things this year the #1 and #2 worst teams from this last year open against each other this year, and it'll be @Tampa's stadium. Tampa's ceiling is low, but they have like 3 really good opportunities to actually win, being vs. Tennessee, vs. Jacksonville, and @Washington I think. Either those, or unless New Orleans wants to suck this season. 4-12 seems like a good call for the Titans though, predicting they can win games involving Raiders, Jacksonville (x2), Jets, Cleveland, and TB.

Also, can't ever go wrong with Bill Nye, the one thing that made Elementary school so much fun watching his Science videos. I will never forget meeting that guy in person at one of his planetary society event type things he did a few years back here. It was awesome, there was science, and a bunch of physic, chem, and general science majors having fun.

 

[ger9119]

Godell is buddies with Kraft so i don't see Brady getting more than a fine.

 

[bobjr]

Godell is buddies with Kraft so i don't see Brady getting more than a fine.

Goodell is buddies with all the NFL owners, because they're the only ones with power over him.

 

[Mye]

Yeah, I kinda excluded Jacksonville from all of that as (while I don't wanna go into too much detail and spoil everything) they aren't to be underestimated. The huge problem I'm seeing with Tampa is how they're gonna do on defense and how they're going to keep drives alive on offense. They may have a QB (Winston), RB (Martin), and WR (Evans), but as what was proven last year they can't rely on just those three things to win for them. If they manage to acquire 2 serviceable WR's (like Jennings and Jones), I'd be willing to give them that win over washington. As far as I see it though, they're a bad team playing in what should easily be the worst division in the league next year.

With the whole Brady issue, Goodell needs to do something before all of this catches up with him. He was late on the Ray Rice thing, late on the Adrian Peterson thing, and was heavily booed at the draft by pretty much everyone barring giraffe enthusiasts. While punishing Brady wouldn't completely rectify his image, it would at the very least allow him to temporarily stop what is an exponentially growing mob of pitchfork-and-torch wielding fans who don't want him in power. Let's not forget that he does make 44 million a year (8.5 times more than what judge judy makes), so for him to not be doing his job correctly is borderline asinine.

Also, I completely forgot to add that the titans added Dick Labeau to their coaching staff. While it doesn't garner any additional wins, it should at least push their defense out of the bottom-5 for next year.

 

[celestial phantom]

If the Bucs O-Line improves overall into something very solid going into this season, maybe we can see more from Martin, Rainey, or even Sims, but they didn't even try to contend with a ground game last year, and even when they tried they got stuffed outside a few game exceptions. I don't think they need two serviceable WRs, but maybe one that can break out with some break away speed and being a smaller target, they still have Vincent Jackson as their #1/becoming #2 with Mike Evans having a great year last year, but Jackson is still a big bodied guy, and both he and Evans 2014 stat line were comparable outside the obvious TD difference. He might be pretty old now (31 or 32 I think), but with what looks to be a QB upgrade from McCown and Glennon, I don't see the Bucs trying to shop him around like they did last year unless they can get an obvious better and younger second option though his salary hit might still make them wanna get rid of him since iirc it's like a 10 or 12 million hit, but he probably has some go left in the tank, especially since hope might be there that the NFC South sucks again like they did last year (not likely, but the Bucs can hope that the NFC south defenses are the last rated ones again, and their offense can shoot up). But, they are gonna have a real long season facing so many high octane style offenses this upcoming season, so that leaves very few game options they are likely to win, (heck they face the Rams and Giants too, and they kind of oscillate on games they should win and lose). Ceiling is still so low that I can't give them anymore than 3 wins this year though, 4 if they are lucky.

 

[Mye]

Speaking of the devil, I'd may as well do a second team today:

-Jacksonville Jaguars-
2014 Prediction: 7-9-0
2014 Record: 3-13-0
Notable Additions: DE Dante Fowler Jr, RB TJ Yeldon, RB Bernard Pierce, WR Rashad Greene, TE Julius Thomas, OC Doug Marrone
Notable Subtractions: None

Summary: As many people who check this thread know, I am a huge fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Every year they try their best, and every year they fall flat on their face. Despite what many people think, I actually had relatively high hopes last season for them (with the idea being that Indy/Houston would crash and we'd see the whole division mirror the AFC South). Instead, Indy peaked and the jags were left scoring the fewest points in the league all while having the 26th ranked defense (to put it in perspective of how bad their offense was, their non-read option QB had roughly 40% of their total rushing yards last season, yikes). Then came the offseason, and all these good things started to happen. Fresh off turning Buffalo into a cindarella story, Doug Marrone magically appeared and chose to become the offensive coordinator. Then the free agency happened, and Bortles finally managed to acquire a usable runningback and someone else to throw the ball to. Finally, the draft happened and more pieces of the puzzle were put into place as the Jags picked up a few more tools for their second-year QB. While they won't be winning the superbowl or anything, Jacksonville has slowly but surely gone from a pee-wee football frog into an unpredictable prince with almost limitless possibilities.

3 Bold Predictions:
1) Blake Bortles becomes the first Jacksonville QB to start all 16 games of the season since David Garrard in 2009: I know, it's been that long since jacksonville has had an actual starter. Unless the injury bug happens, I wholly expect them to have Bortles use his underrated talent for all it's worth, as with the talent around him it'd be a hard situation to fail in.
2) Blake Bortles becomes the second Jacksonville QB to throw for over 4,000 yards (the first being Mark Brunell in 1996): with all the talent to throw the ball to, I would not at all be surprised to see Bortles rack up the passing yards in a division with not one but TWO sub .500 defenses. They're also paired up with the aforementioned AFC South, so expect their offense to have a field day for about half of the season.
3) Jacksonville finishes the season with 2 1,000-yard receivers and 2 1,000 yard rushers: Back in Buffalo, Doug Marrone managed to use what little he had (Orton at the time being an unknown due to many people undervaluing him) and crafted an offense which worked well. Now he's going into a scenario in which the pantry is stocked and packed with fun things to try out. Barring a complete and total collapse, he should be able to take full advantage and get this offense working almost immediately

2015 Prediction: 9-7-0

 

[bobjr]

Next Aaron Hernandez will go "I am not going to jail because i don't accept the verdict"

 

[Mye]

Before I go ahead and do another, I'd like to mention that Dante Fowler Jr. was carted off the field during practice with an apparent leg injury, and it is unknown whether he'll be ready for the upcoming season. Nonetheless, the show must go on!:

-Oakland Raiders-

2014 Prediction: 2-14-0
2014 Record: 3-13-0
Notable Additions: QB Christian Ponder, RB Trent Richardson, T J'Marcus Webb, WR Michael Crabtree, WR Amare Cooper
Notable Subtractions: QB Matt Schaub, RB Maurice Jones-Drew, RB Darren McFadden, WR James Jones, G Kevin Boothe, DT Antonio Smith

Summary: Ah, Oakland, what a fun team to look at. On a bit of a sidenote, wouldn't it be fun to be the GM of that team? Every year you'd get 4m to basically build whatever team you wanted with no real repercussions. Back to the topic at hand though, last season was a pretty entertaining year for the Raiders. They began the year by signing every veteran (veteran being the "kind" way of saying old and nearly useless) defensive player in free agency to huge contracts, brought in a few veteran offensive players, and decided to have a go at it. Long story short, it ended horribly with the team scoring the second-lowest points per game and being unable to do much of anything on the road. Enter the offseason and with it a whole new set of changes for this team. Gone are guys like Schaub, McFadden, and MJD and in are younger guys like Richardson Crabtree and Cooper. While they may not seem all that threatening, changes to the Broncos and Chargers should allow Oakland to slip easily into a wild card spot.

3 Bold Predictions:
1) Derek Carr eclipses Peyton Manning in passing touchdowns: I know, bit of a bold prediction, but let me explain it first. For starters, the Broncos lost a huge piece of their offense in Julius Thomas (as he caught 30% of Peyton's total TD passes over the past two seasons). Second, age is slowly catching up with the Broncos with Welker being 34 (what is usually considered the "dead zone" for WR's) and Peyton just turning 39 (what is usually considered the non-Anthony Calvillo "dead zone" for QB's) so I don't expect the Broncos to throw the ball too much UNLESS they start giving Osweiller playing time (will talk more about that later). Finally, the schedules are built in such a way as to give Oakland a huge advantage with Denver playing Baltimore, KC, and a heavily undervalued Detroit defense all before their head-to-head week 5 matchup (Raiders facing Bengals, Browns, and Bears), so expect Oakland to get off to a decent headstart.
2) Oakland will have one 1,000 rusher: While I don't want to say who will actually accomplish this (kinda hoping Kory Sheets does it, as he was shown to be an amazing RB in the CFL while with the roughriders), the Raiders should have no problem accomplishing this primarily because of schedule but also kinda because their offense pairs up so well with it (that, and Carr can't be throwing 50-60 passes a game).
3) Khalil Mack will win defensive player of the year: Yet another bold prediction, but looking at the schedule it is hard to see how he can't win it. Aside from Detroit, Baltimore, Green Bay, and the two Denver meetings Oakland's schedule is pretty defense-friendly with Roethlesberger being the only QB not on those teams who should be able to avoid sacks. The "Mack Daddy" should be able to get quite a lot of sacks/tackles and slowly but surely make QB's fear him, kinda like what I expect Watt and Clowney to do (more on that later).

2015 Prediction: 10-6-0

 

[celestial phantom]

Welp, Dante Fowler is out for the season, Jags fans take a blow to the heart, and now we all must wonder, is Tedy Bruschi actually a man child and doesn't want his fantasy minded addiction to Tom Brady to be tarnished?

 

[bobjr]

The best is a bunch of Patriots fans have been linking to this, and it's the most biased site I've seen.

http://yourteamcheats.com/

 

[Mye]

Yeah, from what I heard they'll be issuing Brady's suspension next week and according to multiple sources it is "believed" to be in the range of 4-6 games. Also, may as well do another one:

-The New York Jets-

2014 Prediction: 0-16-0
2014 Record: 4-12-0
Notable Additions: WR Brandon Marshall, RB Zac Stacy, RB Stevan Ridley DE Leonard Williams, QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, CB Derelle Revis, HC Todd Bowles, GM Mike Maccagnan
Notable Subtractions: WR Percy Harvin, HC Rex Ryan, GM John Idzik

Summary: Ah, the jets. Going into last season, I really had no faith in them pulling out any wins on what was a pretty stacked schedule. Sure enough, they proved me wrong by blowing out (by 5 points each) the behemoth Titans and Raiders, as well as clobbering Pittsburgh and Miami. I don't want to go into too much detail on how bad they were (because trust me, I could), but barring their 5th-ranked run defense and 14th ranked pass defense they were inefficient at pretty much everything they did. When the offseason came, so did massive changes. They got a new gm (eventually), a new head coach (also, eventually), and brought in a bunch of new offensive talent that is in no way reminiscent of the 2010-2011 Buffalo team that if I remember correctly finished 5-11 that year. Nonetheless, this year should be no different and the Jets should struggle in what is, with Miami slowly becoming better and the Patriots coming off a superbowl win, a pretty tough division.

3 Bold Predictions:
1) QB Bryce Petty starts one game: Unlike the last one in which I did two pretty bold predictions, this one is kinda moderate. Ryan Fitzpatrick has been pretty meh as a career starter (although since he debuted in the league, he's actually had a better completion % than Eli Manning) and Geno Smith has been horrible as a starter in general. Todd Bowles is also a defensive-minded coach, so you sorta have to think that he'll be benching any QB who doesn't instantly succeed for him, especially with all this offensive talent around him.
2) At least two jets QBs will finish with double digit TDs AND double digit INTs: Not really a bold prediction either. While the TD to INT ratio of Fitzy and Geno is .8:1, they also face some pretty horribly-inclined defensive teams in the first few weeks of the season (eagles, indy, the washington team which may or may not be offensive to native americans). I fully expect both QBs to take advantage of that, or at least attempt to.
3) Before the trade deadline, the Jets will trade 2 offensive players and/or their 2016 first round pick: I was actually reading up on a few things, and apparently both Eric Decker and Brandon Marshall were going to be traded to the Dolphins and Patriots respectively before each of those teams cut off talks entirely. Should the Jets not be doing well going into the deadline, expect them to build on their defense even if it means sacrificing some offensive talent and/or what should be a top-10 pick in next year's draft.

2015 Prediction: 2-14-0

 

[bobjr]

@AdamSchefter
Filed to ESPN: Tom Brady suspended four games, Pats lose 1st round pick in 2016 and a 4th in 2017, and team fined $1 million, per source

Of course game 5 this year is vs. Indy

 

[ger9119]

@AdamSchefter
Filed to ESPN: Tom Brady suspended four games, Pats lose 1st round pick in 2016 and a 4th in 2017, and team fined $1 million, per source

Of course game 5 this year is vs. Indy

He'll appeal it down to 2 games.

 

[Bolt the Cat]

Brady being suspended doesn't help us any since the Pats' first game is against Pittsburgh.

 

[Navin]

Meh, I don't think Spygate and Deflategate will take away from the fact that Brady is still one of the best QBs to play the game.

 

[Mye]

As I predicted, Brady was suspended 4 games and the Patriots were fined the Dr.Evil-ey amount of 1 Meeleon dollars and were also stripped of their 2016 first round pick and 2017 fourth round pick. Also, I didn't do one yesterday (real life is a ***** sometimes) but here's another one:

-Chicago Bears-
2014 Prediction: 6-10-0
2014 Record: 5-11-0
Notable Additions: HC John Fox, C Will Montgomery, WR Kevin White
Notable Subtractions: HC Marc Trestman, WR Brandon Marshall

Summary: The Bears began last season much the way they did each of the last few seasons in that they had a huge controversy (in this case, whether Jay Cutler should be traded) and ended the season last in their division for just the second time since 2000. Why, you may ask? For starters, their defense was just atrocious allowing the 2nd most points in the NFL and having opponents go over 300 yards passing in 10 of their 16 games. Combine this with their middling offense that had the fifth-worst rushing yards, and you can see why they were so bad. Offseason hit, and they didn't actually change much. Yes, they brought in a new head coach (Cutler's third one if I remember correctly) and added a new guy to throw the ball to, but other than that the team remains virtually unchanged. Ultimately, until this team can rebuild their defense, it'll struggle in what is easily the second-hardest division in the NFL right now.

3 Bold Predictions:
1) Kevin White wins the offensive rookie of the year: After thinking it over long and hard, I really can't see why he won't win it. With Brandon Marshall gone and Cutler on his "last straw" so to speak, he'll need someone to throw the ball to. Expect White to reap the benefits and put up about 1,600 receiving yards with 11-12 TD's on his way to winning the award.
2) Jay Cutler has the best QB accuracy in the league: It's a bit shocking, but after doing a bit of research I noticed an interesting trend of sorts. In John Fox's first year in Denver, Peyton Manning's accuracy went up and was actually the second-best he put up in his career (.2% shy of his best). In addition, despite the terrible season Cutler had the best accuracy of his career last year with 66% (which was 9th best in the league among QB's who started all 16 games). Expect Cutler to have a renaissance of sorts, putting up some of the best numbers of his career.
3) The Bears finish last in the league in rushing: Matt Forte is getting old. Despite being a pretty decent power-RB over the past few years, I'm kinda thinking time has caught up with him with last year's 3.9yds per carry kinda proving it. Combine this with Cutler trying to prove he's not crappy to his new coach, and I not only expect the Bears to finish last in the league in rushing but also to have the fewest attempts among all teams.

2015 Prediction: 4-12-0

 

[celestial phantom]

Doesn't surprised me at all that Brady gets a 4 game suspension, and of course first game he's allowed back will be week 6 vs my Colts. Time to prepare for the strong potential of Brady and Bill thrashing us since he'll have been well rested without the 4 game wear on him. I still find that it hard to believe that Goodell and however debates on suspensions have a hard time agreeing to lengths that would make sense based on the severity, and relate to the PR and image of the NFL.

Also, Mye, if your gonna do one for every team, best to go back and cover the Redskins....then again its not like anyone has high hopes for them this year either.

 

[Mye]

Wow, completely skipped over them (by accident of course). If you guys want I can do one later, just gotta check up on a few things.

 

[bobjr]

Meh, I don't think Spygate and Deflategate will take away from the fact that Brady is still one of the best*QBs to play the game.

Fixed that for you