ChazStandard

Brees played with LT and got not much out of it. Manning played with Faulk and got just as little. Brees also got Bush and Kamara, while Manning got Edge James. The best RB Brady ever had was either Corey Dillon or LeGarrette Blount. We know what happens when two of the three QBs get elite running dual-threat running backs. We know what Brady managed without them. I'll take Brady and Faulk , thanks. I would choose that option even if we're just talking Kevin Faulk.

Weirdly, the second-best coach in the NFL has barely had an NFL career. It really should have been Jim Harbaugh. Getting rid of him was absurd. I feel like everyone picking Andy Reid is hitting a lot of recency bias. Yes, he won a SB now. But he's still the same guy. If you would pick Reid to coach an NFC Championship game against Payton or Carroll...well, good luck to you. But I'll go with the guys who have a the same number of championships in fewer tries, and without the proven track record of making the same mistakes over and over again.

Why would Arians need to stop calling vertical plays? Just because they preferred horizontal plays in NE doesn't mean Brady is physically incapable of running them, they just never really had the personnel for them.

As a UK fan with virtually no access to college football, this is a serious question, is the hype around Lawrence justified? If the season is a disaster, and they end up the 1st overall pick, would picking Lawrence be a no-brainer? All we get over here are hype headlines.

Brown and Sanu steal the headlines from last year as far personnel mistakes go, but Michael Bennett might be the biggest head scratcher of the three. It's not like he was mouthing off to the media, or getting trouble off the field. Maybe he wasn't playing up to his contract, but he's a charismatic guy, and a name the opposition had to at least try and account for. Trading him for nothing was just weird.

I remember when Aaron Rodgers won his first Championship in 2010, then set the single-season passer rating record in 2011. He was going to set untouchable records and be the GOAT. 10 years later that's his ONLY championship, and young gunslingers who will get to play 17 games a season in even more pass friendly rules will likely surpass any and all QB records relatively quickly. I remember when Gronkowski was unstoppable and was going to destroy all TE records and JJ Watt was gonna breeze past 200 sacks and Antonio Brown had a chance to match Jerry Rice. I remember RG3 and Colin Kaepernick were going to totally change the QB position. I remember Luck was going to be the next Peyton, and Kuechly the next Urlacher and Patrick Willis was going to challenge Ray Lewis for the GOAT Linebacker. I remember Peyton Hillis on the cover of Madden. I remember the Saints, Broncos, Seahawks, Packers, Panthers, 49ers, Steelers and Ravens were all going to become dynasties...and then didn't. A lot has to go right between now and 2030 for Mahomes to be GOAT, all that has to happen to stop it is one bad thing. Maybe a DT sacks him and destroys his knee. Maybe he tears his rotator cuff and never gets his zing back. Maybe a division rival puts together a GOAT defense and keeps KC at 10-6 and unable to get that key play-off bye. Maybe Andy Reid retires and his replacement sucks. Maybe defenders start catching all those dropped interceptions. Could Mahomes do it? Maybe. Statistically, for one reason or another, it's incredibly likely he will fail.

Well, someone's getting cut. White seems an obvious choice, or maybe Chung.

Coaching isn't like playing, really. You can say "who's the best receiver"? And since that just means running routes and catching passes we're talking about a fairly easy ranking system. But what does best coach mean? Best motivator? Best talent evaluator? Best innovator? Most influential coaching tree? Most wins? Most championships? Most iconic moments? You can't really say "best coach ever" because all the candidates bring something new to the table. If you simplify the question into "Given equally talented rosters, who from this list would you pick to coach a game on Sunday?" I would say Bill Belichick 100% of the time, because I don't think there has ever been a coach who reads the game, makes in-game adjustments and gameplans for a specific opponent as well as he does.

But he's got such nice hair!

Lot's of people saying this year is going to show whether Brady or BB were more responsible for the dynasty, but I think the person with the most to lose is McDaniels. This is the first time he's going to have a chance to build an offense from the ground up in NE that doesn't rely on Brady being awesome to put up points. If he fails, bye-bye head coaching offers.

Have they? Obviously the Pats have been successful, but that's down to Brady, good FA pick-ups and BB the coach covering for BB the GM. Some of the Pats drafts have been more than a little questionable. From their peculiar fascination with over-drafting safeties in the second round to their inability to draft WR who isn't a) terrible, b) injury prone or c) both. BB's ability coach, plus a pretty solid track record of picking up versatile role-players in the later rounds, have compensated for a pretty mediocre run of early picks. The last really good first-round pick they got was Hightower and, as crazy as that suddenly sounds to me, that was 8 years ago. (and even he is a "hall of very good" player with a clutch gene, rather than a true all-pro game changer). I honestly think the majority of fans/pundits give BB a pass on his drafting, because of his results, which might be fair enough. But the truth is - if you saw just a list of the players the Pats drafted this decade and were told "this team won 3 Superbowls this decade, and were in the running for several more", you woudln't believe it. Rest of the league should be happy BB whiffs on picks tbh. Imagine they had drafted Demarcus Lawrence over Dominique Easley, or Frank Clark instead of Malcom Brown, or Nick Chubb instead of Sony Michel or literally anybody instead of Cyrus Jones. ...I just made myself depressed.

I feel like Harry is going to be one of those "what if" players with a really specific moment: The touchdown against KC. It was one of his first games, it was his first really big play, and did great...but got screwed. If that TD stands his confidence - and Brady's confidence in him - would have stored. Especially if they win that game. Not saying he'll bust from this point on, but if he does I think that one moment is the turning point.

Exactly. If he considers that Dalton and Stidham bring the same thing to the table play-wise, then obviously you ride with Stidham who is cheaper, more familiar and at least somewhat of an unknown quantity.

My thoughts on the Falcons draft: The photo of Dimitroff and Quinn looks like a still from some indie movie about a has-been wrestler and his slimy sports agent. That is all.

I already take issue with that guy saying Brady got better as the years went on. Obviously he developed as a pro, everyone does, but the only material difference between 2007 and 2006 was who he was throwing to. Likewise, the "early Pats SBs were based on defense and running the ball" is a myth developing well after the fact. Obviously the defenses were always good, but the only year they had a dominant run game was 04. (Actually, a cursory check says that of Brady's 20 years in NE, the only season the run game was better than the pass were '04, '06 and '13). In 2003, the Patriots had a bottom 10 run game across the board, but a much better than average passing attack, Brady threw for 350 yards in the SB. The idea he was just a solid pro along for the ride is ridiculous. Brady lead the league in TDs his first full season as a starter. Before his historic 2007 season his career passer rating was 88. Very average 13 years later, but at the time it was a top 10 passer rating of all time. Maybe Stidham is better than we realise, possibly, but the argument Brady wasn't always Brady is historically illiterate. Personally, I don't think BB sees Stidham as the answer, so much as he's cheap unknown quantity vs. expensive known mediocrities. If he balls out, great. If he flunks, well then draft Lawrence and move on.