NFL News & General Info Thread

[HTTRDynasty]

1 minute ago, RBreezy said:

The Eagles are defending Super Bowl champions with their MVP QB, all-pro LT, and stud MLB returning. Of course we’re going to be decently cocky about our team and our chances in the NFC East. We’re the most complete and battle-tested team in the division. I will say that all of the rival teams have improved this offseason, but as @Jroc04 alluded too none of you guys have a franchise-caliber signal caller who will carry a team.

And as I alluded to, you guys didn't have one either (leaving aside the fact that Smith is a franchise-caliber signal caller), but still won the SB.

[Danger]

Alex Smith was a very safe passer last year. He was the least "aggressive" QB last season meaning he never threw into tight windows at all. He was also bottom 10 in the league for average intended air yards per pass at 8.0. Captain Checkdown. If he had any more than 5 interceptions it would have been very disappointing in today's NFL.

[EaglesPeteC]

1 hour ago, HTTRG3Dynasty said:

Good thing our defense is substantially more talented.  Also, Guice is an unknown.  I don't think anyone would be shocked if he ended up being the better player than Hunt.  He was definitely a more talented prospect.  And I really wouldn't say "substantially" less talented, especially if Reed stays healthy.

Good luck with that one

 

[BAConrad]

1 hour ago, HTTRG3Dynasty said:

Good thing our defense is substantially more talented.  Also, Guice is an unknown.  I don't think anyone would be shocked if he ended up being the better player than Hunt.  He was definitely a more talented prospect.  And I really wouldn't say "substantially" less talented, especially if Reed stays healthy.

Your defense is more talented than whose?  KC's?

Eh. Not by much. 

I like your DL (somewhat....I am a big Allen fan but dont like Payne at all and think he was a bad pick). You have two good to great OLBs in Smith and Kerrigan.

But outside of that.... Your secondary isnt very good and you dont have much depth either anywhere. 

Norman and Scandrick are going to be your top two corners it seems.....unless Fabian Mereua (sp) moves outside and Scandrick inside. Fabian is the one corner I like on the team as it is. Norman and Scandrick will be 31 and 32 respectively this season, Norman isnt elite anymore and Scandrick is just not good. 

Swearinger is a journeyman safety who cant do much besides hit people and trash talk a lot. And Everett is another castoff who has bounced around. 

I think that people are overrating this defense. 11th in DVOA last year seems about as good as it could be barring some major changes in a year. 

And then whats this about noone being surprised if Guice is better than Hunt?

Seriously? I love when guys like Guice freefall in the draft, then everyone calls the team who takes him "geniuses" and that hes just gonna tear up the league. Because more often than not it doesnt happen. If a guy is so talented, that he could potentially be AS GOOD OR BETTER than Hunt, the guy who just led the league in rushing IIRC and had one of the best RB rookie seasons ever, then why did this aforementioned player slide down? 

I dont see it. I like the OL, even though OL is all about being a unit and yours can't seem to stay on the field. And I do like Guice/Thompson/Perrine (I just think Hunt>Guice). Your WRs are solid...Doctson is still fairly unproven and Crowder, a slot WR, a very good one at that, is your best receiver. 

Right now, absolutely the 17 KC offense was more talented than this Wash one. And btw Alex Smith didnt like just magically turn into an aggressive QB overnight at the age of 33 or what ever. He threw down field last year because of the offense he was in. He had the perfect system/players/coaching around him to allow him to throw downfield so much. He still isnt aggressive. Aggressive doesnr just mean throwing deep passes a lot. It means pushing the ball downfield by making tough throws into tight windows more than anything.

[HTTRDynasty]

1 hour ago, Danger said:

Alex Smith was a very safe passer last year. He was the least "aggressive" QB last season meaning he never threw into tight windows at all. He was also bottom 10 in the league for average intended air yards per pass at 8.0. Captain Checkdown. If he had any more than 5 interceptions it would have been very disappointing in today's NFL.

Smith was slightly less "aggressive" than Aaron Rodgers and Jared Goff last year.  The year before, he was very very slightly (0.4%) less aggressive than Aaron Rodgers, and more aggressive than Cousins and Roethlisberger.  He had 0.4% less Air Yards intended than Drew Brees in 2016 and had more Air Yards intended than both Brees and Rodgers in 2017.  But I guess those guys are all "Captain Checkdown" too, huh?

[HTTRDynasty]

25 minutes ago, BAConrad said:

Your defense is more talented than whose?  KC's?

Eh. Not by much. 

I like your DL (somewhat....I am a big Allen fan but dont like Payne at all and think he was a bad pick). You have two good to great OLBs in Smith and Kerrigan.

But outside of that.... Your secondary isnt very good and you dont have much depth either anywhere. 

Norman and Scandrick are going to be your top two corners it seems.....unless Fabian Mereua (sp) moves outside and Scandrick inside. Fabian is the one corner I like on the team as it is. Norman and Scandrick will be 31 and 32 respectively this season, Norman isnt elite anymore and Scandrick is just not good. 

Swearinger is a journeyman safety who cant do much besides hit people and trash talk a lot. And Everett is another castoff who has bounced around. 

I think that people are overrating this defense. 11th in DVOA last year seems about as good as it could be barring some major changes in a year. 

And then whats this about noone being surprised if Guice is better than Hunt?

Seriously? I love when guys like Guice freefall in the draft, then everyone calls the team who takes him "geniuses" and that hes just gonna tear up the league. Because more often than not it doesnt happen. If a guy is so talented, that he could potentially be AS GOOD OR BETTER than Hunt, the guy who just led the league in rushing IIRC and had one of the best RB rookie seasons ever, then why did this aforementioned player slide down? 

I dont see it. I like the OL, even though OL is all about being a unit and yours can't seem to stay on the field. And I do like Guice/Thompson/Perrine (I just think Hunt>Guice). Your WRs are solid...Doctson is still fairly unproven and Crowder, a slot WR, a very good one at that, is your best receiver. 

Right now, absolutely the 17 KC offense was more talented than this Wash one. And btw Alex Smith didnt like just magically turn into an aggressive QB overnight at the age of 33 or what ever. He threw down field last year because of the offense he was in. He had the perfect system/players/coaching around him to allow him to throw downfield so much. He still isnt aggressive. Aggressive doesnr just mean throwing deep passes a lot. It means pushing the ball downfield by making tough throws into tight windows more than anything.

There's so much wrong with this.  I'll educate you on the state of our roster later.  Right now, I have to work.  Being on PST sucks.

[BAConrad]

2 minutes ago, HTTRG3Dynasty said:

There's so much wrong with this.  I'll educate you on the state of our roster later.  Right now, I have to work.  Being on PST sucks.

Hey there may be. You've watched more Washington football than I have Im sure.

But I still dont see all this talent on your team.

[Danger]

8 minutes ago, BAConrad said:

Hey there may be. You've watched more Washington football than I have Im sure.

But I still dont see all this talent on your team.

They have talented TEs, one who is always injured and one who is ancient as well as some good pieces on each side of the trenches, not all good pieces mind you. As well as Guice now. Outside of that, I really see nothing.

[Jroc04]

2 hours ago, HTTRG3Dynasty said:

Eli Manning (x2) and Flacco.  Neither had elite defenses in the season they won SB's.

And comparing leading the league in completion percentage to leading the league in passer rating is ridiculous.  Passer rating encompasses attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns, and INTs, while completion percentage only encompasses 2 of those 5 stats.

And no, it doesn't just mean you're "safe".  Alex Smith attempted the 10th most deep passes per game among qualifying QBs according to Next Gen Stats.  He was ranked as the number 1 deep passer in the league.  He bucked the "safe" moniker pretty glaringly last year.

"but the other guys having NFL successes are through."... Good thing you're so sure.  Maybe they should just retire now?  Since there is obviously no way you could be wrong.  Back to reality, all teams in this division have a realistic shot of making the playoffs, and all QBs have shown the ability to get hot and have top tier QB play over a stretch of at least a few games.

The Giants pass rush was indeed elite and deep and the Ravens still had Lewis, Reed, Suggs and Ngata among others. Lewis passed his prime surely but I'd bet on a HoF player to get up for a SB. But point stands, if you can look at the last 30 years of SBs and only pick out one arguable counter than that's clearly just an outlier. You need elite QB play or a combination of good QB play with certain components that are elite. I.E. Pass rush, secondary, running game...etc. 

Firstly, my point was leading a category is sometimes misleading. As it was with Bradford and as it is with Smith. And you know as well as anyone with eyes, is that passer rating is a joke. If you don't know, I'd do a little research. A guy that's 40/40 for 100 yards 0TD 0INTs has a better rating than a guy that's 20/40 350 yards 0TDs 0INTs. I'd take the second guy all day. It's a very basic stat. Much like Smith. And as others alluded to, the same next generation stats have Smith only being more aggressive than CJ Beathard. Woa. Just because he's throwing to open guys down the field doesn't mean he's bunked any moniker. It just means he's not dumb. He's still a game manager. He just happened to have Kelce and Hill/Hunt to take apart offenses. But the proof is in the pudding. Is Alex Smith anything special? You've seen him play, is he? Two teams found out the hard way and so will the Redskins. There's a reason why Mahomes is starting in KC now. You don't get rid of guys that are special unless you have something better in the wings or you're just a dunce. 

They are middling QBs right now. I don't know why it's so offensive to you. If I would have told you Smith was a slightly above average QB last year, you would have agreed. And so would everyone else.  Now it's different because he's a redskin? Same guy, different jersey, less weapons. And I'm not saying I cant be wrong but are you putting your house up against me? I mean, you watched Cousins average 4300 30 and 10 in the last three years. That's pretty good and he was just .500. Is Smith better than Cousins? I don't think so. 

Smith is no more than he's showed and Eli is about as cooked as they come. Dak could possibly turn himself around, he's still young. But I would bet against that as well. lol These guys don't have to retire, clearly, as you sarcastically rebutted. But you know, there are guys that are just in the middle. There's room for guys like that. It keeps you safe but it doesn't get you fed. You either have a top 5 QB or you have a 6-10 QB and try to have an elite unit elsewhere. There's no exact formula to winning but you have to have something that's special you can unleash that's unstoppable. And looking around the NFCE, I'm finding it hard to see. Could the Skins, Boys, or Giants develop that this year? Possibly. But they don't have it right now. 

[Jroc04]

2 hours ago, HTTRG3Dynasty said:

And as I alluded to, you guys didn't have one either (leaving aside the fact that Smith is a franchise-caliber signal caller), but still won the SB.

Carson got us there. Without his work during the year I highly doubt Nick Foles takes it home. Maybe I'm on an island but I found us very fortunate for the playoff road we had. We needed that 1st seed and Foles can't deliver that by himself. Nick played out of his mind during the playoffs. The chances that he actually turned his career around in a handful of games is pretty slim. It would be unprecedented. 

And also in what world does a "franchise QB" play for 3 different franchises? 

[Jeezla]

Alex Smith is a slightly better Ryan Fitzpatrick

[HTTRDynasty]

4 hours ago, BAConrad said:

Your defense is more talented than whose?  KC's?

Eh. Not by much. 

DVOA

Redskins: 11th

KC: 30th

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/teamdef

 

SharpFootballStats - Success Rate Against

Redskins: 2nd vs. the pass; 32nd vs. the run

KC: 18th vs. the pass; 31st vs. the run

https://www.sharpfootballstats.com/situational-success-rates---ranks--def-.html

 

Next Gen Stats - Pass Rush

Redskins: 2nd highest amount of total team pressures

KC: Somewhere at the bottom, probably

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000915923/article/eagles-redskins-seahawks-head-nfls-best-passrushing-units

 

Sacks

Redskins: 7th

KC: 24th

http://www.espn.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/defense/sort/sacks

 

Pressure Rate

Redskins: 1st

KC: 28th

 

4 hours ago, BAConrad said:

But outside of that.... Your secondary isnt very good and you dont have much depth either anywhere. 

Norman and Scandrick are going to be your top two corners it seems.....unless Fabian Mereua (sp) moves outside and Scandrick inside. Fabian is the one corner I like on the team as it is. Norman and Scandrick will be 31 and 32 respectively this season, Norman isnt elite anymore and Scandrick is just not good. 

Norman was out for 4 weeks with broken ribs after week 4, and he never really recovered his form from earlier in the season.  Norman is still a stud.

Dunbar, our current CB #2 was given a better grade by PFF than Breeland, the CB #2 who left.  I don't think there will be much of a drop off, if any, at CB #2.

Losing Fuller will definitely hurt, no doubt about it.  He was one of the best slot CBs in the league last year.  But just like you guys losing Patrick Robinson, it's not going to make or break the defense.  We have a few young, talented players competing for the spot: Fabian, Holsey, Stroman.  Scandrick is insurance in case none of the young guys step up.  I'm pulling for Stroman, personally:

4 hours ago, BAConrad said:

Swearinger is a journeyman safety who cant do much besides hit people and trash talk a lot. And Everett is another castoff who has bounced around. 

Swearinger is the perfect player at SS for us when he's playing in his comfort zone... that's patrolling the LOS and being aggressive in the box.  He is at his best in that role.  He also had 4 INTs and 10 PDs.  That's hardly a guy who "can't do much besides hit people and trash talk a lot".  He was the #20 safety in the league according to PFF.  That puts him at top 10 at his position if you figure the top 20 guys are an even split between FS's and SS's.

The guy I'm most excited about on defense, and a guy that not a lot of people outside of Skins fans know about, is our 2nd year FS, Montae Nicholson.  He has incredible range and is not afraid to lay a big hit.  Rarely did teams test us deep in games where he was playing single high FS.  I'll repeat what I said in Goldfish's draft thread:

"It was the only pick that was universally hated by the fan base.  He was a supremely athletic specimen, similar to Apke, but his film didn't match his athleticism and most assumed he was too soft and his instincts were too poor to become a starter.  It was considered a major reach by most.  It turned out that he was one of the best players on our defense when he was given the opportunity to start.  Far from soft, he was almost too physical, laying big hits on WRs and RBs (and hurting himself multiple times in the process) and showing extremely good range, as the FS in our Cover 3 scheme is required to have.  When he went down, our defense wasn't close to the same.  I think his loss had almost as big of an impact as Jonathan Allen's last year.  Jay Gruden called him the Jordan Reed of our defense (basically the key to making everything hum as it should).  Everyone on the staff and a lot of the DBs on the team are really excited about this kid.  I just hope he can stay healthy."

 

4 hours ago, BAConrad said:

I think that people are overrating this defense. 11th in DVOA last year seems about as good as it could be barring some major changes in a year. 

I would love to hear your logic on how 11th seems about as good as it could be, given the fact that we were without Jonathan Allen for the majority of the season last year, our CB1 was battling through broken ribs for most of the season, Nicholson missed half the year due to injury, our top 2 ILBs missed a combined 12 games, and our 2nd best DL after J Allen (Matt I.) was either missing games or playing with a broken hand most of the year.  We were forced to start Ziggy Freakin' Hood throughout the year at NT, lmao.  So yeah, you really don't know what you're talking about if you still believe that.

4 hours ago, BAConrad said:

And then whats this about noone being surprised if Guice is better than Hunt?

Seriously? I love when guys like Guice freefall in the draft, then everyone calls the team who takes him "geniuses" and that hes just gonna tear up the league. Because more often than not it doesnt happen. If a guy is so talented, that he could potentially be AS GOOD OR BETTER than Hunt, the guy who just led the league in rushing IIRC and had one of the best RB rookie seasons ever, then why did this aforementioned player slide down? 

Hunt was drafted in the 3rd round.  Guice was drafted in the 2nd, even with the "character concerns".  It's pretty clear that Guice was a better prospect coming out.  I said that Guice is an "unknown" because he's never played an NFL game, but no one, maybe other than you, will be surprised if Guice ends up having the better career.

He slid because of "character concerns" and "an imminent breaking story on TMZ that is going to embarrass whoever drafts him" that was never imminent and never broke.  Here is a reporter who covers LSU that can explain it better than I can:

Quote

 

Q&A with Mile Detillier, Part 1: LSU in the NFL Draft

 

Scott: When it comes to LSU and the draft, the hot topic is the slide of Derrius Guice late in the second round. What’s your take on the way this all played out?

 

Mike: I have done this 33 years and I see this virtually every year. A prominent agent puts out info (true or not) on a player when he has a client at the same spot. He wants to upgrade the status of his client and lower a player at his position and he doesn’t care if it is true. It’s the ugly part of this process. What is disturbing is the national guys who repeated this and had no proof. No proof. At first, it was off the field issues and then when they were put on notice he had no arrest, no suspensions or any other matters, then it turned to a TMZ video. TMZ’s executives denied they had anything on Guice. Then it turned into a confrontation between him and a coach. Then, when both sides denied it, it became, “Well he didn’t interview well and spoke about video games and bowling instead of watching film.” Look, I deal with agents daily and I know exactly how it works for them. Some are really good people and don’t play this game, but there are always a few who will do or say whatever they can to upgrade their client. It’s draft gossip and some run with it as fact. My deal is prove what you are saying. Prove it. If you can’t, then you can’t go with it. But we live in the social media world of getting clicks and folks making up a story to make their own agenda sound better. Interviews are a personal opinion, and not fact. Guice got caught up with it and he also called out the NFL for their line of questioning in interviews. You think the NFL wants that out? No way, and he is not the first one to say that the line of questioning centered around someone’s mom or their sexuality. We live in that world. It used to be about someone’s health or an injury, but now it’s about their character. Again, prove it, but at this stage it’s old news and the agent did his job of getting his guy picked higher and put Guice in a bit of a free-fall.  Teams pick players with criminal histories and admitted issues with drugs and alcohol and those same guys know it, but they don’t say it. It’s the ugly side of the draft world and I get that same sort of information quite a bit. 

 

But Guice will do great in Washington. He’s come from a tough background and he is a top competitor and player. Coaches Miles and Orgeron have spoken about him at the highest level. No one is perfect in this world, but this made-up information on him shows just how far some will go to upgrade their own guy. We have all heard about the really good things he has done in the community, but that’s local, not national news. He was targeted and for the agent or agents involved it got their own player picked higher and those guys walk away in the snow with no footprints.

 

http://www.dandydon.com/Mike_Detillier_LSU_Spring_2018_1.php

 

 

4 hours ago, BAConrad said:

Right now, absolutely the 17 KC offense was more talented than this Wash one. And btw Alex Smith didnt like just magically turn into an aggressive QB overnight at the age of 33 or what ever. He threw down field last year because of the offense he was in. He had the perfect system/players/coaching around him to allow him to throw downfield so much. 

It goes both ways.  What legit deep threat did he have around him before he got Tyreek Hill?  The shell of Jeremy Maclin, who hasn't done jack since leaving Smith?  Who else?  You can't ask a QB to be some great downfield passer if he has no one to throw it to.  He was 10th in the league in deep attempts with Hill.  I expect him to be top half of the league this year throwing to Paul Richardson and Josh Doctson.

 

4 hours ago, BAConrad said:

He still isnt aggressive. Aggressive doesnr just mean throwing deep passes a lot. It means pushing the ball downfield by making tough throws into tight windows more than anything.

I posted the "aggressive" stats earlier today in this thread.  He's right on par with the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Drew Brees when it comes to that "aggressiveness" stat.  Being smart with the football is not something that should be scorned, it's something that wins football games, and should be celebrated.  If you look at that "aggressiveness" stat, Wentz is the only good QB at the top of that list.  He's surrounded by bums.  Now, maybe Wentz is just that great where he can still be a top QB making more tight window throws than any other top QB in the league, or maybe there is more luck involved than Eagles fans would like to admit and some of those 50/50 balls go the other way this year if Wentz stays that aggressive.

[HTTRDynasty]

3 hours ago, Jroc04 said:

The Giants pass rush was indeed elite and deep and the Ravens still had Lewis, Reed, Suggs and Ngata among others. Lewis passed his prime surely but I'd bet on a HoF player to get up for a SB. But point stands, if you can look at the last 30 years of SBs and only pick out one arguable counter than that's clearly just an outlier. You need elite QB play or a combination of good QB play with certain components that are elite. I.E. Pass rush, secondary, running game...etc. 

As I posted above, the Redskins had an elite pass rushing unit last season and a top pass defense.  If that's all it takes for an "average" QB to be elevated to the playoffs, then sign me up.  We went a long way towards fixing our run defense this offseason, so we currently have no glaring weaknesses on that side of the ball.  It's all about staying healthy now.

Lewis and Reed were shells of themselves during that run, btw.  That defense really wasn't good, like at all.  Didn't Kaepernick put up 31 points on them in the SB?

3 hours ago, Jroc04 said:

Firstly, my point was leading a category is sometimes misleading. As it was with Bradford and as it is with Smith. And you know as well as anyone with eyes, is that passer rating is a joke. If you don't know, I'd do a little research. A guy that's 40/40 for 100 yards 0TD 0INTs has a better rating than a guy that's 20/40 350 yards 0TDs 0INTs. I'd take the second guy all day. It's a very basic stat. Much like Smith. And as others alluded to, the same next generation stats have Smith only being more aggressive than CJ Beathard. Woa. Just because he's throwing to open guys down the field doesn't mean he's bunked any moniker. It just means he's not dumb. He's still a game manager. He just happened to have Kelce and Hill/Hunt to take apart offenses. But the proof is in the pudding. Is Alex Smith anything special? You've seen him play, is he? Two teams found out the hard way and so will the Redskins. There's a reason why Mahomes is starting in KC now. You don't get rid of guys that are special unless you have something better in the wings or you're just a dunce. 

Any stat can be misleading, especially if you look at it on a game by game basis.  But as the sample size increases, most stats will even out.  Passer rating is an example.  If you look at the top ten QBs by passer rating over the full season last year, the list has pretty much all the guys you would expect based on how we subjectively viewed their seasons last year:

1. Alex Smith

2. Drew Brees

3. Tom Brady

4. Carson Wentz

5. Jared Goff

6. Matt Stafford

7. Case Keenum

8. Aaron Rodgers

9. Phillip Rivers

10. Russell Wilson

 

Regarding the "aggressive" stat, I'll re-post what I said above:

"I posted the "aggressive" stats earlier today in this thread.  He's right on par with the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Drew Brees when it comes to that "aggressiveness" stat.  Being smart with the football is not something that should be scorned, it's something that wins football games, and should be celebrated.  If you look at that "aggressiveness" stat, Wentz is the only good QB at the top of that list.  He's surrounded by bums.  Now, maybe Wentz is just that great where he can still be a top QB making more tight window throws than any other top QB in the league, or maybe there is more luck involved than Eagles fans would like to admit and some of those 50/50 balls go the other way this year if Wentz stays that aggressive."

Two teams did give up on Smith, true.  One was a team who thought they found the wave of the future when Kaepernick was running all over teams and no one could stop him.  Turns out they were wrong, and they paid terribly for that decision.  We'll soon see if the other team regrets it as well.

3 hours ago, Jroc04 said:

They are middling QBs right now. I don't know why it's so offensive to you. If I would have told you Smith was a slightly above average QB last year, you would have agreed. And so would everyone else.  Now it's different because he's a redskin?

It's different because the guy just objectively had a top 5 season for a QB.  We won't know if that's an outlier, or a sign that something clicked for him, until we see what he does this year.

[EaglesPeteC]

^

I 100% did not read this 

[HTTRDynasty]

1 minute ago, EaglesPeteC said:

^

I 100% did not read this 

Why would you?  Ignorance is bliss, after all.