2020 Divisional Round: (5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers at (2) New Orleans Saints

[FinSting]

7 hours ago, DannyB said:

literally came here to post that video. Look, I'm a very jaded, skeptical soul. But holy crap what an amazing childhood to have. Just playing around with NFL stars, catching passes from Tom effin' Brady.

Like 11-yr-old Bill Belichick, catches passes from future NFL Hall of Famer QB Roger Staubach after a Naval Acadamy football practice ran by Bill's father. 

[Magnifico]

8 hours ago, Blackstar12 said:

 

"Be nice to your sister"

After she spends the first 30 seconds beating the crap out of him. 😄

That's a pretty cool vid. Didn't realise they were such good friends.

[Magnifico]

9 hours ago, FrantikRam said:

Seeing the Saints lose and knowing that they won't be a contender for a long time? I'm not upset about it

I think they'll have a down year or two, but if they can get a QB, they have a lot of talent and barring a few **** up (Two 1sts for Marcus Davenport, like wtf?) they have drafted really well over the last 5-6 years. Particularly in the Trenches.

8 hours ago, stl4life07 said:

In general though it just shows you how tough it is to win in the playoffs. We know the Saints are great. Brees is great, Payton is great, Kamara, Thomas, and the defense is great. The fact that Brees only been to one Superbowl and won regardless if it was bountygate or whatever, its an accomplishment. Its hard to win in the playoffs. Saints are a great team. Lets see them figure out who is the next QB if Brees truly hangs it up this offseason. Saints arent going away because they are a well ran organization. The Bucs now get a chance to go to Lambeau to face the Packers. I dont think this game will go the way it did in the regular season when the Bucs smacked the Packers around. Lambeau is a different animal for a Florida team. Should be a good one though.

Said this a few times. Even in the now locked Lamar thread. Tom Brady and the Patriots success have warped a lot of peoples minds about how easy it is to win the whole damn thing, or even just get there.

Tom Brady has as many Superbowl Victories as Peyton, Brees, Rodgers and Big Ben combined. He's essentially had a HOF career from 2001 - 2011 and another from 2012 - 2021.

As amazing as Mahomes is, he could end up like Rodgers in 10 years time with only one SuperBowl to his name, particularly given the influx of QB talent in the AFC. As @lancerman said. Brady has double the playoff wins the 2nd most person has. It's nuts.

[SmittyBacall]

By the way, where was Michael Thomas last night?

 

[Billy86]

There was more to it in the back and forthof trades, but essentially Jaire Alexander and Darnell Savage (who has been playing like his name of late) for Davenport is definitely looking more and more lopsided by the minute. 

[TitanSlim]

The pettiness between fans, players and coaches in the NFC South is unmatched. It’s everything that the NFC East gets hyped up to be.

That Slant Boy nickname for Michael Thomas is legit funny to me.

[SmittyBacall]

11 minutes ago, TitanSlim said:

The pettiness between fans, players and coaches in the NFC South is unmatched. It’s everything that the NFC East gets hyped up to be.

That Slant Boy nickname for Michael Thomas is legit funny to me.

This one kills me.

 

[ILoveTheVikings]

24 minutes ago, SmittyBacall said:

By the way, where was Michael Thomas last night?

 

😝 Has he said anything? Dude is always complaining and making excuses

[stl4life07]

41 minutes ago, Billy86 said:

There was more to it in the back and forthof trades, but essentially Jaire Alexander and Darnell Savage (who has been playing like his name of late) for Davenport is definitely looking more and more lopsided by the minute. 

I said it as soon as the trade went down the Saints made a big mistake. There was evidence about teams at the bottom of the draft trading all the way up in the middle of the draft for a defensive player. Either they was a bust due to performance or just cant stay healthy. Then I think about the Saints making that move because they missed out on Suh and they wanted to go all in because Brees was basically nearing the end but still the trade was bad the second they made it.  

[stl4life07]

46 minutes ago, SmittyBacall said:

By the way, where was Michael Thomas last night?

 

This has an eerie feeling of what happened with Cooks. Cooks wanted out and a game against the Rams where the Saints put up 40+ pts in a regular season game Cooks got no catches for no yards. In the offseason he got traded to the Pats. Thomas isnt happy with the Saints. My friend said it had to do with what Brees said in the offseason about BLM. Anyways he wants out and if this is his last game and the Saints does move on from him he had no catches for no yards. Again thats eerie for the Saints best two receivers in recent history in the franchise.  

[mission27]

11 hours ago, MWil23 said:

Also I love how:

The Bucs D forces 4 TO.

Everyone in here: OMG, bow down to the goat TB12

Granted he’s special, but come on 😂 

People been saying this for 20 years always some excuse for why he doesn’t deserve the credit 

[Broncofan]

2 hours ago, Magnifico said:

I think they'll have a down year or two, but if they can get a QB, they have a lot of talent and barring a few **** up (Two 1sts for Marcus Davenport, like wtf?) they have drafted really well over the last 5-6 years. Particularly in the Trenches.

 

The issue is they mortgaged their future for these SB runs.   Their cap situations is god awful - 95M over the cap, and 70M once Brees retires.   And they don't have room to restructure a lot of contracts.   The kicker is that 2020 was the last cheap year (Ramczyk & Lattimore get 5th year options of course) for that amazing 2017 draft class - so now all their rookie contract stars are super expensive.    That's a huge reason why they are in such cap hell.

DEN went through this with 2015's SB win - their legendary 2011 draft class needed to be extended, and PFM retired.   DEN lost 2 key guys on D right away (Ware & Trevathan), PFM couldn't be replaced by our internal options, and 2 guys retired on the OL.    We went 9-7 but were never serious contenders....and have endured massive mediocrity since then. 

I'm not saying NO is doomed to repeat DEN's path to struggles, and no playoffs for 5 years (!!!) - but DEN didn't have the cap issues NO faces.   That's a much taller task to return to the same level of contention that they've enjoyed the past 4 years.  It's really true how much sustained contention relies on the draft, so your cap health allows contenders to fill gaps.  When you combine with a QB gap - cap woes PLUS uncertain QB situation usually spells a long road back.   Guess we'll find out with NO how much they follow this trend.

Edited January 18, 2021 by Broncofan

[MWil23]

1 hour ago, mission27 said:

People been saying this for 20 years always some excuse for why he doesn’t deserve the credit 

Where did I say he didn’t deserve the credit? He played well, but their defense played great.

[Magnifico]

2 hours ago, stl4life07 said:

This has an eerie feeling of what happened with Cooks. Cooks wanted out and a game against the Rams where the Saints put up 40+ pts in a regular season game Cooks got no catches for no yards. In the offseason he got traded to the Pats. Thomas isnt happy with the Saints. My friend said it had to do with what Brees said in the offseason about BLM. Anyways he wants out and if this is his last game and the Saints does move on from him he had no catches for no yards. Again thats eerie for the Saints best two receivers in recent history in the franchise.  

Do you have a source for this that Thomas wants out? Or is this just chinese whispers?

1 hour ago, Broncofan said:

The issue is they mortgaged their future for these SB runs.   Their cap situations is god awful - 95M over the cap, and 70M once Brees retires.   And they don't have room to restructure a lot of contracts.   The kicker is that 2020 was the last cheap year (Ramczyk & Lattimore get 5th year options of course) for that amazing 2017 draft class - so now all their rookie contract stars are super expensive.    That's a huge reason why they are in such cap hell.

DEN went through this with 2015's SB win - their legendary 2011 draft class needed to be extended, and PFM retired.   DEN lost 2 key guys on D right away (Ware & Trevathan), PFM couldn't be replaced by our internal options, and 2 guys retired on the OL.    We went 9-7 but were never serious contenders....and have endured massive mediocrity since then. 

I'm not saying NO is doomed to repeat DEN's path to struggles, and no playoffs for 5 years (!!!) - but DEN didn't have the cap issues NO faces.   That's a much taller task to return to the same level of contention that they've enjoyed the past 4 years.  It's really true how much sustained contention relies on the draft, so your cap health allows contenders to fill gaps.  When you combine with a QB gap - cap woes PLUS uncertain QB situation usually spells a long road back.   Guess we'll find out with NO how much they follow this trend.

- They're in for some tough, uncompetitive, uncomfortable years ahead, and will lose talent (probably starting with Hendrickson and Marcus Williams if they overpay Lattimore), but I guess for the long time fans it's nothing compared to pre-2006, and Payton imo is still clearly a Top 3 Coach in the League.

- It all hinges on finding a suitable QB, preferably through the draft. There is enough pieces currently, like if Denver had hit on Lock or Lynch or the many differing QB's picked by Elways, even with some loses they have a defence and run game that there is no reason why they shouldn't be in a possible to at least challenge for the wildcard (True contention admittedly is a way off)?

- I guess the fortunate thing for them, is that Cyborg Brady can't play forever, Matt Ryan has what, 3-4 years left? And the Panthers still haven't found a new QB, so the NFC South will enter a state of flux whenever Father Time catches up to Brady, if it ever does, somewhat similar to the AFC West following Denver's 2015 Superbowl (until Mahomes arrived on the scene).

[stl4life07]

37 minutes ago, Magnifico said:

Do you have a source for this that Thomas wants out? Or is this just chinese whispers?

From everything Im hearing Thomas isnt happy. I didnt quite understand why but talking to my friend who has his eyes and ears close to the Saints he said it had something to do with Brees comments in the offseason in regards to the BLM movement. Plus I think earlier in the season PFT had an article about Thomas wanting out. The Saints did right by not trading him at the deadline. I thought when he got hurt Week 1 which never shouldve happened if Payton was trying to run up the score on the Bucs, but I thought when Thomas got hurt that he would come back in a few weeks but it took a long time for him to get back even got suspended for an incident that happened in practice. Like all those little things to.