craig Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 It's a young man's game, and energy/legs/ motivation of a young ascending player often play better than a pricier grizzled vet. The o-line might be way better this year, who knows? Perhaps we'll get fewer injuries this season, who knows? If Love is even close to as good/smart/accurate as Burrows or Mahomes or Rothlisberger were as new starters, who knows what's possible? Sure, we haven't added any outside FA's. We've lost some grizzled vets. Lazard and Mercedes have been elite blockers for their positions. So yes, improvement will need to come internally, through the draft, and through better health. But internal improvement is not some unrealistic fantasy. Having young players improve and emerge happens often in the NFL and in every other major sport. Will it happen for us, I don't know. But it's not like it's ridiculous or implausibly unrealistic to hope for internal improvement to be significant. The o-line was bad and unstable for most of last season. It still wasn't great late, but it was stabilized. I think major improvement at o-line is not just possible, it's probable. Rodgers played with a broken thumb. He's been a great player, but he was not great last season. Love might be worse, for sure. But it's not like Love needs to be amazing to play about as well as, or perhaps better, than Rodgers did last year. The Packers were awful in the red zone. Yes, there were reasons, some of which will apply this year. But some natural reversion towards the man makes it not just possible but probable that red-zone will be better. We were a bad, losing, 8-9 team last year. To finish around there, maybe a couple wins worse, maybe a couple of wins better, is within the plausible standard deviations of unpredictability. Super-Bowl good? Those odds are too remote for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incognito_man Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 47 minutes ago, skibrett15 said: Why are people sleeping on the vikings? the team that made the playoffs and actually scored 24 points against the Giants. God awful defense, but that's the most accomplished and prepared team in the North. Better QB, better coach, better weapons, ??? O line. Defense comes and goes, but that team has an identity and is a veteran squad with big upside on Offense. Vikings are bad. They're gonna finish last in the division. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 37 minutes ago, skibrett15 said: They could easily regress to 10-7 and run away with the north. Regression doesn't mean "bad team" when you went 13-4. It means, phony SB contender, good playoff team though. Those are good points, skibrett. A really good offense can win some games in a division like ours. And as you note, they can regress significantly but still end up with 10-7 and perhaps still win the division. Your point is also well noted that it's hard for a defense to remain 30th-rated bad. Statistically likely to regress somewhat closer to the mean defensively. (They've replaced their old Packers coordinator.). They have a really good offense, if o-line health allows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibrett15 Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 2 minutes ago, craig said: Those are good points, skibrett. A really good offense can win some games in a division like ours. And as you note, they can regress significantly but still end up with 10-7 and perhaps still win the division. Your point is also well noted that it's hard for a defense to remain 30th-rated bad. Statistically likely to regress somewhat closer to the mean defensively. (They've replaced their old Packers coordinator.). They have a really good offense, if o-line health allows. Yes, precisely. I think it's a toss-up for me between vikings/lions as the favorite, and honestly both the bears/packers could surprise as division winner. It's just weird to see the lions as a clear fav with Vikings lumped in with GB/CHI none of these teams are great. But give me the well-coached team with one elite unit over the "we try harder than the other team" that had a surprise offensive explosion in 2022. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
{Family Ghost} Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 I can't see us topping 7-10 this year. We are just too inexperienced at QB, WR, and TE to be consistent enough to string wins together. My hope is that steady progress is shown throughout the season and at years end we all have the feeling that we are on the brink of something special. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leader Posted May 9, 2023 Author Share Posted May 9, 2023 We win 10. I guarantee it. Bet your kids college fund on this 👍 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incognito_man Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 (edited) 49 minutes ago, {Family Ghost} said: I can't see us topping 7-10 this year. We are just too inexperienced at QB, WR, and TE to be consistent enough to string wins together. My hope is that steady progress is shown throughout the season and at years end we all have the feeling that we are on the brink of something special. Our offense is the 2021 Bengals. 2nd year Burrow after 9 starts vs 4th year Love after 1 start Rookie JaMarr Chase vs 2nd year Christian Watson 2nd year Tee Higgins vs rookie Jayden Reed They had a vet at WR (Boyd) and TE (Ozumah), but our OL is better than theirs was that year. So yeah, if we think 4th yr Love can be rookie year/year 2 Burrow tier, this could be a SB caliber offense. Edited May 9, 2023 by incognito_man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Packerraymond Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 19 minutes ago, incognito_man said: Our offense is the 2021 Bengals. 2nd year Burrow after 9 starts vs 4th year Love after 1 start Rookie JaMarr Chase vs 2nd year Christian Watson 2nd year Tee Higgins vs rookie Jayden Reed They had a vet at WR (Boyd) and TE (Ozumah), but our OL is better than theirs was that year. So yeah, if we think 4th yr Love can be rookie year/year 2 Burrow tier, this could be a SB caliber offense. Watson's gonna have 1500 yards and 13 TD's ? Reed's pulling in 1100 yards as a rookie? Damn. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
{Family Ghost} Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 (edited) 22 minutes ago, incognito_man said: Our offense is the 2021 Bengals. 2nd year Burrow after 9 starts vs 4th year Love after 1 start Rookie JaMarr Chase vs 2nd year Christian Watson 2nd year Tee Higgins vs rookie Jayden Reed They had a vet at WR (Boyd) and TE (Ozumah), but our OL is better than theirs was that year. So yeah, if we think 4th yr Love can be rookie year/year 2 Burrow tier, this could be a SB caliber offense. Did you forget to type most of that in green? Edited May 9, 2023 by {Family Ghost} 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leader Posted May 9, 2023 Author Share Posted May 9, 2023 1 minute ago, Packerraymond said: Watson's gonna have 1500 yards and 13 TD's ? Reed's pulling in 1100 yards as a rookie? Damn. Gonna be a helluva year eh? Buckle up! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Penske Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 3 hours ago, incognito_man said: I find him easy to avoid. I have to go out of my way to encounter him. I've watched maybe 2-3 of his shows ever. That’s my point. His current oh show is easy to avoid because it’s on YouTube or whatever and that’s it. You have to go out if your way to avoid ESPN ( I do) and their content on social, TV, bars etc. Plus if he gets a bigger platform, even if you avoid ESPN he’ll become even more well-known like Shefter, Cowherd, etc. and he’ll influence the pinheads who spout things off like Rodgers never had anyone to throw to cause they were first rounders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Guy Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 32 minutes ago, incognito_man said: Our offense is the 2021 Bengals. 2nd year Burrow after 9 starts vs 4th year Love after 1 start Rookie JaMarr Chase vs 2nd year Christian Watson 2nd year Tee Higgins vs rookie Jayden Reed They had a vet at WR (Boyd) and TE (Ozumah), but our OL is better than theirs was that year. So yeah, if we think 4th yr Love can be rookie year/year 2 Burrow tier, this could be a SB caliber offense. 12 minutes ago, Packerraymond said: Watson's gonna have 1500 yards and 13 TD's ? Reed's pulling in 1100 yards as a rookie? Damn. Why is everyone leaving Doubs out of these conversations? He's going to be great this year. I could see him and Watson going over 1K in receiving yards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazrimiv Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 52 minutes ago, Arthur Penske said: That’s my point. His current oh show is easy to avoid because it’s on YouTube or whatever and that’s it. You have to go out if your way to avoid ESPN ( I do) and their content on social, TV, bars etc. Plus if he gets a bigger platform, even if you avoid ESPN he’ll become even more well-known like Shefter, Cowherd, etc. and he’ll influence the pinheads who spout things off like Rodgers never had anyone to throw to cause they were first rounders. I've seen the McAfee show once. Which is one more time than I've seen guys like Cowherd, Bayless, etc... You'd expect McAfee to make the media pinhead situation worse? I'd probably be reluctantly impressed if he managed to lower that bar further than it already is. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incognito_man Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 1 hour ago, Old Guy said: Why is everyone leaving Doubs out of these conversations? He's going to be great this year. I could see him and Watson going over 1K in receiving yards. I didn't mean to. I think he's a really nice piece of the offense, too.. I didn't mean a literal 1-1 mapping of stats from one player to the next. The pitis that nobody thought that 2021 Bengals offense would be what it was. Or that the 2023 Philly offense would. Not directed at you, but there's always been this weird "crap on posters who try to discuss what the league WILL look like and not what it DID just look like" vibe on a site called footballs FUTURE. It's so weird to me everyone is so afraid to project breakout players and teams. If you average out a season's worth of predictions on this site you probably come up 25% fewer total wins than are in an NFL season. People are so afraid to predict positive results they think average probability predictions are outlandishly optimistic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incognito_man Posted May 9, 2023 Share Posted May 9, 2023 1 hour ago, Packerraymond said: Watson's gonna have 1500 yards and 13 TD's ? Reed's pulling in 1100 yards as a rookie? Damn. And they actually legally change their names because I definitely meant they are going to literally be them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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