2024 NFL Season Thread
 

Guess its time for a new thread-so how are we feeling about the game in Brazil tonight?

Because of the weakness of the AFC West and the rotation for cross-conference games being the NFC South, the Chiefs are looking at what will probably be a very easy schedule. If things go the way I expect, that's 10 games against one playoff team.

Gonna spend Friday night with my family as is our tradition. The NFL has managed to do something that I thought was impossible--give me too much football.

If it's only on Peacock then I won't be watching it.

Given my new-found lack of interest in CFB, I'm kinda hoping they'll add some Saturday games before December.

Last night's game was a great start to the season. Really missed the NFL and it was just stars making plays all night on both sides of the ball.

The other thread talked about Mahomes egging on late hit penalties and I sort of agree. Not sure you can do anything regarding the rule. But maybe the rule could be changed a bit that the player has to make a concerted effort to get out of bounds or slide. Murray and Allen do the same things at times. The late hit penalty should not be a game.

Same not worth getting peacock just for one game.

It definitely seemed like Jackson was letting up on runs near the sideline and getting OOB and the defenders just let it happen, even when they could have likely hit him while he was still in bounds. Whereas with Mahomes, he was still trying to gain yardage and yeah, that last one he side-stepped OOB at the last moment. The counter to that is, even if he stayed in bounds, do you really think it's wise to dive at the legs of Patrick Mahomes? You've gotta know the situation and react accordingly.

Peacock is cheap and I watch it more than Netflix, Prime, Paramount+ (which I get free) and even MLB.tv. But obviously, YMMV. If the NFL ended up with an exclusive on Apple TV, I'd just be watching my phone app for updates.

i get paramount+ free through Walmart-so i've been catching up on the Star Trek shows I missed, and I see that i'll be to watch out of market CBS games there? But looks like we will have RedZone again, so not sure how much i will use Paramount for those games.

I got Peacock when they had the $20 for a year deal. I figured it would be well worth it for the occasional games in the NFL and college basketball that end up on there.

When I look on YouTubeTV, I'm seeing that NFL Network is showing the Packers/Eagles game at 2:30 am Saturday morning. That works for me, since I wouldn't get around to watching the game until Saturday morning anyway. It depends on what we discussed here a week ago, will they have a ticker showing the final score of the game that they're currently airing?

And ten thousand episodes of "Law and Order SVU"

Things are quiet, but weird in Cincy. Chase doesn't have a deal and seems to be weighing whether or not to play Sunday. Higgins said he felt great yesterday, but he's on the injured list as doubtful.

You have to pay one of these guys, Cincy, and the sooner you do it the cheaper it will be.

It's ironic that in the NFL's quest to make football as available to every human everywhere on the planet as possible, they're also making sure practically nobody could or would want to watch every game (broadcast in their area).




...also ironic that the most consistent method for catching these games is illegal streaming, which has been entirely unaffected by the NFL's seemingly constant broadcast provider shenanigans

Is one of the issues that the owner is cash poor and can't pay out the large signing bonuses?

I think they should have signed Chase to a big deal and traded Higgins. They probably would have gotten a nice haul for him last year.

My renewal comes up in a week for $80/year. One of my credit cards has a "spend $59.99 or more and get $20 credit on Peacock" offer that synchs up nicely with my annual renewal, so it'll basically cost me $5/month for an app I use regularly. I'll take it.

The Chase case is interesting. You look at players from the top of the 2021 draft, and what happens if the club picks up the fifth-year option.

As most here would know, under the new-ish CBA, first-rounders are signed for four years, like every other draft pick, but teams have an option for a one-year deal at a top market rate.

Problem is, the top market rate lags the real market rate significantly, because the cap is rising far faster than anyone anticipated, coming out of COVID and the changes to television viewing habits meaning that live sports is pretty much the only thing advertisers really pay for these days.

That has fueled an explosion in elite pay, because the difference between just-a-guy and just-a-guy-clinging-to-the-roster is not that much in the NFL. No one is ever going to pay those guys all that much more than the minimum salary.

This year, top WRs are going for $30 million and top QBs are going for $55 million. Chase is making about $5 million this year and the Bengal option is for $22 million next year.

Time to get paid, right?

The Jaguars paid Trevor Lawrence. Zach Wilson and Trey Lance busted and didn't get the option year. Kyle Pitts (#4 pick) has played at a pro-bowl level and had his option picked up, but he's a tight end and they don't get paid that much more than the option amount (Taylor Swift is OK with that).

Chase was picked fifth. Jaylen Waddle sixth with the Dolphins, and he just signed for $28 million per year and is just a bit below pro-bowl level.

Chase's agent sees the $30 million contracts, and figures that Chase has earned one. The Bengals are looking at the Brandon Aiyuk signing (he just got paid when this would have been his option year) and saying that's what they want to do. They just paid Tee Higgins from 2020 good #2 WR money, but Higgins wasn't a first-rounder and there was no option year.

So, is this sorta-holdout a good idea? Since the Bengals are playing hardball with Chase's agent, who is in the right?

It's a tough one. We'll learn more on Sunday whether it was good for the Browns, but so far, the game-changing Deshaun Watson saga lends credence to the idea that whatever breaks the market drives the market. If Chase were a free agent today, he'd get $30 million easily, maybe more.

I don't know the answer here. If Chase holds out, his contract doesn't advance. But what does Cincinnati have to give up in order to sign him?

The explosion of the market makes this very interesting, because if the Bengals simply think they can get a lot more for that cap room, they may be helping themselves by keeping Chase locked up and unavailable to other teams. If a holdout begins, Chase is very, very tradable and the Watson saga means they'll get some good draft picks out of it - something they may well prefer to locking up $110 million plus $1 (Chase's apparent demand) over the next four years.

On the other hand, if 2024 is all you care about because the pieces are in place for a legitimate title run (and NFL teams do operate that way), then you have get Chase on the field.

Right now, the Bengals hold all of the cards. With playoff expansion, if they really are a title-worthy team they can handle a four-week holdout with very little risk of missing the playoffs. They can let this play out, but it's a gamble.

I think they are looking at 2024 as a win now year. Chase said today that the Bengals approached him about an extension this summer. Keeping Higgins also says this is a team looking to win.

So if that's true, they have to get the deal done. It's an amazing failure to come out of this with no Bates, Higgins, or Chase. They've seemingly been aiming for this deal.

Chase is in an interesting position because his salary is so low this year that it's almost not worth playing under it and risking injury until Week 10 (or whatever the final week is where you can accrue a season).

This game started off with an immediate illegal formation penalty on the kickoff, if anyone thinks they're missing anything.

Now they just had offsetting penalties for 12 men on offense AND defense.

I currently have Cinci in my survivor pool and am considering changing given Chase and Higgens may not play

Grumpy Old Man also not fond of kickers wearing numbers in the 40s!

I thought they got rid of the 4th preseason game?

They are saying Justin Fields is expected to start Sunday, as Russell Wilson is nursing a calf injury.

So far so good with this free agent pickup at RB for the Eagles.

The Eagles need to find something for Nick Sirianni to do on the sidelines. I know that John Harbaugh doesn't call plays on offense or defense but he still looks like he is doing something constructive on the sidelines and has control of his team. Sirianni looks like he is bouncing from position group to another and being turned away from each group and he could lose control of himself at any point.

Neither of these QBs look ready for the regular season.

Neither of these teams. This has been ugly football all around, maybe not helped by the field but defensively and in terms of discipline, this is a good argument against all the changes they keep making to dumb down training camp and the preseason.

No one in the NFL had a worse backup QB situation entering the season. If Love is injured, they're going to have to make a move. I think Ryan Tannehill said he'd come back for the right situation when asked if he'd consider the Vikings a couple of weeks ago. This might be a better fit.

I’d rather see the kicker just wear a “K” jersey instead of having a number in the 40s.

I and others made fun of or bitched about the Falcons picking Micheal Penix after signing Cousins to that big contract, but this is one of the main reason they did it. They didn't want to see the drop off again they had when they moved on from Ryan. It seemed like a steep price at the time, but the idea of having a quality back up along with the future starter already in hand is a comfort.

Last I saw, the Browns lept 4 QBs on their roster and were open to trading any of the 3 backups, including Winston and Dorrian-Thompson. That could be a move they make.

I haven't seen anything since right after the game, but Love appears to have escaped a major injury although you can walk on an ACL, so who knows. I'll say that when it happened, I had immediate flashbacks to the Jordan Travis injury, but Love definitely escaped that gruesome break.

I'm not super superstitious, but it feels like the universe punished the NFL for having a Friday game. Sucks that the curse fell on Love.

NFL Network did it mostly right. During the actual re-airing, they didn't show the final score. I think they showed the score at the beginning of my recording, but before the re-airing started, but luckily I was already fast forwarding through it.

My daughter said she saw a close-up slow-mo video of his knee when the injury happened and you can see something pop in the video and a lot of people are speculating an MCL injury.

I haven't been paying too much attention, certainly less to the Giants, and I didn't realized they're not only content to start Daniel Jones again, but they gave him a four-year extension. We've talked plenty in here about albatross QBs that put your team in limbo because they're clearly not top-tier, or even top-half, but they're also clearly better than whatever else is available....is Daniel Jones the king albatross if he can put the Giants on pause for 8 years?

Reports are that it is not an ACL with Love.

Might still be bad, but maybe not season ending.

Here's hoping.

Ultimately anything several weeks or more is probably season ending for the packers given who will be trotting out there at QB while he is out.

Well, I guess the social media doctors got it right. MCL injury, but not season-ending.

My fantasy starter: Love.

Sounds promising...

My understanding is Jordan Love has between a Grade 1 and Grade 2 MCL sprain, which means he’ll miss a few weeks but not extended time. https://t.co/MLlvzGz9AU

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 7, 2024

Indy, Tenn, Minn, Rams, Ariz

You never want to lose your QB, but the schedule is favorable to coming out still in contention.

Noe Chase is listed on the injury report with an undisclosed illness.

So are we ready for some football? Please beloved Cardinals don't disappoint from Week 1-stay close to buffalo at least.

The NFL needs to work harder to get these fields right for international games.

Tyreek Hill was just arrested outside Hard Rock Stadium. Adjust your fantasy rosters accordingly!

Miami Dolphins

@MiamiDolphins
This morning, WR Tyreek Hill was pulled over for a traffic incident about one block from the stadium and briefly detained by police. He has since been released. Several teammates saw the incident and stopped to offer support. Tyreek and all other players involved have safely arrived to the stadium and will be available for today’s game.

Aggressive traffic stop withstanding, Tyreek Hill seems to practically get a pass for what a piece of shit he constantly proves to be.