NFL 2023 Offseason/Free Agency/Draft Thread

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

I read that he and Stafford have a good relationship (Bennett was probably a freshman during Stafford’s last year).

Stafford was drafted in 2009 so maybe in a summer camp. But yeah, hope Stafford will take him under his wing and mentor him.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Stafford was drafted in 2009 so maybe in a summer camp. But yeah, hope Stafford will take him under his wing and mentor him.

I'm pretty sure that was a "Stetson is old" joke.
Stafford and Duggan both were drafted to teams whose home field hosted their National Championship match-up.

[Edward64]

Oh, sorry. My bad.

(dagumit)

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Also happy the Commanders picked Ricky Stromberg. Com’on Bumper Pool

And Bumper Pool as UDFA to Carolina.

Was going to watch some Panther's preseason games anyway to check out Young so hopefully will see him also in some preseason action.

[Thomkal]

If its not to early for this my beloved Cards looking good for next season with 11 picks so far for the draft, including Houston's 1st rounder

[Ksyrup]

I saw that James Blackman signed with Miami and I thought he must have spent the past 3 or 4 years in the CFL or XFL or whatever. And then I see that he apparently played for Arkansas State this past year? Damn, seems like at least 6-8 years ago when he played at FSU for Jimbo.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I saw that James Blackman signed with Miami and I thought he must have spent the past 3 or 4 years in the CFL or XFL or whatever. And then I see that he apparently played for Arkansas State this past year? Damn, seems like at least 6-8 years ago when he played at FSU for Jimbo.

Well, he did play six seasons of college football (4 at FSU, 2 at Arkansas State).

Cam Akers was a freshman on that same team Blackman debuted for .... and just completed his 3rd NFL season.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

If its not to early for this my beloved Cards looking good for next season with 11 picks so far for the draft, including Houston's 1st rounder

Moving on from Keim was one of the best things they could have done. They are positioned very well for a good run starting in 2024, if Murray can stay healthy and play consistently as he does in flashes.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Well, he did play six seasons of college football (4 at FSU, 2 at Arkansas State).

Cam Akers was a freshman on that same team Blackman debuted for .... and just completed his 3rd NFL season.

That tracks.

What I remember of him was that he was tough as nails and rail thin. It looks like he's only put on about 20 pounds since freshman year. He'll get broken in two in the NFL at 6'5" 190.

[albionmoonlight]

Since the Covid extended eligibility is giving us a natural experiment into significantly older players entering the league, I wonder if anyone is going to crunch the numbers and see how that affects their NFL careers for good or ill.

[JPhillips]

If I'm looking at things correctly, the AFC has 13 playoff QBs, 2 top-five draft picks, and Kenny Pickett.

[albionmoonlight]

It is now the deep offseason, so we can discuss very off-the-wall things:

ESPN producer says Mel Kiper Jr. should be in Pro Football Hall of Fame https://t.co/rKeTXXT4XZ pic.twitter.com/IJaGoDxjKP

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 29, 2023

[albionmoonlight]

I get the argument for him. It seems to really come down to what you think a Hall of Fame is for.

I think that we can all agree that Kiper has been a huge influence on the was we watch and consume the game. And that he has made the league a boatload of money by showing them that the draft can be a made-for-TV spectacle.

And that he should be on the short list of most influential sports journalists ever.

But we can say all of that and still don't need to put him in the Hall of Fame.

[Bobble]

Hall of Fame and he's famous for football stuff. He's got my vote.

[Swaggs]

My first thought was "why not?" If you are telling the story of the NFL and professional football and the growth of it within television, I think he belongs. But, in digging around, it looks like there are not any media members (at least not primarily media members - guys like Madden and Aikman are in for coaching and playing). So, if Howard Cosell isn't in the Hall of Fame, I say no to Mel.

There is this award given by the HoF: Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award - Wikipedia

and, oddly enough, Cosell never won it, either. Jack and Joe Buck, Madden, Berman and TJ (separately), James Brown, Andrea Kremer, Summerall, Frank Gifford, Dierdorf, and a bunch of other notables have all won it over the years. It looks like you can only be honored once, so no repeats. No Kiper yet, though.

[NobodyHere]

Major Colts, Anthony Richardson News Has Already Been Leaked

I've been noticing more headlines like this and it bothers me. There was no leak. Information that comes from a public statement by the team owner is not a leak. The headline is just clickbait which I fell for.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I've been noticing more headlines like this and it bothers me. There was no leak. Information that comes from a public statement by the team owner is not a leak. The headline is just clickbait which I fell for.

Don't link that crap here lol, you are just promoting it more. Where are you running into it? Google news feed? Cause it's very good at aggregating the worst sources and most clickbaity articles on the web.

[NobodyHere]

This particular one was on msn.com

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Major Colts, Anthony Richardson News Has Already Been Leaked

I've been noticing more headlines like this and it bothers me. There was no leak. Information that comes from a public statement by the team owner is not a leak. The headline is just clickbait which I fell for.

Anybody ever heard of Newsbreak? It's some news app that every now and then has some moderately useful article links, but most of the time it's exactly this type of stuff, except not limited to sports. But the sports ones are the worst - "49ers great dies unexpectedly" and it turns out it's some 84 year old backup punter from the 40s.

[sovereignstar v2]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

This particular one was on msn.com

And it looks like msn.com just uses freelance content creators that are only interested in the # of clicks.

[Ksyrup]

Someone stop AI please!

I asked AI to reimagine all 32 @NFL mascots and that may have been a serious mistake. ��

Photo ��

— GG (@GarryGates) May 1, 2023

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Someone stop AI please!

I asked AI to reimagine all 32 @NFL mascots and that may have been a serious mistake. ��

Photo ��

— GG (@GarryGates) May 1, 2023

I think I've seen this guy before in a MST3k Movie



But what is with the second set of eyes/mouth?!?!?!?

[NobodyHere]

I think the generated Falcons mascot is actually pretty good.

[sterlingice]

The Carolina Poonats?


SI

[Swaggs]

Oh my! Those are fantastic. AFC West are all terrible. The Cowboys one is just straight up amazing.

Eagles and Ravens are entirely decent. I liked the Colts one until I panned down and got to the bulge.

[stevew]

Mel Kiper has never ever put on a jockstrap.

[stevew]

The Bengals one looks amazing.

[stevew]

Ruggs III is pleading guilty to driving intoxicated at speeds up to 156mph and will get 3-10 years in prison. Just doesn’t seem like enough time. House arrest time won’t count toward time served.

[stevew]

20 5th year options for the class of 2020 being declined is nuts. It’s going to be hard for it to go down as an all time bad first round with Burrow and Hebert and Jefferson. But you also have Gladney(dead), Wilson(cut and out of the league) and Ruggs(in jail) among other bombs. It’s possible Jordan Love will look good, but I’m not counting on it.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by stevew

20 5th year options for the class of 2020 being declined is nuts. It’s going to be hard for it to go down as an all time bad first round with Burrow and Hebert and Jefferson. But you also have Gladney(dead), Wilson(cut and out of the league) and Ruggs(in jail) among other bombs. It’s possible Jordan Love will look good, but I’m not counting on it.

Is there a known average to compare this number to?

[Ryche]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Is there a known average to compare this number to?

21 and 19 for 2018 and 2019 classes respectively

[Honolulu_Blue]

Randall Cobb to the Jets.

Shocking!

[stevew]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Is there a known average to compare this number to?

Been 11/13 declined the last two years.

[albionmoonlight]

In other news, someone somewhere thought it made sense for Antonio Brown to own a football team:

Report: Antonio Brown is accused of not paying his Arena Football team coaches and players.

As a result of not getting paid, the head coach and players have quit, including the reigning league MVP.

Brown also locked disgruntled players out of Hotel rooms by not giving them keys pic.twitter.com/q9sCm4NJx0

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) May 3, 2023

[JPhillips]

Chiefs/Lions as the opening game doesn't have much juice.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Bit of a feel good story (depending on how you look at it): Foster Moreau got a routine physical as part of a free agency visit with the Saints. And they discovered that he has Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The feel-good part of it is that they caught it before he had any symptoms, so the prognosis is really good.

Seems like this really did end up feel-good. He signed with the Saints, and the current prognosis is that they got the cancer so quickly that it might not even keep him out of training camp.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Chiefs/Lions as the opening game doesn't have much juice.

How could a Super Bowl preview not have much juice?!

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

How could a Super Bowl preview not have much juice?!

But it isn't Bengals/Lions.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

But it isn't Bengals/Lions.

Fair point!

[Ghost Econ]

You think you know your heros

"I have done everything — scare me, hang upside down, drink water, smell the ass of a porcupine," Jackson added. "It doesn't work."

Auburn great Bo Jackson to undergo procedure for chronic hiccups after suffering for nearly a year - CBSSports.com

[Solecismic]

Bo knows rodents. At least in ways most of us would rather not contemplate.

The trick I've always relied on (not that I've ever had a recurring issue with hiccups) is to take an entire tablespoon of sugar and try and hold it on the back of my tongue as long as possible before swallowing. I'm sure there's no science to that whatsoever, but it works when most of the basics (holding breath, drinking water quickly, thinking about Nancy Pelosi, etc) don't.

It does seem that a year after being featured on Hard Knocks is a sweet spot for gaining that kind of national attention. First game of the season, though, they could trot out Bears/Texans and get a huge audience.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I will say that there would be nothing more on brand for the Lions than to start their first season of real hope and promise in many many years by getting absolutely blown out and embarrassed on national TV.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I will say that there would be nothing more on brand for the Lions than to start their first season of real hope and promise in many many years by getting absolutely blown out and embarrassed on national TV.

For sure And erven if the Lions miraculously manage to leave that era of losing behind I don't think most longtime fans' psyches will be prepared to make that leap with them.

[JPhillips]

As a Bengals fan, I can tell you things can change in a hurry. The attitude around the Bengals is completely different from where it was two years ago. Everyone just expects to be in contention for the next decade or so.

[bronconick]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

I will say that there would be nothing more on brand for the Lions than to start their first season of real hope and promise in many many years by getting absolutely blown out and embarrassed on national TV.

Either that or a stunning win followed by losses to Atlanta and Chicago or something.

[albionmoonlight]

NFL legend Tom Brady is in deep discussions to become a limited partner of the Las Vegas Raiders, sources tell ESPN’s @SethWickersham and me, potentially his second foray into a partnership with Raiders’ owner Mark Davis on a professional sports franchise in less than two months. pic.twitter.com/pVnxqwTrGT

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 12, 2023

People: Michael Jordan was the most competitive athlete of all time

Tom Brady: I am going to buy Jimmy Garoppolo's team to keep my thumb on him because of that time he was my backup and showed a lot of potential and some people briefly thought that he might be as good as me.

If this were FOF, Brady would convert him into a punter and cut him.

[Ksyrup]

It absolutely amazes me that the NFL gets this much mileage out of an email release. Not only is this not much of a reveal, it's not like we didn't already know who everyone was playing. This is just what order! WOW!

Make your marketing ad dollars I suppose, but yeesh. Big yawn.

[QuikSand]

But I do love the trend of some teams making hay out of the schedule release and doing videos and stuff to tout them. The Titans one is great, the Jags was over the top but original, and the Chargers went back to anime and I'm here for it.

[cartman]

We asked people on Broadway to help us with our 2023 schedule release. ��

��: 2023 Schedule Release on @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/31LsUUDn3O

— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) May 12, 2023

[Ksyrup]

Yeah, I don't watch any of that stuff. I'm not a tiktok person and regardless of what media they use, that's all those are. Blech.