NFL Week 16 Thread

But enough about his weekly press conferences.

 

There's a lesson here. Remember when Lynch was released by Buffalo? In football more than other sports we have guys all the time who are declared busts or finished, only to achieve success at their next stop or coach. Even with QBs (Warner, Cunningham, Smith). If I were the Jets or one of the other teams with big holes at QB, I would absolutely buy low on Cutler.

 

The problem is that Cutler's next stop will be his third, not second. A trend has been established.

 

All Time Left-For-Dead players in no certain order....

Fill in or add as needed.

Offense
1. Lynch
2. Bettis
3. Unitas
4. Dawson
5. Welker
6. Plunkett
7. Trent Green
8. Langer
9. Warner
10. Kuechenburg

Defense
1. Harrison
2. Haley
3. Willie Brown
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

 

Haley's a good example, not sure Welker qualifies.

 

He's also worked with some great QB coaches. It's hard to imagine any coach being able to "fix" him.

 

The Chargers cut Welker when he was a rookie.

 

Unitas may be No. 1 there, followed closely by another Colts QB: Earl Morrall.

 

When it's that early, I think that's a different category. Lynch, Haley, Warner, Smith all got full chances to succeed, some actually did, and then were cut.

Also, hard to say this is Cutler's 3rd chance. Denver was not a failure, they traded him and got a lot of value for him.

 

A surprising number of players in the Hall of Fame played for two or more teams and were either traded or cut by their original team to go onto success with another. I'm not counting the 1920s guys, because they bounced from team to team in search of paychecks that didn't bounce, but the three teamers include Night Train Lane and Bobby Layne, whom the Bears let go after his first two seasons. Also, Hall of Famer Paul Brown traded away no fewer than three guys who subsequently became Hall of Famers, Doug Atkins, Henry Jordan and Willie Davis. I suspect all these apparently bat-brained personnel decisions stemmed from the 33 man rosters of that era.

 

Most guys play for two teams

Montana
Lott
Rice
Manning
Faulk
Tomlinson

 

Agreed on Cutler. I'm not sure Bettis belongs on that list, either. He wasn't cut. The Rams traded him and a third-round pick to the Steelers for a second-rounder that season (1996) and a fourth rounder in 1997. He had a bad '95 season, but he wasn't left for dead.