NFL offseason thread

The Lions haven’t had offensive linemen as good as Khalil or Turner since the days of Lomas Brown and Kevin Glover
To paraphrase Richard Pryor, if Stafford didn’t get beat up he got beat often

 

I remember Lomas Brown and Kevin Glover. Grossly underrated at left tackle and center.

Barry Sanders didn't go it entirely alone.

Stafford had to endure too much, and he did better than any rational person should expect. But there was a stat that was consistently marched out during telecasts and in ADVs and other pieces on Newton that indicated he was hit a lot more - triple digits - between 2011 and 2018 than any other quarterback in the league. It wasn't close.

In summary, Stafford got hit far too much. Newton was hit even more than that.

 

I hear you loud and clear, and if some of the things with the Celtics is any part of the politics, then Newton has zero chance.

Newton wasn't good ... little doubt about that. But no chef was making gourmet out of that crap.

 

Brady, a Michelin three-star if ever there was one, left rather than spend another season with the same ingredients.

 

Do you remember that year Newton was just getting fucking clobbered - and would never get a call? I seem to remember a game against the Broncos where he was getting blown up... and couldn't get a roughing call to save his life.

 

I saw it ... and was not exactly happy. He took numerous shots in that game that warranted flags ... and enough repeat offenders that a Denver defender or two would have been tossed had it been one of the quarterbacks the NFL is consistently trying to showcase.

 

It was....bizarre.

 

If Brady or Brees had been the receiving end of that beating, there would have been at least a half-dozen PFs and at least two ejections.

 

That ties in with what I was going to say, is that teams don't often understand the difference between a running quarterback and a scrambling quarterback.

A scrambler knows when to get down or go out of bounds and avoid big hits, or keep a passing play alive. Russell Wilson and Kyler Murray are productive in the running game, but are first and foremost great scramblers. Patrick Mahomes doesn't run a ton, but is also a great scrambler. These are the guys who will play a long time.
I've also heard it suggested that QBs with a baseball background often do better in this regard, because they learn how to slide. Other QBs slide, but it's not as natural for them and they're either afraid to do it or do it in an awkward way that exposes them to more hits.

Cam Newton, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen are all running quarterbacks. They don't avoid contact like they should, which exposes them to big hits -- and it only takes one to seriously change a career -- and their teams use them on so many designed runs that the wear and tear piles up quickly.
These guys are exciting, and fun to watch, but if they make it seven or eight years it's a miracle. Eventually they're going to take a big hit that leads to a concussion or a knee injury (see Robert Griffin III) and they're never the same. Or, like Newton, they just get used up as quickly as any running back.

One of Wentz's big problems is that he wants to be in the latter category but has nowhere near the skillset to do it. He craves contact for some reason, but isn't fast enough to make people miss and lacks the self-preservation gene of a good scrambler. So eventually he breaks out of the pocket, runs, gets clobbered and gets hurt again. Before his knee injury he was able to break out of the pocket and pick up a first down. Every time he does it now you just wait for the inevitable to happen.
He almost looks like he's trying too hard to show leadership by running so he can shake off the big hit and then get up and signal first down.

 

Josh Allen will be a second-to-none case to keep an eye on. Not because he runs more than Lamar Jackson - he doesn't - but because his head coach and general manager.

Buffalo's head coach, Sean McDermott, was a defensive coordinator in Charlotte during part of Cam Newton's tenure there.

Buffalo's general manager, Brandon Beane, was an executive with the Panthers during Newton's time there.

If they're smart, they'll learn from the physical price Newton paid during his time with the Panthers. Josh Allen is a huge guy with a cannon arm, and they need not continuously risk him to that level of punishment. IMO, McDermott and Beane have no excuse given their backgrounds.

 

Just saw a crazy stat while looking some stuff up for that last post. Tom Brady is No. 10 all-time in rushing attempts by a quarterback (636). He's averaged about 30 attempts per season in recent years, which would give him an outside chance of passing Steve McNair (669) and Fran Tarkenton (675) and moving up into eighth place next season.
Aaron Rodgers is currently No. 9, with 652 attempts.
Brady has a career average of 1.6 yards per carry. That's a lot of quarterback sneaks.

 

I love watching Josh Allen play. You could tell early on he had that "It" factor to make up for whatever physical skills he might have lacked. But you're dead on. They run him too much, and then he thinks he's a fullback too much. He'll try to finish runs instead of saving his body when he can. If the Bills don't throttle him back, he's going to be broken down by 2025.