Week 1 🇧🇷

[WullieBroonIsGod]

Some very unhappy fantasy football players this morning re CMC being inactive.  

Jordan Mason apparently told the media post game he knew he was starting on Friday

[Craig fae the Vale]

Didn't see much this week, was out on Sunday night and had a thumping headache by the time I got home and pretty much went straight to bed, but by all accounts a very promising start for the Saints, albeit against a very poor Panthers.

[johnnydun]

2 hours ago, lichtie23 said:

Niners looked very comfortable going by the YouTube highlights. 
 

Week 1 is in the books! How’s everyone feeling? 

A bit deflated, because I know there's a very good team in them. Just need to cut out the mistakes.

I think we could beat anyone on our day tbh. Defence looks good, just need to guard Levis a bit better and he needs to cut out his few brain farts.

We cut that shit out quickly, then I think we can win the Division.

[Boo Khaki]

3 hours ago, lichtie23 said:

Niners looked very comfortable going by the YouTube highlights. 
 

Week 1 is in the books! How’s everyone feeling? 

Reluctant to draw conclusions after one game. Chargers OL completely manhandled Miami in week 1 last season, ran for about 200 yards, and then the running game completely disappeared for the remainder of the season. I think it takes about a month for things to settle down and give a true picture.

However....

Harbaugh Chargers appear to be as advertised. First time I can recall a Chargers front standing up in the run game simply because they went out and purposefully recruited some big guys who won't get blown up at the L.O.S. It's night and day different to Staley's garbage. Although I didn't agree with taking Alt at #5, I've never said it was a flat-out bad pick, and going by Sunday, the Chargers are going to have the most complete pair of young OT's in the League for the foreseeable. Alt didn't look completely comfortable yet, got his feet mixed up a few times, and a couple of plays where Wilkins rode him to the inside on running plays then threw him to the ground, but in pass pro Crosby got absolutely nothing from Alt, moved over and got nothing out of Slater, so the Raiders spent the rest of the day running stunts to get him on the interior OL. Interior OL was the problem last season, and evidently still isn't up to much, but that was never going to be a one-year fix and they didn't really do much of anything to try and improve it anyway. Rest of the O was pretty much as expected. No signs of any explosive plays in the passing game, but they don't have any explosive receivers, so that wasn't a surprise. Protect Herbert and generate a running game and he's good enough to spray the ball around anyway. 

I've moaned for years about the Chargers being mediocre simply because they've never done the basics well. The best thing about the Harbaugh hire is that it's a given that would get sorted because it's the hallmark of all his teams. Stop the run, protect the QB, generate some push in your own run game, no turnovers, don't beat yourself with brainfarts. Apart from the missed tackles on the Raiders TD the Chargers pretty much managed that, so I'm content. That was a game that McCoy, Lynn, or Staley would have found a way to lose 100%

Panthers next week, then a trip to Pittsburgh. Steelers are always tough but that is a winnable game, so it's not inconceivable the Chargers are 3-0 going into the big test v's KC in week 4, then into their Bye in week 5. I'd be happy with 3-1 because I have no expectations of playoffs anyway, but I think this year is important for establishing tone and reputation, and so often Chargers teams have underachieved and hovered around .500 even when they've had far more talent than their opponents. I'd far rather overachieve with deficient talent than watch the same Telesco era crap.

[Boo Khaki]

1 hour ago, johnnydun said:

A bit deflated, because I know there's a very good team in them. Just need to cut out the mistakes.

I think we could beat anyone on our day tbh. Defence looks good, just need to guard Levis a bit better and he needs to cut out his few brain farts.

We cut that shit out quickly, then I think we can win the Division.

I have the Titans finishing bottom of their division and in the hunt for a top 5 pick. In fairness I don't think there is much between Tenn and Indi, so I could see either finishing 3rd/4th, but I think Houston are well ahead of anything else in the Division, and another gap from the Jags to the Titans and Colts. I suppose we'll find out in due course.

[peasy23]

6 hours ago, Swarley said:

Watched a bit of the game live. They were never really in any trouble. Incredible to see Ricky Pearsall on the sidelines only what 10 days after he was shot in the chest. Apparently the bullet went straight through him, missing all vital organs. Could be back in a month.

Post Wk 1 feelings. Delighted to have won, but a bit concerned. Hopefully its just rustiness and the Hawks improve.

Similar feelings for me with the 49ers, did a lot of good things but certainly much room for improvement. 

[peasy23]

5 hours ago, WullieBroonIsGod said:

Some very unhappy fantasy football players this morning re CMC being inactive.  

Jordan Mason apparently told the media post game he knew he was starting on Friday

Just because Mason knew he was going to be playing doesn't mean that McCaffrey definitely wasn't. The SF media were all expecting him to play some part. 

[Claudia Gentile]

The Jets defence were holding up okay until C J Mosely got taken out by a 9ers OL. Seemed to go to shite after that.

[strichener]

6 hours ago, johnnydun said:

.We cut that shit out quickly, then I think we can win the Division.

It'll be between the Titans and the Colts for last place and my Money is on the Titans.

Looks like we have Lamar Jackson II as quarterback.  Need to get the 6 yard dunks on target before we are a credible threat.  Oh and be able to stop the run.

[Brummie Clyde]

Soft spot for the 49ers, as they always beat Rodgers.

[peasy23]

3 hours ago, Brummie Clyde said:

Soft spot for the 49ers, as they always beat Rodgers.

 

[Boo Khaki]

Playing a decent team granted, but I think last night was a bit of a wake up call for the folk who have spent the past 12 months absolutely adamant that the Jets were a Superbowl calibre team minus one Quarterback.

OL is improved, but still didn't look all that convincing, and it's fine having Sauce take #1 out of the game, but nobody is going to be particularly bothered by that if they can just thump the ball down your throat for 60 minutes.

I can see them winning 8 or 9 games and taking 1 or 2 from Miami and Buffalo, but they don't look like a legit contender yet. If there's any saving grace, they won't play a team the calibre of SF every week, and I think Week 1 is always a case of getting some rust knocked off, especially for QB's who haven't seen any action in a year. Rodgers looked ok without really doing anything spectacular, but I think it's better to leave things until Week 4-5 before deciding this or that. 

Perhaps one or two AFC teams end up having crappy years and the Jets sneak in as a WC. Cinci looked like shit on Sunday, but they are always slow starters and still turn it around. I think Buffalo is also vulnerable to having off-days, and the Jags will always be a question mark because of the poor quality of the division they play in, so I don't think it's beyond the bounds of possibility that the AFC does see a 9-8 WC team.

Edited September 10 by Boo Khaki

[johnnydun]

9 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

I have the Titans finishing bottom of their division and in the hunt for a top 5 pick. 

 

5 hours ago, strichener said:

It'll be between the Titans and the Colts for last place and my Money is on the Titans.

I just can't agree with this at all.

We have an offence consisting of D-Hop, Ridley, Boyd, Pollard and a fantastic TE in Okonkwo. If we end up getting a tune out of Levis, I'm quite comfortable they could go up against any Defence.

The Titans D is solid.

I think we are in a shot for the AFC South.

[Boo Khaki]

4 minutes ago, johnnydun said:

 

I just can't agree with this at all.

We have an offence consisting of D-Hop, Ridley, Boyd, Pollard and a fantastic TE in Okonkwo. If we end up getting a tune out of Levis, I'm quite comfortable they could go up against any Defence.

The Titans D is solid.

I think we are in a shot for the AFC South.

Rookie HC, a wild 2nd year QB with a lot of growing to do, iffy OL, Hopkins is old and playing through an MCL tear, and you are starting two of the biggest wastes of space I've ever seen in a Chargers jersey on D, one of whom completely spat the dummy and quit last season, the other who still plays like he's never seen a football field in his life despite having 4 years of starts behind him.

6-7 Wins maximum.

[Brummie Clyde]

On 10/09/2024 at 12:40, johnnydun said:

A bit deflated, because I know there's a very good team in them. Just need to cut out the mistakes.

I think we could beat anyone on our day tbh. Defence looks good, just need to guard Levis a bit better and he needs to cut out his few brain farts.

We cut that shit out quickly, then I think we can win the Division.

T'Vondre Sweat looks like a steal and promising start from your DEF Coordinator. 

[johnnydun]

3 hours ago, Brummie Clyde said:

T'Vondre Sweat looks like a steal and promising start from your DEF Coordinator. 

He looks great tbf. Yeah really good start for our D. But not as good a start as the Bears D! Haha.

[Boo Khaki]

@johnnydun

I went back and had another look at the Titans v Bears game. 1st time round I was really just watching Keenan Allen, but I wanted to get an idea of what sort of scheme Dennard Wilson is actually running. Difficult with 1st time D-Coord, because even considering his background/tree/experience, you can't be sure precisely what he's going run base, what the nickel will look like etc.

I did this because I'm aware I've been scathing of both SJD and Kenny Murray, but I felt I hadn't made enough of the fact that it's important to note that everyone, with only a few exceptions, absolutely stunk in Staley's schemes, and I don't think he did much of anything that helped players play to their strengths, or mitigate their weaknesses. In fact, I think on the latter point he was often guilty of putting players in a position to fail precisely because of his own arrogance and belief that his scheme was bombproof and impervious to bad player fits.

I've read a little bit about what's come out of Tenn about Murray, a few interview pieces, and what's he's said about being encouraged to fly around and make plays free from fear of mistakes makes sense. I think the problem in LAC was that Staley always insisted his ILB's were largely unimportant and not really inherent to how his scheme performed. I always thought this was utterly arrogant, because it's not like they're the equivalent of a 4th Safety or something where they might see the field on a literal handful of snaps at most, his base scheme uses two ILB's, one of whom comes off the field in nickel/dime, so in that regard it's not a LB-light scheme by any measure. It wasn't just Murray's poor personal play that was a problem in LAC, he was also hampered by extremely poor interior DL play not protecting him, and Staley repeatedly asking him to drop and play zone, despite his obvious struggles in both diagnosing plays and getting himself to the particular part of the field he was supposed to be guarding. The entire thing was like watching a slow-motion car crash week on week, with the same problems glaringly evident and never being resolved. As I've said before, whatever Murray is lacking, it isn't physicality. He's not the quickest ILB you'll ever see, but he is reasonably mobile, and he's strong enough that he can stand up in the run game. The problem was that his lack of ability to diagnose, and slow time to react to an unfolding play usual saw him either in the wrong place completely because of mis-anticipation, or getting wiped out of a play because he was slow to react and got eaten up by a pulling G sealing an edge and so on. I think that in truth if he's asked to play a much simpler role, a simple "keep this lane/thump this gap" thing, then he would be perfectly capable of that. From what I've seen of the Bears game though, Wilson's scheme looks not all that different to Staley's in that it's really base 5/2 more than an old 3/4 where one of your ILB's was more often than not a pure run-stopping thumper, which is what I think KM really is. I still saw him dropping a fair bit, and there wasn't anything I saw where he was egregiously out of position. One particular play where I thought he was a bit slow to come up and meet the Back coming out of the backfield, but nothing horrific. I still think though that it needs borne in mind the Bears are starting a Rookie QB who showed obvious signs of not being there quite yet, and I worry that if Wilson continues to just use KM the same way, he'll just be abused by better offenses the way he was in LAC.

SJD I have less to say about. First of all, he wasn't in LAC for the length of time KM was so I never got as comprehensive a look at him. Also, Staley still rotated his DL like anyone else, so SJD was playing far fewer snaps in the games he was on the field compared to KM anyway. SJD's entire tenure in LAC was underwhelming. He arrived as a reasonably high profile FA and just never got going. He was no better than any of the other duds that Staley trotted out at DT, but by the same token he never actually stood out as being any worse than them either. The sort of nondescript "meh" that if it was a walk-on journeyman FA or an UDFA on a one-year deal, you'd just say "yeah whatever" and forget about him. Problem is though, SJD was a prized FA, hand-picked by Staley to come in and set the tone in his scheme. The fact that he underperformed, and then still felt he had a leg to stand on by throwing a fit when Staley was shitcanned stuck in the craw a wee bit. I noticed he's playing as a notional 3/4 DE in Wilson scheme, which technically he also did in LA, however Staley never lined up a true space-eating NT in the middle of his DL, with the exception being Linval Joseph in 2021, who was a holdover from the Lynn era and well past his best by that point. It's notable that Joseph hasn't played a full-time role anywhere since, and I truly don't consider him to have been a space-eater in 2021 anyway, his level of play wasn't up to it. Like everyone else (Morgan Fox excepted), he was just as meh and forgettable as the next guy Staley was putting out there. For that reason, I think with Sweat clogging the middle and SJD less in the teeth of running attacks, you might see more out of him than LAC ever did. I'd still be wary of his attitude though, because he never hesitated to give it an "I'm the man" thing in LA media despite doing the square root of f**k all to justify that. He also spent his time as a Ram playing next to Aaron Donald, which i'm not convinced isn't the sole reason why SJD was coveted at all. Pretty easy to look good yourself when you have one of the best of all-time and an absolute freak who can eat up 2 and 3 blockers constantly playing next to you.

Anyway. Just thought I'd pitch in with a bit more perspective because it's really difficult to give a truly objective picture of anyone who played in LA's D from 2021-23. He even made Derwin James look like a humdrum, error-prone, run of the mill S, which is in total contrast to any part of DJIII's career that Staley wasn't involved in, including the 4 Giff Smith games at the tail of last year, and Sunday just gone.

Edited September 12 by Boo Khaki

[johnnydun]

18 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

@johnnydun

I went back and had another look at the Titans v Bears game. 1st time round I was really just watching Keenan Allen, but I wanted to get an idea of what sort of scheme Dennard Wilson is actually running. Difficult with 1st time D-Coord, because even considering his background/tree/experience, you can't be sure precisely what he's going run base, what the nickel will look like etc.

I did this because I'm aware I've been scathing of both SJD and Kenny Murray, but I felt I hadn't made enough of the fact that it's important to note that everyone, with only a few exceptions, absolutely stunk in Staley's schemes, and I don't think he did much of anything that helped players play to their strengths, or mitigate their weaknesses. In fact, I think on the latter point he was often guilty of putting players in a position to fail precisely because of his own arrogance and belief that his scheme was bombproof and impervious to bad player fits.

I've read a little bit about what's come out of Tenn about Murray, a few interview pieces, and what's he's said about being encouraged to fly around and make plays free from fear of mistakes makes sense. I think the problem in LAC was that Staley always insisted his ILB's were largely unimportant and not really inherent to how his scheme performed. I always thought this was utterly arrogant, because it's not like they're the equivalent of a 4th Safety or something where they might see the field on a literal handful of snaps at most, his base scheme uses two ILB's, one of whom comes off the field in nickel/dime, so in that regard it's not a LB-light scheme by any measure. It wasn't just Murray's poor personal play that was a problem in LAC, he was also hampered by extremely poor interior DL play not protecting him, and Staley repeatedly asking him to drop and play zone, despite his obvious struggles in both diagnosing plays and getting himself to the particular part of the field he was supposed to be guarding. The entire thing was like watching a slow-motion car crash week on week, with the same problems glaringly evident and never being resolved. As I've said before, whatever Murray is lacking, it isn't physicality. He's not the quickest ILB you'll ever see, but he is reasonably mobile, and he's strong enough that he can stand up in the run game. The problem was that his lack of ability to diagnose, and slow time to react to an unfolding play usual saw him either in the wrong place completely because of mis-anticipation, or getting wiped out of a play because he was slow to react and got eaten up by a pulling G sealing an edge and so on. I think that in truth if he's asked to play a much simpler role, a simple "keep this lane/thump this gap" thing, then he would be perfectly capable of that. From what I've seen of the Bears game though, Wilson's scheme looks not all that different to Staley's in that it's really base 5/2 more than an old 3/4 where one of your ILB's was more often than not a pure run-stopping thumper, which is what I think KM really is. I still saw him dropping a fair bit, and there wasn't anything I saw where he was egregiously out of position. One particular play where I thought he was a bit slow to come up and meet the Back coming out of the backfield, but nothing horrific. I still think though that it needs borne in mind the Bears are starting a Rookie QB who showed obvious signs of not being there quite yet, and I worry that if Wilson continues to just use KM the same way, he'll just be abused by better offenses the way he was in LAC.

SJD I have less to say about. First of all, he wasn't in LAC for the length of time KM was so I never got as comprehensive a look at him. Also, Staley still rotated his DL like anyone else, so SJD was playing far fewer snaps in the games he was on the field compared to KM anyway. SJD's entire tenure in LAC was underwhelming. He arrived as a reasonably high profile FA and just never got going. He was no better than any of the other duds that Staley trotted out at DT, but by the same token he never actually stood out as being any worse than them either. The sort of nondescript "meh" that if it was a walk-on journeyman FA or an UDFA on a one-year deal, you'd just say "yeah whatever" and forget about him. Problem is though, SJD was a prized FA, hand-picked by Staley to come in and set the tone in his scheme. The fact that he underperformed, and then still felt he had a leg to stand on by throwing a fit when Staley was shitcanned stuck in the craw a wee bit. I noticed he's playing as a notional 3/4 DE in Wilson scheme, which technically he also did in LA, however Staley never lined up a true space-eating NT in the middle of his DL, with the exception being Linval Joseph in 2021, who was a holdover from the Lynn era and well past his best by that point. It's notable that Joseph hasn't played a full-time role anywhere since, and I truly don't consider him to have been a space-eater in 2021 anyway, his level of play wasn't up to it. Like everyone else (Morgan Fox excepted), he was just as meh and forgettable as the next guy Staley was putting out there. For that reason, I think with Sweat clogging the middle and SJD less in the teeth of running attacks, you might see more out of him than LAC ever did. I'd still be wary of his attitude though, because he never hesitated to give it an "I'm the man" thing in LA media despite doing the square root of f**k all to justify that. He also spent his time as a Ram playing next to Aaron Donald, which i'm not convinced isn't the sole reason why SJD was coveted at all. Pretty easy to look good yourself when you have one of the best of all-time and an absolute freak who can eat up 2 and 3 blockers constantly playing next to you.

Anyway. Just thought I'd pitch in with a bit more perspective because it's really difficult to give a truly objective picture of anyone who played in LA's D from 2021-23. He even made Derwin James look like a humdrum, error-prone, run of the mill S, which is in total contrast to any part of DJIII's career that Staley wasn't involved in, including the 4 Giff Smith games at the tail of last year, and Sunday just gone.

Thank you for that very detailed insight.

Looks like Staley's team absolutely destroyed you. I hate when a team gets you that enraged.

[Claudia Gentile]

Titans to finish top 4 in their division, imo 

[Boo Khaki]

5 hours ago, johnnydun said:

Thank you for that very detailed insight.

Looks like Staley's team absolutely destroyed you. I hate when a team gets you that enraged.

I've always said two years to judge an HC, but with idiots it's usually apparent far more quickly than that. Mike McCoy was week 2-3 of his second year, Staley exactly the same, and from that point on it's an exercise in battering your head off a brick wall wondering "why the f**k is this guy still coaching an NFL team?"

Absolute purgatory.

Edited September 13 by Boo Khaki