NFL 2015-2016 Season Thread

Well I would say 9 starts previously and the first 6 this year with multiple offseasons constitute a "full" rookie season. Looking at it that way He's played another 9 games into his 2nd year and doing so with the same scheme and coaches. Thus is this what you would expect a QB to do in year 2? If you believe in that progression then he'll become top 15 next year. Can you live with a top 15 but never top 5? You can keep searching for that top 5 talent like RG3, but the chances of success are low. It sucks to have a good but not great QB. It's like daying a 7 in highschool. Ya does she give you that awesome BJ, does anal, and isn't completely annoying, but you know if you had a chance even a 5% chance to throw it all away for a shot at a 10 you'd do it in a heartbeat. Sometimes, the 7 is good enough though.

moontayle_sl said:

Chip bought into his own bullshit. The Murray thing is a microcosm of the whole situation. McCoy was a perfect fit for his scheme, but he somehow became enamored with Murray, who clearly isn't. Different run styles. It's not really a surprise that Murray's best game came when Philly used him more like Dallas did (runs from center, create a hole and let him burst through it). There's also the workload factor. Chip likely figured he could sports science away the historical trend of league leading carry backs falling off a cliff. Couple all that with the thought that scheme is more important than player (his primary bullshit philosophy), and you get the Eagles 2015 season in a nutshell.

Lurie has always appeared to be willing to let things ride as long as it appeared progress is being made. Chip was only his second head coach since the turn of the century. I kind of wish they had given him one more year though, just to further drive the franchise into the ground with his decisions.

Edit:This articlereally puts things into perspective. Lurie wasn't set on firing him at when they met but it apparently went south really fast.

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My last post made me reread this post. Andy was the 7 that got you to 5 NFC title games and SB appearance but never could win the big one. They went for the 10 and two years later are without both.

PatrickStar_sl said:

Well I would say 9 starts previously and the first 6 this year with multiple offseasons constitute a "full" rookie season. Looking at it that way He's played another 9 games into his 2nd year and doing so with the same scheme and coaches. Thus is this what you would expect a QB to do in year 2? If you believe in that progression then he'll become top 15 next year. Can you live with a top 15 but never top 5? You can keep searching for that top 5 talent like RG3, but the chances of success are low. It sucks to have a good but not great QB. It's like daying a 7 in highschool. Ya does she give you that awesome BJ, does anal, and isn't completely annoying, but you know if you had a chance even a 5% chance to throw it all away for a shot at a 10 you'd do it in a heartbeat. Sometimes, the 7 is good enough though.

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More than happy with top 15 and pushing top 10. That's good enough to win games in the NFL, and compete if you build a team around them. It also means you don't have to spend the next couple drafts looking and burning draft picks to find "the guy". Can roll with Cousins and see how he continues to develop. Meanwhile you build the team up around him.

If he wins at least one playoff game he's coming for Snyder's wallet, look out.

Famm_sl said:

If he wins at least one playoff game he's coming for Snyder's wallet, look out.

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If he wins a playoff game, everyone might not care. If he ends up with north of $18M a year, might hurt.

Merrith_sl said:

Not sure I completely agree with this being Cousins first "year" playing. He started at least 1 game in each of the last 3 seasons, and started at least 3 in each of the last 2. While 9 starts isn't a lot in 3 seasons, it's not pure clipboard holder either. There was quite a bit of data on Cousins just based on his number of attempts and his terrible interception % to worry. Through the first 6 games, he didn't do a lot to relieve that worry (8 picks). He still does a lot of other things well, the turnovers were just a major issue.

Definitely not elite yet, and not sure on his long term prospects to ever hit what I consider elite (top 5 in the league). I think he's top half of the league right now (top 15), and could get better to threaten being a possible top 10.

Definitely some good young QB's in the league. Last 2 draft years have guys that have a lot of potential or are putting up some pretty good numbers (at least individually in some cases). Carr, Bridgewater, Bortles (all from 2014), and Mariotta/Winston this year.

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I argued with Redskins fans about this for months before giving up. They all gave the same argument that you did.Cousins has had enough starts to prove he's shit. The problem was, those were teams where he was either starting 1-2 games at a time, or he came in after the season was long over. It was still RG3's team, he was just filling it. He never got a chance to get into a rhythm. Then they'd start talking about how RG3's ceiling was so much higher.

2 years ago you could tell that Cousins would be a better QB. He can read a defense and has good mechanics. RG3 on the other hand had a really amazing amount of physical ability...but that's about it. The ONLY downside I could see to Cousins' game was the turnovers, and that's fixable with more experience. Now that he's got the experience, he's turning into a good QB. Will he ever get over the hump to elite? Who the hell knows. But if you were paying attention, you'd have known that the starts Cousins got while RG3 was the starter shouldn't have turned you off to him.

You don't need elite to win a SB! (Don't ask me how I know, its just true ok?)

Elurin_sl said:

I argued with Redskins fans about this for months before giving up. They all gave the same argument that you did.Cousins has had enough starts to prove he's shit. The problem was, those were teams where he was either starting 1-2 games at a time, or he came in after the season was long over. It was still RG3's team, he was just filling it. He never got a chance to get into a rhythm. Then they'd start talking about how RG3's ceiling was so much higher.

2 years ago you could tell that Cousins would be a better QB. He can read a defense and has good mechanics. RG3 on the other hand had a really amazing amount of physical ability...but that's about it. The ONLY downside I could see to Cousins' game was the turnovers, and that's fixable with more experience. Now that he's got the experience, he's turning into a good QB. Will he ever get over the hump to elite? Who the hell knows. But if you were paying attention, you'd have known that the starts Cousins got while RG3 was the starter shouldn't have turned you off to him.

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As you yourself noted, it had nothing to do with the starts in general, but the turnovers that were the problem. Not just what they did to the team, but to Cousins himself. You could see him start to cascade, and just make more mistakes. It wasn't unreasonable at all to worry that it was a problem he wouldn't get over. Not a lot of guys who turn it over at the rate he had been were ever able to get over it, even with more experience. Bill Barnwell had a great article before the season started where he pointed out that among all QB's who had as many attempts as Cousins did over his first 3 seasons, he had the worst interception rate relative to his peers EVER. The only guy who was even close to as bad as he had been at throwing picks compared to other QB's of his time was Ryan Leaf. Don't get me wrong, having a system that fits his game and having a full year helps a lot. But it wasn't crazy to make some comparisons given he had over 400 passing attempts in his first 3 seasons. I'd say almost everyone realized going into this year that Cousins was the best option to run the offense of the QB's on the roster. They just didn't expect him to develop like this.

Barnwell also took the time to point out that the rest of Cousins stats showed him to be average or above average in most other areas. The main issue was the turnovers. That was the only thing that turned people off about him. Starting this year off with multiple picks in 4 out of 6 games didn't cause people to have much confidence he could fix it. You could see, even then though, that he had done a much better job not letting one bad throw snowball into 3 or 4. He still made mistakes, but they weren't him just getting overwhelmed by making one mistake and having a confidence problem. Since then though, he hasn't had a multi-pick game in 9 weeks. Barnwell stated that if they wanted to give him a chance, they had to completely hand the reigns over and not have him looking over his shoulder. They did it, and it helped. Oddly enough, Barnwell's "best case scenario" for the Redskins season had them beating Weeden and the Cowboys in Week 17 to win the division with a 9-7 record after Romo and Bradford went down with injuries. Not dead on, but not bad either.

Famm_sl said:

You don't need elite to win a SB! (Don't ask me how I know, its just true ok?)

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You just need Rahim Moore to be terrible.

Hey look at that, Steve Smith returning next year for the Ravens. They'll get healthy, reload in the draft, and be a 10 win team next year.

Cousins numbers this year are inflated by playing in a division with terrible defenses. Just look at the number of lower half defenses the skins played this year. Hell playing New York twice and New Orleans once is good for a 1000 yards.

Merrith_sl said:

Hey look at that, Steve Smith returning next year for the Ravens. They'll get healthy, reload in the draft, and be a 10 win team next year.

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I like you, you're alright. Good luck to the Skins in the superbowl, but Cousins might have a hard time with Alex Smith leading the other side.

Famm_sl said:

I like you, you're alright. Good luck to the Skins in the superbowl, but Cousins might have a hard time with Alex Smith leading the other side.

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OTOH, Ravens are in salary cap hell and will probably have to shed some veteran talent to make the estimated 2016 cap.

Meh, they'll figure out something. Every year some team is in salary cap hell and no team has ever actually ended up over the cap. Especially now that they're adding $10m to it each year.

Lleauaric_sl said:

OTOH, Ravens are in salary cap hell and will probably have to shed some veteran talent to make the estimated 2016 cap.

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Isn't this basically because Flacco's deal was going to get restructured this coming year no matter what?

Famm_sl said:

I like you, you're alright. Good luck to the Skins in the superbowl, but Cousins might have a hard time with Alex Smith leading the other side.

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Yeah I'm not expecting anything close to that. Won't complain if it happens! I could see us pulling off an upset win at home though on Wild Card weekend, depending on the match up. We're already met and exceeded my expectations for the year. More than satisfied.

Merrith_sl said:

Isn't this basically because Flacco's deal was going to get restructured this coming year no matter what?

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Flacco's deal has to be restructured this year, what form that will take remains to be seen. But he won't play under the contract number for this season its impossible. We are going to be shedding some people and getting to resign some of them cheap thanks to this shit season.

This year we've had Rice/Ngata/Jacoby all leaving dead money on the books to the tune of 9.5/7.5/2.6. Also Suggs out week one and accounting for another nearly $4 mil dead. And TE Pitta on PUP (essentially career is over) for another $6.2! Nearly thirty million for five players sitting on the bench or other teams. That's fucking insane.

Suggs is one thing, shit happens. We did it to ourselves with Ngata, that contract was from Ozzie always paying our big names with stupid backloaded contracts he couldn't end up getting out from underneath. The Rice thing is totally fucked up but their hands were tied on cutting him. Jacoby is fairly minor but all things considered its another semi big chunk to account for. I don't know what happens with Pitta, I'm guessing he retires but I forget how that works on the cap.

There's a lot of contract and cap work to be done going forward but at least we get rid of all that shit hanging around the front office's neck.

Bengals get no respect. Current Vegas odds:

T-7. Steelers: 16-to-1

T-7. Packers: 16-to-1

9. Bengals: 18-to-1

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