2006 NFL Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick Sun]

The Falcons triple threat at place-kicker/punter/kickoff kicker, Michael Koenen, looked strong last night. His 50-yarder could have easily been good from 60+ yards away. Now, the problem with him doing all three duties is that he'd have to be instructed to not get himself hurt during runbacks because he'd be much more valuable healthy, than trying to stave off a TD during a kick/punt, i.e., be another Rolf Bernershke who ran off the field as soon as he kicked a kickoff because of his health problems.

 

[Matt Stone]

Amen, I realize that Orton was hardly an NFL quarterback last year, but the way Bears fans rallied around Grossman when he came back really pissed me off. He looked "okay" during the second half of the Atlanta game last year. Aside from that I can't think of any consistency. Say what you want about Orton, but he won.

That said, it certainly wasn't Grossman who let Steve Smith walk all over them in the playoffs last year. Yikes.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Damn, saw highlights of Reggie Bush do his patented "run left, and then reverse field to the right side" and racked up 30+ yards.

 

[Tim Glover]

Bush is for real. He's amazing. Those highlights were pretty awesome.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I still see Bush as the new Eric Metcalf. Crazy moves, but unable to take the pounding of a full season (or even full game) at RB.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

There's a quote that I bet we don't see in the New Orleans media guide. Hopefully he won't have to take a pounding for a full season with McAllister on the team to spell him.

 

[Shane Martin]

The economics of the NFL won't allow the Saints to continue to do that. The question is how long can they make it last.

An uneventful Dallas vs Seattle matchup. Seattle couldn't score points and the Cowboys didn't bother to play Bledsoe at all.

Regarding Grossman, IMHO I think the Bears are going the Ravens route whereby they hope Grossman doesn't beat them thus relying on their defense to keep the score low enough for their offense to score just enough points. That's my theory atleast

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

They only have to make it last long enough to find a cheaper but just as capable replacement for McAllister, and that may only need to be 1 year. Or, heck they could just spend all their cap room on RB's and be damned at every other position, nothing Tom Benson does would surprise me.

I think Shane's assessment on the Bears is pretty spot-on. It helps also that the NFC North has replaced the NFC West as the worst division in all of football.

Kind of wish I had been awake last night to see the rotating between the games on the NFL network but my sleep schedule hasn't been all that wonderful lately, so I was like a lot of players in the sense that I slept through all the preseason games last night.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I don't mean the Metcalf comment as a slam Bush is a special player. So was Metcalf. He made some gorgeous, gorgeous plays. But he could not start at RB for a NFL team, and I don't think Bush can either. 15 carries maybe. Maybe a couple receptions as well. And he'll make them count.

I hope he does, because the Saints need it. The town needs it.

But when they lose Deuce, it's going to get bloody.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Oh Chuck, I definitely didn't think you meant it as a slam. My saying that you wouldn't see that in the Saints media guide is because it is not often that people make comparisons to Eric Metcalf, who BTW was always someone I enjoyed watching. Although, I think it would be funny for less knowledgable football types to look at that quote and go Eric who and all of a sudden get very worried that Bush is compared to someone they don't know instead of say someone like Barry Sanders.

 

[Tim Glover]

I agree with you Chuck on most of that, except the Saints now have Brees who can take some of the pressure of the RB's. That might help and extend Bush's life span playing time

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Did Deuce play at all in the Saints game? Since he's coming off an ACL injury, it will be curious to see whether he can return to his former playing level this year. Running backs are usually not the same the first year back from that injury -- see Edge, Jamal Lewis, etc.

 

[Patrick Sun]

No, Deuce did not play in the game for the Saints.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Speaking of Bush (and the NFC South in general), he has quite the first season lined up.

1) He gets to play the Bucs, Panthers, and Falcons defenses TWICE in his first year. It must get easier...
2) Their NFC conference opponent is the NFC (B)East...Washington (great D), Dallas (really good D), Eagles (really good D), and Giants (really good D). Maybe they'll a soft AFC Conference...
3) Nope. AFC North, meaning while he opens against the Browns, he also gets the Ravens and Steelers and Bengals (who are getting better).

That's a murderer's row of defenses in your first year. The only crappy defense he'll see in the NFC (besides the 49ers) is his own at practice.

Hopefully, Portis is OK after his tackle last night.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Well, the Falcons run defense is pretty soft in the middle, but I expect Bush to also run for big yards around the outside as well on the Falcons.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I watched part of the first half of last night's MNF telecast. Tony Kornheiser, as I feared, was not very good. He added nothing to the broadcast, and made several stupid comments. He even asked Theisman to explain what a silent count was. There was an ackward pause, then Theisman blew him off by saying "we'll get to that later".

ESPN, please bring back Paul McGuire.

 

[Shane Martin]

Looks like the Aaron Brooks experiment is not working out. He is 2-9 passing in the preseason so far. Moss will turn into TO if this keeps up.

Theismann went ahead and explained the silent count later on in the 4th quarter. Kornheiser joked that he wanted to go to bed as Minnesota was driving for the field goal to tie it and decided to go for it when Kornheiser said that Childress was the best coach ever.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I did like what I saw out of Tarvaris Jackson, though.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

He looked pretty sharp, Patrick. Great athlete, nice passes, good decisions. I was jealous.

 

[Rommel_L]

Finally, we got ourselves a QB controversy in Chicagoland. Every preseason game Brian Griese is just making Rex Grossman look bad thru better performance. I just hope Griese keeps it up, by keeping his mouth shut and perform like a starter should be...