unclevlad

Denver losing 2: likely CHI beating DET or MIN...remote at best. DET is at home, playing to stay in the hunt. MIN, final week...I don't trust the Vikes to make it easy, but I do trust the Bears to let it get away...and the Vikes have been good at taking it in that situation. Texans might beat the Colts...honestly, that's not that wild. Jags? It's a huge trap game that matters very, very little...the division decider is Jags-Titans. #1 pick...seemingly the only time it's not a QB is when there's none worth taking, and the early view is, this is a QB-rich draft, even well into the 2nd round. So, yeah, a QB's likely. Young has the visibility and the style the NFL's beginning to like more. I pay no attention to that noise, tho, at this point. Everyone's draft order will change. We also have to figure: who's gonna get the #1? Houston *could* beat Indy; that's not at all hard to believe. That puts the Bears in the driver's seat, and they have a kid QB they're trying to groom now. If they could, say, get a #1 and #2 this year, and a #1 or #2 next year, for the #1 pick? A first and 3 second round picks can do a fair bit of retooling. If it's Houston, they have the following high picks right now: #1 (their own) First round from Cleveland (#10 right now) 2nd and 3rd, their own 3rd from Cleveland With the holes they need to fill, this absolutely looks like a spot to trade the #1 pick. They can draft the #2 or #3 QB, plus a lot more. This might be the most compelling situation to trade the #1 pick we've seen in a while.

When someone is 82, has a serious medical history, and is held in the hospital for close observation...... Well, yes, it played out. Pele died just a short time ago.

I wasn't paying much attention as it was a blowout, right? 38-13. Uhhh....huh. Then the craziness happened. In the OTs, both defenses were gassed; the TD drives were quick.

And now Derek Carr has "stepped away from the team to avoid being a distraction." Translation: to avoid screaming at McDaniels, and to avoid being the focus of a complete locker room split. He can read the writing on the wall, too; he's done. And yeah...their playoff hopes are extremely slim, but Miami w/o Tua? They can lose two. I'll grant that they've got, what, a 5% chance of beating the Niners and Chiefs...but I'm not giving up on that yet. And worse, my gosh...look at this. https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/35336012 Uhh...he did have some time in NE, in 2020...and he was TERRIBLE. And maybe it's just me, but McDaniels' tone is "please buy this absolute BS I'm spouting." Yeah, the nepotism factor absolutely seems real.

Well...and UTEP. He couldn't fly, right? It woulda been Southwest.............

We can't say that Mayfield's proven anything to warrant being a starter. One drive against the Raiders...a team notoriously bad at stopping offenses late. Awful against the Packers. And the Broncos shriveled up like sponges in the desert. Put that against the rest of his record, and it's not great. That said, lots of front offices are desperate, so it could easily happen. Jimmy G...I think the playoffs will still be a big factor WRT Brock Purdy. Too small a sample size right now to go crazy with the kid, but if he can perform solidly in the playoffs, that may change. (But a story in Bleacher Report also notes that Gardner Minshew had an excellent, short run that he could never duplicate.) The other question is, what happens with Trey Lance? The Niners sank a LOT of assets to trade up for him. I agree they can't keep all 3, but of them, it's plausible that Lance is the best trade candidate. Everyone will look at G's injury history and *have to* flinch a little. Dalton and Ryan are, IMO, likely in the same boat. If you pick them up, you're thinking somehow they can shed 10 years. I wouldn't want either; they have too little present value and no future value or upside. Put Flacco in here as well, but his playing time has dwindled so much that no one's mentioned him for a reason. I'd be mildly surprised if Ryan and Flacco start next season on a roster. Ryan's case is a bit weird: https://boardroom.tv/matt-ryan-contract-colts-retirement/#:~:text=Ryan's contract%2C which began in,guaranteed in case of injury. Minshew is UFA, so it may depend on what he wants. He's young and he's cheap, so he'll probably latch on *somewhere*. Philly's not that likely to draft another young QB, but they may well go after, say, Jimmy G, and let Minshew go. Mariota...no opinion. Haven't seen him at all. Carr...yeah, he's gone. His contract guarantees in mid February; right now, nothing past this season is. And it's a honkin' BIG contract. It also has a full no-trade contract, so trading him is more difficult. Figure he gets cut in January. That is, unless McDaniels gets canned; who knows what happens then. And one other: Tua. He's definitely out Sunday, and probably out for the season. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/dolphins-tua-tagovailoa-has-another-confirmed-concussion-teddy-bridgewater-to-start-vs-patriots-in-week-17/ But that doesn't stop being a concern. His future's cloudy. Also, it's no surprise whatsoever, but the NFL and NFLPA have opened a joint inquiry...again...WRT him and the situations. My feeling is the Dolphins have to show they haven't messed up.

Sometimes I despair of people, and sometimes I despair of the culture. Is the guy stupid, or is he simply caught up in the trap of lies that others spread presumably to promote their agenda? I agree with the social media issue...which is why what Musk is doing is so problematic...but it's not limited to social media. It's simply the most reactive echo chamber...seed a few juicy, explosive tidbits, and sit back to watch the hyperexponential growth you're aiming for...which creates buzz off social media, and establishes a self-perpetuating 'truth.' I've said it before. Mainstream and social media manipulators declared a war on truth a long time ago...and they've won. They've established an alternate concept of reality wherein they're the lords of judgment. They create the lens through which facts are viewed. So to what degree is your co-worker foolish, versus a victim? EDIT: nasty tangent. If you question how a Putin can keep the Russian people toeing his line...well, just look at how effective Fox News is, with their followers...despite the presence of numerous alternatives. BTW, the source of this kerfuffle: https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-445225024907

That might be an interesting bit of speculation. 1. How many teams will have new (as in, not on their current roster at all) starting QBs next season? 2. How many rookie starters will there be? Obviously, #2 will be lower than #1 but...quite a few. The Draft Gurus think this is a QB-rich draft...and there's lots of teams in desperate shape at QB.

DraftKings has it KC -13.5, and the O/U is 45. The specifics are 15.5 for Denver and 29.5 for KC. I think this isn't a good game to bet, because who knows where the Bronco locker room will be, and whether they'll show up or not. Given that no one expected Hackett to last, firing him might ease some of the tension. And if Wilson has another bad start, yeah, we could see a duplicate of the Ram game. The Chiefs have also played several relatively shaky games this year.

My, my, we have choices for this one. Borzoi, AKA the Russian wolfhound in the past. EDIT: a warning. AKC's breeds list show nothing for Q, U, and Z...and neither does the Kennel Club of England.

Camellia Bowl on, so ESPN bottom line. Broncos-Chiefs line just flashed...it's now up to KC -13.

Sad to hear, but 12 years, 150 games, that's a long time to pound and be pounded. He's always come across as one of the Good Guys.

No, it's not uncommon, but as I understand it...it's also Not Good. And the possibly 3 separate concussive incidents, in combination with this? Also Not Good. And yeah, if his brain was fuzzy, those picks become much more understandable.

If Tua can't play...and I actually hope, as has been noted, he doesn't play...the last WC spot in the AFC just became wide open. Chargers locked the 2nd WC tonight. Miami is 8-7. There are 5 teams at 7-8...Jacksonville, Tenn, Pats, Jets, and Steelers. There's 2 spots, one of which is limited (AFC South). Miami, Tenn, and the Pats and Jets are all REELING...1-4, 0-5, 1-4, and 1-4 in the last 5 respectively. This feels almost equally symbolic to the AFC South, but it's predictable. Adding that 7th WC team guarantees mediocre-to-poor teams will be hanging around far too long. Way, way back when, there were discussions of a good percentage of a given field should qualify for playoffs. The numbers? Between 25 and 40%. Less than 25% and isolated losses can be too great a factor. (The CFP has this issue.) Greater than 40%, and the regular season is probably too diluted. The NFL and the NBA have this...altho the play-in aspect for the NBA is at least an interesting approach. There's a reward for the top 40%...direct entry...and a 2nd chance mini-round. MLB is at 40% with 6 teams; it's still debatable if 5 was better, but they're also constrained by their divisional structure. 6 is probably best.

NOTE THE QUALIFIER. For the seniors. It's part of Medicare Part D. I'll grant that's great but I'm worried the price for others may shoot up. The refined alternatives like Novolog and Humalog are MASSIVE profit centers for their manufacturers.

Schefter's point wasn't who was a worse coach; as Pariah noted, Meyer's was certainly a candidate for most embarrassing attempt at being an NFL head coach...and he may well have lost his team faster, altho that's hard to say. But Hackett lost the fan base in his very first game as HC. The only way to challenge *that* is coaches who got fired before they ever coached a game...and that means they lost ownership backing, most likely, rather than fan backing. Also, we kinda have to give Jeff Saturday a pass on "most embarrassing" because he's in an impossible position, and if anyone should be embarrassed, it's Jim Irsay. Here's some names we forgot. Did you remember that Lou Holtz tried to coach in the NFL? It was awful. https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/the_worst_nfl_coaching_tenures_of_all_time/s1__33296522#slide_1 I can pretty safely guarantee everyone's forgotten *several* of these.

Someone on a totally different forum commented about the hit for which Derwin James was ejected, baslcally saying, if you don't want get hit, don't play. <sigh>

The only thing that'll help the Broncos for next year is a time warp, so they can pass on the Wilson trade. Between the salary cap impact and the loss of draft picks, they're toast through at least 2025, it looks like.

Or, the team only a Nobody plays in a bowl game.....

George Santos admits he lied about several things, but then tries to say, it's nothing everyone does it. I wonder if a recall effort is allowed. Technically, perhaps, he's not a criminal, but he's a conscience-deficient slimeball.

That was the gist of the comments from Booger and Steve on Countdown. Steve said you *can't* expect self-reporting (I think he meant during the game) or another player calling out a potential problem...it's against the culture. No one's gonna want more game stoppages, but they'll take a short stoppage for evaluation purposes over watching another spasming player. Yeah, the protocol still has huge problems.

Oh dear. Tua declared OUT for Sunday. Self-reported concussion symptoms. On the MNF lead-in, Booger asserted "sit Tua for the rest of the season." And I have to agree. They're showing a hit from the 2nd quarter. He stayed in the rest of the game. No one spotted it...but today he's self-reporting? There WILL be an investigation. This is VERY concerning. Potentially 3 concussions over a span of, what, 4 months, is scary as HECK for long-term problems. BEST of luck to him. EDIT: Schefter on Hackett. "There has never been a head coach who lost the fans faster." The week 1 disaster...and then, never giving the fans a reason to hope.

Oh my.... And the Aggies continued their TOTAL BOWL DOMINATION!!!!! 24-19. After a disastrous 0-4 start. Tainted, perhaps, as Bowling Green lost their starting QB to a late hit OB. Called targeting on the field, that was overturned...ehhhhh. Questionable overturn, it was a bad hit. The Aggies are 4-0-1 in bowl games, believe it or not....

IMO Evero would probably be a mistake; his record suggests it'd be premature. Sure, good job this year, but it's his first year at coordinator level. Defensive passing game and secondary coach for the Rams last year...which is a huge factor, the glitter of that Super Bowl ring...but just position coach before that, or less. He does have a pretty long history in coaching at the pro level, I'll grant, but the titles/responsibilities look to be pretty narrow until last season. https://pro-football-history.com/coach/1320/ejiro-evero-bio Mind, that SB ring tends to cover up a whole lot of potential warts, so yeah, he'll probably be courted for HC by multiple teams.

So report is Jerry Rosburg, the advisor brought in to deal with game management since, well, Natty Hack (y'all like that one?) couldn't...is interim HC. That's probably minimal disruption, leave the coordinators to do what they do, and Rosburg arguably had half the head coaching duties during the game anyway.