NFL - Random Opinions

That's an interesting take, but also consider the other side as far as credibility goes. If I waited until week 10 and he kept playing well, I would simply be stating the obvious. It's only meaningful if I call my shot while everyone else still thinks he's the same idiot that he was with the Jets.

But I'm glad you remember that I was onto him before. Keep in mind that I watched him in 2022 exactly the way you're watching him now. He was with a division rival whose season should have been utter toast. In this case, Carolina was 3-8 when he returned from IR and had already fired the coach, traded starting WR Robbie Anderson (aka Chosen) and all-around star Christian McCaffrey, leaving the team with D.J. Moore and journeyman running back D'Onta Foreman (on his sixth team in five years) as the only noteworthy skill players.

The X factor was Ben McAdoo, who came aboard in 2022. He was a disaster of a head coach, and he proudly sported the second worst haircut in the league. But he's big on working with QBs on fundamentals. He had the assistants working with Darnold throughout the offseason on things like his footwork and maintaining balance throughout his throwing motion. It made a big difference in his consistency. He wasn't the same quarterback that I remembered sinking the Panthers the year before.

When the Panthers opted to give your Bears the entire farm to draft Bryce Young and not resign any of their free agents, Darnold signed with SF on a one-year deal, potentially not even making the roster. That got my attention again - he did well enough in OTAs and camp that the 49ers pulled the trigger on unloading Trey Lance.




A second, related Random Opinion: the coaching support staff is exactly why Arthur Smith deserved to be fired by the Falcons. They drafted Desmond Ridder in 2022, and their QB coach that season (with no assistant QB coach on staff) was a former RB who coached the X's and O's, not technique. I'm a huge fan of that coach (Charles London), but he wasn't going to be able to do a thing to help young QBs with footwork or their throwing motion.

When they made Ridder the starter in 2023, they did not have a QB coach at all. Arthur Smith had one of the smallest overall coaching staffs in the league. The OC did double-duty working with the QBs, and they had NO ONE dedicated to working on those fundamentals on a full time basis. Ridder instead went to Jordan Palmer on his own to work on mechanics during the off-season.

Shocker... Ridder didn't step up and make progress in 2023.

Thanks for letting me know. I thought you were posting it just to take a cheap shot at me.

I'm with you on Carr being over-hyped. I pointed out when New Orleans signed him that Andy Dalton had better numbers for the Saints the prior year than Carr had for the Raiders.

I'm not claiming Darnold is suddenly the next Peyton Manning, but I do say he doesn't deserve the bad rep - I posted earlier that the Vikings need to keep the coaching staff around him to stay on the fundamentals and make sure he doesn't revert to old bad habits. If they can do that, he'll be pretty good for them all year long.

What I mean by he's off to a good start towards getting paid is that if Carr and Daniel Jones are worth $100M and $104M guaranteed deals, then Darnold is certainly showing that he's worth more than a one-year contract.



Now... if any team is looking for a QB with legit upside that can be had for a song, Ridder is sitting on Arizona's practice squad, right there for the taking. No trade or draft pick needed. Get the right assistant coaches to work with him - I would go for Pat O'Hara, who is also available right now. Have O'Hara work with him every day on developing a more consistent throwing motion, particularly when he rolls out, and see how much a year of actual coaching can make a difference in developing a young QB.

 

One problem with Cousins so far has been that Atlanta has a rookie OC.

In the opener against Pittsburgh, only one snap was from under center. The rest were pistol or shotgun. Every single play called from shotgun was a pass, and over 80% of the plays from the pistol were runs. Can you please do some more to help the defensive coordinator?

Now the OL is dealing with injuries, with center Drew Dalman on IR and right tackle Kaleb McGary banged up. Not a good way to head into a run of games against division rivals. Falcons will be lucky to come out of it 3-3.



They are definitely good with what the media and the rest of the league has to say about drafting Penix. The short story is they didn't expect him to still be on the board, so they grabbed him when they had the opportunity. The owner is good with that - Arthur Blank saw the team go a couple of seasons without a "franchise" QB, and he doesn't want to watch that movie again.

Something that makes me VERY happy is they also now have a full time QB coach PLUS an assistant QB coach. As I noted in the post above, they pushed Desmond Ridder into a starting role without a full time QB coach at all. I had said before last season that it concerned me, and I believe now that it was the single biggest factor that derailed the team's 2023 season and cost Arthur Smith his job.

As a Falcons-related counterexample... once upon a time they had a rookie QB prospect who was a total disaster. He got into a few games and threw four pass attempts. Two were incomplete. The other two were intercepted. The head coach couldn't wait to get rid of him.

Another team offered a first round pick for the obvious bust. That team went to work right away on correcting everything about his mechanics, drilling him relentlessly on his footwork. And they had a pair of dedicated coaches to work with him. Good ones, too. When the kid first arrived in town, the offensive assistant who picked him up at the airport was Jon Gruden, and his QB coach was Steve Mariucci.

It worked out pretty well for them. And if you haven't guessed his name yet, he made the news this week by revealing he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's...


I won't claim that Atlanta's current QB coaches are on the level of Mooch and Chucky, but at least we finally HAVE some QB coaches again. The more you think about it, the more mind-boggling it is to think that a head coach would put the season (and his job) on the line by starting a young QB prospect with less than six games of experience and not have a dedicated QB coach on staff at all.

 

Robert Saleh, period. Hyped draft, nothing happening on the field.

Bengals have divas on offense that screwed the unity all up on that football team. If the WR's would come off of cloud 9 and practiced with Burrows things may have been different, maybe, but thats how I see it.

Jayden Daniels is in cruse control for the moment, but it will all implode if he becomes injured... I guess we can say that for about every team.
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On Richadson and Williams - (Williams) You need to be a team, they can only do so much. In Chicago, imo, coaching is a huge factor and not a positive one. The scheme doesnt fit his talent. He shows signs of brilliance then he seems to be all a lone to figure things out in live game action... no QB, who is fresh like him can know the NFL defenses without proper coaching and training.

(Richardson) He needs receivers with hands that can make him look good. With his injuries, I wonder if he's a bit shell-shocke when he's in the pocket during live action. Maybe after some maturation and some good hands on the field, he might settle down and just get in the flow.

My thoughts on Darno0ld are still up in the air... maybe all he needed from the get-go was a team surrounding him and solid coaching. He has that in Minnesota. After all he was a top pick in the draft and for good reason. Maybe the stars aligned where he is now and he can finally hit his potential.

Pretty damn sad, but true. If it only would have happened to another team. I cant help but feel sorry and pain for such a storied franchise completely destroyed over the past few years after being a doormat for a while. If your still on the Browns bandwagon, you are a true fan, period.

By the way - Kirk in Atlanta is cool for now. If an old vet cant get it done, they have something in the background named Penix, so I believe they might be on track for something good. Might not look too good at the moment, but they should be able to pull a rabbit out of their hat if Kirk gets injured or stinks the p[lace up. Im personally looking forward to see what Penix can bring on an NFL level.

 

Something in the water in Chicago.

 

Everton. Ben was already a Steeler QB. The Steelers didn’t go out of their way to bring a predator to their organization. They were on the verge of trading him away and decided not to. The browns went out and traded the ranch for a sex addict that had more lawsuits against him than they had gone through QBs since 1999. I know what Ben did was wrong but he wasn’t a crazy predator either.

 

The owner and front office did that Gid, not the fans. The majority of the fans did not want this from the onset, which is what Everton was talking about.

From the time all of it went down to present day, the majority of Steelers fans defend him, they victim shamed back when it happened. forgive and forget mentality spread throughout, with the exception of a couple of fans.

There were some Browns fans that didn’t like it, but got onboard because it was happening and there was nothing they could do about it… but look at our fan board, this piece of shit tore apart our fanbase on here. It’s nothing like it used to be and it’s entirely because of him. We handled losing, we can’t handle the lowest form of human being the face of the franchise.

 

We handled losing, we can’t handle the lowest form of human being the face of the franchise.


Well said Irish.

 

I'm glad to say that I was one of those couple of fans. Never liked Ben. Never liked the redemption arc. Hated the whole pointing at the sky like he's found God.

I'm not much on virtue signaling so it's against my nature to write the above but your statement about Watson reminds me of a question I always ponder, even in my case with the Steelers and that is: How does one separate the rooting for a team when a person like Watson or Big Ben is on it and not rooting for their success?

It's a fine line.

 

Well, yes, Williams needs to take less shots too, but thats a little more out of his hands isnt it heh. He takes his hits in/around the pocket when the protection's broken down too fast.

Daniels uses his legs really well, but when he gets to that 2nd level and beyond he's not protecting himself. At times its almost like he's looking for contact, trying to give it back to the DB or even LB. Needless wear and tear. They even talked about it in the last game when he made his first slide of the season. He's doing more for his team by giving up that extra yard or two when there isnt a FD or goal line involved.

 

Ha, well no one is going to accuse you of being late for that train torgo. But at the same time, knowing what i did, you can't blame me for thinking you were being a bit quick off the mark. Especially when it was taking place against the worst team in the league.

Fair point about it being in your team's division so you would be following extra closely, tho i would point out i was following closer than normal myself(for an NFC South team) as Tim and i had been discussing the Panthers for some time right around this period. Foreman btw was excellent that season and was far more help to Darnold than you make out here. Guy barely saw the field for like the first 3rd of the season and still came close to 1,000yards rushing. I loved that the Bears signed him that following offseason. Foreman deserved better than the minor 1 year deal he got in Chicago and certainly deserved better than the usage he got.

Thats good stuff.

 

Exactly. Gideon could've acknowledged what i was talking about too, but instead chose to try and deflect back to football. Low integrity.

As for the Browns board, i didn't really know that man, thats brutal. And over a garbage human being like that too, very sad. I remember sympathising with you at the time of that trade and still do cos i would've been furious too if it was my team. Dline and i are big into this stuff, the C on the helmet isnt enough, if they're scumbags we want them gone whoever they are. We're lucky we've never had to deal with it being a face of the franchise type. I remember in like 2014 the idiots signing Ray McDonald AFTER he'd been arrested for i think rape and battery. Then he had another domestic abuse while on the team and they finally got some sense. That was only a year or two after Sam Hurd decided to be a coke dealer in his spare time. They got rid of him quickly i guess.

Its all small time compared to the Browns situation tho. Seeing him playing every week, disgusting. Havent looked at the contract in a while but I hope they get to the point soon where they can eat the rest of the money and get rid of him, which will happen cos its not like he's even playing well.

 

No word of a lie here, if i had to guess i would've said you might lean that way. Might sound strange since its not like you and I have spoken directly that much over the years, but having read some of your posts i can honestly say that doesn't surprise me.

 

Hadn't seen him play much, bits of the Packers game. I was genuinely shocked at how bad he was against the Bears. I mean there were some terrible decisions in there for sure but i didnt expect him to be such a bad passer. On one swing pass he overthrew the bench! That was one of the worst things about that game, losing to a QB who had tried their damndest to give you the game.

I guess a fairly natural comp for Richardson coming out is Josh Allen, and Allen was bad his first year. But i dont remember him being this bad. An athletic marvel for sure, but as a passer Richardson looks like he's got a hell of a long way to go, albeit going off the only full game ive seen him play.

 

Everton, you really can’t compare Ben and Watson. Ben was drafted with a clean slate. He definitely was doing things he should have stayed away from. I don’t care to hear his opinion about the Steelers now, they’re always writing his opinion on the Steelers depot site. I can’t believe how much stupid things he has to say. I’m not a fan of his at all. He supposedly got married and put his party life behind him. But he sounds like a dumb ass when he opens his mouth. There are probably more people who have had experiences with both Ben and Watson, because both of them couldn’t have been accused from every woman who they touched inappropriately. Some people just don’t want to go through the humiliation that it brings to talk about it. The NFL is never going to permanently ban anyone except for gambling.

 

Rae Carruth is banned indefinitely


Here's the thing Gid, you STILL don't get it...

What possible argument could you come up with for not comparing the two? Ben was accused of fucking rape, not inappropriate touching. Now, Watson has been accused of the same... Both should have been immediately put on leave and as soon as they "settled" their cases, been banned from the league.

That's the worst part of our system. Unless someone sees the act taking place, it is so difficult to get a criminal charge, let alone a guilty verdict. In these types of cases, the law doesn't necessarily work for the victims. Victims know this, lawyers tell them this, cops tell them this... so too many times they go unreported. Do I want innocent people to be convicted, of course not, but it forces cases like these into civil court so that they can at the very least punish those that are guilty and get something of compensation to deal with the pain they will carry the rest of their lives.

 

You don’t get it. Your team traded the farm and opened their checkbook so far to obtain a piece of crap human being, the Steelers didn’t go out of their way to get a sex offender on their roster. Never would and as far as everyone knows Ben is rehabbilitated. Watson still has more cases coming up.

 

(Argh !!! I think I'm about to throw up in my mouth).

Gid has a good point here.

 

Everyone has already said that… not a single person has defended the Browns and fucking hell, NO ONE has defended Watson.


You are STILL defending him as rehabilitated. I don’t give two fucks if he’s rehabilitated, if (and all signs point to he did) he raped a woman, doesn’t matter if it’s one or many, this fuck head should not have a platform to make additional money based on his being an NFL player. It’s that simple.

Watson should have never been allowed back in the league, even if the Browns had to eat $230M in cap space for making the worst deal in league history.

Yet, you continue to argue that Ben is rehabilitated… it’s either idiotic, or you really don’t care about victims of abuse, which says a lot about you.

 

Oh boy. Gid, I see where your thought is and that's fine, but Ben has been and still seems to be a cro magnin of of a human being. The biggest thing is, now he's being watched and he's not able to hit the clubs like he did.

To me, and it may be different for others, but rehabilitation requires a change in mindset and short of committing the act of rape, Ben is still the same entitled person.

People make mistakes, but rape is not that. It's a misogynistic act of violence perpetuated on what is considered to be the weaker sex. Watson is scum. Ben is too. The only difference is the number.

I live the Steelers but Ben made it very hard to root for them with his arrogance and pseudo piety.

 

I'm with Irish and Dirk on this topic.......and Dirk is long time Fan of the Steelers.

Both these NFL QB's are Scums...........it is not a case of which one is worse or deserves our Forgiveness.

Big Ben Raped a teenager.......A Teenager in a Lake Tahoe Bar Washroom (Stall).....she did not have a chance to defend herself against this man.

I agree with Irish........ the Cleveland Browns made the Worst deal in NFL History to ink Watson.

This is a very difficult topic but it does need to be addressed....I firmly believe BOTH QBs should have been Banned from playing Football in any League.