NFL For Dummies

[bitter-iron-ny]

Green bay.

Wide receiver.

First round draft pick.

DOES. NOT. COMPUTE.

My brain has thrown up an error code!!!

That announcement by Mark Murphy was brilliant - playing to the hometown crowd and maybe trolling Aaron Rodgers in the process more than a little bit.

[bitter-iron-ny]

Sanders to Browns early in 2nd? Or will he fall even further?!

Cleveland has a couple of early picks today and definitely need a QB. If they pass it will be quite telling.

This happens every year to varying degrees with an assortment of players. There is a media ecosystem in US sports that comments on everything whether they know anything about the subject matter. And the NFL draft is one of the biggest forums for these know-nothings to pontificate on all sorts of stuff.

I'm no expert on anything but I do watch a lot of sports on TV, including a ton of American football. I have watched 7 or 8 Colorado games each of the past two years and have seen a ton of Shedeur Sanders play, and by my amateur eye, he is lacking in all sorts of ways the skillset to be an NFL QB. It's not an exact science and like everyone, probably get more wrong than right. However, listening to loads of "experts" describing Sanders' game, it is painfully obvious that they are just guessing and have done little more than watch a youtube highlight package and scanned some stats. Watch one full game and tell me that Sanders is decisive, doesn't hold the ball too long and is a consistently accurate passer. He is none of those things. He is also not a great athlete and is limited to being a pocket passer. If he was anyone else's kid playing QB for a middling team in major conference he would be looked at as a midround project. And that is before you factor in the media circus that will accompany him wherever he goes. Thank god it is going to be someone else's problem.

[bitter-iron-ny]

I watched a little of the draft yesterday. I hadn’t done so in a long, long time. Seems like the NFL has sanitized it significantly. When they used to do it in the felt forum at MSG, it would get chaotic , usually because of angry Jets or Eagles fans. The draft last night was almost Disneyfied by comparison.

The draft is not the only thing that the NFL has hyped to the nth degree. The schedule release, the combine, etc. are all contributing to the NFL's goal of being a 365 day-a-year attention magnet.

[Denzil]

Sanders to Browns early in 2nd? Or will he fall even further?!

Colorado link up with Hunter & Sanders for Cleveland would be fun

[Macca1973]

Sanders still not picked

[Denzil]

Terribly sad news about Derrick Harmons mother. I saw interviews with him after he was drafted where he was visibly upset and he spoke of his mother and her not being there due to illness. She sadly passed away a few hours after he was drafted by Steelers. Can’t imagine the highs and lows of emotion he must be feeling. Hope he’s got a good support network round him.

[Loftyhammer]

Raiders in sensible draft shocker! Plenty of holes to fill and doing a great job filling them with good prospects! Bech was on a few mock drafts and he looks good.

Sanders is having a shocker, but now he starts to look tempting .....hopefully this has knocked a bit of humility into him in

[Loftyhammer]

Terribly sad news about Derrick Harmons mother. I saw interviews with him after he was drafted where he was visibly upset and he spoke of his mother and her not being there due to illness. She sadly passed away a few hours after he was drafted by Steelers. Can’t imagine the highs and lows of emotion he must be feeling. Hope he’s got a good support network round him.

Wow....hopefully it was a very small consolation if she was able to see/hear his news being drafted before she died. But yeah talk about contrasting emotions

[WCpete]

That’s terrible news. Poor kid got put through the wringer. Best and worst moments of his life in the same day.

[bitter-iron-ny]

Terribly sad news about Derrick Harmons mother. I saw interviews with him after he was drafted where he was visibly upset and he spoke of his mother and her not being there due to illness. She sadly passed away a few hours after he was drafted by Steelers. Can’t imagine the highs and lows of emotion he must be feeling. Hope he’s got a good support network round him.

Steelers one of the better organizations and Tomlin one of the better coaches with building a real sense of family among their players, employees and alumni. Being a family-owned club and the Rooney's being high character people also helps. Ryan Shazier's story a great example of how to run a team the right way.

Edit: Just saw Tomlin interviewed and when asked how Harmon is doing his reply was, "obviously we are going to surround him during this tough time and as difficult as this time is, it is also a great catalyst to establish a real relationship with him and support him as needed."

[bitter-iron-ny]

Raiders in sensible draft shocker! Plenty of holes to fill and doing a great job filling them with good prospects! Bech was on a few mock drafts and he looks good.

Sanders is having a shocker, but now he starts to look tempting .....hopefully this has knocked a bit of humility into him in

Unlikely. He was busy pretending to be humble on twitter, being sure to include a hashtag for his "brand". No doubt there will be some empty words but I'd be shocked if there was any real adjustment to his character.

Eagles were about to take him and the Browns, after passing on him like 5 times, decided to trade up and gazump them. Now the Browns have 5 QBs, a fascinating approach.

[bitter-iron-ny]

Giants supposedly committed to taking a RB at some point. Not sure where he'll go but I really like Skattebo. Seems like an absolute nutter/x-factor. Would love him as a mid-round pick.

Poor form in quoting myself, but a rare occasion that my gypsy blood hasn't let me down

[WCpete]

I'd cry if I were he as well.

Giants seem to be having a pretty good draft.

[Macca1973]

Great shout

[WCpete]

This whole Sanders uproar is mind boggling. Whether he’s talented enough or not, no player should be bigger than the league, especially before they’ve played a single down of football. Anyhow, this post is what Sanders zealots should be trying to understand. But they won’t.

[bitter-iron-ny]

This whole Sanders uproar is mind boggling. Whether he’s talented enough or not, no player should be bigger than the league, especially before they’ve played a single down of football. Anyhow, this post is what Sanders zealots should be trying to understand. But they won’t.

He
Just
Isn't
That
Good

Too much hype and not enough substance, that's the core of it.

There's also the reality of people not want to draw the ire of Deion. The guy is as much qnself-promoting carnival barker-snake oil salesman as he is a football coach. He is VERY successful at it, and while I don't begrudge him his success, doesn't mean I am going to make excuses for it. However, Deion is such an impactful figure in the sport, college and pro, that there are many who will go way out of their way to show him unwarranted deference. If Shedeur was anyone else's kid, who wasn't live-streaming his life in a non-stop promotion of his brand, he'd have been fortunate to be a mid-round pick. Is he smart enough and have adequate tools to develop into a decent NFL QB? Yeah, I'd say so. Is he currently exceptional at anything? Nope. He ran up #'s against a soft schedule, benefitting from having an unbelievable receiver who was capable of turning hospital passes into long TD's. Then you have a sports media ecosystem looking to curry favor with Deion, bending over backwards to spin the kid into something he isn't. People who I have a lot of time for, like Rich Eisen, are too tied into Planet Deion and will consider every angle of the situation other than the most obvious one. But when it came time for those whose NFL jobs were on the line based on whether their team wins or loses, those folks weren't so quick to drink the kool-aid.

[WCpete]

It’s box office. It sells. That’s the bottom line.

[bitter-iron-ny]

It’s box office. It sells. That’s the bottom line.

Right. But that doesn't win you football games. For GMs and coaches, that's their bottom line.

I am sure those guys were impressed that Shedeur was taking outside calls during his individual meetings with teams.

At some point, it becomes pointless.

[Cockneyboy311]

Anybody with any decent knowledge of College football (I have none) could rate the Rams draft?

It's always posted as fantastic on the socials but I'd love to hear any of your thoughts. Usually Snead and McVay do a decent job here so I'm not worried just curious

[WCpete]

Right. But that doesn't win you football games. For GMs and coaches, that's their bottom line.

I am sure those guys were impressed that Shedeur was taking outside calls during his individual meetings with teams.

At some point, it becomes pointless.

Right. NFL won't care. And the Sanders family won't care, but the actual teams care a great deal. I don't know that the Browns are strong enough an organization to deal with this circus. Luck to them.