TheFunPolice

Thurman Thomas was, IMO, the best RB of the past 40 years. He was also the last Buffalo Bill to be named league MVP. Thurman was incredible, and in a time when the game was much more based on defense and running the ball, he was a 2000's era RB. He could run, for sure, with incredible vision, power and speed. Then he could line up as a freaking WR and catch the ball 25 yards down the field along the sideline, not just in the slot (although he could do that too). Then he could come in and pass block or run block for another runner. The dude was a 2020's RB 30 years ago, when you could hold, illegal contact was not a thing, and pass interference was rarely called. Guys could take headshots without it being a penalty. There was no defenseless WR. I could go on and on, but in an era of brutal, physical defense he was still nearly unstoppable. In today's game he would be even more unstoppable. I would take Thurman Thomas over EVERY RB who has played since 1980, at least.

Star's contract is still brutal... No real savings to cut him. 9 mil if he plays 7 mil if he's gone.

Best for all not to proceed if fit is in question

that all makes total sense! It's pretty crazy how dysfunctional that franchise truly is

Did Culley make those mistakes, or was having the GM, and the "consultant" or whatever they called Romeo Crennell, in his headset chattering away at key moments a distraction that caused him to botch decisions?

Again though, Flores wasn't actually paid to lose. He says he refused the offer. It is interesting that Flores employed co OC's and constantly messed with Tua by taking him out, putting Fitz in, taking Fitz out... Those decisions were widely criticized as counterproductive at the time... Did he actually ACCEPT the offer and now wants to act like he didn't? Because Hue Jackson is basically saying he went along and tanked, if I'm reading that right, making him just as guilty (if not more) because he then lied to his players and put their careers in harm's way for his own personal gain. Again, based on what he seems to be saying.

How cool is it that teams are searching for "the next Josh Allen?" The future is bright here, and Allen WILL lead us to a Super Bowl win! Now that Brady is gone the league is wide open. Rodgers might even win a playoff game or two down the line!

the GM and Romeo Crennel were BOTH in Culley's headset during games, which is just bizarre to me. I'm surprised Easterby wasn't in there as well. Culley worked miracles with what he dealt with IMO.

The thing about the Fitz curse is that the starters ahead of him weren't that good. Part of being not a very good QB is you get hurt a lot. If you notice, the star QBs seem to know how to avoid serious injuries most of the time. It's part of being a good QB. Bad QBs hold the ball too long, don't see hits coming, and get smashed because they can't process the field fast enough to get rid of the ball.

I still can't imagine how the mechanics of a coach "tanking" would work. Play it out: coach says "ok I'll tank." But that's the HC. So what does he do? He's got an entire staff of coaching making (comparatively) peanuts who are trying to advance their careers and get that HC job someday. Does he say to them "guys, we're all just going to mail it in and lose on purpose?" So now the OC has the 32nd ranked offense. the DC has the 32nd ranked defense. Special teams coordinator has special teams that stink. Plus the position coaches who don't make enough money that they can afford this to be their last stop. So, now the position coaches (if they go along) are basically deciding that they are at their career ceilings, because NOBODY is going to look to hire them when they are on the worst team in the league and their units all stink. So these coordinators and assistants, who could (and likely would) take the hit at the end of the year, because SOME changes would need to be made if they kept the HC, would agree to basically stink at their jobs, get fired, uproot their families yet again just a year or two later, but now have poor prospects of getting another job based on their performance. For what? So the team and coach that fired them could get a better draft pick and start winning while they're selling cars or working at a HS somewhere in Oklahoma teaching gym class and coaching the OL on the football team? Then there's the players. Hey QB: we need you to stink and torpedo your career. Then we'll cut you once we draft your replacement and nobody else will pay you anything more than peanuts to play. And it goes on and on. Now, you could just put together a team of practice squad level players and let them play 100% knowing they'll lose anyway. In that case, lots of teams in lots of leagues have done it openly. But you can't speak the words, I guess I get that. Now, in the case of Hue Jackson... The guy is an egomaniac who speaks about himself in the 3rd person. He talked a ton about Cleveland having a winner in town, but now he wants us to believe that his laughable W/L record was actually on purpose? I'm not going to say it's impossible, because the Browns owner is a shady dude, but it just doesn't make sense for Hue (and the GM apparently) to sabotage his own career for a million extra bucks. NOW, if Hue Jackson is telling the truth, maybe Ross went to Flores and said "hey, let's do what the Browns did with Hue" and Flores told him NO WAY! are you nuts? And that was the end of it. In that case, it's bad, but if we're being honest with ourselves how bad is it? The same fans who WANT their team to lose for that 1st overall pick to get a QB are really mad when the powers that be try to make that happen? It's not really losing in a sense, because the point is to win big by losing now. The prize of the next Burrow, Allen, Mahomes sitting there vs drafting a tackle at #2 is franchise changing. So you're not really "trying to lose" so much as trying to WIN by doing that.

I love Dawson Knox's game now! TE is a tough spot to fill.... Even pretty decent TE's are a rare breed in the NFL. We have to lock him up.

Trubisky if he will stay. If not, it's time to tap into that Fitzmagic, one more time! Fitz might add a vibe and a little bit of comic relief that every team needs too.

Definitely the 49ers. I would bet $$ on it. 49ers were also in on Peyton Manning before he chose Denver and almost signed him, so Brady probably thought they would be interested but they weren't. That probably pisses him off as much as anything. Plus, YET AGAIN someone wants to go with Jimmy G over him?!

I think the issue is that Harbaugh reportedly wanted the "John Gruden contract" of 100+million dollars and total roster control on top of that. I could see a GM saying "no thanks" to having zero authority. These guys should bet on themselves: 3 year deal for 7 million per year, but 100% total control of roster and draft picks. If after that 3 years you are rolling then the big $$ comes.

Wow! I had no idea, and that's pretty messed up! From your post I'm guessing that whether discretion is exercised because it's a little old lady just trying to be nice and not having any idea that it's a "bribe" is entirely dependent on the whims of whoever processes the paperwork? I think the team Brady is talking about is SF. Supposedly the 49ers were his #1 choice in free agency. His family is in California, he's from there, grew up rooting for the 49ers... And they didn't want him, which IMO would have pissed him off and would fit with the "sticking with that..." in reference to Jimmy G. BTW, talk about stupid! 49ers spent a gazillion picks to draft Lance but could have kept all that capital and just added Brady for free.

Plus, at least with Miami it never actually happened. To use your police officer analogy, the officer says "that's very kind of you but I cannot accept that gift card legally" and that's the end of it. No crime actually was committed. Now Jackson is claiming he actually went along with it in Cleveland, making him just as guilty if that's what went down.

but if the tanking never occurred then there was no crime. If someone considers robbing a bank but then thinks twice and doesn't then there was no crime. Every DWI commercial says "think twice, save a life." You don't get arrested for DWI for trying to get into your car drunk and making your friends wrestle the keys away. You never drove drunk. In this case, EVEN IF what Flores alleges is true, he wrestled the keys from Ross's hands and stopped this from happening.

Let's be honest, we all basically knew Daboll was going there. I think Flores is extra angry about that because it sounds like a front office guy was giving him the idea that he was the guy

I mean, Al Davis once just made himself coach of the Raiders, and actually did OK.

Total BS Bon Jovi realized all he had to say was "Trump made it up!" and people would buy it. The entire Toronto series was about building the fanbase there for an eventual move. If Rodgers had outlived Ralph the team would 100% be in Toronto right now full time. Rodgers couldn't have cared less about the team's security in Buffalo. He paid an obscene amount of money to Ralph for those games. It was like $80 million dollars, which back then was roughly 1/10 the price of buying an NFL team, as teams hadn't hit the billion mark yet. But yeah, if his family ended up buying them they were going to basically give the team to Bon Jovi and let him run it from a canal boat in Tonawanda while they financed a team in WNY and paid all the bills for a new stadium. OK No, Bon Jovi was being used as the "friendly face" when the Rodgers group was going to put up 70% of the money. Those guys know how popular classic rock is in Buffalo/WNY. Geddy Lee was their first choice, but alas, he was a Toronto man.

Is a team resting starters because it has the playoffs locked up tanking/throwing that game? That team losing could affect a handful of other teams that don't make the playoffs because they needed that team to win. This is a Pandora's box

It's like the Texans really want to hire McCown but they're scared. Either it works and you're geniuses or it doesn't and you look like fools. Who cares what anyone says right now? Pray about it a bit.

my thoughts exactly!

Florio and his ilk make a huge dela every year out of what an injustice and travesty it is that Eric Bienemy doesn't get "his" HC job. Maybe he's just not that impressive?

It seems like the part of the lawsuit that is getting the most traction, corroboration and attention is about tanking, which has nothing to do with race. IMO the race stuff is just there to get attention but it's ultimately not provable. You can hire whoever you want. A team just liked candidate A better, it's that simple. And Congress investigate? LOL really? OK, let's talk about the diversity of Congress, AND the diversity of each member of the panel's congressional aides and staff. This lawsuit is going to become a lot more about tanking and that type of thing than race. It's already going that way. Does the contract say coach will be paid for losing X number of games? If so that's amazing. It brings up a question. Is strategically angling to lose when the NFL offers a massive incentive to do it (the Draft) a crime? Or is it like punting? You cut your losses this season for a huge gain later, your ULTIMATE goal being to win because that draft pick will help you do that.