sven233

As someone who loves the game of football more than the average fan, the more football I can watch, the better. But, player safety and the quality of the game is top of mind for me as well. Finding the right balance for everyone is tough. There are logistical things that get in the way of scheduling and possibly creating the best possible quality of the game. If they were to completely willing to blow up the way they do things, here's what I would love to see as a fan and as someone that wants to prevent injuries and improve the quality of the game. - 18 games with AT LEAST 2 Bye weeks. Quite honestly, I would be open to 3 Bye weeks if they were willing to extend the season/post season into March. - The only Thursday Night or Overseas games that are played are done so between teams coming off of a Bye. Adding a 2nd Bye, makes this easier, but in my mind, this is the main reason for adding a 3rd Bye week to make this even easier to do. - Each team would be limited to only 1 Thursday Night game and these games are limited to either out of conference games or Division games between teams that have an equal amount of rest going into it. Again, this is where adding a 3rd Bye would make this easier. Obviously, they will never add a 3rd Bye week. But, as a fan, I would welcome it for a lot of reasons. The first being player safety. The second would be the quality of the games.....the more the players are rested, the more likely it is they stay healthy. And for a more selfish reason, it would make the season longer and the offseason shorter. You would play to the middle of March. You could do the combine in early April, the Draft in May, OTAs in June, and then still get back for Camp in August. You can debate the need for a preseason game or 2, but they could start a bit later and push the whole season back a bit if needed. Not everyone is going to like this idea. Some will, some will hate it. It's fine. Regardless, it is never going to happen. We will see 18 games with maybe 2 Bye weeks at most and the same short weeks that we currently have.

I don't think the doom and gloom in here is because of missing our bookend tackles. Sure, that's part of if for this game, but the overall sentiment is because of the bigger picture. All the injuries on both sides of the ball, the defense not being able to stop a nosebleed most of the time, the WRs being an absolute embarrassment, and Joe Brady showing no creativity whatsoever or the ability to adapt in game when things are going wrong. There were times in recent years that we wouldn't have even blinked being down a couple of lineman. We would have been so confident in Josh being Superman and carrying this team to victory, but that just isn't the case this year. It's not remotely at all on Josh. He needs to be better tat times for sure, but the man is getting no help from his teammates and coaches. Even if there were signs that things were turning around, it might be easier to get fired up about Sunday, but man.....it's tough right now. This game is so important, so if there ever was going to be a time to get back on track, it needs to be Sunday. We will need at least 3 wins the rest of the way to get in. With our remaining schedule, this is perhaps one of our better chances to get one. It isn't going to be easy.

I'm running out of decent options to be honest. In all the years I have been doing these things, I've tried to get cute too early by taking lesser teams early in order to save some good ones for later. But, that's cost me after doing it too much and I'd be out halfway through the season. This year, I decided to go the other way and take teams I was pretty confident in but that has gotten rid of a lot of top teams for me already. So, I have a feeling my weeks are numbered here. I'm on the Jags this week. Sure, I have a slam dunk or 2 I could take this week, but if I burn them, then even if I do make it through the week, I'll pretty much be DOA over the next week or 2. So, we'll see what happens. Jags could absolutely win this week. But it's still the freaking Jags and they can lose at any given moment. Just feel like my hands are kind of tied as we head down the stretch here.

It means you have a lack of top talent and the only way you can win is with a ball control offense and hopefully limiting the other teams offensive snaps so your terrible defense doesn't have to be on the field as much. What it is, is a losers mentality. Screw complimentary football. Build an offense around the best player on the planet and blow teams off the field. Score 40 and make a couple stops on defense and you will be a much better team. If you can get out ahead of teams and make them 1 dimensional, you will actually make it much easier on your undersized defense. But we don't have a coach that wants to play that way.

-Sign Gilliam if you insist on having a FB on the roster. Won't cost you that much. - McGovern has had a rough year. I was for trying to re-signing him last off season, but I am in no hurry to do so now. He's going to get like 14 mill and I am not ready to pay him that money. It's time to start saving some money on the line. We can't keep signing these guys to big contracts. If VPG is any good, he can compete for the job with a rookie. There are drafts where you can get the best C in the draft in the 3rd round. I'd much rather do that that sign another big contract with McGovern. Edwards is the same thing. If he takes a team friendly deal, fine, but otherwise I am good going in a different direction there. We have a lot of bad contracts that we have to make up for somewhere and these guys are a place to start. - TJ can go - Knox is either a giant pay cut or should be gone. I am just afraid his relationship with Josh will cloud that situation, but business is business. - Samuel is gone - They seem to have a Bass obsession..... If you can save some money, that should the the #1 priority. - Rapp is kind of the same thing. I think they really like him, but that's a spot that needs a MAJOR upgrade. A second round S should absolutely be a consideration for that spot. This team has rewarded mediocrity because of their whole "Draft, Develop, and Re-Sign" philosophy. Look, it's a good thought to have, but it doesn't excuse you from handing out bad contracts to average to slightly above average talent just because you like the player as a person. It started with a terrible contract to Knox and has showed up way too many times. To win in the NFL, you need STARS. As many as you can get and then fill in the bottom of the roster with whatever. For too long, we have been trying to build a roster that is deep. A roster where the drop off isn't significant from the 1s to the 2s, the 2s to the 3s, etc. They want to be able to sub guys in and out and still get the same level of play. Well, what happens eventually when you do that is sure....you get consistency, but you don't have any alphas to make the plays when you need them. I mean, how many true STARS do we have? Two? Allen and Cook? That's about it. There's nobody on defense that OCs are truly losing sleep over. And aside from Allen and Cook, there is literally nobody that strikes any fear into DCs. We have a bunch of fine players, but really only 2 DAWGS. That's not enough. The focus needs to switch. We need to start improving the top of the roster somehow and if it costs us some quality depth, so be it, but this team needs an influx to top talent.

I know the big question is whether he can get caught up in the offense enough to be able to play on Sunday. It's a big ask......there's a lot to learn. He'll have to get his 5-10 yard mesh routes down. He'll have to make sure he can catch a WR screen behind the LOS......not just on the left side of the field, but the right side of the field as well. And, most importantly, he will have to make sure he can take an end around hand off, preferably without fumbling and making sure to get at least 3 yards out of it. Let's face it....it's a complicated and difficult task to perfect this offense. I mean, it took like 5 games before our opposing defenses got it figured out and mastered, and he doesn't have a long to time to understand it himself. He's a vet, though. If he puts in enough work.....at least an entire afternoon, he might be able to figure it out eventually.

I don't think it's that hot a take with their schedule. Going to be a fight for the WCs all the way till the end.

Game over.....

Dude....if you are not going to use all 4 downs, why take the ball first? I know it was 4th and 4 or whatever and if you don't get it, it's over, but punting there with the Chiefs only needing a FG is basically a loss anyway.

Good defense there by the Colts, but does anyone honestly believe that the Colts offense is going to score a TD in OT?

Should have let him score.....

Just an awful job by the Colts. I mean who didn't see this coming when the decided not to go for it on their last possession? You play to win..... They played not to lose and they're about to.

Ball is on the ground....his hands never touched it. Yes, he had it with his forearm, but the ball hit the ground......

Colts with the chicken call.......

Colts are done..... They've lost their composure.

Colts are in trouble.....

Colts are cracking......

If it wasn't for their cupcake schedule, maybe..... Regardless of where they finish, whether it's the 1 seed, 2 seed, whatever...... I still think they are 1 and done.

Very predictable, blitz heavy, series by the Chiefs and it worked.

Sure....pick up a flag against the Chiefs. Why not.....

What a freaking ticky tack call that was..... What else is new........

Well, the problem is, as of now, the schedule is set by a formula and I think it may be difficult to adhere 100% to the existing formula and still be able to work out the Bye weeks. I think the teams in the formula would have to change somehow to make things line up. Sure, you know most of the matchups for every team years in advance, but there are always a couple games determined by record and that's what may throw it off the following year when trying to match up Bye weeks to play on Thursdays or whatever. I don't know. Maybe if you just said that the 14 games or whatever that are set in stone are the only ones that can be played on Thursdays, you can figure it out good enough. I don't know. I just know that with 32 teams coupled with stadium availability and stuff, trying to add another layer of trying to match up Byes and Thursday night games might be tough. But, that's what computers are for. Input the parameters and let the computer do the work. If you need to adjust things manually in the end, you can, but it may be a little tougher to figure it out. On the other hand, the out of conference games and the games determined by record maybe should be the ones played on Thursdays anyway since they may mean a little bit less in terms of tiebreakers at the end of the season. Who knows. Until they show a willingness to even consider it, it's not something I am going to put much thought into.

Oh, I fully realize this. I don't expect anything to change at all. I was just saying they could find a way if they wanted to. But I am very well aware of the fact they don't care and they're just going to do what they want to anyway. Should it change? Yes. Will it? Most likely not unless something really bad happens at some point.

I don't think you need to get rid of it entirely. What they should do is make Thursday nights for teams coming off a Bye or something. I know that's not the most conducive thing to schedules and everything, but maybe it's time to reevaluate how the schedules are composed and worry more about player safety rather than be so opponent specific. There are a lot of smart people working in the NFL. I am sure with enough meeting time, they could come up with something that would take less of a toll on the body and still allow them to play on Thursday night most weeks. Maybe the first few weeks there aren't any, but when Bye weeks start, so do Thursday night games or something. I mean, the easiest way to do it is to make sure every team gets 2 Bye weeks and work it in from there. Each team would have an abbreviated Bye to play on Thursday Night and then a full Bye later on or something like that. I know they don't want to do that, but giving teams extra rest during the season can only help the product and player safety.

Yeah.....saw this when it happened. Not sure if he did it on purpose or not, but if he did, mad props to him. But yeah....that was very close to be very bad.