Khyber53

My hope: Darnold proves to be the guy he was supposed to be coming out of college. Return of CMC changes entire timbre of the games and converting third downs becomes easy. Offensive line gels and becomes decent as pass protectors, capable of clearing holes for CMC. On defense the little old ladies of 2020 are replaced by the new Monsters of the Midway -- Burns and Chinn both contend for DPOY and Horn is in the talks for DROY. New kicker means fewer desperation field goals but even greater number of extra points. Returners learn to just fair catch and let the offense do its work. My fear: Darnold is the guy he was with the 2020 Jets, left broken by bad coaching. CMC withers under heavy workload as we lean on him to make up for QB deficiencies. Injuries and just bad play by offensive line creates a feast table for opposing defenses. Snow goes timid again and calls the games like he was worried about the team's laundry bills. Brian Burns and Jeremy Chinn look at another year wasted on a going nowhere team. Bad third down conversion rates mean we have to lean on new kicker for 50+ yarders again and we end up trying to get Joey Slye back. DJ Moore gets injured on punt return and CMC tells coaches no when asked to go in after making a quick business decision. Rhule and Co. return to college coaching carousel. What will probably happen: We'll show some more incremental growth, Darnold will perform decently (like top 16 QB in the league levels), CMC will get close to 2000 combined yards and do most of our scoring. Defense will improve a bit, but still be weak as dishwater against the run. Offensive line will need complete overhaul by year's end, with Moton going R,L,R,L,R again in an attempt to get something solid. I'm feeling 8-9 here or 9-8, with a lot of talk about Rhule either continuing to build a team or that he might not be the guy. Snow will probably be the sacrificial coaching fire. I sure hope I am wrong.

If he warms up his arm, he might have a shot at starting QB before it's all said and done.

Not sure any other team has ever had NBC do them this honor:

When a veteran like him sucks, it's really easy to spot and to decide that he just hasn't got it anymore (if he ever had it). When a rookie sucks, is he really bad or is he still trying to figure out the game and his place in it? There's the problem. A drafted player on the bench might be a bit timid out there, or it could be the coach that's actually the timid one. Rhule seems methodical, perhaps to a fault, in developing players. His penchant for taking guys from his time at Temple (and maybe a bit from Baylor) kind of speaks to it.

Good for her!

This is going to be a lot like last year's Detroit game, except with more competent QB play and a monster day for CMC (180 combined yards, 2 TDs). Jets show that they are one game into a complete rebuild season. We're going to pick up a lot of hope off of this one, but won't know if it's false or real hope until next week. Short fields make for a quick day for us, defense gets to feast on depleted Jets line. 31-3 with the Jets grabbing their lone score at the end of the first half.

I know next to nothing about this iteration of the Jets, but neither do the experts. This is really a "Let's see what's behind door number 3" kinda moment.

Or, these guys could gel. We may have a better offensive line than we think. And it may have a lot to do with a guy not on the line. CMC on the field changes everything, including how the defensive front 7 lines up and attacks. The guy is the definition of game changer and he has the potential to be put to use on every snap of the ball. That could, should, make things easier for our O-line and might be enough to let them dictate the game to their opponents. Sheesh, wouldn't it be nice to see our O-line actually bully and push around the defense?

And honestly, it wasn't bad. It was quick, gave Wight a chance to reinforce his image just a bit (there's going to be some kind of storyline with him putting together a stable, I just know it) and in a night of "return of the old guys" it was nice to see him get out there are work a bit. But yeah, that was the perfect "take a breather break" match.

That was one of the best PPVs in a couple of decades. The cage match was awesome. And they debuted three big name wrestlers by the end of the night. Great all around. And dangit, it was great to see Ruby Soho get those cheers from the crowd. She's always been massively underappreciated. You could tell it about overwhelmed her. A grades across the board -- great action, great storytelling and it didn't seem like the repetitive crap that WWE has been fosting off on the crowds for the last few years.

Smith and Pennington had football smarts and an understanding of the game that was better than the coaches of the teams they had left. Darnold fits the pattern, but we're going to have to see if the football IQ and processing speed is there. In his one pre-season performance, it looked kinda promising.

Kinda worried that they haven't already, yanno?

100%. It's the difference between last year's results and a playoff team. Converting first downs, when you really boil it down, is the key. We convert more and we keep them from converting as many. We could have been an 11 or 12 win team last year with just a handful of third down stops by our defense. This year, we have CMC back and if he can stay healthy and perform as before, then we will convert again and again. Our defense... on paper it should be stouter, but we need Snow to call the defense like he knows it is stout -- aggressive, not passive like last year.

Exactly. Teddy didn't do us many favors, but he was far from the only reason we came up short in game after game last year. And we came up just a wee bit short, one score most times. There's a lot of hope one can take from that, but there's also a lot of potential for a downgrade this season. On paper we should be much improved, but we won't know until the season starts. I think we'll do better and maybe contend, but we're in one of the three toughest divisions in a season where literally any player(s) could find themselves missing two games or more just because they walked past someone who coughed at the wrong time. Still, I'm liking our depth. Depth may be one of the biggest factors in winners and losers this season.

Probably the biggest reason I think Winston will flame out is because, well, he's Jameis Winston. I've never been a fan of his and he's always played for one of our division rivals. It really comes down to Darnold is our guy and Winston is always the opposing guy, therefore I'm pulling for Darnold and booing Winston. It's homerism, but hey, there it is. And Watson, don't get me started. Let's just let that go away.

This is a very good point. Also, beyond Teddy, those would have been wins had the defense been able to hold the line just a bit better. Teddy wasn't doing us any favors, but not being able to get the opponent's offense off the field on third down is big, too. Really, we just weren't "there" for a number of reasons. Hopefully we've corrected some of those reasons and didn't pick up any new weak spots. Just a bit more success here and there would have changed last season mightily.

Panthers vs Saints won't be decided by the QBs. It's going to be their D-line vs our O-line and our D-line vs their O-line. Everything else is pretty much a wash. Which side has the advantage? Not really sure at this point. Both o-lines have their difficulties and both teams have good defensive lines on paper.

Right now, I'm not sure why Watson doesn't just go ahead and play. If he wants out, he's going to have to show teams he is worth the cost that's being asked. Right now, no one is taking the offer. He's going to have to make some team willing to cough it up before the trade deadline once they know they are desperately in need of a QB. Having a couple of wins under his belt (because the wins will be on him considering the Texans' team quality) will make him more attractive. Personally, I see Jameis Winston flaming out fast and Sean Payton diving into this to get a QB he can work with that needs no development. Scandal? This is Sean Payton... he has more experience navigating scandals than an editor at TMZ.

Just need someone who can catch the kicks and know when to just take a knee in the endzone rather than bring it out to the 21. On punts, just fair catch it and get the offense on the field. For every attempt to run a punt back you get maybe seven yards if you are lucky, but it's often negated by penalties. Just fair catch it, get rid of the risk of a hold or block in the back.

In light of his self-proclaimed genius, errr super genius, I've got nothing to say.

Two different characters in the comic book, two different characters in the movies. When both emerged in the actual comic books, that was the "cool" character archetype, so you end up with guys like Deadshot, Bloodsport, Slade, etc... sort of combinations of the Punisher and Deadpool.

Rare is getting more common every day. But really, let's enjoy the football for as long as we can this season. I may well be wrong and we get crowds in the stands through the Super Bowl. I sure hope so. We need it.

Well, you're partly right on the drafting, except we draft linemen nearly as often as you'd think. We picked up two in the most recent draft, who may or may not pan out. None in 2020, Little and Daley (bust and backup-ish) in 2019, none in 2018, Moton in 2017, none in 2016, Williams in 2015, Turner in 2014 and Kugbila (washout) in 2013. Nine guys in nine drafts. Moton and Little were both taken in the second rounds. Moton has become a stalwart here and Little, well if he hadn't had the concussions he might have been decent. Since we never really got to see Little perform (getting injured way early in his rookie season) we'll just have to count him as bust based on performance. But those are our two highest draft picks spent on the line. That's it. Even with all of the worry and difficulties we saw last year because of bad line play, and picking early in the draft, we still didn't even make an effort until the third round. We took Christensen, a well-regarded LT, and then pretty much were told he wasn't expected to play LT or even be a starter this year. We took another guy in the sixth, G Deonte Brown from the stout Alabama championship team O-line, and even after a decent preseason stuck him in the second string. At a certain point, you have to wonder do we even know what we're doing? Or are we specifically just stashing players for Rhule's third season? And trying to get another high draft pick by sacrificing Sam Darnold? (Let's face it, if bad line play kills Darnold's season, the blame will fall more on the side of Darnold just couldn't cut it and he was what we thought he was.) I know it sounds crazy, but it's just as crazy to think that in nine drafts and the off seasons accompanying them, we could only draft, attract or develop Taylor Moton and produce umpteen meh linemen? Random chance probably would have served us better than this!

I don't mind that Disney bought up a bunch of stuff because, in truth, they were buying legacy brands that needed to sell and could have gone to companies with less commitment to product and longevity. Look at Marvel -- no one else had the deep wallets to do what they did (basically risking a ton on Ironman -- an unappealing character outside of the Spiderman/Fantastic Four/X-Men realms and believing in rehabbing Robert Downey Jr. and (at that time) relative unknown Jon Favreau). Really, just look at how badly other big film companies had screwed up Marvel characters (and DC, too). And Lucasfilm? I think it was showing that George Lucas needed to have the franchise taken off his hands and put into a better place. But with all of this, it has not reduced the amount of content being created out there. For all the screams of "we will all be sheep watching nothing but Disney properties" there's just more and more and more stuff being created out there. New ideas, new ways of telling stories, new stars in the making. They can keep buying stuff but we're living in one of the greatest times ever for creative types -- there's a voracious market, there are unlimited outlets and so much money to be made -- either from the big studios, streaming services, and even the tiny patreon and youtube vehicles. It's a good time to be alive if you want to be entertained.

Whew... yeah... ummm... At a certain point you have to wonder if perhaps we can't choose a decent O-line coach and that our scouts just can't judge offensive linemen. We've got Meyer and Sparano working on it this season, but could we not, even by accident, develop more than one starting quality offensive lineman? We have Moton and... a bunch of guys who'd struggle to start on any other team in the league.