NFL 2020 Off-Season

[The Whovian]

It appears the LA Rams aren't done making salary cap moves. They are close to sending Brandin Cooks (WR) to the Texans for a 2nd n 4th rd pick. The trade would have the Rams eat $21 million in dead money for Cooks deal.

Cooks will be due $16+ million this season cap wise. He has 4 years remaining but an option could see him gone after the season.

So the Texans basically traded Hopkins for Cooks and a broken RB with a horrendous contract. Blech. O'Brien should be fired.

[The Whovian]

Got an alert from Bleacher Report that XFL 2.0 officially ceased operations and laid off all their workers due to the coronavirus pandemic. While I had zero interest in the rebooted league and never watched so much as one minute of its games, it might have been interesting to see if it could've gained enough traction to make a second season viable, though from what I've read, that wasn't a certainty due to sparse attendance in stadiums and falling ratings on TV. Oh, well, que sera sera.

Yep, the Cowboys just signed a player from that league today.

I love ESPN. I have learned the Steelers will go into next year with Big Ben, Mason, Duck, Jamis, Cam, and they are going to draft Hartz whale they are at it.

LOL!

[Scott Taylor]

It appears the LA Rams aren't done making salary cap moves. They are close to sending Brandin Cooks (WR) to the Texans for a 2nd n 4th rd pick. The trade would have the Rams eat $21 million in dead money for Cooks deal.

Cooks will be due $16+ million this season cap wise. He has 4 years remaining but an option could see him gone after the season.

Oh man. Rams continue to trash their own franchise. I realize Cooks had injury woes, but they are going to have no wide receiver corps. Good thing this season might be totally cancelled, it would have been even more painful than last year!

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Oh man. Rams continue to trash their own franchise. I realize Cooks had injury woes, but they are going to have no wide receiver corps. Good thing this season might be totally cancelled, it would have been even more painful than last year!

They went all in two years ago. Everyone knew their would be a price for that

[GindyPosts]

https://www.espn.com/xfl/story/_/id/...ns-return-2021

The XFL lays off its staff, and looks like it's not going to play in 2021, if at all. More than likely, it's the COVID-19 pandemic that hurt the league, but other factors certainly did not help, such as how terrible fan support was in Los Angeles and New York, which they felt was so important for the brand and for TV viewership, which plummeted from a 3.5 Nielsen rating on the ABC debut to around 1.5 and 0.8 around Week 5. Now, that's not a bad rating, considering what entertainment options people have right now versus way back in 2001, but the gradual drop in viewership was still a cause for concern and once again is yet another failure in spring football.

[worstblogever]

Vince McMahon's white whale has bit a huge chunk out of his ass again.

[worstblogever]

Oh man. Rams continue to trash their own franchise. I realize Cooks had injury woes, but they are going to have no wide receiver corps.

Pretty sure Cooper Kupp's gonna get double-covered a tad more often without Cooks drawing a defense's attention.

[Gray Lensman]

I saw this and had to pass it on.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

I'm not sure it will either. They can't jump right into games, they HAVE to have a training camp to get guys in shape and for conditioning. Otherwise players will be dropping like flies in games. So at least a month for training camp and preseason games. That means around the end of September, possibly. I hear people saying the season will be short, like 14 games. My question is why? Even if it starts in October, why can't there still be 16 games and the playoffs? So instead of the SB being played the first weekend of February, it gets played the first weekend of March.

And have a short turnaround for the 2021-22 season? That would result in a poor brand of football and all the problems you mentioned as well.

[GindyPosts]

Vince McMahon's white whale has bit a huge chunk out of his ass again.

Thing was, it didn't even suck ass this time. They actually planned ahead, teams practiced months instead of the, what, 4-5 weeks before the regular season the first time around (there was even a whole team devoted to reserves for the sake of talent replenishment), and instead of dumb shit like a free for all for possession, they focused on how teams can get extra points through the traditional two-point conversion. There was even interest in coaches this time without having freaking Jesse Ventura egg shit on, in the case of "Will Jim Zorn show emotion?" thanks to reporters asking feedback after major plays and the end of quarters.

It... wasn't perfect, but compared to the dumpster fire that was the original XFL, it was quality football. But, the reality was, people just aren't interested in spring football. Fans want it, but there's not enough demand from the casual audience, not to mention you'd have to hope that the brand itself would carry the league rather than the talent, which invariably would be signed by the NFL before OTAs and summer camp.

Let's face it; the football gods insist we go through a long drought for a few months of bountiful harvest, and coupled with the disaster that was WrestleMania 36 not being able to take place live (plus some other stuff that I may or may not be at liberty to discuss in this thread), Vince McMahon has been taking a bath financially.

[GindyPosts]

And have a short turnaround for the 2021-22 season? That would result in a poor brand of football and all the problems you mentioned as well.

And with that having a 17 game season with, only, what, a 55 (in theory due to how the practice squad would work) team roster? Woof.

[worstblogever]

Thing was, it didn't even suck ass this time. They actually planned ahead, teams practiced months instead of the, what, 4-5 weeks before the regular season the first time around (there was even a whole team devoted to reserves for the sake of talent replenishment), and instead of dumb shit like a free for all for possession, they focused on how teams can get extra points through the traditional two-point conversion. There was even interest in coaches this time without having freaking Jesse Ventura egg shit on, in the case of "Will Jim Zorn show emotion?" thanks to reporters asking feedback after major plays and the end of quarters.

It... wasn't perfect, but compared to the dumpster fire that was the original XFL, it was quality football. But, the reality was, people just aren't interested in spring football. Fans want it, but there's not enough demand from the casual audience, not to mention you'd have to hope that the brand itself would carry the league rather than the talent, which invariably would be signed by the NFL before OTAs and summer camp.

Let's face it; the football gods insist we go through a long drought for a few months of bountiful harvest, and coupled with the disaster that was WrestleMania 36 not being able to take place live (plus some other stuff that I may or may not be at liberty to discuss in this thread), Vince McMahon has been taking a bath financially.

Agreed on all improvements.

The ending is still the same. But he sold $270 million in WWE stock for a second chance at the XFL, only to end up with the same result because of a circumstance beyond his control.

The man just cannot succeed at anything that isn't pro wrestling.

[Gray Lensman]

Agreed on all improvements.

The ending is still the same. But he sold $270 million in WWE stock for a second chance at the XFL, only to end up with the same result because of a circumstance beyond his control.

The man just cannot succeed at anything that isn't pro wrestling.

Well, there aren't agreements he can break to get an advantage outside of wrestling either.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Its not that the Rams didn't want to keep Cooks. Its their salary cap situation was worse than Kansas City's (and KC's was so bad they at one point had $177 bucks in cap space comically before redoing some deals).

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...lready-closing

If you notice 2 of the guys are gone. Cooks was traded away and Gurley was cut because people questioned his knee. That is wild that the Rams had over $109 million into 5 players. $34 million of that is gone so they can try and get a roster of players.

[worstblogever]

Its not that the Rams didn't want to keep Cooks. Its their salary cap situation was worse than Kansas City's (and KC's was so bad they at one point had $177 bucks in cap space comically before redoing some deals).

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/...lready-closing

If you notice 2 of the guys are gone. Cooks was traded away and Gurley was cut because people questioned his knee. That is wild that the Rams had over $109 million into 5 players. $34 million of that is gone so they can try and get a roster of players.

The crazier part is they still are paying as much as they are to a goober like Jared Goff.