2015 NFL Season Thread

[Kallark]

Great story here, Chiefs Safety Eric Berry is cancer free and returned to the field yesterday!

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13...zona-cardinals

Great news. I love that guy.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Lost in the whole "OMG , Tebow has a new throwing mechanics and completed half his passes !! HE'S BACK !!" The guy played against the 3rd and 4th string of players. At least almost all of them won't be on a NFL roster. Wake me when Tebow does good against the 1st string defense.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Tebow reverting to the Tebow we all know and hate in these last two drives

Lost in the whole "OMG , Tebow has a new throwing mechanics and completed half his passes !! HE'S BACK !!" The guy played against the 3rd and 4th string of players. At least almost all of them won't be on a NFL roster. Wake me when Tebow does good against the 1st string defense.

New throwing mechanics aside, Tebow looked good for a series, but once Indy's defense made adjustments, he didn't and went in the tank, held on to the ball too long after his first read was covered and threw high passes like Mark Sanchez had early in the game. The fact that happened against third and fourth stringers didn't inspire much in the way of confidence. With Sam Bradford expected to play this coming Saturday against Baltimore, game action for Tebow might be reduced. We'll see.

[Sheldon]

Hey Gang,
I don't post around here too much, but about 8 years ago we started a CBR fantasy football league, which I've been the commish for some time. We are short one team this year. It is a yahoo league, pretty standard stuff, although this year we may switch from 3WR to 2 WR and one Flex RB/WR. If you are interested in joining let me know via PM. its not too serious, we just play for fun.
thanks

S.

[CSTowle]

If'n that was me, my apologies. I don't check my Yahoo! e-mail. Checked it a couple of weeks back when talk of a Fantasy league started up, but saw no invite. Joined today, but if you'd prefer to replace me (and I can't blame you, as I pulled out the win last year) let me know and I'll un-join.

[BeastieRunner]

who do you think seattle lost? i liked max unger well enough, i'm an oregon alum so i've watched every game unger's played since his freshman year in 2005, but the hawks were 8-2 in games he missed last year, including 6-0 to close the season to swipe homefield from the packers. unger and a 1st for jimmy graham would appear to be a big upgrade in talent, considering what they did without unger last year. byron maxwell? the drop off to cary williams isn't vast, especially in that secondary. we made it work with brandon "let's commit a PI every fifth down" browner for a few years, williams won't be much of a drop-off. especially till lane gets 100%. the ancient kevin williams?

seahawks had one glaring, out of this world weakness and shored it up when they drafted tyler lockette. seattle never addressed the return game after they let golden tate walk, and bryan "i can get two yards upfield before getting trucked!" waters is, thankfully, no longer the answer to that problem. lockette is a big-time returner and will help the field position game tremendously.

ironically, i actually think green bay WILL represent the nfc. the seahawks absolutely have to have homefield to do that, and i have my doubts they'll have the best record again. so i have no qualms whatsoever with picking green bay, i've just never heard anyone say seattle is LESS talented in 2015 than they were in 2014.

Maxwell: Gone.

Smith: Gone.

Johnson: Gone.

Carpenter: Gone.

Schofield: Gone.

Unger: Traded.

Bam Bam: locked out. I don't expect him to play well till he gets more money.

Earl Thomas: Injured and it's looking worse.

Graham: Wilson is not the QB that Brees is and Graham is coming from a offense with a great, accurate pocket passer. He is accustom to running precise patterns and getting the ball when he is open. Wilson is typically throwing everything high and that leads to TEs getting cut in half. When going over the middle, Brees was able to protect his receiver. He is accurate enough to put the ball in the appropriate place so the defenders don't get free hits. Wilson rarely throws from the pocket and has a very slow release. He's a run and gun. It is difficult for him because of his height to actually throw patterns he needs to leave the pocket. Graham is also not a good Blocker, or, has not been in the past. That will be tested this year. If you don't get him the ball and he has to block, he will not be a happy camper. He has stated that in the past as a Saint.

TEs: Graham can't block and they have no depth if he goes down.

WRs: Still got nobody worth a pretty penny. Their only notable goes from amazing one-handers to walking out of formation to give up easy picks.

Secondary: As shown in the first pre-season game, the vaunted Legion of Boom does not have the depth it once had when its third and fourth stringers could blow up your second and first stringers. As showcased in the Super Bowl and run up, they also are weak against TEs.

The only real uptick has been Graham. And I think he's a great player but he's the wrong fit for the Seattle O-line and the style of play they have. You can't fill all those holes in the secondary or o-line quickly. Give them two or three years to go back to whipping the floor with the LOB.

[MRP]

Seattle's offense the past few seasons has been anchored by a blocking tight end giving Wilson extra time to go through progressions and be the mobile playmaker he is, and sealing off the backside for Lynch to be able to be the cut back runner he is. That type of blocking is what they won't get from Graham. so it requires the coordinator to either develop a whole new scheme to fit what Graham can do, or for the other 10 guys o offense to adjust to fit Graham into the scheme and make everythinghappen quicker as they won't have as much time to execute plays without that kind of blocking. Graham is not a block then release as an outlet type TE, his is a run routs as part of the main play, but means someone else in the 11 on the field has to be taken out of the offensive scheme to seal the backside for Lynch or give Wilson the extra time he needs to go through progressions or scramble. Graham is certainly an asset, but is he the right fit for that offense remains to be seen. It will require major adjustments in terms of playcalling and speed of execution of plays to exploit what Graham brings to the table offensively in that offense, the question is are the other 10 on offense able to make those adjustments, and if not can Graham adjust his style of play to fit what Seattle does do (and if he does will he still be the explosive weapon he was in NO with Brees where they had an extra RB in the scheme doing the kind of things Seattle counted on their TE to do).

Not saying it won't work and that Seattle will be bad, but it is a risk because it requires a lot of changes to make it work right, and it kind of goes against the idea of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Graham is not the kind of guy you just plug into the existing Seattle Offense and watch him go because adding him means you are subtractng a lot of important parts of what made the O work in terms of what the blocking TE did.

-M

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Basically the Seahawks will go into 2 WR/2 TE sets with a single back RB a lot. This way Graham can be split out like a 3rd WR. Because that is essentially what he can be at times. Another WR type. This way they keep the extra TE back as a blocker for what they need.

[MRP]

Basically the Seahawks will go into 2 WR/2 TE sets with a single back RB a lot. This way Graham can be split out like a 3rd WR. Because that is essentially what he can be at times. Another WR type. This way they keep the extra TE back as a blocker for what they need.

Which changes blocking schemes and assignments, and they have to find that blocking TE because the one they had signed elsewhere and they had no proven depth at the position. Which is the kind of adjustment I was talking about. The other 10 guys will have to adjust to accommodate what Graham will do and they will need to speed up their execution. Wilson will have to get rid of the ball quicker, which means fewer progression reads and that means opposing defenses will be able to double primary receivers and/or keep extra defenders in the box. Change is easy to talk about in the NFL, much harder to do effectively. How many times have we seen players who are successful in one scheme with one team change teams and become much less than they were, or teams go after big name players and try to change to utilize them and take a step back because they stopped doing what they did well to do something new to fit the new additions.

You say they will just go tot he 2 WR/2 TE set like it's nothing big, but it is essentially complete change of their offensive identity and a requires all new assignments and a whole new playcalling scheme to effectively achieve. Can all 11 guys (or really 15-18 if you consider all the sub packages and rotations) master it well enough in one offseason to not take a step back? Can Wilson master the new system well enough on top off all the other adjustments he has to make and essentially learn a new system? Can he adjust his release time? Not saying they can't or won't make the adjustment, but it is not as easy as you are making it out to be. Careers have been made or destroyed by these type of adjustments throughout the history of the NFL.

-M

[Adset]

Maxwell: Gone.

Smith: Gone.

Johnson: Gone.

Carpenter: Gone.

Schofield: Gone.

Unger: Traded.

Bam Bam: locked out. I don't expect him to play well till he gets more money.

Earl Thomas: Injured and it's looking worse.

Graham: Wilson is not the QB that Brees is and Graham is coming from a offense with a great, accurate pocket passer. He is accustom to running precise patterns and getting the ball when he is open. Wilson is typically throwing everything high and that leads to TEs getting cut in half. When going over the middle, Brees was able to protect his receiver. He is accurate enough to put the ball in the appropriate place so the defenders don't get free hits. Wilson rarely throws from the pocket and has a very slow release. He's a run and gun. It is difficult for him because of his height to actually throw patterns he needs to leave the pocket. Graham is also not a good Blocker, or, has not been in the past. That will be tested this year. If you don't get him the ball and he has to block, he will not be a happy camper. He has stated that in the past as a Saint.

TEs: Graham can't block and they have no depth if he goes down.

WRs: Still got nobody worth a pretty penny. Their only notable goes from amazing one-handers to walking out of formation to give up easy picks.

Secondary: As shown in the first pre-season game, the vaunted Legion of Boom does not have the depth it once had when its third and fourth stringers could blow up your second and first stringers. As showcased in the Super Bowl and run up, they also are weak against TEs.

The only real uptick has been Graham. And I think he's a great player but he's the wrong fit for the Seattle O-line and the style of play they have. You can't fill all those holes in the secondary or o-line quickly. Give them two or three years to go back to whipping the floor with the LOB.

// shrug

i don't necessarily contest a few of your points, but they're also quite a bit outside the realm of what was being discussed. we went from discussing who left versus who came in to you looking for reasons why seattle might not be as good, a point i previously conceded.

several of the players you listed who seattle chose not to retain are laughable examples of talent defection. lamenting the loss of o'brien schofield but not acknowledging the addition of, say, an actual contributor on the interior d-line rotation like ahtyba rubin seems silly. since depth seems to be a concern for you, it also seems silly to worry about byron maxwell -- always the weak link in the LOB (capable but mistake prone) -- leaving, but ignoring that we brought in two capable corners to replace him. neither will be All Pro, but neither was maxwell.

lockette looked to be everything i thought he'd be in a previous post against denver last friday. turnng a glaring weakness into what looks to be a big positive offers more to the relative talent pool season prognosis for the franchise than jeron johnson getting the axe. i'm not 100% sold on frank clark yet, but he did admittedly look pretty good friday as well. for a situational edge rusher, hopefully he'll do okay. and nobody drafts the middle rounds like seattle; i'd bank on at least one of the rookie o-linemen making a big splash.

[BeastieRunner]

I'm not saying the Seahawks will be terrible either but ... he just doesn't seem to be the right fit for them.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Which changes blocking schemes and assignments, and they have to find that blocking TE because the one they had signed elsewhere and they had no proven depth at the position. Which is the kind of adjustment I was talking about. The other 10 guys will have to adjust to accommodate what Graham will do and they will need to speed up their execution. Wilson will have to get rid of the ball quicker, which means fewer progression reads and that means opposing defenses will be able to double primary receivers and/or keep extra defenders in the box. Change is easy to talk about in the NFL, much harder to do effectively. How many times have we seen players who are successful in one scheme with one team change teams and become much less than they were, or teams go after big name players and try to change to utilize them and take a step back because they stopped doing what they did well to do something new to fit the new additions.

You say they will just go tot he 2 WR/2 TE set like it's nothing big, but it is essentially complete change of their offensive identity and a requires all new assignments and a whole new playcalling scheme to effectively achieve. Can all 11 guys (or really 15-18 if you consider all the sub packages and rotations) master it well enough in one offseason to not take a step back? Can Wilson master the new system well enough on top off all the other adjustments he has to make and essentially learn a new system? Can he adjust his release time? Not saying they can't or won't make the adjustment, but it is not as easy as you are making it out to be. Careers have been made or destroyed by these type of adjustments throughout the history of the NFL.

-M

The Seahawks are very confident with their TE's and Graham's blocking in this system. In fact here is an article from last week.

http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/s...-jimmy-graham/

Graham’s blocking has long been one of the few concerns about him. But when asked if there were any differences between blocking for the Seahawks and blocking for the Saints, Graham deadpanned, “Yeah, I’m blocking here.”

“Out there, the last two years, I was pretty banged up, so midway through the year I kind of stopped blocking and I just routed people up,” Graham continued. “Now here I’m blocking quite a bit, and I love it. It’s very important to me to be a part of that here. That’s about 75 percent of the offense here. When you have a back like that, you want to be in there on those explosive runs, and you want to be a part of that.”

That is in line with what Graham’s coaches in New Orleans have said: It wasn’t that Graham didn’t want to block; the Saints just rarely asked him to do it or injuries kept him from doing it.

“I think it will always be part of his game that people will look and say, ‘That’s not the strongest part of his game,’” said Terry Malone, Graham’s position coach in New Orleans. “He’s certainly a better athlete, a better runner, a better catcher than he is a blocker. I just think it’s a matter of concentration and dedication. He really wants to be a complete player. He doesn’t want to be known just as a receiving tight end. He wants to be a guy who can do all the things that are asked of him.”

The article brings up their other TE that they feel very confident with and the TE's on the roster beyond them.

[Adset]

I'm not saying the Seahawks will be terrible either but ... he just doesn't seem to be the right fit for them.

i think tom cable is pretty high on justin britt. if okung (can stay healthy...) and britt makes the second year leap i believe cable believes he will, our tackles will be in relatively good shape for the first time in the pete carroll era. i don't think graham will match his former numbers, b/c as someone mentioned russell wilson is not drew brees and the seattle seahawks are not the new orleans saints, but i do think graham will have enough to downfield to keep him happy. the team likes luke willson quite a bit, too, i'd bank on seeing plenty of 2-TE sets, if not graham flat out lining up in the slot on occasion.

[BeastieRunner]

lockette looked to be everything i thought he'd be in a previous post against denver last friday. turnng a glaring weakness into what looks to be a big positive offers more to the relative talent pool season prognosis for the franchise than jeron johnson getting the axe. i'm not 100% sold on frank clark yet, but he did admittedly look pretty good friday as well. for a situational edge rusher, hopefully he'll do okay. and nobody drafts the middle rounds like seattle; i'd bank on at least one of the rookie o-linemen making a big splash.

New England and Green Bay would have words with you kind sir! Green Bay made middle drafting a thing and New England made it a science. Seattle certainly has gotten better at it. If SEA can keep churning out winning teams like NE and GB for 10-15-30 plus years, then we can have that discussion.

On the CBs, you know what they say, a bird in the hand ...

Training those guys up is going to be an issue for they are not raw athletes like Maxwell or Browner. This is all in the coaches hands now. This is the time for SEA to show they are the new dominating team or just a flash in the pan. I forgot that Sherman, Blackmon, and Seisay are out, too.

While you may think the little short series guys aren't big deals in the depth department ... they are and that's what made the Legion of Boom a legion. One went down, a new one stepped up. Then you had the game-changers like Kam and Maxwell.

I still think they'll do good, but in my mind Green Bay is the team to beat and Seattle has a lot more adversity to deal with this season out of the gate than the Packers do. But that's why you play the game!

i think tom cable is pretty high on justin britt. if okung (can stay healthy...) and britt makes the second year leap i believe cable believes he will, our tackles will be in relatively good shape for the first time in the pete carroll era. i don't think graham will match his former numbers, b/c as someone mentioned russell wilson is not drew brees and the seattle seahawks are not the new orleans saints, but i do think graham will have enough to downfield to keep him happy. the team likes luke willson quite a bit, too, i'd bank on seeing plenty of 2-TE sets, if not graham flat out lining up in the slot on occasion.

At some point they area going to have to acquire legitimate O-line guys and stop bringing in all these projects and converted d-liners. Cable may be the best O-line coach in the league ATM, but, he's going to need some real Offensive Lineman soon to keep going.

That Clark kid, though ... damn!

[HowitzerJoe]

Apparently Eli wants to be paid higher than Aaron Rogers. Even though Manning had a good year just numbers wise, that's a pretty crazy demand if true.