2025 NFL Football Thread

They’re no Nationwide!

Bills and Seahawks nervous about drop in 2025 attendance from their large Canadian fan bases.

I would be interested in seeing these “offseason grades” lined up with the NFLPA grades, to see if there is some correlation/causation.

3 Likes

Who’s the referee?

tl,dr: ESPN and NFL are in late stage talks about ESPN acquiring NFL Media

I’m surprised the Arabs haven’t offered up money, the source of which is debated.

To be fair, they do offer guaranteed contracts, just not for the length of the contract. I think players should stop asking for long contracts for the contract-measuring contest. Ask for shorter-term guaranteed contracts, since that is what a longer-term contract actually is, but with all the power of holding onto the player in the team’s hand.

The teams don’t do this because of the cap hit that comes along with having a higher annual salary.

if the salaries were guaranteed, the players wouldn’t need signing bonuses as much (which get prorated out). but the teams for salcap reasons like the spread and so need longer periods (up to 5 years). the void year contracts seem to get to this. a 2 year fully guaranteed deal looks like a 4 or 5 year deal with yrs 3+ as void years and it maybe accomplishes the shorter and guaranteed process within the team’s desire to prorate and smooth.

ETA - there is something about needing to place funds in escrow for future guarantees. rarely comes up but the teams hate setting money aside (duh). harkens back to when the nfl was small business and teams were relatively shaky financially

Phelps gonna teach some Ravens how to swim? Not sure swimming is a good workout for Carryball, but learning will give you a better chance to survive in a pool.

They collectively said one out of three Ravens players doesn’t know how to swim.

My wife’s cousin’s kids never learned to swim. Mom’s choice (Dad’s the cousin.) Fun fact: they have a pool in the backyard. And one of the kids has a new baby. Who’s gonna fish out that kid?

That’s what the leaf skimmer is for.

Babies are somehow hard wired to know how to hold their breath and paddle a little. I’ve seen it with infants. They would not survive a fall in the pool without assistance, but it’s wild to witness some of our genetic hard wiring.

“George is getting upset!!”

From what I can gather from the story, the NFL is banning teams from providing smelling salts. Means Kittle will have to buy his own. IMO.

3 Likes

Cleveland Browns are the halfway house of the NFL!

Browns’ Quinshon Judkins won’t face formal battery charge - ESPN

Isaiah Bond won’t be charged, says he’s signing with Browns - ESPN

Browns Insider Discloses Stunning Deshaun Watson Update

More proof of frequent CTE.

Mostly the part where "they’d do it again, and it had a positive impact on their lives, until now, of course. Meanwhile, I’m a bit older than that average, and I hardly ever have pain, certainly not daily, and I never have trouble concentrating.

Still, 9 out of 10 ex-players said they would make the same decision to play professional football. Even among players who said the NFL had a negative effect on both their physical health and mental well-being, 78% said they would decide to play again.

Do note that we should never hear about this kind of thing again from ESPN, co-owners of the NFL Network. Surprised it is on here now, perhaps for a limited time.

Unasked: “Would you have played differently, a little safer perhaps, knowing what you know today?”

3 Likes

Interesting story about 1st Round QBs being rookie starters:

Lots of comments about “protecting”: best protection might be on the bench IMO. Protection comers from the front line, which, as we all know is far more important than how good the QB is, all things equal. A shit front line requires a quick-footed QB. A shit front line requires a few Plan B’s in receiver routes.

2 Likes