REAL FOOTBALL Thread

Someone more in the know, can you tell me why the Falcons cut Hawley? I can get that Gradkowski may be better but Hawley can play the entire interior, why cut him? Especially with the obscene number of DBs and WRs we're carrying,
 
Probably not even gonna be active to begin with. Guess just more competition for the running back spot for Dallas.
 
zitothebrave said:
Someone more in the know, can you tell me why the Falcons cut Hawley? I can get that Gradkowski may be better but Hawley can play the entire interior, why cut him? Especially with the obscene number of DBs and WRs we're carrying,
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This was legitimately surprising. My only guess is that he hasn't looked good in training camp coming off all of the injuries and they wanted to clear cap for 2016 by cutting him now and going with Gino (who I think can be an okay center in the ZBS based off his work in the past).

I love Joe Brawley though. It's sad to see him go.
 
chop2chip said:
This was legitimately surprising. My only guess is that he hasn't looked good in training camp coming off all of the injuries and they wanted to clear cap for 2016 by cutting him now and going with Gino (who I think can be an okay center in the ZBS based off his work in the past).

I love Joe Brawley though. It's sad to see him go.
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I think the injuries had been keeping him out of action late this preseason and they wanted heathy bodies for week 1
 
My 2015 predictions:

Colts
Patriots
Steelers
Broncos
Dolphins
Ravens

Colts over Patriots

Packers
Seahawks
Cowboys
Saints
Eagles
Falcons

Packers over Saints

Colts over Packers

49ers 3-13
 
I guess today is my best shot. As it's my only day off and a time to guess.

AFC East
Pats
Bills
Dolphins
Jets

AFC North
Steelers
Ravens
Bengals
Browns

AFC South
Indy
Houston
Jacksonville
Tennessee

AFC West
Broncos
Chiefs
Chargers
Raiders

Looking at the AFC, you see a lot of parity in the middle which makes making picks hard. Cincy massively overachieved last year and BAlitmore underachieved, where do they wind up this year? Out West you had a similar thing with KC and SD. SD over achieved and KC under achieved. Can't imagine really too much movement in the AFC. I think the Bills lost their potential shot to contend with the Pats when Brady's suspension was pulled. I think my winners are all pretty safe.

As far as playoffs I'll guess

Pats
Colts
Broncos
Steelers
Ravens
Bills

I have the Pats repeating as AFC Champs again over the Colts again.

NFC East
Dallas
Eagles
Giants
Redskins

NFC North
Packers
Vikings
Lions
Bears

NFC South
Falcons
Saints
Bucs
Panthers

NFC West

Seahawks
Rams
Niners
Cardinals

THe NFC has an insane amount of parity because of question marks.

On talent alone, the Cowboys rule the roost in the NFC East, but they have the most injury concerns as well. Eagles are a sexy pick by many to upset Dallas, but they have arguably the most injury prone QB in the NFL, who wasn't even that good when he was healthy. If Dallas is healthy they should go at worst 5-1 against the division. On a talent standpoint they're heads over the rest of the division. Giants are one I struggle with. They weren't very good last year. Cruz is hurting already which isn't good, And who knwos with their line and Eli. Defensively I have no clue what's going on. Eagles and Giants I think will wind up really close.

North has the Packers and who knows what else. Lions, if Megatron is healthy, will have maybe the best and most exciting offense in the NFL. Defensively, they lost their biggest strenght, and replaced basically one of them with Ngata. Not horrible, but not great either.

South is up in the air pretty much entirely. WInston could be a stud and take the Bucs on their back to the playoffs. Saints and Falcons have the QBs in the place to win the thing. Panthers won it last year. I think Panthers are gonna suck this year. They lost their best WR and their starting WRs will be Tedd Ginn Jr. and Philly Brown. Olsen is startign to get old so who knows how many years of high play he'll have left. Stewart is also getting up there. Carolina's offense will live and die by Cam. They still look to be really good defensively though. SO for me to win the division it comes down to Atlanta and New Orleans.

Saints vs Falcons comes to an interesting point. Adding UNger and Spiller should make things a bit more interesting. Spiller if used right should be a receiving beast with Brees. But they lost Graham. That will certainly hurt in the Red Zone. Bt they still have their receivers and maybe the new OL will let them steam roll through things on the goal line.

Falcons went through a massive change so they'r epretty up in the air. Still on the team are their 4 best players, Ryan, Julio, Moore and Trufant. So unlike the Saints, they didn't lose a star player. Falcons had massive injuries on their OL, but they helped show that Schraeder could be a pretty good RT. If Matthews is healthy, Falcons look to be quite solid at the OT position for the first time in a long time. The interior line is entirely changed, with Person, Chester and Stone the likely starters. Though not sure if Levitre or Gradkowski get in there. WR seems like a position of glut for the Falcons. Stars Jullio Jones nad if healthy the very capable Roddy White. behind those 2 you have Hankerson, Hester, and Hardy. Hardy looks like he could be a good slot receiver and may feature heavily there as the season goes on. Falcons running game will look entirely different than last year, with Freeman and Coleman likely splitting the carries with Freeman likely to be the feature all year. That area leaves me a bit concerned but I think it will be fine. Freeman and Coleman have a ton of talent.

I pick the Falcons because IMO their defense will be greatly improved. Right now their depth chart seems to be pretty set.

DE - Beasley
DT - Hageman
DT - Soliai
DE - Jackson
LB - Durant
LB - Worrilow
LB - Schofield (with Reed able to return after 8 weeks)
CB - Trufant
CB - Alford
S - Allen
S - Moore

Starting with what I don't like. LB still seems to be a concern. Hopefully the rest of the crew stays healthy, Schofield is a nice backup but he isn't great as a starter. This area will be much improved over the perma-nickel combination of last year. Second is depth at safety. Ishmael is probably solid, but after that, who knows. And Moore is great but has injury concerns.

Love the new DL so far though .Beasley hopefully will become the Beast he's capable of becoming. Hageman has been impressive and physically was never a question of his talent. Jackson and Soliai are plugs. I don't think they'll be stars but they should provide a presence and keep OL off the LBs. But I really like the depth. Clayborn was an overpay. But one we had to incase we missed out on the talent in the Draft. He should be good depth, I assume he'll be used with Beasley in passing downs an probably with Jackson in big man situations. Though maybe that will be Babs. Then you have Biermann and Goodman. Goodman is primarily ST player and depth, but that's importnat. Biermann should be used all over the line and in the LB. I love his potential.

So when I look at Falcons and Saints I think who improved the most, and I think it's the Falcons. I think they improved in the running game, they improved massively on the defensive front 7. Their secondary had a lot of good players in it. Trufant was one of the best corners in the NFL, despite having no pass rush. For them what will make them a successful defense vs. below average comes down to the ability of Clayborn and Beasley to generate a pass rush. Call me an optimist, but I think they do it.

After that in the West, Seahawks should win it. They lost few important players, Their risks is does losing Unger really hurt their OL, is Lynch finally gonna show his age, and what happens if Wilson has to start winning games? Defensively they still look like monsters.

Playoffs
Seahawks
Packers
Cowboys
Falcons
Rams
Saints

Packers over Seahawks

Packers over Pats.
 
NinersSBChamps said:
My 2015 predictions:

Colts
Patriots
Steelers
Broncos
Dolphins
Ravens

Colts over Patriots

Packers
Seahawks
Cowboys
Saints
Eagles
Falcons

Packers over Saints

Colts over Packers

49ers 3-13
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I have to ask what makes you think the Saints are going to be good? I think the organization is in denial at this point and things are going to get ugly. I wont even be surprised if they trade Brees after this year.

zitothebrave said:
I would punish the program. It would send a clear message that it's unacceptable.
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Its not right to punish the other players unless the decision to do this went beyond those 2 players.
 
Because it's how you stop this from happening again. The organization will claim it's just those kids. But it wasn't even if the coaches had nothing to do with it, there were other people involved be it players, parents, who knows. Someone basically permitted those kids to think that was OK. I never ever in a hundred years would have thought of doing that. Cause my dad would have killed me. Ignoring what any of my coaches would have done, my dad would have killed me. I knew something like this was never an option.

This is a reactionary punishment to the whole organization. If the punishment for this is this team vacating this season, you think another kid will ever even kind of think of doing this? It will be taught to kids that this is unacceptable on day one of camp.
 
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