The 2023 Playoffs

as long as it's Cincy and not the chefs, I'm fine with any matchup.
I do currently feel like Eagles will be the NFC team, but is that based on Eagles having a much weaker opponent this past weekend (G-men) so they looked more formidable?
They are formidable, but lets see how they do against 9ers.
 
Word

Bills Free Agents

LB Tremaine Edmunds
QB Case Keenum
S Jordan Poyer
OL Rodger Saffold
DT Jordan Phillips
DE Shaq Lawson
LB Tyler Matakevich
WR Jamison Crowder
OL David Quessenberry
RB Taiwan Jones
P Sam Martin
OL Greg Van Roten
OL Ike Boettger
WR Jake Kumerow
S Dean Marlowe.

Josh Allen's cap hit goes from $16M to $41M for '23 and they're currently $5M over the cap for '23.
Allen + Diggs + Von Miller total amounts for the next 3 years are brutal:
2023: >75.5MM
2024: >89 MM
2025: >98MM
...and normally that might be okay if those are the out years of a contract. But those aren't the out years: the bonuses are spread over contracts running through 2027 @ over 90MM/year. 2026 is the earliest potential out year for Allen, maybe 25 for Diggs and Miller. They're looking at those 3 guys making up 30% of their cap for at least the next 2 years.
 
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Interesting what ted Karras said.

What poise, Joe Burrow. It oozes from the guy. “Never met anyone like him in my life,” said his center, Ted Karras. “His general attitude, his energy, his killer instinct—and the fact he puts the ball right in people’s hands.”

I mean Karras played with Brady. Now, before the hysterics start, no, Karras is not saying Burrow is better than Brady. I know what Karras is saying, there is a calmness and an unfazed mantra about Burrow, he just doesn't panic. Tom can and does panic and gets spooked. Burrow is something different.
 
This is well written by King.

When incumbent Jonah Williams became the third starting offensive lineman to get ruled out of the lineup last week, the Bengals turned to a mostly disappointing second-year lineman, Jackson Carman, who’d be starting his first career game at left tackle. The old man of the line, center Ted Karras, told me post-game, “I told the guys this week, ‘The pressure’s off, guys. No one thinks we can do it. We have a chance to go be heroes.’ And we did.”

Then Karras thought for a second. “Well, gotta give a shoutout to the defense as well. Come on, holding Josh Allen to 10 points? At home? In the playoffs? In the sleet? With that crowd against us?”
Good points. But the Achilles of the Cincinnati team was supposed to be, left to right, Carman, Cordell Volson, Karras, Max Scharping and Hakeem Adeniji. And so what happened? Burrow tightened up his game, throwing the ball at a breakneck average of 2.50 seconds from the time of snap in 39 pass drops; on one throw (I’ll explain), he hit Ja’Marr Chase in a startling time of 1.10 seconds after taking the snap—the fifth-fastest time for a third-down conversion this season, per Next Gen Stats.

Even though Burrow was quick off the draw, the line held up well, and illustrated how big the loss of Von Miller to ACL injury in midseason was to the Bills. Carman especially. In Burrow’s 39 dropbacks, Carman allowed just one pressure on Burrow. “In this league,” Karras said, “that’s a big, big deal. That’s taking advantage of a massive opportunity. After the game, I told him how proud of him I was. I think he proved that he’s a tackle in this league.

“And you know, on the biggest stage of all of our football careers up to this point, he performed when it counted the most. He’s had a transformative year and this was a transformative day for him, being in the spotlight and performing at the highest level.”
 
Allen + Diggs + Von Miller total amounts for the next 3 years are brutal:
2023: >75.5MM
2024: >89 MM
2025: >98MM
...and normally that might be okay if those are the out years of a contract. But those aren't the out years: the bonuses are spread over contracts running through 2027 @ over 90MM/year. 2026 is the earliest potential out year for Allen, maybe 25 for Diggs and Miller. They're looking at those 3 guys making up 30% of their cap for at least the next 2 years.
I love it because the Miller signing was basically an all-in for THIS season (and now it's an albatross).

Diggs has been a cracked finger nail/scuffed sneaker away from a meltdown and we might be seeing that starting to play out from the poor little diva now.

Can Allen restructure his deal before it even kicks in? :ROFLMAO:
 
Interesting what ted Karras said.



I mean Karras played with Brady. Now, before the hysterics start, no, Karras is not saying Burrow is better than Brady. I know what Karras is saying, there is a calmness and an unfazed mantra about Burrow, he just doesn't panic. Tom can and does panic and gets spooked. Burrow is something different.
Yeah, I saw that. Of all the teammates to say something like that, it's something special that it came from Karras. That said, Brady 2001-2016ish, Karras's first year, was crazy poised and calm. But somewhere over the 2014-2017 range, a more fiery, more arrogant, more entitled Brady emerged. Karras never knew Brady who was the humble, iceman, point guard distributor, "favorite receiver is the open one" Brady. That guy peaked in the 2003-2005 span. The fiery angry Brady emerged in 2006-2009 range and dominated 2007-2014, got more entitled coming off the Seattle and especially Atlanta SBs, and was more petulant and arrogant in the final years, when Karras knew him.
 
I love it because the Miller signing was basically an all-in for THIS season (and now it's an albatross).

Diggs has been a cracked finger nail/scuffed sneaker away from a meltdown and we might be seeing that starting to play out from the poor little diva now.

Can Allen restructure his deal before it even kicks in? :ROFLMAO:
Compare to what KC did with the contract of Mahomes, which should be the template teams shoot for when inking contracts for players they consider cornerstones:
The headline was a 10 year, $450MM deal with over $140MM in total guarantees, but it was essentially a 5 year deal with $63MM guaranteed followed by a bunch of 1 year team options that give Mahomes a year+ worth of really solid pay in the range of $40-50MM if the Chiefs need to go a different direction. But after the first 4 years, they could always get out of it, and it got easier every year to evaluate his value to the team.

I will say that of the three painful Bills deals, the Diggs deal is the least painful for the team to deal with if they need to move on.
 
Yeah, I saw that. Of all the teammates to say something like that, it's something special that it came from Karras. That said, Brady 2001-2016ish, Karras's first year, was crazy poised and calm. But somewhere over the 2014-2017 range, a more fiery, more arrogant, more entitled Brady emerged. Karras never knew Brady who was the humble, iceman, point guard distributor, "favorite receiver is the open one" Brady. That guy peaked in the 2003-2005 span. The fiery angry Brady emerged in 2006-2009 range and dominated 2007-2014, got more entitled coming off the Seattle and especially Atlanta SBs, and was more petulant and arrogant in the final years, when Karras knew him.

Well said, but as a descriptor of Brady's last few years here, I'd add that he decided along the way that he was getting screwed and he wasn't going to get hit if he could help it and that
led him to be more reluctant to hang in the pocket until the last instant. And as I've said a dozen times, to throw the ball in the stands anytime he felt threatened and
that was quite often. Prior to 2014ish he was reasonably tough and would give up the body for his team, but.....after? No way. He was the worst QB in terms of extending a play via any
method that this league has seen in a long time.

That he is still playing is a tribute to him, and he's still the overall GOAT hands down, but people shouldn't be ignorant of the selfishness that crept into his game around that time and is
just as present today. He plays for his own personal glory at this point and has little to do with the rest of the team, other than window-dressing for the media. He says he still loves
football, but......I have my doubts.

I expect he'll land in Miami, but while it looks good on paper for them to pair him with the killer WRs, I'd be no more worried about Brady than any other good QB we face because
his limitations can be defended.
 
So what do we think?

Philly and the Bengals are playing very well. Mahomes' injury has to be watched closely. SF had more trouble with the Cowboys than I expected.
I'm going Philly - Bengals in the SB right now.
The lines are tight by the oddsmakers.

FnLHT46XwBEugYB
 
Interesting what ted Karras said.



I mean Karras played with Brady. Now, before the hysterics start, no, Karras is not saying Burrow is better than Brady. I know what Karras is saying, there is a calmness and an unfazed mantra about Burrow, he just doesn't panic. Tom can and does panic and gets spooked. Burrow is something different.
Heard today that Burrow was a 3 star recruit stuck behind 5 star recruits at Ohio State. Urban Meyer only played the 5 star recruits. And Burrow was getting beat up in practice, hence the transfer to LSU.
 
Interesting what ted Karras said.



I mean Karras played with Brady. Now, before the hysterics start, no, Karras is not saying Burrow is better than Brady. I know what Karras is saying, there is a calmness and an unfazed mantra about Burrow, he just doesn't panic. Tom can and does panic and gets spooked. Burrow is something different.
Burrow to me is the most like Brady in terms of his game, his demeanor, his killer instinct. It could not happen at a better time too with Mahomes and Allen as the other 2 premier QBs in the AFC. If anyone is to challenge the Patriots dynasty which I doubt ever happens, but if it does, I have zero issue with Burrow or the Bengals. I hope they go all the way this year but I have a feeling the Eagles are going to be very hard to beat.
 
By the way, someone said it, let's start to hear Allen get the criticism that Lamar has received.
It's apples to oranges IMO.
 
Micah Parsons. Most of the time young, hot players are super omg athletic beasts. Parsons is definitely athletic, but mostly he is just incredibly fundamentally sound. He has multiple moves to win at any of his assignments on a given play. It looks like he studies.

Yesterday was the first time I paid much attention to him, but I was very impressed.
 
Yeah, I saw that. Of all the teammates to say something like that, it's something special that it came from Karras. That said, Brady 2001-2016ish, Karras's first year, was crazy poised and calm. But somewhere over the 2014-2017 range, a more fiery, more arrogant, more entitled Brady emerged. Karras never knew Brady who was the humble, iceman, point guard distributor, "favorite receiver is the open one" Brady. That guy peaked in the 2003-2005 span. The fiery angry Brady emerged in 2006-2009 range and dominated 2007-2014, got more entitled coming off the Seattle and especially Atlanta SBs, and was more petulant and arrogant in the final years, when Karras knew him.
Well said, but as a descriptor of Brady's last few years here, I'd add that he decided along the way that he was getting screwed and he wasn't going to get hit if he could help it and that
led him to be more reluctant to hang in the pocket until the last instant. And as I've said a dozen times, to throw the ball in the stands anytime he felt threatened and
that was quite often. Prior to 2014ish he was reasonably tough and would give up the body for his team, but.....after? No way. He was the worst QB in terms of extending a play via any
method that this league has seen in a long time.

That he is still playing is a tribute to him, and he's still the overall GOAT hands down, but people shouldn't be ignorant of the selfishness that crept into his game around that time and is
just as present today. He plays for his own personal glory at this point and has little to do with the rest of the team, other than window-dressing for the media. He says he still loves
football, but......I have my doubts.

I expect he'll land in Miami, but while it looks good on paper for them to pair him with the killer WRs, I'd be no more worried about Brady than any other good QB we face because
his limitations can be defended.
Here is what Karas said about Brady this season. Google is your friend.

“I have an ultimate opinion of Tom Brady,” Karras said. “I would almost put him in the top five Americans all time. When you look back at how the lens of history is going to look at American football, he’s obviously the premier player of that. For what he’s done, for what he’s accomplished, to win seven championships in the ultimate team sport speaks not only to his individual greatness, but how he’s able to lead a team, lead men. He has to have 50 men on the same page and he’s done that for almost three decades. There’s really not a lot of negative you could say about him.”

 
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