NFC North/NFL Thread 2016-17

[Silkk the Shaka]

Taylor is terrible.  Even I'd take Cutler over him.  Stafford and Cousins are more or less the same as Cutler.  And Bortles is definitely better than Cutler.

You're wrong on this. I'm a Bills fan and have seen almost every game Taylor has played. He's a terrible fantasy QB, but a MUCH better actual QB than Cutler. He has brains, accuracy, pocket presence, a very good deep ball, can make a play when things break down, and raises his game in crunch time. Only thing missing is he doesn't have a cannon, otherwise he'd be a top 5 QB. There aren't more than 10 I'd trade him for right now. His receivers have dropped a ton of easy balls this year especially, and a lot of the time his best options have been hurt. Otherwise his stats would look much better. He's our best QB since Kelly without question.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

You're wrong on this. I'm a Bills fan and have seen almost every game Taylor has played. He's a terrible fantasy QB, but a MUCH better actual QB than Cutler. He has brains, accuracy, pocket presence, a very good deep ball, can make a play when things break down, and raises his game in crunch time. Only thing missing is he doesn't have a cannon, otherwise he'd be a top 5 QB. There aren't more than 10 I'd trade him for right now. His receivers have dropped a ton of easy balls this year especially, and a lot of the time his best options have been hurt. Otherwise his stats would look much better. He's our best QB since Kelly without question.

I'm a big Tyrod Taylor fan. He's actually an excellent fantasy QB, just because of his running ability. Too bad Watkins got hurt this year.

[DegenerateDish]

This Packers offense is confusing and frustrating to watch right now.

[wadesworld]

Mac gives the opposing teams more points than he gets the Packers. One of his specialties is giving the opposition timeouts when they're trying to take it to the half and then giving up points.

[GGGG]

Bob McGinn's article on Rodgers this morning was brutal.  Implied that a new coach might be best considering how Favre improved whenever a new coach came in. At least a new offensive staff should be considered.

[GGGG]

Mac gives the opposing teams more points than he gets the Packers. One of his specialties is giving the opposition timeouts when they're trying to take it to the half and then giving up points.

Calling it after first down was fine. After second?  Nope.

[DegenerateDish]

That pick was the worst throw I've ever seen Rodgers make.

Something is really wrong here.

[real chili 83]

Rodgers looks lost.  He's better than this.

[DegenerateDish]

Wow, I'm honestly kinda stunned how terrible Rodgers is today, so many incredibly poor decisions.

[GGGG]

Not just the decisions. He's missing somewhat easy throws.

[wadesworld]

Both times Brett has been back in Lambeau since (actually) retiring the Packers have embarrassed themselves.  Don't let that man back in the building on game day again.

[DegenerateDish]

I hope the Pack rights the ship for Thursday night, I'm now nervous about the game. Bears did everything right today, Pack everything wrong. Flip the script on Thursday please.

[naginiF]

Rodgers looks lost.  He's better than this now.

FIFY



*couldn't resist - too easy of a set up

[wadesworld]

Mac and Rodgers need to realize that the way the Packers are going to win games is to control the football and the clock, win the field position battle, and let your defense keep you in games. This isn't the Packers offense of the first 6 years of Rodgers's career. The defense is good (when the top 3 cornerbacks aren't out, which may be an issue), Lacy is running incredibly well, and the line is playing really well. Rodgers and the receivers both stink, and Mac has failed to adjust to that. The problem is I think Mac and Rodgers are both too prideful to try to win games this way. Guess we'll see.

[Jay Bee]

Skol Vikings we are the CONSENSUS. REPEAT CITY + Super Bowl

Erin's downward trend has been obvious before this year.

[wadesworld]

Skol Vikings we are the CONSENSUS. REPEAT CITY + Super Bowl

Erin's downward trend has been obvious before this year.

The Viking's lack of any trophies has been obvious before...well, it's been obvious for forever.

[wadesworld]

http://www.bigplay.com/eagles-browns-find-hilarious-way-to-troll-nfls-ridiculous-twitter-rule/

Pretty funny.

[GGGG]

http://www.bigplay.com/eagles-browns-find-hilarious-way-to-troll-nfls-ridiculous-twitter-rule/

Pretty funny.

I think the NFL's use of Twitter is a case in point of how they have no idea how to market themselves in this day and age.

Basically their tweets are some hype message, followed by a 15 second sponsorship video, and then a highlight that you can catch anywhere if you look.  I bet 90% of the people last about two seconds into the sponsor and go elsewhere.

Nothing organic.  Nothing witty or interesting.  Just another thing to earn some $$ off of.  They could really use Twitter and other forms of social media more effectively to "humanize" their image.  Instead it feels very, very corporate.

[jesmu84]

I think the NFL's use of Twitter is a case in point of how they have no idea how to market themselves in this day and age.

Basically their tweets are some hype message, followed by a 15 second sponsorship video, and then a highlight that you can catch anywhere if you look.  I bet 90% of the people last about two seconds into the sponsor and go elsewhere.

Nothing organic.  Nothing witty or interesting.  Just another thing to earn some $$ off of.  They could really use Twitter and other forms of social media more effectively to "humanize" their image.  Instead it feels very, very corporate.

This. 100% This. First the MLB and now the NFL. Absolute freaking morons.

When thousands of people can tweet/snap/vine clips/gifs/whatever, you're going to get so much more attention then when it has to come from just one or two "official" accounts.

Who is running these things?

[mu03eng]

Mac and Rodgers need to realize that the way the Packers are going to win games is to control the football and the clock, win the field position battle, and let your defense keep you in games. This isn't the Packers offense of the first 6 years of Rodgers's career. The defense is good (when the top 3 cornerbacks aren't out, which may be an issue), Lacy is running incredibly well, and the line is playing really well. Rodgers and the receivers both stink, and Mac has failed to adjust to that. The problem is I think Mac and Rodgers are both too prideful to try to win games this way. Guess we'll see.

McCarthy has to go after this year. He keeps saying scheme is a crutch as if it's something to be disdained. If you can't walk (run your offense) then use the damn crutches (scheme). How is it that every team in the NFL runs bunch route packages that generate legal rubs and pick plays that get players open....every team but the Packers. I watched several of the plays over again in the all 22 view and all of the routes are independent and count on the one on one match up wins. The receivers aren't winning those match ups and more, so why do you keep trying it?

Having said all of the that, it certainly doesn't help that when opportunities present themselves Rodgers doesn't make the throw. I'm 100% convinced it is a mental issue. It may manifest itself in how he plays but I don't think it's that he physically can't play at an elite level any more. I think that there is some sort of mental block that he just can't work past right now. Someone get Mason Crosby's sports psychologist or Renee Russo on the phone, stat!

[mu03eng]

I think the NFL's use of Twitter is a case in point of how they have no idea how to market themselves in this day and age.

Basically their tweets are some hype message, followed by a 15 second sponsorship video, and then a highlight that you can catch anywhere if you look.  I bet 90% of the people last about two seconds into the sponsor and go elsewhere.

Nothing organic.  Nothing witty or interesting.  Just another thing to earn some $$ off of.  They could really use Twitter and other forms of social media more effectively to "humanize" their image.  Instead it feels very, very corporate.

Couldn't agree more. This is where the NBA is just running laps around MLB and NFL. You want non-official sources sharing content and speaking to it, that's what being viral is. If the NFL had a rational social media strategy they would embrace all of the non-authorized sharing but commenting and feeding into it. All this does is just feed into the image of the NFL being a corporate money printing machine who doesn't care about the fans as anything as an endless source of revenue.

[wadesworld]

McCarthy has to go after this year. He keeps saying scheme is a crutch as if it's something to be disdained. If you can't walk (run your offense) then use the damn crutches (scheme). How is it that every team in the NFL runs bunch route packages that generate legal rubs and pick plays that get players open....every team but the Packers. I watched several of the plays over again in the all 22 view and all of the routes are independent and count on the one on one match up wins. The receivers aren't winning those match ups and more, so why do you keep trying it?

Having said all of the that, it certainly doesn't help that when opportunities present themselves Rodgers doesn't make the throw. I'm 100% convinced it is a mental issue. It may manifest itself in how he plays but I don't think it's that he physically can't play at an elite level any more. I think that there is some sort of mental block that he just can't work past right now. Someone get Mason Crosby's sports psychologist or Renee Russo on the phone, stat!

Agreed on all of this.  The Packers, when they were able to win their 1 on 1 matchups out wide, ran a ton of bubble screens, to the point where people were naming it the "Packers offensive PI" when looking at whether the blocking WRs were blocking prior to the receiver catching the ball.  I remember commentators going into games talking about watching whether the refs throw the flags on those plays or not, and we'd eat teams up doing it.  Then you run stuff off of that and the field is wide open.  There used to be a ton of quick slants and those are gone too.  Now we just basically play backyard football.

I long for the day where Mac maybe tries to watch some video of the Patriots and something clicks for him.  "Wait, you can take a bunch of 5'7", unathletic WRs and just have them sit in the open zones in the defense and dink and dunk for 7 yards per play and then once the safeties finally move up, 'Oh look, there's Gronk running right down the seam wide open!'"  But, according to Mac and Rodgers, nothing will be wrong and we just need to execute.

[🏀]

Couldn't agree more. This is where the NBA is just running laps around MLB and NFL. You want non-official sources sharing content and speaking to it, that's what being viral is. If the NFL had a rational social media strategy they would embrace all of the non-authorized sharing but commenting and feeding into it. All this does is just feed into the image of the NFL being a corporate money printing machine who doesn't care about the fans as anything as an endless source of revenue.

MLB's use of social media is pretty good. Especially on the team level, Cubs Twitter has highlights up in minutes. Snapchat use is fantastic as well.

[mu03eng]

MLB's use of social media is pretty good. Especially on the team level, Cubs Twitter has highlights up in minutes. Snapchat use is fantastic as well.

MLB has definitely gotten better than what it use to be, however I still think they still go after non-team blogs for showing highlights or stuff showing up on youtube.

[jesmu84]

MLB has definitely gotten better than what it use to be, however I still think they still go after non-team blogs for showing highlights or stuff showing up on youtube.

Yup. They still pursue legal action toward blogs or especially toward any "unauthorized" users on twitter sharing any sort of video/vine/gif/images