#130

Cant believe I’m letting the Bears get my hopes up again despite a lifetime of knowing exactly how this is all going to work out.

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#131

Just gotta get Mack signed up to a long term contract, not a problem if this off season is anything to go by

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#132

Cleveland’s like a bad smell that just won’t wash off.

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#133

Think he’ll be a great fit in Fangio’s 3-4. Could do the sort of damage Aldon Smith did for the 49ers.

#134

So much talent in the NFC North this year, and Mack is the icing on the cake.

Well, aside from the Lions. FFS.

#138

Some big names in final cuts today. Paxton Lynch and Breshad Perriman finally thrown overboard, Braxton Miller, Hroniss Grasu and Davis Webb too. Brandon Bolden was released by the Patriots too but you can guarantee he’ll be back on their roster soon, he never stays away for long.

#140

Saw the last chargers pre season game - kicker made every attempt including game winning fg.

Its the chargers though, so they cut him.

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#142

Not officially a chargers fan - but i needed a second team to cope with the screeching mediocrity of the dolphins and they’re easily the most fun team in the nfl.

Yep - gates is BACK. Hunter henry on pup rather than ir though so obv hoping he’ll make a return bedore the end of the season.

#143

N00by question, but do they change up the conferences ever or is it always the same teams in the same divisions within them? If not, why - there are lots of franchises in the north-east for instance?

Secondly, how do they work out the intraconference fixtures? Seems a bit of a supercomputer headfuck to me.

#144

No, the conferences are fixed and don’t generally change unless as part of a major shake-up like expansion teams being added. It preserves historic rivalries, even though the geographical nature is very loose by this point.

It’s all on a multi-year timetable when different divisions meet (like this year the NFC North will play the AFC East, then that won’t happen again for a while), and then there are some matches that are set by your position in the division last year (so the team that finished second will play who finished second in the designated division). A big supercomputer basically.

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#145

Hadn’t been getting that excited for this season. Quite excited now.

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#146

Given the relative lack of games and the number of teams, I generally really like how they do the fixtures so that you play everyone in your mini division home and away (to ensure proper long lasting rivalries)and then rotate through the rest of the league to make sure you play everyone else every 3 or 4 years. Not so sure about playing other teams who finished in your position - I love the parity driven idea of the draft, but I don’t think it should carry into the fixtures, teams should get to 10 wins on a level playing field ideally, and the positional fixtures go against that imo.

I would be against the two conference thing… but it kinda works. Love championship weeekend.

If I was starting over I might go for something like 5 divisions of 6, home and away in division and then rotate the other 4 divisions for your 16 games. Sorry jacksonville and Houston.

#147

image https://media1.tenor.com/images/a46808d319f46e8cf54f11f8e4104a8f/tenor.gif?itemid=7894384

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#148

The vast majority of money (three times any other team) seems to be going on the Rams, but i’ve seen a couple of pundits play down their chances. What giveth?

#149

No one knows anything.

(I think Rams have as good a chance as anyone of winning the Super Bowl, but hot favourties? Probably not).

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#150

I don’t know for certain but there’s usually quite a bit of inertia from experts toward a team until it gets past the first round of the playoffs (not that this is necessarily smart, given the eagles went from a losing record to Super Bowl last year I think)

Rams have astounding team on paper but the commentators will question whether they have the mentality of yer Patriots, Steelers, Packers, etc. - last year was the first time they got to the playoffs in over a decade and then they blew a very winnable matchup against a lopsided Falcons team (who were underrated imo)

Having said that I have seen some people predict us for the Championship Game or even Super Bowl and we have the mentality of a wet towel atm.

#151

12s seems decent odds for a very talented, young team who won a lot last season and have kept all of their key parts. They’ve also got what looks like a very weak division which they ought to win pretty comfortably. But as above they could easily lose Donald or Goff early, or just not quite click and miss out on the playoff. Same goes for pretty much anyone other than the Patriots

#152

Really looking forward to the start of :football: this year (as always). Genuinely have no idea about the Texans, feels like we could go anywhere between 2-14 and 11-5 depending on the health and play of Watson and whether anyone’s bother to teach the secondary how to cover over the offseason.

Weirdly absolutely loving the matchup of Tommy and the Patriots in week one. Absolutely zero expectation going into, and if we win it will be a massively pleasant surprise. Plus last year’s game against them was phenomenal - quietly one of the best of the season even though it was overshadowed by the ridiculous Seahawks game (both of which we lost in the final 20 seconds or so)

WORLD CUP

#153

Ooh, Carl Nassib cut. Good think he’s got those rock-solid investments in place.

#154

There are now 8 different former Browns QBs serving as backups in the league. Was going to do this as a fun Monday quiz but I have stuff to do this afternoon so will just tell you who they all are: Deshone Kizer, Josh McCown, Brandon Weeden, Robert Griffin, Colt McCoy, Cody Kessler, Brian Hoyer and Brock Osweiler. This list doesn’t count Austin Davis, who is on IR in Seattle.

Reckon Kaepernick should just hand this list to the judge tbh.

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