OT: Official 2020 Tompa Bay Gronkaneers Thread

[RicoG]

Just want to say I love this thread as it discusses with knowledge and depth my fandom of Brady/Gronk/NE-TB/Edelman. I followed Flutie from CFL to NFL. Hated the Bills for resting Flutie in game 16 and then benching him for the playoffs for Rob Johnson. They were one and done and sucked for close to 20 yrs thanks in large part to NE. Love routing for the underdog. Flutie the Heisman trophy winner that was too small to play QB in the NFL. Then Brady, the 6th round afterthought vs NFL royalty Manning.

They did a solid to TB for letting him go by only putting a half-hearted attempt to keep him. TB did not leave cause of BB per se. You can blame scouting dept/McDaniels. The recent bad drafts and bad trades(at WR) forced him to leave. We started to see the passing offense declining and becoming inconsistent in 2018. In the past, NE would fix their bad/or lack of WR drafting with free agents (Moss, Welker, Amendola, etc) but in 2019, their free agents Sanu, Brown, and Gordon blew up. This year was an incredibly deep WR draft and they should have drafted 2 WR in the top 5 rounds but didn't and should have gone for a good WR veteran, someone like OBJ. NE needs to take a page from Tampa who drafted WR and got Gronk even though they were already deep at both positions and Pittsburg who just continuously drafts WR in the high rounds.

And so NE WR/TE woes continues in 2020 and that's why I'm happy TB left cause he would have sucked if he stayed in NE. He stated that he would retire when he sucks and I'm hoping he doesn't for 2 more years. Tampa has the talent and the all-in mentality to keep it a possibility. I don't have any other favorite players and I don't like how the rules changed such that every other JAG QB looks like they’re elite and every other veteran QB looks like the BOAT. So I will likely step back from following football once my favorite players retire.

 

[sb1]

And so NE WR/TE woes continues in 2020 and that's why I'm happy TB left cause he would have sucked if he stayed in NE. He stated that he would retire when he sucks and I'm hoping he doesn't for 2 more years. Tampa has the talent and the all-in mentality to keep it a possibility. I don't have any other favorite players and I don't like how the rules changed such that every other JAG QB looks like they’re elite and every other veteran QB looks like the BOAT. So I will likely step back from following football once my favorite players retire.

Yes he would have. No question about it. He did the right thing for himself moving on.

I said he wouldn't get to the SB with the Bucs but seeing that defense make Rodgers look like he did... I think I underestimated how good they are. With a defense like that Brady doesn't have to carry them which he for sure would have if he stayed here. I think they have a great shot at winning the NFC if they're not hit by injuries/covid.

As for Flutie one of my favorite non Patriots games was when the Chargers (with Flutie at QB) beat the Bills after they let him go and he signed with SD. Payback!

 

[PatsBoy12]

 

[amfootball]

This could be big for Sunday night's game. Trent Brown has Covid and the entire Oline was sent home yesterday. I know the NFL undated the protocols letting teams know that close contacts to those with Covid have to sit for 5 days. It's possible the starting Oline could be out for the game against the ferocious front 7 of the Bucs.

Raiders sent entire starting offensive line home because of contact with Trent Brown

The Raiders placed right tackle Trent Brown on the reserve/COVID-19 list today, but they may have a much bigger problem on their offensive line.

profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

 

[203Pat]

Excellent excellent post. So pound for pound the Steelers draft vastly better receivers in similar rounds. It's not like they always use high picks and the Pats are finding gems in the bargain basement.

I know everyone likes to say "Well they use more picks on receivers than we do" which is true but their average is still higher for hitting on a successful receiver than ours. While they have had some home runs like Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders even a lot of their middling guys still ended up with more success than all of our higher receiver picks outside of Branch.

 

[203Pat]

I agree partially. I'm in the camp that both BB and TB benefited from each other.

This is the only way to look at it. You can give one side a little more credit and that is reasonable but anyone who thinks one would have anywhere near 6 rings without the other is nuts.

 

[Bill Lee]

Again that has nothing to do with whether the Pats draft receivers better.... I don’t know why some people can’t take any criticism.

And I can't understand why some people fixate on some perceived or actual deficiency at the drafting of one position on the team.

It's not like we stop at the end of the season like PIT does and says "we got bounced out of the playoffs, but man we got great WRs!".

This run of ours has been like having a partner who is wonderful in every way except the partner refuses to do laundry.

Guess what, you figure out how to get the laundry done while you freaking enjoy the hell out of the rest of the experience, instead of whining about the laundry every chance you get.

We're coming off a twenty year best ever run and we get thread after thread from laundry experts telling us how important laundry is, it's absurd.

They even hijack threads about different teams and different topics to carry on with their fixation.

 

[upstater1]

Please tell me the "Steelers don't draft receivers better than we do" argument is happening again. Anyone who has watched the last two decades and believes that Edelman (project), Givens (somewhat of a project), and Branch is a better group than Buress, Randle El, Santonio Holmes, Wallace, Sanders, Brown, Bryant, Schuster, and now Claypool is insane.

Yeah those same people argue Adam Gase is better than Belichick, don't they, or maybe I'm just making things up and misquoting them?

 

[203Pat]

Yeah those same people argue Adam Gase is better than Belichick, don't they, or maybe I'm just making things up and misquoting them?

Even if you want to argue averages on hits and misses at the position our average is still lower.

 

[denverpatsfan]

I don't think they make the Raiders play with no o-line. The game will be rescheduled for sure. No way Tom gets a break.

 

[amfootball]

I don't think they make the Raiders play with no o-line. The game will be rescheduled for sure. No way Tom gets a break.

The timing is interesting. If the Oline members who did not test positive stay negative, I think they get back for Sunday. Trent Brown is out for sure as he can't come back for 10 days.

 

[upstater1]

Even if you want to argue averages on hits and misses at the position our average is still lower.

First, I used the Steelers because they are the best.
This came out of a conversation about the Patriots being the absolute worst in the league.
I used the Steelers to show that even the best have a lot of misses (between 35-40%). The Steelers have expended 2x the resources as the Patriots. They have hit on these guys: I count 5 Steelers at the level of Branch and Edelman or higher (in the case of AB), and those are AB, Wallace, Santonio, Sanders, Ju-Ju. 5-2. There's Washington and Diontae who are at the level Givens. 2-1.

Seems to me the Steelers (who are acknowledged as the best WR drafters) are at a slightly higher level of 35-40% (again, those are just the numbers!) while the Patriots are at 32-33%.

As for quality, I think Edelman and Branch are very high quality, just as good as Santonio Holmes, Emanuel Sanders and Wallace.

The only outlier supreme WR here is Antonio Brown, a 7th rounder.

Main point: Patriots don't expend picks on WRs. IF I compared them to other teams in the league (which I'm not going to do) I bet their rate would look similar. I compared them to the Steelers precisely to compare them to the best.

 

[PatsBoy12]

WATCH: Mic'd up Gronk was giddy after first TD with Bucs

Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski reverted to true Gronk form after ending a long scoring drought in Week 6.

www.nbcsports.com

 

[PP2]

I don't think they make the Raiders play with no o-line. The game will be rescheduled for sure. No way Tom gets a break.

Raiders already had their bye. Would be very difficult at this point without extending season. And what if another team gets a similar problem next week? The floodgates would just open after that and we'll finish in June.

 

[BradytoMosstoGronk]

I don't think they make the Raiders play with no o-line. The game will be rescheduled for sure. No way Tom gets a break.

Why isn't it going to be played? Only one linemen tested positive. They'll have to trot out a replacement for Brown. Unless the entire O line is positive, i doubt the raiders are getting a reprieve.

 

[Bill Lee]

Why isn't it going to be played? Only one linemen tested positive. They'll have to trot out a replacement for Brown. Unless the entire O line is positive, i doubt the raiders are getting a reprieve.

Agree. Recent events such as the day trip to KC and playing DEN two days after two OL starters got yanked should be proof the NFL is going to go to great lengths to get the game in, even if it means competition suffers. Should be a walk in the park for Tampa's highly regarded front 7 on defense playing against Carr who panics once he gets off schedule.

 

[drewskie]

I know everyone likes to say "Well they use more picks on receivers than we do" which is true but their average is still higher for hitting on a successful receiver than ours. While they have had some home runs like Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders even a lot of their middling guys still ended up with more success than all of our higher receiver picks outside of Branch.

Like you said, the Squealers know how to draft WRs, period.

 

[sb1]

Raiders already had their bye. Would be very difficult at this point without extending season. And what if another team gets a similar problem next week? The floodgates would just open after that and we'll finish in June.

It's why I said if there are outbreaks happening at the same time, they'll pull the plug. Especially with teams already using their bye. It's not manageable for the schedule.

 

[drewskie]

It‘s hard to argue that the Antonio Brown release wasn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back, which was Kraft in his most cowardly form with his nose in Roger Goodell’s underwear. No other NFL owner would have released an all-pro WR on a $12M contract (accelerating the cap hit into 2019 entirely instead of spreading it out as it was structured) based on a suspicious civil lawsuit, especially when the he just joined the team and was being taken publicly under the wing of an excited Brady.

He could have kept Brown and forced the league to suspend him or put him on the exempt list, whereby Brown had some leverage with the NFLPA, and there’s a decent chance Brown could have served the suspension and returned. But he released him, causing Brown to be an inactive former player which allowed the league to blackball him and suspend him by omission, for the sake of his good, loyal buddy Roger, who had conveniently swept Brown’s behavior in Pittsburgh under the rug for years.

We know Brady’s reaction to this, and the rest is history. The sad thing is Kraft never deserved Brady or Belichick; when forced to make tough decisions, he’s always a coward who serves Bob’s pockets. Deflategate was likely just the first time we saw what an absolute **** Bob Kraft is, though that seems to be his nature.

We absolutely should have forced the league's hand. Releasing AB on simply claims by questionable accusers (in terms of motive) the moment he became a Patriot was stupid imo.

 

[amfootball]

Tom Brady’s Incredible Play With Tampa Bay Buccaneers Is His Best Pitch Yet For The TB12 Method

The central selling point to Tom Brady’s TB12 Method has always been his exceptional play. His first six weeks with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is his most effective campaign yet.

www.forbes.com