OT: Official 2021 Tompa Bay Gronkaneers Thread

[Deus Irae]

I think the Saints should have begged Alex Smith to play another year and signed him. Or just rolled the dice on a wild card like Fitzpatrick. Bridgewater (5-0 with Saints in 2019) was there too via trade.

Winston is the worst possible fit for that team (and most teams). Hill is unlikely to develop into a reliable, steady hand. They didn’t need a great QB with that protection and screen game…they just needed a competent one.

Winston's problem is brain lock. But, if that Saints defense is still good, and Winston is limited by both Payton's playcalling/teaching and Hill's getting snaps, that Saints team has a chance to be dangerous.

 

[amfootball]

I think the Saints should have begged Alex Smith to play another year and signed him. Or just rolled the dice on a wild card like Fitzpatrick. Bridgewater (5-0 with Saints in 2019) was there too via trade.

Winston is the worst possible fit for that team (and most teams). Hill is unlikely to develop into a reliable, steady hand. They didn’t need a great QB with that protection and screen game…they just needed a competent one.

I was reading the Saints board back when they had Bridgewater. Many of the fans were furious they let Teddy go and paid Hill. It was pretty headscratching. They knew Brees only had one year left and Tedy looked so good in their offense. Now they have nothing with Winston and Hill.

 

[gobesmug]

I was reading the Saints board back when they had Bridgewater. Many of the fans were furious they let Teddy go and paid Hill. It was pretty headscratching. They knew Brees only had one year left and Tedy looked so good in their offense. Now they have nothing with Winston and Hill.

Hill is a unique weapon. His ability to play Wr, RB, and QB presents such a nightmare on defense for about 3-5 plays a game.

That doesn't sound like much, but football is a game of inches, and having that extra play that gives you a critical first down or TD is extremely valuable.

With that said, Hill is not a starting QB by any chance. What really killed the Saints was Brees deciding to play another season because he didn't want to see Brady win a Superbowl with the Saints thus hurting his image in N.O.

 

[Deus Irae]

Bucs coach Bruce Arians said his plan is to rest his starters this week against Tennessee and play them in the final preseason game Aug. 28 against the Texans.

“Looking at the two practices [against Tennessee] – as good as I know they’ll go physicality-wise – we probably won’t play any starters,” Arians said, via Scott Reynolds of pewterreport.com. “I don’t really want to put our starters back in [along the offensive line] or put them in at all. The offensive line might play in this game only by necessity. We’ll see how that goes.”

Arians’ reasoning makes sense: He doesn’t want his starters going 19 days between game action. If they play in the final preseason game, they still will have 12 days before the season opener. (Of course, last year, teams had no preseason games before the season opener.)

“We’ll play that by ear, but my plan right now is to play them a significant amount in that [final preseason] ballgame, because we don’t play for two weeks after,” Arians said. “I know our guys don’t want to hit each other for 10 days, so we’ll probably play them more in that game than any.”

Bucs starters won't play this week but will see action in final preseason game - ProFootballTalk

 

[Deus Irae]

So the first-round draft pick is looking pretty good...

 

[Deus Irae]

Bucs' initial three cuts -- CB Cameron Kinley, WR Josh Pearson and TE De'Quan Hampton -- all cleared waivers today and are now free agents.

 

[amfootball]

Bucs starters won't play this week but will see action in final preseason game - ProFootballTalk

I wonder if other teams will take this approach. When there were 4 preseason games, the third game was when the starters played the most. Now with just 3, I wonder if the last game makes sense given the lay off between that game and the first regular season game.

 

[Deus Irae]

I wonder if other teams will take this approach. When there were 4 preseason games, the third game was when the starters played the most. Now with just 3, I wonder if the last game makes sense given the lay off between that game and the first regular season game.

I've been wondering if the extra time after game three will lead to some coaches playing starters longer (total) in both weeks.

 

[RicoG]

With that said, Hill is not a starting QB by any chance. What really killed the Saints was Brees deciding to play another season because he didn't want to see Brady win a Superbowl with the Saints thus hurting his image in N.O.

Brees would have also wanted to maintain his lead in regular season stats for TD (which Brady passed during the year) and passing yards (which Brady would have passed if Brees didn't come back from his injury).

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

From all I'm reading seems like AB is going to be a monster this season

At 33 years of age he is going to be a monster?

 

[carmelo15]

At 33 years of age he is going to be a monster?

keep That same energy when the season starts

 

[Deus Irae]

At 33 years of age he is going to be a monster?

How old was Brady when he last won a Super Bowl?

 

[VectorPrime]

How old was Brady when he last won a Super Bowl?

Well let’s be fair receivers fall off faster than QBs. But at the same time how many games has AB played the last 2 years? 10 combined?

 

[Zarozzor]

Well let’s be fair receivers fall off faster than QBs. But at the same time how many games has AB played the last 2 years? 10 combined?

That could work in his favor. A lot less wear and tear.

 

[amfootball]

At 33 years of age he is going to be a monster?

In this offense? Why not? The coverage will roll to Evans and Godwin and then you have the TEs and Gio. Brown could see 1:1 coverage a lot against a nickel or dime back. I don't care if he was 43, he will feast on that with Brady.

 

[gobesmug]

At 33 years of age he is going to be a monster?

Only saw a couple snaps in the first preseason game, but he looked a lot more explosive than last year.

him and Brady had a perfectly timed 40 yard back shoulder pass. AB just barely missed hanging on.

 

[amfootball]

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Other numbers I‘m paying attention to:

264 wins (regular/postseason). Manning in second with 200. 36 more wins and Brady reaches 300. He’d need to play in 2023, at age 46. I’d say it’s 50/50 at worst, as I suspect he’ll play as long as Tampa is primed. This may be the most unchallengeable record in professional sports…winning at an outlier winning pct while playing an outlier number of seasons.

91,653 passing yards (regular/postseason). He needs 8,347 passing yards to reach 100,000. There’s a decent chance he would reach that in 2022. Regular season is 79,204, so he‘ll probably fall short there.

664 touchdown passes (regular/postseason). Can he throw more TDs than any baseball players has career home runs? He needs 763…99 to go. He would need to play in 2023 and average 33 TD passes per year, over the new 17 game regular season plus postseason. Possible though not likely.

83 postseason touchdown passes (90 total). 100 postseason touchdowns is a possibility, though the variable of how many playoff games he’ll have is a wide range.

 

[amfootball]

Other numbers I‘m paying attention to:

264 wins (regular/postseason). Manning in second with 200. 36 more wins and Brady reaches 300. He’d need to play in 2023, at age 46. I’d say it’s 50/50 at worst, as I suspect he’ll play as long as Tampa is primed. This may be the most unchallengeable record in professional sports…winning at an outlier winning pct while playing an outlier number of seasons.

91,653 passing yards (regular/postseason). He needs 8,347 passing yards to reach 100,000. There’s a decent chance he would reach that in 2022. Regular season is 79,204, so he‘ll probably fall short there.

664 touchdown passes (regular/postseason). Can he throw more TDs than any baseball players has career home runs? He needs 763…99 to go. He would need to play in 2023 and average 33 TD passes per year, over the new 17 game regular season plus postseason. Possible though not likely.

83 postseason touchdown passes (90 total). 100 postseason touchdowns is a possibility, though the variable of how many playoff games he’ll have is a wide range.

Those are legacy records for sure. I think wins in play as well as yards. TD passes is more difficult because so much is predicated on the team and like you said number of playoff games. He got 4 playoff games last year and cleaned up with 10 TDs. I would think this year he gets 3 as I expect Tampa to get the bye but he still could easily get close to 10 Tds again with this offense.

I am over on the Saints board periodically. They have a really great board by the way. Lots of good football talk. But what Brady is doing with the records is killing them as the records were Brees' main stay to greatness and being ahead of the likes of Rodgers, Favre, Manning in their opinion. Being #2 really kind of nullifies that. LOL

 

[Zarozzor]

Those are legacy records for sure. I think wins in play as well as yards. TD passes is more difficult because so much is predicated on the team and like you said number of playoff games. He got 4 playoff games last year and cleaned up with 10 TDs. I would think this year he gets 3 as I expect Tampa to get the bye but he still could easily get close to 10 Tds again with this offense.

I am over on the Saints board periodically. They have a really great board by the way. Lots of good football talk. But what Brady is doing with the records is killing them as the records were Brees' main stay to greatness and being ahead of the likes of Rodgers, Favre, Manning in their opinion. Being #2 really kind of nullifies that. LOL

I’ve lurked over there for years and they can’t stand Brady. I wonder if it hurts them even more knowing they probably win the Super Bowl last year with him if Brees hadn’t been so concerned about records he’s going to lose anyway.

Over the next couple of seasons we’re about to see a huge gap between Brady and #2 on the regular season leaderboards. I’m hoping he plays at least 3 more seasons with this 17 game schedule to pad it.

His win records and playoff records are pretty much Gretzky and MLB 19th century/early 20th century pitching records at this point.