Imgrandojji

You clearly don't live on the east coast then.

I think Tua will be an excellent starter, but the question is who's the better starter right now. It's a practical tautology that the only guy to win NFL games gives you a better chance right now to win NFL games. There is a tendency to just assume that prospects will pan out,, and that there's no room for high floor players like Brissett. We just saw firsthand that that's not remotely the case, but the delusion persists. And there's a big difference between not being injured and not being hurt. Lower body injuries like the one Tua suffered don't ever really seem to go all the way away. That kind of injury has killed plenty of other QB prospects, which adds to the risk a team is taking if they hand the reins to Tua before he proved he can be effective despite the pain and loss of mobility.

A rookie with no NFL experience and serious injury concerns, who is currently hurt, gives you a better chance to win right now than the guy who came in to back up Luck and went .500 in his starts. OK then. I know there's a certain frustration with Brissett because of how the second half went but that's absolutely insane.

Khari Willis had a semi breakout year last year, I think he keeps going.

Short answer: Without at least 2 other high quality receivers, not just no but lol no. Frankly a lot needs to fall right for this team to even finish over .500. We need health and progress at several key positions. Our D in particular really needs to step forward if we want a playoff spot. And I continue to be worried about Old Man Rivers if we roll out with a touch-and-go receiver corps with no professional quality depth. Hate to say it, but we could also really use the cap space we have tied up in Jacoby Brissett. One of Brissett and Rivers is a tremendous waste of cap resources, and since their contracts both come off the book this year and Rivers is the hot new signing, Brissett serves literally no purpose right now. I would much rather have 2 journeyman WRs than an expensive backup QB. We'll see if Ballard can figure it out, but I bet he's already worked the phones and had no joy.

That's why we're even having the conversation to be blunt about it, I don't think TY ever DIDN'T want to be here. character is not a special selling point this year, his character was always very strong. But character used to be backed by health, now it isn't. When you're talking about extending a guy you can't focus on what he used to be, you have to see who the player is right now, and what he's worth to you. The player Hilton is right now is a risk to miss any given game as his body is no longer holding up well to the NFL grind. If you're not prepared to factor that into the decision making process then I'll content myself with being glad you're not the one making the decision

Keeping two massive egos moving in the same direction for 20 years is not a small contribution. He also always had Belichick's back when Belichick was doing uncomfortable things many owners would flinch at or step in and meddle with In many ways, Bob Kraft was a model owner at least until 2011 when his wife died.

One thing I know about Rivers, he's going to be more aggressive than Brissett. Whether or not that's a good thing comes down to something that Rivers has struggled with his entire career -- his ability to execute throws consistently in the clutch. Remember when the fans were in love with Brian Hoyer because here they thought was a guy who would actually be an aggressive thrower, and then suddenly he threw picks that cost us 2 games and was Hoyer the Destroyer? That's exactly what's going to happen to Rivers if he gets trigger happy. And Phillip Rivers has a long track record of getting trigger happy and trying to force throws into the teeth of the defense when he's under pressure. If Rivers starts making stupid risky throws, or if he isn't spot o accurate, fans are going to turn on him pretty quickly. Frankly Phillip Rivers reminds me of a watered down version of a guy like Drew Bledsoe or Matt Ryan or Brett Favre. He WILL occasionally throw some plays to the opposing team, because he's a gunslinging QB. Goes with the territory. The problem with Rivers is, unlike Favre and even Bledsoe, he's never had the accomplishments of a Superbowl appearance, or even a good postseason run, to cement himself as an elite gunslinger. At least Ryan and Bledsoe got to the Superbowl, and Favre even won. Rivers never got close. Bottom line is Rivers is made-in-India knockoff Favre in my mind, without anywhere near the calmness in the heat of the moment that Favre could display..

you need 3+ running backs to make a run first strategy click. Even the Patriots who had Brady usually used 3 RBs, If you overuse your bellcow he'll play out, get hurt or teams will start being able to predict him. this is why I'm really hoping that Hines takes a step forward and can fill a role like the Pats have with the excellent James White playing a big role behind the bell cow.

mack had a breakout year last year in some ways. He carried the offense in many ways. I really hope Hines takes a step forward and becomes a versatile dual threat so we can have that 1-2 punch.

I'm exactly sure what Kraft was up to. He's a billionaire widower in the last few years of his life who's been going over his bucket list since his wife Myra died in 2011. He's been seen in the last few years wearing bling and having a couple trophy GFs. Dude is spreading his wings, nothing more. If you think that Kraft is the only NFL figurehead that's been caught at totally-not-a-brothel I don't even know what to tell you.

I know, it's one of the most pervasive problems with our culture today. It's so commonplace that it's become trivialized, and as such, we don't take it nearly as seriously as we should. Every year DUI kills more people than handguns. It's a serious problem and the fact that we as a culture don't take this serious problem seriously only makes it worse. And in no way is that made more clear than how the DUIs of the rich and famous are laughed off as a minor faux pas. The fact is that we lose a pro athlete to DUIs every few years, I think Florida Marlins ace pitcher Jose Fernandez was the latest. But no, let's just pretend that it's not an issue just because it happens all the time everywhere, rather than being the absolutely bloody stupid and avoidable waste of life it really is. Sure as heck doesn't make them a good person. Frankly DWI/DUI/OUI should be far more stigmatized than it is IMHO. He hurt nobody? Sure but it wasn't for any lack of effort on his part! And the guy I'm comparing him to didn't hurt anyone by paying for a bit of extra after his massage, and that didn't stop people from bringing the house down on him. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

you cannot have a cult player in the NFL in the cap era. You HAVE to balance your needs and expectations for production based on the future, the past should only enter the discussion as a means to guess what the future will hold. And frankly, the two most important and predictive seasons for any football player are the last 2 years, and in 2018 he played hurt, and in 2019 he was so hurt he missed significant time. To say that's not a good trend is something of an extreme understatement throw in the fact that Hilton is not a huge physical guy, and you have a recipe for a very rapid decline phase. 2018 is the first year since he became a starter that he actually missed games. in 2019 he actually missed over a third of the team's games. He just turned 31. this math is not good. In fact this math is really bad. This is the math that leads to disastrous extensions that hold the team back. Much as I love the guy no, I don't sign him at full price, I let him test FA and see if we can get him back on the cheap. Sometimes you have to let a beloved player walk for the good of the franchise and this looks like one of those times.

That would be a huge hometown discount IMHO. TY had an off year but he's still seen as a premium WR in a lot of circles. That's the thing that sucks about dealing with a guy who's just entering the decline phase. there's always going to be pressure to pay for past production and you just can't do that if you want to get all the value you can out of your cap.

If you were a Pats fan you wouldn't be admitting that there was any cheating, just like people aren't squaring up to Irsay's DUI in this thread when I bring it up. Frankly everything brought up against the Patriots in the last 15 years has been at least a bit of a stretch. it's an easy argument to make that the Patriots were overpunished in Spygate, and the FEDERAL COURTS RULED that they were overpunished in Deflategate and that Goodell hadn't even come close to making his case. Deflating footballs is endemic in the NFL and by no means limited to the Patriots, and certainly wasn't the reason they beat us in 2014. If memory serves, they drove us before them and heard the lamentations of our women. A proper punishment for Spygate would have been a 5 figure fine and moving their third round pick to the end of the round. A proper punishment for Deflategate would have been a fine for Brady, a fine for the organization and the loss of a 4th round pick. This is based on precedent that already existed at the time for similar violations. BTW there's a certain segment of the Patriots community that H A T E S Kraft for not standing up to Goodell on Deflategate