Superman

Tell me what happens with the first three picks... At this point, I think Stroud and Young will be off the board, and Levis will be the best one left. And I'd be fine with drafting him. I'd also be fine with trading out and picking up a 2024 first.

I don't get it, either. He's a bridge level guy who could easily be the starter for half a season or more, or be QB2 all year. We already knew the intention is to draft a QB. I don't see this signing as an indication in any direction.

I don't mind the signing, it makes sense, I was just never down with the mania.

This is a dream come true for so many of you.

I wonder if he's done with the Ravens way of operating, on and off the field. Struggle to get/keep good receivers (always, not just recently), constant changes to the offensive staff, and maybe some behind the scenes personal stuff. But that's entirely speculative on my part.

I get that. I think it's relevant at LG, ILB, if we pay JT it will be relevant there. It's an ongoing conversation, and there are several elements to consider there. I don't think it's relevant at kicker. Spotrac says McLaughlin's value is $4.1m/year. Matt Gay signed for $5.625m/year. The difference doesn't affect anything else the team wants to do, and 'highest paid FA kicker' isn't a meaningful designation in any way, IMO.

The league year starts tomorrow. This isn't even really a consideration if they intend to move off of any of the big money guys.

I was initially "meh" on this signing, mostly because I thought McLaughlin was pretty good and would have been easy to retain. But Matt Gay is still young, he's already proven in big time situations, he's a top five kicker right now, and should be rock solid for the life of his contract. He's also a good kickoff specialist, should that be needed. We've been shaky at kicker since 2019, and now we can (presumably) check that box off, not just in 2023, but for the foreseeable future. This is a good signing, IMO. Not exactly earth shattering news for FA Day 1, but I like it.

I'm dumb. I thought that's who the Bears signed, the names had me mixed up... My bad.

"The Next Brian Urlacher" is only getting $6.5m/year?

Merged.

Yeah that's what it seems like. But not only did the ESPN crew report it on TV, other outlets (Spanish, and radio) were saying the same thing. Maybe they're repeating what ESPN said? Or maybe someone on the field was saying 'we have five minutes to warm up' because that's protocol, while the refs and coaches were still figuring out what to do. But if we're taking Troy Vincent at his word, the coaches never discussed resuming play. So it was all likely a miscommunication.

It took a while to make an official statement, but it sounds like the game being postponed was the obvious outcome pretty early on...

Could be some people were saying that on the field, and it made it up to the booth. But we never saw any of the players warming up, right? I think maybe Burrow threw a couple warm up passes, but everyone else was just standing around from what I saw.

The "five minutes" thing is starting to look like a misunderstanding...

I don't even think the refs were 'instructed' to give them five minutes. I that was just their initial 'how do we handle this' reaction -- five minutes after an extended stoppage -- and the coaches immediately said 'that won't work.' Taylor and McDermott talked, and said 'we're going to the locker room,' and at that point there wasn't really any decision to be made. It was done, they weren't playing. The way it was presented on social media was like the NFL was trying to get them to keep playing and the teams had to win an argument to get the game postponed. I mean, it might technically be accurate that the teams made the decision, but that doesn't mean they were opposed in any way.

Yeah, the fact that the statement included the update on Hamlin's condition -- he's in critical condition -- shows that they wanted to provide that information in an official capacity. Had to wait for it, though.

Between ESPN, the Internet, and social media, I'd guess that nothing like this has ever been viewed by such a wide audience, all at the same time, with access to so much real time information yet not getting any real updates on the situation. I don't think this winds up having a harmful effect on the NFL, but I do think the situation is unlike anything we've seen before.

Agreed. There are an unknown number of moving parts that they (rightly, IMO) wanted to button down before saying or doing anything officially. The freak out mob started speculating, pointing fingers, and perpetuating the idea that there was a villain in the picture, when that was totally unnecessary, given the situation. There were comments on Reddit and Twitter during the ordeal, with people at the stadium commenting that concessions were shutting down, etc., well before the official announcement was made. It's my assumption that the coaches knew they weren't playing when they went to the locker rooms, which makes everything else irrelevant.

9-11, they did not play. All games that weekend were cancelled. Edit: "Postponed," not cancelled. https://www.si.com/nfl/talkoffame/nfl/tagliabue-and-2001-decision-not-to-play

I don't. I think they buttoned down all the different technicalities and informed all the parties, and then put together a sanitized statement as the first official league response. But when the refs told the coaches 'five minutes,' and the coaches looked at their players standing in shock and said 'nah, we're going to the locker room,' it was obvious the game was not going to continue.

No of course not. But usually after a game like this everyone starts calling for the coach to be fired, and it made me wonder.

You mean the four square pass?

It was a joke. But we don't have good coaching, so...

Has any team ever fired the interim head coach?