The Swamp

Ok, Swamp. These are the current standings in my pick em league. Straight up, no spreads. I'm 4th:

160
157
156
154

I shit the bed hard in week 14 with only 8 correct selections, but followed up in week 15 with 14 correct selections. (Last week I had 10.) The Ravens choking on that last drive against the Steelers has left me 2 points out of third instead of tied for it and gunning for 2nd. These are my pics. What do you guys think? All games are Sunday, so I have until 5 minutes before kickoff of the early game to change things up.

Is there anything at stake? Why not just pick all the dogs?

Money. 1st is $300, 2nd is $150, 3rd is $70. I was one of the top 2 at the midway point and won $30 and personalized beer mugs. Entry to the league was $40.

There's not a reality in this multiverse where the NFL doesn't conspire to help the Packers into the playoffs. Bet accordingly.

brian wrote:There's not a reality in this multiverse where the NFL doesn't conspire to help the Packers into the playoffs. Bet accordingly.

Since when does the NFL conspire for or against teams?

Well everyone does seem to love the Patriots again this year (yawn) and they have had only two vaguely sucky years since 1994...

Tom 1860 wrote:Well everyone does seem to love the Patriots again this year (yawn) and they have had only two vaguely sucky years since 1994...

Maybe this is the cautiously optimistic part of my personality (and especially after 2007), but I see Dallas winning it this year against the Chiefs or Steelers. (I'm leaning towards the Steelers.) I like the New England defense, but not as much as I should. We'll see, but I doubt the Pats win the Super Bowl.

In your position I'd probably pick Carolina and Jax, at minimum.

I also like Cincinnati given Baltimore may not be on their A game.

Fuck Marvin Lewis.

And fuck me stuck for 45 years rooting for this stupid fucking team and their stupid fucking way of doing things.

Fuck.

Fuck all of them.

Johnnie wrote:

Tom 1860 wrote:Well everyone does seem to love the Patriots again this year (yawn) and they have had only two vaguely sucky years since 1994...

Maybe this is the cautiously optimistic part of my personality (and especially after 2007), but I see Dallas winning it this year against the Chiefs or Steelers. (I'm leaning towards the Steelers.) I like the New England defense, but not as much as I should. We'll see, but I doubt the Pats win the Super Bowl.

I'm also somewhat skeptical of the Patriots' defense, since they've played a pretty soft schedule when it comes to opposing offenses. But with Derek Carr injured, the only team I think can beat them before the Superbowl is Pittsburgh. Kansas City has been playing well, but if Belichick/Patricia can come up with a scheme to limit big plays from Tyreek Hill, I just don't think Alex Smith is good enough to beat them. If you gave Alex Smith average-level teammates, I think the consensus would be that he's in the bottom-third of starting QBs in the NFL. His statistics this year are very underwhelming, but the Chiefs 11-4 record is greatly helping his reputation.

Pats are -160 to win the AFC. Likely would be closer to -500 if they wouldn't have to beat the refs and the league as well as the other five teams.

tennbengal wrote:Fuck Marvin Lewis.

And fuck me stuck for 45 years rooting for this stupid fucking team and their stupid fucking way of doing things.

Fuck.

Fuck all of them.

Other than a couple of words, that was my diatribe last Sunday afternoon watching the Bills.

Fuck Patriots fans for whining about ANYTHING.

sancarlos wrote:

EJ Manuel with the start.

If Tyrod Taylor gets hurt, the Bills are on the hook for $30 million. All over the Jets this weekend. Watch Fitzpatrick throw for 300 yards. Fuck the Bills.

I don't know enough about the NFL CBA to know what the solution is, but the whole idea of teams benching would-be starters due to concerns about injury guarantees is pretty off-putting to me. Many believe that the 49ers only made the switch from Blaine Gabbert to Kaepernick because Kaepernick agreed to renegotiate his contract to eliminate a similar injury guarantee clause. As a "fan" of the team (I put "fan" in quotation marks because it's hard for me to root for any pro team run as poorly as they are), it's frustrating to see them play an inferior player for that reason. Even if Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers were playing QB, the 2016 49ers weren't going to sniff the playoffs, but I'd at least like to see them make their best effort to win games.

Joe K wrote:I don't know enough about the NFL CBA to know what the solution is, but the whole idea of teams benching would-be starters due to concerns about injury guarantees is pretty off-putting to me. Many believe that the 49ers only made the switch from Blaine Gabbert to Kaepernick because Kaepernick agreed to renegotiate his contract to eliminate a similar injury guarantee clause. As a "fan" of the team (I put "fan" in quotation marks because it's hard for me to root for any pro team run as poorly as they are), it's frustrating to see them play an inferior player for that reason. Even if Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers were playing QB, the 2016 49ers weren't going to sniff the playoffs, but I'd at least like to see them make their best effort to win games.

fwiw, the 49ers didn't even dress Gabbert last week. Christian Ponder was the backup.

Joe K wrote:I don't know enough about the NFL CBA to know what the solution is, but the whole idea of teams benching would-be starters due to concerns about injury guarantees is pretty off-putting to me. Many believe that the 49ers only made the switch from Blaine Gabbert to Kaepernick because Kaepernick agreed to renegotiate his contract to eliminate a similar injury guarantee clause. As a "fan" of the team (I put "fan" in quotation marks because it's hard for me to root for any pro team run as poorly as they are), it's frustrating to see them play an inferior player for that reason. Even if Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers were playing QB, the 2016 49ers weren't going to sniff the playoffs, but I'd at least like to see them make their best effort to win games.

NFL makes player safety a top priority when $30M of their money is on the line

Joe K wrote:

Johnnie wrote:

Tom 1860 wrote:Well everyone does seem to love the Patriots again this year (yawn) and they have had only two vaguely sucky years since 1994...

Maybe this is the cautiously optimistic part of my personality (and especially after 2007), but I see Dallas winning it this year against the Chiefs or Steelers. (I'm leaning towards the Steelers.) I like the New England defense, but not as much as I should. We'll see, but I doubt the Pats win the Super Bowl.

I'm also somewhat skeptical of the Patriots' defense, since they've played a pretty soft schedule when it comes to opposing offenses. But with Derek Carr injured, the only team I think can beat them before the Superbowl is Pittsburgh. Kansas City has been playing well, but if Belichick/Patricia can come up with a scheme to limit big plays from Tyreek Hill, I just don't think Alex Smith is good enough to beat them. If you gave Alex Smith average-level teammates, I think the consensus would be that he's in the bottom-third of starting QBs in the NFL. His statistics this year are very underwhelming, but the Chiefs 11-4 record is greatly helping his reputation.

People were calling in to the postgame show after Sunday night's win over Denver saying Nick Foles should start, so

Brontoburglar wrote:

Joe K wrote:

Johnnie wrote:

Tom 1860 wrote:Well everyone does seem to love the Patriots again this year (yawn) and they have had only two vaguely sucky years since 1994...

Maybe this is the cautiously optimistic part of my personality (and especially after 2007), but I see Dallas winning it this year against the Chiefs or Steelers. (I'm leaning towards the Steelers.) I like the New England defense, but not as much as I should. We'll see, but I doubt the Pats win the Super Bowl.

I'm also somewhat skeptical of the Patriots' defense, since they've played a pretty soft schedule when it comes to opposing offenses. But with Derek Carr injured, the only team I think can beat them before the Superbowl is Pittsburgh. Kansas City has been playing well, but if Belichick/Patricia can come up with a scheme to limit big plays from Tyreek Hill, I just don't think Alex Smith is good enough to beat them. If you gave Alex Smith average-level teammates, I think the consensus would be that he's in the bottom-third of starting QBs in the NFL. His statistics this year are very underwhelming, but the Chiefs 11-4 record is greatly helping his reputation.

People were calling in to the postgame show after Sunday night's win over Denver saying Nick Foles should start, so

They weren't calling for Dontari Poe? Shame.

The one thing I know about Nick Foles is that Gronk made him look decent in college. Other than that, I'm not sure why he hasn't been released from the pros yet. Having him start over Smith is laughable.

In not-surprising news, reports are filtering out that the 49ers plan to fire GM Trent Baalke and head coach Chip Kelly, immediately after Sunday's game.

sancarlos wrote:In not-surprising news, reports are filtering out that the 49ers plan to fire GM Trent Baalke and head coach Chip Kelly, immediately after Sunday's game.

What a disaster that organization is. On the one hand, it seems crazy to have four different head coaches in four seasons, which is what they'll have from 2014-17. But at the same time, the decline in Chip Kelly's teams' performance after his first two years in Philly is pretty alarming. What they really should have done is fired Baalke after last season, so that they could've started fresh with a new GM who would then have input over the coaching search. The problem with bringing back Kelly for a second season (besides the fact that the team was horrible this year) is that a new GM hire would typically want to help pick a coach. Whoever comes in will certainly have a lot of work to do, as the talent level is really poor on both sides of the ball. This year's team is 29th in yards gained, 27th in points scored, 32nd in yards allowed, and 32nd in points allowed.

Michael Floyd fought off 5 Dolphins at the 1 to find the end zone.

From Super Extreme DUI to catching passes from Brady. That's nuts. I think Belichick paid for a draft pick with the residual benefit of a big body receiver in the meantime.

Gunpowder wrote:In your position I'd probably pick Carolina and Jax, at minimum.

Gunpowder wrote:I also like Cincinnati given Baltimore may not be on their A game.

I only flipped Carolina. And of course, Slolztradamus, is on the money so far. Now, everyone in my league chose Indy, so that's a wash either way, but if I was the only guy to pick them, that woulda been me playing chess. And the Cincy pick, I sided with Bengal.

I'm sitting in 3rd and clawing for 2nd, and there's enough variance in picks that I may have a shot at some things here. I'll let you know.

Steelers doing the anti-Coughlin?

sancarlos wrote:In not-surprising news, reports are filtering out that the 49ers plan to fire GM Trent Baalke and head coach Chip Kelly, immediately after Sunday's game.

If he gets hired next year he'll be collecting checks from 3 teams. That's awesome.

Rex wrote:Steelers doing the anti-Coughlin?

The big three are out on the offensive side. I haven't been paying too close attention, but they should have pulled a couple of other guys by now. So yes. I'll take a meaningless loss to the Browns and a healthy 7, 26 and 84.

And let's get Shazier out of there now...

Was there an announcement prior to the game about the Steelers resting their guys? I didn't see any reports about it. Or is that just something obvious that I missed?

Johnnie wrote:Was there an announcement prior to the game about the Steelers resting their guys? I didn't see any reports about it. Or is that just something obvious that I missed?

Tomlin was pretty open about sitting the offensive stars, yeah.

rass wrote:

Johnnie wrote:Was there an announcement prior to the game about the Steelers resting their guys? I didn't see any reports about it. Or is that just something obvious that I missed?

Tomlin was pretty open about sitting the offensive stars, yeah.

Gotcha. There was also a tweet about an hour prior to the game from the NFL on ESPN Twitter as well.

I only care because of my pick em league. Literally everyone chose Pittsburgh. I wish I had that Intel when I woke up this morning.

Michael Floyd just killed a guy while not driving drunk.

Adios Landry.

The Browns.

Rex wrote:The Browns.

-iest. Man.

Oh, hey, nice meaningless win to cost draft position - god do I hate Marvin Lewis.

I'd think losing a game on purpose for any reason would be more of a reason to fire a coach.

rass wrote:

Rex wrote:The Browns.

-iest. Man.

And, I take that back.

You realize that one of your players is going to get hurt in overtime because of these fucks.

Rex wrote:You realize that one of your players is going to get hurt in overtime because of these fucks.

I know. Jones should just (almost wrote "have" but they've gone backwards) just fumbled in the end zone when he had a chance.