2023 week 3

[Anteaters]

Raiders debating Carr vs Jimmy G is football’s “they having a mid off” meme

Will it be time for the Legend AoC soon?

[lukkynumber13]

I just traded for Mostert on a contender where I am down both JT and Chubb

I caught Achane’s statline and immediately thought “crap! I guess Mostert got benched, or hurt”

I don’t ever remember seeing teammate RBs going off like this in the same game…

[lukkynumber13]

Also, holy Keenan Allen!

If his production continues, he could become the next Puka!

[Orenthal Shames]

Rookie WRs continue to impress.

[mild]

But I was told he could throw it and only need a quality receiver to show it

He's still waiting for a quality wide receiver.

Paying OBJ a lot of money was a mistake from the day they signed him.
Zay is a rookie who is not JJ or Chase, meaning he's a good prospect, but not someone defenses must scheme against. That means he's not a game changer. He's a good player and a good prospect, but Zay is not a commanding presence on the field game in and game out, yet.
Bateman is ... still Bateman.

The Baltimore fans were sold a bill of WR goods by the Ravens' management, without any actual goods to back it up.

This is extremely overreactionairy.

This Baltimore offense is already the most promising it's been in years, today's bumps notwithstanding. (Despite the fact that they didn't deserve to lose the way they did, the refs decided this game)

I think if you're a Baltimore fan - especially with the Bengals and Steelers both looking extremely shaky - you're pretty happy with the early returns on the Todd Monken era so far. I know I am, as a big Lamar fan.

There's a lot of time left. The ceiling of this thing is just so much higher now than it was under Roman. Give it a minute. Let it breathe.

Relax.

[mild]

Jets can’t trade their 1st or 2nd rounder this year because of the Rodgers deal not being completely done yet. I don’t see the Vikings trading him for 2025 picks, but I could be wrong.

I do not think the Jets will, or should even consider it, trade significant draft capital for a QB at this point in the season. However, if they really wanted to, the Jets can negotiate to finalize their deal with the Packers, and then be free to make a trade for Cousins.

The Vikings were in each game. They will win games this year, maybe even compete for playoffs. I dont see them losing nearly enough to land Caleb.

I can see the Bears or Panthers getting the 1st pick.

I was not aware you could renegotiate a trade essentially. That would make it work if true. Another hurdle too…Cousins has a no trade clause. Does he want to leave for another team, for a partial year, only to then move on again? Or play out the year and pick his next spot from there?

Some good stuff here. And yes, as I suspected - Sunday is barely in the books and the trade talk content mill is already starting:
https://www.si.com/nfl/vikings/news/vik ... peculation

You can expect to hear this one getting banded about on the usual channels this week. To the points above:

"The Vikings were in each game. They will win games this year, maybe even compete for playoffs. I dont see them losing nearly enough to land Caleb." - you don't see how this team could keep losing consistently if they turn over the keys to Nick Mullens?

"Another hurdle too…Cousins has a no trade clause. Does he want to leave for another team, for a partial year, only to then move on again? Or play out the year and pick his next spot from there?"

This is the good spice. Cousins actually completely controls this, if he wants it to happen. As was pointed out "I don't think the Jets should give up premium draft capital for a QB" - ok, but why would they have to in this case?

We're talking about a 14 game rental at this point, with a chance of playoffs to the acquiring team.

Not only does Kirk have a no-trade clause (so he will control whether he's a Viking this year whether Kwesi wants him to or not) - he also has an effective No Tag clause too, by another name. It's actually genius - his team made the contract date void directly after the Franchise Tag due-date for 2024. He can't be tagged. Big props to his agent.

The ball is in Kirk's court on this one. If he would rather go try and save the Jets, he probably has that option. If O'Connell and Jefferson want him to stay put, and to try to win anyway - they can lobby for that too.

The Vikings getting -anything- in return for Cousins right now would be a major win if this is a player that they've decided isn't in their future plans anyway. If he's a Viking in 2024, it will be because they re-commit to him on another major contract on his terms. They can't tag him. Once again, Kirk is showing how business is done as a QB in the modern FA market.

Mentioned in the article - the Vikings didn't come to an agreement with Jefferson this offseason. It remains to be seen what he would think of all of this if the team moves on from Kirk.

[Anteaters]

But I was told he could throw it and only need a quality receiver to show it

He's still waiting for a quality wide receiver.

Paying OBJ a lot of money was a mistake from the day they signed him.
Zay is a rookie who is not JJ or Chase, meaning he's a good prospect, but not someone defenses must scheme against. That means he's not a game changer. He's a good player and a good prospect, but Zay is not a commanding presence on the field game in and game out, yet.
Bateman is ... still Bateman.

The Baltimore fans were sold a bill of WR goods by the Ravens' management, without any actual goods to back it up.

This is extremely overreactionairy.

This Baltimore offense is already the most promising it's been in years, today's bumps notwithstanding. (Despite the fact that they didn't deserve to lose the way they did, the refs decided this game)

I think if you're a Baltimore fan - especially with the Bengals and Steelers both looking extremely shaky - you're pretty happy with the early returns on the Todd Monken era so far. I know I am, as a big Lamar fan.

There's a lot of time left. The ceiling of this thing is just so much higher now than it was under Roman. Give it a minute. Let it breathe.

Relax.

I hope you're right. I'm not a huge Baltimore fan, but they're on my list of teams that I like that aren't the Dolphins. And I'm a huge Lamar fan, so I follow the team closely. I believe in Monken. However, I'm not nearly convinced the WRs as a group are much better than they were last season. I'm not sure they're any better. Hollywood was/is an underrated hi-quality WR. The only WR in Baltimore who has a chance to match or exceed Hollywood is Zay and he's not there yet. I hope he gets there, and I hope OBJ can look like a good WR for at least half the games. If that happens, We'll get a good look at what a Monken-Lamar offense might be capable of.

I want you to be right. I recently got two tickets, second row from the field for the Ravens-Dolphins game in December. It would be great to see a high-scoring back-and-forth game that the Dolphins win.

[mild]

I hope you're right. I'm not a huge Baltimore fan, but they're on my list of teams that I like that aren't the Dolphins. And I'm a huge Lamar fan, so I follow the team closely. I believe in Monken. However, I'm not nearly convinced the WRs as a group are much better than they were last season. I'm not sure they're any better.

You're out of your mind with that take. Like, all the way cuckoo.

The Ravens leading receivers last season, the year of our lord 2022:

Demarcus Robinson - 17 games - 458 yards
Devin Duvernay - 14 games - 407 yards
Rashod Bateman - 5 games - 285 yards
the 37 Year Old Ghost of Desean Jackson - 7 games - 153 yards

This year, Nelson Agholor is the WR4 on the depth chart. He would have been the WR1 on the 2022 roster. You are in a LOT better shape when a player like Nelson Agholor gets to operate as a progression read depth guy, rather than as the primary option. Suggesting that this years group is "not any better" than that group is just reactionary nonsense.

Through 3 games, Zay Flowers leads the team with 188 yards receiving. Whilst not "Puka Nacua All Stars" level of production, that's already what one might call "promising for a rookie" - and especially so on a Ravens team that is undergoing an offensive identity shift under Monken.

Believe what you want to believe - but at least do us the common courtesy of backing it up with stats and logic over "vibes based" takes.

[Jigga94]

Zay > Hollywood

[CGW]

He's still waiting for a quality wide receiver.

Paying OBJ a lot of money was a mistake from the day they signed him.
Zay is a rookie who is not JJ or Chase, meaning he's a good prospect, but not someone defenses must scheme against. That means he's not a game changer. He's a good player and a good prospect, but Zay is not a commanding presence on the field game in and game out, yet.
Bateman is ... still Bateman.

The Baltimore fans were sold a bill of WR goods by the Ravens' management, without any actual goods to back it up.

This is extremely overreactionairy.

This Baltimore offense is already the most promising it's been in years, today's bumps notwithstanding. (Despite the fact that they didn't deserve to lose the way they did, the refs decided this game)

I think if you're a Baltimore fan - especially with the Bengals and Steelers both looking extremely shaky - you're pretty happy with the early returns on the Todd Monken era so far. I know I am, as a big Lamar fan.

There's a lot of time left. The ceiling of this thing is just so much higher now than it was under Roman. Give it a minute. Let it breathe.

Relax.

I hope you're right. I'm not a huge Baltimore fan, but they're on my list of teams that I like that aren't the Dolphins. And I'm a huge Lamar fan, so I follow the team closely. I believe in Monken. However, I'm not nearly convinced the WRs as a group are much better than they were last season. I'm not sure they're any better. Hollywood was/is an underrated hi-quality WR. The only WR in Baltimore who has a chance to match or exceed Hollywood is Zay and he's not there yet. I hope he gets there, and I hope OBJ can look like a good WR for at least half the games. If that happens, We'll get a good look at what a Monken-Lamar offense might be capable of.

I want you to be right. I recently got two tickets, second row from the field for the Ravens-Dolphins game in December. It would be great to see a high-scoring back-and-forth game that the Dolphins win.

You must mean 2021, because last year Brown was in Arizona and the leading receiver in Baltimore was DeMarcus Robinson with 458 yards, followed by Devin Duvernay with 407.

The WRs are clearly better this year than last, but I agree it's not some WR group that defenses are going to be scared of. They need OBJ to stay healthy and Bateman to step up.

[CGW]

Zay > Hollywood

I'm one of the biggest Zay fans out there, but Im not sure this is entirely true yet. Zay is more electric with the ball in his hands, but mostly short to intermediate routes. Hollywood is better downfield threat. I'm hopeful Zay can unlock the deep stuff, because it's all he's missing.

[Anteaters]

I hope you're right. I'm not a huge Baltimore fan, but they're on my list of teams that I like that aren't the Dolphins. And I'm a huge Lamar fan, so I follow the team closely. I believe in Monken. However, I'm not nearly convinced the WRs as a group are much better than they were last season. I'm not sure they're any better.

You're out of your mind with that take. Like, all the way cuckoo.

The Ravens leading receivers last season, the year of our lord 2022:

Demarcus Robinson - 17 games - 458 yards
Devin Duvernay - 14 games - 407 yards
Rashod Bateman - 5 games - 285 yards
the 37 Year Old Ghost of Desean Jackson - 7 games - 153 yards

My mistake. I meant the 2023 WRs aren't necessarily much better than the 2021 WRs. I meant to use the last year of Hollywood in Baltimore.
You're absolute correct that the '23 WRs are way better than the '22 WRs.

You must mean 2021, because last year Brown was in Arizona and the leading receiver in Baltimore was DeMarcus Robinson with 458 yards, followed by Devin Duvernay with 407.

The WRs are clearly better this year than last, but I agree it's not some WR group that defenses are going to be scared of. They need OBJ to stay healthy and Bateman to step up.

Yep. I certainly did.

[Prison_Mike]

Also, holy Keenan Allen!

If his production continues, he could become the next Puka!

His early production makes this even funnier - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=238170

(TLDR: Kupp owner put him on the block prior to season and said "Can't afford to not have Kupp for 4 games, looking for a producing veteran WR; Then laughed at me when I offered him Keenan, and said it would be closer if I offered him Waddle).

[Prison_Mike]

I just traded for Mostert on a contender where I am down both JT and Chubb

What did you pay? I bought yesterday on a contender. But it was impulsive and I regret it lol

[Jigga94]

Zay > Hollywood

I'm one of the biggest Zay fans out there, but Im not sure this is entirely true yet. Zay is more electric with the ball in his hands, but mostly short to intermediate routes. Hollywood is better downfield threat. I'm hopeful Zay can unlock the deep stuff, because it's all he's missing.

I think they work down the field similarly, except Zay doesn't stray from contact. He will go up and make tough catches and he also fights for YAC. Hollywood either was wide open, or is on the ground. Hollywood is a solid WR. I think Zay is and will be better