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2020 NFL Regular Season Thread

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Sebastian said:
How is he marginally better? His floor nearly represents Baker's best year.

I don't get this argument.

The argument basically boils down to either the Browns must have a HoF caliber QB, or there is no point in moving on from Baker, who is consistently in the bottom third of QBs in the NFL. This is a sunk-cost fallacy as well as a gamblers mentality, passing up what amounts to a sure thing, a consistent baseline of higher level play, for the possibility that their 3rd Year QB might play as well as he did in his rookie year by his 4th Year.

Baker's rookie year, for which he was properly regarded as about the best rookie QB ever, was about a below average season for Stafford. And Stafford usually has to play with a team even worse than the 2018 Browns (The Lions D has ranked in the top half of the NFL once in the past five years, their O-Line is the same story).

People here have repeatedly said that if Baker Mayfield played as well as his rookie year for the rest of his career that the Browns would be a perennial playoff team. And they would, because he had a solid performance with a 2:1 TD/INT ratio, with the turnovers actually being less if one takes out that one bad game. Baker was good.

The issue here is that Stafford plays at that level, or better, every year. Meanwhile, the Browns have spent two years now hoping that Mayfield will get back to that level; something that is not guaranteed at all.

Why should the Browns be content with starting a QB that might be as good as Matt Stafford at his worst, when one can simply have the baseline play Stafford offers, or better, and greatly increase the Browns' chances of making the playoffs every year?

Moreover, Stafford has never had a line as good as the Browns' current O-Line, nor nothing near the running game. There is every reason to think that with a competent head coach, and an offense as loaded with talent as the Browns, that Stafford would significantly improve; akin to his best years in Detroit which were high-end, Pro-Bowl performances.

People have been making the mistake of comparing the two in uneven terms: Bakers best vs. Stafford's worst. Not only is that a rather unfair comparison, but it actually only proves the point. Comparison has to be done by the mean, the average of Baker's performances vs. the same for Stafford's. At that the numbers tell the same story: Stafford has consistently performed at a level that represents Mayfield's best, at worst, and well over-performed Baker at best. Stafford's mean would significantly improve the Browns' level of QB play and result in a much more balanced and lethal offense.

If Mayfield's best is Stafford's floor then how would Stafford only be a marginal improvement?

And cost is not a consideration moving forward, after next season, even if Baker continues to be merely a game-manager, he is going to command near Stafford salary. Finally, the Browns window with this team is the next 2-3 years or so before they may have to reload. How many more seasons can they wait for Baker to be more than a game-manager? And if, a big if, Stafford becomes available, how often does a chance to grab a above average QB, sometime Pro-Bowler, occur?
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Stafford will turn 33 on this coming Super Bowl Sunday. His current floor likely has nowhere to go but down.
 
If this doesn't get a forfeit, then nothing does. At this point, there's gonna be more unsafety in trying to make this up in the schedule than there is from Covid for the players. This is clearly gonna have a massive ripple effect leading to a bunch of short-week games.

Make them forfeit. Stop jumbling the schedule around.

I understand we generally don't want to be in the business of blaming anyone for getting a disease/virus. But this is a case where someone on their staff clearly didn't abide by the guidelines as set forth.

Steelers should say fuck this and refuse to take the field and claim player safety is being violated.

Why weren't the Broncos afforded an opportunity to move their game? This is insane.
 
Steelers players just need to tell the league they don't feel comfortable from a safety perspective and that they won't be playing. The end. Force the leagues hand.

The NFL is going out of their way to protect a single team and is going to fuck with everyone else's schedule. Steelers can end it right here
 
A guy employed by the team did the number 1 thing you can't do. He was sick, he knew he was sick, and he came into work anyway and didn't tell anyone. That has now resulted in a game being moved from Thursday night all the way to the following Wednesday and something like 25 players being placed on the Covid list.

The rules mean nothing at all if they aren't forced to forfeit this game.
 
The Ravens are in a dogfight for the wildcard.

If the NFL doesn't punish them, what stops them from just adding more and more players, via contact tracing, to the Covid list until the NFL moves the game around enough for Lamar to be back?

These aren't college players not being paid to play. These are pros making a ton of money. And a team making a ton of money. If they can't follow the rules they collectively agreed to, then punish them. Fucking silly.
 
Will Fuller and his breakout year are over. 6 game PED suspension.
 
Man Called X said:
Will Fuller and his breakout year are over. 6 game PED suspension.
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Schefter was just on NFL Monday Countdown and was pretty harsh when he said something like "The NFL wants these games played and revenue collected on time no matter what is going on in the world. If they havent made that clear to you people out there by now, the handling of the Ravens/Steelers game should."
 
I wonder if they will now have to push the Steelers and Ravens games next week to Monday. Playing Wednesday is a short turn to Sunday. Even know I hate the Steelers sort of screws them to have to play Wed then Sunday. For Baltimore fuck them.
 
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