NFL pre-season and news thread

Think Cleveland's making the right move and going with what gives them the best chance to be successful. Hoyer's a better choice than Manziel at this point.

 

Wonder if Josh Gordon is thinking, "I could use a year away from this shit."

 

Shuler was before my time as a NFL writer, so I don't remember why he sucked, but I was surprised when so many scouts listed him as the QB bust that surprised them the most. I got the sense that he was one of those guys who had everything going for him talentwise, was coachable, went to a decent situation, and had a good head on his shoulders, who for whatever reason, couldn't get it done in the NFL.

There are a lot of guys who have crazy talent, but aren't equipped to deal with the pressures of the NFL.

There aren't too many guys in the NFL who came in as "can't miss prospects" One could argue that Manning and Luck were the only ones. A pretty good case could be made for Eli Manning and Phillip Rivers, maybe RG3 even though they've struggled at times. Almost everybody else had questions about them whether it was size (Brees), mechanics (Rodgers), attitude (Newton), came from a small school (Roethlisberger), injury risk (Bradford).

 

Rodgers' mechanics were an issue?

He's certainly corrected any problems. Best pure passer in the game.

 

I think in many cases it's not that the guy didn't try like hell to make it work, but his talent level did not surmount that of the competition.
Or he simply got imported into an environment that was destructive.
Viz, what would have happened to Elway if he'd decided playing for the Colts wasn't a career-killer.

 

I remember Mel Kiper saying that Andre Ware was probably the biggest surprise "bust" he's ever evaluated. Guy had all the measurables, intelligence and arm strength, plus was going to a similar (if not identical) offense to the one he played in in college. But he flopped big-time.

 

Yeah, surprisingly, they were. He had a bad habit of holding the ball low when he took the snap that caused some teams to freak out. It was coached out of him very quickly.

 

Rodgers was also not helped that every QB his college coach had mentored was somewhere between a disappointment (Dilfer) and a bust (Boller, Akili Smith). I think Joey Harrington was on that list as well.

 

It wasn't going to matter who started for the Browns, because the offense was gonna suck without Josh Gordon in the lineup.

Of course, that means Manziel fanboys will have a built-in excuse if he gets the start and Gordon is still serving his suspension at the time.

 

Yep, Jeff Tedford was OC at both Fresno State and Oregon before becoming head coach at Cal. He also coached David Carr.

 

Mike Carey hasn't refereed a Redskins game since 2006, at his own request:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/mike-carey-longtime-nfl-referee-avoided-washingtons-games-because-of-the-name/2014/08/20/d6dae602-27b2-11e4-86ca-6f03cbd15c1a_story.html

 

Re Manziel: Starting the veteran QB over the rookie is the percentage play for the coach, as it's infinitely easier to replace the vet with the rookie in case (or in Cleveland's case, when) the offense goes south than it is to do the opposite.