Sports

[Spurt]

I need to give a shout out to my hometown guy, Kellen Mond.  He was the QB for Texas A&M and declared for the draft and was the MVP in this Saturday's Senior Bowl!!.....

Quarterbacks don't generally play much more than a quarter in the Senior Bowl, particularly in years where the game carries four passers on each squad. But with three per squad this year, and Alabama's Mac Jones -- -- sitting out due to a left ankle injury suffered in practice on Thursday, Mond got extra playing time and took advantage of it in winning MVP honors.

Mond completed 13 of 25 passes for 173 yards, leading an American squad comeback from a 13-0 deficit to a 16-13 lead with two third-quarter TD passes, prompting NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah to say Mond "is making a little money today," during the broadcast of the game.

🏈🏆👏👏👏 CONGRATS WTG KELLEN!!!

That would be something if he was drafted by my WFT!!!.....😃

[gardenman]

Kellen Mond will be available for the WFT in the draft. He is one of those guys who could go in the second round or possibly not get drafted at all. How he does when talking to teams will likely determine his ultimate draft status. Most teams seem to view him as a developmental/practice squad guy for a few years then moving up to a backup QB role. He could move up quite a bit if a team views him as a starter, but from what I've read, most view his ceiling as a good backup QB.

[teganslaw]

Did Jared Goff lose favor with Sean McVay? Goff didn't play well in the Super Bowl a couple years ago, and lost in the playoffs. I wonder if his disappointing stats in those games was a factor in the trade. 

I read the Rams message boards, and most of the fans aren't happy. They don't dislike Stafford, but think that he isn't worth that much. There were some posts to fire the Rams GM for allowing this. I guess the Rams don't value first rounders much. 

[Spurt]

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@gardenman wrote:

Kellen Mond will be available for the WFT in the draft. He is one of those guys who could go in the second round or possibly not get drafted at all. How he does when talking to teams will likely determine his ultimate draft status. Most teams seem to view him as a developmental/practice squad guy for a few years then moving up to a backup QB role. He could move up quite a bit if a team views him as a starter, but from what I've read, most view his ceiling as a good backup QB.

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@gardenman @teganslaw 

Yep, I was picturing Mond as a backup.....he is a hard worker and could develop into a starter with time and a good QB coach

[gardenman]

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@teganslaw wrote:

Did Jared Goff lose favor with Sean McVay? Goff didn't play well in the Super Bowl a couple years ago, and lost in the playoffs. I wonder if his disappointing stats in those games was a factor in the trade. 

I read the Rams message boards, and most of the fans aren't happy. They don't dislike Stafford, but think that he isn't worth that much. There were some posts to fire the Rams GM for allowing this. I guess the Rams don't value first rounders much. 

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If you go back to that Super Bowl, the Rams o-line couldn't pick up the tackle-end stunts by the Patriots. They just whiffed on them constantly which had pressure in Goff's face on almost every pass. Goff was sacked four times and under constant pressure. The Patriots weren't doing anything fancy, but the Rams o-line just couldn't sort it out. It drove me crazy.

[gardenman]

According to Josina Anderson the WFT had a better offer on the table for Stafford, but the Lions knew Stafford preferred the Rams, and the Lions GM is a former member of the Rams, so they took the Rams' offer instead.

[gardenman]

The word I'm hearing is that the WFT offered their first-round pick and a third-round pick for Stafford. There's also a report that they offered a first and a starter. No word on who the starter was, but likely one of their young defensive ends or defensive tackles. Those are positions of strength on the team with some depth. They could move one and still be okay. 

So, the Rams and likely the Lions are out of the future QB sweepstakes, but that leaves the Colts, Patriots, WFT, Saints, Bears, Broncos, Panthers, Niners, Jets, and Jags still needing QBs. Maybe a few more teams also. Most of those teams were involved in the Stafford sweepstakes. There are four fairly solid first-round picks at QB, then the options fall off. Ten teams (maybe more) needing QB's and four well thought of draftable options leaves six teams hanging. There are going to be some pretty desperate teams as the offseason goes on.

[drizzellla]

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@gardenman wrote:

That's the Philly media for you. They love to destroy coaches, players, whoever. They're part of the reason Doug Pederson is no longer in Philly. Dealing with those jackals multiple times a week would drive anyone nuts. 

Gardenman, could not help posting this.

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer (2/1/2021) top of the Sports page written by Marcus Hayes. These were the headlines to his article.

" First impression hardly impressive"

"New coach Siranni's initial comments bring back to mind two famous characters: Barney Fife and Pinocchio."

[gardenman]

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@drizzellla wrote:

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@gardenman wrote:

That's the Philly media for you. They love to destroy coaches, players, whoever. They're part of the reason Doug Pederson is no longer in Philly. Dealing with those jackals multiple times a week would drive anyone nuts. 

Gardenman, could not help posting this.

Today's Philadelphia Inquirer (2/1/2021) top of the Sports page written by Marcus Hayes. These were the headlines to his article.

" First impression hardly impressive"

"New coach Siranni's initial comments bring back to mind two famous characters: Barney Fife and Pinocchio."

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To say the Philly media is not supportive of the team is a vast understatement. They do everything possible to destroy coaches and players. On the rare occasion someone writes something positive, they're accused of being a "homer" and that's considered the worst thing a sportswriter in Philly can be called. 

Any coach we hire is an idiot. Any player we draft isn't as good as someone we should have drafted. When the team wins a game the mistakes are focused on almost exclusively. Many years ago we traded for a player from the Falcons who was interrogated by the media after they won the first game he played in and after the press wandered off to attack someone else he turned to a guy in an adjacent locker and asked, "We won that game, right?" The other player said, "Yeah, welcome to Negadelphia."

The lack of media support in Philly is legendary. There are cities where the media actually wants the team to win and the players to succeed. Philly isn't one of those cities. The press relationship in Philly is always adversarial. Team owners are always idiots. GMs are always brain-dead dunces. Coaches are never fit for anything but a low-end high school level. And players are always clueless rejects who should've never been drafted. 

If you're a coach, player, or team owner the smartest thing you can do is ignore the media as much as humanly possible. Nick Sirianni is a guy no one says anything negative about so they attack him for being nervous in his press conference and refusing to say who his starting QB will be in September. "He doesn't even know who his starting QB is!" No one does. We've got eight-plus months until anyone will know who the starter is.

Nick's big job right now is assembling a staff and reaching out to the current players to touch base with them. (And there are about 70 players on the roster right now.) His family is moving to Philly and finding a house and schools for their kids. He's got to meet the scouts, office personnel, trainers, team doctors, etc. He's got about a million things on his agenda. Telling the media who his QB will be in September is way, way down the list. Especially since he has no idea who it'll be. It could be Wentz. It could be Hurts. It could be someone else. He doesn't know. No one does. 

Even if Nick had told them, "Wentz is my QB," or "Hurts is my QB" they would have attacked him. "He just gave the job away with no competition? He's clearly not worthy of being a head coach!" If he'd said, "There will be an open competition" they'd have attacked him for that. "He took the job with no clear idea of who his QB will be? What a fool!"

There is no winning for anyone dealing with the Philly sports media. Your best bet is to just ignore them as much as possible.

[Spurt]

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@gardenman wrote:

The word I'm hearing is that the WFT offered their first-round pick and a third-round pick for Stafford. There's also a report that they offered a first and a starter. No word on who the starter was, but likely one of their young defensive ends or defensive tackles. Those are positions of strength on the team with some depth. They could move one and still be okay. 

So, the Rams and likely the Lions are out of the future QB sweepstakes, but that leaves the Colts, Patriots, WFT, Saints, Bears, Broncos, Panthers, Niners, Jets, and Jags still needing QBs. Maybe a few more teams also. Most of those teams were involved in the Stafford sweepstakes. There are four fairly solid first-round picks at QB, then the options fall off. Ten teams (maybe more) needing QB's and four well thought of draftable options leaves six teams hanging. There are going to be some pretty desperate teams as the offseason goes on.

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@gardenman 

WOW!!!  I didn't know my WFT would be such an aggressive player in the Stafford Sweepstakes..... I wonder who the player was they wanted to throw in...perhaps Ryan Kerrigan or Pro Bowler Brandon Scherff whose coming off the franchise tag...

The Rams really wanted to move on from Goff they even talked to Green Bay about an Aaron Rodgers deal---WOW!!!  

Yep it will be interesting to see what happens with the NFL QB Derby....I bet Mariota, Bridgewater, Newton, Carr, Brissett, Jimmy G, Goff, Trub, Foles, Fitzpatrick, and even Winston could end up being grabbed.......and then lets see what happens with Watson......There's been rumors about Wentz too, but it seems he's Lurie's/Howie's "guy".... I cant picture the Eagles letting him go....