West Ham Online

"Free agency started last night and was pretty crazy some huge money being spent. Osweiler getting £18m a year for the Texans, leaving the Broncos without a QB, Giants have spent a fortune on good but not great players, Oliver Vernon has more guaranteed money than JJ Watt. lots more deals but cant be bothered to list them all."

"What you have there is about as complete a whuppin' as you are ever gonna see. Brady may still have a cannon but get in his face a little and the cannon can't hit the broad side of a barn. More seriously, almost perfect game for anyone not named Jared Cook on the Saints. Still will not want to see them in the playoffs."

Nice rude awakening for Brady.

Proper shoot out between the mighty Fins and the Cards...very enjoyable game at the mo.

Hahaha steelers completely shitting the bed against this awful cowboys team

"jay gruden was one of the worst play callers I've seen but this cսnt scott turner makes him look like bill walsh/joe gibbs. yet more nepotism will continue to fuck us, that and the poison cսnt snyder owning us"

"Alex Smith, you cheer for him (and Rivera) but loves an interception. Looks likes this poised veteran until he doesn't. Have both the Washington D and Gibson, so he is frustrating."

"some players stand out immediately. from the college film, to his polite manner on the phone call before being drafted and his play in the first eighteen months as a pro. terry mclaurin takes me back to the days of art monk, he has similar class"

Jamal Adams is an absolute beast. Be ridiculous if we lose a game where we've sacked 7 times so far

Good luck to Alex Smith - amazing he made it back on the pitch at all.

Don't think he is going to make up for David Johnson going out with concussion on the first drive on my fantasy team though.

"Cook is good, he opens up the old play action"

Kyle Allen of the Washington.... has just suffered a terrible looking leg injury. The huge weirdness is that it looks like Alex Smith is going to replace him. Something good coming out of something terrible. Looks very grim for Allen. Broken leg at the very least.

Dalvin Cook has started where he left off last week.

"Definitely - those of us who witnessed Vick at other teams will probably feel very differently! He was incredible during that Championship game season, though. What he was doing was so new to most defenses/coaches that he ran amok. His speed was incredible - and the speed of his decision-making."

I guess I should say with the Falcons.

"Michael Vick was pretty unstoppable for that season they went to the NFC Championship game. With not a lot of help on offence and a below average defence beyond Brooking at linebacker and maybe a cornerback. But that was very early, I believe and defences figured things out (except the Saints of course) and they didn't go to the dance again under him. Pretty sure. Anyway fastest quarterback then for sure and still holds some 40 records. But no arm like Mahomes, Jackson and Murray."

"Agree with you about Jackson, too. He one of the better read-option players, because he has an average arm. But he doesn't have a good or great arm and he's clearly not comfortable in the pocket. He seems to throw better on the move. You can constrict the field when he steps back, which means good defenses will always get on top of him. He's talented - and the best at what he does. He'll always put up good running numbers providing he stays fit. But what he does is limited."

"Scorch, Totally agree, mate. It was interesting how some really limited read-option QBs, like Tebow and Griffin, made such big headlines when they entered the NFL - and yet achieved so very little. Those who had a decent arm, like Wilson and Newton, made the transition. But most of them fell by the wayside - often quite quickly. It's amazing how quickly defensive coaches adjust to these things. Somebody, Saban I think, worked out that you just send two defenders straight at the read-option 'mesh': one to take out the running back and one to take out the QB. If you hit the QB when he doesn't have the ball, it's not a problem, because there's not going to be a 'roughing' call on most read-option situations. End of fad. Seattle and Baltimore still run a few read-option plays per game, as do the Patsies with Newton. But nowhere near as many as you would find six or so years ago."

"It is/was a very interesting fad. Once defences caught on it really nullified things. I think because most running QBs are not the best pure passers, they can take the risk knowing they probably won't get gashed with deep passes too often. In addition, running should really just be a last resort rather than a regular option. Leads to injuries and also predictability. Dare I say it but I think Lamar Jackson is a little overrated/one trick pony. Great runner with good arm strength but not a great passer. A good defence will always beat a QB who isn't a great passer because they make him one dimensional. A pure drop back passing QB (if they can run a little and are good with play action then it's a bonus) will always be the best solution to keep defences guessing constantly."

"I wasn't aware of this until last night, but incredibly, Vince Young's agent destroyed his career over the read-option dilemma at the Titans. The agent demanded that the coaches ran fewer read-option plays because he feared that Young would get busted up in the NFL (he ran a spread/read-option offence at college, where linebackers are a lot smaller). But the read-option was the reason the Titans drafted Young. He didn't have the arm to play as a pocket QB and he spent a couple of seasons trying to learn how to do it - to no avail. So his stellar-looking career faded away within three seasons of NFL football. I get the agent's concerns, but why the hell was a players' agent even trying to dictate to coaches and GMs about tactics and formations?! Besides, it backfired. The agent believed Young was talented that he'd just learn how to play as drop-back passer. He never could learn the role - and his career divebombed. Same with Tebow."

San Francisco 29ers. How many were out with COVID-19.? Nice to see the NFL looking after their employees.

"Had a bit of spare time, for the first time in a while, last night - ended up reading quite a bit about the rise and fall of the 'read-option' offense. It was heavily in vogue around 2011/12, wasn't it? Started with the Titans drafting Vince Young in the mid-2000s and then gradually escalated to its peak with Kaepernick/Newton. But then defensive coaches got wise to it - and just sent out linebackers (hiding behind the defensive end) to crash the QB because there is no roughing the passer rule on read-option plays. So we ended up with lots of QB injuries (Griffin etc) and people like Kap and Newton had to start using their arms a bit more. Some thrived if they had decent arms (like Newton initially, and Wilson) and others faded away, like Kap, Griffin, Young, Tebow etc. It was entertaining reading about the defensive coaches and how they formed a bit of an informal union to try to work out how to deal with read-option. Belichick called Nick Saban at Alabama the day after the Fins lined-up with a wildcat/read-option formation agains the Patsies. Within a year, ruthless NFL coaches just went out to crush QBs who were good with their feet. A few survived, like Wilson, but because they still had good arms."

Poor Rams are just wank even with a fit team :o) Nice having such an open tournament.

Looking forward (with the slightest bit of pessimism) to Bucs/Saints. Bucs shown themselves to be a better team so far. Very good defense. Though Brees' quick release and mid range throws mitigate some of their biggest strengths. Those receivers against the often tire fire of the Saints secondary could be ugly. The pass rush will be key again and Saints were missing Davenport the first time. Changes the game if you can't always double Jordan. Shame it is 1:30 in the morning or something like that.

Grumpster 12:17 Fri Nov 6 Re: NFL (since 2016) Nothing pleases me more.