2025-2026 NFL Thread

[Madhatter32]

Drake Maye is turning out to be a better QB than Tom Brady. That can only propel the New England Patriots to new heights that we've not seen before for this wonderful franchise.

The stats are very similar though their first 18 games but Brady performed at an elite level for 23 years with 7 super bowls. So while I am hopeful, Drake has a long long way to go.

 

[Non-Euclidean]

Does Vrabel count?

I was wondering the same. Spiritually, probably, but technically, no. He started coaching with the Texans before jumping to the Titans.

 

[Non-Euclidean]

The stats are very similar though their first 18 games but Brady performed at an elite level for 23 years with 7 super bowls. So while I am hopeful, Drake has a long long way to go.

Brady didn’t perform at an elite level for 23 years. That’s fan boy revisionist history. He was a low risk game manager for the beginning of his career and through at least a couple SBs his contribution was not screwing up and getting the team into FG range at the end of the game.

 

[Madhatter32]

Brady didn’t perform at an elite level for 23 years. That’s fan boy revisionist history. He was a low risk game manager for the beginning of his career and through at least a couple SBs his contribution was not screwing up and getting the team into FG range at the end of the game.

I am a fan boy i suppose but I do not disagree -- Brady was not "elite" coming into the league although he progressed into that category eventually. So, Maye is not "elite" either. My main contention was that Maye and Brady are equal thus far in their respective careers but Maye has a very long way to go to stay comparable to Brady, who progressed from highly consistent to elite.

 

[Corefile]

The stats are very similar though their first 18 games but Brady performed at an elite level for 23 years with 7 super bowls. So while I am hopeful, Drake has a long long way to go.

There's a lot of nostalgia amongst NFL fans for the BillB-Brady days that folks are hoping Vrabel-The Drake can recreate. Certainly, long suffering Pats fans deserve a break.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

A lot of Bill's coaches have been fails, but they still made it to other teams and coaching opportunities. Mostly because other teams were desperate and hoped some magic had rubbed off on them. In retrospect a lot of them haven't been regarded as good hires and weren't necessarily at the time.

Dungy was a coach in Minnesota, then Pittsburgh from 1982-1988, before 3 years with KC under Marty (89-91), which was followed by 4 years in Minnesota under Dennis Green (92-95). So no, I wouldn't consider him a protege of Marty. Dungy came into the league with an incredible knowledge of the game, something commented on by HoF Steelers in the America's Game episoded for the 78 season.

Interesting fact: Dungy is the most recent NFL player to intercept a pass and throw an interception in the same game. Dungy was the emergency quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 1977 game against the Houston Oilers when both Terry Bradshaw and Mike Kruczek went down with injuries on October 9.[5][6][7]

Bruce Arians coached in college for 13 years before he worked for Marty.

I also wonder if Bill's disciples don't succeed as much (Josh McDaniels as an O-coordinator the exception), because Bill is so hands on with the Defense.

Herm "You play to win the game" Edwards I mostly regard as an idiot.

Interesting fact: As a player, Edwards is known for scoring the game-winning touchdown off a fumble recovery in 1978's Miracle at the Meadowlands

The Miracle at the Meadowlands was a fumble recovery by cornerback Herman Edwards of the Philadelphia Eagles that he returned for a touchdown at the end of a November 19, 1978, National Football League (NFL) game against the New York Giants in Giants Stadium. After quarterback Joe Pisarcik botched an attempt to hand off the football to fullback Larry Csonka, Edwards picked up the dropped ball and ran 26 yards for the winning touchdown. It is considered miraculous because the Giants were ahead 17–12 and could easily have run out the final seconds since they had the ball and the Eagles had no timeouts left.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_at_the_Meadowlands

Don’t equivocate, it’s a bad take. We need to judge coaches by their OWN win-loss record and number of Super Bowl wins. Not what their people did. That’s a different argument. Heck by that argument Bill Parcells would be the best anyway because he gets to claim Bill Belichick.

 

[maflynn]

Does Vrabel count?

He was never a coach under BB

 

[pachyderm]

I didn't watch the game, and I woke up to espn detailing a benches clearing hit on Dart. After watching the highlight, I'm like is that it? A clean hit below the head while he was still inbounds and running. This hit was nothing like what we used to see before they put dresses on the quarterbacks*

*if you get the reference it was from Jack Lambert in a 1979 interview.

I bet he'd have a different attitude if he had to play QB... especially back then.

 

[pachyderm]

There's a lot of nostalgia amongst NFL fans for the BillB-Brady days that folks are hoping Vrabel-The Drake can recreate. Certainly, long suffering Pats fans deserve a break.

"long suffering" tee hee hee ...

 

[Macky-Mac]

The whispers have turned into fans chanting, and others talking - Time for Mike Tomlin to go.
The latest person to say its time for Tomlin to go is Big Ben, which is a bit shocking.

His record is such that he largely wins 10+ games per season, which is pretty good but they've not won 2 playoff games in 10 years and did not get to the AFC championship game since 2010. One could make the argument the 2008 superbowl win was largely with Bill Cowher's team

Because they get into the wildcard or division playoff but then lose that game, their draft spot is rather low. The team has never gone through a rebuild and it shows. They keep patching the cracks, do just good enough to make the playoff and lose that first game.

And if they get rid of Tomlin, then what? I suspect they'll spend a long stretch with producing the kind of season record that the once mighty Raiders now "enjoy"

 

[maflynn]

And if they get rid of Tomlin, then what? I suspect they'll spend a long stretch with producing the kind of season record that the once mighty Raiders now "enjoy"

Yeah, that's been the argument for keeping him, for years, who else are you going to get. Again I don't see him being a bad coach, but as Bill Parcells once said, you're only as good as your record, and his post season record is horrible

 

[Non-Euclidean]

And if they get rid of Tomlin, then what? I suspect they'll spend a long stretch with producing the kind of season record that the once mighty Raiders now "enjoy"

I don't. That hasn't happened historically to the Steelers. There is no reason for bedwetting to commence if Tomlin leaves. But that is a standard response: "Oh yeah, well who is going to replace him, how do you know they won't be worse?" At this point my answer is anyone who is semi competent.

The fact is, Tomlin isn't going to get any better and the results aren't going to change. Its been that way for over a decade. The Steelers aren't run as poorly as other organizations (Browns/Titans/Raiders/etc.) and have always been solid or better drafters. Any semi-decent coach is going to have a good support system around him and non-knee jerk management. A lot of the issues you see with bottom dwellers are related to bad drafting decisions and coaching-GM pairs that are treated hands off by the ownership. Or impatient ownership that don't allow enough time for a coach to turn things around. Or teams that totally mortgage their future and it doesn't pay off. That isn't the Rooney way. The coach has no input on the GM. The GM and the coach (and others) have input on the draft.