The National Football League

Merkin Baller

Poncier said:

Poncier said:

Merkin Baller said:

Mayo to be named successor to Belichick. 

The Krafts have their yes man in place. 

That was pretty fast.
I wonder when they did the requisite Rooney rule interviews.

And just reading apparently they didn't have to:

The Patriots were able to forgo the standard NFL hiring process and immediately hire Mayo because they established a succession plan in the contract extension he signed last offseason, similar to what the Baltimore Ravens did with their general manager position when Eric DeCosta succeeded Ozzie Newsome in 2019

It's being speculated that this was supposed to maybe happen after next year, but the 4-13 season sped that along... not sure how I feel about that after finding out Kraft forced Belichick to take on Bill O'Brien this year. 

Kraft used the word 'collaboration' a bunch yesterday.. tells me him & Jonathan are going to meddle be more involved. 

MayDay10

by all accounts Mayo is a brilliant man.  I'm sure he will get buy-in and respect from his players from day 1.

Its a different beast though becoming a CEO of an NFL football program.  The highs are high, lows are low.  Lots of pressure and a standard of excellence in Boston. 

mrussel1

Poncier said:

F Me In The Brain said:

Poncier said:

F Me In The Brain said:

Predictions for this weekend:
 

Texans shock Browns
 
 

Not sure a home team winning is a "shock" Sure they are a small underdog (2.5), so it's technically an upset, but a shock would be the Steelers winning in Buffalo.

Fair enough.  I don't see anyone picking the Texans but I agree with your assessment.   Steelers would indeed be shocking.

Who do you have?

My thoughts actually line up pretty much with yours. I expect Rams to knock off Detroit and Browns to win in Houston.
Bills, Chiefs and Cowboys to roll. The MNF game is the tricky one. Philly is definitely the superior team, but has been abysmal the last 6 weeks, so I give Tampa a puncher's chance, though I ultimately see Baker trying to do too much late and making the big mistake that thwarts the final drive come back attempt.

Baker needs to practice today.  As mediocre as he is,  they don't have a chance without him.  And he's hobbled either way. 

F Me In The Brain

MayDay10 said:

by all accounts Mayo is a brilliant man.  I'm sure he will get buy-in and respect from his players from day 1.

Its a different beast though becoming a CEO of an NFL football program.  The highs are high, lows are low.  Lots of pressure and a standard of excellence in Boston. 

You are correct. 
However, growing up on New England it still makes me laugh to think back on what it was like when I was a kid.  Boston teams not called the Celtics were total losers.
Pats....bag over head fans.
Red Sox - 1918 chants.
Bruins - was my favorite team.  They sucked. 

Damn if they all haven't won, won, and won since the turn of the century.

MayDay10

F Me In The Brain said:

MayDay10 said:

by all accounts Mayo is a brilliant man.  I'm sure he will get buy-in and respect from his players from day 1.

Its a different beast though becoming a CEO of an NFL football program.  The highs are high, lows are low.  Lots of pressure and a standard of excellence in Boston. 

You are correct. 
However, growing up on New England it still makes me laugh to think back on what it was like when I was a kid.  Boston teams not called the Celtics were total losers.
Pats....bag over head fans.
Red Sox - 1918 chants.
Bruins - was my favorite team.  They sucked. 

Damn if they all haven't won, won, and won since the turn of the century.

Me too.  I remember rooting for the Patriots against the Rams in 2001 for a scrappy team and tortured fans.  Then rooting really hard for the Red Sox in 2003 and 2004 (I lived in Connecticut at the time and all my life any enemy of the Yankees is a friend of mine).  

Then shit started to get old real quick when Brady, Belichick, and the Patriots beat the Bills for like the 20th straight time, the Red Sox werent cute anymore and spending money almost as bad as those pinstripe guys, the Celtics were winning, and the Bruins lept past the Sabres.  

F Me In The Brain

Yep.

I liked Mayo as a player,  hope he does well.  Not Belichick well, but well.

Merkin Baller

MayDay10 said:

by all accounts Mayo is a brilliant man.  I'm sure he will get buy-in and respect from his players from day 1.

Its a different beast though becoming a CEO of an NFL football program.  The highs are high, lows are low.  Lots of pressure and a standard of excellence in Boston. 

Yeah, the locker room shouldn't be an issue for him, at least not right out the gate... but we also know taking over for a legend is always a tough spot. With this fanbase and media, there won't be much margin for error... He's not his predecessor, so he has that going for him w/ the media for now... It will be interesting to see how long that honeymoon lasts (take the under)

I've always liked Mayo, he's just an unproven commodity as a HC - I would be a lot more comfortable w/ Vrabel, or someone else who's had time to cut their teeth in that role elsewhere before taking the role, but c'est la vie. 

Glorified KC

Is hiring an assistant off of a Belichick-staff a good idea?  Nothing against Mayo, but the coaching tree has been pretty rotten.

Poncier

F Me In The Brain said:

Poncier said:

Poncier said:

Merkin Baller said:

Mayo to be named successor to Belichick. 

The Krafts have their yes man in place. 

That was pretty fast.
I wonder when they did the requisite Rooney rule interviews.

And just reading apparently they didn't have to:

The Patriots were able to forgo the standard NFL hiring process and immediately hire Mayo because they established a succession plan in the contract extension he signed last offseason, similar to what the Baltimore Ravens did with their general manager position when Eric DeCosta succeeded Ozzie Newsome in 2019

Wouldn't the interviews be unnecessary given that Mayo is a minority?  (That's the goal of the Rooney Rule, isn't it?  To make sure that people other than fat, old, white dudes get to be coaches?)

Still have to interview minimum 2 minority candidates. But since Mayo was basically already told he had the job after Bill, the Pats were exempt from the interview process.

Merkin Baller

Glorified KC said:

Is hiring an assistant off of a Belichick-staff a good idea?  Nothing against Mayo, but the coaching tree has been pretty rotten.

I like the continuity angle... they had one hell of a defense this year and will want / hope to carry that over into the next year.

MayDay10 hit the nail on the head about Mayo getting respect from the other players... one of my concerns is the change in staff though... gotta think Belichick's sons go with him or at least to a team that didn't fire their father, and Steve Belichick has quietly been building quite the resume. There will be some other coaching changes as well, there always is. 

Johnny Abruzzo

Winners:

• Texans
• Chiefs
• Bills
• Cowboys
• Rams
• Bucs

I feel sad about the Lions losing. I just think they're gonna choke. Also the Flacco thing will come to an end. The Bills will be the only remaining chance at ending the forever Lake Erie Super Bowl jinx.

Glorified KC

Merkin Baller said:

Glorified KC said:

Is hiring an assistant off of a Belichick-staff a good idea?  Nothing against Mayo, but the coaching tree has been pretty rotten.

I like the continuity angle... they had one hell of a defense this year and will want / hope to carry that over into the next year.

MayDay10 hit the nail on the head about Mayo getting respect from the other players... one of my concerns is the change in staff though... gotta think Belichick's sons go with him or at least to a team that didn't fire their father, and Steve Belichick has quietly been building quite the resume. There will be some other coaching changes as well, there always is. 

Sometimes continuity isn’t a good thing.  I guess we’ll see if he tries to be Bellichick or does it a different way.  I think the Bellichick way has grown old on the players.

Merkin Baller

Glorified KC said:

Merkin Baller said:

Glorified KC said:

Is hiring an assistant off of a Belichick-staff a good idea?  Nothing against Mayo, but the coaching tree has been pretty rotten.

I like the continuity angle... they had one hell of a defense this year and will want / hope to carry that over into the next year.

MayDay10 hit the nail on the head about Mayo getting respect from the other players... one of my concerns is the change in staff though... gotta think Belichick's sons go with him or at least to a team that didn't fire their father, and Steve Belichick has quietly been building quite the resume. There will be some other coaching changes as well, there always is. 

Sometimes continuity isn’t a good thing.  I guess we’ll see if he tries to be Bellichick or does it a different way.  I think the Bellichick way has grown old on the players.

I wouldn't be so sure about that... 

Yeah, there are always going to be malcontents like Trent Brown or Danny Amendola, but when you have current players like Jabril Peppers, David Andrews, Matthew Judon. and even Ezekiel Elliot constantly singing his praises, that can't be discounted. No one made those guys say what they did about Belichick... they went out of their way and made a point to go to bat for him. (& was the single biggest reason I wanted BB back for one more year... he may have lost a lot of the fans, but he didn't lose the team / locker room). 

The players who criticize him & his approach are far outnumbered by the ones who praise him... Malcolm Butler, a guy who should have a chip on his shoulder towards BB more than anyone couldn't say enough good things about him on social media yesterday... all of that speaks volumes to me. 

Glorified KC

Merkin Baller said:

Glorified KC said:

Merkin Baller said:

Glorified KC said:

Is hiring an assistant off of a Belichick-staff a good idea?  Nothing against Mayo, but the coaching tree has been pretty rotten.

I like the continuity angle... they had one hell of a defense this year and will want / hope to carry that over into the next year.

MayDay10 hit the nail on the head about Mayo getting respect from the other players... one of my concerns is the change in staff though... gotta think Belichick's sons go with him or at least to a team that didn't fire their father, and Steve Belichick has quietly been building quite the resume. There will be some other coaching changes as well, there always is. 

Sometimes continuity isn’t a good thing.  I guess we’ll see if he tries to be Bellichick or does it a different way.  I think the Bellichick way has grown old on the players.

I wouldn't be so sure about that... 

Yeah, there are always going to be malcontents like Trent Brown or Danny Amendola, but when you have current players like Jabril Peppers, David Andrews, Matthew Judon. and even Ezekiel Elliot constantly singing his praises, that can't be discounted. No one made those guys say what they did about Belichick... they went out of their way and made a point to go to bat for him. (& was the single biggest reason I wanted BB back for one more year... he may have lost a lot of the fans, but he didn't lose the team / locker room). 

The players who criticize him & his approach are far outnumbered by the ones who praise him... Malcolm Butler, a guy who should have a chip on his shoulder towards BB more than anyone couldn't say enough good things about him on social media yesterday... all of that speaks volumes to me. 

It’s not just the players you have on the team, it’s also the free agents you have to lure to want to play there.  I’ll take your word for it though.  I wear Red and Gold glasses so I don’t really know the vibe in Foxboro.

tempo_n_groove

The Juggler said:

I think it's more likely Bill will go to Dallas. If they lose this weekend, I can see them canning McCarthy. He probably wants a team that's close to winning...that is not the Giants. 

No way he could deal w Jones and his medaling.

Merkin Baller

Glorified KC said:

Merkin Baller said:

Glorified KC said:

Merkin Baller said:

Glorified KC said:

Is hiring an assistant off of a Belichick-staff a good idea?  Nothing against Mayo, but the coaching tree has been pretty rotten.

I like the continuity angle... they had one hell of a defense this year and will want / hope to carry that over into the next year.

MayDay10 hit the nail on the head about Mayo getting respect from the other players... one of my concerns is the change in staff though... gotta think Belichick's sons go with him or at least to a team that didn't fire their father, and Steve Belichick has quietly been building quite the resume. There will be some other coaching changes as well, there always is. 

Sometimes continuity isn’t a good thing.  I guess we’ll see if he tries to be Bellichick or does it a different way.  I think the Bellichick way has grown old on the players.

I wouldn't be so sure about that... 

Yeah, there are always going to be malcontents like Trent Brown or Danny Amendola, but when you have current players like Jabril Peppers, David Andrews, Matthew Judon. and even Ezekiel Elliot constantly singing his praises, that can't be discounted. No one made those guys say what they did about Belichick... they went out of their way and made a point to go to bat for him. (& was the single biggest reason I wanted BB back for one more year... he may have lost a lot of the fans, but he didn't lose the team / locker room). 

The players who criticize him & his approach are far outnumbered by the ones who praise him... Malcolm Butler, a guy who should have a chip on his shoulder towards BB more than anyone couldn't say enough good things about him on social media yesterday... all of that speaks volumes to me. 

It’s not just the players you have on the team, it’s also the free agents you have to lure to want to play there.  I’ll take your word for it though.  I wear Red and Gold glasses so I don’t really know the vibe in Foxboro.

3 of the names I mentioned, Judon, Peppers & Elliot all signed as veteran FAs & they've all gone overboard talking about what playing for him means to them. 

The first two have emerged as locker room leaders too... If such high praise from FA signings doesn't draw the interest of future free agents, what would? 

The Juggler

tempo_n_groove said:

The Juggler said:

I think it's more likely Bill will go to Dallas. If they lose this weekend, I can see them canning McCarthy. He probably wants a team that's close to winning...that is not the Giants. 

No way he could deal w Jones and his medaling.

Yes way
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/a-jerry-jones-bill-belichick-partnership-isnt-as-crazy-as-it-sounds

CROJAM95

Browns
Chiefs
Bills
Cowboys
Lions
Eagles

Ledbetterman10

CROJAM95 said:

Browns
Chiefs
Bills
Cowboys
Lions
Eagles

So, the favorite in every game huh? 

CROJAM95

Ledbetterman10 said:

CROJAM95 said:

Browns
Chiefs
Bills
Cowboys
Lions
Eagles

So, the favorite in every game huh? 

sure why not....

I think close ones will be Texans, Dolphins, Bucs, Rams

think Bills, Cowboys will win by decent margin