NFLRT 5/17/2024

The questions and discussion…

1) Last week NFL commissioner Roger Goodell admitted the league may look to expand to an 18-game regular season. 

What is your opinion regarding the NFL playing an 18-game schedule? Why? 

I think the NFL should’ve skipped the 17-game schedule and switched it from 16 to 18 games from the start. It’s an even number, which still allows teams to finish at an even .500 record, and it only extends the season by a week. I don’t think teams should get two byes, either, but keep them between an 8-week period in the middle of the season with four teams off each week. There’s more football played, more meaningful football for a longer period of time.

Cut the pre-season down to two games. We don’t need three or four games in the pre-season, especially with starters not playing much anyway. Give them two games, let the starters get some reps in there with their new teammates and new coaching staff, and let the rookies and low-roster guys compete for the remaining spots and call it a day.

More football games is more enjoyable for the fans, fair to the teams and players and brings in a lot more revenue. I’m all in favor of an 18-game season. I wouldn’t go higher than 18, and I’m definitely not a fan of retracting back to 16. Keep it 18. Nice, easy, clean number. 

At some point in the future the NFL is going to roll out an 18-game regular season. The owners have profited wildly each time the NFL expanded its regular season schedule and going to18 games is essentially a done deal.

Now once the league has it confirmed that it is going to an 18-game slate the first thing it needs to do is provide the players… the reason why we fans tune in to the games to begin with… the ability to stay somewhat fresh and are able to refresh during the season… meaning adding an extra bye week is essential.  I propose there be a seven-week stretch between each bye week, beginning in Weeks 5, 6, 7, or 8 of what would become a 20-week regular season. This way every team either starts the year with at least four games before their first break or ends it with four or more games to play.

With the idea of a 20-week regular season, the question becomes where can the extra weeks be found?

The NFL has already cut the preseason down to three games from four. Reducing it further to two games from three would be fine. That still allows plenty of time for teams to figure out their starting lineups (if they choose to do so at all) and evaluate players on the fringe in different situations. Simply put if these pre-season games were just all about the evaluation opportunities of the personnel and/or figuring out potential lineups then the NFL could just cancel the pre-season games entirely and just go to a program of inter-squad scrimmages which would be organized by both teams’ coaching staffs. The pre-seson games are more about adding extra revenue to the owners coffers than anything else.

However, by eliminating the third preseason game and moving Week 1 of the regular season up a week up while adding a second bye week and another regular season game that lays out a scenario where the league could play the Super Bowl around Presidents’ Day.

If we schedule the Super Bowl to be played every year the Sunday before Presidents day then that gives we the fans that Monday to recover from the festivities during what’s already an unofficial, official national holiday.

Personally I wasn’t all aboard for the NFL expanding the season to 17 games and have my misgivings about doing it all over again to get to the 18 games but it’s obviously going to get done one way or the other and most likely a lot sooner than later so I think my ideas above are probably the best way to go about it.

2) Last season the Dallas Cowboys placed first in the NFC East. The last repeat champion in the East were the 2003-04 Philadelphia Eagles.   

Will the Cowboys be the first repeat champion in the NFC East since the 2003-04 Philadelphia Eagles accomplished the feat? Why or why not? 

No, Dallas will not repeat as NFC East champions this season.

While the Eagles did lose Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox this off-season due to retirement, the Eagles are still a top team with a very dangerous offense. Even with a new center running the offensive line including a new lead voice in the locker room, I don’t see the tush push being stoppable again this season either with Jalen Hurts a plus having a very strong Saquon Barkley added to their backfield mix.

They drafted two very good corners in Nate Wiggins and Cooper DeJean, who is a flexible option in the secondary who can float to nickel or safety as well as return kicks and play corner. While he does struggle in man and press coverage, but he excels greatly in zone and soft coverage with a great eye for the football.

The Eagles are primed to be atop the NFC East again this season, and they’ll re-take the crown after a one-year hiatus from it.   

Nope the Cowboys will not repeat in the NFC East.

And the biggest reason why they won’t is because of the schedule that the Eagles get to play in the upcoming season.

After a terrible finish to their season when they went a sad 1-6 to end it and then getting dumped from the playoffs in the Wild Game, the Eagles need to turn the page quickly. And the 2024/2025 schedule gives them a chance to do it.

After what could be a tough but winnable opener in Brazil against the Packers, they have much easier games against the Falcons and Saints with their toughest road game in the first seven games being at Tampa. The Eagles aren’t surefire locks to win all these games but none of their opponents are what could be called top-tier teams, thereby giving the Eagles a real chance to open strong. Plus, by not having not to play the most difficult possible schedule early on, it gives the team… the players… a chance to get used to their new offensive coordinator… Kellen Moore… as well as figure out the best ways to use their new weapon on offense in Saquon Barkley.

Then after what will arguably be their toughest part of their schedule they get to close out their season with the Panthers, Commanders and Giants in their final five games, making it very probable they won’t screw the pooch again like they did last season when they ended with that disastrous 1-6 record.

I say the Eagles go 12-5 and take the NFC East in the new season. 

3) Which non-first round draft pick on offense is your favorite to be a starter on an NFL team in the 2024/25 season? Why?   

There are a ton of second round picks that I think could be starters this season for NFL teams, and wide receivers are always tough to say “starter” because they could have four wide receivers to start out the game on the first play, or they could have one wide receiver run out there. But I guess you could classify the top three as “starters” for wide receivers depending on offensive format.

However I’m going to go with a late-round draft pick of the Green Bay Packers who I think is a very flexible interior offensive lineman who should be starting week 1 in Jacob Monk. They could use him at guard or center, which offers him versatility on their offensive line with the moving around of players they’ll have to do after drafting Jordan Morgan in round one. Monk is a very good blocker with great hands in both the run and pass game, can play multiple positions on the offensive line and learns very quickly. I think he’ll come in and learn the offense well and mesh super well with the offense and give security and assurance to Jordan Love that he’s well protected.  

Wide receiver Ladd McConkey went to the Chargers in the second round of the draft and simply landed in a great spot given the thin receiver depth chart for the team.

McConkey will most likely be inserted into wide receiver rotation right away in an offense with an excellent quarterback in Justin Herbert and due to his elite route running Herbert will be targeting McConkey with plenty of pass reception opportunities.

With that in mind I see McConkey either leading or being in the top three of all rookies in receptions for the 2024/2025 season. 

4) Which non-first round draft pick on defense is your favorite to be a starter on an NFL team in the 2024/25 season? Why?  

Again, the second round was loaded with players who I think are starters, so I’ll skip that round and go deeper.

Calen Bullock, safety out of USC, for the Houston Texans could start almost immediately. He was one of the USC’s lone bright spots on their defense last season with excellent coverage and ball hawking skills, can float around, tackle in space, and run a secondary from a position that makes sure you’re extremely flexible.

DeMeco Ryans showed how excellent his defense performs for him after his first year as a head coach last season getting top performances out of players who weren’t big money guys or players who were rebounding and trying to earn big paydays after the season playing on one-year deals.

The other player, who had a fantastic combine and should be a starter in Pittsburgh, is Payton Wilson, linebacker out of NC State. He was very good for NC State last season running the defense. He can blitz from the edge or come up the middle. He can stop the run. He also can cover bigger tight ends, running backs coming from the backfield and wide receivers in slant routes or crossers over the middle. He had an outstanding combine, with a 4.43 40-yard dash, 9 feet, 11 inch broad jump and a 34.5 inch vertical including having outstanding drill work as well that had him rising up boards quickly until draft night. I think he’s a Day 1 starter.  

CB Enniss Rakestraw Jr. was drafted by the Lions in round 2.  

Rakestraw style of play matches up well with Lions head coach Dan Campbell’s desired defensive strategy.

While Rakestraw is a tad on the small size at 5-feet, 11 inches and 183 pounds, he is makes up for by being aggressive with and using his 32-inch arms to get physical in press man coverage and jam receivers off the line of scrimmage.

Rakestraw has a great shot at being a starter in the Lions’ defense by at least mid-season if not earlier.  

5) The New England Patriots selected North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye with the No. 3 overall pick in this year’s draft. Yet in the sixth round of the draft the Patriots they also selected University of Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton III. Presently the Patriots now have four QBs on the roster in Maye, Jacoby Brissett, Bailey Zappe and Milton.  

What is your take on why the Patriots selected another QB in this year’s draft? 

New England drafted two quarterbacks because they struggled mightily last season at quarterback, switching back and forth between Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe. With a new coaching staff, new general manager and a whole change of scenery from the long-tenured Bill Belichick, the Patriots want to be in the best position they can be moving forward. Having good depth at quarterback is going to be key.

I think they’ll end up keeping three quarterbacks on the roster for the early start of the season and move one to the practice squad, which is going to come down to Zappe or Milton. After moving on from Mac Jones via trade to the Jacksonville Jaguars, I think the Patriots aren’t going to keep Bailey Zappe around for a long time. He might actually get cut in training camp if he doesn’t outperform Milton. But this was really a depth add on a quality quarterback.

They only have Brissett for one season, which should provide Drake Maye some back-up and guidance along his path as well as training opportunities for getting Milton assimilated to back-up quarterback duties for the next several seasons. This is going to be a whole revamped quarterback room for the Patriots, and they drafted right by getting two quarterbacks out of the draft to establish a new regime, offense and team.  

While it’s no lock Milton will be on the roster for the upcoming season by drafting him it does make me think that Zappe’s position on the team may be tenuous at best and/or he could be part of a trade down the road. Why else would the Pats take Milton if they didn’t think he was worth stashing on their roster when they supposedly had already had their future QB in Maye?

That is unless the Patriots decide to carry four QBs which as far as I know they haven’t done since 2000 when they carried four QBs in Drew Bledsoe, John Friesz, Michael Bishop and some guy named Tom Brady who was the 199^th pick in the sixth round of the draft that year.

I’m not even going to speculate about Milton’s career approaching anything near what Brady did in his Hall of Fame career… After all what are the chances the Patriots catch lighting in a bottle with a sixth round draft pick on a QB and find a long term solution for their future franchise QB?

Worth keeping an eye on though if in fact he does stick with the team.