Meanwhile Carlson is probably packing his bags and dusting off his resume. That Vikings-Packers game was a shitshow.
A FUCKING TIE. Another tie and it's only week 2. I mean WTF? They're just boring the entire game down. Whoever called that last regulation TO for the Vikings deserves a fucking raise. Really wanted that one, that'd be 2 divisional wins.
Everyone keeps parroting the "of course" line. The Patriots traded a 5th round pick for a guy who is 5 years removed from his one great season, who has repeatedly failed to get his shit together, and who is a single failed drug or alcohol test away from a permanent suspension. And he'll be a restricted free agent next year so this is just a partial season rental before they have to tender him. And their system is notoriously difficult on wide receivers. They have some faith in their environment to keep him in line, but a 5th round pick is decent draft capital and there's a very good chance that he fails to make an impact. They're taking a shot in the dark. It's not surprising to me that a 5th rounder was the best that Cleveland could do.
He has issues, but looking at the risk/reward I would make that trade all day. This isn't like when the pats got Randy Moss for a 4th, but it's still a steal in my opinion.
Don't overlook that the Pats get back a 7th rounder (or something similar I can't remember off the top of my head) if Gordon isn't active for 10 games. This significantly reduced the downside. The other funny tidbit was the deal was going to be for a 6th round pick but the Pats didn't have one to trade so they upped it to a 5th.
It's a low-to-moderate risk/high reward trade, but the likelihood of it not panning out is high. If it were such a steal, the Browns wouldn't have traded with the Pats because they're all but guaranteed to get a back-of-the-round pick and needed to give back a conditional 7th. A 5th round pick is still a stab at a productive player on a 4 year, cost-controlled contract, and I think a lot of people undervalue that. The Pats are hoping that ~14 games of Gordon is going to pan out better than 64 games of a draft pick. I saw that 5th vs. 6th tidbit too. That speaks a lot to just how risky Gordon is. The best offer they got was a late 5th with a conditional 7th given back. No obvious steal here. This is trading a midround pick for a damaged asset. It could be a steal in retrospect, but his 1600 yard season was a long time ago.
If Hue Jackson doesn't start Baker Mayfield the rest of the season they should immediately fire him. The guy clearly has "it".
We're talking about an organization that kept him on after he followed a 1-15 season up with a 0-16 season. He could come out and say, "based on Mayfield's performance on Thursday it's clear that it's in the best interests of the team to sit him as soon as Taylor's healthy" and still probably not be fired.
What a fucking shitshow. Probably the most indefensable loss by the Vikes in the last 25 years at least. I have no idea what to make of the Vikings right now. The defense hasn't looked good, really, since the 1st half of the divisional game last year against the Saints. Offensively, they've got no running game and the pass protection is wildly erratic. It was trash against the 49ers, pretty good last week against the Packers, and a complete disaster yesterday. Overall they looked completely unprepared and disinterested yesterday, as though they just needed to show up and they'd get a win. Thursday's game against the Rams is going to shed a lot of light on where the Vikings really stand as a team this year.
I was going to post in this thread after the game ended but it's only right now that my massive, Josh Allen-inspired erection has subsided enough to not block my keyboard. The Vikings definitely looked bad. But it's hard to draw a distinction between the QB looking bad because there's dysfunction in the offense, and the QB looking bad because he's been strip-sacked twice, has DEs in his face the whole game, and is currently as nervous as a 14 year old around Kanye.
The new "Rodgers rule" is the dumbest ****ing rule I've ever seen. How the hell are you supposed to prevent having your weight falling on someone when making a full speed tackle? The refs need to quit calling it this season and the owners need to kill it before the start of next season. Sometimes superstars are going to get hurt on a completely legal hit. Get over it.
Clay Matthews has a few choice words for that rule... dude looks like his head is going to explode whenever he tries to do his job.
I mean, I'd count allowing the pressure the Vikings offensive line did in the Bills game as "dysfunction in the offense". Not to take away anything from the Bills defensive line, but the Vikings offensive line was a known weakness coming into the season and it doesn't appear as though much improvement has been made.