“Every series featuring Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze and the Bears starting offense will be Must-See TV, even if there are only a total of three of them. The Bears play two Saturday 1 PM kickoffs, so you can probably catch the Caleb show after your trip to the farmer’s market and be off on your afternoon errands or chores by 1:45 or so”
I can’t tell if you write your column just for me or if the last decade of reading your work has made me like this…
UTEP fan reporting in! Gavin Hardison has a rocket grenade launcher for an arm but is spotty on the short and simple stuff. Regardless, I am very excited to see what he looks like with an actual coach. We do have complaints and concerns about McDaniel, but Dana Dimel at UTEP was the most overmatched and drowning head coach I've ever seen. Called a timeout during almost every fourth and short to think about it. If I had a press pass I would have spent every press conference asking him basic math questions. "Coach, what's six times seven?" "Coach, what's nine times four?"
Oh that's a shame your new to this, the weekly in season was ao good. Sometimes offseason the now deleted Football outsiders Mike archives were so good.
But he never did get into calling a 3 QB contest a menage so this will be the first season without having to stay rated E for everyone.
"A three-way quarterback controversy is like a three-way sexual encounter: inherently more interesting than the traditional arrangement, if messier and much more potentially disastrous."
Tanier, you dog. I'll have to keep my wife safely away from you at the farmer's market.
I'm not ready to move on from Watson. I'm sure he'll get a warm welcome when the Browns play in Philadelphia. SRO tix are already $170, so unless one (or both) teams collapse by then, I'll be calling him a sex offender from my couch.
I kinda don’t get the notion that the Bucs are an aging also-ran: other than Mike Evans & Lavonte David (both still Pro Bowlers), every other player is in their prime or a high draft pick. Weirdly, a lot of them won a Super Bowl.
I know it’s tough to keep track of every team but the Bucs are being comically slept on, again. At the end of last season they killed Green Bay at their house, destroyed the Eagles in the playoffs, & came within one drive or a dropped INT from beating Detroit in Detroit. And they upgraded at Offensive Coordinator(!)
The Aaron Schatz Almanac projections see the Saints as the NFC South team being slept on. For both the Bucs and Saints, it comes down to how many patsies they face and whether all the veterans retain a high level of play for another year, in that order.
I have always enjoyed your column wherever it appeared, but lately what was a mix of analysis and snark has become just too snarky. If there is single observation in this column worth remembering I missed it - Please tell me I am wrong.
So happy Walkthrough is back. The pic of Dresser Winn just made my morning.
Also, I have always been suspicious of Sean Payton; The Lars von trier comparison is spot on. Is he a mystic genius that someone like me can’t possibly understand?? or is he a twisted whackadoodle skilled at confusing tastemakers into believing he’s a mystic genius?
We will all find out together. I feel like he was a pretty good coach who learned at Parcells' feet and then found a Hall of Fame QB, and now has gone Fitzcarolldo.
Payton was the NFC Mike Tomlin. A lot of plaudits, won a lot of games, one consistent QB, and one Super Bowl win to his name with a lot of playoff losses that angered people and fans questioning whether the message got stale after a while.
it is a bad sign when your freshly-drafted QB is already acting like a weird pseudo-diva? Also, re: Dresser Winn, having no ears makes putting on a football helmet much easier.
NIL is still very much a Wild West (not just talking in NCAA rules but also in actual boring IRS stuff) and the “collectives” are usually registered as not for profit entities, so they probably did and whoever ran the “collective” frankly wouldn’t care too much since he’d be gone in a year or two anyways.
So far Williams seems to be a good teammate and the contract negotiation stuff seems separate, but I do find the contract stuff off-putting.
I’ll try not to get too deeply political, but I see a big distinction between supporting players getting a bigger piece of the pie from ownership, and rooting for players to employ the same kind of tax-dodging gimmicks the ownership class uses. IMHO, it’s great that you can make tens of millions of dollars plying your craft but pay your damn taxes.
As far as the franchise tag, I agree that it’s bad for players but it’s collectively bargained. A guy who has yet to play a down in the league trying to make himself more special than the rest of the union (the vast majority of whom won’t earn as much in their careers as he’s getting from his fully-guaranteed rookie contract) rubs me the wrong way.
Wellllllll I didnt look into this, but Caleb LLC certainly could refuse to join, or could quit, the union, right? Would he then be limited by aspects of the CBA that he doesn't like? Let's not pretend this is the first sign of his desire to do things his way in an industry that is team-oriented. Doesn't make him a bad guy, but you must wonder how he can fit into the Mulligan Stew that is an NFL locker room and not stick out like a chrome crowbar. I saw him walking around the Indy combine with his gaggle of friends and relatives when he became the first attendee in history to refuse to even be measured, let alone tak a physical. Don't get me wrong, I wish him well as I do everybody. But his buildup has been daunting in that .....it has raised the bar of success to a ridiculous level. My oldest saying -- so old that it was my statement when AOL launched -- is that disappointment is the difference between expectations and results. Expectations are already just too damn hight to allow a realistic perspective of his results as a rookie.
I have always enjoyed your column wherever it appeared, but lately what was a mix of analysis and snark has become just too snarky. If there is single observation in this column worth remembering I missed it - Please tell me I am wrong.
Your writeups are one of my favorite things about being an NFL fan, Mr Tanier. I became a fan of your writing when it began appearing in the NYT. Cheers.
“Every series featuring Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze and the Bears starting offense will be Must-See TV, even if there are only a total of three of them. The Bears play two Saturday 1 PM kickoffs, so you can probably catch the Caleb show after your trip to the farmer’s market and be off on your afternoon errands or chores by 1:45 or so”
I can’t tell if you write your column just for me or if the last decade of reading your work has made me like this…
Walkthrough, the rock upon which I shall build my Monday mornings. It's back.
UTEP fan reporting in! Gavin Hardison has a rocket grenade launcher for an arm but is spotty on the short and simple stuff. Regardless, I am very excited to see what he looks like with an actual coach. We do have complaints and concerns about McDaniel, but Dana Dimel at UTEP was the most overmatched and drowning head coach I've ever seen. Called a timeout during almost every fourth and short to think about it. If I had a press pass I would have spent every press conference asking him basic math questions. "Coach, what's six times seven?" "Coach, what's nine times four?"
I regret to announce that Gavin Hardison has been waived.
I only noticed because I clicked through the link to see the photo Tanier mentioned and... that's weird, no roster photo :/
Takes a lot of devotion to be a Miners fan. Not a lot of resources and it’s hard to get kids to want to head out to the desert in El Paso.
But the Sun Bowl is a great venue.
Hardison, we hardly knew ye.
I've never read Mike's weekly breakdowns before, so I'm very much looking forward to this.
Welcome aboard!
Oh that's a shame your new to this, the weekly in season was ao good. Sometimes offseason the now deleted Football outsiders Mike archives were so good.
But he never did get into calling a 3 QB contest a menage so this will be the first season without having to stay rated E for everyone.
As an LLC is he insulated from responsibility for mistakes?
"A three-way quarterback controversy is like a three-way sexual encounter: inherently more interesting than the traditional arrangement, if messier and much more potentially disastrous."
Tanier, you dog. I'll have to keep my wife safely away from you at the farmer's market.
I'm not ready to move on from Watson. I'm sure he'll get a warm welcome when the Browns play in Philadelphia. SRO tix are already $170, so unless one (or both) teams collapse by then, I'll be calling him a sex offender from my couch.
Your wife is safe. I can barely handle a one-way sexual encounter these days.
Frank Gore, Jr?! Jesus, a goose just walked over my grave.
I kinda don’t get the notion that the Bucs are an aging also-ran: other than Mike Evans & Lavonte David (both still Pro Bowlers), every other player is in their prime or a high draft pick. Weirdly, a lot of them won a Super Bowl.
I know it’s tough to keep track of every team but the Bucs are being comically slept on, again. At the end of last season they killed Green Bay at their house, destroyed the Eagles in the playoffs, & came within one drive or a dropped INT from beating Detroit in Detroit. And they upgraded at Offensive Coordinator(!)
The Aaron Schatz Almanac projections see the Saints as the NFC South team being slept on. For both the Bucs and Saints, it comes down to how many patsies they face and whether all the veterans retain a high level of play for another year, in that order.
I have always enjoyed your column wherever it appeared, but lately what was a mix of analysis and snark has become just too snarky. If there is single observation in this column worth remembering I missed it - Please tell me I am wrong.
You are wrong
So happy Walkthrough is back. The pic of Dresser Winn just made my morning.
Also, I have always been suspicious of Sean Payton; The Lars von trier comparison is spot on. Is he a mystic genius that someone like me can’t possibly understand?? or is he a twisted whackadoodle skilled at confusing tastemakers into believing he’s a mystic genius?
We will all find out together. I feel like he was a pretty good coach who learned at Parcells' feet and then found a Hall of Fame QB, and now has gone Fitzcarolldo.
I have tried to watch that movie unsuccessfully three times.
Payton was the NFC Mike Tomlin. A lot of plaudits, won a lot of games, one consistent QB, and one Super Bowl win to his name with a lot of playoff losses that angered people and fans questioning whether the message got stale after a while.
I don’t watch pre-season football. I did not need a team-by-team breakdown of WHY I don’t watch pre-season football.
The good thing is that no one is forcing you to read it
My friend, it is time for you to learn about illuminati reptilians.
it is a bad sign when your freshly-drafted QB is already acting like a weird pseudo-diva? Also, re: Dresser Winn, having no ears makes putting on a football helmet much easier.
The NFL has to really get ready for draft picks coming in with a million in NIL money already in the bank.
I am preparing for Shedeur Sanders to kill my interest in football once and for all.
That’s a good point. Do you think he tried this crap with whoever does the NIL stuff?
considering the neither fish nor fowl space most NIL collectives inhabit, he probably borrowed the ideas from them in the first place.
NIL is still very much a Wild West (not just talking in NCAA rules but also in actual boring IRS stuff) and the “collectives” are usually registered as not for profit entities, so they probably did and whoever ran the “collective” frankly wouldn’t care too much since he’d be gone in a year or two anyways.
So far Williams seems to be a good teammate and the contract negotiation stuff seems separate, but I do find the contract stuff off-putting.
I’ll try not to get too deeply political, but I see a big distinction between supporting players getting a bigger piece of the pie from ownership, and rooting for players to employ the same kind of tax-dodging gimmicks the ownership class uses. IMHO, it’s great that you can make tens of millions of dollars plying your craft but pay your damn taxes.
As far as the franchise tag, I agree that it’s bad for players but it’s collectively bargained. A guy who has yet to play a down in the league trying to make himself more special than the rest of the union (the vast majority of whom won’t earn as much in their careers as he’s getting from his fully-guaranteed rookie contract) rubs me the wrong way.
Wellllllll I didnt look into this, but Caleb LLC certainly could refuse to join, or could quit, the union, right? Would he then be limited by aspects of the CBA that he doesn't like? Let's not pretend this is the first sign of his desire to do things his way in an industry that is team-oriented. Doesn't make him a bad guy, but you must wonder how he can fit into the Mulligan Stew that is an NFL locker room and not stick out like a chrome crowbar. I saw him walking around the Indy combine with his gaggle of friends and relatives when he became the first attendee in history to refuse to even be measured, let alone tak a physical. Don't get me wrong, I wish him well as I do everybody. But his buildup has been daunting in that .....it has raised the bar of success to a ridiculous level. My oldest saying -- so old that it was my statement when AOL launched -- is that disappointment is the difference between expectations and results. Expectations are already just too damn hight to allow a realistic perspective of his results as a rookie.
I think your first point is pretty good one.
How do you make preseason previews must-read content? By somehow linking threesomes, Zach Wilson and Lars von Trier, that's how!
I have always enjoyed your column wherever it appeared, but lately what was a mix of analysis and snark has become just too snarky. If there is single observation in this column worth remembering I missed it - Please tell me I am wrong.
You are wrong
Your writeups are one of my favorite things about being an NFL fan, Mr Tanier. I became a fan of your writing when it began appearing in the NYT. Cheers.
The Quintez Cephus joke was worth this month's subscription fee.