Stuff this post is about
Julio Jones’ injury, the future whooping of Jacksonville by Denver, Aldon Smith and guns, Tony Romo isn’t terrible, Matt Flynn is terrible, 2014 QB draft class
Julio Jones suffered a season ending foot injury. Or is going to have season ending surgery on his foot. Or both. Either way the 1-4 Atlanta Falcons just lost the NFL’s receptions and receiving yards leader (among wide receivers) for the season. The Falcons also lost Steven Jackson to injury earlier in the season who has yet to return. The Falcons can also expect to start next game without their other starting receiver Roddy White. Matty Ice will look to thirty-seven year old vegan Dorian Gray to somehow overcome quintuple coverage to help out on offense. The blows to the depth chart should be softened by their next game at home against the Mike Glennon led-Buccaneers. Bucs’ head coach Greg Schiano is doing his best to get fired but hasn’t pulled it off yet. Atlanta could help him get one step closer a week from this Sunday, October 20th at the Georgia dome.
Jacksonville is going to play a football game against Denver. Peyton Manning has scored more than four times as many touchdowns as the Jacksonville offense has. Jacksonville is statistically cringe worthy. They are dead last in offensive scoring (10.2 points per game) and 31st out of 32 in defensive scoring (points allowed) at allowing 32.6 points per game. Denver is of course number one in offense. There are not words to describe how absurd this matchup is. Expect to see backup qb Brock Osweiler in the game for Denver by the third quarter, barring an actual remotely close contest of skill. Manning’s greatest challenge will be trying to feed all of the hungry mouths on offense with Demaryius Thomas, Eric Decker, Julius Thomas, Wes Welker and the running back trio all fighting for the ball. Denver has put decent teams to bed this season with a sound fierceness. If nfl games are allowed to be called, It wouldn’t be surprising for either coach to want to keep the game to three quarters.
Aldon Smith, 49ers ‘stud’ pass rusher has been charged with owning an illegal “assault weapon.” That’s good they clarified it was an assault weapon, and not a cuddling weapon or minor annoyance weapon. The incident related to the charge took place in June of 2012 with former ‘9ers TE Delanie Walker. Walker also discharged his firearm but will not be charged as he didn’t fire off an assault weapon. Remember folks, make sure to drunkenly fire off your murder weapons only if they aren’t legally classified as ‘assault’ weapons. Smith currently resides in rehab for his second DUI arrest in as many years.
Antonio Ramiro Romo threw five touchdowns and for over 500 yards against the Denver Broncos this past weekend, a stellar performance. Yet Romo somehow manages to receive the blame for Dallas’ loss. Quarterbacks do not play defense. If he had thrown for three touchdowns and zero interceptions we would be talking about how underrated he is. Only a handful of passers could have gotten Dallas as close as Romo did to beating Denver. The almighty Broncos scraped by on a field goal. Romo doesn’t always play like a top five quarterback, but this past Sunday he did.
Watching the clock tick to zero in the Dallas/Denver game brought me back to a scene from a movie based around gratuitous violence and “historical events”, Zack Snyder’s 300. Tony Romo (in Sunday’s contest against Denver) was not unlike the spartan King Leonidas. Like Leonidas from the phenomenally exaggerated 300 Romo did not slay the proverbial dragon. Leonidas was slain in battle by the Persian emperor as did the Cowboys fall to the Broncos. Also, like Leonidas from 300, Romo proved that “even a god-king can bleed” as Denver for the first time in 2013 didn’t enter the fourth quarter with the utmost confidence the game would end with a ‘W.’ The Broncos while widely recognized as the top team in the NFL, are now beatable thanks to a valiant effort by Dallas.
Matt Flynn was finally released from Oakland, losing the third string spot to Matt McGloin. You might be wondering who Matt McGloin is. It doesn’t matter who he is. (He’s an unspectacular UFA QB from Penn State). What matters is Flynn has made 14.5 million dollars in his brief time with both Seattle and Oakland. Flynn started one game since his 480 yard, six touchdown performance against a (then) very bad Patriots defense. Some people might think Flynn is a failure for not being able to stay on an NFL roster after being brought in (twice) to be “the guy.” Flynn might actually be a genius, he now has 14.5 million dollars and doesn’t have to put his body or mind at serious risk. A risk that many other NFL players willingly do for a lot less money than Flynn made away with.
People that get paid to talk about football claim the quarterback draft class of 2014 could potentially be very deep if the underclassmen available to declare for the draft do so. According to Yahoo’s own Eric Edholm as many as nine quarterbacks could merit draft status in the first two rounds should they enter the draft. After looking at obvious names such as Johnny Manziel and Teddy Bridgewater, other names surface such as Heisman hopeful Clemson QB Tajh Boyd, SEC career passing yardage record holder Aaron Murray, and Alabama’s two time BCS championship winning quarterback A.J. McCarron. A number of NFL teams should be in the market for a new QB as 2013 so far has been a year of disparity at the position. Teams like Oakland, Tampa, Jacksonville, Arizona, Cleveland, and now Minnesota are possibly looking to upgrade at the QB position immediately in the draft. Other teams, mainly New England and Denver would be wise to invest in the future with Brady and Manning turning 37 and 38 respectively before the start of next season. This is also assuming neither heavily seasoned veteran will decide to hang up the cleats at the seasons’ end. The players of the NFL draft seem to to get bigger, stronger, and faster every year. With the passing offense growing more and more important every year, a talented quarterback likewise becomes more important for teams to field in order to keep up.
Tell the people you love that you love them.
Good night and Good luck.
Gridiron Seasonal 