What a surprise! Went 14-0 on my predictions, perfect score. Maybe I had some help writting the article after the games were played hahaha but who didn’t had any kind of help was Tom Collins and he did 13-1, only missing the Rams vs Seahawks game, which was one of the hardest, 2 good teams, divisional rivals, anyway, wanted to give the special mention on the article because found that impressive, guessing almost every game correct, and I think it’s the result of having a deeper analysis on each game, at least from a statistical point, whenever I predict a result I do it because a matchup, or because a feeling, that’s why enjoy his articles, even if he just picked against my Cowboys and have to make sure gets an incorrect pick.
That said, many things happened on week 5, progression week, many teams motivated to do their best, we need those extra stats!
As called it the Falcons finally managed to win their first game, they did struggle vs what seems a “weak” rival as Lions, you’ll often see me “trashtalking” Rod and his Lions, well my trashtalks almost always friendly, the reality is that Rodany is building the ultimate roster, I was looking at it a couple of days ago. He have acquired multiple special players.
Via trade got CB Philip Buchanon for WR Az-Zahir Hakim and a 4th, ex-GM Brandon Lindgren (hopefully he doing ok) pulled a horrible move here, not only CB is harder to get but also the contract and the age were different, gained a lot of value on this trade.
With 1.2 and 1.3 got WR Anquan Boldin + S Sean Taylor, Taylor imo better player, but Boldin will be great too, then at 2.2 and 2.3 got TE Antonio Gates and OG Sean Locklear, both of them extremely athletic and lets say it studs, Gates with an incredible skew up on a position that doesn’t grab much attention, and Locklear with the injury low rates and not so polished block skills, yet an absurd studs. Just from his picks he got 4 studs.
Then with 3rd rounds have a raw QB that suddenly after being lucky and avoid the streak injury affected a lot of rookies QB Boller have been able to progress, and right now at 22 yo sits with 62 awr - 93 thp - 79 tha, do the Lions really need QB? Idk, another stud they got in 3rd round was SS Donnie Nickey, a 6”3 fast Safety that somehow fall, and yet again very raw, but he got a LOT of progression, not a 3rd round but CB Thorton is also a solid player
Then complement this team, with some players that maybe flew under the radar as LE Kalimba Edwards, DT Shaun Rogers, MLB Clairbone, and a solid FA adition as HB Barlow and this is a team that will be contenders and fight for the SB in some seasons, the cherry on the top have been winning the draft gem OLB Robert Reynolds.
I think Rodany have done one of the best if not the best GM roster buildings so far on the league, results of prepare the draft, follow BPA strategy, taking some risk, and as everything on life having some luck, he got into a very complicated division, but the other teams should start looking at Lions as a dangerous team, and if they have another bad season record wise, it means they’ll have more top picks.Currently they sit at 1-3...
So... I just added a Lions rebuild analysis into week 5 analysis, that’s right is what I did!
America Team won again! Will see more details on my team news but that’s right the other Mendez brother found out why Dallas is the best team of the universe
Another analysis incoming? Yes! Now about one of the biggest events happened this week, we got a new GM on Christopher Hinch as mentioned on last episode, well he’s one of the trade crew and started to reshape his roster fully, I made a comment on discord, will paste it here:
I think Chris did a great deal moving from Pennington, I have no faith in Texans, they're 0-5 with a very hard schedule and a not rounded roster. I know QB is important but Pennington after yesterday game has a 3-8 record, hard to believe he will be the messiah. At 29 yo I doubt someone pays as much as he got. Also as bad as it sounds, having a worse QB gives him better chances for a top pick.
Moore being 24 yo, seems as the kind of player could develop even on a rebuild and Abraham at 26 yo I think could've been a bit more patient, I don't think GM care much about a player being 26 or 27 yo, didn't lose anything waiting. Picks are never bad, and I think he had to sell players for rebuild, but now what matters is that he learns what to do with them. Part of why recommended reading rulebook, knowing the contracts, how the PW works, etc. Are key information. Example, with 7 PW, (If he doesn't start writting articles) a late 1st will be probably a blind gamble.
Example of a good use of resources, have a 1 YL contract Abraham and will enter rebuild, post him OTB and say could restructure him to 7 years, absorb the cap hit (Jets won't need salary anytime soon), and selll the player + the restructure + the contract. On 1 move gained some value on a restructure and in dead money, now, well could do something similar with Santana Moss, maybe, but I don't think he has the same market
That was my comment yesterday, and will detail it a bit more. Don’t get me wrong, QB Pennington is a very good player and should boost any team he’s in and give them chances to win, but I think it’s all about time, and roster situation. Chris did exactly the move he should’ve done, even more if consider he will have 3 years contract no matter what, he quickly identified his team is not ready for compete and said: I’ll rebuild, traded away his most valuable player and got excellent value for it, the Texans were 0-4 at the moment of the trade and now 0-5 and their schedule is really hard, I frankly do not see them on playoffs, and many of you commented, well for the next season he’ll have QB, and that’s right, but at what cost? Why pay a 28 yo QB if can get him for cheaper at 29 yo or even just see what off-season brings you, specially after pass on a QB as Drew Brees that not biased, attribute wise is one of the best prospects of the league 3 yo difference is a world, it’s more progressed right now than Pennington and when reach 28 yo will be 99-99 or very close, I understood that by passing on trade for him Texans plan was to just keep adding stud players, BPA keep grabbing players, and then go all in now, I don’t understand the move, but wish it works for them, AC have added some very interesting players, have an insane MLB, HB, some studs WR that claps to him took the risk and maybe worth it, Wilford out 3 weeks but lets see when comebacks, overall I really was liking the process of AC and maybe that’s why don’t like the move, now he goes on a win streak and prove me wrong.
Now about the Jets part, I love their Pennington move, but I think they could’ve gotten better value on the other 2 trades with Chargers, I think some teams could’ve offered better 1st for Abraham, maybe with an extra pick, and instead they got what seems to be a locked late 1st and they added what can be 4.1, don’t even see the need of adding that pick to the trade, but is not the end of the world, Im happy to see Christopher doing trades and the more time he has on the league the more experience he’ll earn, I don’t think many of us even know how the market goes, frankly I haven’t understand the market yet, it’s very unstable, I still struggle to know if an offer is good or bad, last off-season I decided to take the approach to prioritize the deal over the value, I could’ve gotten a bit more extra value on some players, but preffered to complete a trade, so I perfectly understand Jets position, they want a new roster. I truly hope we could see Hinch writting, it’s always positive to see new articles + he could really benefit from the extra PW
On another event of the week, the Patriots did strugle a lot vs divisional rivals as Dolphins but managed to survive it on overtime, it was a very needed win, and they got it. Record alert Willis McGahee had an amazing game and he now has the record of more rushing yards in a game
Coming back to Jets they had an awful game losing 45-0, hard welcome to the league, but that’s how the things are, will have to endure some complicated season before the things start to get better
Both Chargers and Broncos missed a great opportunity, they could’ve take the lead of the division, and lost games were somehow accessible, Chargers lost the moment they did injury Jaguars QB and Broncos offense cannot score, it’s sad because their defense is playing lights out. It’s been a couple of rough weeks for both teams, but the division race is alive, Raiders missing their QB for 3 weeks, and they now depend on Sorgi, If he plays im very curious to see what 74 thp does, he goes vs an elite defense so that doesn’t helps.
Phillip Rivers played as 1.1 player and lead Cardinals to the victory, beware with this team, sit at 2-3 but already faced part of the hard schedule, were 1 point away to beat Rams, and honesty looks like they deserved that win, then close loses vs Pats and Saints, I don’t think playoffs are a must for Will, he’s thinking on the long term, but could be a good surprise, ultimately as AC said on discord, he have been the only one able to take a rookie QB to SB, but if Rivers keeps playing as vs 49ers... beware!
That will close my week 5 analysis, moment to see what im waiting for week 6
Week 6 preview
Cowboys are on the game of the week! It’s the 2nd time on league history, which given our initial roster and our historical record of 6-14, is something interesting, will the team be able to keep the pace this season? or is just an illusion all again? I have no idea! But I’m really looking for this game, the last time played vs McNabb it was ugly, this game is a matchup between 2 teams that were aggressive and traded for a veteran QB. Both of them Brees and McNabb have underperform, but teams are winning and that’s the most important stat. Given their last week performance, and a more ready/loaded roster, I do think Steelers are the favorites, but never know, anything could happen, let’s go Dallas. This could be a very special game to watch, I’ll announce it on my team news, but something big is happening1 1 season and 5 weeks later... is happening! And couldn’t find a better week than vs Steelers
Browns vs Bengals is a game call my attention, both teams have been inconsistent, yet sit at 3-2, lets see how the game goes.
Texans vs Titans is another good game, with Texans having QB now both teams are in more fair scenario,I wonder if Bryan will do any kind of ritual pre-game or post-game, AC have been asking for it, but haven’t receive anything yet
The final game I’ll keep an eye at are the Bucs vs Rams, both should be playoffs teams, and the Bucs are gaining that tag of dark horse, maybe in a couple of months we say: congrats champion Ian. Could happen
Final thoughts
This time I won’t share about myself, or well yes in a way, but I want to take a couple minutes for share some thoughts about winning and what it means to be a succesful GM in my opinion. This comes as some ideas got from reading Bryan (I think he’s playing the Im weak palpatine card) and Brady on discord, where they said regressing as GM or not good GM anymore.
Coming from someone that is extremely perfectionist with roster, to a point that it was awful stressful to manage or even being on a league, I don’t miss Titans at all, Im proud of what achieved there, yes, do I want to be succesful as Cowboys GM? definetily, but there’s a line between that should be drawn for it to be healthy.
I’ve added some ideas to my mindset and hope sharing them can help:
Winning= There’s 32 GM, by pure numbers have 1/32 of winning SB, that if all rosters were equal, of course right now some teams have more chances than others, the best roster management do the best odds have, but that’s just on numbers. On the other aspect it means there are other 31 persons trying their best , assuming no one repeats sb, we would need to play 32 seasons for everybody to win a SB, does it means every season we have 31 losers on the league? I don’t think so, every player trying their best on their capabilities, and that’s already a win, there are multiple team building styles, and winning SB do not define us.
Every season I want to think have a small % of winning it, that’s my compromise with myself, the rest is just an extra, already made peace with myself it’s very probably I do not win a SB on the league, and it’s ok, but every season I’ll try and get happy for whoever win
Questionable moves= I think this is part of the league, and the sport itself, how many analysis we saw from Micah being traded to Packers, or how many winners and losers we see every draft, as someone write a lot of articles, Im on a position where have to do some comments, as on this article, talked about Jets/Texans/Chargers trades, I always try to approach the situation with the most respect possible, and if ever fail at that trust me it’s never with malicious intentions, as Im sure the other colleagues write articles do never intend to.
Making questionable moves is part of being a GM, we cannot always make the right choices, would be impossible, and yet we barely seen terrible moves, which is why is even harder to be a good GM, as mentioned above, look at what Rodany have done, and it’s one example, he have done almost a perfect team management in my opinion, congrats to him, but it he had lets say a terrible next draft, does it affects all his great decisions so far? definitely not, we’re human beings, as another example during the first draft I drafted extremely sick, and im strugglng with memory making every decision way harder. And Im sure im not the only GM face complications, we all have our struggles.
Something I like to think is how NFL GM and scouts are being paid millions, have luxury lifes, things we will dream to have, and yet make a lot of mistakes, of course is different to build a team with real players than on a madden league, but sometimes we take this seriously as if we were being pay millions, nothing happens if do a bad move, if miss an opportunity or if lose a game, as we have fun it’s all that matters.
