With all the injuries mounting in the NFL and arguably it's two biggest non quarterback personalities on the shelf for the rest of the season - I figured we could take another crack at some pain rankings. 

1. New York Giants - The Giants after an 0-4 start were already a frontrunner for the top spot in the pain rankings and now you add OBJ's season ending injury to that list and they runaway with the top spot IMO. With their previously heralded defense taking a BIG step back (as predicted) there is really no reason to even tune into a Giants game anymore. The only thing that could take them out of this top spot is when McAdoo gets fired before the season ends.

2. Cleveland Browns - I said before that the Browns didn't belong on the early pain rankings because there were expectations for them to lose , but that's when it looked like they would at least remain competitive and Kizer showed some flashes. Fast forward to Week 5 and this could be the worst Browns team to date (which says a lot) and their future at QB is on the bench in place of Kevin Hogan. 

3. Houston Texans - Crazy to have a team who has finally found their franchise quarterback this high , but it has to be bittersweet after another loss on Sunday Night , where they also lost a local hero in JJ Watt for the season and another top three defensive player in Mercilus goes out for the year. I'll be interested in seeing what way the Texans trend from here , but after two close losses (could be 4-1) and a depleted defense I think a once promising contender is going to struggle to stay afloat again. At least they have Watson though. 

4. Miami Dolphins - I know they are coming off a win , but one can't be too proud of beating a Mariota-less Titans team where your own quarterback couldn't reach the 100 yard mark. Jay Cutler seems done , their offensive line isn't as good as expected and Jay Ajayi at some point is going to miss some time. To everyone saying that Jay Cutler is as good as Tannehill - tell that to Dolphins fans now. The Cutler/Moore future looks bleak and they could legitimately be worse than the tanking Jets.

5. New York Jets - Speaking of! It's tough to put a 3-2 overachieving team on these rankings but I had to. Only the Jets could fuck up a clearly "tank" season by reaching their over/under in the first five weeks. I know it's always nice to win some games but the Jet's are going no where in the grand scheme of the season and are going to end up going 6-10 and playing themselves out of another shot at a franchise quarterback - which was the ultimate end game for this season. Props to Bowles though - he at the very least might earn himself another look at coaching in the future.


Some notable omissions: 

Steelers - I wanted to throw them in there after Ben's terrible performance and subsequent tongue in cheek interview but it's hard to put a team with that much talent in that bad of a division in there. They could go 9-7 and make some noise in the playoffs. 

49ers - I didn't want to make it an exercise of just throwing a bunch of 0 win teams in there , even if the 49ers have had some close one. At the end of the day though they are doing it right , playing close competitive games during a season where you had NO expectations , lose close games and stay in the lead for the 1st overall pick. Take notes Jets. 

Chargers - I mean , I suppose but they finally won a close game. I'm going to give them a week of happiness. 

I started to disagree with the Texans being so high on this list but the more I thought about it you should probably put us at #1, watching JJ Watt go down and get carried off to the hospital, that was about the most gutted I've ever been watching a football game. That's real pain. Knowing what JJ has said in the past about not wanting to play past his prime I think it was probably the end of his career. 

I figured we could survive without Watt but losing Mercilus for the year was the clincher, we're done for the season without Mercilus, Watt, or Cushing and the secondary in the shape they are in. These injuries just zapped all the hype out of me for this year. It's a shame we never got the chance to see these guys all play together in shape. 

I would disagree about the Jets though, if my team came out and tanked for the year and lost games so they could get a draft pick I wouldn't be a fan of them for long. Scew that whole philosophy, we've seen it backfire on so many teams in the past where the guy they tanked for turned out to be a bust or gets injured, play football to win the football games I'm sitting down to watch on Sunday afternoon, I don't want to watch my team lose. 

I'm actually nervous about the Texans vs Browns game, worried that they will underestimate them and that their defense shows up and causes some turnovers and then our defense can't stop their offense. This may be a trap game.

DRC suspended after walking out following a confrontation with McAdoo over being benched on Sunday/told he'll be inactive this week - at the very least I'm glad this is going to be an out and out dumpster fire. :lol:

Oct 11, 2017 17:09:59 GMT shinobimusashi said:

I would disagree about the Jets though, if my team came out and tanked for the year and lost games so they could get a draft pick I wouldn't be a fan of them for long. Scew that whole philosophy, we've seen it backfire on so many teams in the past where the guy they tanked for turned out to be a bust or gets injured, play football to win the football games I'm sitting down to watch on Sunday afternoon, I don't want to watch my team lose. 

I understand that philosophy and think it's probably on the right side of the argument. Fans should want their teams to win , but I know of a handful of Jets fans who were ready for them to have a shitty season in hopes of greener pastures. 

Speaking personally if my team is going to go 6-10 or 5-11 every single year with no real hope for the future I'd rather they just bottom out and try to get a franchise quarterback or player. Winning just enough games to keep you in mediocrity doesn't help the cause. Then again they beat the Patriots this week and who the fuck knows what happens this season. 

Really good looking matchup tonight, one of the few times I can ever recall TNF having two teams well over 500 facing off. Along with the Packers, these two teams look like the early favourites in the NFC, so this could be a potential championship game preview.

Cam Newton has probably been the biggest story in the NFL over the past fortnight, for his actions both on and off the field. In the past two games, he's looked to be back to his MVP type form from 2015. The Lions had been uncharacteristically tough defending the pass so far this season, but Newton threw for 355 yards and three TDs, and if he can throw for over 300 yards again tonight he'll have done it in three games consecutively for the first time in his career (and in Panthers franchise history). Cam's always been a strong deep passer from the pocket, and with Greg Olsen out for the season, they're using more blocking TEs to sure up the already decent protection he's receiving to really take advantage of this. Last week against the Lions he was 10/12 for 248 and two touchdowns on passes with 10+ air yards.

The Eagles have to be the biggest surprise of the first quarter of the season. No one was picking them in the NFCE, yet here they are already with a 2.5 game lead. A big part of that has been the greater balance of the team, particularly an improved run game whether it be Blount, Smallwood or Barner, and as a result Carson Wentz is doing more with less. One area that he had struggled in was passing under pressure, but he righted that last week against the Cardinals, recording a perfect 158.3 passer rating on third down.

Lane Johnson’s absence felt almost immediately, Julius Peppers taking advantage of Vaitai at RT for a strip sack.

The Eagles need to get a TE in to block. Wentz is hanging in well but the matchups are favouring the Panthers defenders play after play. Thomas Davis vs Kenjon Barber is never going to end well for Philly.

Good battle in the first half, defenses on top with both sides finding success rushing the passer. Philly are getting it from their impressive front four collapsing the pocket on Newton, while Carolina are dialling up some nice blitzes to overload Wentz's protection. It will be interesting to see if they can continue that especially if Kuechly is unable to come back into the game after halftime.

Zack Ertz is the next great TE. I love this guy.

18-10 Eagles, thanks to a giftwrapped pick.

Romo is killing it as a color commentator.

I haven’t heard much about Brabham for Philly but he’s having a great game tonight.

Another concussion for Kuechly, have to start questioning his career at this point.

Oct 13, 2017 2:24:58 GMT Ed said:

Romo is killing it as a color commentator.

“Demi Lovato’s husband” cracked me up. :lol:

The best part of he the Demi Lovato thing was my wife and I were like, "wait what?" We both hate Demi Lovato so we were about to hate that poor soul. Lol.

Real homer ref crew tonight, Eagles are getting hosed by the zebras.

It’s easy to see why Barner has bounced around the league. He has no vision at all. Rare to see NFL backs get out in front of their blocks and he’s done it multiple times tonight.

Great burst by Agulohr for that TD.

Already more TDs this season for Agholor than his first two combined.

Very strange play calling by the Panthers there, intent on going deep when there was plenty of time remaining.

Crazy that the Eagles gave the Panthers a free timeout with the 2 minute warning. That 2nd down tackle by Shaq was huge.

Now we get to see what Cam does in a 2 minute drill.

Ugly couple of plays by Ertz, completely whiffing on a block and then a drop on third down. Panthers get another chance down by 5.

5-1 Eagles! I bet nobody thought of that coming into the season.

Cam choked on that final drive. He made some terrible passes today, but he also threw for the most passes in his career. Their run game was absolutely shut down and Cam had to do everything. CMac with 10 receptions was great for my money league, but they need to get a running game from their runningbacks. That's why I call Cam the HB Killa.

Oct 13, 2017 3:50:40 GMT KING KID said:

Cam choked on that final drive. He made some terrible passes today, but he also threw for the most passes in his career. Their run game was absolutely shut down and Cam had to do everything. CMac with 10 receptions was great for my money league, but they need to get a running game from their runningbacks. That's why I call Cam the HB Killa.

It looked like he got hurt on the play down by the pylon, he was down for quite a while during the challenge and his passing was much worse from there on.

Philly were the better team and deserved to win. I'm glad some of the very inconsistent refereeing (Eagles 10 penalties for 121 yards, Panthers 1 penalty for 1 yard) didn't end up changing the result.

49ers have release Bowman, wish we can get trade him to get something decent in return but with his salary that will be difficult.

Watch him end up with the Raiders, or Cowboys

One thing I've really noticed that has stood out to me watching the Texans this year is the amount of holding against our defense that is being completely ignored by referees. Clowney had 2 guys blatantly holding him on this last play against the Browns. They need to start calling this shit, god damn ridiculous.

I think Larry Izzo or whoever is coaching this special teams may need to go, this special teams is really bad. They just ran a kickoff back out of the end zone and get stopped around the 10 yard line. Brilliant. And it seems like every game has little moments like this where special teams does something stupid. 

Will Fuller is coming along nicely now. Awesome to see.

Welp. My football season is over. Best of luck rest of season guys.