Bronxville Jets Fan

From Albert Breer's latest weekly Gameplan article: By ALBERT BREER May 30, 2019 Just as I wrapped up a half-hour conversation with former Ravens and Jaguars tackle Eugene Monroe, the Washington Post published a story by veteran NFL writer Mark Maske. The first sentence of this broader piece on the NFL’s labor talks with NFLPA laid out the owners’ enduring desire for an 18-game schedule, even after all the league’s been through, player safety-wise, this decade. The second read, “Many owners also seem willing to make concessions to the union on the commissioner’s disciplinary authority and the sport’s marijuana policy.” I texted a screenshot of the paragraph over to Monroe, which validated the suspicions he’d told me he held. And he responded with a colorful emoji illustrating how he might regurgitate what he’d just read. “The NFL owners shouldn’t hang a cannabis policy in the face of players in exchange for two additional games full of injury and concussions,” Monroe typed in his next text. “There should be no negotiating here, and the players certainly shouldn’t have to subject themselves to more punishment just to heal with legal medicine. This was expected.” There will come a time when marijuana is no longer on the NFL’s list of banned substances, whether that’s this year or five years from now. A quarter of the league’s 32 teams play in states where recreational weed is legal. Only the Panthers play in a state where some form of medicinal marijuana hasn’t been legalized. The question is when and, maybe poignantly, how. The NFL and the NFLPA announced an initiative earlier in the month that will mandate clubs hire a behavioral health clinician by the start of training camp, and a pain management specialist by Week 1, with committees in both areas formed jointly by the league and union. As part of the announcement, the NFL openly conceded that reforming the marijuana policy would be part of the discussion. “I'm hopeful, understanding a little bit about how contracts work, knowing this thing does not need to go to a negotiation to change,” Monroe said, just before the Post story was published. “I mean, look, remove cannabis from the policy. You don't have to remove it from testing. You don't have to create new testing, where cannabis isn’t on there. You simply don't have to punish anybody when it shows up, period. “It's simple. But they’d like people to believe it's something that needs to be collectively bargained. It already is collectively bargained. You guys know that this is something you need to do, and the players know they need it. Get it f---ing done.” Monroe, for his part, knows it’s coming too. Every indication is, to the question of when, the answer is soon. Just the same, you can see he’s skeptical on the how. As the Washington Post confirmed he should be.

You can't trust what you hear in labor negotiations. Each side will push for certain things that they don't care much about just so they can show that they are giving the other side concessions by giving them up. Ed McCaffrey was saying this on NFL Radio this morning and also said that players are dead set against an 18 game season and he can't see it ever being agreed to. He said players are too banged up by the end of a 16 game season . Regardless, my view is that 18 games (as well as an expanded playoff system) is an insanely stupid idea. Pretty much for the reasons that Ed said - they players are already pushing the envelope with 16 games. And for those who think it's great because it's "more" football, I think you will change your mind when you start seeing good players getting hurt in those extra games or see a huge spike in late-season meaningless games. If it's not broke, don't fix it.

Whatever you knocked down a straw man for no reason other than to be contentious. The point was that Orlando won the first pick two years in a row. Pointing out that I mischaracterized who they drafted with that pick versus who they traded for with that pick was just plain dumb.

You are the first Jets fan I have heard question whether Allen would have been a better pick then Darnold, which makes me think you’re really a trolling Bills fan. Even though Allen is faster and has a stronger arm, Darnold is still the superior prospect. Much more polished and a million times more accurate.

The Magic had the first pick and traded Weber for Hardaway. What's the point of clarifying that?

You are calling Josh Rosen a franchise QB? He's a low risk, low cost gamble for the Dolphins. Anyone who knows the Dolphins knows that Stephen Ross has the hots for Tua. And they are absolutely tanking - they gutted their roster and signed Fitzpatrick as a temporary QB instead of drafting a QB this year. Rosen just happened to fall in their laps as a cheap Plan B QB.

The Bucs engaged in some pretty blatant tanking the year they had the first pick and selected Winston. Among other things they rested a bunch of their starters for most of the last game to lock up the first pick. No team will admit to tanking or be completely obvious about it. The Browns pushed the limit for a couple years and now the Dolphins are doing it.

That happened the year that the Magic selected Penny Hardaway and no one was crying foul. Not sure how you think that's a corrupted process -- the alternative is absolutely corruptible.

I absolutely think there should be a lottery system in the NFL. How times have we had a crappy team over the past 20 years only to "lose" out on the first overall pick because some other perpetually inept franchise like the Browns or Cardinals sucked worse? I think the Jets were just as deserving of that first pick and should have had a fairer shot at it. I also don't like what the Browns did over the past few years and now what the Dolphins are doing -- which is deliberately tanking in order to get the top pick. With QBs being increasingly valuable in the NFL, the difference between the first pick and second, third or fourth pick can be ENORMOUS and, as a result, the temptation to tank can be irresistible. The lottery would fix that, which is why the NBA started using it a while back. I also think the SOS tiebreaker is crap. The only difference between the Jets having the third and second pick in the draft this year was a meaningless Cole Beasley touchdown catch at the end of the Cowboys-Giants week 17 game. And there have a team will have a higher draft pick than a team with an identical record that they BEAT in the regular season because of the SOS tiebreaker. Stupid.

That OL was the best in the league, hands down. We were so spoiled as fans because shortly after that we rebuilt with Brick and Nick. Hopefully we can get back there! And man how great was it back in 2002 having the best OL with two young ascending WRs and a QB? I know we didn’t win the super bowl, but that was really fun to watch.

Funny, I was thinking about this recently. I was extremely upset at the time, and it was made worse by Dan Snyder gloating about it after we lost the third player due to some contract error (I think it was Morton). The Jets offense was money that year and it was just heartbreaking to see some perennially inept franchises just come in and gut us like that. It killed me at the time and I’ve hated the Redskins and Dan Snyder ever since. I’m surprised by the posters who are saying Morton wasn’t a big loss. He was one of my favorite players that year - came out of nowhere and was the best returner in the game that year. Also got involved with the offense in a gimmicky way. Really fun to watch.

no doubt

I really hope this happens. Pick up an extra pick and still be in a position to grab a premium player.

Hands down, Thormund. Tough as nails, versatile and solid locker room guy.

I think it’s long overdue. The top picks in the draft have gotten to be astronomically valuable — some seasons more so then others — and teams are now deliberately tanking to secure those picks (Bucs in 2014 season, Browns in 2016 and 2017, Dolphins in 2019). Think how close the Jets came to getting a top two or three pick in recent years only to get slightly “beat” out by teams that are either intentionally tanking (Bucs and Browns), suffered injuries to key players (Colts in 2017) or are just grossly incompetent franchises (think Raiders from Al Groh’s last years). I was mad as hell those years because I felt the Jets deserved a fairer shot at the top pick. Were the Jets really a better team then the Colts in 2017? Somehow we won one more game and, as a result, had to cough up three premium draft picks to trade picks with them in order to get our QB. That shows how valuable one or two extra losses can be in terms of draft capital. It’s time for the NFL to start doing more to discourage tanking and stop rewarding ineptitude and the lottery system is the way to do it.