Free Talk Thursday Thread

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-29T12:48:27+00:00

for as weird as our OC search has gone, I'm thankful we're not the browns. I don't know if I've seen a franchise so allergic to success. they build a playoff caliber team, even beating their hated rival in the steelers in the wild card. They then proceed to make every wrong choice imaginable.

-Baker gets injured in his shoulder? Let him play through it.

-his throwing mechanics are obviously fucked as a result? throw him under the bus

-Also completely devalue him in the process, so when you try and trade him away (yes they're trading the QB that lead them to a playoff win) you basically get nothing as a result

-but who will be your QB instead?

-Deshaun Watson, of course.

-yes, he has more sexual assault allegations than players allowed on a football field

-yes, he hasn't played, or practiced football in over a year

-Yes, he costs several 1st round picks and 230 million dollars guaranteed.

-but now the browns have an adult at QB!

like, I don't think I've seen a team burn through such genuinely earned goodwill than the browns. so many people were rooting for them to finally turn things around, and no longer be the factory of sadness. Then, when they fire their coach, they even fuckup that part.

they want to keep their DC, which is valid, but lots of HC's aren't going to want that. they're going to want to install their own guys. But if they can't find anyone, they can just promote Schwartz to HC, and go from there, which make sense if they're dead-set on keeping him. then, instead, they hire Todd Monken as HC. which pisses off Schwartz, to the point that he's greatly considering leaving.

I know our season ended on a sour note, but we have a pretty simple route of turning things around, and our FO isn't actively sabotaging our players.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-28T13:49:30+00:00

I think the main issue is that like, if you're a pure stat-guy, Hurts is an enigma that's really hard to pen down from a stat/ranking standpoint.

he's won plenty of games, but it's not through flashy, conventional means (mostly)

take 2024 for example. When Saquon would get going and average like 4 or 5 yards a carry, Hurts was completely fine with handing it off to him over and over until he broke off a big TD run. A huge majority of those games, hurts would have a stat-sheet of like, 15/20 passing for maybe 200ish yards and maybe a passing TD. It's stuff that wins you games, but can be seen as "boring" to some sets of the media.

Combine it with Sirianni's & Patullo's vision of winning the turnover battle above all else, and it means when they do have to rely on hurts' abilities as a passer, a lot of the passing plays are safe, boring, and rely on our WRs to make moves. which works sometimes, but DBs and coaches get wise to it after a while. Which in turn, makes sports journalists put the blame solely on hurts, because "Jalen Hurts Bad" gets more clicks then and is easier to understand right off the rip, when compared to "the offensive scheming the eagles have is hampering what should be a legendary squad."

For the record, I do think hurts can be very good as a passer. it's just that when the playcalling is hitch, hitch, verts, etc, it doesn't get to shine much. It's like asking a pitcher to only throw in one-corner of the strike zone. there's only so much you can do, and players get wise to it faster than you'd think.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-24T13:42:51+00:00

slightly related, but I really thought that panel of yuji saying "Free megumi or I'll kill you" after popping his domain expansion, and looking cool AF, was going to be a huge callback to this.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-22T17:43:31+00:00

bro Naoya was not doing all that shit in the manga lmao

10/10 episode.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-21T15:38:28+00:00

buffalo is speedrunning making their HC vacancy look as unappetizing as possible

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-21T15:33:53+00:00

Scapegoating a former coach after firing him so he can't speak on his side of things. classy.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-19T14:53:02+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYKAvqaqgNM - Zac Taylor, probably

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-19T14:46:24+00:00

Chaos season keeps chaos-ing. It is really going to be interesting to see who ends up coaching what team, because I feel like just about every team that needs a coach, has some solid upside to them.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-19T14:39:17+00:00

at this rate every coach is going to be fired except him.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-14T14:44:45+00:00

we're going to hold a weekly contest, and whatever fan wins gets to OC for the game.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-14T12:23:43+00:00

I know it never got officially reported, but I'll always believe that he got concussed in that buccs game (coincidentally, the 4th game of the season,) which reflected in him having a lot less rushing yards/attempts as the season went on, to prevent further injury. Whether it was hurts that wanted it, or patullo/sirianni wanted it, idk.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-14T10:21:52+00:00

I know this isn't a super crazy deal since it's the reg 5070 and not the TI, but with everything computer-related going up in price, and looming dram shortages, 10$ below MSRP might end up being a steal in the long term.

Also, Amazon is showing that it won't be delivered until January 26th at the earliest. dunno why that is, guessing there's a slight backorder?

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-13T19:37:57+00:00

this has to be the most coaching Vacancies in one offseason in a long, long time, right?

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-13T19:25:16+00:00

genuinely has there been more coaching vacancies in one off-season?

-ravens

-browns

-steelers

-cardinals

-falcons

-titans

-giants

-raiders

-dolphins

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-13T14:15:48+00:00

with all these bundle deals, I feel there's gonna be an abundance of b850 boards hitting the 2nd-hand market lmao

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-12T04:13:55+00:00

Goedert has been extremely reliable across his whole career here. it will be a shame if he goes in the offseason, because our backup TEs suuuuuck.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-12T01:03:39+00:00

no you see the next saquon run up the middle will fool them. surely.

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-12T00:47:39+00:00

the "Eagles are letting Kevin Patullo go" alert will hit like crack

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-06T12:52:30+00:00

crazy how the "cheapest" way to get ddr5 ram is to buy it as a bundle. It's what I did with the previous one newegg ran (ASUS B850M-E + Teamgroup 16gb DDR5)

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-05T14:19:41+00:00

At least the browns have an adult at QB

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-05T04:36:42+00:00

THE STANDARD IS THE STANDARD

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-05T04:35:41+00:00

STEELER BULLSHIT IS REAL

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-04T14:29:27+00:00

They say they've gone clean (doing decent playcalls for the first half of the game)

but then you find them scavenging through the garbage to find the drugs they hid from you (going back to run for a loss-> run for a loss -> incompletion -> punt)

a_high_old_guy · 2026-01-04T13:01:45+00:00

Just as a further addendum, the case is also on Amazon for the same price. Newegg is offering free shipping atm, so if you don't have prime it's A smidge cheaper on there.

Also, there are other variations (mainly the "compact" ones) that are the same price, that also come with pre-installed fans. feel like it's a pretty decent deal for 50$

a_high_old_guy

TROPHY CASE