Same old same old the Browns have the worst record in the league with an 0-16 mark, number one seeds met in the Super Bowl, and Tom Brady won an MVP award. Some things that are new…a quarterback caught a TD pass in the Super Bowl, the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and the Patriots lost it. With that loss, Brady is now 5-3 and the Patriots are 5-5. A surprising event or lack thereof, is that the Eagles won and the city of Philadelphia is still in form after win and parade which saw hundreds of thousands show up.
With the season over what will the offseason bring? Generally, the first question thrown around has to do with quarterbacks and generally starts with the draft, but first some pros are making waves. The ball got rolling with Alex Smith getting traded from Kansas City to Washington which created even more questions around Kirk Cousins then answers. One twist around Cousins was that Washington could franchise him again then trade him to recoup some of the picks that were traded away when getting Alex Smith. If Cousins was to become a free agent, a few teams that have been floated out there are Denver, Cleveland and the NY Jets with Arizona as a dark horse with Palmer retiring. Another quarterback question is in Minnesota and it is a three-part question as to who will they go with as their quarterback or do they have a competition? Minnesota doesn’t have any of these quarterbacks signed, but all played significant time in the past few years, so is it Teddy Bridgewater off injury, Sam Bradford off injury or Case Keenum who got them to the NFC championship game? Minnesota will probably only keep one of the three quarterbacks, but may bring back two of them and compete in training camp and drop the other allowing him to catch on elsewhere. I think they will bring back Keenum and Bridgewater. The Jets might be for Bradford or Bridgewater if they can’t get Cousins.
The draft will be interesting to see if the Browns take a QB at #1 or #4 and if they take Barkley with the other. The Giants are #2 and will they take a quarterback or trade down and get more picks to fill holes on the offensive line? The Giants have Eli and Webb, but do they really know what they have in Webb? Colts are #3 and will most likely take a defensive player. Fifth and sixth picks are Denver and the Jets who each are looking for quarterback and if they can’t get one in free agency will there be a decent enough quarterback for them when they draft? One big quarterback news story was Jimmy Garoppolo signing a monster deal with San Francisco of five years 137.5 million dollars with 74 of it being guaranteed. Who will go where and how well will they do?
Jimmy Garoppolo has gone 7-0 as a starter in the NFL including 5-0 with San Francisco, but now with the big deal and starting the season, the pressure is on to continue his strong play as it was easy to do with no pressure at the end of the season. Look for Garoppolo to have a pro bowl season for San Francisco and lead them to a 9-7 season and playoff spot. Minnesota will go with Keenum as he has the repour with everyone and keep Bridgewater as their back up as he works his way back. Cousins will end up being a free agent going to Denver as that is the best fit with a strong defense. Cleveland will draft the quarterback from Wyoming Josh Allen then Barkley at #4 to fill two big holes early in the draft. The Giants will go with Josh Rosen to have two young quarterbacks in Rosen and Webb to learn from Eli and take over in a couple of years. The Jets might hedge their bet and pick up Bradford and draft a quarterback at six to possibly Baker Mayfield to add some flair on offense. The interesting offseason has been off to a big start and looks to take some time off before revving back up in a month or two leading up to the draft
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