Category Archives: 2026 NFL Preseason

How Sold Are You on Fernando Mendoza?

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Every year before the draft there are a handful of players pundits debate if their worth a 1st round pick. This year Fernando Mendoza has dominated conversation with fans and online communities in this aspect as the Raiders are set to take him 1st overall. College “feel good” stories come to die in the NFL and I don’t see him as a 1st overall selection.

That is rarified air where a team is hoping to land a future Hall of Famer not just a serviceable QB. You get those in the late 2nd or even the 3rd round which is what Mendoza’s play suggests. Yes he won the National Championship but so did Matt Lienart, Ken Dorsey, Stetson Bennett (who), Mac Jones, & JJ McCarthy. Bennett sits behind reigning MVP Matt Stafford with the Rams. Jones is on his 3rd team and 2nd string to Brock Purdy who just signed a $265 million deal, and McCarthy is a lame duck behind freshly signed Kyler Murray & Carson Wentz. He may not make the opening day roster in Minnesota.

I threw in Lineart & Dorsey as both were coming off back to back college championship visits and both had 34 consecutive wins just snapped in title games. So if you want to start with the he’s played so many college games as a defense… and lets face it: Did you know the Hoosiers won with 47 guys over the age of 23? He was on a well coached team that was 4 years older than many of the kids they faced in college. That won’t happen in the NFL. He ran an offense that was not sophisticated and his mechanics have to improve.

Its one of the reasons the Raiders signed Kirk Cousins who undoubtedly will be the opening day starter.

The Raiders had a tremendous offseason fortifying the defense and put themselves on a collision course where they have to take him #1 overall. If they fortify the line in the draft, Ashton Jeanty will break out and this is an 8 win team and drafting a QB next year #1 won’t be an option.

Mendoza does provide hope and he will be a serviceable starter. In the NFL Linebackers are 1 1/2 steps faster than their collegiate counterparts. The plodding runs you watched with Mendoza in college will lead to his getting hit and he has to be eased into the pro game. Hence the Cousins signing. His play projects to the NFL most reminiscent of Andy Dalton in Cincinnati. On a talented team he can make enough plays for a few playoff runs. Winning a Super Bowl? I don’t see that dynamic a QB.

Indiana and Mendoza caught lightning in a jug with a team old enough they should have been 2nd year NFL players. I’m sold on Mendoza being an average pro quarterback, nothing more.

 

 

Rant on Free Agency & Conservative Misnomers On How Lombardi Would Handle It

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I read a comment where someone was talking about money ruining the game of football. Yet I remember uploading a vid of Bernie Casey in 1967 telling Steve Sabol he played football purely for the money. I remember another interview I recorded with the late Deacon Jones and the late Paul Hornung discussing free agency and Michael Strahan and Tim Brown were egging them on when Hornung said (and yes I have this interview recorded to upload) saying that yes if Wellington Mara approached him with a doubling of his salary he would have left the Green Bay Packers. Many tend to overromanticize the past to fit an ideal that only exists in their mind. I have recordings of Johnny Unitas, Don Maynard, Dick Night Train Lane and many players from the 50s and 60s negotiating and arguing compensation.

Some romanticize when Packers Center Jim Ringo had an agent coe to speak to Lombardi and Vince walking out. When he came back in said “Youre in the wrong city he plays in Philadelphia now.” That excites you? You dont ask for a raise or move to another company professionally to grow that pays you more?? You really think that Vince Lombardi tactic would work today? You dont think Vince would have been forced to change with the times?

You’re living in an ideal world in your imagination… Vince was a forward thinker. One who had a homosexual brother and did have homosexual players on his roster in Washington when he was with the Redskins. Started black safeties and linebackers (Willie Wood and Dave Robinson) when it was practice by the rest of the NFL not to. They weren’t smart enough remember?? …. well both went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and the Packers won half the decades championships also…

He would have adjusted to free agency and a changing world if he were here. Nothing stays the same. Some of you old fans need to change also to the times.

Seattle Should Not Let Kenneth Walker III Leave For Free Agency

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The Seattle Seahawks defense of their Super Bowl crown will undoubtedly be undermined if Kenneth Walker leaves via free agency. A spirited debate has been going on my Facebook page where fans are passionate about believing in GM Schneider’s approach.

My thoughts were to transitional franchise him so the Seahawks would be allowed 1st right of refusal to any contract he signs. The Chancellor’s thoughts are they should have signed him to keep continuity for a championship team to see they will be rewarded once they perform from a team psyche standpoint. This harms this but lets take a quick look at things.

The fact of the matter is we know he was splitting time with Zach Charbonnet. Lets take a hard look:

Walker: 221 carries 1,027 yds 5 TDs /31 rec. 282 yds 0 TDs

Charbonnet: 184 carries 730 yds 12 TDs / 20 rec. 144 yds 0 TDs

A lazy look at this and you’d think Charbonnet had been Marshall Faulk when in fact he came in and ran for short yardage touchdown after the heavy lifting had been done. His touchdowns were from 1, 1, 5, 1, 2, 6, 5, 5, 4, 2, 1, & 27 yds on a run in the finale. Lets not forget Chabonnet tore his ACL in the playoff win over San Francisco and didnt have surgery to repair it until February 20th. Five weeks later after the Super Bowl.  Yet interestingly we had ACL injuries to Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons prompting this comment from Robert Griffin III passing out advice:

I’m sure RGIII has serious advice on looking back on the ACL injury he had in the 2012 NFC Divisional loss ironically to the Seattle Seahawks. But lets act like he doesn’t have history on knowing what a player should do as this injury sabotaged a promising career for him.

As for others? What about the 2000 Baltimore Ravens that bullied their way to the Super Bowl XXXV championship behind one of history’s best defenses and a superior running game. Remember? Rookie Jamal Lewis who ran for 1,351 yards and the final TD in the title game. He tore his ACL in training camp and the Ravens struggled to muster a running game in 2001 before being clobbered in the AFC Divisional Round in a 21-10 loss to the Steelers.

Their best rushers in his absence? They signed journeyman Terry Allen (658 yds) and rookie Jason Brookins (who? 551 yds) and they came up woefully short in defending their title.

Eventually Lewis came back after knee reconstruction and ran for 2,053 yards in 2003 which was 2 years after his injury not 9 months. Charbonnet is not the physical menace that Lewis was. So he’d be back to handle 30% of the load and run for maybe 800 yards 2 seasons from now. No he isn’t prime Adrian Peterson who came back and ran for 2,097 yards after his either and all were chronicled here in 2012 on Taylor Blitz Times.

How about the 1999 Denver Broncos coming off back to back Super Bowls winning XXXII & XXXIII? Terrell Davis had just run for 2,008 yards but in ’99 he tore his ACL and was never the same. As for the Broncos, they finished 6-10 with Olandis Gary as the leading rusher with only 1,159 yards. The 855 yd fewer runs translated to the 6-10 record where they missed the playoffs entirely… we could go further into it but you get the point.

Folks think this is an isolated incident when we have seen Super Bowl teams fail miserably after losing their best running back. Remember Super Bowl XXIX when the 49ers lost Rickey Watters after a record 3 TD performance in the big game? He was an often injured starter who came on during the ’94 playoffs. Without him they were anemic all year and their unproven runners Derek Loville & Adam Walker (1 lost fumble) doomed them in their ’95 27-17 NFC playoff loss that ended their season.

Yet tell me the blind loyalty to GM John Schneider as though he has won the last 7 Super Bowls or something. To think the defending champion Seahawks are $60 million under the cap, one side of the football cheering public think Walker III shouldn’t receive a raise based on the idiotic notion not to pay the bellcow runner. As though Saquon Barkley didn’t just run for 2,005 yards on the Super Bowl LIX champion Eagles. As though the Baltimore Ravens didn’t have Derek Henry bludgeoning opponents for 1,921 yards and 16 rushing TDs and should have faced the Eagles in LIX but they were undone by a bad 2 point conversion.

Seattle could begin the season with 2 different running backs now that Charbonnet could be out until late in the ’26 season or even miss football until ’27. If he is back is he going to be the bellcow for the team after an ACL tear??

Hopefully GM Schneider is just playing hard ball to bring Walker III in later. Even with a discount he allows the Seahawks a legitimate chance at defending their Super Bowl LX title. Without it they stand no chance.

Thanks for reading and please share the article.

 

 

Atlanta Falcons Set to Release Kirk Cousins

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Never has a quarterback been paid so much to deliver so little. Two measly playoff appearances in 14 years for a quarterback to be paid $331 million? You’d have thought I was talking Joe Montana type performance when you see scratch like that. His last playoff appearance was facing off against then Giant QB Daniel Jones and lost at home 31-24 in the ’22 NFC Wildcard. Seriously??

That Giant team has imploded with Head Coach Daboll disgraced & fired by New York. He jettisoned QB Daniel Jones and drafted another QB while Saquon Barkley went on to a 2,000 yard season and a Super Bowl LIX championship in Philadelphia. Cousins hasn’t even returned to the playoffs or even played at a Pro Bowl level. Yet he secured a guaranteed $100 million from the Atlanta Falcons & gave 2 8-9 seasons and Coach Raheem Morris fired.

Everyone wants to talk about the disastrous contract of DeShaun Watson and rightfully so but Kirk Cousins never showed promise to reach a Super Bowl as Watson did early on. See 2019 playoffs..

No one has stolen this much money since Sam Bradford. Sam is the poster boy for the capped rookie deals we see now for 1st round QBs. Owners scoffed at having to spend $50 million (in 2010} for a rookie who didn’t deliver, injury or otherwise.

In the next bargaining agreement between the NFL & players Kirk Cousins will stand as the poster boy for what they will want to avoid as contracts have escalated out of control for “C” level journeymen quarterbacks.