Fear The Chorizo

You're not simply "taking" 3 though. They barely got the first FG attempt off. Its still a much higher percentage play than converting 4th and 3 in the red zone

Take the points on a cold night...4th and short maybe go nuts, not 4th and 3.

All penalties aside, can they cover a tight end at some point?

2022 cap gymnastics is all entirely dependent on what happens with Rodgers - if he wants to stick around he will need to do so under a new contract that makes his 2022 cap number much smaller than what his current contract would be. After that, there will be plenty of other obvious cuts and restructures to make it work.

Bears played there a bunch when they were actually winning NFL titles, too - wrigley also saw some boxing and hockey events. I think it's there because parts of it are really old and its in a big market, making it "iconic".

Soldier field should be on this list if not for the spaceship they threw inside the original stadium....many a great sporting event held there from a wide variety of sports, especially historically. Golf wise, I'd put Pebble Beach over Augusta on this list. College hoops-wise, Cameron indoor doesn't come close to matching Pauley Pavillion or even Allen fieldhouse in terms of being iconic IMO.

Between bakh, jaire, and z. smith its probably time to either have them give it a go before the end of the season or they gotta get put on IR if there's roster issues that make it hard to keep them active but not playing. For all of these guys, they need regular season snaps for me to even envision wanting them on the field in the playoffs. If they can't play in week 18 at Detroit, I don't see how they can be counted on in the playoffs even with a 1st round bye.

NFL and NFLPA agree to reduce COVID isolation time to 5 days, provided COVID-positive players are asymptomatic or even with mild symptoms that are resolving - regardless of vaccination status.

Voice of the NFL on tv for a long time. RIP coach. GOAT in terms of color analysts through the era that saw the NFL explode in terms of popularity, and he was also a great coach - There aren't too many other names that are more associated with football than Madden. Missed the special on Madden on Christmas that Fox broadcast, and will now have to find time to watch it...RIP

That article is trying to explain where viral transmission is coming from and justifying the NFL's policy not to worry about asymptomatic, vaccinated players potentially spreading virus at team facilities during the week -. Actually, I think the larger point of the article is that far more players actually have symptoms and somewhat predictably, they aren't being transparent about it in an effort to try to play, hence leading to wider spread. I think that's what may have been happening before the policy change a few weeks ago, when all vaccinated players were tested on a Monday, then whoever passed those tests didn't worry about any minor symptoms during that week until the next round of tests. That's what was leading to Tuesday and Wednesday press releases of a team winding up with 20 players/coaches suddenly having positive COVID tests after the team was largely unimpacted with the previous testing policy, and then those teams that got put into stricter NFL protocols had a snowball effect on cases due to more frequent testing. Take the Chiefs last week - they had a handful of positive test results on Tuesday after their Monday night game, including Kelce and Hill - then as the week moved on added a few other players to their COVID list who reported symptoms and needed to get tested. Hill then actually wound up being able to clear protocols and suit up for Sunday's game on a short week because he was asymptomatic throughout and vaccinated and subsequent test results cleared him to play just 5 days after testing positive. I definitely agree that players are going to be hesitant to report symptoms no matter what the policy is, that's been going on all season long no matter how public relations try to spin it - the NFL changing its testing frequency for vaccinated players (which is essentially 95% of league rosters) is going to allow them to get through their season and playoffs as scheduled as long as the current variant symptoms are either nonexistent or barely noticeable in vaccinated people who aren't considered high risk (fever is not one of the primary symptoms of the Omicron variant).

And I'd guess the majority of them were among the random groupings of asymptomatic vaccinated players selected for weekly COVID testing Actually, apparently not per the NFL. Nearly all cases now are symptomatic: https://theathletic.com/news/asymptomatic-people-are-not-spreading-covid-19-says-nfl-chief-medical-officer-allen-sills/p6cOlxPtkv87/ That article is trying to explain where viral transmission is coming from and justifying the NFL's policy not to worry about asymptomatic, vaccinated players potentially spreading virus at team facilities during the week - it doesn't indicate that players/coaches testing positive on a Monday the day after playing a football game are symptomatic themselves. It actually indicates players are likely getting infected away from team facilities. Any positive COVID tests that are announced Wed-Saturday in an NFL week are going to be either unvaxxed players who tested positive from one of their daily tests (the # of unvaxxed players who haven't already gotten COVID can probably be counted on a pair of hands at this point), or a vaxxed player whose infection became symptomatic during the week and warranted a test. Positive tests at the start of an NFL week are most likely to be from the random grouping of vaxxed players picked each week to test regardless of symptoms, plus any players reporting symptoms when showing up to team facilities right after a game. When a press release indicating a group of players that tested positive on a given day at the start of a week still have the potential to suit up and play the team's next game, it's because they are asymptomatic cases at the time of their initial positive testing result and vaccinated.

And I'd guess the majority of them were among the random groupings of asymptomatic vaccinated players selected for weekly COVID testing - the actual # of NFL players and coaches who currently have COVID right now is probably much, much higher. This will be a weekly thing that the NFL hopes winds down in about 3 weeks, so conference championship games and the Super Bowl aren't dramatically impacted. I'd imagine the random weekly grouping of players picked for testing from each team is like 10% of their roster including their practice squad, so around 6-7 players - that's roughly 200 vaccinated players tested each sunday/monday after games. Say that only 75% of those 106 positive tests were from that random selection of ~200 - that's still about a 40% positive rate on a single day, which is insanely high. Extrapolate that rate across the rest of the league rosters - there'd be no way the season would still be going on without their policy change that doesn't require weekly testing for all vaccinated players/personnel a few weeks ago. There are vaxxed players who still are showing symptoms and getting tested when those symptoms show up (likely the positive tests that happen later in the week as teams get closer to gameday). But the Monday/Tuesday results are mostly going to be coming from asymptomatic and vaccinated players. You know the NFL will plow through but this surge could explode during the playoffs. Getting that bye gets bigger and bigger for the Pack. Yes, the bye is big, but not for COVID reasons - last I checked people get COVID outside of NFL team facilities, too. The bye is huge simply for on the field football reasons getting homefield but most importantly only needing to win 2 games to reach the Super Bowl. This COVID surge has been tearing through the league for the past month, and it's probably at the point where more players/coaches have recently had COVID compared to those who haven't regardless of vaccination status - that limits how many future infections happen during the playoffs when player availability matters the most. If I'm the Packers, the week before Rodgers actually has to start getting tested daily again (which is around NFCCG week, I believe), I have him start testing regularly himself and then put him in a bubble as long as the Packers are still alive in the playoffs - any natural immunity from his infection in October probably won't be too helpful for the most recent variant in terms of preventing a positive COVID test.

MVS likely to be back this Sunday, too.

Not at all - such is the NFL week to week. The Eagles crushed the Giants by more than what the Cowboys did just last week and the Bucs were shut out by the Saints last week...does that mean the Eagles and Saints are to be even more feared by Packer fans in the NFC?

It was all drama apparently as he is back in. Yeah, but the fact it took him a month to get back on the field and the first time he really had to do anything forcefully on that ankle led an injuy timeout means he is nowhere near 100 percent next weekend.

Well, despite their week 1 approach they have a full game lead for home field advantage with just two games left now at the end of the year. I could care less how the Packers played right after labor day compared to right now, and taking that -35 from a now meaningless week 1 game off their point +/- totals is much more reflective of what they are now as a team.

Thielen looks like he reaggravated his bum ankle....bodes very well for next Sunday night

Take out the week 1 debacle against the Saints, which was basically the packer starters' preseason, and that point spread looks much more in line with their current record. Also, many of those close wins were games that GB led by 10+ most of the game and their opponent found ways to make it close late. Look around the league - all the good teams have a few games they lost that made everyone question what they will do in the postseason. GB isn't 12-3 due to a soft schedule, either...they went 4-0 against the nfc west and 4-0 against the afc north, and their 3 losses came in week 1 (outlier at this point), at KC without Rodgers by 1 score, and at MN by one score in a game they played terribly in for the 1st half. We as packer fans may question how good the Packers actually are, but they have fewer questions than any other NFL team right now headed into january.

12-3...no other nfl team can say that after this weekend no matter how pretty or ugly it looks at times. NFL playoffs in general are going to be wide open this season, and a very injured Packers team will need things to break their way in order to win it all themselves. I do think the Packer defense is going to show up more than what this was, but they have to because today wasn't pretty.

There goes the Vikings' gameplan of ramming Cook into the line 32 times. Of course they'll just do that with Mattison now. Zimmer's coaching philosophy is straight out of 1987. As I recall, Cousins passed for about 350 yards against us a couple weeks ago. Cook had a decent game, but Cousins shredded us going repeatedly to Jefferson and Thielen. Since then Thielen badly sprained an ankle that has kept him out of the last 3 games and Cook injured his shoulder, and the vikings' offense has been very pedestrian most of the time. Jefferson is a problem, but it's easier to roll coverage his way without a healthy thielen on the other side. The Vikings are so jekyll and hyde, they always find a way to be in a 1 score game - they will likely be playing for their postseason lives next wkend so I'm sure it'll be a tough game. Will make it sweeter to bury them. Cook was unvaxxed, so it'll be interesting if he can get back on the field by next Sunday night... As for the 49ers, their defense is enough to keep them in any game, and Jimmy g is enough for them to lose any game, too. If a team holds their running game in check the beat s.f..

I thought Clark is still on the Covid list, unless I missed him coming off? Big shot in the arm to the defense when he does return... Nm, saw he did come off and practice this week - good deal!

Whether Hader gets traded before free agency or not probably depends on how the Brewers are doing during his last season of team control. If they are in contention Hader doesn't get traded before reaching free agency, otherwise he is traded at the deadline for a haul of prospects - at which point this board will debate for the next 6 seasons whether they could have gotten more in return for trading him a couple seasons sooner without acknowledging that the immense value the Brewers got by keeping him at the back end of their bullpen on teams trying to contend all the way through free agency probably outweighs any trade package difference between dealing him now vs in two seasons.

TB, the Saints, the Cowboys, and the 49ers probably have better fronts than the Rams do even with a healthy Donald and Von Miller. The Packers have done an amazing job piecing together a decent offensive line all year, while my immediate concern is getting that line as solidified as possible for the postseason when they probably need to beat at least two quality defensive fronts to reach the super bowl, to me a bigger issue is if Bakh is no longer the same elite left tackle following this knee injury longterm, which will really suck since they are paying him like the all pro he was.

I know it's still been less than a year since he sustained the ACL injury, but this is starting to get quite concerning about him as a player longterm. They already had to go back in and clean up his knee after his first setback a few weeks ago.

Totally agreed