Ten Thoughts on the NFL

1) I’m usually quick to take a shot at Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, because, well, he’s usually doing/saying something silly. But this time I’m actually going to applaud the vocal leader of “America’s Team.”

The NFL has banned teams from posting video or GIF highlights on social media, and when the NFL starts to do something stupid, it usually escalates into something really, really stupid. I have a feeling they’ll eventually stop sites like ours from sharing GIFs of plays, just because they want total control.

Jones is fighting to end the ban because he feels teams should be able to do whatever they want with highlights form their team.

Here’s an example that grinds my gears. The NFL has a YouTube channel to share plays and to promote their “brand,” but they prevent anyone from sharing the videos from YouTube because they want complete control of everything. What’s the harm in a site like Windy City Gridiron taking an NFL-produced clip of some Chicago Bears’ highlights (insert ‘The Bears have highlights?’ joke here) off of YouTube and sharing it?

2) More NFL dumbness.

This was a penalty for a “Throat Slash.”

This is an actual Throat Slash.

Any questions?

Was Oakland Raiders’ wide out Michael Crabtree contemplating a throat slash? Maybe...

Was he thinking about doing the Dab? That’s possible...

Was he about to flex his right bicep? I guess...

Was he about to brush his shoulders off? Who knows...

But what ever he did, it wasn’t a throat slash.

3) New York Giants’ kicker Josh Brown was placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List. I’m guessing the Commissioner’s Dumbass List was already full.

The Giants have finally released Brown earlier today.

4) Robbie Gould, out of the NFL since he was a surprise cut by the Bears before the season started, was signed by the Giants and had to fly to London for their Sunday morning game. He went 2 for 2 on extra points and he made his only field goal try.

5) Speaking of ex-Bears, did you realize that two former Bears led their teams in rushing last weekend?

Matt Forte led the New York Jets with 100 yards on 30 carries, but the big surprise was Jacquizz Rodgers ripping off 154 yards on 26 carries for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

6) The Jets benched QB Ryan Fitzpatrick because he was sucking. They replaced him with Geno Smith, who didn’t suck as much, but them Smith tore his knee up during the game on Sunday, so they had to go back to Fitzpatrick who finished up decently.

Now with Smith out for the season, the Jets are going back to Fitzpatrick and Fitzpatrick handled the move with pure class. “The biggest thing in this game in order to last is to have belief in yourself,” Fitzpatrick said. “Because when the owner stops believing in you, and the GM stops believing in you, and the coaches stop believing in you, sometimes all you have is yourself.”

What a whiny cry-ass.

His head coach Todd Bowles responded the best way possible, “If pissed off is going to stop the turnovers,” Fitzpatrick has thrown 11 interceptions and has 5 fumbles this season, “I'm more than happy that he'll be pissed off the whole time.”

7) The NFL trade deadline is coming up on November 1st, and as usual, there isn’t much noise. The only rumor worth mentioning deals with the San Francisco 49ers trading wide out Torrey Smith to the Philadelphia Eagles. Smith has been OK during his 6 years as a pro, with his career bests of 65 receptions and 1,128 yards coming in 2013 with the Ravens, and his career high 11 TDs coming in 2014 in Baltimore.

The Eagles could use another wide out, but I wouldn’t give any credence to the “rumor” floated by Jason La Confora that they are interested in trading for Chicago’s Alshon Jeffery. If a team trades for the franchise tagged Jeffery, they wouldn’t be able to sign him to a deal until after the season. So would a team risk trading picks for a guy that couldn’t lock up long term?

8) So maybe Jay Ajayi going over 200 yards rushing a couple weeks ago wasn’t a fluke. The Dolphin tailback followed up his week six 204 yard effort against the Steelers by going for 214 yards on Sunday against the Bills.

We talked about a good running game helping Dolphins’ QB Ryan Tannehill in last week’s Ten Thoughts, and he set a season high in passer rating for a 2nd consecutive week.

The ‘Fins have won two in a row behind Ajayi’s hard running and Tennehill’s efficiency.

9) Another team with 2 wins in a row, the San Diego Chargers, seems to have Lady Luck on their side after flubbing their way into silly losses earlier this season. They match-up with the Denver Broncos next in week eight, after just beating them 21-13 in week six. If they can somehow knock off the Broncos in Denver, that division will get really interesting from 1st place through 4th.

10) This hasn’t been a very good week for Prime Time NFL football.

Thursday night was a sloppy affair (19 combined penalties), that turned into a 16 point win for the Packers over the Bears. The Sunday nighter was a 3-3 game at the end of regulation, then both kickers made field goals to extend the overtime, before each missed a chip shot that would have won for their respective teams. Seattle and Arizona settled for the first tie in the league since 2014.

Then the Monday Night affair featured the Houston Texans’ Brock Osweiler barely completing half of his 41 passes (22 for 131 yards and a 60.1 passer rating) in a 27-9 loss to the Denver Broncos.

I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so if you’re a fan of those three winning teams, you probably were OK with Prime Time this week, but I wonder how much the casual fan enjoyed those games?