2016/2017 NFL Week 17

[Flint]

The question is will any team look at Burkhead or Zenner as potential starters and sign them? Probably not. They are both seen as nothing more than decent journeymen type running backs and second or third stringers.

My guess, and perhaps I am being overly negative is that Buckhead gets no other offers and returns to his role as #3 back. The Lions will draft a RB high next year and cut Zenner at the end of camp.

 

[Shadowlight]

It's been a damn good day so far, with the glaring exception of Adam Thielen coming up short of 1,000 yards.

Three things mattered to me going into Sunday. The Packers (with Jordy my main man) making the playoffs which they did with the added bonus of getting home field in the wild card round vs. the dreaded Giants, who deserve some credit for playing hard against the Redskins with nothing to gain although some key Giants sat out the second half and the Redskins probably lost the game more than the Giants won it. Second was for Julian E to go over 1000 yards which he did with flying colors including a nifty 77 yard TD. So why am I not especially happy. How the F did the Vikings ignore Thielen when all he needed for a thousand yards was 40 plus yards or so. He finished the day with one catch for 7 yards. Geeze I know they won but please reward the young player for beating all odds. I am not a stat hound per say but this one pissed me off especially since we have been charting 1000 yard guys here recently.
Chris Hogan could have easily had a league best yards per catch but they dinked and dunked him so he has to share the crown with that ******* Desean Jackson of the Redskins at 17.9 yards per catch. Still not shabby. Don had mentioned both Hogan and Thielen as being the breakout players this year and those two alone really helped improve the status of a season that looked like it was heading for the ditch early on. Interesting that both of these guys showed flashes last year and they both are fluid and can really run. Nice to see.
Maybe next year Denver's Jordan Taylor could emerge as a player ready to break out? The WR position is still lacking though and we need more to emerge. Athletic speedsters like Janis who at least is in the league and Boehringer ( who never made the Vikings roster) are still in limbo land. Whether often injured Campanaro or Alex Erickson can expand their duties to include WR remains to be seen but Adam Humphries had a nice game yesterday and improving Cole Beasley who tailed off at the end of the year is at least recognized now as a threat in the slot. He is faster than Welker ever was and can Braverman hopefully start emerging next season as another slot guy? No idea on that score. Eric Decker should be back next season too. One last thing . I like this Carson Wentz but please give the guy some receivers holy cow they have the worst set out there. TE Ertz is amazing though. Wentz is a hunting buddy with Mike Trout who was at the game being from South Jersey and a life long Eagles fan. Wentz handed a TD ball to Trout who was sitting field level.

 

[sprintstar]

Call me delusional but I truly believe Thielan, Ripkowski, Zenner, Nelson were ignored intentionally in the second half(Nelson in the first half) by their coaches(pressured by the NFL) as they did not want white players to excel. If Detroit had continued to run Zenner they would have had a much better result. Nelson was the go to guy in the second as they were in trouble and needed bailing out to win. Thielan was blatantly kept out of the receiving loop yet he was open frequently. Ripkowski was a beast in the first half and could have hit 100yds on the ground but was benched so he couldn't do it. How would they have explained to the league if he had done 100 and Nelson was over 100, NFL would never let that happen. I do not believe Beasley tailed off I believe he was deliberately ignored last third of the season so he had no chance of hitting 1000 yds. As fas as JE hitting 1000yds I think Brady just said to the coaches and NFL.."screw you" we want to win.....

 

[Leonardfan]

Wouldn't it be quite the storyline if Connor Cook led the Raiders to the Super Bowl? It would be great to see him steal the show from Prescott in the playoffs. I'm not saying the Raiders are at all a palatable team with the coal black roster but I really liked Cook coming out of college and he fell in the draft due to "character concerns" that were made up to tarnish his reputation leading up to the 2016 draft.

 

[Leonardfan]

Call me delusional but I truly believe Thielan, Ripkowski, Zenner, Nelson were ignored intentionally in the second half(Nelson in the first half) by their coaches(pressured by the NFL) as they did not want white players to excel. If Detroit had continued to run Zenner they would have had a much better result. Nelson was the go to guy in the second as they were in trouble and needed bailing out to win. Thielan was blatantly kept out of the receiving loop yet he was open frequently. Ripkowski was a beast in the first half and could have hit 100yds on the ground but was benched so he couldn't do it. How would they have explained to the league if he had done 100 and Nelson was over 100, NFL would never let that happen. I do not believe Beasley tailed off I believe he was deliberately ignored last third of the season so he had no chance of hitting 1000 yds. As fas as JE hitting 1000yds I think Brady just said to the coaches and NFL.."screw you" we want to win.....

I's pretty amazing when looking at Beasley, Humphries, Thielen, Zenner, Edelman, Erickson amongst others that they were all either undrafted or drafted late. This year's draft class will see at least 10 more white WRs in NFL camps (as UDFAs - I think we see 3-4 white WRS drafted) but with the recent success of white WRs going the UDFA route I think more will stick around next season.

 

[Carolina Speed]

I's pretty amazing when looking at Beasley, Humphries, Thielen, Zenner, Edelman, Erickson amongst others that they were all either undrafted or drafted late. This year's draft class will see at least 10 more white WRs in NFL camps (as UDFAs - I think we see 3-4 white WRS drafted) but with the recent success of white WRs going the UDFA route I think more will stick around next season.

Leonardfan. What about RB's? We know about McCaffrey. He's listed around 5th as RB's taken and New Hampshire's Crossan is rated around 27th and UTC's Craine , 34th. Any other RB's in the mix? Thanks.

 

[Leonardfan]

Leonardfan. What about RB's? We know about McCaffrey. He's listed around 5th as RB's taken and New Hampshire's Crossan is rated around 27th and UTC's Craine , 34th. Any other RB's in the mix? Thanks.

I would add Lamar RB Kade Harrington to the list as well - he is a Danny Woodhead type. Sam Rogers out of Va Tech could be an interesting guy to watch as well. He was a utility FB/RB for Va Tech - if he tests well he may be drafted.

 

[Don Wassall]

Three things mattered to me going into Sunday. The Packers (with Jordy my main man) making the playoffs which they did with the added bonus of getting home field in the wild card round vs. the dreaded Giants, who deserve some credit for playing hard against the Redskins with nothing to gain although some key Giants sat out the second half and the Redskins probably lost the game more than the Giants won it. Second was for Julian E to go over 1000 yards which he did with flying colors including a nifty 77 yard TD. So why am I not especially happy. How the F did the Vikings ignore Thielen when all he needed for a thousand yards was 40 plus yards or so. He finished the day with one catch for 7 yards. Geeze I know they won but please reward the young player for beating all odds. I am not a stat hound per say but this one pissed me off especially since we have been charting 1000 yard guys here recently.
Chris Hogan could have easily had a league best yards per catch but they dinked and dunked him so he has to share the crown with that ******* Desean Jackson of the Redskins at 17.9 yards per catch. Still not shabby. Don had mentioned both Hogan and Thielen as being the breakout players this year and those two alone really helped improve the status of a season that looked like it was heading for the ditch early on. Interesting that both of these guys showed flashes last year and they both are fluid and can really run. Nice to see.
Maybe next year Denver's Jordan Taylor could emerge as a player ready to break out? The WR position is still lacking though and we need more to emerge. Athletic speedsters like Janis who at least is in the league and Boehringer ( who never made the Vikings roster) are still in limbo land. Whether often injured Campanaro or Alex Erickson can expand their duties to include WR remains to be seen but Adam Humphries had a nice game yesterday and improving Cole Beasley who tailed off at the end of the year is at least recognized now as a threat in the slot. He is faster than Welker ever was and can Braverman hopefully start emerging next season as another slot guy? No idea on that score. Eric Decker should be back next season too. One last thing . I like this Carson Wentz but please give the guy some receivers holy cow they have the worst set out there. TE Ertz is amazing though. Wentz is a hunting buddy with Mike Trout who was at the game being from South Jersey and a life long Eagles fan. Wentz handed a TD ball to Trout who was sitting field level.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, Stefon Diggs unexpectedly missing the game with a lingering injury seemed to ruin it for Thielen. Both were over 900 yards going into the game and the hype all week was about both of them going over 1,000 as the Vikings haven't had a thousand yard receiver in some time.

It was a meaningless game for Minnesota and they were well ahead of Chicago the whole game. Sam Bradford was completing passes with ease all over the field. Normally in these types of games, a great deal of effort is put into trying to ensure that a black player reaches a reachable goal. In the case of receiver, they're forcefed the ball. But it was the opposite with Adam, he was studiously ignored. Given the racial dynamics of the Caste System it must have been felt by the Vikings organization that just Thielen reaching 1,000 yards would have angered Diggs and many other Vikings players. Blacks are hyper-aware racially, and are also often egocentric and very insecure.

Then again, maybe it was just Thielen having a bad day, all of a sudden unable to get open the Sunday following his 202 yard, 2 TD performance the week before. Both Thielen and Diggs reaching a thousand yards would have made for an "acceptable" event to celebrate. But not Thielen alone. My bet is that the black supremacist milieu of the NFL was the main factor in what took place.

 

[celticdb15]

Just read Ripkowski was banged up last night, so that explains why his carries dwindled in 2nd half.

 

[PHillisFan]

Wouldn't it be quite the storyline if Connor Cook led the Raiders to the Super Bowl? It would be great to see him steal the show from Prescott in the playoffs. I'm not saying the Raiders are at all a palatable team with the coal black roster but I really liked Cook coming out of college and he fell in the draft due to "character concerns" that were made up to tarnish his reputation leading up to the 2016 draft.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, Stefon Diggs unexpectedly missing the game with a lingering injury seemed to ruin it for Thielen. Both were over 900 yards going into the game and the hype all week was about both of them going over 1,000 as the Vikings haven't had a thousand yard receiver in some time.

It was a meaningless game for Minnesota and they were well ahead of Chicago the whole game. Sam Bradford was completing passes with ease all over the field. Normally in these types of games, a great deal of effort is put into trying to ensure that a black player reaches a reachable goal. In the case of receiver, they're forcefed the ball. But it was the opposite with Adam, he was studiously ignored. Given the racial dynamics of the Caste System it must have been felt by the Vikings organization that just Thielen reaching 1,000 yards would have angered Diggs and many other Vikings players. Blacks are hyper-aware racially, and are also often egocentric and very insecure.

Then again, maybe it was just Thielen having a bad day, all of a sudden unable to get open the Sunday following his 202 yard, 2 TD performance the week before. Both Thielen and Diggs reaching a thousand yards would have made for an "acceptable" event to celebrate. But not Thielen alone. My bet is that the black supremacist milieu of the NFL was the main factor in what took place.

Don, you are on to something. Just read that the Saints knew their rb Ingram was close to 1,000 and fed him the rock yesterday so he could reach it. It seems black athletes put personal milestones over winning in their priority list. I don't think AT made much noise about it, which is why the Vikings did not make it a priority for him to get the ball. It could be that AT was just not able to get open because of double teams and game planning.

 

[Westside]

I sense some bigunrealism at the tail end of this thread.

 

[Leonardfan]

I sense some bigunrealism at the tail end of this thread.

Racial politics in locker rooms are real things. I don't think the last posts in this thread are that far off from the truth.

 

[Carolina Speed]

I would add Lamar RB Kade Harrington to the list as well - he is a Danny Woodhead type. Sam Rogers out of Va Tech could be an interesting guy to watch as well. He was a utility FB/RB for Va Tech - if he tests well he may be drafted.

Harrington rated as the number 8 RB, according to NFL Draft Scout. Kind of surprised by that, but optimistic!

 

[Upside]

Call me delusional but I truly believe Thielan, Ripkowski, Zenner, Nelson were ignored intentionally in the second half(Nelson in the first half) by their coaches(pressured by the NFL) as they did not want white players to excel. If Detroit had continued to run Zenner they would have had a much better result. Nelson was the go to guy in the second as they were in trouble and needed bailing out to win. Thielan was blatantly kept out of the receiving loop yet he was open frequently. Ripkowski was a beast in the first half and could have hit 100yds on the ground but was benched so he couldn't do it. How would they have explained to the league if he had done 100 and Nelson was over 100, NFL would never let that happen. I do not believe Beasley tailed off I believe he was deliberately ignored last third of the season so he had no chance of hitting 1000 yds. As fas as JE hitting 1000yds I think Brady just said to the coaches and NFL.."screw you" we want to win.....

I hope that's not true, but it really wouldn't surprise me. Look at Michael Sam, where it was found that the NFL made a shady deal with the Rams to ensure the gay guy gets drafted. Knowing how steeped the NFL is in AA, and other social issues, would it really be that hard to believe the NFL could make a phone call to the Packers and say 'I want to see more DeVonte' or call the Vikings and say 'That's enough for Adam'? Is it that farfetched? Honestly, the way things always seem to turn out, it's almost foolish to not believe there's someone in the background pulling strings...

 

[MrPoon]

How is McCaffrey not rated number 1 RB?

 

[Lew]

I sense some bigunrealism at the tail end of this thread.

Yeah so what ? He was a very good poster. I wish he still posted here.

 

[Lew]

I hope that's not true, but it really wouldn't surprise me. Look at Michael Sam, where it was found that the NFL made a shady deal with the Rams to ensure the gay guy gets drafted. Knowing how steeped the NFL is in AA, and other social issues, would it really be that hard to believe the NFL could make a phone call to the Packers and say 'I want to see more DeVonte' or call the Vikings and say 'That's enough for Adam'? Is it that farfetched? Honestly, the way things always seem to turn out, it's almost foolish to not believe there's someone in the background pulling strings...

I don't even think the league has to make a call for that to happen. The people working in the Vikings organization are probably fully aware of the racial politics here. If we at CF know about it then they do too. None of these things ever happen by coincidence . Every time Jordy gets ignored completely in the second half after a 100 yard first half its done by design

 

[icsept]

A few interesting storylines for week 17. Edelman and Thielen getting to 1000 yards, hopefully. Green Bay beating Detroit, but Zenner having a big game. Denver knocking off the Raiders and KC winning the division and first round bye. Big game for Burkhead. Tom Brady securing all time single season TD to interception ratio by throwing 3 TDs and no picks. Should be an interesting day.

Everything I anticipated came to fruition, except Thielen. As well as a few additional nice surprises from Ertz, Rudolph and Ripkowski.

 

[Westside]

Yeah so what ? He was a very good poster. I wish he still posted here.

It was meant to be funny. Thats what.

 

[icsept]

I was surprised to see Zenner on special teams throughout the game. I can't imagine why you would fatigue your lead back by making him do multiple 50 yard wind sprints.

 

[Flint]

I was surprised to see Zenner on special teams throughout the game. I can't imagine why you would fatigue your lead back by making him do multiple 50 yard wind sprints.

I don't think it would have been possible to get 20 carries and also cover kicks. It must have been someone else. Perhaps Jace Billingsley who was just added, and who I thought would get some reps, but Andre Roberts was not hurt as projected. Also it may have been Miles Killebrew who has a similar number and build and is a very light skinned mixed race guy.

 

[wile]

If you doubt at the very least there is a Black Culture in the NFL watch one of their panel shows on the NFL Network. It is probably at the point if they were asked specifically if there is a bias towards blacks they would all but admit it, Eric Dickerson will. To cut to the chase I think even the "normies" know they are lying to themselves about racial equality (whatever that means) and all the social gospels of latter day 'Murka 2.0.

And I'll mention it again I think the college recruitment step in the Caste System is its weak point in so many ways.

 

[Shadowlight]

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, Stefon Diggs unexpectedly missing the game with a lingering injury seemed to ruin it for Thielen. Both were over 900 yards going into the game and the hype all week was about both of them going over 1,000 as the Vikings haven't had a thousand yard receiver in some time.

It was a meaningless game for Minnesota and they were well ahead of Chicago the whole game. Sam Bradford was completing passes with ease all over the field. Normally in these types of games, a great deal of effort is put into trying to ensure that a black player reaches a reachable goal. In the case of receiver, they're forcefed the ball. But it was the opposite with Adam, he was studiously ignored. Given the racial dynamics of the Caste System it must have been felt by the Vikings organization that just Thielen reaching 1,000 yards would have angered Diggs and many other Vikings players. Blacks are hyper-aware racially, and are also often egocentric and very insecure.

Then again, maybe it was just Thielen having a bad day, all of a sudden unable to get open the Sunday following his 202 yard, 2 TD performance the week before. Both Thielen and Diggs reaching a thousand yards would have made for an "acceptable" event to celebrate. But not Thielen alone. My bet is that the black supremacist milieu of the NFL was the main factor in what took place.

This whole Thielen story has thrown me into an abyss. As I have mentioned numerous times there are two positions in sports that matter most to me: wide receivers in football and centerfielders in baseball. Anytime something big happens to white guys playing these positions I am on edge. NFL locker rooms are more and more starting to resemble NBA locker rooms where blacks rule the roost especially when it comes to the "glory" positions like RB and WR. These black locker room leaders do not give a rat's ass about offensive linemen, kickers and punters who are seen more as glorified pool attendants. It is beyond merely upsetting to think that these modern day locker room environments is killing off white skill position players. A drop back white QB is still tolerated because he can throw the ball to the brothers and make them look good. Things are tough enough for white athletes and now we have locker room toxicity to deal with as well.
Again I don't get to wrapped up in stats but in this case where white receivers have rarely even sniffed a 1000 yard season it kills me to think Thielen needed a paltry 40 yards or so to break the barrier and was ignored. And judging from the posts above we here at castefootball are pissed off to the max.
This was Thielen's breakout year but it has been blindsided by this last minute tire blowout . So instead of the NFL witnessing a rising and exciting young star they see a journeyman who happened to have a "decent" year. That in my mind is the difference between reaching 1000 yards and falling short. A good analogy. A baseball player is batting .299 with one more game to go. If he gets a hit in three at bats he breaks the magical .300 batting average. It seems like in Thielen's case they didn't let him come to the plate in the final game.
Whether or not the locker room would have felt uneasy if Thielen hit the 1000 mark and that played into his snubbing is open to conjecture but you sure and hell can't rule it out these days. Another things to consider is the Diggs/ Thielen dynamic. Diggs is one of those countless black wide outs who gets drafted (5th round) and gets a nice guarantee 4 year contract of two and a half million. Nice big money and job security. The usual script was set to follow--young exciting deep threat Diggs takes the NFL by storm and quickly becomes the Vikings number one receiver. But as the season wore on it became apparent the best receiver and deep threat on the team was the little engine that could Thielin. After the spectacular performance against the Packers in a close important game ( it could have ended the Pack's season) NFL people finally admitted this guy has real blistering talent. I believe Thielen is under a one year 600,000 deal. Could it be that the Viking's brass turned Adam into the invisible man Sunday so they can sign another budget deal with him going forward? I don't know what to think and I don't believe in ghosts but the whole scenario reeks if you ask me. Looking ahead the Vikings will have Thielen as the number one guy with Diggs( serviceable) and the overrated slow rookie Treadwell who might become handy in spots down the road but he flunked his first test.
Patterson is more of a return specialist which leaves raw and explosive Boehringer baking in the oven. Imagine if he was to emerge along with Adam? It would be Go Vikings Go !!!! But what's the point of dreaming when a guy basically needs a few inches to reach a milestone and poof against the law of physics it never materialized.

 

[icsept]

I don't think it would have been possible to get 20 carries and also cover kicks. It must have been someone else. Perhaps Jace Billingsley who was just added, and who I thought would get some reps, but Andre Roberts was not hurt as projected. Also it may have been Miles Killebrew who has a similar number and build and is a very light skinned mixed race guy.

I looked it up and he only played 4 special teams snaps along with 64 (out of 66) offensive snaps. The other running back, Washington got zero offensive snaps and 14 special teams.

 

[Don Wassall]

Read between the lines:

Lunchbreak: Win Tops Yards Quest for Adam Thielen

Adam Thielen’s career year didn’t end with 1,000 receiving yards.

The Vikings wide receiver was just happy his team ended the 2016 season with a win.

Chris Tomasson of thePioneer Presschatted with Thielen on Sunday about falling a few dozen yards shy of the milestone.

Tomasson wrote:

Thielen finished the season with 69 catches for 967 yards, quite an improvement over last year’s 12 grabs for 144 yards. He insisted he didn’t care about not reaching 1,000 yards.

“Nope,’’ he said. “I was just playing the game. You can’t look at that stuff as a receiver because there are so many factors that lead into that kind of stuff. You just got to play the game and try to win.’’

When asked about being targeted just once, the receiver said, “You can’t be surprised in this league.’’

Second-year receiverStefon Diggsalso had been a candidate to reach 1,000 yards. Diggs, though, didn’t play Sunday because of a hip injury and finished with 84 catches for 903 yards.

http://www.vikings.com/news/article...-Thielen/e4b7509e-207f-47a7-b8e9-7f470c725edc