Official Game Thread - Week 15 - Commanders @ Saints

RexTomb said:

Am I the only one that thinks the Tush Push should be banned. It's completely unfair. As soon as the players in the back push, the play should be blown dead because your forward progress has been stopped.

Click to expand...

I've been saying this for years. Same with the late whistle when forward progress had obviously stopped, they let the play continue and allow offensive players to push the pile which is also totally unfair to the defense. They have taken away the goal line stand which used to be a very exciting play.

Yeah, count me as a third vote against the tush push. It used to be illegal to help a ball carrier that way. If we did care about injuries I think that would be a good play to eliminate.

Didn't quite find my answer yet, but did find this

The study revealed that the San Francisco 49ers have the most in-demand merchandise in the build-up to the NFL season, topping the ranking with an average monthly search volume of 199,004. According to the study, the ‘49ers jersey’ is the most frequently searched item of NFL merchandise in the United States.

Question is, where do we fall and just how much more money/merch would the team make with better branding? How long to offset that 20m?

Another vote against the Tush Push along with OL running 5-10yds down the field and taking free runs at defenseless defensive players trying to make tackles… see this 3-4 times a game nowadays…

This got me closer to the answer.

Now, there are some numbers to support fans who still haven’t come around to the name. According to Josh Koebert of Finance Buzz, only three NFL fanbases spend less on merchandise than the Commanders.

The NFL league-wide average per team is $144.45 — Washington fans spend an average of $80.87 annually on team merchandise.

That doesn't surprise me because there is a significant portion of our fanbase that won't spend money on Commanders gear, not necessarily because it sucks (although much of it does) but because their 'not buying Commanders gear' is a personal statement. You see it in microcosm here, where there are a number of members who refuse to even use the 'C' word much less buy logo-ed gear. I think the way the Jason Wright rebrand went down created a lot more hostility because it was clear that the team badly underestimated the microscope their effort would be under and just how important the name change was to fans. It had all the feel of Ron Rivera and Wright sitting in an office and one of them blurting out 'let's go with something military sounding, how about ___________'s?'. They clearly completely ignored all of the results of a year long effort to include the fanbase in selecting a new name, and picked a name that no fan identified with or supported. That added a level of 'pathetic' that was shocking to even the most bitter of our fans.

I guess the open question remaining is (and this is probably why the Harris Group has tread so lightly and been so non-commital on rebranding), will the fanbase be more open to the next proposed name for this team - assuming they go with options that are either somehow meaningful to our franchise history, or that have known broad support already from at least a significant portion of the fanbase? Or will this fanbase continue to reject a new name and brand (both spirtually and via their wallets) no matter what the new name is?

To what extent another rebranding results in massive revenue generation may be closely tied to the answer to that question.

I do think one barrier to generating revenue with swag sales (and part of what is keeping us in the NFL cellar on fan $$ spending) is that a lot of the fanbase is holding their wallets closed in the anticipation that 'Commanders' may not be permanent. Why invest in a bunch of swag when you suspect the name is going away? So swag sales could see a massive spike just because fans accept that whatever a new franchise identity is decided upon, that is who we are going to be for the forseeable future - perhaps forever... Add in a really well thought out, more marketable identity, and you could see us move from the cellar back to the top of the NFL where we historically have been.

burgold said:

This got me closer to the answer.

Now, there are some numbers to support fans who still haven’t come around to the name. According to Josh Koebert of Finance Buzz, only three NFL fanbases spend less on merchandise than the Commanders.

The NFL league-wide average per team is $144.45 — Washington fans spend an average of $80.87 annually on team merchandise.

Commanders are among the NFL’s worst in team merchandise sales

The Commanders are among the NFL's worst in team merchandise sales.

sports.yahoo.com

Click to expand...

Not sure what this has to do with the Saints game, but my only caveat is this is from May--what's it look like now that Daniels is/was (not sure if he still is, but he was at one point) the top selling jersey?

Yeah, we've drifted a little off topic. A lot of that around these parts lately, lol... Luckily, we don't do a lot of 'moderating' around here. That will take some getting used to for a lot of you.

DWinzit said:

A point I took from Keims podcast

He thought St. Juste was only in on 2 plays in the first half and possibly only one in the second. And of course the latter one resulted in the usual penalty. He touched on just how much his hands are always high and grabbing causing many of the Hans to thee face and interference calls. It seemed like this guy was pretty good in his first two seasons, WTF happened to him. Thank goodness we now have a top CB to match up with Mikey.

Click to expand...

He sucked his rookie year despite the hype. I think we fell in love with him because he looked half decent vs the Eagles in his 2nd year and was having a solid season before getting injured.

Glad he is going to be gone. If you look at FA, there will be a number of outside CBs who would be upgrades on 1 year mid 7 figure deals. Big miss by the FO not to sign Gilmore during camp when it must have been apparent most of these corners couldn’t play

I am guessing, had Peters and Quinn foreseen just how transformative Jayden Daniels would be, and how competitive a team in year 1 of a massive rebuild turned out to be, they might have been a little more urgent in shoring us up in a couple of spots (WR, OL, pass rush). I don't think even they saw this season coming. But I'm kind of glad that we seem to be taking the long, patient approach.

DWinzit said:

It was interesting that Crowder just returning had more impact than McCaffrey. I was hoping he would get more looks yesterday. Next week Osborn will be added to the mix, not sure we are going to hear much of Lukes name anytime soon.

With there being a good chance Ertz is out this week, maybe this will allow Daniels to get comfortable with Sinnott

Click to expand...

I was hoping Luke would make an impact these final few weeks to perhaps show WR2 isn’t a need but that’s not happening. Hopefully he can be KR, PR and a depth receiver next year

This was the non-call that caused me to go absolutely ballistic. My dog came over make sure I was ok.

method man said:

He sucked his rookie year despite the hype. I think we fell in love with him because he looked half decent vs the Eagles in his 2nd year and was having a solid season before getting injured.

Glad he is going to be gone. If you look at FA, there will be a number of outside CBs who would be upgrades on 1 year mid 7 figure deals. Big miss by the FO not to sign Gilmore during camp when it must have been apparent most of these corners couldn’t play

Click to expand...

Yeah myself and several others voiced out opinion that Gilmore was there and we could not understand why they passed, age was discussed if I recall. But clearly that should have been the move made, BSJ is absolutely killing them.

Boone said:

I am guessing, had Peters and Quinn foreseen just how transformative Jayden Daniels would be, and how competitive a team in year 1 of a massive rebuild turned out to be, they might have been a little more urgent in shoring us up in a couple of spots (WR, OL, pass rush). I don't think even they saw this season coming. But I'm kind of glad that we seem to be taking the long, patient approach.

Click to expand...

You are right. Still frustrating nonetheless in hindsight as a fan they couldn’t marginally do a bit more (if you are going to sign older vets on 1 year deals, why not add 1-2 more?)

It’ll be nice however to have all this cap room going into the offseason

Yeah, they turned over 61% of the roster when it looks like maybe 75% was the sweet spot

Darrell Green Fan said:

Yeah myself and several others voiced out opinion that Gilmore was there and we could not understand why they passed, age was discussed if I recall. But clearly that should have been the move made, BSJ is absolutely killing them.

Click to expand...

They were also pursuing Yiadom hard in FA - Yiadom is no world beater but he’s a competent outside corner. It’s a shame they lost out on him too

Boone said:

Yeah, they turned over 61% of the roster when it looks like maybe 75% was the sweet spot

Click to expand...

Lol true

some frustrations from yesterday.
1. Yes, a win is a win.
2. The constant bunched near the OL formations aren't helping. When your OL is struggling, get your receivers spread out there. Pull the defense out of the box.
3. Yes, taking snaps and running from shotgun is way more common this year, but because we only have JD under center a few times this year, we're losing the opportunity to make the defense have to adjust more. And yeah, I know our center was out.
4. That 50+ yard FG attempt was a terrible idea. Giving them near midfield immediately after a miss? No, pin the way deep if you can.
5. 100% agree with Method Man on wiffing on Gilmore.
6. I thought Ben Sinnott was viewed as more of a HB while listed as TE. So, why can't he get back there to block from that HB/FB spot?
7. 9 wins is awesome in year one of a new front office and coaching staff. We're seeing the weaknesses they couldn't fix along with everything else on display as the season goes on. Need another CB, need another safety. Still need to decide if you can upgrade a tackle. Really need a #1 TE.


Still, a win is a win is a win. Not sure where win #10 comes from. Maybe Atlanta is cooked in a few weeks and playing different guys on the road in some terrible weather? Next week with Philly is a yikes. Dallas to close the season is too unless Jerry is starting all backups because they're eliminated already.

Someone asked whether the clock stopped with 9 seconds left when it shouldn’t have. It did. Here it is:

Riggo44 said:

Not sure what this has to do with the Saints game, but my only caveat is this is from May--what's it look like now that Daniels is/was (not sure if he still is, but he was at one point) the top selling jersey?

Click to expand...

I thought I was in a different thread actually. LOL.

This should have gone in the logo thread.