OT: JJ Watt signs with Cardinals
I am happy.
The Houston to Arizona pipeline continues.
Randy Smith would be proud.
Haha. That is a good one. I remember it was the only team he would trade with when he was with the Tigers.
I really like Kliff Kingsbury
I hope he wins it all.
I am a little surprised by this. I expected him to sign with a contender. Arizona may be a team on the rise, but it still hasn't made the playoffs in over 5 years and in a division with teams like the LA Rams and SF 49ers that are playing to win now. That division on paper looks extremely competitive.
I think that Kyler Murray becomes Mahomes the sequel this year and Arizona becomes a legit title contender
I guess we will see, but I don't see it (more as a compliment to Mahomes than putting down Murray). Murray could be good enough to guide a winner, but Mahomes to date has been a once in a generation player.
First and foremost, good for him. He's getting a shit-ton of money and he deserves every penny of it.
HOWEVA......let's dispense with the "he wants to win a Championship" talk now and forevermore can we? The teams he was linked most closely to: Green Bay, Cleveland & Buffalo are all in the mix for a Super Bowl sometime in the near future. Arizona? Not so much.
I'm a huge Browns fan so yeah I'm a bit bummed he wont be lining up next to Myles on the D-line but no way in hell is an analytics-driven front office going to give that type of fuck-you money (31M over two years/23M guaranteed) to an aging player with a bit of an injury history. No way at all.
I honestly don't know much about Arizona right now, but the Cleveland and Buffalo rumblings made sense. (I'm in Buffalo.) Both teams are on the rise and could be superbowl teams with a few more players and/or lucky breaks. AZ is not on my radar as a superbowl contender.
Yeah, I'm not sure if this demonstrably changes Arizona's trajectory as a title contender but I guess you can hope to catch lightning in a bottle and see what happens. I'm not completely sold on Murray but he's also good enough if the pieces around him are solid to beat anyone.
Very interesting. They definitely have pieces all over the field and a solid mix of veterans. Can Kyler Murray get it done for them? He's been a little underwhelming, but still solid and he is young, so still trending upward.
Crazy to see the implosion of one of the most talent-rich teams like Houston over the past five years.
Fantastic news for the Detroit Lions!
Anything that makes it tougher in the NFC West helps the Leos!
That sort of came out of nowhere. Has to be far and away the most lucrative offer he had, because all the teams he was linked to are closer to the SB than Arizona.
It looks less likely that Larry Fitzgerald is returning every day, unless he takes a huge hometown discount
Larry has definitely started to slow down. He did have 54 receptions, second on the team, but he only averaged 7.6 yards per reception (!) with a long of 18 (!!!).
Being close to a Super Bowl doesn't guarantee anything, meanwhile his contract with AZ guarantees $23 million dollars. I can't blame the guy for that choice.
a little surprising, but good luck to the guy
Good luck to him. The $23M guaranteed is a lot, but if they think he's still got something left it's a good pickup for a team that could use another pass rusher.
Pretty good sign. Cardinals are a team very much on the rise and Watt made it clear he wanted to go somewhere where he thinks he can contend for a title.
He's going to have to contend with a very, very loaded NFC West. Seattle isn't going anywhere, LA just upgraded big time with Stafford at the helm, and the 49ers are still a very good team that just had arguably the worst injury luck, as a team, that I've seen in a long time. But he's still in a far better situation in Arizona than he would've otherwise been had he remained in Houston.
Wait, Watt?
Arizona. One step closer to retirement.
I guess I wouldn't turn down a guaranteed $23M either, but it would've been way cooler to see him in a Packers, Bills, or Steelers uniform.
Glad he got paid and didn't make the Packers any better.
Weird choice. Must be money
Maybe, but it’s really hard not to fall in love with Arizona these days. I’ve been spending winters in AZ for the past 5 years or so. It’s basically all the good parts of Texas and Southern California (minus the beach) without any of the major pitfalls.
RCMB always talks about their dreams of moving to SoCal, Chicago, and New York in their “moving out of Michigan” threads, and I feel like they’re completely out of touch with the reality of those places. I’ve lived in all three of those areas and, since COVID, all three are areas that feel like they’re in decline. In my opinion, there’s probably no better place to be than Arizona right now.
I totally agree and am actually considering with the gf to move to Phoenix. Cost of living is great. It’s either that or San Diego but we’d be poor there. Still. It’s a weird choice to me for JJ. Why not go to Tampa? He didn’t improve his situation and it’s just a weird result.
edit: I really thought he’d do Pittsburg bc his family and stuff.