GaryPinC

You're right. For some reason I thought the Browns extended his contract beyond what the Jags were offering him. Apologies.

Well, if the article is correct and the Browns actually had Carr, Bridgewater, Manziel on their board in that order then maybe Farmer deserves a little slack. At this point, the decision making process in that building is a complete clusterf**k. I feel bad for the Cleveland fans and people like Pettine. Alex Mack and Joe Thomas have got to be hating their decisions to stay in the last 2 years. Just a sad situation.

A sad indictment of Cleveland's player evaluation process.

Totally what I was thinking, I mean, c'mon, just having Rex and his quotes are a field day by themselves. I think we've got a great shot at it.

I agree with you context of timing is everything here. FWIW, it doesn't make much sense to me to allow the ball attendant to have the game balls in his possession after the balls are checked up until game time. It makes more sense for the balls to stay secured in a room until, let's say, 20-30 minutes before the game when the attendant accesses the room and takes the balls up to the field. Having to go to the bathroom on the walk up to the field seems highly suspicious in this context. If the Patriots are intent on changing the pressure then it has to be done quickly and out of any camera range. There are a lot of cameras on the field and in the building. Think they risked invasion of privacy by placing some in the restroom? Is it beyond a detail-oriented guy like Belicheck to have a system to leave the balls in the bag and quickly, uniformly deflate them with the proper equipment? Only other thing I can think if it was only 11 out of 12 balls is that the 12th ball would be for kicking field goals. If so, I would think it would be marked in some subtle way.

I believe it. I'll bet Hackett would really learn a lot having Roman show him the ropes and could take over in 1 to 2 years because Roman really wants to be a HC. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/02/07/greg-roman-believes-time-will-come-for-head-coaching-job/ Honestly, for now it might be a step back for Nate but would probably accelerate his career.

That was my biggest fear if Bill Polian would have come here: Foist Chris on us and get rid of Whaley. No, thank you.

It was a powerful movie. Gave me an amazing sense of how difficult maintaining the "us vs them" mentality can be. In all fairness, there was no theme music playing as the credits rolled. Only time I can remember that.

No, it was not. It was intended to equalize the amount of $$ each team could spend on its players. Why would that level competition? It would help avoid "super teams" that would consistently outspend to dominate the league with poorer franchises serving as farm teams but that doesn't mean competition was intended to be close to level. Front office, coaching, talent, quarterback, injuries, etc. all affect team performance. I don't see this as a Galileo scenario because IMO you are not understanding the purpose of the salary cap. Certain teams/franchises are just better at winning consistently. Is 5 years truly a large enough analysis window to support your conclusions? I could find a 5 year block where the Bills were in the playoffs every year. The cowboys, niners, and seahawks (just to name a couple) have had their dry spells too. When a franchise assembles a good front office, coaching staff, and talent they tend to have good teams for more than one year. Hopefully we are going there with the Pegulas at the helm.

Ok, seriously, who besides you believes that the salary cap was intended to level/equalize the talent of each team, comrade? It equalizes the total compensation each team is allowed to spend on their roster. Nothing else. It's working as it's supposed to. What a pointless thread.

It sounds like the entire problem was the host mom did not make clear there would be a non-refundable per child payment for snow tubing, etc until after the fact. But normally places like the ski slope will be cool and not bill for 1 or 2 kids who don't show up. Lack of communication and classless behavior by the host. This kind of situation happens a lot, or you get the other type of parent who shows up with the rest of their uninvited kids wanting to participate in the party. But it's very classless to ask for the money, especially if you didn't make that clear with the accepted invite.

Wow. I respect the hell out of your opinion but have to respectfully disagree. I think he has real potential. Don't get me wrong, I agree with Yolo that Jones needs more game experience. But he has a good pocket presence, feel for the game and varies the speed of his ball well. Puts nice touch on his throws to the flats or can rifle it down field. He sees the field and his reads fairly well. His scrambles are by choice after reading his options, I do believe his willingness to take on college backers and the odd nose tackle will go away in the NFL. I think he is a little slow getting rid of the ball but I think part of that is his inexperience. I have zero expertise, so I guess we'll see how he turns out eventually. :-) I don't expect much from Mariota in the NFL. I like him as a person but he seems like a system QB. I do think Jameis has real potential if he can get his head screwed on straight.

Congrats on the game yesterday Yolo. I'm a Penn State fan but a great run and championship by OSU! Beating the ducks while committing 4 turnovers is a bit of a miracle, but speaks loudest about OSU's character and coaching! They came a long way from August. I totally agree with you that Cardale needs another year and would be a developmental prospect if he comes out, but our best shot to draft him would be if he decides to declare now. I'm just amazed at his pocket presence and decision making for how little he's played. I kind of hope that he will adjust quickly to being an NFL QB considering how well he did against 3 of the best teams in college football. Talk about trial by fire! The other thing working in our favor is Urban Meyer trying to bring Braxton Miller back. Why? How can you not start Jones next season? And I imagine JT Barrett won't be too happy about the situation.

Cons: Put your health in the hands of our offensive line. Retire or be retired? Hmmmm.

I honestly think part of the reason we traded up for Watkins is because of his work ethic, attitude, and passion he brings to the field. As a coach, I can say you covet those rare players who elevate their focus and effort and put it all on the line when the game's outcome is in doubt. Sammy seems like he's one of those types of people, and we should see that once he settles in and gets a decent QB. I think that's part of Whaley's gamble and I respect him for it. Hopefully being around Heinz Ward, Polamalu, and Rothelisberger taught him that appreciation.

Yea, that's not good but Schwartz is a passionate coach so probably reacted without thinking. I personally think how a coach manages the clock says a lot about how good of a gameday coach he is. Are his players prepared (constantly wasting time outs if not), with less than 2 minutes left how many seconds are wasted? One great example for me involved the Pettine and the Browns against Atlanta. Driving for the winning field goal they completed a 15 yard pass play and got the ball to the Atlanta 30 with less than 20 seconds left when they used their last time out. Announcers were going nuts about how you save it for the kick. Pettine used it to draw up a short pass play and make sure the offense hustled up to spike the ball with 5 seconds left. Gave his kicker a 36 yard field goal instead of 47.

The 3 or 4 games before that opposing defenses started keying on Hoyer's tendencies to neutralize the passing game too. That's the one thing I can fault him and QB coach for not coming up with a solution to. But the offense was diverse and well executed by the players. I was really impressed with the job Shanahan did with it, because you could really see how he had a plan of attack.

I thought Kyle did a fantastic job as OC last year. Nice mixes of runs vs passes, definitely trying to keep the defense off balance and tailored to strengths. For the most part the plays were crisp and not sloppy. Until Manziel got in there. Yah, Schwartz HC with Kyle as OC and either Pep or someone Jimmy wants is sounding pretty good to me.

Thanks much for digging this up. It's very worth noting that this is the lions' own website and a multitude of players with some strong words supporting Schwartz. IMO it points to the Detroit FO deciding to make a change for change's sake and less about Schwartz's ability to coach. Schwartz should be one of our leading HC candidates for all the reasons indicated in this thread. Our own players talk about hanging on his legs and chaining themselves to his car in hopes he doesn't leave. That is not the usual PR talk. Our franchise has some connections to Detroit. Talk to them, get some scoop on what happened up there. Our FO should every effort into vetting Schartz as HC. How was his gameday decisions and clock management? Anyone on TBD live in/follow Detroit during his tenure there? There's a lot of good things about this guy so get the full story behind the numbers and make an intelligent decision.

FWIW, When news of the altercation between Marrone and Whaley broke on Sept 5, LaCanfora said the "just go ahead and fire me" quote was thrown by Marrone." Tim Graham put up these up on twitter around 9:30am: https://twitter.com/bytimgraham/status/507929216940519424 https://twitter.com/bytimgraham/status/507929845351710720 Later he wrote this article: http://bills.buffalonews.com/2014/09/05/brandon-marrone-deny-report-of-spat/ It could be circumstantial but looking at Graham's first twitter and Russ's quote in the news article, I assume Russ later decided to publicly acknowledge the practice altercation after first remaining anonymous to Tim in the morning. Both twitter statements imply someone with very good knowledge of the altercation and the dinner afterwards. I assume Russ is one of Tim's "sources" for these reasons.

I'm not. Given Ralph's situation, what self-respecting coach would sign on without this type of guarantee? Ralph could have died in 2013 and the new owner flushed the entire front office or brought in a management group that Marrone didn't like or was too restricting. So many unknowns almost 2 years ago I feel something like this contract had to be offered to get a top candidate.

Lack of consistency in the front office sucks ass! But if Marrone pulled a power play and quit then he's dead to me. He was a far from perfect coach, though I thought he had some promise. If he really is smart he'll go back to the college game, I think it fits his controlling coaching style better. It'll be interesting to see what happens to Whaley and Brandon. From the moment the Pegulas got here, Brandon's seems very giddy and smug about his relationship with them (IMO). I like Brandon but have to believe there's a reason the raiders are mentioning him. Lot of PC PR but if he is willing to publicly mention a dissatisfaction with the organization he takes action shortly thereafter. And I do believe he ultimately cares about building a winner. I do want to keep Whaley though and am worried about it if Polian installs his son here. Just hoping Terry and Kim get this right, we have the talent to move upwards.

Really? Everything bad was on offense and only Marrone's fault, everything good was on defense and Schwartz's credit? I think Marrone played a role on fourth down calls for sure, but exactly how much did he run the offense vs Hackett? I would appreciate an explanation of your direct knowledge as I have no firm idea. Marrone seems like a guy that lets his people do their jobs. Quarterback audibles and check downs with wide open receivers, Marrone's fault also? Orton deciding in the weeks up to the Denver game he didn't want to give his all to win anymore. I recall you directly posting that Orton wasn't throwing the same as he has in the past, more checkdowns less chances downfield. All Marrone's fault too? Crappy play calling or a bailing, self-protecting quarterback? Or defensive adjustments? The defense had a lousy game against Oakland, especially after Dareus left. Ultimately Marrone's fault right? Just because our offense was ineffective doesn't mean they weren't playing hard. How many serious injuries did we have to our O-lineman? And guard Mike Williams would have reinjured his back regardless of offensive effectiveness. But overall not many, and to me injuries occur there when guys aren't playing hard. If you truly believe that the solid locker room and consistent effort on the field only involved the defense we will have to agree to disagree. To me, it's an important measure of our head coach's effectiveness. In the past, no way we win that last game against the Patriots even against second half scrubs. Credit Marrone and the offense for taking control of the game in the first half when the starters were still in. Do you really believe we should can Marrone, blow up both systems, the locker room, and team morale? Keep that lack of coaching continuity going? This guy had the guts to pull EJ and fight to get Orton brought in, who despite his decision to retire, was arguably the best option available to us this year.