WhitewalkerInPhilly

They are rather good. Cox, Kendricks, Barwin and Kiko are all studs. That said, I would take Hughes, Mario, Kyle and Dareus every day of the week vs those four.

I don't get the "blown holes" thing Schefter is going on about. Two separate independant labs came to a conclusion. That doesn't even count the exhaustive interviews and the text messages.

I don't see how you think it's weak. We have video evidence of the balls being taKen away. You have the equipment managers talking about taking bribes. You have a guy named The Deflator. You have evidence of Brady lying about knowing McNally. You have reassurance after the fact, showing cognizence of guilt. You have the equipment guys getting fired by their own team. You don't need a smoking gun when the level of proof you need is "probably" FWIW, this is an article written by a former investigator. He seems to think the Wells report was well put together and honest:http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2015/5/12/8592785/the-wells-report-as-reviewed-by-a-former-investigator

I agree that neither side wants to go to court, especially now that Brady has gone under oath and could be tried for perjury. But seriously, one game? even if you discount the scientific evidence of the Wells report (I personally will take the findings of two separate independent labs) the circumstancial evidence of guilt is overwhelming. I think you can argue that the penalty is too stiff (previous penalties were fines), but I would give two games, at minimum, for the blatant lying, not cooperating with the investigation and the bitching to the media that we saw.

Can we kill this thread? At this point we're talking about conjecture on an article written weeks ago, and for which there won't be anything new to go on for more than a month.

It would be an extraordinarily Billsy outcome: Brady being able to come back juuuuust in time to play us.

Look, I am all for presumption of innocence before being proven guilty in criminal law. But this ain't criminal law. It's not even civil. It's a rules decision in a game. Not turning over evidence which might incriminate yourself is one thing, when you have to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Stubbornly refusing to when the standard is "He's probably guilty" is less effective.

Nothing like a dose of cold hard reality to temper Tommy boy's sense of entitlement.

I don't understand the Chandler hate. He's a decent TE who can be good when used Correctly. Marrone never could. But I went with Spiller. He's the Reggie Bush mold player that Payton has done a lot with.

That was my point. The league, I'm sure, would have loved to sweep this under the rug, but couldn't be directly involved. The Wells report was independent. It involved an outside party, going to two different labs to test possible claims. Both came up with the same result. It just so happens that when the Patriots hire an outside group, and pay them a lot of money, they say what the Pats want to hear. Even without those lab results, there is more than enough circumstance that makes a coincidence unlikely. You'd never nail anyone on a criminal charges if they had a decent lawyer...but this is not that.

This is perfect.

I agree. I was reading an interview with a sports agent and he mentioned that the greatest threat to the sport is if the fan base feels that it's rigged, like in wrestling. Even if it is, and even if Goddell does play favorites and listens to some owners a lot, if public confidence wavers, people stop watching games.

One, I'm going to rely more on the science of an independent arbiter than an outside group to discredit it. There is something in the scientific community known as Confirmation Bias. Mainly that when you go in with a particular result in mind, you find it. Two, the circumstancial evidence is pretty damning. Remember, the standard of proof here is NOT beyond a reasonable doubt. It is "more likely than not". Three, a good chunk of the penalty was for lying and being uncooperative with the investigation even when extraordinary privacy allowances were made. Four, Goddell handed Wells a blank check. Throwing it out admits that he wasted millions of dollars of league money.

Well, the good news is that there are few, if any, starting D-lines are scary as ours.

I can't be entirely disagree with someone who has a dose of skepticism for trusting the right side a 3 round rookie and the guy who couldn't play his way onto the field before we see contact drills. That said, I am all in. Cyrus was critically mishandled. Miller already looks like a younger, more solid Urbik.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Cassel's upside that he was the accurate veteran? Again, apparently Tyrod was best.

I know...some of the best screen playmakers and nada

Wait, Sammy can be used on screens? Someone tell Doug Marrone!

Ok, that makes a lot of sense. In Philly when they talk about "fast paced" they mean time between running plays. Which is great when you have an offense which can sustain long drives. When that fails... Throwing in a lot of motion keeps the pressure on, confuses defenses and, even better, chews up clock and doesn't let the defense relax.

I find this interesting. So much of what we heard was "Ground and Pound" so I'm curious to see what they try to set up in training camp.

From what I heard, the seam route had been the Niners bread and butter. Teams got wise, and started to scheme that. When their line got injured they lost the ability to ram the ball down their opponents throat. With Davis taken out of the picture they had no way to make their opponents pay deep for stacking the box. Maybe if Kaep was more accurate they could have relied more on their WRs deep, but that was never the case. Unlike there, Roman has receivers (Sammy, Harvin, Clay and Shady) who are great at picking up YAC. I just hope they pull it off.

Dammit! I had successfully excised from my memory and now it's back.

Same here.

You mean, besides us?

I don't think that we're doing a high powered/up tempo offense no matter who we have at QB. But I agree that if Tyrod winds up being the guy, and that he can be reasonably accurate, he absolutely can do well without needing pinpoint accuracy. The Bills have playmakers who can do wonders with YAC on short passes (Sammy, Shady, Harvin, Clay) and guys who can truck it on the ground (Shady, Freddy, Karlos). Really, as long as you can make teams pay if they play too close by being able to hit a few deep passes you can run a working offense.