thebandit27

Those are faulty assumptions. Allen clearly believed that his best option would be to scramble, buy himself time, and try to make plays down the field. And he was right, by the way.

When considering the bench number, it's important to take arm length into account. Shorter arms are a distinct advantage in the bench, so Oliver's number should be higher than Donald's if their functional strength were equal (since his arms are 3/4" shorter). So there's probably a bit more of a gap in functional strength between the two players, but keep in mind that Donald was a year and a half older than Oliver when he went through testing, and that can make a big difference for a guy that young.

People really need to go back and read Donald's draft profile from NFL.com. Though some of us said we'd love to have him at 9th overall in 2014, he was hardly a consensus elite prospect. @K-9 posted it in another thread, and the revisionism about Donald's projection is pretty strong

How many guesses do I get? Betcha I only need one ?

I think they're almost identical...and that's not a knock on Laviska IMO

Sure do. I also remember when people said to stay far away from Chris Jones coming out of Miss State because he didn't record a statistic against Alabama or Auburn and had a combined 3 tackles against Troy/Louisiana Tech/Kentucky. But folks that watched him closely knew better, and now he's one of the most dominant defensive players in the game. Do you happen to see the irony in relying on NFL GM's expertise when it comes to late-round OLmen that have done nothing in the NFL, but questioning it when it comes to a top-10 pick that happens to be a 2-time All American?

You need to stop assuming that someone hasn't watched a player if they don't agree with you. And yes, you're not living in reality if you expect a player to dominate all game, every game. Even Aaron Donald didn't dominate against ACC and Big East competition in college. You have your opinion and that's fine, but you are massively over-stating your case against him. He didn't "get skunked" against Texas Tech, nor has he been invisible against Power 5 teams as you claim. And if it makes you feel any better, not one of the players on your list got a draftable grade from me.

It's probably his ceiling weight right now, but remember, he's 21 years old. He's almost certainly going to fill out as he matures, and don't discount the difference between NFL strength and conditioning and college.

You're not living in reality.

Watkins numbers as a true freshman were markedly better than Laviska's as a sophomore. https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/laviska-shenault-jr-1.html https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/sammy-watkins-1.html

I've watched the entire game multiple times over. The point of the exercise was simply that we're less than halfway through the first quarter, and there are 4 plays already in which he's made a noticeable impact in a game that you said he "got skunked". I don't know how many snaps he played that game, but I do know that Texas Tech ran 100 plays. If you really expect a 287-pound guy playing nose tackle and getting double-teamed 50% of the time (at a minimum) to dominate all game long playing such a high amount of snaps when there isn't a single other decent defender playing alongside him, well, your expectations are absurd. You'll also notice that Tech ran very few of their RPO and other slower-developing plays. The game plan was clearly designed to neutralize what Oliver could do.

I think it's a legitimate question to ask. I also think that, as a 21-year old, he should have no problem adding a good 10-12 lbs over the next 18 months. As a rookie, he may suffer a bit if he's asked to play 60 snaps/game wtihout the additional bulk.

Perhaps the center shouldn't have worked up to the 2nd level so soon

This is fun...

Okay...

FWIW, I'm less than 1:40 into the Texas Tech game video below and he's already flashed 3 different times. Not an easy task against a team whose offense is designed to negate the pass rush by getting the ball out as fast as possible and tilting the run away from the interior. Just for fun: 0:10 second play of the game, and he pushes the center back into the QB's lap 0:20 he's in the backfield almost too quickly...any LB worth his salt would've had a TFL if they filled the gap 1:25 completely blows up the play for a 4-yard loss 1:32 again, he's in the QB's face in less than 3 second Like I said, you're not even halfway through the 1st quarter and he's obviously making his presence known. As for what he did against double-teams, go watch the play at 1:54...that ought to bust that narrative at the seams.

I've watched every snap of Oliver's college career multiple times. I had him as my #1 overall player in the draft, because not only was he productive, he's an outrageously good athlete for a man his size, and his upside is that of a true impact pass rusher that teams have to game plan against every time he's on the field. I wanted to simply post the numbers without injecting any opinion.

I have to laugh at the Laviska love... Not because he's not a very good WR, but because of his #1 comparable IMO...the dude looks just like:

Here are Oliver's stats from games versus Power 5 teams in college: 2016 Oklahoma - 5 solo tackles, 2 TFLs 2017 Arizona - 8 solo tackles, 1.5 TFLs Texas Tech - 2 solo tackles, 1 TFL 2018 Arizona - 3 solo tackles, 0.5 TFLs Texas Tech - 4 solo tackles, 1 TFL Total - 5 games, 22 solo tackles, 6 TFLs On a per-game basis, he produced more solo tackles per game against Power 5 teams than Quinnen Williams did in his Alabama career, but not quite as many TFLs. Now consider that Quinnen plays on a defense that features NFL talent at every level, and Oliver is more or less the only guaranteed NFL prospect on that Houston defensive unit. Do with that information whatever you will...

Mrs. Bandit used to be like that with cilantro, but she's managed to overcome it.

Oh yes, it's an extreme hate for pineapple. It's hideous. The taste literally induces a gag reflex. And that's a shame, because I love food, and I want to eat as many different types of food as I possibly can...but pineapple is awful. It tastes like someone took a nice, juicy piece of fruit and cursed it with a pox. And believe me, I've tried it so...many...times. I've tried coating it in cinnamon and brown sugar and roasting it. Nope. I've tried it fresh on tropical islands. Get it away. The worst thing about it is that it's flavor just contaminates any dish it's in too. Can't eat a delicious fruit salad because here comes pineapple to pollute the whole thing and make everything else taste like pineapple. As far as I'm concerned, pineapple can can take a dive into the deepest abyss the world has known and never return. And while it'd down there in its solitude, it can light itself on fire.

Sure, the number is $57M right now, but that's before factoring in (1) cap increase, (2) rollover money, and (3) cuts. If we suppose that the cap increase will offset Hughes' extension, then we're still looking at close to $15M in rollover money after in-season cap moves. You can recoup another $10M from cutting Trent Murphy and Spencer Long, both of which may make sense. So you're still looking at around $80M in cap space. More than enough to capitalize on a rich EDGE and WR FA market in 2020 and still have money left over to address depth at LB and TE.

The order of importance is as follows: 1) sauce 2) crust--with the critical element of the exposed crust being that there isn't too large of a border 3) cheese 4) toppings Also of a critical nature: pineapple should never be in or on anything. It's literally the worst food on the planet. I would rather be restricted to nothing beyond cod liver oil for the rest of my days than eat pineapple once more.

You may want to revisit the film on that one... https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2018/12/27/18155883/all-22-analysis-where-was-star-lotulelei-run-stuffing-defensive-tackle-vs-new-england-patriots I haven't seen any hard data regarding the percentage of snaps on which he's double-teamed, but several outlets reported that he was the most-often double-teamed player for the Bills in 2018. https://therunnersports.com/is-star-lotulelei-worth-his-contract/