49er Fan

Damn, didn't make the change in time and Thigpen already has a TD

I start two QBs - and I have Phillip Rivers vs. IND, Jeff Garcia @ DET and Tyler Thigpen vs. BUF. I have Rivers and Garcia in because they are my normal starters and they have nice matchups. But....Buffalo's secondary is very banged up - I have heard Greer and Whitner are out and maybe others. Question - is Thigpen a better play over Garcia, or even Rivers, this week??? Thanks.

LJ is pretty unreliable - I like Gore + Brown.

You have tough matchups but I would go with Turner+Lynch and then Favre. TEN is going to shut down the run and force NYJ to throw a lot. Favre will probably get picked off, but he could throw 3 TDs too.

I would say overall the speed of DEs today is faster, meaning guys like Montana, Aikman, Young et.al. had precious extra fractions of seconds to throw. Over an entire game it might only add up to 1 full second, but that could be enough for few big plays or first downs. Then if you're talking about Montana and Young, you have to bring up Rice. Rice in the 80s up to the mid-90s was virtually uncoverable. Not just his route running, but his timing of patterns with his QBs' throws plus his sure hands made his QBs' jobs much easier.

That's a sweet post. So in hindsight the Bills should have drafted Matt Schaub or given the house away to Pittsburgh for Roethlisberger to sit for one year behind Bledsoe. Other QBs from '04: 2nd round - none 3rd round - Matt Schaub 4th round - Luke McCown 5th round - Craig Krenzel 6th round - Andy Hall 7th round - John Navarre, Cody Pickett, Casey Bramlet, Matt Mauck, B.J. Symons, Bradlee Van Pelt Interestingly, had the Bills not traded up with Dallas for Losman, their 2nd round/#43 pick could have been used on S Bob Sanders, whom the Colts took at #44.

Walt Harris is available (coached Trent Edwards at Stanford). Also, Jim Harbaugh is the current coach of the Cardinal and could be getting an offer from Al Davis by the end of the year.

Before the season I said 9-7 with losses to SEA, JAC, SD, NE, CLE, DEN, NE and wins over MIA, MIA, NYJ, NYJ, ARI, KC, SF, STL and OAK.

www.channelsurfing.net

I have to agree with Dawgg and the King - And when you look at Vick's monetary losses and fines, you would think he had murdered every pet dog in the state of Virginia.

The cost/benefit of Vick's return to the NFL will be too great to ignore for some team - it's going to happen. Yeah, you'll get your P.E.T.A. protesters and related cries of outrage at first - but the bottom line is that those people aren't the vocal majority at football games. Football fans get excited about talented players on their favorite team. A team can sign him for practically the league minimum with incentives and get a dynamic running quarterback that defenses fear greatly. Vick as a #2 QB or a "slash" 3rd-down player is more valuable than every single backup QB out there, and several current starters. I guarantee Vick will be back in the NFL - but I don't think at Buffalo.

Ok, please. What is eight bucks to a guy like Romo? According to my research, he signed a six-year, $67.4 million contract extension through 2013. The deal included an $11.5 million signing bonus and contains $30 million in total guarantees. Eight bucks? That is like me throwing a penny onto the street.

"However Mike Vick wouldn't make this team any better. Vick vs Belichick? Are you kidding me?" Vick's dual-threat ability caused quite a bit of defensive havoc. Vick has scored 92 rushing and passing touchdowns in 74 games played - 67 starting. Obviously other QBs have been better, but Vick's scoring numbers are certainly respectable when considering Vick's non-traditional style and that his Falcon teams featured players like Alge Crumpler and Warrick Dunn as their most potent offensive weapons other than Vick. Vick's 7.3 career yards-per-carry average is #1 in NFL history. In the last season he played he rushed for over 1000 yards - unheard of for an NFL quarterback - and averaged 8.4 ypc. Vick won games. Atlanta was 38-28-1 from '01-'06 and 2-2 in the postseason with Vick starting. During the same time period the Falcons were 9-20 without Vick. Would Vick thrive in Buffalo? He is injury-prone, but he would add an element on offense that is extremely hard to defend and that has worked in the past.

T.J. Houshmanzadeh could get 20 receptions tonight

JP Losman is a polar opposite of Plunkett. Losman went to Tulane after he couldn't win the starter's job at UCLA and had to back up Patrick Ramsey for two years. Plunkett played 4 years at Stanford, set conference records, won the Rose Bowl in his senior year, and won the Heisman trophy, among other accolades. Plunkett's career as a pro wasn't great by any means except for two Super Bowl victories. Plunkett earned MVP honors in the 1980 Super Bowl, but he wasn't particularly impressive - he just happened to throw 3 touchdowns. The first one was a 2-yard pass to Cliff Branch after a short-field turnover. The second was the famous "sideline pass" where Kenny King did all of the work, running 60+ yards with the ball for a touchdown. The MVP of the game was really the Raiders' defense, who forced Eagles' QB Ron "Jaws" Jaworski into four turnovers, including 3 picks. In 14 years, Plunkett never threw for 3000 yards or more than 20 touchdowns in a season for any team. His best TD-INT ratio came in his final season, where it was 14:9; for his career it was 80:81. His career record as a starter was 72-72. Losman does not have the college pedigree to be able to hang on like Plunkett did unless he starts for another team quickly, and performs very well immediately.

Ok, but after Vick's jail time, public humiliation, loss of his best means of earning a living for several years, his attempts at restitution to troubled dogs after his conviction, and almost incomprehensible monetary losses, could you ever see the way to saying that he's paid his debt to society for his wrongdoings?

"First Ankiel was good, then he sucked and now he is one of the top 5 players in baseball." "This shows that some players can suck horribly like Trent and then turn things around." Ankiel has had a remarkable resurgence as an outfielder but saying he is even in the top 100 in MLB is pushing it after playing only 120 games in the '08 season and hitting .262 with 100 strikeouts. Even his power numbers and OPS %, which are his best stats, were easily eclipsed by scores of other players this year. As for Edwards, he has to turn it around as a quarterback - there's no other position on the field that he can move to unless he has some extra-point kicking experience that I don't know about. Sorry, but terrible terrible analogy.

Montana is 4-0 in Super Bowl games (3 MVPs) and is widely regarded as the best QB of all time. Tom Brady's three Super Bowl wins and .784 winning percentage have him in the conversation as best QB of all time. No matter how you want to spin it ("Montana QB'd the 49ers, who won Super Bowls"), QBs like Kelly and Marino will never be rated by fans as better than Montana and probably Brady and Peyton Manning because of their combined 0-5 SB record. Dean, here is a link on the NFL's website showing photos of the "All-Time Winningest Quarterbacks" http://www.nfl.com/photo/photo-gallery?chr...9000d5d8024bce4

"But Vick didn't "win" the game any more than Warrick Dunn, Sam Rogers or Patrick Kerney "won" the game. Football is the ultimate team sport, and there's just no place for attributing wins and losses to one player. Vick was just 1/52." "As Dean points out, the NFL obviously agrees" Please, stop with your bullsh!tting. Wins are attributed to coaches and QBs, and everyone does it. Same for baseball pitchers, same for hockey goalies. When talking about the best QBs of all time, "Super Bowl wins" is one of the biggest issues. It's the very reason that Dan Marino is not mentioned as an all-time top QB and the reason Joe Montana is. Fans rarely talk about a running back not having a Super Bowl, or a receiver. Why is it that I know that Peyton Manning has the record for most wins in the SEC during his college days at Tennesee? Because the the SEC keeps records like that. Just because the NFL doesn't "officially" keep win/loss records doesn't mean they're not interesting or important - or that they don't exist.

"Six times this year, Johan Santana did NOT record a win in a game which he left with a 2+ run lead. This happened only once to Lincecum. Guess who gets the Cy Young?" Totally agree about the flawed stat, but I still think it's impressive that Vick is the only QB to exit Lambeau field in postseason history with a win - and it came against against Brett Favre and against a team that was undefeated at home in 2003. But as for the 2008 NL Cy Young, Santana and Lincecum had very close stats except in strikeouts - where Lincecum threw 265 in 227 innings and Santana had 206 in 234 1/3. Santana pitched for a contending team but had a terrible bullpen. Lincecum pitched for a terrible team period. I have no problem with Lincecum winning the Cy Young this year.

"I challenge you to find me an Official NFL Stat that assigns wins and losses to QBs" Not official - but plenty of people care about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_wins_by_...arterback_(NFL) Anyway, I don't know much about Jauron but Vick is probably better playing prison football games than Edwards will ever be as the Bills' starter at QB. I didn't mention the 49ers because Martz likes a drop-back passer.

Wins by a QB are an NFL stat, just like in baseball for pitchers - look it up. Vick certainly has (had?) flaws as a person and an NFL quarterback, but he could be a good fit on certain teams even after 3 years of not playing - Baltimore, St. Louis, Oakland, Minnesota, and yes - Buffalo - come to mind.

"The Niners are a bad team without a good QB. They simply aren't going to win in Buffalo in cold weather." The Niners might be a bad team, but they're better than Detroit, STL, KC, Oakland, Houston and Cincy, at least. There is talent on defense with 2007 Defensive Rookie of the Year LB Patrick Willis....and the return of CB Nate Clements vs. turnover-prone QB Trent Edwards is an interesting storyline. The 49ers' QB, Shaun Hill, has a 92 passer rating in three games played. Hill shouldn't be bothered by cold weather - he played at the U. of Maryland and grew up in Kansas.

I cannot understand how anyone can say that Michael Vick sucks. He rushed for 1,000 yards as a QB. He wins games and has an impressive winning record as a starter. He beat Brett Favre at Lambeau Field in the playoffs.

Uhh, my team hasn't had a winning record since '02 They were 2-14 in '04. SF had DENNIS ERICKSON as head coach for two years. ('03-'04)