Brandon

I wonder what consolation that will be to the worker who loses his job and can't feed his family because his employer has to close their doors? Not that I think you're wrong, mind you. Its just that its not as easy and painless as that.

Its common sense. Look, I don't post much on this board, but I've read your posts and you and I have polar opposite political views. But there are some things that are blatantly obvious and this is one of them. This can't continue. My family owns a small manufacturing business. Prices from our suppliers have skyrocketed. A quantity of steel that cost $8,000 in 2002 costs $20,000 now, primarily due to shipping costs. Our delivery fees have tripled. Who pays for it? Our customers pay for it. Do you think they've had a corresponding 250% wage increase in three years? Hell no, they haven't. They can't afford it, we can't afford to keep our prices static, and neither can anyone else. It can't continue. And to the other poster, yeah, we may leave, because like many other businesses, this sh-- is going to drive us OUT of business.

Nope, I wouldn't say that. More than likely, its a simple matter of your own personal situation improving. Oil (and fuel prices in general) are up nearly 300% the last two or three years. It is THE base resource in our economy and any change in fuel prices has a ripple effect on practically everything else in the economy. There's no way that the average Joe with his paycheck-to-paycheck life can eat this without repercussions. People say that the impact of these prices will manifest first as a change in driving habits. That's BS. Most people drive because they have to. They drive to work, to buy food, whatever. Even the vehicle they drive is something they're tied to. An awful lot of people can't trade the gas guzzler for an econobox, both for practical use reasons and for the simple fact that many vehicle owners are upside down in their loans. The fuel prices may be killing them, but trading their vehicle will be even worse in the short term. The chickens will initially come home to roost in the form of lowered discretionary spending. That's going to get the ball rolling through the entire economy and its going to come apart at the seams. The Christmas season, where discretionary spending is most closely tracked, is going to be the point where it becomes undeniable. So yes, I think a major economic flameout is coming if these fuel prices persist.

It wouldn't suprise me if gas costs about $1.20/gallon by the end of summer...next year. The Christmas season is going to bi*** slap these oil prices back to reality. That's the point of no return. I think sales for the holiday season are going to be sharply down this year. That's going to pull the rug out from under this economy and demand (and prices) will fall apart. Say hello to a major recession. Due date? Early '06. I guess the good news is that it'll take care of the fuel costs.

Honestly, I don't know what the rule is. That said, if I were Reid and I could find a way to do it, I would. They'd still have to pay him, but who cares. Its time someone in the NFL shows this idiot who is really in charge.

But in their defense, you've got to realize that there are probably 100-150 RBs eligible for the draft every year. There's a lot of competition to be one of the 15-20 that actually get drafted and once you get past the top 5-10 prospects, there's usually a group of up to around 50 that carry very similar grades on the draft board and one mistake can be very, very costly.

There's a really easy way to deal with this situation. Reid screwed up by ordering him to leave. He should have waited until TO came up with another injury in training camp, regardless of the severity and put his a$$ on IR, ending his season.

The negativity gets old, doesn't it? It quite often takes years for even the best QBs to fully settle into their role as a starter. Many on this board would have cut Peyton Manning after he threw 12 INTs in his first 4 games a rookie (and only 3 TD passes).

Posey may not make the highlight reels like Fletcher and Spikes, but he does his job. He doesn't make the big play, but he doesn't make mistakes, either. He's just a solid starting SLB who doesn't try to do more than is asked of him. Stamer is an excellent find for an undrafted player, but he's got an uphill fight to beat out a steady player on the #2 defense in the league.

One correction. Brett Favre was hardly run out of Atlanta. The Packers paid dearly to acquire him from the Falcons. He was drafted in 1991, threw only five passes (completed only two, both to the wrong team), and traded for the 17th overall pick in 1992. Steve Young went to the 49ers for a 2nd and a 4th.

Actually, when you consider that Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions as a rookie, a final evaluation of Losman is probably won't be possible for a couple of years. No one wants to hear that, but its the truth.

Good. He certainly needs work, but given the fact that it was his first real test against another team in a year, he exceeded my expectations.

``He really wasn't flinching. He looked comfortable in there,'' Mularkey said. ``I'm sure there's some things we're going to have to watch the tape and we'll say he should have or could have. But for the most part I was pretty pleased watching him live.'' At this point, if its good enough for the head coach, its good enough for me.

Average? I have no problems with that. If JP Losman is an average starting NFL QB at this stage of his development, I'd say he's well ahead of schedule. What do some of you guys honestly expect from him? It takes most Qbs a few YEARS as a starter before they really get settled in. If you're expecting JP Losman to look like an all-pro from day 1, its not going to happen. And this was nothing more than a glorified practice. If Losman is stinking up the joint through the first month of the season, this talk might be warranted. Get a grip guys. Give him a chance. Let him at least have a preseason game before you break out the torches and pitchforks.

Yeah, but in Frank Reich's defense, he was about old enough to start drawing social security by the time he played for Detroit.

As I stated in another thread, I thought it was an encouraging sign to see JP try to throw the ball to Reed instead of running it. It was the wrong decision on that particular play, but in the big picture, it shows that JP can keep his composure and his wits about him when flushed from the pocket and maintain his focus on his recievers down the field. A lot of young QBs don't have the presence of mind to do that. And as you say, it was thrown where either Reed was going to catch it, or no one would.

On that first deep pass to Evans, Ahmad Carroll was clearly interfering with Evans. He had him hooked around the waist with his left arm. Even the Packer-biased announcers were laughing about it.

I disagree. You can only give the ball to McGahee so many times. In a typical season, a team will run about 1100 offensive plays. I don't like to see a single RB get more than about 300 carries in a single season. Even if the coaches don't see it that way, he probably won't get more than 400 in any circumstance. That leaves another 700-800 plays where someone else has to take up the slack. The backups will get another couple hundred carries (and none of the backups are a proven, reliable running threat), but after that, its largely going to be up to the passing game. JP isn't going to have the luxury of tossing only 295 passes like Roethlisberger last year. He'll probably be called on to throw almost 500 times, so his performance is going to have a lot to do with this team's final record.

If you watch Teague on that play, immediately after snapping the ball, he turns to watch it roll on the ground. As I posted in the scrimmage thread, I took that as an admission of guilt. He knew the moment he snapped it that something wasn't right.

I think it depends upon what you were looking for. I wasn't expecting to see him have a perfect performance or to play like a veteran QB, and he didn't. I just wanted to see him look like he was comfortable on the field, make quick decisions throwing the ball, display good awareness of the rush and play within the design of the offense and within his own abilities. On those counts, I thought he did a good-to-very-good job and he looked better than I thought he would at this stage of the preseason. The more technical aspects, such as reading defenses, timing with recievers, knowing when to run or throw, and his accuracy and mechanics are things that he needs to work on (and he did OK, don't get me wrong), but they're only going to come with game experience. I was more interested in seeing if he appeared to have the intangibles that you look for in a QB, and I saw quite a few positive signs in that regard.

The good news is that its something that can be fixed, as long as he's willing to learn from his mistakes. I was most worried that we'd see that Todd Collins/Rob Johnson deer-in-the-headlights look. Thankfully, I didn't.

Its the first time Reed's name has been mentioned. Many on this board, including myself, have speculated that he could very well be part of any trade should it occur. As long as the Bills have the cap room to sign him and it doesn't seriously hamper their efforts to keep Nate Clements, for Reed (I don't think the guy even makes the roster) and a 3rd, the Bills should pull the trigger.

One guy I thought who had a great scrimmage was Chris Kelsay. Packers RT Mark Tauscher could not block him. I was very impressed with his play last night. I was mainly concentrating on Losman when the team was on offense and came away impressed with his play as well. Even on one of his worst plays of the night, which was the miss to Reed in the endzone, he still did something on the play I really liked. He got suprised by the rush of the edge, but stepped up and around Gandy, scrambled out of the pocket, and was still looking to throw instead of run. Now, he probably should've just ran it into the endzone, but that's not the point. He was forced to scramble, but still had the presence of mind to look for a WR downfield. Far too often, with a young QB, once they start scrambling, that's it, they're going to run come hell or high water even if there's three guys standing wide open in front of him downfield (and JP did do that on one earlier play). I saw a lot of little things like that in this scrimmage that make me pretty optimistic on his chances of becoming, at the least, a solid NFL starter.

For those who missed it, it'll be back on in about an hour.

He may make this roster in '05 as a utility player.