AKC

As you well know, there's no one on the Raiders line who should be responsible for playing in the most poorly conceived O scheme in many years across the league. The bad Raider O was 100% on the coaching staff. 100%. At the very least the apparent "thrifty" signing of LW will push Pennington to work out longer and harder leading up to our 2007 camp than he might ever have done without the pressure Walker puts on that starting spot. Instant depth and no matter which one gets the nod, our roster is made batter with Walker. Washington's run offense was virtually carried by their production over Dockery's back. He was far and away their premier run blocker. It's hard to imagine Everett fitting into our developing Offensive model. The Cieslak story is nice but so far he's really more of a rotational guy. I can't imagine him making the leap forward this off-season to step up and become the #2 monster blocker at TE that will make this offense dangerous to the balance of the AFC East. Willis is welcome to lick the cheese off unspecified parts of my anatomy after having suffered through the Rosenhaus interview yesterday- just being represented by that D-Bag is enough, but to have DR pitch the poor quality of our run blockers as the need for Willis to look elsewhere is all too perfect today. I'd be waiting for a Rosenhaus retraction after today's signings at OBD, but since we all know he was simply lying through his teeth about motives we don't have to worry about anyone suffering a heart attack due to their surprise at that press conference ever coming to be. We're building a line that 60% of the backs on rosters league-wide will be able to run behind effectively, and having an ungracious prima-donna around to soil an otherwise positive locker room is making less and less sense every minute. I just shudder that Donahoe low-balled Lorenzo Neal when he visitied us on his way to San Diego a few years back- the finishing touch to this O will be the reliable effective blocking FB that DShelton could never be.

My understanding is that the title "Possession" receiver comes from the quaility of his hands. Moulds made a career on the other end of the receiver scale, being a physical and athletic guy. IMO his incredibly inconsistent hands and poor concentration disqualify him as being a viable candidate to play in the NFL as an effective Possession Receiver.

He was an odd pick for us because he has such a great natural strength of playing low, yet we've insisted he learn to play a game above the waistline. I think he'd have really excelled as a guy in a 3-4 rotation playing the point on passing downs. IMO he only gets better and becomes an important part of a 4 man rotation in our middle, but the scheme we're playing still begs for a premium one-gapper to make it all work ideally. Kyle is a little short in the arms and just doesn't appear to provide the chance of the major upgrade we really need to move the rest of the D up a notch.

There are other scenarios, for instance Marv and Nate may have talked and from NCs side the suggestion of a holdout may have been floated if the tag were applied. In that case conceding the tag would give us a better chance to match an offer versus losing most of the leverage during a protracted holdout. I won't say that early in his Buff coaching days Marv didn't show some moments of naivety, but at this point it's hard to imagine he isn't proceeding along the best path in his opinion to have a shot at Nate for the long term.

I don't buy it. Marv's cerebral, and by now with his history in the league and new experience negotiating player deals he has to realize that a good negotiatior is at his core a good gambler. He may just be gambling that the best way to get Nate under a long term contract in Buff is to live up to whatever was said last year when the tagged Nate. Marv might feel that applying the tag again this year might actually guarantee the '07 season would be Nate's last in our uni. Every scenario is a gamble. Wilson's GMs have had the go ahead to spend the same money as others for a long time now. I'd prefer to assume Marv has a plan in place here and conceding the Tag for Nate is part of it versus unfairly claiming we've penney pinched our way out of competitiveness in the NFL.

Can you recommend an online service who does a live updated draft page on their site? I want to hold our draft party this year at a bar with a lot of screen access, and I'd like to offer at least one fsource uploaded from a service not available on a TV feed that offers an alternative opinion to the NFL Network (?) who I believe will carry it this year. Place makes decent wings if you've got some travel in you ;-)

Foster has remained the same 1-dimensional north/south back with a great burst that he was in college. It's hard to imagine him ever being anything more than a contributor as a change-up back.

Two coaches whose lives were completely devoted to the moment- yet neither went the low road by seeking an advantage in the "officiating apprehension" that has become a highly debatable element of the modern Super Bowl. Good, solid, physical hits by some of the best in the game, without any playing "through" the whistle as too many coaches promote within their ranks today. No pre-game talk about head-hunting someone on the other side. No fringe-of-the-rule-book cut or chop blocking in the interior by either offensive line. No clear defensive strategy to grab wideouts jerseys or otherwise illegally impede their play outside the view of the zebras. Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy just provided us an indelible reminder of what the game of football can be when two guys with integrity show up on Sunday with their teams embracing that same virtue. They both had the desire necessary to win it all, yet the poor sportsmanship of other succesful coaches this past season was nowhere to be found. In fact, one Sunday appeared as dissapointed for the other as the other was proud of his winning opponent. None of the low sportsmanship, bitter and hate-based personalities that we've seen at the close of games in the recent past. It should remind us all that it's been too long since we had this type of integrity in the big game. I applaud both coaches and the players who followed them into the game with these ideals on the very top of their priority lists. Hopefully we'll be rewarded with more matchups of teams of integrity as we watch the current changing of the guard in the NFL.

You can follow the coaches to predict this- what coach from the Tampa 2/Cover 2 family has been signed at a new destination this off-season with a team having serious enough defensive issues to overhaul their D completely?

Sounds like revisionism to me. John Butler may have cited Flowers Senior Bowl week as one reason he drafted Flowers, but the pick was considered a wild stretch by every single reputable scouting source in the country. Okoye is a consensus first rounder by all the same folks. The majority of NFL teams are looking for a 320 pound guy with Okoye's feet and legs, not a 287 pounder. It's not unlikely that only Tampa in front of us will really look hard at making him their first pick.

When you throw in to the mix that Parrish is far too small to return kicks, it's hard to imagine the team even dabbling in a mistake like this. Instead, replacing Price with a real #2, or perhaps adding a traditional #1 with Evans moving to the #2 WR would give Roscoe plenty of opportunies to show off his speed on Sundays. Wouldn't do anything positive to Josh Reed's career unless our TE depth chart stays as thin as it has been for too long.

The defense we're trying to play would benefit hugely by adding a premier one-gap defensive lineman to the role players we already have under contract. And can that be a 295 pounder? Absolutely. Could Okoye be the guy? His play on Mobile suggests he has a shot at being the next great Cover 2 interior lineman. You won't find me disappointed come draft day if his name is called for us. We play in a division where we will be rewarded greatly if we can get the interior push the defense offers to it's best executors. We saw flashes of if during our 2006 campaign, in games where we had some of the best QBs in the league making uncharacteristic mistakes. If we can get consistent in running it we can have an advantage in the AFC East, and when you're building a winner the best strategy is to focus on your division first. If our fans can begin to accept some of the realities of the D scheme- it will give up big running plays, it's simply an inevitable consequence- but it also can be a deadly defense against good running teams because of the negative yardage plays that come with shooting gaps. When you can get a power running team to 2nd and 14 or 3rd and 9, you've taken them off their game. So you have to bite the bullet a few plays a game where a runner gets into your third level, but as Indy has shown this postseason if you get very good play from your safeties you can more than make up for the big runs with situations your opponent isn't used to. And having a premier interior pass rusher puts anyone trying to beat you with a spread offense at a disadvantage. In 2007 I hope we are able to better execute our scheme and gain the advantage the Cover 2 offers against the offenses in NY and NE, and simply allow the awful quarterbacking in Miami to continue to cost our 3rd divisional rival games. Win the East- everything else will fall into place. Best way to win the East- make this Cover 2 work with a premier interior lineman being worked into our rotation. John McCargo is not that guy- certainly not at this point. Waiting to find our whether he ever can be is not a good strategy.

You'll have to take the line of thinking up with the GMs around the league. Most teams are looking for 310-330 pound interior DLinemen. It's very unlikely teams playing in gap control defenses would take a guy who showed up at the Senior Bowl weighing 287 pounds as their first round pick. There are a few teams like us playing in one-gap schemes who will not necessarily be turned off by that weight since the job of our DLinemen is so much different than playing in the Raven's scheme, for instance. I don't know where you get from my post anything suggesting he won't be a good player- what I actually suggested is that he appears to be a most ideal fit in the type of defense we run and hence he is most likely to have a first round pick used on him by a Tampa/Cover 2 team. That limits our competition for his services, and that's to our advantage.

He showed great range, no doubt. But he was pushed around and let runners slip his tackles- I thought he probably hurt himself overall on Saturday. The North dominated possession and ran 70 plays during the game. 5 of the tackles Willis made were only after the North had gotten first down yardage. Another was on Special Teams.

It's tough to project him at his sub 290 weight. It seems there should only be about 4 or 5 teams in the league who might covet a DT his size enough to spend a #1 on him.

#91 http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/profile.php?pyid=13143 #92 http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/profile.php?pyid=8447 #52 http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/profile.php?pyid=15199

I'll be happy to answer that. From the very first post in this string, among the things I've proven with facts are that a quarterback skill most of the best of all time possessed is actually a huge chasm in Brady's game. I've asked you to simply acknowledge that all the facts support that Brady is awful at throwing the ball downfield. For some reason you refuse to acknowledge what is inarguable. So I figure you're either a Troll or a moron, and I feel justified in being condescending to both. If you're a Troll, you apparently can't find enough people to talk about your own team and you're here instead on a Buffalo Bill's board offering absolutely nothing in the way of a contribution to football conversation (or in societal terms- you're a loser). On the other hand, if you're a moron, you have entered a conversation you can't understand and that's a waste of the bandwidth. Hope that clears things up for you.

That'd be a big fat ZERO on the pop quiz. Let's give you one more chance to prove there's blood flowing between your ears: If a Quarterback in the NFL was among the 10 worst at throwing the football more than 9 yards past the line of scrimmage, and the league confirmed and certified that the quarterback was among the worst in the league, would you then agree with the irrefutable facts and the official league statistics that that quarterback was a poor downfield passer- even if he was the quarterback who's Fathead is on your bedroom wall?

I'll be happy to as soon as we establish that you have some, make that any, comprehension abilities- (remember, not every classroom is appropriate for every student). Do you now recognize from the irrefutable facts laid out in this string that Tom Brady is one of the worst downfield passers in the NFL today?

If you don't like stats, try the facts- Tom Brady is among the worst Quarterbacks in the NFL when he is asked to throw the ball downfield. This terrible problem of his has gone on his whole career. You see, I can give you information to better your understanding of the game of football- but I have no ability to refresh the brain cells you lost in that terrible childhood accident. Such a shame.

In '04 his rating from 21-30 yards was 44, and from the 31-40 was only 55. No one bothered to cover his wideouts past 30 yards becasue of his horrendous performance downfield up to then, and as a result he got lucky on a few downfield chucks. We can see the league adjusted since 2004 by leaving the occasional Safety downfield, completely frustrating one of the worst downfield passers in the NFL today on the deep ball. Speaking of Short Bus Riders! Jump onboard Trollboy! Guess there's not much going on over at the Patsy Message Board? At a minimum he'd have to achieve being an "average" downfield passer, a primary skill all the Great QBs in league history have achieved. Of course, to do that he'll have to SERIOUSLY make up for completing 38% of his downfield passers and coughing up a bottom-feeding rating in the 60s on downfield passes when the great passers of his era are over 110 :-)

Apparently it's my turn to chaperone the Short Bus riders- So you Brain Surgeons have come up with the theory that it's the Wide Receivers who make the QB better, and that a QB like Brady who has has suffered with "only" one Pro Bowler and "only" one Super Bowl MVP Wideout is at a disadvantage- explaining his pathetic downfield Passer Rating of 67 this year and career-long awful downfield numbers? We'll wait for your list of the great Wide Receivers Jeff Garcia was throwing to this season while whipping Brady in downfield passing by 40 points? How about Damon Huard by 50 points? And I can't wait to hear the names of the Pro Bowl quality WRs that Mark Brunnell was using to beat Brady in downfield passing. Truth is, not one of the above QBs had a Wide Receiver among the top 30. Not one of them has a Wide Reciever going to the Pro Bowl. Yet they whipped on Brady's downfield passing numbers. And surely, since it has already been pointed out in this string that JP Losman was more than a dozen points better downfield than Brady in 2006, we won't hear either of you suggesting there be any additions to the Bill's Wide Receiver Depth Chart this off-season! Why don't you leave those conical hats with me, they aren't allowed on your ride home.

I think we're in complete agreement that Brady fell into a best case scenario for him in NE. I doubt he'd even be in the NFL if he'd been on a Denny Green bench, and on most other teams it would have been tough for him to get his break. Belichick not only gave him the shot but has gotten more out of him than I believe any other contemporary NFL coach would. By putting him in a System wherein the QB was less responsible for offensive success than in other schemes, Brady has thrived. As to his OC influence, I'd still love if the opportunity for the Emperor's New Clothes to be exposed presented itself by having Brady and all of his OC skills ship off to a big free agent contract in, let's say, Detroit.

Logically why would Brady's 38% downfield completion rate benefit at all by receivers who outrun his arm strength? It's more logical that Brady would become far worse with receivers who simply get outside his range before he has a chance to throw the ball. In your scenario, logic says Brady would likely fall to a 25 or 30% completion rate if he had the Indy WRs. In fact, Brady's completion rate over 30 yards this past season WAS only 25% so therein you have an answer that requires no speculation.

I thought Manning played a pretty spectacular second half this past weekend. He sat on the edge of the pressure he saw with regularity and made plays happen with his feet (in the pocket) as well as his arm. Brady looked a bit cooked to me. If you think I have distaste for Brady, you're not getting the essence of my posts. I have substantial disdain for the media and the lemming fans who follow their overglorification of the guy's role on the team he plays on. He's a very good, maybe great, System QB who is playing in a system that does not suffer from his bad downfield skills, easily fried arm or his lack of mobility. Instead, his good instincts with his feet in the pocket, good release and willingness to put in the study time have made him a great fit on a team that is so much bigger than their QB that you could plug 4 or 5 other guys into the NE system over the same period with similar results- IMO of course. On the other hand, on Manning's team the "influence on a win" looks something like this: 1 Manning's Performance 2 OLines Peformance 3 WR Performance 4 Defensive Performance 5 Game Plan 6-etc. In New England the "influence on a win" hierarchy looks more like this: 1 Belichick's Defensive strategy 2 Defensive Performance 3 RBs Performance 4 Belichick's Offensive strategy 5 Brady's Performance 6-etc. So I have no problem with Brady's skillset, I see all the things he does well. I also see the things he gets credited with that he has virtually nothing to do with. For instance, what QB on any NFL roster would have failed to execute the Belichick offensive strategy of simply using draw play after draw play on third downs throughout the first half at Indy? What in the world did Brady have to do with that or it's success? Nothing, of course. But hey, don't put me in the position of exposing how good I think Belichick is ;-) I'll give you that it's possible Belichick doesn't give a thorough study of the opposing defense and give his OC an opening drive strategy, but I find that highly, highly improbable. He's a micromanager and this thumbprints in my opinion are all over the opening offensive drive.