AKC

Very nice!

Let's make sure we reserve the absolutely devoid of original thought a seat up front as opposed to posters like Simon and BadOl who've merely been wasting bandwidth here with serious posts about football. yawn.....

And Gilbert Gottfried can finally get that Oscar he's done so much to deserve.

I'm with you on the vast majority of your analysis so of course let me point out the one thing I have trouble with: Those same concrete spikes that make Smith a non-factor in space on running downs would spell disaster on either edge of the line. He can hide them inside in pass blocking since for an OG pass pro is more of a slow dance with your feet, but on the edge you've got something more akin to a tango. I'd like to see him develop his coordination to the max by putting in 3 hours of jumping rope every day this off-season but even then I suspect he just doesn't have the liveliness in his legs necessary to ever be a effective pulling run blocker or pass blocker on the edge. If he did get a look at OT I'd have to believe they'd want him to get the protection of having a TE help him out more often on the Strong side, but even then there's an awful risk against any DE with lateral speed. It's also hard to imagine him picking up a smaller blitzer- IMO he just doesn't have the instincts to make the adjustments to his sides.

If you run through the OCs in the league you'll only find about 3 or 4 who are capable of holding their own with any regularity against quality interior linemen. Consequently few teams even ask their OC to hold singles against DTs. One exception we get to see a lot of is Kevin Mawae, one of the best in the league and one of the only OCs trusted to single teams, especially in pass protection, against better DTs. Would it be great to sign Mawae- sure, it's just not going to happen and even if a drafted OC becomes one of these exceptions to the rule it will almost surely take him 3 seasons to get competent at all the other duties associated with the position including making line calls and improving dramatically the speed in which he gets off his snap and up into his block from the far less demanding college game. The bottom line on OCs is simply that we're like most teams, and even most good teams, in that we've got a center who requires some protection from his sides and shouldn't be left alone regularly against any of the top 30-35 DTs in the league. The plus we have with Teague is that he at least offers us very good flexibility off the snap in our run game. I beleive the team likes him a lot and feels he's a big contributor, especially on the edge where they like to bounce Willis outside his blocks and really force defenses to play their linebackers and DB help wide- giving Willis more breathing room when he does go inside.

I think of an effective OLine as a little more complicated unit- no doubt we want power inside with a RB like Willis but it's important to maintain some versatility. If you plug another power run blocker in between to power OGs you really limit the things you can do on the edges and how you get defensed. The running offense we played last year asked a lot of our center to get outside and seal, and Teague was very effective at doing that. He has a good feel for moving through traffic and then he's flexible enough to get around for a block on a quicker and smaller player. On his right side you have a more classic power blocking OG in Villarial, someone who will work his butt off to pull all the way to the other side yet he just doesn't have the range of motion of a Trey Teague to finish in space. If we're able to address the LG spot with a big body with good run blocking skills at the LOS we are probably better served, at least if we play a similar offense to last years, in having one interior lineman who excels on the go. That could leave Trey Teague in a pretty safe spot on the depth chart.

From a column on www.nfldraftblitz.com: Kelvin Garmon has been a huge disappointment, even before his knee injury. Garmon can't play in space and protect, period. His run blocking appears overrated too. Apparently he has an almost unique penchant for idiotic penalties with incredibly poor timing. Atthe same time he prides himself on having the refs watch him closely because "you never know when I'm gonna' slap somebody upside the head". Last season strained quad, concussion and torn ACL and MCL. Sounds like a reach based upon the matter in his noggin' and maybe carrying 350 pounds on a chassis that would prefer 290.

I'll admit your ability to digest a compliment is peculiarly Mantis-like, as if it portends a visit from the more fair of the species.

There's worse obsessions than keeping your house free of insects.

That's the spirit- devoid of obsession and suggestive that you've moved on to focus on the Buffalo Bills instead of the Dallas Cowboys.

Looks like somebody beat you to it. Coach Tuesday's Grand Strategy

Amen. While Shout! was likely to show up on the Left Coast the Monday after the featured game, at least the content gave the appearance of being relatively free of pressure from the organization. It was about two issues into Digest when it became perfectly clear that it too closely favored an internal corporate newsletter.

In any community it's a very healthy exercise for responsible members to observe those few of you consumed with hate. It's only when a community in whole ignores those of you on the hate fringe that episodes like Columbine or the rise of Adolph Hitler go unchecked. Hate On!

There's a difference between subjectivity and objectivity- your opinion on me being an a-hole is wholly subjective while your multiple statements that I post as frequently about Bledsoe as you is objectively and quantitatively proven a lie with any even cursory review of the evidence. You can't hide from your posting history! And no, you don't have to worry about me following strings pointing out the contradicitons and obsessions in your posts, the jobless aren't of that much interest to me unless I REALLY have some time to burn ;-) Hate On!

You have no idea what my opinion about Drew Bledsoe is because you're far too busy polluting this board with your repetitive and boring opinion over and over and over incessantly to the point where there's only 8 others on the board who even bother to read any string with your name in it, and those others are the posters suffering from the same obsession. As far as your lies, one example I've pointed out this statement of yours (you seem to be involved in just as many of these DB threads as I am!) is a lie and suggested a easily verifiable challenge whereby you could be exposed for the falsehood. You have declined I assume because you realize the statement is a lie and yet you've used it twice in this string already. Personility defects like dishonesty and obsessive behavior are flaws that are not limited to an online identity. No doubt those habits are a part of your life whether your computer is on or off. And those who really "matter to you" would tell you how much those negative traits consume your life if you'd simply ask them.

You're declining my challenge? I'll take that as firm evidence that you don't even believe the tripe you post. Hate On!

Let me enlighten you- J.P. Losman is a quarterback who is currently a member of our football team. I'll be happy to challenge you to expose yet another of your lies. Let's take our last 100 football posts from this moment backwards and find our who makes references to Bledsoe with more frequency. Loser leaves the board until the first pre-season game kickoff. I'm waiting for your answer. That's what I figured, just another spineless jellyfish. Just like all the obsessives.

I think all Bill's fans who are not consumed by hate expect J.P. Losman to try his best. I'm also quite certain that those of us who are not ruled by hatred of former Bills players hope that J.P.'s best is better than what we've gotten the past two seasons. In fact, you have a lot of crust suggesting you know anything at all about Bill's fans since it's only you and 6 or 7 others who are obsessed to the point of posting everyday about former players instead of looking to the future with all the real Bill's fans But hey, you go right ahead and Hate On!

Please extend my apologies to any members fo your immediate family who are offended by your last name being spelled incorrectly.

You're of course, once again, failing miserably at accurate representation of facts. The writer establishes the criteria as: 10-5-1 or better That criteria does not include 10-6 teams. The writer goes on further to offer an explanation virtually anyone interested in objectivity could understand- "winning twice as many games as you lose". Again, a record of 10-6 does not meet the measure. Hate on!

Your comparative analysis is an excellent point. Kelly, statistically a lesser QB who never won the big game or earned a Super Bowl ring like Bledsoe, made it against far more convincing contemporaries than Bledsoe will face. Also it seems to push the nomination through much more rapidly when a player attracts a few dozen Travis Bickel types. By my count (and including the 3 Travis Bickels who have been "uninvited" on this board for their obsessive posting regarding him) Bledsoe has a fan club of least 14 Bickel-types, some of whom have already appeared in this thread. If he has any luck in picking up another 8 or 9 he'll be a shoe-in for the Hall.

Throw a cheap South African Viognier on top of two bottles of port every morning before work and we might just collaborate on the cure for quarterback obsession! I'll check back with you Wednesday.

If you like bordeax but the sticker shock for the good ones is too severe, start thinking Rhone varietals. Syrah is still well withing reach, with both the greatest region IMO worldwide being the Barossa in Australia plus a lot of California wines, especially Central Coast Syrah coming in at under 10 bucks for high quality offerings. It just takes a little searching, which is the fun of it all. If you start to get into Syrah let me know and I'll steer you in a good direction.

Three bottles of wine and 4 'ludes is apparently a faux paus also if I read the label beforehand, but that's never stopped me from enjoying the buzz.

It's an aquired thing, and if you want chilled wines now that's OK, you'll eventually almost surely end up enjoying them at a warmer temp as the flavors of both red and white wines are greatly improved as the temp goes towards room temp. Usually wine tastes are developed from starting on sweeter white wines, but I guess the best strategy for chilled reds might be trying some ports. You don't want the 30 buck version of Vintage Ports, instead try a wine shop who has a good slection of Ruby Ports and grab a couple bottles for under 10 bucks. Give them a try but I wouldn't recommend overdoing it on quantity with port. If you do find them to your liking you can work your way up to the dryer Ports. After a stint there jump over to a bland bordeax varietal like Merlot that's easy to get down. From there you can move to the traditional reds like Cab, Syrah, Pinot, etc. Along the way I'm sure you'll find yourself liking them all less and less chilled.