AKC

He dressed for something like 3 early games and the finale in Pitt. I figure Krumrie simply wants him to get stronger and develop his hands before relying on him to contribute in meaningful contests. I'd also bet the team watched PWilliams getting singled on almost evey passing down while Sam drew the doubles, and consequently they felt they could put a better value proposition next to Sam with at least similar results. We shall see- one thing that seems clear is that Ron Edwards is nowhere near the tackler that Pat is. The guy who will pay for that if Edwards starts will be LFletcher- can he take a year of bringing down backs regularly showing up at his level with a head of steam?

I thought the draft book on him included a very good first 3 steps in pass rushing?

The value proposition of carrying a guy who obviously doesn't fit your O model anymore in the first 2 slots at his primary position plus will be easily replaced with a real CB at a lesser salary makes the move the right one for the good of their talent pool. The deeper question is whether the well begins to dry up on the "team" campaign with these types of moves and to date with Belichick it hasn't. You can't argue with the rings- then again if I had a Cohiba for every genius who returned to a steady diet of cans in this league I wouldn't have all that space in my humidor right now.

Outside of STs at the very least I'd expect to see him play off either tackle as an eligible lineman on most of our goal line series and short yardage plays considering Losman will surely have roll outs called down in tight or 3rd/4th and short. He hasn't shown the foot speed to play TE in the open field, he right now remains simply a big guy with good speed and burst for his size- not good speed when compared to many 240 pound TEs.

I've been assuming they might also figure that he's run the course in the makeup of our division and his value to us is consequently lower. I like Pat and he remains a superior tackler at the LOS for a big body in the run game, but his ability to split the gap on passing downs has declined over the past few years. He'll be paid for the 2.5 sacks he got from the interior last year but I don't recall him showing the suprising foot burst he had earlier in his career. With the need to push the pocket early playing high on divisional priorities it's not out of the question that the team feels PWs playing time would be decreased in '05 in favor of an emerging REdwards, and if his time were to be reduced it's tough to pay him starters money. An indication of this is that the team has shown a preference to giving Sam Adams the interior spot in pass D packages over the past two years.

Pat's fans aren't bitching about employing the biggest cheap shot safety in the league.

One of the nastiest 340 pound OGs in the league, his quad troubles have spanned the past two seasons. If there's a chance he could be ready (100%) to play by pre-season he'd improve the left side of our line by about 500%.

It's been an impressive run for the most part, typically credited to their attention to acting ability and script development. While I'm a fan of both of those dynamics, what strikes me that the intangible with the most influence though is Bochco's own struggle between his socio-political leanings versus his desire to offer some understanding of a profession that's so contradictory to the same. That internal fight to me shows up in almost every episode and it's what IMO establishes his historical superiority in the 60 minute format on the small screen.

Yeah, what the heck does Parcells know about football anyway? He oughta' come over and spend some of his time on this board if he wants to learn something about the Quarterback position ;-)

I realized that by completely arching my back the pounding was easier to take, but it was still brutal in those huge waves even then. Don't think I haven't paid attention rapt to every body surfing broken neck on the news out here since then! My ship was at 32nd Street one summer and I headed up to OB with a dusted spleef. Burned it myself and foolishly went for a swim that found me about 1/2 mile offshore in a rip. In my adrenalized state I swam like a madman straight to shore and then slept if off face down in the sand for what must have been two hours. Freakin' worst sunburn of my life, any shirt I put on basically became part of my back. OUCH! LABilz- When you're ready for a trip to Carillo let me know- say you have some nephews visiting from back home, etc ;-)

If we were simply looking to upgrade from those two I'm guessing our 5th round pick might take care of that ;-) Actually with a real dedication in the off-season to the old "Bob Lanier" strategy of jumping rope 7 hours a day between sprints might just help Mr. Smith on his way to playing productive ball in the NFL. He strikes me as struggling too much with his basic coordination and that's not necessarily a fatal flaw if he's willing to bust his butt to overcome it. It's possible his reactions will prove less than NFL caliber but it wouldn't surprise me to see his struggles so far dissipate. The trenches of the NFL are a tough enough assignment for a starter from Michigan let alone a raw kid who played at Tennessee State with a stop in NFLE as his best training prior to what amounted to his rookie season last year.

I can't see Hamilton as a fit in our system at all simply because of his dimunitive size and Garza, Mayberry and Anderson in '04 were seives in pass protection compared to the top OGs. DeMulling is a big contributor in the Indy offense because he's got such good technique in pass protection, IMO our real need though is for a power run blocker first- a guy along the lines of CVillarial. I think you get that with either of the Green Bay OGS and Andruzzi is tough to argue against: Dixon is the wild card- does he have the gas left in his tank to perform at the level he has for 11 seasons? He seems to be getting bigger every year and that will no doubt catch up with him. Question is will it be in '05?

I'll share a little WNY meets SoCal story that might put this storm in perspective- I moved to Santa Monica in 1983 and the first summer I was here there were some "major storms" that ended up on national news with houses in Malibu getting washed out on their beachfronts. Of course, the storm seemed like nothing to a WNYer and I didn't think twice about heading to a legendary Body Surfing beach above Malibu called Leo Carillo. I was interested in trying my hand at something I had never done, and when I got there a group of local kids watched me swim out into the waves. I figured at some point I'd have to turn around and catch a wave back in and I have to say, for a first timer I was blown away by the feeling of having my body basically in a Superman carry lifted in the air until the wave swallowed me before the shore and tossed me with some pretty serious force down the bottom of the ocean. After a bit of a struggle to get back up for air I turned around and went back for an additional dozen or so rides before finally going onshore. I wondered why the group of kids was sitting there and I asked as I walked by "that's awesome, don't you guys body surf?" to which one responded " not in 9 foot breakers dude". I won't be going out to Carillo today, but it's not because the waves are any worse than they were that day ;-)

Wahle will surely get interest, but I happen to think they have two quality OGs and both are UFAs. The fact that they're over the cap by 3Mill or so might make it difficult for them to offer much to Rivera on the other side and he might end up going FA just to get a market rate for a good OG.

When looking for quality OGs this off-season it might be prudent to watch the movement from another NFL small market cold weather city ;-)

Seems like the Yin/Yang on Shelton runs like this: Yin- Very solid in run blocking, with superior skills at the point of attack Good in pass pro when his head's in the game Yang- Not a great run blocker in space Has lapses in pass pro when he loses interest Undisciplined in training and weight management The one thing that might arguably jump out is that his attitude difficulties seem to make him a Denny Green type of player- or at least the type Green has taken pride in rehabbing in the past. There's another way to look at it though, and that is that Green plays a deep threat offense that gains its running advantage off the strength of it's pass protection and passing effectiveness. Shelton sounds like a guy who would be far more effective in a play action offense like ours, a run first instead of pass first O. In fact, the funny thing is Green would probably be best suited with a LT who was superior in pass pro with less emphasis on run blocking skills- say someone like Jonas Jennings! For the Bills, adding a Tackle who can consistently control the left edge (something we haven't had in over a decade) should propel Mr. McGahee to Pro-Bowl starter after the '05 season.

Krumrie appears to have done a good job getting into Edwards head in his limited role. In that limited role he showed the good feet that allow him to bust gaps, maybe better then any of our interior linemen. It's run support where the big drop-off comes- Williams is one of the best run support interior linemen in the NFL while Ron Edwards isn't even on the map. His starting in place of Williams would IMO precede us becoming victim to more effective rushing attacks on Sundays.

That's surely a conclusion you might reach even if you acknowledge BadOl/DC Tom and Todd's point that draft slotting simply makes the GMs "decision" on his contract offer to the high pick less a negotiation than a hostage demand. A GM's contract skills can be scrutinized very accurately by the contract offers made to players resigning, players renogotiating and players signing on in Free Agency, but in the area of contact negotiation it's hardly fair to hold a GM over the coals on the initial contracts of early round draft picks. The reality of slotting due in part to the rookie cap simply make the deals too cookie cutter and IMO less debatable as far as the wisdom of the original deals. You can argue the pick, but the deal is far less arguable.

Bubba's best ball should still in front of him as a 6th year TE, and he seems like a natural fit for our O with his good blocking skills. It is hard to imagine GB not realizing just how good he is and finding a way to keep him. Another interesting thing about Bubba is his career QB rating of 158 ;-)

You can carve that in a tree. Half of the posters throwing cursing parties for the Bledsoe departure were the same nincompoops screaming we needed to add Jeff Garcia last offseason- "all we need is a good QB with mobility!". It's perfectly understandable though if you apply their math- A) 1/53rd of the roster is more important than the balance B) 1/53rd of the roster is capable of losing football games but incapable of winning them C) in '04 1/53rd of the roster lost 7 games while it's not really clear who those 9 wins get credited to ;-)

The life of a troll is spent looking to attract as "comrades" the most mindless of idiots on any board through the exploitation of wedge issues among a fan base. You really should go see a veterinarian about all those treble hooks stuck in your lips ;-)

Of those options you'l find Berdoo the most favorable from homecosts to property taxes and cost of living. It'd out you about 70 minutes from the beach in smart traffic conditions and you'd be within 30 minutes of much of the best 4 season golf in the country. Our neighborhood in Santa MOinca is nuts- I saw a converted set of old bungalows liste at 600K two weeks ago that are one bedroom/650 square foot units. In the mountains where we spend most of our time (north of the SFV about 45 miuntes) pricing way better, about 350K for a 2000 sq foot home. But you will be required to shovel snow, about 9.5 feet so far this year ;-)

You're of course, absolutely right in your observations that have been documented by everyone before you who has been exposed the the inefficiencies of socialist influenced work forces. How many times does one have to go into a Post Office or DMV and see the lazy, inept work force "go on break" just as you reach their window and contrast that with a visit to 7-11 where the employees are easily as well trained as any posty (money orders, lottery, etc.) yet when the 7-11 line gets long they grab everyone in the building to answer the demand. The funny thing about it is the 7-11 employees make about 1/3rd the pay! The big problem though is that any beneficiary of socialism will find ways to support it, regardless of whther the balance sheet is far in the red.

On LG and TE I'm onboard 100%. Our biggest need is a second quality TE, and that's if Campbell comes back 100%. Otherwise we're basically looking at a full restock on the talent we've got at the position, and FA is where that rebuilding would have to start. The good news at the OG spot is that our personnel guys have already hit a home run at the position in FA. Most personell teams have their strengths and the will get some positions right over and over- if they do the same at LG as they did at the other side last season we'll be well on our way to playing the power rush offense the balance of our talent is better suited to, except as noted above at TE. On Jonas, while he's a superior pass blocker I hate how tall he plays in the run game. I realize it has a lot to do with his build but he simply carries too high a center of gravity on the move to be the right fit for us in the same power running scheme we should be building for. He'll get mucho pay for that beautiful pass pro slide, and that's the kind of money we don't need to spend on a LT who is a liability in the run game based on the offense we need to play. Price plays very good for stretches and then looks like Jamie Nails for a game. I can't figure him out- I assume it's a head thing with him and that doesn't make me comfortable with him topping the Depth Chart at LT. Funny thing is I didn't feel that way at all entering the '04 campaign, but he was one of the big dissapointments for me this past season, a fan who had a lot of hope he'd finally emerge into a full time NFL lineman instead of a #2. He played '04 like a the perpetual #2 he's been in his career.

I'm betting on the tide continuing towards the positive side of that stat in '05.