oldmanfan

Hope Ivory lands in a good spot. He was a dependable second back. Doing it now let's him hook on elsewhere before camp.

Right. Sure.

Correct. The process is about having guys dedicated to football and constantly working to improve. As much of a head case as is AB no one ever questioned his work ethic until his dust up with Big Ben. I suspect they would have needed to be as sure as they could be that wouldn't happen again before they would have signed him.

Got his 15 minutes of fame. Now throw his butt in jail.

Football has always been about one guy imposing his will on another. Having big tough guys up front has always been a winning formula.

I think Gore averaged over 4 yards a carry last year. And I think he's being brought in not only because he's still productive but because he can show some younger guys what being a professional is all about. I do think they will have a younger guy in place and that Ivory will be gone as well.

That the holistic objective thing again? How is it the holistic objective thing is constantly negative?

It's funny that the holistic, objective stats guy didn't apparently bother to actually look at the numbers before posting this.

I've been looking for 100 million for 63 years.

I'm having a senior moment, but which team was it in the playoffs that started 7 DBs and won the game? Think it was the Chargers beating the Ravens; using more DBs shut down running lanes for Jackson? At any rate, having more CBs helps with depth and gives you flexibility on your defensive strategies.

You don't understand the concept. Or don't want to understand the concept.

As a self proclaimed holistic and objective observer, you may want to look back in history as to the eventual impact of big name free agent signings on a team's overall performance. You may be surprised. The job of a GM is to look for ways to upgrade his team. They brought in two WRs that are upgrades to the position vs. last season. Brown takes essentially Benjamin's old job, Beasley takes what was essentially a non-filled spot. Morse upgrades the C spot, they brought in two tackles one of which starts unless they draft one day 1 or two, two at G that should upgrade Miller and Ducasses and give competition to Teller, a TE that upgrades over Clay, an All Pro KR that upgrades that spot plus a good gunner for special teams, and two CBS for depth to upgrade there. At some point people are going to have to listen to Beane and believe what he says. He has said you look to FA to fill holes and the draft to get the best guys you can. That is what he has done and is doing. Now, if you want to give the all too trite "I'll believe it when I see it", or "show me the baby" stuff go ahead. Of course we have to see how it works out. Duh. As for contract length, it is also clear Beane values cap space. He has a lot of it next year, some remaining this year. By signing this crop of FAs to manageable short contracts he gives himself flexibility to extend guys that he knows are integral ( like a Hyde and Poyer), and he can extend any of his FAs that merit the extension and let others walk after a year of service. Pretty astute approach.

Depth is a good thing. Competition for positions is a good thing.

Look at the history of his posts. It's sad. Every single person on this board knows that the signings etc. donevthis offseason all have to show it on the field next year. That is a given. It is reasonable when you look at the signings to think that the front office has a plan they are executing, and that the signings should help. For example the special teams were bad, and they changed coaches, brought in an All Pro returner and a really good gunner. The O line was bad and they have brought in a number of individuals to upgrade. They needed receivers and brought in a good outside guy and good slot guy. Yes, time will tell but they did what they said they'd do, identify areas to fill in with FAs and fill them. Soory but SoTier is like the kid that gets a pony for Christmas and complains because it will give him manure. He is obsessed with claiming all these moves are bacause the team wants $$ vs. wins. He fails to recognize time after time that ownership and team management has changed, and just spins every single thing done in a negative fashion. And that's just sad if you claim to be a fan. Right. No one else is sick of losing. You're just sad.

That's disappointing. Continually and incessantly looking for negatives of teams you supposedly root for is truly sad

Is Sullivan semi-retired and the Niagara thing just something to add to his retirement income? Is he not able to find another position with a bigger paper or on line site? Some here defended him a lot as being a really good, well respected columnist. I would think a guy with such supposed talent would have a bigger gig than the Niagara Gazette.

I find it sad that a fan can be so incessantly negative

Yes. You look at their diagrams and they imply that unless you hit a guy right in the numbers every pass you're inaccurate. Hitting the same spot continually is precision, not accuracy. Look back and you'll see the classic dartboard diagrams explaining the difference between the two. Bottom line is great QBs are highly accurate and highly precise. Allen needs to be more precise, and on short balls I'd say both.

If you go back through the thread, which I know is asking a lot, you'll see why this data is faulty. They confuse accuracy with precision.

Hope he prospers in his new career.

I don't think you get it. The only thing to analyze is whether the guys brought in represent improvements. And if you don't think the guys they've brought in are better it's because you don't want to.

They have a plan. They're executing the plan. Time will tell how successful they'll be, but there certainly seems to be some well thought out work here. Refreshing to see the HC and GM working in synch.

Hope you're right.

I agree. That is why these simplistic "he's inaccurate" statements are lazy IMHO. I used the Clay as an example, but without asking Allen I can't know for sure if he threw it right where he wanted.

Didn't think they needed help at safety. But he's a big special teams guy too. You look at what's going on and you start to think the new coaches for ST and OL have looked at a lot of film and decided the incumbents stink.