silvermike

How about 2004? We still blew that one.

I was going to say essentially this, so I'll just say "+1." Nicely done. FleaMoulds80 seems to be bent on being as dumb as possible as loudly as possible, and I think I'm going to reach for my ignore button.

Reed was the Chargers again, too, right? They seem to love having our reject WRs in training camp, but don't like them enough to put on the roster.

Nope. But I was only talking about Young there. Fitz has left me very nervous for the regular season, and I'm just hoping it's all a preseason fluke. I expect to see a lot of running this year, and if the defense can shine, Fitz is more likely to be safe enough to get some wins, where Young's mistakes tend to be more disastrous. But I'm deeply concerned about QB, and there's no way out until 2013.

If Young was a rookie, this could all be exciting. But he's almost 30. If it was going to happen for him, it almost certainly would have. He might be able to finish a game for us, but he's not going to be more than a backup.

"And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought him that he would come into his house" Luke 8:41.

I'm optimistic because the running game is so bad. Spiller is good and Freddie is good and the line is the same as last year, in most of its pieces. That didn't fall apart over the summer, so the reason must be that the intensity for the starting offense is just too low in preseason to yield meaningful results. Hopefully not wishful thinking, but the panic button is still under glass. I won't look for the hammer until halftime of the Jets game, at least.

Thank god for this continuing feature on the board. It's remarkably unique - whenever I want to see want an opponent is saying about us, I have to wade through a dozen animated gifs and flashing lights. This keeps the forum from looking like a 1996 4th grader's Geocities page.

That's correct, to the best of my knowledge. That said, you still have a limited number of roster positions available on gameday, so if you're uncomfortable with two QBs, it's nice to have a third available for emergencies while still getting some special teams and wildcat work out of him.

https://twitter.com/...731077430804480 I get that Lee was never great and lost a step, but I still can't believe he's dropped so far as to be essentially not a roster player in the NFL any more.

He's 41 and retired for 7 years. I think he'd be more likely gunning for Chan's job at this point than Fitz's. Seriously, Chan coached him and Wanny coached him. I'm guessing it's just a friendly visit, or at most, an internship idea.

That's what's going to make this defense golden. Getting pressure/penetration with four rushers is how a defense becomes great. If the offense keeps someone in to protect, you've got almost everyone double covered, and if they try to use your speed, with draws and screens, you have seven men back to protect.

It's either that, or the fines themselves are worth the cost of the operation. It's not like they use the high-tech equipment to bust drunken teenagers, and while I don't know the details, I bet they collect a hefty toll on those they bust.

I think the best chance of this happening would be Buffalo joining a Toronto bid in distinctly the little brother role. We'd be there mostly to add some novelty to the bid, and moderately share in the costs. We'd get very few medal events, but they'd fairly easily be able to split up soccer, and any other team sport that generally have to travel from location to location anyway, since there are so many games during the round-robin. Plus side: we could get a bridge and a stadium out of it, both projects that were needed anyway. Some extra tourists, some interest before and after. Toronto can bear the bigtime costs. It's something.

Guy was the league's leading rusher when he went out. That's a pretty good case for being a "top 5 RB." I do think he'll share a lot of time with CJ, which will lead to both being fresh enough for big plays through the game, but lowered cumulative stats. But Freddie could be a 5.0 ypc guy this year. Edit: *again* this year.

I've got an uncle who's a big Dolphins fan, so needless to say, we haven't seen eye-to-eye on a lot the past 20 years. We both live in NYC, so we have a grand old time talking about the 2012 Jets.

Yeah, it definitely applies to punts: it's the only time it's likely to get you anywhere. Opponent is punting from the shadow of their own goal line, and you fair catch around their 45. That's a 55 yard kick, once hte end zone is factored in, and so somewhat makeable. Given the bonus from no rush and a running start, you might be able to get up to 65 yards and have it be worth it.

He's gotta look out for Graft Versus Host. It's very serious.

It's extremely difficult to meaningfully punish the program without hurting innocents. The kids there now are being given the opportunity to flee away, which is at least a start to protect them, but it's still a major disruption from a crime they're innocent of. Would there be some way to tear the football program away from the university altogether, and have it run by the NCAA, with any revenues going to a fund for abuse victims? Play a schedule of all road games; in jerseys with a generic NCAA logo, etc. If we don't want to take the team away from the players, we can at least take it away from Penn St.

And in any case, it's not like any money the Saints don't pay Drew Brees gets turned over to the New Orleans school district, or sent to the United Way. It's either Drew Brees' money or it's Tom Benson's money. I don't think there's some moral imperative in figuring out which one of the two gets it. If you want more money paid to pro athletes to go to public services, either raise taxes or call'em up and ask nicely. Their paycuts just go back to the owners.

Signing a longish term deal like this seems to imply pretty heavily the team will be in WNY in 5 years. Sure, they could have a contractual out for team movement, but both sides are interested.

Hasselbeck? He had all of 30 passes as a Packer. Odd choice. Lynn Dickey seems to be #4: between those guys, it covers all but about ten years since 1956.

Is anyone taking bets on that line?

I'd say this is my scale: A "B" represents an acceptable draft. Nobody's singing in the streets, nobody's really crying. It's the expected result. For each pick, you get a B for: First round: Solid starter—a player who starts shortly after being drafted, and solidly holds down the position with minimal complaint. Terrence McGee has been a solid starter for most of his career. Add a (+) for picks 17-32 and a (-) for 1-16. Second round: Regular starter—a player who starts consistently after being drafted, though doesn't necessarily excel. Scott Chandler would be the fit here. Third round: Reliable depth—not necessarily a starter, but a regular substitute, and often a player in various packages. Your Chad Rineharts or David Nelsons. 4-7: One regular starter, two depth players, total. I don't grade each pick individually. Again, those are B-graded drafts. To grade a whole thing, I'd double-weight the first round, so two shares for the first round pick, one for the 2nd, one for the 3rd, one for the balance. If you exceed the scale, you get an A, if you fall short, you start dropping. +s and -s to round it out. Now to put it into practice: Round Pick # Player Position College 2 5 Roscoe Parrish C 3 86 Kevin Everett Incomplete 4 122 Duke Preston Center Illinois 5 156 Eric King Cornerback Wake Forest 6 197 Justin Geisinger Offensive Guard Vanterbilt 7 236 Lionel Gates Running Back Louisville Late picks: D GPA: 1.5. I'm not grading Everett, and I'm not going to go investigate traded picks. Just what you do on the day. 1 8 Donte Whitner Safety Ohio State: C+ (The pick alone didn't quite rise to the B range; alone I'd give it a B-. Top half of the round costs it the additional mark. 1 26 (from Chicago Bears) John McCargo Defensive Tackle North Carolina State: F 3 70 Ashton Youboty Cornerback Ohio State: D 4 105 Ko Simpson Safety South Carolina 5 134 Kyle Williams[3] Defensive Tackle LSU 5 143 Brad Butler Offensive Tackle Virginia 6 178 Keith Ellison Linebacker Oregon State 7 216 Terrance Pennington Offensive Tackle New Mexico 7 248 Aaron Merz Guard California Late Rounds: A+. One star, one reliable starter who mysteriously retired, depth from Ellison and Simpson. Pennington briefly started. GPA: 1.67 (C-) 1 12 Marshawn Lynch[4] Running Back California: B- 2 34 Paul Posluzny Linebacker Penn State: B+ 3 92 Trent Edwards Quarterback Stanford: B (Imagine Edwards never started. A reasonably reliable backup for several years who won't blow games for you is pretty average for a third round QB) 4 111 Dwayne Wright Running Back Fresno State 6 184 John Wendling Safety Wyoming 7 222 Derek Schouman Tight End Boise State 7 239 C. J. Ah You Defensive End Oklahoma Late Rounds: F. GPA: 2.33 (C+) 1 11 Leodis McKelvin Safety Troy D- 2 41 James Hardy Wide Receiver Indiana F 3 72 Chris Ellis Defensive End Virginia Tech F 4 114 Reggie Corner Cornerback Akron 4 132Supplemental Derek Fine Tight End Kansas 5 147 Alvin Bowen Linebacker Iowa State 6 179 Xavier Omon Running Back NW Missouri State 7 219 Demetrius Bell Offensive Tackle Northwestern State 7 224 Stevie Johnson Wide Receiver Kentucky 7 251Supplemental Kennard Cox Cornerback Pittsburgh Late Round Picks: A+ GPA: 1.13 1 11 Aaron Maybin Defensive End Penn State: F 1 28 Eric Wood Center Louisville: A 2 42 Jairus Byrd[2] Safety Oregon: A+ 2 51 Andy Levitre Guard Oregon State: A+ 4 121 Shawn Nelson Tight End Southern Miss 5 147 Nic Harris Safety Oklahoma 6 183 Cary Harris Cornerback USC 7 220 Ellis Lankster Cornerback West Virginia Late round picks: F GPA: 2.38 Thoughts?

Yeah, I was about to ask. Which season was Whitner an all pro?