Ramius

I suppose you could build it adjacent to campus, like our civic center is. Its definitely an interesring scenario. You could ideally build a 60-65k stadium and put the crowd close, like Seattle did.

NCAA rules prohibit alcohol sales if the venue is on campus property. Here at FSU, you cant buy beer at football games but you can at basketball games because the civic center is off campus.

Thanks Ralph. A true pioneer.

Dalton isnt going to be worth the money he commands. He's a decent QB, but not one i want on my team. His play can get you to the playoffs, but he's not the QB that can put you over the top.

While i wouldn't pass on a Revis/Sherman-type of CB, i do agree that at the CB position, money is better spent having 3 above average CBs than 1 "lockdown" corner.

Well, they have no WRs to throw to, so it's not like he'll be missing any significant activities.

Assuming TG is lying is a completely fair and valid assumption. The guy has little talent and virtually no professional credibility who only reports things that will benefit his ongoing personal agenda or petty childish personal attacks.

With all the chubby chasers on the board that want all 1st round fat guys to man the OL, does Williams count?

They've had that "great" OL for years and where has that gotten them?

Pennington hit 1,000 attempts in his 5th season, where he had a 91.0 rating. Pennington's career rating with close to 2500 attempts is 90.1 If i get some time in the future, perhaps i'll look up the number of total attempts thrown by QBs. Sanchez has close to 1900 attempts. But you're right, he hit 1,000 sttempts during his 3rd season and didn't last past his 4th. Rivers has thrown 4100 attempts. I was trying to stress that you really need to see 1,000 sttempts to get a good look at a young QB, because how he performs in the season prior doesn't necessarily mean he's going to be good/bad. I had 28 QBs by my count (now up to 31, because i realized i had forgotten Ponder, so i had 29 QBs originally) and from 2001-2010 there were 145 QBs drafted. So 21% of the QBs threw 1,000 attempts. I tried to look at QBs that at least started somewhat consistently, so their "year" ratings consisted of a large number of pass attempts.. Tavaris Jackson just crossed the 1,000 attempt threshold in his 6th season (14 starts with seattle). He had a rating of 79.2 that year, to go with his career rating of 78.5. He's a tougher case because he didn't start consistently, so its tough to assign a "prior year" rating when he only threw 58 pass attempts. I also forgot Kyle Orton. Adding in those 2 QBs really doesn't change the correlation. It's still a 0.71. Fitzpatrick was the only Bills QB to hit the 1,000 attempt plateau.

Well, he's got the Heisman and National Championship already. He wants to play both football and baseball at the next level, like Deion. I don't see that happening. If he does stay in school, he's eligible to be drafted for baseball in June of 2015, so we'll see how it shakes out.

There was a guy on the local radio a few weeks back (i can't remember who) who stated that what projecting how well a young QB will develop, you can't look so much at years or starts, but rather pass attempts. He said that with young QBs he believed you really need to see 1,000 pass attempts before making a legitimate conclusion on how their career will turn out. I wanted to see what kind of validity there was to the 1,000 attempt theory, so i put it to a small test. I took a list of recent QBs to reflect the "current" NFL landscape (going from 2001 to 2010, but including Peyton, Brady, and Warner) and checked their passer ratings in 3 categories: the season they hit 1,000 pass attempts, the season prior, and their career rating. I then checked the correlations between the ratings in those 3 categories. (i'm a scientist, so yes i understand the limits of a simple correlation) Here's some of the methodology: I used passer rating, because while not perfect, it's a pretty good reflection of the skill of a QB, especially over the course of a career. The season they hit 1,000 pass attempts was chosen for obvious reasons, and the season prior was chosen to see how big of a difference (if any) existed. I considered QBs that started a good chunk of time consecutively, so we were dealing mostly with consistent starters, or guys projected to be long term starters. I also looked at lower drafted guys that had developed into starters. There were 28 QBs in my study. The numbers: 16/28 QBs hit the 1,000 pass attempt plateau in their 3rd season. 1 QB hit it in his 2nd season, and the rest in year 4 or later. I found that there was a 0.71 correlation between the passer rating in the season where a QB hit his 1,000th pass attempt and his career rating. There was only 0.46 correlation between the rating in the season prior to hitting 1,000 and career rating. Interestingly enough, there was one huge outlier, Ben Roethlisberger. He had his far and away worst season of his career in the seaosn he hit 1,000 attempts. When i remove that data point, the numbers become more stark. The correlation in passer rating jumps to 0.77 in the 1,000 season, and drops to 0.43 for the season prior. Conclusion: With these numbers, i'm confident in saying that a QBs rating in the season where he hits 1,000 pass attempts is a good predictor of what his career rating will turn out to be. Some food for thought: 1,000 attempts allows enough time for a QB to completely develop. It allows time to correct a "sophomore slump" but also will show if a good early season is a fluke (Josh Freeman). In that time, a QB will probably see most of everything that NFL defenses can throw at him, and defenses will have gotten enough film to adjust to said QB. It isn't reliant on starts, which can skew a passer's ability if they throw either a lot early on (Peyton), or not so much early on (Vick, Rivers). The next group of QBs: Since 2011, 5 drafted QBs have already hit 1,000 attempts: Newton, Dalton, Luck, Ponder, and Tannehill. Their ratings in the 1,000 season are, respectively: 86.2, 87.4, 87.0, 77.9, and 81.7. So the 1,000 theory predicts good things for each one save Ponder/Tannehill. The following QBs are close to 1,000 and will hit that mark this season (if given enough PT in some cases): RGIII: 849 attempts, R. Wilson: 800 attempts, Weeden: 784 attempts, Gabbert: 777 attempts, Kaepernick: 639 attempts, Foles: 582 attempts. So whatever you see out of these guys this season has a good chance of being an accurate potrait of their careers going forward. Its especially interesting regarding RGIII and how his career has started, EJ currently sits at 306 attempts. So chances are, no matter how good or bad EJ does in this upcoming year, it won't necessarily be an accurate reflection of how his career will turn out. If anyone wants to know specific QBs and their numbers, fire away (i cant post from work, so it may be a bit before i respond)

And where would we be if we did what you suggest and signed Poz for 7 mil and Levitre for 8 mil per year? We'd have 10 mil in cap space, be unable to sign Byrd at all or even make a reasonable offer or tag him. Then we'd have you and Billsvet bashing he team for overpaying a mediocre LB and paying an OG 8 mil and thus hamstringing the team from signing anyone else.

Haha i meant the local radio guy.

The local guy here in Tallahassee (big TB fan) was discussing them taking a QB, and said he wants no QB in round 1 aside form Bridgewater. He figured it was much ado about nothing, both trying to not let Glennon get comfortable and to get teams 1-6 thinking about picking QBs early. If those teams are afraid of others taking QBs early, they're more likely to grab one high instead of trying to trade into late round 1 or snagging one in early round 2.

We have multiple positions that definitely could use an upgrade. However, i'd say that we do have 2 dire needs that we simply cannot walk away from this offseason without getting significant upgrades. LG and TE.

While this works in theory Dave, how does it give any QB a chance to develop? This strategy basically gives a QB his rookie season to show that he's worth something and then you're going to move on. You can't actually be sure that you "have one" if the QBs you draft aren't given any time to develop. Not to mention that if you're spending high picks on QBs every year, then you're pissing away resources that could build other parts of your team. If EJ doesn't make strides this year and start showing real talent on the field, then i have no issue with grabbing another QB in the 2015 draft. But if the Bills are going to waste a high pick on a QB this year, then they better be damn sure that he's a franchise guy. (ala Luck, Peyton, etc) Otherwise, its a waste.

And you lose people when you ignore that Stevie had the game winning catch against Carolina.

A-freakin-men. The top WRs are now getting 12 million per year. The WR franchise tag number is north of 11 million. Stevie making 8 million seems right in line with abilities as a top 20 WR.

Jameis Winston said he's planning on staying 2 more years at FSU, instead of just one, as common knowledge seems to suggest. The reason? He wants to play 2 more years of baseball. He's playing now, and wants to also play next spring, which would interfere with the NFL draft process. Now, i could easily see him changing his mind after next football season, but he's no lock to enter the 2015 draft.

Still conveniently ignoring the Carolina game, huh?

Since we're parsing Stevie's career on a game by game basis, care to explain why you left out the Carolina game this year? Or does that catch "not count" because it doesn't fit your narrative?

All the more reason to draft Sam, since we face tom brady twice a year.

The whole compensatory pick idea needs to go away. Why should teams receive compensation for players leaving in FA? It does nothing but allow the rich to get richer, because typically the teams that can afford to let players walk are the teams that draft well and have replacements lined up.

Seattle was bargain shopping as well. If Schneider really thought Wilson was going to be that good, he wouldn't have waited until the 3rd. When the entire league passes on a guy 2 times, it shows that they think there are some serious flaws in his game. Yes, the entire league was wrong. But blaming the Bills is just plain silliness. You don't draft a guy in the 3rd round as a "franchise" guy. You either take a shot on a QB high, or you settle for lottery tickets in the remainder of the draft.