dave mcbride

Terrell Davis had 1140 rushing yards in 8 postseason games, which prorates to over 2280 rushing yards in a 16-game season (and he did it against the best competition). The postseason absolutely should factor into evaluations, and he is the greatest rusher in postseason history. He also won a SB MVP, of course.

Yet he had another strong postseason game. In has last four postseason games, he has 423 yards.

He had the flu in the previous game and was out because of that.

The Marlins experience colors my view of Miami fans. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-marlins/fl-sp-marlins-cardinals-separate-wed-20190613-fm3wy2jbnvgppfrmct5erak35a-story.html

I think Arrowhead and New Era (1973) are basically the same age.

I used to feel this way. Not anymore. Miami has a weak fan base. I don't blame people from there; I just think that settlement patterns in the South (more spread out) plus such a large portion of elderly people makes a difference. Also, society in Miami is pretty atomized - a constant in-flow of transients/new arrivals. Agreed - forgot to include Charlotte. I meant to.

One thing I'll say about Georgia: man, is youth baseball big there. Like, really big, and it's something I know a lot about. It's partly because of Perfect Game, youth baseball's biggest tournament franchise, which has its home base there. I spent a week at a Perfect Game tournament in Atlanta between my son's junior and senior HS years, and my god, what an eye opener. Hundreds of teams from all over the country, plus MLB scouts everywhere. After that, I began to investigate, and I noticed that Georgia-based players are HEAVILY over-represented on MLB rosters. It is unbelievable how many MLB players that state pumps out. The Braves do reasonably well: https://www.ajc.com/sports/baseball/how-braves-attendance-measured-2019/xQLIFZHfwx78yp3E6LKSZM/

I feel this way about every team in SEC territory except the Saints. Fan bases in Nashville, Carolina, Jax, TB, and ATL are all very, very soft. I'll throw Miami in there too. The Dolphins' stadium always looks half empty (and let's not forget the Marlins and the Rays).

I never judge RBs solely on rushing; pass catching is huge too in the modern NFL (and frankly has been since the days of Lydell Mitchell). He was a good receiver that year on a team with no receivers. Seriously, look at that group of receivers again. Just a joke.

I wouldn't call his 2017 season "disappointing" at all. He was a good receiver that year - 59 catches for 448 yards (7.6 ypr) and had 1600 yards total yards from scrimmage. Indeed, he was 4th in the league in yards from scrimmage! Sure, his ypc was down, but a ton of that had to do with the fact that the Bills had ZERO decent WRs and arguably their worst ' OC of the modern era calling plays.

Blank is clear in saying that he's not necessarily advocating expansion. This is obviously a shot across the bow - i.e., WNY needs to wake up because the option you thought was dead - a move to Toronto - ain't dead. Note that a) Blank is saying this right after Goodell made his comments, and b) Goodell is a mouthpiece not for himself, but for the owners who employ him.

And off we go! Expect a lot more of this. Just to clarify for people who somehow haven’t figured this out yet, but the owners are driving this, not Goodell. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/01/30/arthur-blank-mentions-expansion-when-asked-about-toronto/ “I think it’s a question of just trying to understand expansion and the implications — having it balanced,” [Arthur] Blank said. “You don’t want an odd number of teams; you’d want an even number of teams. How that would fall out [is crucial]. “I don’t think anyone questions the size of the Toronto market or the potential of the market. It’s a great market and a great sports city — a great sports city.” Asked to clarify that expansion would be a consideration, Blank said yes. “It could be, but I don’t think it has to be,” he said. “I do think the city could definitely support a team.”

I brought up that 1984 SB with a colleague at work earlier today when he asked my thoughts on the game! Worth noting that Garrapolo has a lot of SB prep experience too. He didn't play, of course, but he's been to a couple of them and you know BB had him ready if duty had called.

This.

"Poor man's Cam Newton" isn't a suggestion that he's bad. It's a suggestion that his game resembles Newton's -- which it does -- and that he's not as good as prime-era Newton. Which is also undeniably true.

You are right about 4.2 being middling. In my sampling, I seemed to randomly pick the teams below them at a disproportionate rate. I do disagree about the ypp being higher for bad teams because the bad teams - i.e., the Bengals, Redskins, etc. -- had such bad ypa numbers that it dramatically affects averages w/regard to yards per play. TB had an explosive offense that put up a ton of yards, and that happened in games they won and lost. https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/yards-per-pass-attempt Interestingly, Chicago was worst in the league. They spent a second overall pick on Trubisky with Mahomes (KC finished second) and Watson (Houston finished 12th) on the board. My word. I won't call him a bust yet because he has talent and is still young, but the early returns are not good.

Tampa Bay’s was over 2.0. Basically, if the qb has a high ypa rate, then the spread will be bigger. 4.2 ypc is upper end. Yeah, it was really bad - worst in the league with backs over 100 touches, if memory serves. Chris Carson led all backs wit 7 fumbles, but fumbled at a 2.2 percent rate (still bad). That said, Singletary was a rookie with a rep for not fumbling in college. If he contnues to fumble at that rate, he won’t be a Bill for long.

Actually, I randomly looked up one team metaphorically blindfolded: the Rams. They averaged 5.7 ypp and 3.7 ypc. So, no that's not right. EDIT: @BADOLBILZ - The Pats were 5.2 and 3.8. The Saints were 5.9 and 4.3. The Cowboys were 6.5 and 4.8. The Raiders were 5.9 and 4.3. The Texans were 5.7 and 4.6. Minnesota was 5.8 and 4.5. I stopped after that because the trend line makes it obvious: a spread of 1.6 is pretty normal.

91 of Damien Williams 498 yards came on one play this season.

My guess is that a spread like that is pretty typical given that passing plays generate more yards per play but at a higher risk. That's why fumbling is so unacceptable now - you're accepting you're going to get fewer yards through running, so you better not turn it over. Back in the old days, the great RBs fumbled at a rate between 2.5 and 3 percent (OJ, Franco Harris, Dorsett, Jim Brown ...). No one does now. If they did, they'd be out of the league.

This is misleading. It averages 6.2 ypp because of passing (Mahomes averages 8.3 ypp). He's averaging 4.6 ypc, which is in line with his historic rate (4.5) when he hasn't been saddled with an awful line. Williams also averaged 4.6 ypc. You're right about the fumbling. He's fumbling at 2.5 percent per touch rate this year, which is huge in this day and age. It's a true outlier, however, because historically he hasn't been a fumbler. He had zero fumbles on 195 touches last year. Prior to this season, he fumbled at a .077 percent rate, which is upper echelon.

Shady had 646 yards and 5 TDs on 129 touches (5.0 yards per touch), and Gore had 699 yards and 2 TDs on 179 touches (3.9 ypt).

The first part about the Chiefs' scouting process is interesting too. Also, Breer does a quick e v a l of the Bills' decision-making near the end. He's not damning.

@BADOLBILZ - Check this out re the Chiefs and Mahomes. Three teams had him in their sights: KC, NO, and AZ. https://www.si.com/nfl/2020/01/27/super-bowl-liv-49ers-chiefs-kobe-bryant-eli-manning-mmqb Then, it came time to move. Realistically, the Chiefs figured getting in the top five would be just about impossible, so they focused on figuring out who between six and 15 was a threat. Over a couple of months, and with a lot of information gathering, Veach & Co. ascertained that the Saints and Cardinals were Mahomes’s biggest fans. They were picking 11th and 13th, respectively. And after some fits and starts, the Chiefs pulled on another Reid relationship. Sitting at 10 were the Buffalo Bills and new head coach, Sean McDermott, a lieutenant of Reid’s for a dozen years in Philadelphia. With an established trust in place, and McDermott leading the football operation in Buffalo, the two coaches worked to hammer out a deal. After that, the Chiefs just needed him to fall to 10, which Mahomes did. And after that, Veach did get some confirmation that his information was good. “Listen, it’s only what you hear after the fact,” he said. “And I know that Andy and Sean [Payton] have talked, and Sean said, ‘Hey, you’re lucky you guys took him there or I’d have taken him at 11.’

Great post. This is the proper way to look at it. I think you need to look at the larger context, as per @Zerovoltz's post. The tweet is misleading. Why even ask, @eball? He offered up a quality post that enriched the discussion. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.