Jump to content

rafter

Community Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    590

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by rafter

    Round 1, Pick #9: CJ Spiller RB Clemson

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    The way I see it, Spiller fills the role of RB and WR(which is a need). Chan wants to put his stamp on a certain style of offense, and Spiller is going to play a pivotal roll. Whether people feel its a need or not, he offered great value at the spot he was taken, and gives us great flexibility to move Marshawn for more picks in this supposedly deep draft.

    Who knows, after the season starts and a contenders RB goes down, Lynch's value will be higher in picks for next years draft.

    Either way, lets let this play out as we have 8 more picks.

    Bulger: Anything left in his tank?

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    NFL | Bulger wants another opportunity to start

    Comment (0) Tweet! Share on Facebook

    Tue, 20 Apr 2010 07:49:15 -0400

     

    Brad Biggs, of the Chicago Tribune, reports free-agent QB Marc Bulger (Rams) will first look to see if he can find another starting job in the NFL before signing with a team as a backup quarterback.

     

     

    ********

     

    Does anyone here think Marc has anything left in his tank? He wants a chance to start? Buffalo sounds like the place. The friggin' job is wide open right now isn't it? Would it hurt to sign him at vet minimum plus bonus incentives if he wins the job?

     

    Just sugar.

    Jared Gaither for our second pick?

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    Yeah, they're having trouble signing him.

     

    Having siad that he's not available. People here think that because he was only offered a first-round tender, that's a sure-fire sign that the Ravens want to get rid of him. But if you look, how many guys with first-round tenders end up going to different teams in trades each year? One, maybe? Two? And you know who they are going to be, they're the ones who no longer fit into the system since the team is going to a bigger/smaller/3-4/4-3/zone-blocking system, or guys who have become a disturbance in the locker room ... It's guys we all know are going to go. The huge, gigantic majority of guys offered a first-round tender stay with their teams.

     

    It's not usually a signal that someone is available, it's usually an obvious statement that the team doesn't want to pay the player the extra 750 K or so which they have to pay if they give a higher tender.

     

    What everyone forgets is that

     

    Let's compare the Ravens situation now to their situation if they let Gaither go. Right now, they have two terrific tackles, both of whom are terrific run blockers. The Ravens were 5th in the league last year at total running yards, and 4th in the league at YPC, with 4.7, which is just a great result. Football Outsiders stats also show them as the 4th best offensive line at run blocking in the league. Football Outsiders also shows that Oher is simply the best run-blocking RT in the league and Gaither is the 13th best run-blocking LT in the league. They are a run-first team, a team that forces you to defend the run by smashing the hell out of you, which then gives them a chance to pass while their still-young, very promising but still-not-there-yet QB learns his trade. In other words, they're doing exactly what they want to do.

     

    Football Outsiders link: http://footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol

     

    Now, let's look at how they would do if they let Gaither go. Oher is moved to LT, where he almost definitely continues to be a force as a run-blocker. I'll have more to say about his pass blocking in a moment. Replacing Oher at RT is Tony Moll, the backup there. Moll is a 5th rounder who went to college at Nevada. This'll be his fifth year. He's played mostly right guard, but to be precise, he's mostly been a backup. In four years, he has been in started 15 games and participated (special teams? or to give the starter a breather?) in 39 games. He's not a particularly good player, though he's a solid backup. And the Ravens are happily going to plug this guy in at RT? Are you kidding? So, who else would fill the RT slot? The draft pick that they get in the trade? So they take one of the absolute best run blocking units in the league and plug in an unproven RT to replace arguably the best RT in the league? In the Bizarro universe this may make sense, but not in this one. Not for a team that believes that they have a shot at the Super Bowl this year.

     

    Now, opposite whoever they plug in at RT to not-replace Michael Oher, let's look at how Oher is likely to do at LT. Take a look at profootballfocus, the site which watches each game and grades each guy on performance. They even give separate score for run blocking, pass blocking, screen blocking and penalties. They are a highly respected website. Here's their summary of Michael Oher's performance last year:

     

    http://profootballfocus.com/by_player.php?...p;playerid=4946

     

    Overall, they list him as the 19th best tackle (they look at right and left tackles as one group) out of 77. But look closer, at the table at the bottom of the screen. He played 5 games at LT and 11 games at RT. They score average play as a zero, so you know that negative numbers show bad play and positive numbers show good play. In eleven games as an RT, he recieved a cumulative score of PLUS 13.6, an extremely good score. In five games as an LT however, his cumulative score was MINUS 9.1, and that is genuinely horrible, particularly in only five games. If you pro-rate those five games across a sixteen game season, Oher's score as a LEFT TACKLE would have been MINUS 29.12, and that would have put him in the rankings as the 76th best tackle in the league. OUT OF 77. The second-worst tackle in the league. On the other hand, if you prorate his 11 games at right tackle across a 16 game season, his score would have been PLUS 19.8, which would have placed him as the 3rd best tackle in the league out of 77.

     

     

    I promised I'd get back to Oher's pass blocking abilities. In five games at LT, his pass blocking score was MINUS 3.9. In eleven games at RT? PLUS 8.4. He does pretty well against the guys he faces at RT, but against the hyper-athletic rushers he faced at LT, he simply couldn't get the job done. Pro-rate his five games at LT over a sixteen game season and you get MINUS 12.5 as a pass blocker. That would put him as the 69th best tackle out of 77, in other words, the 8th worst pass blocker in the league.

     

    And you want to switch THAT GUY to LEFT TACKLE? Are you insane?

     

    Perhaps if they were Cleveland or Oakland or ... I hate to say it , but with the way we have handled our OL the past five years or so, we fit with that group ... or Buffalo, they would do it. But the Ravens are a terrific organization and they don't do stupid things like this.

     

    The Ravens don't want to trade Gaither, they want to keep him. If someone gives him a contract offer, the Ravens will match it.

     

    Gaither is going nowhere.

     

     

    Don't get me wrong, the Bills would be crazy not to be interested. But even if he is available (and I'm betting LaCanfora is simply wrong on this), he has one more year left on his contract, and he will want ... and get ... Jason Peters money. The Bills have shown themselves not to be willing to pay market value for an excellent LT.

     

    Nice reply. Thanks.

     

    I agree with you that LaCanfora is wrong here. I don't see the Raven's entertaining the idea of a 2nd round pick for a quality LT, and basically disrupt their entire offense in the process.

    I also agree that any tendered offer would be likely matched by the ravens, this is most likely what they are waiting on. Let Gaither see what his market value is, then give him it.

    Report: Bills pay Kelsay $500,000 roster bonus

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    He's not great but, unfortunately, he's better than most of the other OLB prospects currently on our team. I don't see why you would get rid of him until you have someone else you want to start instead.

     

    Exactly. Why would we cut a player under contract unless we have a replacement that is better? The turnover in this roster will not happen overnight, or in 1 year.

    Mark Sanchez

    in The Stadium Wall Archives

    Posted

    I really don't see the problem as i never realized that a player having a snack on the sidlines was a big deal. I saw Sanchez in the press conference saying it would never happen again. I really and truly hope that was a tongue in cheek response to a completely irrelevant question. :lol:

     

     

    Yeah its def a non-issue. Just funny that they even zoomed in on him and pointed it out. Also the food of choice is a bit funny.

     

    Ridiculous that he needed to apologize for it, and better food should be provided if players need it.

×
×
  • Create New...