Cash

I think Ian Eagle broke up with Tebow on that 3rd and 7 run: "3rd and 7, Tebow in the game, Tebow circling... and it's just not working." Meanwhile, I thought the flag was going to be for intentional grounding, but instead it's roughing the passer. Technically correct call for helmet-to-helmet contact, but could've let that go. Update: And whaddya know, they called the grounding after all! Interesting. Never seen grounding and roughing called on the same play before.

Maybe Jeff Fisher is going against Legatron in fantasy, and doesn't want to give up the point for the extra point? Not sure why else to go for two there.

I've seen 3 times now where the Jets jumped offsides, but got back onsides without anyone on the Rams moving or snapping the ball to take advantage. And two of them were on third down, one of which was a third and 1. Terrible job by the Rams. Nice throw by Bradford on the TD, then an inexplicable decision to go for 2 by Fisher. I guess the Rams are playing for OT?

Not on this drive. And right on cue, Daryl Richardson fumbles to basically ice the game. Hopefully this teaches Jeff Fisher to play his star running back a little more. Edit: Daryl Richardson fumble was cued up, not standing in line.

Haha, fair point! By the way, even after a 4-yard loss, Steven Jackson is still averaging over 5 yards a carry, and yet the Rams refuse to give him the ball consistently. I don't think I've seen them run on first down yet. Seem familiar?

Mods, please rename this thread to "Fitz B word session #108". Someone accidentally titled it "jets at rams game thread". Anyway, Sanchez has looked like absolute garbage on his last two throws, immediately after a couple nice pickups. I can't think of a QB as maddeningly inconsistent as Sanchez. Dude looked like Montana against us in the opener, but also has long stretches, sometimes whole games, of looking like the worst QB in the league. I don't get it.

Sorry, I'm having trouble reading your post. Could you increase the font a little bit?

Guys, he threw 51 passes. 6 were incomplete. 8 went for touchdowns. I only see two downsides. First, it'll cost a lot to trade up to draft him. Second, he won't be able to wear his #12 for us, since it's retired.

Watching Geno vs. Baylor, initial impressions: He's definitely got a big-time arm, judging from the zip on his throws. Haven't seen him throw an out or a corner yet, mostly screens and stuff over the middle, but he just zipped a throw between 3 defenders for about a 15 yard completion. Seems to have good pocket presence, and mobile enough to get some yards when he runs. Definitely not an elite runner in terms of speed, but his wheels are probably comparable to Fitz's (which is to say, pretty good). And as I type this, he made a beautiful backpedalling slant throw for a TD against a full-house blitz -- looked like 7 rushing against 5 blockers. Awesome job by Geno. The only bad throws/decisions I've really seen him make so far were 1) a poorly-thrown/too-high screen pass that was incomplete, and 2) with time running out in the pocket, he threw a 1-yard hitch to a WR with a defender draped all over him. Asking for a pick-6 with that throw, and no upside to it. Having said that, I should point out that not only was the throw completed, but the ball was delivered with such accuracy that there was no chance for the defender to get it. So a good throw, but a throw that never should've been made.

If you want to up the chances of your contribution making a dent, write a letter to Papa John's explaining why you're boycotting. By itself, won't do much, but if they get a couple hundred nationwide, they'll take notice.

Freddie's reaction: https://twitter.com/Fred22Jackson/status/250641435597086720 WTF??? Released Mooreman??? For What??

From Tim Graham: https://twitter.com/ByTimGraham/status/250640412438564864 Bills cut Moorman apparently for shaky games w/directional punts, which are called by coach. Powell's weakest trait directional/pooch punts.

Start up an online Connected Career. You can have up to 32 friends in the league, including yourself. Enjoy.

I'm definitely keeping an eye on Geno Smith this year. Very intriguing prospect.

I LOVED the Glenn pick when it happened, and I've seen nothing to change my mind in preseason. He has had a few penalties, but that's very forgivable for a rookie. And he's looked pretty good against a couple of the best pass-rushers in the league.

Okay, I'll bite. 2002-2011 (no point in including 2012 yet, duh): 2002 QB: Josh McCown - the better of the McCowns. Not saying much, but he was a marginal starter for a while. WR: Marquis Walker, Cliff Russell, Eric Crouch - yikes. 2003 QB: Dave Ragone, Chris Simms - *THE* Dave Ragone? Wow! Simms wasn't totally awful until he broke his spleen. WR: Kelley Washington, Nate Burleson, Kevin Curtis, Billy McMullen - Burleson's decent and Curtis doesn't totally suck. 2004 QB: Matt Schaub - best player on either list so far; would be a much bigger star if he could stay healthy. WR: Derrick Hamilton, Bernard Berrian, Devard Darling - The immortal B-twice makes an appearance! 2005 QB: Charlie Frye, David Greene - Frye was pretty bad. I don't think I've ever heard of David Greene. WR: Courtney Roby, Chris Henry, Brandon Jones - Henry was fairly decent when he could get on the field, and came to an unfortunate end. Never heard of the other guys. 2006 QB: Charlie Whitehurst, Brodie Croyle - Not exactly Montana/Young on the 49ers, huh? WR: Travis Wilson, Derek Hagan, Brandon Williams, Maurice Stovall, Willie Reid - Hagan is the only name that stands out, and that's only because he's fighting to make our team. Good luck, Derek! 2007 QB: Trent Edwards - No further explanation needed. WR: Jacoby Jones, Yamon Figurs, Laurent Robinson, Jason Hill, James Jones, Mike Sims-Walker, Paul Williams, Johnnie Lee Higgins This is a good year to show why this is kind of a dumb comparison (not calling you or anyone else dumb, Luxy). Eight WRs drafted in the 3rd, compared to only 1 QB. The QB was a crappy starter for a couple years, got cut, and (for now) is still in the league as a backup. Of the 8 WRs, 1 is a return specialist, 2 more have had 1 good year each, James Jones has been very meh in one of the best passing attacks ever, and Johnnie Lee Higgins once had a good game against the Bills, and that's it. In total, that's more value than Edwards, but so what? Obviously 8 guys should out-produce 1, especially since every team starts at least 2 WRs, has at least 2 more that play significant time every week, and frequently rotates them in & out of games. Whereas only 1 QB starts, and if he's any good, he's the only one who ever plays. Anyway, enough editorializing, the show must go on. 2008 QB: Kevin O'Connell - I remember when he was drafted, all the analysts couldn't shut up about how brilliant Belichick was, and how O'Connell would probably be dealt for a haul of picks in 2-3 years. Instead, he promptly got cut. The lesson is, just because they're paid to talk about football doesn't mean the analysts are smarter than you. WR: Earl Bennett, Early Doucet, Harry Douglas, Mario Manningham, Andre Caldwell - another solid win for the WRs, although mostly by default. Everyone but Manningham has shown some flashes but ultimately not been good enough to own on a fantasy team. Manningham's legit, but I'm still glad we didn't pursue him. He's a starter, not a star. 2009 QB: None - WRs win by default. WR: Derrick Williams, Brandon Tate, Mike Wallace(!), Ramses Barden, Patrick Turner, Deon Butler, Juaquin Iglesias - One big star and a whole lotta scrubs. Any of these other guys still in the league? 2010 QB: Colt McCoy - Technically the jury's still out, but I always thought he would stink in the NFL, and nothing he's done in the last couple years has changed my mind. WR: Damian Williams, Brandon LaFell, Emmanuel Sanders, Jordan Shipley, Eric Decker, Andre Roberts, Armanti Edwards - Decker's okay and may do really well with Manning throwing him the ball. Sanders has had a catch or two for the Steelers, and may be a good player going forward. Ditto for Shipley, but for the Bungles. LaFell is supposed to start this year, but I think he stinks. Never heard of the others, but they're young. Keep in mind that a lot of WRs "break out" in their 3rd pro season. All of these guys are theoretically candidates for a break-out season this year. 2011 QB: Ryan Mallett - Hasn't played in the regular season yet. I don't count Terrelle Prior, because he was taken in the supplemental draft. Fundamentally different process than the regular draft, and not germane to this discussion. WR: Austin Pettis, Leonard Hankerson, Vincent Brown, Jerrel Jernigan - Hankerson was the #1 "who is he?" guy drafted in my fantasy league last week. Brown was pressed into action last year with underwhelming results. All of these guys are too young to judge, though. So there you have it. To go back to Luxy's original assertion, definitely more WRs have had success in the NFL over this span, but a lot more have been drafted and a lot more have been afforded opportunities to play. In terms of stars or at least borderline stars, it's pretty subjective, but I'd say only Schaub for QBs, and only Mike Wallace for WRs. If you wanted to throw Manningham in for WRs as well, I couldn't fault you, but I think history will prove me right that Manningham's a decent player, but eminently replaceable. But I digress. The point is that your success rate at either position isn't very good by the 3rd round. I don't find that very surprising, because QB is the #1 hardest to find/biggest impact position, and WR is probably #3 or #4. I'd expect success rates for guards, safeties, and linebackers to be much higher in the 3rd round. I don't have the time to total up the percentages of starters for the players listed above, but if anyone else wants to do it, have at it. Keep in mind, though, that there are 2-3 starting WR jobs for every starting QB job, so it still wouldn't be an apples-to-apples comparison. I don't count John Skelton, but you have to admit that 4 years is not the best sample size. If you look over the last few decades, you wind up with something like a 10% chance of finding a starter (not necessarily a really good starter; maybe just Trent Edwards) for every QB drafted in the 3rd round. This compares to about 25% for the 2nd, 50% for the 1st, and a little over 5% for most of the rounds after the 3rd. I don't really disagree with your argument, but I also don't think anyone should be swayed by it. If a guy's available in the 3rd round, it's unlikely that he'll become a star or even a marginal starter - that's absolutely true. But it's not impossible. In the abstract, I agree with you that you should generally be looking to draft your QB at the top of the draft, where the chance of success is highest (but still pretty low). But for a specific case like Russell Wilson, it doesn't matter. Pro Bowlers do occasionally come from the 3rd round, and he *could* be the next one. If someone sees specific NFL-caliber abilities in him that suggest he could be the next late-round Pro Bowler, the statistical argument isn't going to work. And nor should it: Population statistics (like round-by-round QB success rates) can't be applied to individuals. Otherwise you could say that every QB ever picked in the 3rd round was a bad pick. Anyway, I don't really have a stance on the Graham vs. Wilson argument. I liked Wilson pre-draft, but also thought the 3rd was too high to take him. Maybe I was wrong. I hated the Graham pick at the time, but hopefully I'm wrong, and it's way too early to say either way. I *do* know that we could stand an upgrade over Fitzy (I still love him, but he's far from elite), and our current backup situation terrifies me. T-Jack is 29 and probably as good as he'll ever be. He is not the answer. It would be nice to have a young guy with potential, who's looked good in the preseason, a la Wilson or Mallett or whomever else. But the bottom line is winning. If the Bills win games, I'll be happy. If they lose games, I'll be bummed.

The problem is that the NFL has decided to 100% tie together the completely independent ideas of 1) shortening the preseason, and 2) lengthening the regular season. The only proposal on the table is to convert 2 preseason games to regular-season games. That doesn't actually save season-ticket holders any money, but it does serve to increase injury risk and dilute the NFL's product.

Doesn't surprise me after watching most of the 2nd half of the Vikings game. Merriman was up against 2nd & 3rd stringers, and did absolutely nothing in pass rush. (I actually thought he was pretty good against the run.) I was focusing on him a lot, because like everyone else, I had heard all the stuff about how he was feeling so great (just like last year)... but I just didn't see anything. No burst, no power moves, nothing but just getting stood up 1-on-1 by a backup.

Possible, but it'd be surprising. McIntyre is essentially the designated special teams player, a la Mark Pike & Steve Tasker (or more recently, Mario Haggan and some other LB I can't remember). The fact that he doubles as a useful lead blocker in short-yardage situations helps his cause even more. The only way I could see Dickerson taking his spot is if Gailey felt comfortable going to the wildcat as his primary short-yardage formation, at which point you have virtually no use for a FB ever. The other factor in this scenario is that Dickerson would have to be at least comparable to McIntyre on special teams. I really liked the Onobun signing last year on a risk/reward basis, but part of that equation is cutting the guy if he doesn't pan out. I hope he does well, but Dickerson is also intriguing from a pure athleticism standpoint. I think I'll wait until I see these guys crushing 4th-stringers in preseason before deciding whom to root for.

What a great idea! What's the capacity on the shuttle?

I didn't like the attempt to sign Meachem. That guy is nothing special. I'm glad they passed once his price tag got high, so no harm done there. I didn't like the Teej Graham pick, but we'll see if it works out. I wasn't thrilled about them pursuing Mark Anderson (if you don't know what "regression to the mean" is, google it), but for the money they got him at, it's not a bad risk. I question the wisdom of drafting a 27-year-old backup C who never played C until after his college career was over, but that was a late pick, so whatever. I didn't like the Vince Young signing due to possible attitude issues; hopefully Young either proves me wrong or gets cut in training camp. I would have liked to see a little bit of attention paid to the DT spot -- I know our starters are awesome when healthy, but our backups are mostly 3-4 DEs and underwhelming NTs. Maybe they plan on going Giants style and rotating DEs at DT on passing downs. And that's everything I can think of. Overall, I'm very happy with this offseason; it's the most I've liked an offseason in a long time. Obviously it would've been nice to draft a QB as a developmental guy, but the only one I liked at all (that we had a shot at) was Russell Wilson, and the 3rd round seems way too early to draft that guy. Frankly I'm stunned that Pete Carroll pulled that move, especially after signing Matt Flynn. Even though I hated the Graham pick, I don't know that I would've preferred them to take Wilson in that spot.

Seriously. I think Chan's 10-22 record speaks for itself. Obviously the guy is right about every football decision all the time.

That's one reason, and the other is that it's called the *practice* squad for a reason. Those 8 guys practice with the team throughout the week. I don't think any team runs an in-season practice that has any use for an extra kicker or punter. I believe Gailey even made a very similar point when Levi Brown was cut (and not offered a spot on the PS), basically saying that they don't have any practice reps available for a 4th QB, so it made no sense to put him on there. Likewise, there's no practice reps available for a 2nd K or P. LOL According to the Buffalo News article linked in this thread, he's 6'4", 245 lbs. Doesn't mean he can run, but he should be able to give/take a hit or two. I'd guess he'll outweigh every returner in the NFL by at least 25-30 lbs. Speaking of that article, man is it well-written. After I finished it I basically penciled this guy in for the All-Pro team. Definitely someone to pay attention to in preseason. If he beats out Moorman, I'll be sad to see Brian go, but as others have mentioned, Moorman's performance has noticeably slipped the past few years. At 36, his best years are probably behind him, and the numbers back up what we were perceiving during games. This might be the end of an era. And if so, I'll wish him well. Really like Moorman a lot -- the guy was absolutely elite at his position for a few years, he was always a total class act, he's still one of the best FG holders I've ever seen, he has the best passer rating in team history, and he's crazy fast. He crushed the 40-yard dash and obstacle course competitions at the Pro Bowl for years. If I recall correctly, they actually changed the obstacle course rules one year specifically to prevent him from winning again. Awesome. Plus he had like a 90 speed rating in Madden. I always make him the kickoff specialist and watch him beat the coverage team downfield to make the tackle.

Great news!

A basketball board I belong to uses green font to denote sarcasm. It works fairly well, but it's not perfect.