Cash

That was one of the keys to the "Greatest Show on Turf" '99-'01 Rams. Bruce, Holt, Hakim, Proehl, et al. would usually go down in a slide instead of taking a big hit over the middle. As long as the WR isn't giving up any potentially big RAC, I'm all for it. You can't help the team from the trainer's table.

This. I might need to get me a Steve Johnson jersey.

The line looks better because of the QB. The C calls out the protections, but the QB determines them. When the QB recognizes a blitz and quickly unloads the ball, even for an incompletion, the o-line looks a lot better. When the QB has a pocket presence, and is able to step up to avoid the rush, instead of backing up then going sideways into the rush, it makes the line look a lot better. Put Trent Edwards back behind this line, and they will appear to magically regress to their earlier "horrible" play. They didn't look any better at pass blocking in the first 2 weeks then they did last year.

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

Good for him. Could he really be that much worse than Charlie Whitehurst was last week?

Exactly. Plus, even though the front changed, that doesn't necessarily have to affect the coverages you play in the secondary (Rex Ryan said as much when asked about our switch to the 3-4 before we played the Jets). And yet we went from arguably the best pass defense in the league last year -- even on a per-play basis -- to a truly awful pass defense. On a per-play basis, we might have the worst pass D in the league this year. The raw numbers would look worse, except that we have by far the worst run D in the league, so teams don't really need to pass against us. I'm sorry, but a lot of this has to come down on George Edwards. The guy was not qualified for this job when he was hired, and proceeded to head a defense that's worse than last year's in every way, with mostly the same personnel. I know Schobel retired, and that hurt the pass rush, but enough is enough. Why does Miami's inside linebackers coach get a free pass just because it's a transition year? I could understand giving him a pass if he was an experienced NFL D-coordinator with a proven history of success. At that point, we say that the players don't fit the scheme, and let's try to get him some players that do fit the scheme. But that's not the case. If there's even 1 legitimately qualified NFL D-coordinator available this offseason, Edwards needs to be canned.

Not bad.

Moats is clearly ahead of Maybin on the depth chart, and Coleman may be as well. (Maybin & Coleman were both inactive last week, but Coleman was active the week before.) I don't see how claiming another OLB on waivers would move Maybin up the depth chart. As for Kelsay, we'll see. The people who defended his extension by saying, "They can just cut him at any time with very little penalty," might think that this means that Kelsay gets benched with plans to cut him if Merriman works out. I am not one of those people. I think that you don't sign a guy to an extension unless (as Buddy Nix said) you think he's one of your core players. And if you think he's one of your core players, then you plan on keeping him in the starting lineup for the foreseeable future. I maintain a small sliver of hope, but if the Merriman acquisition decreases Kelsay's playing time, I'll be very surprised -- and very pleased.

Unless you're getting crazy bad value, you've gotta go with the best OT on the board at that point. If you're lucky, it's a guy with a 1st-round grade. If there was a huge run on OTs in the first round, and there's just no way you can justify the top guy left on your board, then you go with whatever value fills a need. Which could mean TE, DT (if you're sticking with a 4-3), NT, DE, OLB, or ILB. One of those positions will definitely have a legit player.

You don't get better by cutting your best LB and bringing in someone to replace him. You get better by cutting your worst LB, and bring in the same replacement. Poz is not the problem; he's just not good enough to be the solution by himself. If we'd re-signed Fletcher and drafted Poz as well, we would have wound up with a pretty solid LB corps. Instead, Poz was drafted as Fletcher's replacement, and Keith Ellison kept racking up starts. And for what it's worth, Fletcher is more durable than Poz, but that's about it. Both are solid but unspectacular NFL starters. Neither has ever made an All-Pro team or been voted a Pro Bowl starter, and I doubt either ever will.

I made it a point to focus on Kelsay a fair amount yesterday. Every time I focused on him for a run play, Kelsay was easily pushed around to wherever the D wanted him. On inside runs and off tackle runs, Kelsay was sent way outside. On outside runs, Kelsay was jammed inside, easily letting the RB turn the corner. I think the whole "he's solid against the run" thing was a myth that originated because it's hard to tell how 1 guy is against the run unless you specifically watch that guy on run plays. Everyone knows he's not a great pass rusher, because we would notice if he was getting to the QB with any regularity. But he could theoretically do a good job against the run and be pretty invisible. As it turns out, he's probably our worst run defender (he was yesterday, anyway), whether at DE or OLB. I like the fact that Moats is getting a good amount of playing time now. But Kelsay continuing to play every down (or at all, actually) is just nuts. If the coaching staff truly feels that Maybin is useless and won't get better, then play Antonio Coleman instead. But at least one of those guys needs to be playing Moats' current role. Moats should be playing Kelsay's current role.

Absolutely keep him. His presence does help open up things for other guys underneath, because teams do have to respect Evans as a deep threat. Plus he's a good player. Plus he doesn't make that much money. Plus, even young/rebuilding teams need to have SOME veteran presence. Lee Evans is one of those guys.

"must have", not "must of". And I agree with the OP's sentiment. There's no way Jauron had so much power that he could pick a player who wasn't at or very near the top of the draft board. At the very least, the pick strongly implies that Modrak et al. had Maybin ranked higher than Orakpo on their Big Board. That's basically a fire-able offense right there.

Tyler Thigpen? Yancy was a mediocre WR for the Steelers in the O'Donnell/Stewart era.

At about the 6:45 mark, Bruce gets double-teamed by the LT & LG, then the C winds up coming over for the triple team. That's respect.

I'll admit it. Right now, QB is definitely not the #1 weakness. It's hard to rank all of the weaknesses on that mess of a defense, but it's got to have the top 3, right? That doesn't mean we have a franchise QB or can necessarily pass on a potential franchise QB in the draft. At least, not yet. But after Sunday's game, I'm beginning to wonder if I underestimated Fitz's potential, and maybe he can be The Guy for us. I still doubt it, but at least he's playing well and fun to watch right now. That's a hell of a lot better than what we've been used to. Also, I just want to point out that the line stopped looking so bad when Fitz took over. The 3 remaining Trent apologists will say that the line is playing much better, and that's why Fitz is playing so much better than Trent ever did. They are wrong.

From what I saw, Kelsay was playing DE in the nickel (4-2-5), and LB in the base 4-3 front. When Stroud got hurt the second time, Kelsay moved to LDE in the base 4-3 front. I didn't pay attention to what happened when Stroud got hurt the first time.

How long is he supposed to hold on to the ball when physically held aloft by a defender, with several others beating on him and trying to rip the ball away? Plays like that are exactly why the "stopped his forward progress" rule was invented. And yet it wasn't called. That sucks, but it's not Shawn Nelson's fault. On the bright side, Chris Kelsay got knocked on his ass on 20% of his snaps today, which represents a season low. Good call on that extension.

Every time I made a point to look, the Bills had a 4 man front. Now, some of those times, they were in the nickel, when every team plays a 4 man front, but a good number of them were in 1st and 2nd down situations. It seemed like their base D was the one Chris Brown was talking about (Edwards/Williams/Troup/Stroud, then Poz/Davis/Kelsay), with Kelsay playing close to the line. A 4-3 Over, for you Madden aficionados. I also noticed that Kelsay moved from OLB to DE both in the regular nickel front and when Stroud came out with injuries.

At face value, it seems like sort of a nonsensical question. Are you supposing that it would've taken a #3 plus a #6 to trade up with the Rams and take Bradford?

Already watched it about 800 times. I'll just agree to disagree. Unless you won't agree to that.

Elbow was out of bounds. Good call, just tough luck that Corner's right foot landed on Boldin's leg. Would've been nice to get the offensive pass interference call there, but that's not reviewable and hardly ever gets called anyway.

On one hand, Kelsay had a nice QB pressure there. On the other, he embarrassingly whiffed on the sack and fell down. Luckily for him, Dwan Edwards and my boy Arthur Moats were there to finish the job. So... good job by Kelsay?

Off an audible, too. That's what you have to like about Fitz. Bills came out in a power run set, Ravens had a run blitz called, Fitz switched to the pass to take advantage. Love it! And we get the ball right back!

Thankfully Kelsay was playing DE (not LB) in the nickel on that last 3rd and 7. He tried an inside move, got popped by the RT, and was knocked backwards onto his ass. ... So yeah, an improvement over his play at LB.