OCinBuffalo Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 When I was growin' up I spent some time in Mortons Corners in a presently unspecified part of the country, and my Granny used to say, "Don't wrestle with the pig - - you both get dirty and the pig likes it." Yes, and while I appreciate the trolling potential of your down home country cookin' motif ... ...it doesn't make the application of "my college football conference is the best" to the Bills any less annoying. However, making fun of the transplanted foghorn leghorns we currently have running the Bills is funny, and I don't mind it, as long as it stays funny...meaning we start winning games. If we have to put up with the dropping of 'r's and 'g's while losing, then this goes from endearing to annoying "faster than a striped ass ape." Link here. I have no idea what that means, but I think it's hysterical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Turk Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 (edited) How are we supposed to be better train robbers than the other 31 teams if we have to share our information about the train with them? That heifer don't hunt! Go Bills!! The key is not finding players in most cases(although there are times some of the players at small schools completely slip through the cracks), but in seeing what can be and not what is. That's where we need to be better than other teams. Seeing the player as he can be, and not seeing the player only as he is now. In a nutshell, that is what every scout, GM and personnel director does with college prospects. They PROJECT how their college stats/performance will translate into the pro game. The number of variables are literally staggering and almost endless. How good was the level of competition? Are their great stats because of the system they ran or because of their talent, or was the overall team talent just far superior to their opponents most weeks creating 3 or 4 mismatches on every play? How much value do you place on intangibles if their stats/measurables don't match up to other prospects? Did they post boom/bust stats in college where they got 5 sacks against the Youngstown States of the world but disappeared against good opponents(aka Aaron Maybin), making their great stats misleading? Were they a "One Year Wonder" who did nothing their other years in college, and did they really improve that much, did they just have a career year they can never hope to reproduce, or somewhere in between? Is that great player from a small school really great or just great because they played a bunch of stiffs every week---what if that player had a great senior bowl week, but never played against bigtime players other than that--how much does 1 week mean? How will the player project in a scheme that is totally different than the one he played in college and asks him to do completely different things he has never done before--will he learn it and adapt or will he just be a square peg in a round hole? How much did poor techniques that are relatively easily fixed hurt his production versus just not being good enough--how easy of a fix is it and how good will he be once its fixed? Is the great athlete with monster stats a superstar in the NFL if he has "poor football instincts", and how much of that can be taught---are his instincts really poor or does he just lack knowledge? The list of questions and variables is literally endless. Add to this character issues, drug concerns, injury issues, etc and its almost impossible for 2 people to view the same player exactly alike. The extent to which each scout/GM factors in each variable and how it affects their decision on the overall player grade will be different in every case. Some might think the player can overcome their character issues and will be a great player, others might mark him as untouchable because of them. Some might think a player with a serious knee injury will never be able to recover enough to make a big impact, others might see the same injury and determine he should be fine. Some might look at Jake Locker's inaccuracy and lack of production this year and see a QB who projects very poorly based on certain measurments used like completion percentage and TD/INT ratio, others see a QB who had to try and make way too much happen himself because his team was garbage around him(the old JP Losman argument). Bottom line is no matter how much information you have, its how you interpret that information that is most important. Three scouts could have exactly the same information on the same player and each one could have him graded in a different round based on how they interpret that information. The worst part is, there is not a necessarily right or wrong answer. Each of them can pull a litany of prospects from prior drafts that are almsot exactly the same as the player they are looking at and show great success at the NFL level. If they each looked for 10 identical players from the past, 2 might be all-pro's, 2 might be good players, 2 might be average starters, 2 might have been decent backups, 1 might be a complete bust and 1 might never have played a down in the NFL. All of them can find examples of why they are right on this player, and all of them can find examples of why the others are wrong. This is why the very BEST teams in the NFL hit on roughly 55-60% of their 1st round draft picks. Ideally a player drafted in the first round should be a perennial pro bowl player, or at least a player worthy of pro bowl consideration many years. We need to be better at interpreting the information than other teams, not necessarily better at getting more information... Edited May 14, 2011 by matter2003 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Posted May 14, 2011 Author Share Posted May 14, 2011 (edited) Yes, and while I appreciate the trolling potential of your down home country cookin' motif ... ...it doesn't make the application of "my college football conference is the best" to the Bills any less annoying. However, making fun of the transplanted foghorn leghorns we currently have running the Bills is funny, and I don't mind it, as long as it stays funny...meaning we start winning games. If we have to put up with the dropping of 'r's and 'g's while losing, then this goes from endearing to annoying "faster than a striped ass ape." Link here. I have no idea what that means, but I think it's hysterical. Appropriate usage of "foghorn leghorns" (I always enjoyed that cartoon), but you're a little off on the "striped ass ape" part. I don't really have any brothers named "Darryl" or any sisters named "Darlene," and I don't really have any "Uncle-Brothers" at all. Mortons Corners (in a still unspecified part of the country), however, is a very real place, and I did spend quite a bit of time there when I was growing up. So maybe I can help you. The full expression is "She's faster than a striped ass ape." Because there are some posting standards here and I don't know exactly where the boundaries are (I may have pushed them a bit), let's just say that the sprinters on the U.S. Olympic women's track team aren't the only females who are "fast." In some ways that the word "fast" is used, you can be "fast" even if your time in the 40 yard dash is slower than Ryan Mallet's. It's been quite a while since I've been there, but I think you can probably still go to 300 Parkside Avenue in Buffalo. Ask them to put trousers on the monkeys - if they do, you'll be amazed at how quickly you hear the telltale huffin' and puffin' sounds alerting you to the fact that you are in the vicinity of a pant snake. Monkeys are known for being, shall we say, "active," even if they've just been introduced to each other. Hence, the expression in question. P.S. - I'm going to be expectin' a lot better effort from K-9 in the future. And I'm with 'ya on Seal Team 6. Edited May 14, 2011 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 ... P.S. - Given the resources you provided, I'm going to be expectin' a lot better effort from K-9 in the future. And I'm with 'ya on Seal Team 6. Huh? Not sure what you're driving at here. I haven't seen the BB in a couple days. Did I miss something? GO BILLS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Posted May 14, 2011 Author Share Posted May 14, 2011 (edited) Huh? Not sure what you're driving at here. I haven't seen the BB in a couple days. Did I miss something? GO BILLS!!! If you're just joining this thread, we've been discussing a suggestion I made to improve the team's long-term drafting results. The short version is that I think that over the long term the Bills would be better off if they stopped spending time and effort scouting prospects at west coast colleges, and reallocated some of their scouting resources to investigate high school prospects in the South and Southeast. After all, Buddy Nix is a pretty sharp guy, and he seems to draft mainly from the South and Southeast anyway. If we identify the best talent early, we will have more time to thoroughly evaluate it before it comes time to make draft decisions that shape the team's future for years. I think the Patriots might be doing this already. Some people disagree with my approach, but I'm open to any well reasoned point of view here. Edited May 14, 2011 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Posted May 14, 2011 Author Share Posted May 14, 2011 The key is not finding players in most cases Gotta admit, that's a pretty insightful analysis. But if you truly believe that in most cases finding players isn't the key, I'm assuming you would have no objection to my proposal to reallocate some of our limited scouting resources from west coast colleges to high schools in the South and Southeast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted May 14, 2011 Share Posted May 14, 2011 If you're just joining this thread, we've been discussing a suggestion I made to improve the team's long-term drafting results. The short version is that I think that over the long term the Bills would be better off if they stopped spending time and effort scouting prospects at west coast colleges, and reallocated some of their scouting resources to investigate high school prospects in the South and Southeast. After all, Buddy Nix is a pretty sharp guy, amd he seems to draft mainly from the South and Southeast anyway. If we identify the best talent early, we will have more time to thoroughly evaluate it before it comes time to make draft decisions that shape the team's future for years. I think the Patriots might be doing this already. Some people disagree with my approach, but I'm open to any well reasoned point of view here. I've been following the thread and you and I have had some good-natured back and forth with the southern colloquialisms but I haven't seen the thread since Thursday night. Then I see it today and you make a reference to me in response to someone else and I'd just like clarification. What did you mean by: "I'm going to be expectin' a lot better effort from K-9 in the future." If you're going to call me out in responses to other posters I'd like to know the context. GO BILLS!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Posted May 14, 2011 Author Share Posted May 14, 2011 (edited) I've been following the thread and you and I have had some good-natured back and forth with the southern colloquialisms but I haven't seen the thread since Thursday night. Then I see it today and you make a reference to me in response to someone else and I'd just like clarification. What did you mean by: "I'm going to be expectin' a lot better effort from K-9 in the future." If you're going to call me out in responses to other posters I'd like to know the context. GO BILLS!!! Sorry K-9. I misinterpreted your post #64 above. I thought I read something between the lines that it turns out wasn't really there. Entirely my fault. I've enjoyed our discussions. Take a look at my post #57 above, where I was trying to make a light-hearted comparison of (1) your use of Southern colloquialisms to (2) Vanilla Ice's (a Caucasian feller) use of rap in his music. Does that make sense now? Apology accepted? Edited May 14, 2011 by ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) Appropriate usage of "foghorn leghorns" (I always enjoyed that cartoon), but you're a little off on the "striped ass ape" part. I don't really have any brothers named "Darryl" or any sisters named "Darlene," and I don't really have any "Uncle-Brothers" at all. Mortons Corners (in a still unspecified part of the country), however, is a very real place, and I did spend quite a bit of time there when I was growing up. So maybe I can help you. The full expression is "She's faster than a striped ass ape." Because there are some posting standards here and I don't know exactly where the boundaries are (I may have pushed them a bit), let's just say that the sprinters on the U.S. Olympic women's track team aren't the only females who are "fast." In some ways that the word "fast" is used, you can be "fast" even if your time in the 40 yard dash is slower than Ryan Mallet's. It's been quite a while since I've been there, but I think you can probably still go to 300 Parkside Avenue in Buffalo. Ask them to put trousers on the monkeys - if they do, you'll be amazed at how quickly you hear the telltale huffin' and puffin' sounds alerting you to the fact that you are in the vicinity of a pant snake. Monkeys are known for being, shall we say, "active," even if they've just been introduced to each other. Hence, the expression in question. P.S. - I'm going to be expectin' a lot better effort from K-9 in the future. And I'm with 'ya on Seal Team 6. I've read this 4 times, and while I don't claim to be the coolest kid on the block, I am not the nerdiest either, and I still have no idea WTF you are talking about. I knew there were different definitions for fast, and I figured it had to be something like that. But I still don't get the striped, ass, and ape part. Although thinking about anything...with a striped ass...has been making me laugh for some inexplicable reason for the last few days. Google brings treats: Funny thread that actually has an explanation I can understand Edited May 16, 2011 by OCinBuffalo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sllib olaffub Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) There were some really insightful responses here - and most of my opinions have already been represented by others. I agree that talent is going to be found all over the country, so neglecting certain areas is irresponsible and simply not going to happen. Sure, there seems to be a high percent of good players coming from the south east, but one could still put together a great team from players all over the place. There are many ways to be successful, and no matter what, luck does and always will play a part in things. However, a very, very important element to success with NFL teams is that the team have a specific identity that it is building toward. The coach and GM must know exactly what their positional players should look like, what qualities they must possess to be successful in that scheme. Of course, for that to happen the team needs to have a good scheme, and for that to happen the team needs good coaches. When those elements are in place, players are the easiest thing to find, because it is much less of a gamble with kids out of college when you know just what you are looking for, and when you are running the same system for decades, players on the team will all be good fits, so there aren't going to be many holes to fill each year - something the Bills have been the opposite of; they haven't stayed in a system for more than four years since the mid nineties, and consequently their rebuilding has been endless. The Steelers, Patriots, and Ravens are good examples, off the top of my head, of teams that are built this way. I believe a big part of the frustration of being a Bills fan over the last decade plus has been seeing the team's lack of identity. The coaches have been scrambling to try this, try that, going to extremes to try to get lucky enough, it seems, to beat half it's opponents, instead of just saying, "we're going to do it this way, and you aren't going to stop us, and if you do, you'll have to be damn good". We just haven't had that toughness, that sharpness of mind in the coaching, and drafting, to field a team that is good enough to go toe to toe with anyone. And, I think what we saw in this year's draft was an example of Nix bringing in guys that will enable us to line up and go punch for punch with the good teams. We're going to be a tough defense, a good running offense, and we're not going to be run over anymore. Thank you Nix and Co. for bringing back that basic fundamental attitude. Edited May 16, 2011 by sllib olaffub Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Posted May 16, 2011 Author Share Posted May 16, 2011 I've read this 4 times, and while I don't claim to be the coolest kid on the block, I am not the nerdiest either, and I still have no idea WTF you are talking about. I knew there were different definitions for fast, and I figured it had to be something like that. But I still don't get the striped, ass, and ape part. Although thinking about anything...with a striped ass...has been making me laugh for some inexplicable reason for the last few days. Google brings treats: Funny thread that actually has an explanation I can understand 300 Parkside Avenue is the address for the Buffalo Zoo. I just googled "striped ass ape" and based on a quick scan of the "hits" it appears that my interpretation is wrong and your initial usage of the term was correct after all. Maybe I've got an "Uncle-Brother Darryl" that my momma never told me about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICanSleepWhenI'mDead Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 My youngest brother Darryl thought this was a fair criticism - how come Buddy drafted a guy from Texas if most of the best talent is in the South and Southeast? But then my oldest brother Darryl (he finished the 8th grade and has always had wisdom beyond his years) set my youngest brother Darryl straight. He pointed out that my Uncle-Brother Darryl growed up with Buddy in Talladega and knew him well. According to my Uncle-Brother Darryl, Buddy is as sly as they come, and when Buddy drafted Aaron Williams Buddy was just throwin' them other NFL GMs off the scent. Them other NFL GMs know that Buddy's been a-scoutin' fellers since afore they wuz born. Word gets around right quick when Buddy starts draftin' folks. Them other NFL GMs said to theyselves, "Looky here, it's only round two and Buddy has already done stopped draftin' players from the the South and Southeast and has commenced to draftin' players from Texas. We better start draftin' players elsewhere, too if we'uns is gonna keep up. But 'ol Buddy fooled 'em. He knew all along that he was goin' back to the South and the Southeast for the rest of the rounds. My middle brother Darryl says it's kinda like sacrificin' a pawn to take a queen, but he's always been uppity just cause he knows how to play chess. Looks like the joke's on me. I shouldn't have doubted Buddy's talent evaluation skills - - he's even more sly than I gave him credit for. According to the US Census Bureau, Texas is officially part of the South region of the United States. Turns out Buddy's record of drafting Southerners was perfect this year. Leave it to sly ol' Buddy to throw people off the scent based on their own geographical misperceptions, while still grabbing 100% pure Southern talent! Way to go, Buddy! Now how about finding a dominant Southern OT next spring? http://www.census.gov/geo/www/us_regdiv.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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