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NFL Week3-4: Revenge of the Nerd?


Sivin

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When I hear crabs I think Roethlisberger.

BRING BACK TH LIKE BUTTON! BRING BACK THE LIKE BUTTON!!!!

I look forward to the Rockroi fandom shift when he starts rooting unabashedly for the Jets as Tom Brady leads them over the Patriots next year.

In my own defense, all I can say is that I have loved the Pats since 1985. and that includes the Rod Rust and Tim Tebow eras.

But now this:

According to sources the Eagles are going to work out Richie Incognito. According to many, Richie can still play. And maybe, just maybe, the Pats may take a look.

I know I come off as a homer-tool and somebody who is all yahoo etc. Anyone who read what I wrote last season about Miami and what Incognito did to Martin knows that I am utterly zealous with my hatred of the Bully and how completely outrageous he was with the last great scandal of the 2013 NFL season. I honestly hate him.

The Pats signing Incognito is a nightmare scenario; one that pits a team I love with a fuck-wit I hate. I may have to re-evaluate things for awhile.

God I hope Richie Incognito get herpes and can't play.

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And on a related note, Jonathan Martin has to be the worst Olineman to see significant playing time on the Niners line over the past 5 seasons at least. He played a significant role in that 2nd half meltdown against the Bears, and looked pretty bad against the Cards as well.



Hopefully Anthony Davis is back to near full strength next week.


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I know I come off as a homer-tool and somebody who is all yahoo etc. Anyone who read what I wrote last season about Miami and what Incognito did to Martin knows that I am utterly zealous with my hatred of the Bully and how completely outrageous he was with the last great scandal of the 2013 NFL season. I honestly hate him.

The Pats signing Incognito is a nightmare scenario; one that pits a team I love with a fuck-wit I hate. I may have to re-evaluate things for awhile.

God I hope Richie Incognito get herpes and can't play.

I can say with some recent experience that you can still hate the asshole who is on your team, hate the assholes who signed him, and still hope the rest of the team pulls off a win. Although in the case of Richie Incognito I think rooting for herpes is perfectly OK.

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What a week.

For the Patriots, watching a 14-point favorite, in their home opener barely squeak out a win against a 0-3 team with more than a little help on that last drive from the ref was about as depressing as a win can get.

And then I watched Peyton Manning drive 80 yards in 59 seconds against the best defense on the road against the best road-fans in the NFL. \

And the gulf between the two is inescapable.

Brady’s skills are in decline; so are Mannings. Manning’s handlers have surrounded him with a top-notch O-line, some of the best weapons in the game and have designed plays to take advantage of his strengths while minimizing his weaknesses (he can’t go deep anymore either); Brady’s team traded its best O-lineman right before the season started (watch a Bucs game; Mankins jumps out at you in how he operates versus how everyone else operates; he is EASILY the best player on the Bucs- probably on either side of the ball); they have no deep threat; they keep deactivating Wide receivers for non-injury related reasons (for the second time in three weeks it was Dobson), they shuffle O-lineman like it were a speed-dating event; the two “big free agents” at WR either 1) cannot get open (Amendola) or 2) keep getting penalties (Brandon LaFell has been called for a pick in both weeks 2 and 3). Gronk is not anywhere close to 100%. Its clown college out there.

Brady is in decline. But you can manage that and still maximize his effectiveness. The Patriots are not doing that. They are basically stretching out that spackle that you get when you have a great QB; but its wearing thin. Yes, there is a marketable lack of talent between what Manning has and what the Pats have, but if Danny Amendola were on the Broncos, is there ANY DOUBT at all that he would get more touches? And that if he were getting 5 balls a week for 50-110 yards that Pats fans (like me) would not be UP IN ARMS saying “How come Brady can’t get support like that?” From 2001 through 2006 the Pats had comparable receivers to what they have now (Troy Brown was really good) and they got results. And yes, the game has changed dramatically but what is out there for the Pats TODAY is uncomfortable to watch.

Good points on Brady v. Manning, Rock.

Been thinking about this recently. There's a lot of tentacles to this. A few thoughts:

1) It's impossible to ignore that as far as GMs go, Elway is keeping his eyes on the prize (i.e.: The Superbowl) way better than Belichick. Belichick seems content to maintain this self-sustaining machine of good (but increasingly no longer great) teams long after he still has a hall of fame QB around to run 'em. As you point out, he keeps giving away years of Brady's prime by steadfastly refusing to build the best roster he can in any given year, both for reasons of future flexibility, but I think also of pride. His system makes exception for no man. Think the last time the Patriots went all in to win a Superbowl was 2007 and that was a helluva team. It's been 7 years since then - kept waiting for them to push all the chips to the center of the table one more time while Brady was still playing at a hall of fame level. Instead they've done the opposite with Welker and Mankins (and arguably Moss). And now it might be too late.

2) Both Elway and Belichick have a pretty bad track records in the draft in recent years. Hell Elway's best pick remains Von Miller, whom, to be fair even if he didn't take, he'd have fallen into another perennial pro bowler at the top of the 2011 draft. Belichick's been hit or miss in the early rounds, mostly miss, but even worse when he trades down to accumulate picks. For all the picks he's had over the last 5-10 years, how many are still on the roster, let alone impact players?

The difference is despite Belichick's steadfast refusal to overpay anyone (including legendary Patriots), he's still getting completely outmaneuvered by Elway in terms of picking up impact free agents to patch roster holes since 2011:

For Elway there's Wes Welker, TJ Ward, Emmanuel Sanders, DeMarcus Ware, Terrence Knighton, Louis Vasquez, DRC, oh and Peyton freaking Manning.

For Belichick it's Darelle Revis, Brandon Browner and Danny Amendola. Anyone else? Both teams have had Talib.

Belichick might have the better longterm view by trying to build through the draft but not if you miss on high round DBs and WRs year after year.

3) You know who has had more recent success in the draft than both? Josh McDaniels. Seriously, the pocket dictator had some huge high profile draft busts, Tim Tebow tops among them. He also couldn't get along with any of the stars on the team he inherited (so why the fuck did he take that job? I'm still wondering.) He took a wrecking ball to some pretty good Denver teams. But history will probably be kinder to him because Denver would've probably never been able to put together a truly great team without him.

Because the irony is one of Elway's biggest advantages over Belichick is all the elite skill position talent he inherited from McDaniels: DeMaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas, Eric Decker.

It's a huge built in advantage over Belichick who hasn't drafted a good receiver in the last 10 years and only really succeeded in talent evaluation at the TE position...though ended up with two guys each with their own fatal flaws (ok, pun intended).

4) Yeah Belichick used a 2nd round pick on Jimmy Garoppolo instead of getting Brady help. But in fairness to him, there's no future I can imagine where it's a worse pick than Elway taking Brock Osweiler. I mean Garoppolo looks better than Osweiler right off the bat, but that's not even what I mean.

Consider that pick probably already cost the Broncos a Superbowl. If he just saw what half the board did and took Russell Wilson as the developmental QB he clearly wanted in the 2nd round of the 2012 draft, there's a great chance the Broncos win the Superbowl last year. Seattle isn't getting to the Superbowl with Tavaris Jackson or Matt Flynn or whomever they were going to be stuck with and they were the only team I could see throttling PFM so completely. 49ers, maybe, but the difference was the secondary clearly.

So yeah, Brock Osweiler has already fucked up everything.

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Sooo...Bironas allegedly tried to run another car off the road before his fatal accident, according to the 911 call reporting it. This after disappearing from his home late in the evening, which had his wife calling the police. Very odd.

"He is dangerous, he is drunk or something. He tried to start a fight with us,'' the woman said. "My husband ran down there to see what is going on. I just want to tell the police there is something wrong with him. He is dangerous, he is drunk or he is on drugs. There is something wrong with him. He gave us a mean look. We don't even know him, and he tried to run us off the road."

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/22/woman-says-rob-bironas-tried-run-road/16077271/

What next, NFL fans?

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So, Mo Claiborne was benched yesterday and then stormed out of practice.



http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/_/id/11578003/morris-claiborne-dallas-cowboys-hears-lineup-news-bolts



This guy has all of the physical attributes anyone could ask for. The problem is that he is just not smart enough to consistently grasp the defensive schemes he is assigned. This is a huge bust for the cowboys, but I'm glad they are pulling the trigger now,


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So, Mo Claiborne was benched yesterday and then stormed out of practice.

http://espn.go.com/dallas/nfl/story/_/id/11578003/morris-claiborne-dallas-cowboys-hears-lineup-news-bolts

This guy has all of the physical attributes anyone could ask for. The problem is that he is just not smart enough to consistently grasp the defensive schemes he is assigned. This is a huge bust for the cowboys, but I'm glad they are pulling the trigger now,

Who would have thought the guy who got a 4 on the wonderlic would struggle with schemes?

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BTW to revisit an earlier point, Teddy Bridgewater and Blake Bortles are now starting in week 4 after Matt Cassel and Chad Henne provided a combined 6 weeks of terrible football. I don't think Matt Cassel completed a single pass that traveled 10 yards in there before getting injured. Chad Henne was somehow even worse than that.



I'm just amused by the dog and pony show. We're not going to throw our rookies out there into the fire. Even though every first round rookie the last five years is starting by week 6 (and many 2nd and 3rd rounders too). As though there's anything to be learned by 3 weeks on the bench. Both guys looked great in preseason. You drafted each one in the first round for a reason. Wouldn't it have made more sense to start them week one with an entire offense designed around their strengths?

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BTW to revisit an earlier point, Teddy Bridgewater and Blake Bortles are now starting in week 4 after Matt Cassel and Chad Henne provided a combined 6 weeks of terrible football. I don't think Matt Cassel completed a single pass that traveled 10 yards in there before getting injured. Chad Henne was somehow even worse than that.

I'm just amused by the dog and pony show. We're not going to throw our rookies out there into the fire. Even though every first round rookie the last five years is starting by week 6 (and many 2nd and 3rd rounders too). As though there's anything to be learned by 3 weeks on the bench. Both guys looked great in preseason. You drafted each one in the first round for a reason. Wouldn't it have made more sense to start them week one with an entire offense designed around their strengths?

I would disagree and rather vehemently. The fans need to see the true incompetence of Cassel and Henne fresh in their minds every time the rookie makes a rookie mistake. It is the best way to get them the leeway they need to succeed. Plus if the incompetent numbskull actually manages to string together a few games, it gives actual learning time to the heir apparent.

While it is true the rookies of this decade are starting earlier than their predecessors, it seems to me anecdotally that there is a greater frequency of flameouts. I would love to see the historical numbers of QBs who met certain criteria their first and second years only to flame out later - aka The Bradford Group.

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While it is true the rookies of this decade are starting earlier than their predecessors, it seems to me anecdotally that there is a greater frequency of flameouts. I would love to see the historical numbers of QBs who met certain criteria their first and second years only to flame out later - aka The Bradford Group.

With Bradford's history, that may be an unfair characterization. I'd suggest the Freeman Group, or, really -- the Sanchizes.

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I don't think Matt Cassel completed a single pass that traveled 10 yards in there before getting injured
Parsing this sentence it sounds like the pass itself got injured. Which given how Cassel throws is probably accurate.
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Jaime:



Very good points. Just a few thoughts and observations.



1) It's impossible to ignore that as far as GMs go, Elway is keeping his eyes on the prize (i.e.: The Superbowl) way better than Belichick. Belichick seems content to maintain this self-sustaining machine of good (but increasingly no longer great) teams long after he still has a hall of fame QB around to run 'em.




I think a better way to think about is that Elway is playing to win and Belichick is playing for value. Its almost as if they are doing two different things; Elway is looking at what he needs to win and acquiring all that he can. Belichick is looking at what is available and always getting his “three dimes for a quarter” premium. This is not to say Belichick does not care about winning or that Elways is too concerned about the present. But everything Belichick does seems more geared to maximizing value than winning- the draft deals (almost always trading down); the reclamation projects (with mixed results); the veterans playing for less pay. Its as if Belichick thinks he can win a championship based upon frugality and a degree of difficulty score. Meanwhile, Elway looks at the team, sees what they need and goes and gets it. And if that means in 2 years the Broncos will be 2-14 so be it. It worked for the Colts after all…




2) Both Elway and Belichick have a pretty bad track records in the draft in recent years. Hell Elway's best pick remains Von Miller, whom, to be fair even if he didn't take, he'd have fallen into another perennial pro bowler at the top of the 2011 draft. Belichick's been hit or miss in the early rounds, mostly miss, but even worse when he trades down to accumulate picks. For all the picks he's had over the last 5-10 years, how many are still on the roster, let alone impact players?





Its such a dodgy proposition. Taking a look around the Belichick draft board has ranged from “thrilling” to “fuck me with a rusty Tebow.”



In 2010 (maybe Belichick’s best draft) the Pats had 3 #2 picks with mixed results- the 42nd overall pick was Gronk (and even now with his injuries, that was a good pick), but the next two were Brandon Spikes and Jermaine Cunningham, two …. Mediocre talents. Pats also had 3 7ths that season. I can barely spell any of their names much less remember them. Oh, and in the 4th round, the Pats took a double murderer.



In 2011, the Pats had 2 second and 2 thirds and ended up netting Shane Vareen and Stevan Ridley (and two terrible players).



But nothing crystallizes the Patriots agony and ecstasy than the 2013 draft. In 2013 the Pats traded away the 29th overall pick. For the 52nd, 83rd, 102nd, and 229th overall picks. On paper, that seems like a lot.


The Pats ended up getting Jamie Collins at 52 (developing defensive talent), CB Logan Ryan at 83 (incredibly average player), Josh Boyce at 102 (he was so good the Pats cut him this season) and traded the 229th pick for LaGarrette Blount which was … fine.



With the 29th pick Minnesota acquired Cordarelle Patterson a stud Wide Out and cornerstone of that team.



So, yes, on paper, the Pats “got value” but that trade was a bunch of stuff for a stud and I always think that at the end of the day, the teams with the studs win out.





3) ….Because the irony is one of Elway's biggest advantages over Belichick is all the elite skill position talent he inherited from McDaniels: DeMaryius Thomas, Julius Thomas, Eric Decker.



It's a huge built in advantage over Belichick who hasn't drafted a good receiver in the last 10 years and only really succeeded in talent evaluation at the TE position...though ended up with two guys each with their own fatal flaws (ok, pun intended).






What’s interesting is that the same could be said for Belichick’s early success from 2000-2004 insofar as other than Brady (2000) almost all of the talent accumulated therein was from the Parcells era (Bruschi, Law, Malloy, Teddy Johnson, Willie McGuinest). It’s a very interesting pattern.




4) Yeah Belichick used a 2nd round pick on Jimmy Garoppolo instead of getting Brady help. But in fairness to him, there's no future I can imagine where it's a worse pick than Elway taking Brock Osweiler. I mean Garoppolo looks better than Osweiler right off the bat, but that's not even what I mean.






But that’s not my criticism. I’mn ot upset that Belichick took a QB. I’m upset that at the time of the draft, Belichick knew or should have known that Mankins was either gone – either cut or traded. If that was the case, than why didn’t Belichick draft a OLineman? That’s the criticism.



But yeah, fuck Brock Osweiler.


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Week 3 of Inside the NFL with no Phil Simms. It is now back to being my favorite show about football on TV.

If Phil Simms comes back, I am going to cancel my Showtime subscription.

God I hate Phil Simms.

Who would have thought the guy who got a 4 on the wonderlic would struggle with schemes?

I thought those scores were supposed to be secret? ;)

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With Bradford's history, that may be an unfair characterization. I'd suggest the Freeman Group, or, really -- the Sanchizes.

Does RGIII count, or is he a category of his own?

Is there an intelligence level for a prospect, below which, no matter what the prospects physical skills are, he can't play in the NFL?

I imagine it doesn't really matter for kickers, punter or long snappers.

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I would disagree and rather vehemently. The fans need to see the true incompetence of Cassel and Henne fresh in their minds every time the rookie makes a rookie mistake. It is the best way to get them the leeway they need to succeed. Plus if the incompetent numbskull actually manages to string together a few games, it gives actual learning time to the heir apparent.

While it is true the rookies of this decade are starting earlier than their predecessors, it seems to me anecdotally that there is a greater frequency of flameouts. I would love to see the historical numbers of QBs who met certain criteria their first and second years only to flame out later - aka The Bradford Group.

There's no demonstrable benefit for sitting a rookie for a few games and then throwing him into the fire. Andy Dalton and Cam Newton started week 1 of the 2011 season and are still starting today. Locker, Gabbert and Ponder all started between weeks 2-6 of that year and all are washed out (or almost washed out). How much learning did they do in those 5 weeks behind some mediocre veteran? Clearly not much.

RGIII and Bradford aren't on their way to flaming out because they started week 1. Health is a skill that neither would possess no matter how long you "protected" them on the bench.

Make no mistake, 50% of all first round QBs are busts since time immemorial. There's a Rick Mirer and a Heath Shuler for every Mark Sanchez and Josh Freeman.

Now if you want to argue that rookie QBs benefit from sitting an entire season like Rodgers, Kaepernick or Rivers, that's a different argument and one that I can possibly buy, especially if you have a better option at QB that year. I just think it's silly not to play your best starter just because he's a rookie out of some misguided attempt to "protect" him, when you're just going to throw him to the wolves 3 weeks later. Sit him if he hasn't earned it, like Johnny Manziel hasn't. But if he looks far better than your replacement level veteran QB, you're doing your team a disservice. Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck are all evidence that if a rookie has what it takes to be successful in the league, there's no set amount of time you should feel like you have to wait.

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