NFL Offseason 2014: Buildup to the Draft

[Jace, Extat]

I don't know if its been mentioned in here but I saw some rumors the other day that Hard Knocks is down to considering the Bears, Steelers and Giants for the show this year. I'm obviously biased but I would freaking love to see a Bears Hard Knocks.

Bears would be cool. Steelers would make me wanna claw my eyes out, and the Giants would have way too much Tom Coughlin. In my opinion, of course.

[Jaime L]

I like Mike Tanier, but I think Chris Brown's prose is slightly more evocative and he understands the game a little better.

I agree.

Also find Zack Lowe to be the Chris Brown of the NBA. Say what you will of Bill Simmons but he's assembled some of the best sportswriting talent around and Bill Barnwell.

[fuseprime]

Bears would be cool. Steelers would make me wanna claw my eyes out, and the Giants would have way too much Tom Coughlin. In my opinion, of course.

I'd like to see Cutler, Marshall, Forte, and Jeffery behind the scenes. That offense is dirty, and has potential to be the 2nd best year. I kind of think the Steelers might be interesting, but the Giants would be downright BORING. It would be a Coughlin motivational speech, followed by a bumbling and mumbling Eli, and capped off with a Victor Cruz salsa dance.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

I agree.

Also find Zack Lowe to be the Chris Brown of the NBA. Say what you will of Bill Simmons but he's assembled some of the best sportswriting talent around and Bill Barnwell.

True. I forgot to mention that I prefer Tanier because of his nerdy references and sense of humor.

Barnwell is ok except when he tries to force the Grantland fratboy humor into his writing.

[Mack Kilimaro]

I agree.

Also find Zack Lowe to be the Chris Brown of the NBA. Say what you will of Bill Simmons but he's assembled some of the best sportswriting talent around and Bill Barnwell.

Katie Baker is my big-time sportswriter crush. I don't even watch much hockey.

There is a lot of filler on Grantland, but there is a lot of good stuff too. I visit every day even if I occasionally kick myself for clicking on some of the pop culture-y posts. I can't resist.

It's funny to me that ericxihn thinks of Grantland as a frat boy humor place; I guess there is a lot of that flowing down from Simmons but there is also a wide swath of the site where they just let their nerd flags fly and it's great.

[Ramsay B.]

I'd like to see Cutler, Marshall, Forte, and Jeffery behind the scenes. That offense is dirty, and has potential to be the 2nd best year. I kind of think the Steelers might be interesting, but the Giants would be downright BORING. It would be a Coughlin motivational speech, followed by a bumbling and mumbling Eli, and capped off with a Victor Cruz salsa dance.

Ha. Giants would be pretty boring, I can't deny that. Antrel Rolle would have some good moments but as a whole it would be ehhh...except for us Giants fans. Bears probably would make for the best tv but they'll probably go with the Steelers...puke.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

Katie Baker is my big-time sportswriter crush. I don't even watch much hockey.

There is a lot of filler on Grantland, but there is a lot of good stuff too. I visit every day even if I occasionally kick myself for clicking on some of the pop culture-y posts. I can't resist.

It's funny to me that ericxihn thinks of Grantland as a frat boy humor place; I guess there is a lot of that flowing down from Simmons but there is also a wide swath of the site where they just let their nerd flags fly and it's great.

Let me clarify. I feel like a lot of writers on that site, for example, Molly Lambert, Rembert Browne, Chris Ryan, have a humor style that's somewhat evocative of Simmons' but distinctly their own and it plays off of him well. Bill Barnwell, when he's trying to be funny, seems like he's just trying to emulate Simmons and it feels forced.

[DanteGabriel]

I am on Grantland pretty constantly during the day looking for updates and I particularly enjoy Rembert Browne and Katie Baker, and I'm always excited when I see a new piece by Charles Pierce. I'd say I like netw3rk too but I can't get past his stupid fucking pseudonym from 1998.

[Mexal]

Hahahah this is awesome. Jay Cutlers kid is named Jaxon.

http://eonli.ne/1qePvZ8

[Mack Kilimaro]

I am on Grantland pretty constantly during the day looking for updates and I particularly enjoy Rembert Browne and Katie Baker, and I'm always excited when I see a new piece by Charles Pierce. I'd say I like netw3rk too but I can't get past his stupid fucking pseudonym from 1998.

Man, that's the truth about netw3rk. I am amazed that someone actually talked an ESPN-affiliated outlet like Grantland into letting them post with a name like that. It's one thing if he's some podunk backwater blogger, but Grantland is pretty legit.

I also like Rembert. More than most of the writers on there, he can go between the culture stuff and the sports stuff pretty well. His article where he re-watched an episode of Legends of the Hidden Temple is one of the funniest things I've ever read. You probably had to be a kid of just the right age to have experienced it.

OK, back somewhat on topic. How many mock drafts would you all estimate you have looked at? I have to admit I can't get away from them entirely and I hate myself for that, but I limit myself to Kiper and McShay, not necessarily because I think they're the best (although I do enjoy the institution that Kiper is) but because it's easy to just go on ESPN.com and read only theirs. They both have Eric Ebron to the Ravens in their most recent versions, so that's basically the perfect draft for me.

[sperry]

Man, that's the truth about netw3rk. I am amazed that someone actually talked an ESPN-affiliated outlet like Grantland into letting them post with a name like that. It's one thing if he's some podunk backwater blogger, but Grantland is pretty legit.

I also like Rembert. More than most of the writers on there, he can go between the culture stuff and the sports stuff pretty well. His article where he re-watched an episode of Legends of the Hidden Temple is one of the funniest things I've ever read. You probably had to be a kid of just the right age to have experienced it.

OK, back somewhat on topic. How many mock drafts would you all estimate you have looked at? I have to admit I can't get away from them entirely and I hate myself for that, but I limit myself to Kiper and McShay, not necessarily because I think they're the best (although I do enjoy the institution that Kiper is) but because it's easy to just go on ESPN.com and read only theirs. They both have Eric Ebron to the Ravens in their most recent versions, so that's basically the perfect draft for me.

I just look at Kiper and McShay as well. Probably shouldn't bother with Kiper, as the guy has proved time and time again that he's a complete hack, and merely has status because he was smart enoguh to figure out that there was a demand for Mock drafts and draft analysis from fans, even though he was completely incompetent in terms of actually doing them himself. Still, ESPN has the resources and connections to at least get some pulse on who the premiere talents are, and where teams are leaning. At least I know it's not some idiot fan running a glorified blog.

[Maithanet]

Richard Sherman signs a deal for 4 years, $57 million ($40 million guaranteed).

That's a lot of money for a cornerback, and a little more than I thought he would get. Interesting that Sherman was going to be paid $1.43 million this coming year before this deal, so the Seahawks are definitely trying to pay some of that salary now so that the overall per year figure isn't as high. I think that means that Sherman would have commanded more than $14 million per year on the open market if he had just played out this current year. Interesting.

Anyways, the Seahawks now have quite an investment in that secondary.

[Kalbear]

It's essentially a five year deal - its a 4 year extension to his existing contract. So this year he makes 1m. Averages about 12m that way. The guaranteed money is pretty nice, but it's also an absurdly cap friendly deal.

[DanteGabriel]

Seahawks mounting a campaign to reach out to potentially undrafted college players:

In what appears to be a unique and well-received move, the Seattle Seahawks sent out a recruiting email to the agents of potential undrafted collegiate free agents this week, trumpeting their track record in that job market, then forwarded the release along to some national media members as a way of underlining how much emphasis they put on the latter end of the personnel acquisition phase of the offseason.

I got the email sent to me by Seahawks director of pro personnel Trent Kirchner, and the first thing I wondered was whether other NFL teams put together such an infomercial on their own behalf.

One rival club executive I spoke to said he knew of no other team taking that approach with UDFAs, and called it a "cool idea'' that the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks had. A long-time agent told me no club had ever been so pro-active in early pursuit of players who will go undrafted in the league's seven-round pick-fest.

"It shows the Seahawks know it's an aspect of the draft that is fairly uncontrollable, so they're trying to do what they can do to have some control over it,'' the agent said. The extra two weeks built into this year's draft season, the agent said, has given clubs more time to invest in the pool of likely undrafted prospects.

Seattle's release details a statistical analysis of how they have developed collegiate free agents and consistently relied upon them as a source of talent. There are charts that show the Seahawks lead the league in offering free agents preseason playing time, have in the past cut draft picks to create roster space for free agents and had eight current Seahawks/former free agents contribute to Seattle's Super Bowl-winning 2013 season.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20140507/johnny-manziel-houston-texans-2014-nfl-draft-rumors/?eref=sihp

Pretty smart move, Seahawks. You fuckers.

[Kalbear]

Yeah - that I think is all on Pete Carroll. This was the sort of thing that he'd do at USC as well - not for recruiting, mind you, but because it was the right thing to do. He'd go into shitty neighborhoods at 3AM and go and talk to kids that were out in the hood. For no reason. It really left an impression on a lot of guys though, and he really enjoys the kind of outreach to people that might not be regularly inclined.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

Of course now that they sent that memo, and with their stacked squad, undrafted players are less likely to make the squad.

[Jaime L]

The casual reader might miss that dig. Subtle stuff, ser.

ETA: And I pretty much agree, and it's part of why I'm something of a Simmons apologist. How special or not he himself is may be one thing to consider, but I do think he has very good taste and knows who to hire for the most part. And I confess to being a sucker for his passion for sport and pop culture which seems undeniably genuine to me.

Knew I could count on you, Frisky.

Hahahah this is awesome. Jay Cutlers kid is named Jaxon.

http://eonli.ne/1qePvZ8

I am outraged at the hospital typo. Though I guess "m" can look like "n" if scribbled out too fast.

$20 says Jaxon Cutler grows up to the be the Douche Who Was Promised (DWWP)

[sperry]

The casual reader might miss that dig. Subtle stuff, ser.

ETA: And I pretty much agree, and it's part of why I'm something of a Simmons apologist. How special or not he himself is may be one thing to consider, but I do think he has very good taste and knows who to hire for the most part. And I confess to being a sucker for his passion for sport and pop culture which seems undeniably genuine to me.

You are right about Simmons hiring prowess. Part of it, I think, is that no one was interested in employing talented sports journalists, and thus he was able to have his pick of the litter.

He's terrible on television though, and it bugs me that he's like 5'6" and is seated next to a bunch of 6'6"+ giants.

[Howdyphillip]

Whew... Mike Mayok just released his final mock draft and has Manziel going to the Cowboys. I was worried beyond belief that this was going to happen, but if Mike Mayok said it, it has to be wrong. A monkey throwing darts could do a better job.

Also, why is the NFL thread on page 2 on this day? You guys are slackers.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

Whew... Mike Mayok just released his final mock draft and has Manziel going to the Cowboys. I was worried beyond belief that this was going to happen, but if Mike Mayok said it, it has to be wrong. A monkey throwing darts could do a better job.

Also, why is the NFL thread on page 2 on this day? You guys are slackers.

Admit it, your just holding out for Jerry Jones to say something racist, aren't you?