National Football League

[FoxxyBrown1111]

BTW: Yes Foxxy, the doping and corruption at the Olympics has to top the NFL and Cycling even (though if the UCI succeeds at making the Lance issue go away, Cycling will top all sports. Maybe ever!). At least the judges in the gymnastics didn't give the US girl who fell on her ass the gold (like they did with the Chinese girl four years ago).

I have yet to get ready for the NFL. Watching the olympic circus is quiet time consuming. A few bright spots there (the long jump seems to be clean, Hartling was quiet funny & emotional).
I heard over there in the clinic that WADA stepped in warning UCI to influence the Armstrong case. So i am slightly optimistic.
I think cycling is way better off now, but only b/c the official authorities stepped in in France and Italy for some years now.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

No worries, the Olympic spectacle will soon be over, and the real NFL season will start.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

I heard over there in the clinic that WADA stepped in warning UCI to influence the Armstrong case. So i am slightly optimistic.
I think cycling is way better off now, but only b/c the official authorities stepped in in France and Italy for some years now.

Don't hold your breath. Not likely the UCI & McQuack are going to be of any influence in this American case. The only way UCI could help is if they coughed up any information they might have to expose any wrongdoings, like cover up of past positives. But that won't happen because that makes the UCI look bad too. I won't hold my breath either and have pretty much tuned out this case until something really starts moving. Until then we have the NFL to keep us entertained, and the upcoming Vuelta, which should be fun! Hopefully the LA case will start moving before the Super Bowl and before the next NFL draft.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Or we could just ignore all things Armstrong and just watch the NFL (and Vuelta).

Of course the pre-season means almost nothing to most fans, but it's a good chance to look at some players, especially rookies and recent acquisitions to new teams. So here's a schedule for this week.

Some general thoughts on Thursday's games, what to look for:

Redskins at Bills - Obviously, RG3 will have a zillion eyes on him. The Bills also got some new defenders, notably Mario Williams, who in the past was either great or absent (or hurt).

Ravens at Falcons - Ravens hurt already, and Lewis and Reed aging, so look for lots of players you've never heard of.

Saints at Patriots - This would be fun if it were the regular season. A look at some of the Pats new defenders, mostly.

Steelers at Eagles - Again, would be better in regular season. Both teams with talent, but gaps. Let's see how their new guys play.

Packers at Chargers - Let's see who ends up the Packers back-up QB, now that Flynn is gone. Packers added a few defensive players. Chargers, well, what can you say with Norv?

Broncos at Bears - It's Peyton Manning time! But how will Denver's OL do? Bears added some key players and could be a complete team. Let's see what they show.

 

[Amsterhammer]

Or we could just ignore all things Armstrong and just watch the NFL (and Vuelta).

Hi guys, I'll go for that. It's time for football!

Redskins at Bills - Obviously, RG3 will have a zillion eyes on him. The Bills also got some new defenders, notably Mario Williams, who in the past was either great or absent (or hurt).

A zillion plus two. Just saw the first first down on the fifth possession, Bills up 3-0....I just had to see the kid in action even though there's no way I'm staying up all night.

edit - and there's RG3's first TD pass to Garcon.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Got to admit, much of that games I've seen have been duds. Really are little more than scrimmages, which for many players the 1st pre-season game are.

SF Looked good, but they played Minnesota. Brandon Jacobs looked good though, a little thinner, which is good news for SF. Colin Kaepernick's 76 yard scramble run reminded me a little of Steve Young.

Brandon Weeden looked like a rookie for the Browns. A couple good throws, a fumble and a pick. McCoy looked better.

Maybe Monday's Dallas-Oakland game will be entertaining, and the Colts are up next with Luck...

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Most of these games will be duds, but it gives us a chance to see rookies and faces in new places.

I'll start with new places... Matt Flynn for Seattle looked very good though he did not stretch the defense by throwing deep. Jason Jones looked solid and made some great plays for the Seattle D-Line.

Rookies... Hawks Russell Wilson looked even better than Matt Flynn and did throw deep for a TD. This kid is super quick and fast and made some great plays improvising by escaping the pocket and throwing darts on the run. Strong arm, stronger than Matt's. Granted he only saw second string defenses, so I'll stop short of saying he could be the starter. I'd have to see him against a good starting defense before claiming that. He will be a starter someday.

Old faces... Tavares Jackson was suited up by when the 3 QBs (Matt, Wilson, and Portis) were on the sideline talking, he was nowhere to be found. His mentoring was noticeably absent.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Yeah, as I said, it's a look at rookies, new acquisitions, players on the bubble, that's it, especially pre-season week 1.

Andrew Luck looked great. First NFL pass a TD. Threw another sweet TD toss. Fans shouldn't get too excited though. This wasn't the Ravens they were playing, it was a very weak StL team with a whole new coaching staff. Chandler Hornish (remember him? "Mr. Irrelevant" in the draft?) looked great at QB too.

Saw some of the Seattle highlights. Now that I'm in the Northeast, I don't see the 'Hawks as much. I get a LOT of Patriots and Giants stuff, and some Jets stuff. I don't like any of those teams. My favorite east coast team is Baltimore, and a lot of people around here cringe when I say that.

Russell's TD throw was nice. He looked very good in the pocket, and a nice one step arm throw. But it really was a great reception. Russell also threw a rookie pick into the end zone by trying to soft lob the ball in there. NFL defense are way too quick to fall for that and you see this kind of rookie pass every year, so he'll learn from this. I'll still be surprised if Jackson ends up on the roster in week 1. The Seattle QB situation almost has to be Flynn, Wilson and Portis in that order (for now). Jackson is a tough guy, but he's also destined to be a backup, and Seattle really isn't the place for that. At least that's what I think.

Dallas-Oakland should be interesting. This should be our first real look at Terrell Pryor, as he played about two downs last season.

 

[User Guide]

Luck did look great,Wilson too and man they reserving Bradfords room at the hospital yet?.I know is pre season but wow that Oline looks awful.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

I missed the Colts game but from the highlights Luck did look good. That first play though for the TD.... I mean a good D would not have let that one go all the way. So it was a nice warm up for the new Colts and Luck, but against a bad defense was a little bit like Hawks Wilson playing the Titans second stringers. Still, Luck played like a winner.

News commentary in Seattle Times today (Steve Kelley) calls for Seattle to name Flynn the season starter now, and Wilson be named as the backup with no pressure to start this season. Kelley says Seattle needs to let Wilson learn in his first year, and let him chill. Flynn needs time to develop with the receivers. I agree. We should only see Wilson this year if Flynn gets injured or implodes. I don't think he will implode though.

 

[leftover pie]

checking in for season 2012/13.

am barracking for KC this year.


i think they're due*





*to win 5 or 6 games.

 

[User Guide]

Well that sucks donkey balls, i had off season game pass,i was sure i got pre season games,
Apparantly not
Btw saw quite a bit of Wilson last year as we get good college coverage in uk.
Im a bit surprised hes raising eyebrows,too me in college he looked good at everything but didnt stand out in any aspect or from the crowd.Kinda like the guy who dropped in draft,Kirk Cousins.
Another rookie pulling up tree's Luke Keuchly although he reminds me of Ruud or Poslusny active tackling machine+undersized=injuries

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Raiders continue to stink, coming up empty against the Cowboys, who almost came up empty as well. Pryor was 8/16 with a nice run, and a pick on the last play of the game that looked a lot like the pick Wilson threw for Seattle. Lofting the ball with too much air time. In college those receivers stay open, in the NFL DB's and LB's are too fast on the ball and the same pass won't work.

Look for Jake Locker to start on Friday for Tenn. If he plays well, he'll start on week 1. People knew he'd eventually be an NFL QB his first year in college, so this is no shock.

Ryan Tannehill looked solid, trusting his receivers and following the playbook to a T, which was good to see for someone with so little experience. On the flip side to that, Ken Wisenhunt is frustrated with both his QB's (Kolb and Skelton) who can't seem to do the same, and rookie Ryan Lindley is too green to step up. So they're in a hole here.

Am barracking for KC this year.

Don't be so sure. They are stacked across the board at many positions. On paper the Chiefs should contend for AFC West and into the playoffs, even if Matt Cassell plays average.

Btw saw quite a bit of Wilson last year...I'm a bit surprised hes raising eyebrows, to me in college he looked good at everything but didnt stand out in any aspect or from the crowd.

I felt the same way, and nothing really stood out, he didn't play great in the Rose Bowl, and he's rather short. But he excelled at the Gruden QB camp, has a good arm, and his head is definitely on straight. Sitting a year or so will only help him for the future.

Another rookie pulling up tree's Luke Keuchly although he reminds me of Ruud or Poslusny active tackling machine+undersized=injuries.

I agree with you there. The guy looked great in college, but he wasn't dealing with the beasts he'll face in the NFL. A good debut, and probably some good years, but I don't know. If things play out, the guy could be the next Zach Thomas...or if they don't, the next Brian Bosworth (did I just type that?!)

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Crikey! Not Bosworth! It's Bosworthless!

Use the Force, Luke!... Actually, I like Keuchly. He always seems to be around the ball, so maybe he's got a bit of the Force in him. Having a nose for the ball is not easily taught. I think he'll be okay. Surely not the likes of the Boz.

I was pretty impressed with Tannehill too. But Rick Mirer looked pretty good his first couple of regular season games too, and look how that turned out. If Ryan works out well, he'll make some of us (me included) look stupid and the Fins look like geniuses. I'd rather me look stupid and him pan out than the other way around.

If Wisenhunt's Cards need an QB, Seattle QB Tavares Jackson (who's 3rd on the Hawk depth chart) could be available soon. If I was Arizona though I would not give up on Kolb just yet. Especially if Jackson is the only other option.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

They spent too much $$$ on Kolb. He has I'd say a very short leash at this point, then the job is Skelton's, with Lindley waiting in the wings. I don't know what of Kolb's salary is guaranteed, but I do know it's heavily back loaded. Next year and the year after it's something like $12m per year. And they already paid him the $7m bonus. So it won't be easy to flush that down the drain.

Mirer actually was ROY..his best season in the NFL. So good point on Tannehill.

Tjax might be ripe for cutting. At $4m a year, that's double what Flynn is getting paid this season, and obviously way more than Russell. But I don't know that they will.

I used the Bos reference because he had something like 22 surgeries in his short career, and he was a ball magnet, who turned out to be undersized (without mega roids).

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

You're a contracts guru. I didn't know that about Kolb's contract. The next question is, can they afford to go out now and get someone like TJax if he comes available?

Hehe. I had forgotten Mirer was ROY. What a shame to go first to worst.

On Boz, I do remember that supplemental draft where Hawks took him doing cartwheels. Before the draft he could not play in the Orange Bowl being banned for that game for steroid use (my guess is he used roids because he was injured for one). I had a bad feeling about him being injury prone. The Eagles were ready to give Seattle 3 number one draft picks for the rights to draft him in the supplemental, and I soooo wanted Seattle to make that trade. But they didn't.

Just released on NFL.com..... TJax again will not play in Seattle's next pre-season game. Hawks will use the same starting rotation of Flynn in the first half, and Wilson in the 2nd half. And Jax is not injured.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

You're a contracts guru.

Simply google the player's name, and contract. Follow the links.

I had forgotten the Eagles offered that for Boz. Yikes!

TJax again will not play in Seattle's next pre-season game. Hawks will use the same starting rotation of Flynn in the first half, and Wilson in the 2nd half. And Jax is not injured.

Well, if they were shopping him, he'd be playing, so either they're going to cut him, or they already know what they get in him, and he's going to sit on the bench. My guess is that if Wilson is going to play the entire 2nd half (or close to it, would like to see Portis get some snaps), they have expectations that he will be the back-up behind Flynn, or start if Flynn falters, and they want him comfortable enough to get into a real game if he needs to. This pushes TJax to 3rd string, or as I said, cut loose.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Well, if they were shopping him, he'd be playing, so either they're going to cut him, or they already know what they get in him, and he's going to sit on the bench. My guess is that if Wilson is going to play the entire 2nd half (or close to it, would like to see Portis get some snaps), they have expectations that he will be the back-up behind Flynn, or start if Flynn falters, and they want him comfortable enough to get into a real game if he needs to. This pushes TJax to 3rd string, or as I said, cut loose.

Google - I think I've heard of that. Actually, did not know you could find out that kind of information that way.

Well, there could be another reason the Hawks are not playing TJax: they may want to trade him, but don't want him injured. Because if he gets injured in preseason or regular season, the the Hawks owe him his entire $4 million salary. It's a trade-off on whether to play him or not:
- play him in preseason to hopefully increase his trade value (if he performs well), OR
- sit him to avoid injury and avoid paying his full salary

I'm not smart enough to think all that up on my own. Here's the link to the article just posted on NBC Sports - Pro Football Talk - that talks about it:LINK. They claim a source says Hawks are already talking to a couple teams.

Either that, or they cut him. But I don't think they will sit him and his $4 mil on the bench. Not with Josh Portis who is a descent, but cheap, 3rd string backup with potential.

 

[SirLes]

Right, I'm set up for the season: Just got game pass.

Really pleased with it, I'm watching the Giants games from last year as I couldn't see them all.

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Right, I'm set up for the season: Just got game pass.

Really pleased with it, I'm watching the Giants games from last year as I couldn't see them all.

You shall thank god for that. Some embarrassing loses for them

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

ELITE-11 Quarterbacks

The ESPN RISE Elite-11 QB Competition just completed. 2012 Elite-11 competitors were all high school graduates entering their freshman college year, except for one upcoming HS senior. The QBs were instructed by former NFL QB Trent Dilfer and a number of other former NFL player/QBs. It is interesting to see who the next generation of college QBs will be & potential future NFL QBs could be.

- MVP: Asiantii Woulard (South Florida), Winter Park (Fla.) HS senior
- T-2: Max Browne (USC)
- T-2: Christian Hackenberg (Penn State)
- 4: Zack Greenlee (Uncommitted)
- 5: Luke Del Rio (Oklahoma State)
- 6: Jared Goff (California)
- 7: Malik Zaire (Notre Dame)
- 8: Johnny Stanton (Nebraska)
- 9: Shane Cockerille (Maryland)
- 10: Kevin Olsen (Miami)
- 11: Joshua Dobbs (Arizona State)

Dilfer said on the NFL Network that Woulard showed greatness and could be the next Cam Newton. That was a little different from the recap comments. See the Elite-11 2012 schedule and video recaps at the following link: http://espn.go.com/high-school/football/events/elite-11/2012/

Oddly, Zack Greenlee had the strongest arm and was in first place entering the final day of competition, but does not yet have a D-1 offer to play QB. With his 4th place finish, it is possible he could end up with a D-1 commitment. Not sure how that can work out this late in the process entering fall 2012.

Luke Del Rio is the son of former NFL LB Jack Del Rio.

I watched some video of the final day of completion, which included the 2-minute drill, that aired on the NFL Network. I was impressed with the passing accuracy and zip on the ball of many of the contestants. There were probably 20 or so finalists with the top 11 coming from that group.

See other commentary here: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/recruiting/blog/eye-on-recruiting/19636285/asiantii-woulard-takes-home-mvp-honors-at-elite-11

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Having worked jobs for PlayOn sports, and known people who've worked for MaxPrep, it takes a real keen eye to find a kid who is 17 or 18 and see him ending up in the NFL some day. Half of these kids will not play well in college, several will lose interest when presented with the darker aspects or business of the sport, more will be decent, but not great. And many play in systems that are not often seen in college, and never in the NFL. So it's really hard to say. But at least a program like this helps take some of that edge away, and gives scouts some idea.

Just as an example of what I'm talking about as to how hard it is to predict this future:

Jake Locker was at Ferndale HS in Washington (your state!) and took his HS team to an unbeaten record and won state, all on his arm. Took over a terrible Washington team, they knew he'd end up in the NFL anyway, no matter how bad the team was. When Matt Barkley was recruited to USC, it was widely assumed he'd flourish under Pete Carroll, and end up a top NFL draft pick. Both were true (though Matt's not in the NFL yet, he'll be a top 5 pick next year).

Ahhh yes, USC under Pete, they had great radar, right? A crystal ball of talent evaluation, right? Remember a guy named Mitch Mustain? Huge hype on that guy and his arm. Then there was Rocky Hinds, who was a head case even Carroll couldn't fix. Then, there's Todd Marinovich....

Remember a guy at LSU after Jamarcus Russell and Matt Flynn named Ryan Perrilloux? Huge prospect that guy was. Supposed to be better than both when he got to LSU. But he pretty much busted in college and now throws practice squad balls.

UCLA had a rocket armed guy named Ben Olson you might remember. Had a "John Elway arm" coming out of high school they said. Played about three good games in college, and ten bad ones before sitting.

Before Sam Bradford was at OU, they picked Tommy Grady as their next QB to replace Heisman winner Jason White, as he had a cannon of an arm. Well, too bad Grady couldn't throw the ball straight, or under pressure, or read defenses, or...

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

That´s why i liked the saying off Brad Pitt (as Beane) to another scout "You must admit, we know nothing" before he hired a non baseball knowing office guy as his new head scout. Hilarious.

And that is baseball where you at least can extract individual numbers. OTOH, in football you can´t extract individual performance from team performance, unless you have one guy who can play and the other ten can´t...

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Point taken. I just like to see how the college recruits look too.

So, switching to Bleacher's ROY predicitions, the top 10 were (link):
1. Luck
2. RG3
3. Richardson, CLE RB
4. Kalil, MIN OT
5. Blackmon, JAX WR
6. Claiborne, DAL CB
7. Barron, TB S
8. Tannehill, MIA QB
9. Kuechly, CAR LB
10. Gilmore, BUF CB

Not too many surprises there, except they left Weeden (#22 prediction) off the top 10. They had Irvin #15 (ahead of Weeden! Wow!) but I think Hawks LB Wagner will have a better season.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Uh, looking at that list, do they really think Luck is going to be ROY? On that team? I guess he could, but I would think if he does hype and anticipation will have a lot to do with it. What I mean by that is that people want him to do good and win it, so he might. Sort of like the way so many people wanted Eli Manning to be the next Peyton, so they overlooked so many of his flaws, and credited him when the great NYG defense won games.

Fascinating that Tannehill is on that list, even though he's not expected to start, and it's unknown when he's actually going to play (though I think he will), while it's widely expected that Brandon Weeden will start for the Browns. And throw his weak 1st pre-season game out the window. It had about as much meaning as Andrew Luck's great performance against a dismal StL defense (that also made Hornish look like Joe Montana).

I'd drop Blackmon down that list. He has a weak team and a weak QB throwing to him, and he got to camp late.

Irvin is scheduled to be a situational player in Seattle! Playing a lot of 3rd downs and in dime packages! Guys like that don't end up ROY!