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Oh boy. The two guys that I wanted the most at #16 (besides Peterson, if he were to fall that far). Pretty pathetic, and that's a severe understatement, to only score a 12 and a 13 on the Wonderlic. It doesn't mean too much. Vince scored less than that last year and he had a pretty good year. The Wonderlic is only one of many tools to give an idea about a kid, I don't put much stock in it.

Hogcard It's all part of his master plan to fulfill the "if Zambrano starts your in trouble" thread.

Pacman has been whining about being a target most of the time he's been here. He's never taken responsibility for his actions, instead simply saying that everybody's out to get poor little ol' him. I don't actually know if Pacman is that bad of a guy, but he has a terrible knack of picking the worst people to hang out with. Most of the trouble he gets into is from hanging out with people doing bad things and he's just there. The thing he doesn't understand, it seems, is that doesn't exonerate him from blame. He needs to take responsibilty for the people he chooses to spend time with and seek out better friends. Take LenDale White for instance, I was very worried about some issues I had seen from him before we drafted him. But I feel much better now because he's become very good friends with Vince, who is a great person from all I can tell.

Terrible. The sad thing is, I fully expect the Titans to now trade up to get him after this awful offseason. :roll:

I haven't seen him around lately-I'm sure he'll pop in and choose them sometime. Of the 7 teams left, I know the board has a Panthers, Seahawks, and Bengals fan-so if those 3 step up, that only leaves 4 teams that I'm not sure there are any fans of on the board. I'm not a fan of them, but since texascub jumped in and stole my team :wink:, I'll volunteer to take the Giants. Since Eli got there, I've followed them semi-closely and I think I've got a decent handle on what they need. EDIT: By the way, when are we doing the draft? We'll try to start as soon as all teams are chosen. We won't set any hard time limits, but if people aren't keeping up, we might replace them. Works for me.

I haven't seen him around lately-I'm sure he'll pop in and choose them sometime. Of the 7 teams left, I know the board has a Panthers, Seahawks, and Bengals fan-so if those 3 step up, that only leaves 4 teams that I'm not sure there are any fans of on the board. I'm not a fan of them, but since texascub jumped in and stole my team :wink:, I'll volunteer to take the Giants. Since Eli got there, I've followed them semi-closely and I think I've got a decent handle on what they need. EDIT: By the way, when are we doing the draft?

I don't think it was a matter of not wanting to sign Bush, but a lengthy holdout was definitely possible. They did "want" Williams, but being able to strike a deal before the draft started clinched it. Had they been unable to get a deal with Williams done before the draft, I don't think they would have taken him. That's entirely possible, but it's something I can only speculate on. If Bush's demands were ridiculously unreasonable and he was going to wait until after the draft no matter what, then I can understand why there would be a problem for the Texans. At that point you have to ask if any rookie - even Reggie Bush - is worth that. All I know for sure is it wasn't a matter of the Texans simply wanting to lowball a player and taking the best guy they knew they could lowball. Williams signed a very nice contract and if Bush was demanding significantly more, I probably wouldn't have drafted him either.

Did they really love him, or did they take him because they knew they'd sign him (while a lengthy holdout with Bush was likely)? Choice C is that Charley Casserly is an idiot and this could be just as plausible. I am not aware of them not wanting to sign Bush. They certainly gave Williams plenty of money and gave Schaub plenty this year, so I doubt the money Bush would demand played much of a part. Casserly being an idiot is certainly possible, but few (if any) scouts disagreed with him about Williams' talent. The only question was how much effort he would give. That is why I feel he shouldn't have been the first pick.

I've heard few people question Williams' upside. The problem he had coming out, and why some scouts (though not a lot) put Lawson ahead, was questions about his commitment. He had a problem with playing only most of the time and taking some plays off at NC State, but his talent is unquestionable. Personally, I liked AJ Hawk quite a bit more and wouldn't have taken Williams with the top pick, but the Texans loved him so, in my opinion, they did the right thing by making sure they got him. Now we'll find out if they were right that he'll develop.

Well, its hard to get worked up over Spring Training games so we have to find something to get worked up over. :) My view on BA's predictions is that putting us behind Cincinnatti is silly. You have to expect a good bit of bad luck to predict we'll be worse than the Reds. With average bad luck (injuries, poor performance) and no good luck (no expected improvements) we're likely looking at fighting Houston for third. But, if most of our key players (Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Z, etc) are healthy and performing and we get a little luck out of the others, I see no reason to think this team can't win 84-87 games which in this pitiful division puts us first or second. If we get a lot of good luck (Izturis has a breakout year, Soriano and Lee both match their career highs, etc), 90+ is very possible. My money is on 84-87 wins and fighting the Brewers and Cards for first in a terrible division.

The question is though, why would a team give up anything knowing now that the Texans pretty much had to cut Carr if they couldn't work out a trade. Why give up a pick needlessly and then go through having to re-structure the deal? On to your other points: 1) Not from what I was hearing. What I gathered was that either Williams or AJ Hawk would be the first defensive player to go. But both would likely be gone in the top 5-7, not really worth the risk to trade down if Williams was truly the man the Texans wanted. 2) No disagreement here. That was an awful trade for the Texans, despite the good return they got. 3) I don't see anything that even hints that they didn't make an effort to trade him. Everything I've heard is that they tried all offseason making it known he was available and trying to ship him off. It's just everybody knew he would be cut and were willing to pick him up on a 1-2 year deal. I thought the Jets really wanted Bush and wanted to trade up? It's true, the Jets were at least somewhat interested in trading up-every mock draft had Mario Williams going #2 to New Orleans though, so if Houston had dropped down to #4 they would have missed their chance to draft him. Exactly, the only reason a team should trade down is if they are absolutely positive their player will still be there (or at least are willing to take the chance) or they can't justify taking anybody where they are so they move down to get better value.

The question is though, why would a team give up anything knowing now that the Texans pretty much had to cut Carr if they couldn't work out a trade. Why give up a pick needlessly and then go through having to re-structure the deal? On to your other points: 1) Not from what I was hearing. What I gathered was that either Williams or AJ Hawk would be the first defensive player to go. But both would likely be gone in the top 5-7, not really worth the risk to trade down if Williams was truly the man the Texans wanted. 2) No disagreement here. That was an awful trade for the Texans, despite the good return they got. 3) I don't see anything that even hints that they didn't make an effort to trade him. Everything I've heard is that they tried all offseason making it known he was available and trying to ship him off. It's just everybody knew he would be cut and were willing to pick him up on a 1-2 year deal. I thought the Jets really wanted Bush and wanted to trade up? It's true, the Jets were at least somewhat interested in trading up-every mock draft had Mario Williams going #2 to New Orleans though, so if Houston had dropped down to #4 they would have missed their chance to draft him. Actually, the word here was that if Houston or anyone else had taken Bush, the Saints would have taken Hawk. I kept hearing that it could go either way. And the Texans didn't know for sure that the Saints would take Hawk, so there was quite a risk for them to trade down if Williams was definately their man. Something I think alot of people forget is that the rest of their draft was very good. They did grab DeMeco Ryans in the second round (I think). It's just that the first pick was questionable, but even then, if they are somehow able to get Peterson then the Williams/Peterson duo is better than Bush/any DE in this draft. This doesn't negate the fact that they gave up far too much for Schaub.

There might be a market for him, but not at $11M+ a year. Somebody will sign him to a one year deal and give him a chance, but noone wanted to give something up and then deal with his current contract or try to restructure the monstrosity (which the player's union would only allow so much of it to be restructured, I'm sure).

:lol: Good stuff. Go Butler!

This appears to be the type of game Butler wants though. I'm watching the Vandy/Georgetown game so I don't know the pace of the other for sure, but it seems to be a slow, low-scoring game - which favors Butler.

The cut Domanick Davis as well. Their GM should realize that you can, you know, trade players that are on your team and get something back. It said in my link that they tried to find somebody to trade Carr to, but nobody would trade anything for him. I heard that the reason nobody would trade for him is becuase they would then have to take on his current contract which called for him to make over $11 million this year. I also heard that there will be interest and have heard Miami quite a bit - after they release Daunte Culpepper. They could have tried to restructure with him just for the purpose of a trade. See the Adam Archuleta deal. Here is my opinion of the Texans. They simply don't understand how to make deals in the NFL. 1) Mario Williams - Regardless of your Reggie Bush opinion, they could have easily dealt down and still got Williams 2) Matt Scaub - Seriously, who in the NFL even came close to the Texans offer. It is like they picked up the phone and asked them what they wanted for Schuab and said yes to their first answer 3) David Carr - Again, no effort to swing a trade. It is like this organization doesn't even care. The question is though, why would a team give up anything knowing now that the Texans pretty much had to cut Carr if they couldn't work out a trade. Why give up a pick needlessly and then go through having to re-structure the deal? On to your other points: 1) Not from what I was hearing. What I gathered was that either Williams or AJ Hawk would be the first defensive player to go. But both would likely be gone in the top 5-7, not really worth the risk to trade down if Williams was truly the man the Texans wanted. 2) No disagreement here. That was an awful trade for the Texans, despite the good return they got. 3) I don't see anything that even hints that they didn't make an effort to trade him. Everything I've heard is that they tried all offseason making it known he was available and trying to ship him off. It's just everybody knew he would be cut and were willing to pick him up on a 1-2 year deal.

I'll take him in Oakland. Hasn't he suffered enough? Probably. No offense, but I would pity him for moving from one of the two worst o-lines in the league to the other worst o-line. :lol:

Heard anything on Bruce Pearl (Please no, please no )? There was great fear here for a while that he would take off because UK can potentially spend more on him than we can (primarily because we're already paying Pat Summitt and Phil Fulmer good money). I've also heard from local media members that it's highly unlikely he'll want to leave Tennessee.

The cut Domanick Davis as well. Their GM should realize that you can, you know, trade players that are on your team and get something back. They definately couldn't have gotten anything for Davis. He has a serious knee (I think) injury that nearly ended his career last year.

The cut Domanick Davis as well. Their GM should realize that you can, you know, trade players that are on your team and get something back. It said in my link that they tried to find somebody to trade Carr to, but nobody would trade anything for him. I heard that the reason nobody would trade for him is becuase they would then have to take on his current contract which called for him to make over $11 million this year. I also heard that there will be interest and have heard Miami quite a bit - after they release Daunte Culpepper.

I'll feel much better if Florida loses tomorrow, but with my luck they'll probably go all the way. :cry: At times like this, I hate sports. Why couldn't I have grown up loving Duke, the Yankees and the Patriots? My life would be so much easier. I apologize to everyone on the board for these horrible words, I'm just in a very depressed mood right now. Exactly how I felt about 4 hours ago... You'll get over it eventually. I'm already partly over it. But usually, the morning after is the worst. Hopefully I don't break my hand from punching a wall. The morning after is terrible, especially for me. I have a 45 minute drive to work and I always listen to the local sportstalk station. In the morning, all they'll be talking about is the game tonight. Thus I have to either relive every moment of this game or not listen to sportstalk (probably what I'll do). Then, when I get to work, being the sportswriter, I'm expected to discuss the game with whoever wants to and, while that's normally an enjoyable part of the job, it'll suck in the morning. The good thing is, my boss (an OSU fan) is on vacation so I won't see him again until Monday. this is why many sports writers say they either won't wrote about their favorite teams, or simply cease to have favorite teams. It interferes with their careers My biases toward my teams actually doesn't have an impact on my reporting. The teams I currently cover I never even knew anything about before I started covering them, but since I've become a fan of the teams. It doesn't affect my reporting though. I actually don't see how they can be fervent sports fans and not have a favorite team of some sort. I can't help but root for the teams I root for.

As I attempt to recuperate from this loss, I turn the channel over to NFL Network and what do I see? Highlights from the Titans/Patriots game that knocked us out of the playoff race. :evil: I can't win tonight, I'm going to bed.

I'll feel much better if Florida loses tomorrow, but with my luck they'll probably go all the way. :cry: At times like this, I hate sports. Why couldn't I have grown up loving Duke, the Yankees and the Patriots? My life would be so much easier. I apologize to everyone on the board for these horrible words, I'm just in a very depressed mood right now. We've all been there. Of course, we're all Cub fans. :) :cry:

I'll feel much better if Florida loses tomorrow, but with my luck they'll probably go all the way. :cry: At times like this, I hate sports. Why couldn't I have grown up loving Duke, the Yankees and the Patriots? My life would be so much easier. I apologize to everyone on the board for these horrible words, I'm just in a very depressed mood right now. Exactly how I felt about 4 hours ago... You'll get over it eventually. I'm already partly over it. But usually, the morning after is the worst. Hopefully I don't break my hand from punching a wall. Hahahahahahahahahaha I was afraid you were going to kill yourself for awhile there. OMG MY WORLD IS COMING TO AN END. To flames and anyone else on this board who had a team go down tonight, sorry. You guys had a great year, nothing to be ashamed of. It's not?

Lofton played awful in the second half. He's still the man and I hope like anything he'll come back next year, but to be honest he did not step up when we needed him to.