dew1679666265

yikes, he goes from a head coaching probable to less than a coordinator. i wish ron well, hope he gets to the promised land eventually. can't say i blame teams for not giving him a head job, though, he basically held a clipboard for lovie for 3 years. it'd be nice to see what rivera can actually do when given the reigns of a defense. he's no big loss for the bears, but it's a shame that something couldn't be worked out. Wouldn't have minded the Titans firing Jim Schwartz to make room for Rivera as DC. Pretty fair to significant upgrade right there.

Why? Is he planning to make a "park ranger" look foolish? Or planning to steal those picanic baskets? Who would be the next Boo Boo? Prior? Hill?

Right or wrong, I have a feeling people are going to be spotlighting everything Fonz does all season since he's getting paid $136 million.

I would love Sears on this team. The best thing about Sears is, while at Tennessee, he played a decent amount of time at every o-line position except center (mainly because it's been easily our stronget position on the line). I've heard he's likely to be a guard in the NFL, but have no doubt he could eventually become whatever you needed him to be. He'll be a great pick for whoever takes him.

I think I'll take Aug. 17, the first of four games against the Cardinals. Sweet Lou's gonna have to fire us up after six straight games against the Rockies and Reds, therefore the older, more calculated Sweet Lou will fire us up to a four-game sweep of the Cards. 8-)

Typical idiocy from Perry. The Indians, Mets and Tiger above the Red Sox? The credibility of that list goes out the window within the top 6. I'm actually not sold on the Red Sox being better than the Mets and Tigers. Boston has too many questions right now, but undoubetdly has the potential to be the best team out there. The Indians that high is kind of silly though.

Nope, that's my goal for the Grizzlies already. Especially if Pao insists on being traded.

It makes sense if you think about it though. If he falls past 2 because of Adrian Peterson, a lot of the teams in the 3-9 ranges aren't looking to draft quarterbacks. Maybe Minnesota at 7, but from what I've heard, Cleveland won't be taking one, and neither will Tampa Bay. Arizona doesn't need one, and Washington isn't in the market for one apparently. They should. Seems like Quinn would be a good fit for the offense too. i thought campbell looked okay enough to get a shot next year. I think he was talking about Tampa drafting Quinn, not Washington. i think tampa is married to simms at this point, too. For reasons I can't understand. I've never been very impressed by Simms. Draft Quinn, let Simms mentor Brady next year and then start Quinn in 08. As a T.B. fan I hope we take either Calvin Johnson or the LT from Wisconsin (I can't remember his name) Our line is garbage right now and for the most part our whole team is. The D is old and starting to wear down. I think we need a playmaker like Johnson to go with Cadillac and give Simms a good target to throw the ball to. Either of those picks would be good and help your team quite a bit. I'm just not positive Simms is good enough nor will be healthy enough to get the ball to a guy like Calvin.

Don't worry, even if Tampa does take Quinn I'm sure Troy Smith will be available with your pick. :D :lol: It's not even so much that I want Quinn, although I do - I just definitely do not want a division rival to have him. :D I think he'll be a pretty good player, but will need talent around him to excel.

The Bus finally got a ring, that's the last Super Bowl I remember. All of that has been blocked from my memory. I don't see why you'd have to block anything from memory, that makes it all the sweeter. I agree to an extent, but that one really really hurt. I did my best to forget that game as soon as "he missed it". Yeah, that 2005 Colts team was the best Colts team I have ever seen-great offense, good defense, good special teams. They just had the tragedy and then too much rest for the key people, and they took 3 quarters off and it was 1 quarter too much. That was a tough one to swallow for sure-in the playoffs, the 2006 team finally started looking somewhat like the 2005 version again. It's interesting. This year's Colts: maybe not quite as high-octane as the 2005 group. But tougher, a little more experienced, maybe a little more battle tested. And that got 'em through. I still don't think that Steelers team was all that great. Should have lost against the Colts----didn't impress me in the Super Bowl, got a ton of calls from the refs, made a couple gadget plays and won it. :-\ Not so sure about that Soul. That Steelers team completely and utterly outplayed that Colts team, as many Colts fans will admit to. In fact, that Colts team was the benefit of perhaps the worst call I've seen in professional sports, and still was short. That call sickened me, and in a way the Steelers almost deserve the reverse karma in the Superbowl. But not really. BTW, the Colts got hit with that exact same call from the same referee in the first Jacksonville game this year-so you can rest easy that karma has been served:D Yeah, the Steelers outplayed the Colts, but I think what he meant is that the Steelers were the benefit of a Colts team that was completely shell shocked from the tragedy plus the rest. The Colts didn't come ready to play until the 4th quarter-the Steelers too advantage of that, but it was really the collapse of the Colts team that day, not the Steelers who just imposed their will (with the exception of the Colts offensive line to the Steelers defensive line-there, the Steelers definitely imposed their will). It was the most disappointing thing I've ever seen to see a team that good just look like they were somewhere else for 3 quarters and make mental mistakes they hadn't made all season. Whatever. In the end its all moot since you guys get to be all happy with your trophy. Never meant or implied that the Steelers were the better team, but they certainly were the best team on the field. No question about that. Winning championships is rarely about being the best team, it's almost always about being the most deserving. And last season, the Steelers were the most deserving.

Don't worry, even if Tampa does take Quinn I'm sure Troy Smith will be available with your pick. :D

It makes sense if you think about it though. If he falls past 2 because of Adrian Peterson, a lot of the teams in the 3-9 ranges aren't looking to draft quarterbacks. Maybe Minnesota at 7, but from what I've heard, Cleveland won't be taking one, and neither will Tampa Bay. Arizona doesn't need one, and Washington isn't in the market for one apparently. They should. Seems like Quinn would be a good fit for the offense too. i thought campbell looked okay enough to get a shot next year. I think he was talking about Tampa drafting Quinn, not Washington. i think tampa is married to simms at this point, too. For reasons I can't understand. I've never been very impressed by Simms. Draft Quinn, let Simms mentor Brady next year and then start Quinn in 08.

It makes sense if you think about it though. If he falls past 2 because of Adrian Peterson, a lot of the teams in the 3-9 ranges aren't looking to draft quarterbacks. Maybe Minnesota at 7, but from what I've heard, Cleveland won't be taking one, and neither will Tampa Bay. Arizona doesn't need one, and Washington isn't in the market for one apparently. They should. Seems like Quinn would be a good fit for the offense too. i thought campbell looked okay enough to get a shot next year. I think he was talking about Tampa drafting Quinn, not Washington. You would be correct sir.

It makes sense if you think about it though. If he falls past 2 because of Adrian Peterson, a lot of the teams in the 3-9 ranges aren't looking to draft quarterbacks. Maybe Minnesota at 7, but from what I've heard, Cleveland won't be taking one, and neither will Tampa Bay. Arizona doesn't need one, and Washington isn't in the market for one apparently. They should. Seems like Quinn would be a good fit for the offense too.

This isn't quite a coaching move, but it's also not worth making a new thread. Just curious to know if any Packers or Seahawks fans know anything about the Titans' front-runner to replace Floyd Reese at GM. His name is Mike Reinfeldt and he's been in both the Green Bay and Seattle organizations. http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070206/SPORTS01/702060365/1027

Considering that Garcia has had 1 season out of 8 where he played worse than Rex this year (and that year he only played 6 games behind one of the worst offensive lines I've seen with a huge deficit most of the time-otherwise known as the Lions :D )-I'm not sure how you can make such a definitive claim. Grossman is far more likely to improve than Garcia. Garcia is a bond while Grossman is a stock. IMO the Bears need a bond type QB with that defense. while completely depreciating the stock when it could become the centerpiece of their portfolio? That's the key Sully, know when to sell and know when to keep it. I would invest on a different stock myself if a stock is what is wanted/needed. so, instead of keeping in my mind what other good stocks have been in the beginning the bears should just panic and sell after the stock has performed reasonably well in it's first full year? For being not a rookie when he started, Grossman was really bad in his first full year. Most QB's who come in their second or third year do better than Grossman's performance this year-he's already behind the curve a little bit. name some of them for me. and for the sake of your argument, leave out the great ones. I'm just going to put all the QB's stats that started after their first year that was also a starter this year: (there aren't all that many of them I do believe): Tony Romo: 65.3%, 2903 yards, 8.6 Y/A, 19TD/13INT, Rush: 102 Garcia: 60.0, 2544 yards, 6.8 Y/A, 11TD/11INT, Rush: 221, 2 TD Pennington: 68.9%, 3120 yards, 7.8 Y/A, 22TD/6INT, Rush: 49, 1 TD McNair: 52%, 2665 yards, 6.4 Y/A, 14TD/13INT, Rush: 674, 8 TD Bulger: 63.2%, 3845 yards, 7.2 Y/A, 22TD/22INT, Rush: 75, 4 TD Losman: 62.5%, 3051 yards, 7.1 Y/A, 19TD/14INT, Rush: 140, 1 TD Rivers: 61.7%, 3388 yards, 7.4 Y/A, 22TD/9INT, Rush: 49 Ok, I'm going to stop there-there were more than I thought for sure! There are still a few more, including Brady, Delhomme, and others, but this should give us a good list. Here's Grossman: 54.6%, 3193 yards, 6.7 Y/A, 23TD/20INT, Rush: 2 His passing stats line up fine with McNair, but McNair as seen by the rushing yards was primarily a rushing QB. Grossman is definitely behind in his first year, especially in completion percentage. looks like he threw more TDs than any of those guys, actually. so the only real stat you're looking for is completion percentage? if grossman had the recivers that those guys did he might be around that percentage. wow, he threw less interceptions and more touchdowns than bulger? with those receivers? that's impressive. i just don't see how he doesn't stack up to those guys.--especially since rex spread the ball around to many different players and didn't rely on one or 2 great ones. btw- brady's lucky he got a chance with the patriots and delhomme was thought so highly of after being given the starting job in new orleans that he was cut and ended up in NFL europe (in short, he developed), so probably not a good comparison. your research doesn't really support your hypothesis, except the fact that rex needs to improve his completion percentage, and he will. Just for clarification sake, in McNair's first year his receivers were significantly worse than Berrian and Muhammed. In 1997, McNair's first full year as a starter, we had Derrick Mason (rookie), Isaac Byrd, Willie Davis, Malcolm Floyd, Joey Kent, Roderick Lewis, Michael Roan, Chris Sanders and Derek Russell. Our receivers were awful (with the exception of Sanders).

I'll be happy to jump into the Urban Meyer hate. :wink: The longer he coaches at Florida, the more he reminds me of Spurrier. When he first showed up at Florida, he seemed like an ok guy, but I've backed off completely on that.

Read my prior posts. If you haven't, read them again. No one's saying decommitting is a terrible thing by itself. Weis is annoyed because these two kids never sacked up and told him they were considering anyone else, let alone that they would be going elsewhere. Greg Little was telling people he was coming to ND as recently as the night before NSD. And with Arrelious Benn, he's annoyed that he's trying to drag ND through the mud for recruiting him post-Illinois commitment. As if ND were the only ones. As for USC, if they're blowing out ND for the next 10 years, that means they're blowing out everyone, because our classes the last two years are by far the most impressive of their regular opponents. This is where I like Jimmy Clausen. Say what you want about the limo thing, but he never wavered once he'd decided to come to ND. Jimmy's father went as far to tell Weis he needn't continue recruiting Jimmy because they were on board, no questions asked. I have a feeling that kid is much more classy than anyone is willing to admit. A NY Times article today tries to float the possibility that ND is behind the accusations toward Illinois re: recruiting practices. In the same article, there are two different Big 10 coaches that basically flat-out accuse Illinois. Typical mainstream media work there. All this said, if you truly believe Weis is "the lowest form of scum", there's no convincing you otherwise, I'm sure, ditto anyone else who feels that way. So long as he's more like Rick than Casey. Both of his older brothers played football at UT and both gained quite the reputation. Casey was widely known as a complete jerk. Few people liked him that knew him personally and fewer fans liked the crap he said in the media. Rick on the other hand is a complete class act. I never heard anything bad about him and he even took his whole offensive line out for dinner after a game where he wasn't sacked. If Jimmy takes after Rick, then he'll be a great kid.

what a d-bag. That sounds awfully hollow after ND just took two recruits who had previously committed to Iowa and Louisville. Different situations. The Iowa recruit consisted pretty much of ND offering and him changing his mind due to the offer. The Louisville recruit was a coaching change, i.e. the coaching change that cost ND a bunch of recruits in 2004-05. However, ND's far from innocent of this. There's a Washington Post article today in which former QB coach Peter Vaas was pursuing Arrelious Benn pretty aggressively after he was committed to Illinois. Funny how it's almost always a different situation when ND is involved. Smith had been committed for almost 6 months and taken multiple visits. He helped recruit others to Iowa. The point is Charlie puts on a face for the cameras that he's all about committment and being honorable about them. He's upset that someone would back out of a committment to him. Yet he has no dilemna's when it comes to trying to snatch away commits from other schools, the very week before signing day. What a man of principle. I don't think many if any in the ND fanbase would consider Weis a "true man of principle". He is from the Belicheck school, that is for sure-and unfortunately, that means they cut certain corners to win. I think he is a great coach, but I'm not sure I like the man. When has Belicheck ever cut corners to win? He drafts intelligent players with character because that is the program he wants in place. He certainly doesn't cut corners with the salary cap as the Pats are well under. He even provoked a feud with Mangini because he broke an "unwritten rule" among coaches of the Parcells tree. I would love a couple of instances where Belichek "cut corners" just to win. And to defend Weis, can a kid not decommit after a head coach leaves? The coach wasn't loyal to the kid yet the kid is supposed to be loyal to the program? And is offering a life-long fan of the program whos father actually played at the school considered cutting corners? Peter Vaas did still contact Benn and sent some pretty weird text messages to the kid as the report said. Peter Vaas is no longer with the program, and Weis offered recruiting practices as reason for his dismissal. Number one: Belicheck basically laughs in the face of the NFL's insistence on a proper injury report. He puts players like Rodney Harrison as questionable even when he knows they are going to be out for the next several weeks. He put Brady as probable on the injury report the entire season even though Brady really admits there's no injury (although that's of course a less severe instance than the first one). Second, it is pretty well known that BB instructs his players to go as far as they can as much as the refs will allow that day, even if it's technically against the rules. For example, the Patriots-Colts game of 2003 showed that BB's game plan was to keep committing penalties on the Colts receivers down the field and to challenge the referees to keep calling it on the Patriots. When they did not in that game, their team kept doing it, and would have continued to that degree if the NFL didn't make sure the referees enforced the rule after the season. Also, BB physically blocked Marvin Harrison from getting back unto the field of play to make a tackle after an INT (it probably hasn't been seen by most people, but I can completely verify that it is true, and it is not likely whatsoever that it was an accident). You are right-the Patriots players as a whole are honorable people who play the game the right way-BB is a coach who knows how to get them to win, and does not encourage his team to play dirty (as it seems certain coaches do by the way they respond to their team's dirty play, and I'm thinking of one coach in particular in the NFL :D)-however, BB has never been known as a coach who completely plays by the rules, but tries to stretch certain things as much as he can get away with for his team's advantage. I gotta ask, should I be bothered by this? No-it is a team in the Colts division, but it is certainly not Jeff Fisher. Ok, I know who you're talking about now. Thought you might be whining again about the fantasy "Albert Haynesworth fakes injuries so he can rest" story again. :wink:

what a d-bag. That sounds awfully hollow after ND just took two recruits who had previously committed to Iowa and Louisville. Different situations. The Iowa recruit consisted pretty much of ND offering and him changing his mind due to the offer. The Louisville recruit was a coaching change, i.e. the coaching change that cost ND a bunch of recruits in 2004-05. However, ND's far from innocent of this. There's a Washington Post article today in which former QB coach Peter Vaas was pursuing Arrelious Benn pretty aggressively after he was committed to Illinois. Funny how it's almost always a different situation when ND is involved. Smith had been committed for almost 6 months and taken multiple visits. He helped recruit others to Iowa. The point is Charlie puts on a face for the cameras that he's all about committment and being honorable about them. He's upset that someone would back out of a committment to him. Yet he has no dilemna's when it comes to trying to snatch away commits from other schools, the very week before signing day. What a man of principle. I don't think many if any in the ND fanbase would consider Weis a "true man of principle". He is from the Belicheck school, that is for sure-and unfortunately, that means they cut certain corners to win. I think he is a great coach, but I'm not sure I like the man. When has Belicheck ever cut corners to win? He drafts intelligent players with character because that is the program he wants in place. He certainly doesn't cut corners with the salary cap as the Pats are well under. He even provoked a feud with Mangini because he broke an "unwritten rule" among coaches of the Parcells tree. I would love a couple of instances where Belichek "cut corners" just to win. And to defend Weis, can a kid not decommit after a head coach leaves? The coach wasn't loyal to the kid yet the kid is supposed to be loyal to the program? And is offering a life-long fan of the program whos father actually played at the school considered cutting corners? Peter Vaas did still contact Benn and sent some pretty weird text messages to the kid as the report said. Peter Vaas is no longer with the program, and Weis offered recruiting practices as reason for his dismissal. Number one: Belicheck basically laughs in the face of the NFL's insistence on a proper injury report. He puts players like Rodney Harrison as questionable even when he knows they are going to be out for the next several weeks. He put Brady as probable on the injury report the entire season even though Brady really admits there's no injury (although that's of course a less severe instance than the first one). Second, it is pretty well known that BB instructs his players to go as far as they can as much as the refs will allow that day, even if it's technically against the rules. For example, the Patriots-Colts game of 2003 showed that BB's game plan was to keep committing penalties on the Colts receivers down the field and to challenge the referees to keep calling it on the Patriots. When they did not in that game, their team kept doing it, and would have continued to that degree if the NFL didn't make sure the referees enforced the rule after the season. Also, BB physically blocked Marvin Harrison from getting back unto the field of play to make a tackle after an INT (it probably hasn't been seen by most people, but I can completely verify that it is true, and it is not likely whatsoever that it was an accident). You are right-the Patriots players as a whole are honorable people who play the game the right way-BB is a coach who knows how to get them to win, and does not encourage his team to play dirty (as it seems certain coaches do by the way they respond to their team's dirty play, and I'm thinking of one coach in particular in the NFL :D)-however, BB has never been known as a coach who completely plays by the rules, but tries to stretch certain things as much as he can get away with for his team's advantage. I gotta ask, should I be bothered by this?

He wasn't the only one biting. The mighty Braves ended up with him after all. And they gave up Jose Capellan for him. Crazy bad deal.

Rivals.com has you at #3 behind Florida and USC We've been floating between 2 and 3 for a while now and that was before Paige and Sykes signed. I doubt we move up to 1 but I'd be absolutely shocked if we dropped below 3rd. Of course, as I say that ESPN rates us as the sixth class, but I put much more stock in Rivals and Scout.

National Signing Day was great for the Vols! We picked up 4 star WR Ahmad Paige out of Louisiana and 4 star DE Rae Sykes from Alcoa, TN (I got to watch this kid play and he's pretty impressive). Plus we didn't lose any of our initial commitments so we're pretty much guaranteed a top 2-3 recruiting class and perhaps number one.

I'm not predicting that's what will happen, but I think 4-5 year windows for the great teams is the norm these days. They usually end up mixing in a 8-8 or sub .500 season after 4-5 good years. Indy could break the trend of course, especially with the greatest QB of this generation at the helm. This offseason is going to be a big key for the Colts in my opinion. With guys like Dwight Freeney, Corey Simon, Cato June and Nick Harper all eligible for free agency and coming off a Super Bowl victory, the question will be can they re-sign the guys they want (Freeney and Harper) for a price that will not handicap them down the road and replace the ones they don't want back (Simon? and June) adequately. They already saw a in their defense after choosing not to pay David Thornton to come back, will they find a Gilbert Gardner-type terrible player to replace them or someone of quality? The answers to those questions will decide if they can keep the run going. Freeney will be back-Harper may not need to be replaced whatsoever with the corners that the Colts have. June may be back, if not that's a question mark for the Colts. Defensive tackle should be fine if Monte Reagor and Mcfarland comes back, even if Simon does not. The big key for the Colts is OLB-so far there is no penciled starter for either postion. Who the Colts choose to put there next season could have a difference on how their defense is-even with a bad defense though, the Colts offense almost alone gives them a great chance at a decent seed in the playoffs every year. Don't forget, that's what ya'll said for multiple years before this year's Super Bowl. Great as Peyton, Marvin and Reggie Wayne are, you must have at least a solid D to win the Super Bowl again. I'm sure you're like me when the Titans were winning 12-13 games a year but getting eliminated before the Super Bowl, that's not satisfactory. You, like me, want the Super Bowl and you have to have a defense to get the job done. And I refuse to give up hope that Freeney will be a free agent, he'd fit too perfectly in the Titans' defense, plus we have the money to pay him. 8-)

I would say he was mostly healthy prior to the past 2 seasons, but he only played in 10 games in 2002 and broke an ankle. And any QB who relies so heavily on his legs is going to get hurt. So he's missed big chunks of 3 of the past 5 seasons with various lower body injuries, and is now 30. The cap hit to Philly puts a huge strain on any possible deal. My apologies, I missed the fact that he played only 10 games in 02. But still, a broken ankle is not a lingering injury. If he had sprained a ligament I might be a little more worried, but most of his injuries have been one-time fluke things. The cap hit to Philly is only one reason why I think this is ludicrous from their persepective. What QB are they going to get that is better than McNabb right now? If they drafted a Chris Leak, Kevin Kolb, etc in the second or third round to develop behind McNabb I could understand and likely agree. But why trade a great QB if you plan on contending? Doesn't make sense to me.