I was reading this article for the fun of pointing at Tebow and laughing. I am still amazed they won as many games as they did. I figured after the Lions took them apart more teams would follow that blueprint. It seems the Pats did.

Anyway, they mention in the article (and I heard in other venues as well) that they want 2 new QBs in Denver for next season. They want a rookie guy they can develop and a low mileage vet for the backup. I can see them grabbing Stanton for that vet presence. Stanton and Tebow are both mobile and Stanton even adds the QB skill set of being able to complete passes. He would make a decent transition away from the option to a more prostyle offense.

If I were Stanton, it would be a good gamble to make. If you sign with Denver, you have the entire offseason as well as a couple weeks of the regular season to learn their system. Since the WRs only get like 8 passes a game, I figure they will be more likely to want to catch a coupel passes rather than run sideline sprints so you can pretty much work with the first team WRs during practice. It will only be a matter of time before Tebow is shown to be a lucky QB rather than a skilled one and gets benched (I figure a 1-4 start will do it). Then Stanton comes in and saves the day by getting them into the playoffs with another 8-8 division win.

Personally, I would be happy to see Stanton get this kind of shot--especially in the AFC and not the NFC. I think he deserves it for helping us win a couple games.

So SI asked a bunch of NFL players "who is the meanest" and they got some results. Not surprisingly, James Harrison is the runaway winner with Ray Lewis backing him up.  Our own Suh comes in a distant third. In the facebook vote (assumedly open to the public) Suh wins with 40%. 

Here is the surprise. Jason Hanson is on the list. He got a single vote. Yes. Someone in the NFL thinks Jason Hanson is the meanest guy in the league. I know for sure who might think that, but I have an idea...

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1. Game ball to Linehan. He drew up plays that picked on Briggs (Best TD run) and Urlacher (Grew TD catch) to win the game. I also liked the general play calling from the offense. 

2. I liked the play calling, BUT Stafford killed 2 or 3 drives with his throws. Where is the guy from the preseason who had laser beam accuracy?

3. I have never seen a defensive line control a game so much with so few stats to show for it. They completely took away the long throws and had Cutler running for his life 90% of the time--often with a 4 man rush--but not many sacks to show for it. Hey, I will take dominating in place of stats any day. 

4. I think we have enough good players on the defensive line to field two teams. Really, we have CWill and his younger brother Sam Hill; VandenBosch and LoJack are the stout vets; Avril and Willie Young are the speed outside rushers; and Suh and Fairley are the inside rush wunderkinds. Sorry Flu, you make some good depth too, but I think our second line could start for many teams. That kind of rotation pays off inthe second half of games, as we have seen this season. 

5. Man, I hate Cutler, but after that game I respect him a lot more. He was single single handedly playing the game for Chicago and was on the verge of actually winning it. He was throwing bullets on the run, spinning out of sacks, making plays left and right when there should be no play. He may be a puss and an ass, but the guy can play football. Maybe the bears will let him go to a team that might play with him. 

6. I would feel better if our offense was a bit more consistent in their drives and didn't have to rely on so many big plays. I mean, if they want to let us run 88 yards in one play then lets take it, but I worry that if a defense doesn't give those to us we are starting to lose the ability to put together 15 play game killing drives. 

7. In response to point 6 above: this could have been part of Linehan's game plan. The Tamp 2 is a kind of defense that waits for you to make mistakes and then makes you pay (see: end of first half). The way you attack is to take the underneath stuff for short gains until you see the opportunity for the big play. Just don't force anything into a Tamp 2 with good players or you will be chasing a LB the wrong way. 

So I am watching the game at home because I decided I can't handle watching the game with other non-fans. So I am planning on a viewing party at home with enough beer and pulled pork BBQ to choke a mule. I lived in North carolina for a couple years and got the taste for the vinegar BBQ. 

What are your plans? Big parties? Going to a bar? Anyone actually going to the game? Inquiring minds want to know.

The new QB rating ESPN is pimping. 

Linky

He had a 87.4 out of 100. He was behind Aaron Rogers and Ryan Fitzpatrick (both at 91) and the next closest QB was Flacco at 79.6. Looks interesting. If he gets his 3rd down plays under control I think he will be in the 90s most of the season. 

PS- Cassell was 3rd from the bottom with 11.2 ow. I hope he does as well next week. 

The following is really only for the Atlanta Lions fans. Feel free to ignore if you live somewhere else. 

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If you have seen the Pure Michigan ads then you will enjoy this one. I think I can laugh at it now because I don't think it is true anymore. Well, it won't be true in Nov when we are leading the NFC North by 2 games and everyone is talking about how we have both the number one offense and defense. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FJoRxT6B5g

PS- everyone gets frisked. But I think we have had more of a chance that we use them on ourselves

I find it very amusing in parts (Win or Lose I am willing to root for a despicable human being) and confusing in others (My facial hair most resembles Fu Manchu --> Root for Falcons?) Overall it is worth the 5 min to read. 

Spoiler alert: they make fun of the fact we have been a sad sack franchise for so many years. Who saw that coming. 

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Slow news month. I saw this story and was floored. So according to the story, our favorite WR trade decided to propose to his estranged girlfriend through the mail  with a $75k ring. I can not even count the things that are wrong with this. I mean, I get ancy mailing a $20 bill to my niece for her Birthday in the mail and this genius is throwing some stamps on a $75k ring? And you are proposing to your estranged girlfriend through the mail? Yes, that usually solves the problems in your relationship. Then, he asks for the ring back and she says she lost it. ??? You open a letter with a diamond so big it can choke a horse and you misplace it? Does she live in one of those extreme hoarder's homes? Well, no. In fact her dad had the ring and only admitted it when the insurance company refused to pay for the lost ring (I would have figured they would refuse to pay when they found out dumbass sent it through the mail). 

An alternate headline could be "Roy Williams is as bad at making passes as he is at catching them." 

Anyway, was it worth it? You be the judge. Here is the girlfriend:

via lh3.googleusercontent.com

So Janoris Jenkins was just kicked off the UF football team.

This guy was one of the best in the SEC and decided to go back his senior season. He obviously has a drug history and he has some shoulder issues (he is supposed to be healthy now). I think he would be in the running for the #3 CB this year if he had come out (late first rounder) because of lingering injury concerns.

So if he is kicked from the team, what is he going to do? Supplemental draft. I say we throw in a 2nd on him. Think of it as a good insurance policy. Did we miss out on the CB we wanted and had to settle for a Davon House in the 3rd (yech. I threw up in my mouth a little)? Never fear, we grab Jenkins on credit and pay for him in next years draft.

With all the talk about grading Schwartz and Mayhew I thought we should go back and look at the last two offseasons, warts and all. I analyzed all the draft picks and the bigger trades (I left off a lot of the smaller ones that didn’t have much impact) and graded each out. I also looked at who we could have grabbed in each spot because I love hindsight bias.  Feel free to call me on anything I got wrong or if you disagree with an analysis.

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The whole Rothelisburger rape thing. It is an open secret in GA that the only reason he wasn't arrested was that the girl was scared of the publicity and didn't want to press charges. The prosecutor went so far as to have a press conference to say that he wanted to press charges but couldn't because the girl thought that she would be attacked by Ben's lawyers and the media and did not want to continue the case. Add this to the fact this was his second offense and there is little doubt in my mind that he is guilty. So what does the NFL do? With a guy who has been involved in two date rapes? Throw him out, right? Nope, he is #1 white and #2 winning. So therapy and 4 games for him. So dog fighting is what, 8 times worse than rape? So much for Godell's hammer.

One of the only voices of reason in this came from Steeler great Terry Bradshaw.  He called Ben out as a scumbag and stood by it for a long time. Of course, winning trumps all in the NFL and now that Ben is in the Superbowl, Terry has had a "change of heart" so that he could get an interview.  I am disgusted by this. The guy is a scumbag, but since he can win games all is forgiven.

Am I going too far? Other than someone like Rae Caruth, is this the worst thing a player has done? Do you think we would have been so forgiving if he lost this year?

via d.yimg.com

Holy crap! Tell Hue Jackson to get a shotgun because that thing might try to bite him. I mean, Al Davis can't still be alive, right? Is this some sort of insane "weekend at Bernie's" kind of thing where there are a team of puppeteers behind him trying to keep the coroner at bay? Either that or .... he is a zombie.  We will know soon when all he cares about at the combine is the head size of the athletes and he drafts according to BBA (biggest brain available). It looks like someone took an axe to his head once already. Maybe that is why Tom Cable is gone. He wasn't fired... he was eaten.

The kicker on this pic, the caption says it is Al Davis "smiling"

It was Tommie Boyd.

He was a bit player in 97/98.  A WR/KR/PR.

LINKY

He sounds like a scumbag.  Like Winston Churchill used to say: If you agree on a price with your underage hooker, it is on your honor to uphold that agreement.

I hate that a guy like that will still get the headline "Ex-Lions Player does XYZ" like he is Barry sanders or something. But hey, at least he is not a current player or even someone that Mayhew picked up.

Let me start by saying that while I am not a Saints fan officially that fantasy football has made each of us a little more tolerant and interested in the wellfare of many teams other than our beloveds (the Bears still suck, however, and I will never draft any of their cursed, misbegotten players). That said, I have Raggie Bush on my squad and he treated me well the week he played.  I have had him resting on my bench until he is better, but what I have read is that the earliest return for him would be Oct 24th. I have gotten a trade offer for Torian (who may be in line to take over main RB duties in Washington).

My question is thus: Do you guys have any info on when bush might be back? Is the 24th looking accurate? What is the feeling here about him once he gets back; will he be thrown right back into it because of other injuries to RBs or will they hold him back until he proves he can run on that leg?

Any help will be appreciated.

Here is the link for our division.

They have previewed the entire NFL, so don't stop at just us.Their write up of the Browns is great.

To get to 75 words, here are some of my favs from ourdivision:

LIONS: Strength: Since they play in the NFC North, this team should get two easy wins when facing the lowly Lions

PACKERS: Strength: After giving up 50 sacks in 2009, Green Bay's offensive line appears to have forgiven Aaron Rodgers for whatever he did

VIKINGS: Intangibles: Except for Matt, John, and Rick, who are pretty great guys, Vikings fans are pretty much ignorant, petulant bandwagoners.

BEARS:Weakness: Lovie Smith spending majority of practice having players help him pack up his office

I have not sat down with the game yet, but for those of you who have: which of our bubble players do you think make the 53 man roster? Who pulled off some great plays and conversely, who stunk up the joint and may be cut?

I wont get to watch the game until tonight at 11 so I was hoping for some pointers on who to watch for flashes of brilliance and flashes of ineptitude.

So I saw this article and I was happy about our team.  Essentially, it says that we are tied for second for the fewest number of arrests of players since 2000.  Yay us!

It is good to note that Millen and Co. were leading the team for the majority of this analysis. My guess is that the vast majority of our players were expecting to be serving fries instead of getting drafted in the 2nd round so they kept their nose clean to stay on the team.

Until now...

(disclaimer: this should be a fan shot, but we as a group have socially agreed to never pay attention to these)

I was reading around the webernet today and came across Aaron Rodgers calling out Todd McShay and other 'analysts' on their football knowledge LINK. also reported HERE. I thought about it, and if Madden didn't model it or make me pay attention to it in their game, I would be lost to find it on the field. I never played ball in high school or anything.

So enter Matt Bowen (played safety for the Rams and is now a sports writer). He has a running column that gets way deep into formations and what they mean and how they work. Good stuff.

LINK

It was rumored that Michael Silver, unashamed Cal fan, knew how much Schwartz wanted Best.  Well, here is an article on the how the Best trade went down as well as a pretty good recap of the Lions offseason. two things stuck out at me:

1- Schwartz has gained some lbs

2- Schwartz was talking about how he has been drafting offense high even though he is known as a defense guy.  It reminded me of Brian Billick coming to the Ravens as an offensive genius and creating one fo the best defenses in the league.

Enjoy the article and if anyone finds the video of Suh playing soccer, I want to see it.

http://maddennfl.easports.com/draft.action

EASports is letting you vote either up or down the stats of the first round picks in the draft. We need to get on there and pump our guys way up.Right now Suh is an 85 overall and Best is a 74. We can do better than that.

Note: the max is + or - 5 points per stat.

Ok. You have your task, now go out and make Suh and Best 5 points better!

Tis the season for last minute rumors.  I heard these two and got a bit interested.

1- Now that the Vikings signed Sheppard, they will not be grabbing a CB in the first. That means one more guy will be available at CB in the second than we previously thought.  I think this increases the likelihood that we go CB at 34.

2- The Raiders are shopping Darren McFadden. Would you give up a second for a former top 5 pick? How about a third?

no links.  I heard these one the radio while grabbing lunch.

As we all digest the Sims/Sheff three way, lets look back at another trade that may have instigated this one. Gerald Alexander for Dennis Northcut. So before the season last year we were desperate for help at the WR position and we had a plethora of often injured safeties. Mayhew (probably with help from Shack Harris late of the Jags) decided to offload Alexander for some veteran help in the slot.

At the time, we all thought it was a decent deal.  We get rid of a guy who broke his neck the year before and we get an upgrade over a guy who is no longer in the NFL (Curry). Looking back at last year, lets see what we really got:

Alexander 15 games (10 started) 45 tackles, 10 assists, 2 INTs, 3 FF

Northcut 16 games (2 started) 35 catches for 357 yards, 1 TD, 22 yard kick return avg, 8.6 yard punt return avg, 2 Fumbles

Now neither of these players are considered all-world. They are both pedestrian. I do think that Alexander is the better of the two with the most upside. He did an OK job as a safety while Northcut did a bad job as a slot receiver. What stands out for me the most is the 5 turnovers Alexander forced.  That is more than our entire set of safeties combined. In hindsight, I say we lost the trade. Not to piss in anyone's cornflakes (or kool-aid), but sometimes Mayhew does not win in a trade.

Now how did this trade instigate the three way we just witnessed? Maybe if Northcut wasn't such a crap slot WR, Mayhew wouldn't think that he needs to grab a good TE to be our slot guy. (I also think that they want more protection for Staff and that a second TE will help pick up blitzes, but that is neither here nor there in my current thesis.)

Here was an interesting interview

I know he has disappeared as of late (into the black hole of Oakland), but he was a talent back in the day. I have felt bad for the guy ever since the 2005 opener when he was playing for the Packers (incidentally the last Lions game I saw at Ford Field). He was coming off a 1300+yard/12td season and looking for a contract extension that he did not receive. Then, in the opening game vs the Lions he blows out his knee and goes on IR. He goes to Denver in 2007 and has another great season (1000+yards/8tds).  After that he has some injury concerns and has to deal with the crap that is Oakland and pretty much became a non-factor in the football world.

Fast forward to today.  Oakland let him go with a nice severance package of about $2 million a catch (not far off of reality). He is a 32 year old, 8 year vet, former 1st round pick, former probowler, who is looking for a team to give him a chance.  He is willing to take a vet minimum incentive laden contract just to prove that it was Oakland and not him.

What do you guys think? Should we give him a shot? I think we try to bring him in and let him fight for the #2 or #3 spot. At this point, what do we have to lose. I know that if we do this and the Pacman project, that we are going to start looking like the Island of Castoff Toys, but we need to get better and these guys need to prove they are players--A win win.

OK.  So maybe it was just me, but I noticed that in the second and third rounds of the 2009 draft the Lions picked players at a position (S and WR) and the Pats picked a player at the same position one pick later. I found that interesting at the time and I wanted to go back and see who came out on top with those picks.further, I thought the Pats were very quick with their selection--which I took to mean that we did not grab their player.

Round 2

33 Louis Delmas FS WMU

34 Patrick Chung SS UO

Round 3

82 Derrick Williams WR PSU

83 Brandon Tate WR UNC

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Per a tweet from Darnell Dockett.  Sorry I don't have a link, I heard it on the local sports radio The Two live Stews.

Funny story, one of the guys is Ryan Stewart, a 3rd round pick of the Lions in 96.  He sucked.Started 2 games and ended his career in 2000 with worse stats than delmas.  I do love his stories about Benny Blades.

Stupid story, but at least that little story got me to 75 words. Suck it, rules!

A lot of people (including myself) have speculated that the trade for Williams and the signing of KVB paired with 2 of our starting DBs leaving means we are done with our D line and are going to focus on DBs in the draft.  This points to us taking Berry with pick 1.2 instead of Suh or possibly trading down and taking Haden and Wilson as our first two picks. I want to give a couple reasons why this might not be the case.


1. The D line help we got is 30 years old.  They are trying to build a team for the future, not plug in a couple pieces for a playoff run. With that in mind, they DID NOT solve our D line issues in FA. We still have a big need for young help on the line.
2. Drafting multiple starters in the same position is not something you plan to do. If you draft DBs in the 1st and 2nd, then in 4 or 5 years you are back to the same issue when their contracts come due at the same time. I'm not saying this is not done, but go ahead and tell me the last time a team took the same position with their 1 and 2. Even if it happens, it is rarely planned for by the FO. There is also a benefit to have a mix of experience levels on the field that you would not get from two players of the same draft class.


Based on how they worked the off season last year, I expect us to trade or sign a DB as well as draft one. We might even have some starters on the bench now (Jack Williams, the CFL guy). This does not totally rule out Berry at 1.2, but it does say that Suh is still a strong possibility at 1.2 because we still need long term help at DT.

Oh, and lets not forget we need some O Line help pretty bad.

See it here

With that go our dreams of Suh. Either because the Rams draft the guy or they trade his rights to someone.  There is a possibility that this is a backup QB thing, but I get the feeling they are going to give it a go with the guy this year and hope for a rookie cap to limit their 2011 1st round pick salary to be easier on the wallet.

So, McCoy or Berry?

It is no secret that KC is shopping Glenn Dorsey.  It is also no secret that Gunther has a hard on for his old players. So what if we swing a deal for Dorsey?

He was a top 5 pick a couple years ago and played DT in college.  KC has him at DE, but that is because they switched to a 3-4 last year and he is undersized for the NT position. To be fair, he might be undersized for the DT position Schwartz wants to run (about 6'1" 300lbs), but he was considered a can't miss talent out of college and even playing out of position at KC he has put up decent numbers (about 50 tackles a year).

So here is the proposition: We trade a 2nd and maybe a 3rd next year for Dorsey. Now that we have help at DT, we are able to trade our #2 pick to a team salivating over McCoy that needs to jump TB to get him. We get a midround  1st and our second rounder back.   We end up with a DT, maybe grab a DB or some Oline help in the 1st and still have the rest of our draft.

Crazy?