I loved the video I posted of him. I don't like this scouting report. I am neither a scout nor an expert.

"Jonathan Massaquoi, DE/OLB, Troy (164th overall pick, Atlanta Falcons) -- Massaquoi saw his production fall off in 2011 after be bulked up a bit, and his awareness in space when he drops back is nothing to write home about, but his pure speed off the edge -- and ability to rush the passer as an end or linebacker -- had me thinking he'd go in the third round at the very least. Might have been seen as a second-level tweener in a draft full of them. Worst-case scenario, he becomes a situational blitzer for a Falcons franchise that has been trying to draft that guy for years."

I, just today, stated how I didn't think he was that great anymore. I was wrong.

Nice.

Seems with Abe's age, and Grimes (apparent) status as the second best FA available, getting a proven pass rusher would make sense. What you think?

This article is really about Tim Tebow and the made-up stat of Real QB rating. It does a good job of explaining the formula and the reasoning behind it. I gotta say, I wasn't buying the kool-aid up until now. The correlation can't be that high, without giving it some merit. I only linked this because of this though....

Matt Ryan on what we all know is a "down" year, seems to give his team a better chance to win than only 5 other QBs in the league:

1 Aaron Rodgers 85.6
2 Drew Brees 79.1
3 Tom Brady 74.7
4 Tony Romo 73.1
5 Matt Schaub 66.7
6 Matt Ryan 66.2

Are you as surprised as I am?

Not much to add. Nutshot.

I absolutely think he's elite. Not only has he won more come-from-behind wins since he joined the league, ahead of guys like Manning, Brady, Rodgers, but he does it with a less than adequate defense most nights. He's a winner. He may be more like Roethlisberger than Manning, but last I checked "The rapist" has a few SB rings, and is considered elite. Three years in the league is still in a QB's infancy. Where was Rodgers again in year 3? Oh yeah, on the bench.

Some money quotes from the article:

"Consider the fact that four of his five touchdowns were passing touchdowns against three Pro Bowl cornerbacks and you get a sense of some of the magic Ryan was creating on offense."
"To repeat, four of his seven throws in the Eagles’ red zone resulted in touchdowns. Against Pro Bowl corners."

"That was probably a coaching error," Smith said. "We needed to run the ball. Not probably, it was a coaching error." - Mike Smith

I was cringing (as most of you were I'm sure) when I started doing the math on Sunday. How ironic is it that my biggest disappointment in the play calling last game, is that we didn't run Turner up the middle?

At least they have acknowledged the mistake, instead of trying some BS excuse like most staffs.

First he picks us to win Superbowl (I could've crapped my pants at that one), then he defends the Org on the Vick quotes of ex-Falcons HC Dan Reeves.

--"When Mike really needed them, they turned their back on him in my opinion. They could have been a big supporter and they let him go. I wasn't there so I don't know the organization's standpoint, but I thought they could have been more supportive and instead they severed ties with him.''

-- Former Falcons coach Dan Reeves, who drafted Michael Vick to play for the franchise in 2001, to Tim McManus of Philadelphia Sports Daily.

In 2008, after Vick lied to owner Arthur Blank, GM Rich McKay and commissioner Roger Goodell about his involvement in dogfighting, and was sitting in federal prison after being sentenced to 23 months plus three years' probation, and the Falcons were coming off a 4-12 disaster of a season in which the quarterbacks were Joey Harrington, Chris Redman and Byron Leftwich, and Vick was at least two seasons away from being prepared to resume his career, and a Minnesota judge had ruled Vick could keep $16.3 million of his $20 million bonus in his Atlanta contract while sitting in prison, and while Blank was exchanging letters in prison with Vick -- telling him he hoped he could turn around his life -- the Falcons drafted Matt Ryan to replace Vick at quarterback.

I think all of that just might have led to how the Falcons, in Reeves' eyes, "turned their back'' on Vick. Might.--

"HATEABILITY FACTOR: 8, just to see if Atlanta fans care enough to protest."

Whatever "hateability" means.

I love "experts"

Seems I wasn't the only one interested in Goodell "pushing" Vick to the Eagles. I took the articles written this morning and made a Fanpost mostly about Vick's comments. I think I obviously missed the NFL story. I think Goodell has a problem.

This to me is the money quote:

"There’s one other surprise candidate. That’s seventh-round draft pick Andrew Jackson. Coaches are saying he's been one of the most pleasant surprises in camp so far. Even if Jackson doesn’t end up starting, he appears well on his way to a roster spot. He can be a key backup because he has the ability to play guard and tackle."

TD's shrewd drafting will never get old.

and for the flip side, here's the part you care about:

"23. Houston Astros

The Hunter Pence deal was a huge score, with the Astros converting a good-but-not-great corner outfielder who was about to get expensive into one of the top starting pitching prospects in the game (Jarred Cosart) and a power-hitting, 19-year-old first baseman. Had the Astros only executed that trade, they would have received a much higher grade. But the ensuing Michael Bourn deal felt like an afterthought, and a wasted opportunity. Getting a poor man's version of Bourn (Jordan Schafer) and three middling prospects (Juan Abreu, Paul Clemens, and Brett Oberholtzer) almost made you wonder if Ed Wade even knew what kind of quality he was giving up — that Bourn was worth a full win more than Pence this season."

Don't you just love hearing this kind of stuff?

The meat of the article that you care about:

"1. Atlanta Braves

When you've got an army of indefatigable news hounds filing 86 blog posts and 400 tweets a day, you can control the narrative. That's not to say that Buster Olney, Ken Rosenthal, and other hard-working baseball reporters are easily duped. They know what can happen as the deadline approaches, so they double-check and triple-check every rumor to verify its veracity. But even with those safeguards, a team can still game the system. Place a call to an anonymous front office exec with loose lips. Talk up the value of a player you might not actually want. Maybe make a semi-legitimate phone call or two to create the illusion of interest.

Whatever tactics the Braves deployed, they sure as hell worked. For all the talk about advanced statistics catching on, there are plenty of teams who overvalue some players and undervalue others for the wrong reasons. Likewise, some members of the working press are still easily seduced by, say, Triple Crown stats. Thus, we get the illusion that Hunter Pence is the most valuable available position player at the trade deadline. Never mind that Pence is striking out a career-high level, owes his .306 batting average (career .290) to a sky-high .365 batting average on balls in play (career .326), and that he's roughly an average defender at a corner outfield spot (-3.1 UZR this year, though Pence has been a plus guy in the past, so we might split the difference here).

The Braves wisely drove up the price on Pence, and Carlos Beltran, so their NL rivals will be forced to give up top prospects to get them. Then just as nearly every contender with an outfield need had shot their wad, Atlanta swooped in and nabbed Michael Bourn, a lightning-fast center fielder who's benefited from some good luck himself (.383 BABIP) but still gets enough of a boost from his on-base skills, blazing speed, and superior defense at a premium position to rank eighth among National League outfielders in Wins Above Replacement. Better yet, the Braves got their man for four young players whose projections range from meh to feh."

My respect for Blank had waivered just slightly when I posted this:

http://www.thefalcoholic.com/2011/5/26/2191906/dont-burn-me-at-the-stake-but-im-a-bit-disappointed-in-blank

nice to see.