SB Nation User Blog: Devin47

Giants cut Burress, should we go after him?

Devin47 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:44:45 -0000

Giants GM Jerry Reese cut Burress today, likely not wanting his legal status not wanting to interfer with bulding the Giants recciving core. The question does is should Angelo get our new franchise QB this toy to play with.

Obviously, given Burress legal and likely NFL displine issues there is a chance he wont be allowed to play next year. However, the Giants did look like another team without him and there is no doubt that he is still a bona fide number 1 WR in this league. The game he had in the 2008 NFC championship game showed his level of play can stay conisent even in the worst weather conditions imaginable.

On a day where the game time temp was -1F, Plex got 11 grabs for 154 yards. Given his legal status, he wont require a big contract and we could still grab a WR in the second round and just cut Rashied Davis if/when Burress is allowed to play. Torry Holt's agent today seemed downplay Holt wanting to come here and if he does not want to there is not an option in Free Agency or the draft for us to come in and be a number 1 WR on day one so why not just take the gamble?

Also did the Cutler trade set the market on young Probowl skill players? Arizona has been said to want atleast a 1st and 3rd for Anquan Boldin and the Browns would likely want the same thing if they decide to part ways with Braylon Edwards. The Giants have bulked at theat price and using maybe welcoming Burress back as leverage aganist giving that much up.

But now that the Browns and Cardinals have this precident that a 1st and 3rd is now the going price for a 25/26 year old stud, did the Giants just decide that this what they have to pay so they just decided to part ways with Burress now that he had no use for him now that they cant use him to lower other teams trade demands for a new number 1 WR.

With Cassel in KC, should we go after Thigpen?

Devin47 — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:12:11 -0000

Now that it appears Scott Pioli has chosen to reunite with Matt Cassell in Kanas City, it would seem likely that KC might want to put Tyler Thigpen on the block to see if they could renet some draft picks.

Thigpen was the 7th round pick of the Vikes in the 07 draft. After failing to make the Vikings, he was picked up on waivers by the Chiefs. He got into one game in his rookie campaign getiing 41 yards while completing a third of his six passes. Last year, due to injury (Bradie Croyle) and ineffectiveness (Damon Huard) Thigpen played in 14 games starting 11 of them. After taking his lumps in his first few starts last year he showed signs in his last 10 games. He finished 6 of those 10 games with a QB rating above 80, 8 above 75 and 9 above 70. The only game in that stretch that was below 70 was the week 16 game aganist the Dolphins that was on the coldest temps of a game played this year. He finished the year with a 76 QB rating, 2, 608 yards and a 18-12 TD-INT ratio. Those stats are in the ballpark of Orton's year 79.6 QB rating, 2,972 yards and an identical TD-INT ratio.

One knock on Thigpen is that he was the product of a shotgun offense that KC was using as their base offense towards the end of last year. However, you could use that knock on Cassell and to a lesser extent Kurt Warner for their production last season. On the plus side he is more mobile than Orton is rushing for 386 yards last year which led NFL QB's. Personel wise Thigpen had a great WR to throw to in Bowe but had no RB to hand off to, which is the opposite issue that Orton had last year. Thigpen is 2 year younger than Orton and has 22 less starts ( a season and a third worth of starts) so he does have some upside going for him. I think he is worth bringing into town for a 4th round pick in 09 or a 2010 conditional pick that would max out at a 2nd rounder if he proves in 09 he is our elusive franchise QB.

Poll

Do you feel we should go after Tyler Thigpen?

Yes

53 votes

No

32 votes

85 votes | Poll has closed

The Vikes have their QB

Devin47 — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:13:09 -0000

According to the Houston Chronicle, the Vikings will send their 4th rounder to the Houston Texans for Sage Rosenthals. He was a target for the Vikes last off-season but they balked at the Texans demands for a 2nd round choice. I am surprised the Vikings would settle this early on in the off-season for a guy who should be a back-up QB. Though it is possible they could kick the tires on a better option like Matt Cassel or Jeff Garcia, it would be a waste of a 4th round pick to spend it a vet back-up like Rosenthals when you have something simlair in Ferrotte. Honestly I doubt Rosenthals is that much of an improvement of Ferrotte and Jackson as a starting QB to warrant giving up a 4th rounder. Rosenthals and AP on the same team makes them the overwhelming favorite to lead the NFL in turnovers. Because of this, the FA QB market just got more buyer friendly which could help us land somebody like Leftwitch at a good price to compete with Orton.

Thanks to the incomptence of the Vikings front office, maybe we do have a chance to win the North in '09.

Tim Crowder on the block

Devin47 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:33:01 -0000

According to the National Football Post, the Broncos will put DE Tim Crowder on the trading block. The reason being they dont think he can play the 5 techinque in their new 3-4 defense and at 275 LBS he is too heavy to play OLB. In his Broncos career he has had 5 sacks, all in his rookie year of 2007. He is still only 23 and was great at Texas at pressuring the QB and seems to be the kind of guy Marinelli could work wonders with. As long as it just 4th or 5th rounder we give up it would be worth the gamble in my opinion.

Please let this report come true

Devin47 — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:09:31 -0000

The Pitt Panthers are looking for a new Offensive coordinator to replace former Bears OC Matt Cavanaugh, who will the new QB coach with the NY Jets. According to the Piitsburgh Post Gazette, 3/4 of a stache is looking at filling the vacany with another one of his former Bears offensive bosses, Ron Turner to replace him. I doubt this happens as no one would take a step down from an NFL OC job to a lateral move at a medicore college program. But if he did who would take over, here is the list of the likelyist candidates to replace him

Mike Martz: If this off-season has taught us anything so far it is that Lovie hates to his buddies collecting unemployment. Also with Lovie being the defacto Defensive cordinator next season, I am sure he would want someone who could run the offense by themselves which Martz would want anyway. They got to a Super Bowl with this structure in St. Louis, why couldn't it work here? Getting Martz would give us the inside track in all likelyhood to getting Torry Holt to be our #1 WR which would be a good thing. Would be the best option as along as Lovie stresses to him to use Forte and Olse more than he has previously used other RB and TE's.

Darryl Drake: If Lovie wants to stay in-house, Drake's work with Berrian and Hester makes him the only logical candidate for it as he is compentant as a postion coach, unlike his collegues on the offensive staff.

Chan Gailey: Other than his stint as Cowboys coach, he has always had good offenses where he has been. His recent stint as a college coach should help him with our young offense.

Dan Reeves: he has been looking for NFL work of late, including interviewing for the SF OC job. If Angelo and Lovie's job are on the line this season they might want the most compentant person they can find to run the offense. Though they also might not want to put a logical successor on the staff either.

Who would you want running the Bears offense in 09?

ESPN: Del Negro the front runner of the three Finalists

Devin47 — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:07:42 -0000

According to a report from espn.com, the interview Pax had with Vinny Del Negro went very well and it might appear that he is the current front runner for the job. Del Negro is currently Steve Kerr's right hand man in Phoenix and has no prior coaching stints on his resume. He did interview for the Suns job also though.

But just as juicy a scoop as the Del Negro front runner status report is the mention that the long and winding road to replace Boylan might soon end as Paxson has three finalist. Other than Del Negro they are the usual suspects in this search of Former Timberwolves headman D'Wayne Casey and Kings assistant Chuck Person.

Of the 3 reported finalist the one that I would hire is Person. With Del Negro what scares me is the fact is that I cannot think of any coach in pro sports without any kind of coaching expirence that jumps straight to a head coach job and becomes successful. With Casey it is the fact that his tenure in Minnesota was so bad that despite all the postive stuff that people around the Association have of him, I would like to see if a guy who has not had a chance could do better. Person would be a coach who if his teams play in a similar fashion as the Kings did last year, will not be afraid to run as they were 7th in pace in the NBA last year at 97.2 possesions a game. Another area where Person might be able to help out is in true Shooting percentage, which measures shooting percentage if it were to include free throws and 3-pointers. Last year the Kings were 7th in this stat (55.6), while the Bulls were second to last at 51.5. If anyone could get this team to be a more accurate 3-point shooting team it would be person. Finally, Person was a very media saavy player and with a team of low-key personalities this team needs a sane version of Ozzie Guillen to fill the media's notebooks and tape recorders

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3430388&campaign=rss&source=NBAHeadlines

Poll

Of D'Wayne Casey, Vinny Del Negro, and Chuck Person who do you want to be the next Bulls Coach?

Casey

28 votes

Del Negro

13 votes

Person

18 votes

59 votes | Poll has closed

Ford thinks Rose will be the pick (and other draft tips)

Devin47 — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:29:53 -0000

[From the Fanposts. I inferred the same things Ford did from that podcast -ed.]

One of the stops on the Paxson Media Tour after winning the lottery was a podcast sitdown with Chad Ford. After hearing the usual Pax speak about wanting a leader, Ford has done a 180 (its a free preview insider article) and thinks Rose will be the pick and the the conventinal wisdom around the Association is that Rose will be the guy unless Rose does something dumb or Beasley does something great.

If the rumors about Beasley being 6'7'' or 6'8'' are correct than this is the way we should go. They are both great players, but if Beasley is a tweener he really adds nothing new to the mix as we are crowded with guys that are tweeners in the front court. Meanwhile Rose can give us a up tempo pass-first PG who lets us be able to run with anybody.

As for other draft rumblings:

* The 2nd player on Miami's board might be OJ Mayo. It looks like Riley thinks his style of play is a very good match for Wade and that Miami will try to flip picks with Minnesota or Seattle and try to add another piece to the team.

* D'Andre Jordan will almost for sure be a top 10 pick.

Beekman and Okwo in the fold

Devin47 — Tue, 29 May 2007 20:43:13 -0000

The Bears look like for the second year in a row that they will be the first team to sign all their draft picks. Today they locked up Third rounder Michael Okwo and Fourth Rounder Josh Beekman for the next four years. Okwo, from Stanford, will probably be the main competition for Jamar Williams as they battle for the WLB spot. The Boston College product Beekman will most likely be the 3rd offensive guard and given the likelihood of injury to Brown or Garza it is very possible he will start a game or two this season.

The Link:
http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=3476

Another day, another 7th rounder signed

Devin47 — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:05:05 -0000

The Bears other 7th rounder Aaron Brant, an Offensive Lineman from Iowa State, signed his contract today. He was a four year starter with the Cyclones who was mostly a Right Tackle, but did play some guard as a Freshman. He has real good size at 6'7'' and the NFL.com prospect profile describes him as being "athletic" for his size. Seems like a steal for a seventh rounder and cannot be any worse than Metcalf if Tait goes down.

Links:
http://www.nfl.com/draft/profiles/2007/brant_aaron
http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=3467

McBride signs

Devin47 — Tue, 22 May 2007 22:13:30 -0000

The Bears have signed 7th rounder Trumaine McBride. McBride is a corner from Mississippi. He seems to be the prototypical cover 2 corner who is not that fast, but is a solid tackler from the scouting reports I have read about him. Of the 5 players signed from the draft, four of them are Bears. Angelo and Gabriel are really doing a good job getting these guys signed. I wonder if this will have any impact in the Olsen negations.

The link:
http://www.chicagobears.com/news/NewsStory.asp?story_id=3461