SB Nation User Blog: hubcityraider

Draft Memories: Bobby Carpenter

hubcityraider — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:07:29 -0000

In 2006 the Dallas Cowboys selected Bobby Carpenter with the 18th pick of the draft.

Notable:

Antonio Cromartie, CB

Santonio Holmes, WR

Joseph Addai, RB

Round 2:

Cedric Griffin, CB

Anthony Fasano, TE

Devin Hester, ST

Looking back on that draft it appears poor with lots of busts even taken before Carpenter. However taking Cromartie or Addai instead would have made a significant difference. Especially as our needs pertain to 2008.

2006 Draft Wiki

Yes I know:

The Tendering of Players

hubcityraider — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:01:37 -0000

The recent tendering of Barber and Canty got me thinking about the tender process, rules, and philosophy.

There are various levels players can be tendered at. The situation I am most familiar with is Wes Welker last year as I followed it closely. The Phins tendered Wes at a level that would require a 2nd round pick as compensation. The only reason I can see for not tendering him higher is that they get to pay a player at that level less and would be perfectly willing to let him go with that draft pick as compensation? Otherwise why not tender him at a higher level?

I think the Phins underestimated how much another team may want Wes. The Pats came along and not only were willing to offer Wes a large contract (ended up with $9MM guaranteed), but they were also about to put a poison pill in the offer to make it impossible for Miami to match without cutting Chambers. In light of this, Miami accepted a trade and got a 2 and a 7 from the Pats and the Pats got to sign Wes without the potentially damaging poison pill.

So my questions:
Other than a slightly higher salary, what is the disadvantage of tendering players at the highest level? Is there a limit on number of players tendered at certain levels? Does a team have complete discretion to put any player at any level?

Also, the poison pill will be something to keep an eye on with Barber, but another team will have to really want him to do that and give up a 1 and a 3. Canty is safe I'm sure.

WR Shake-Up: Looking Good

hubcityraider — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:48:24 -0000

Just wanted to highlight some WR discussion since staff has shaken up the depth chart.

Where we stand:
X: LA Reed/ Ed Britton
Y: Amendola/ G. Walker/ A. Reese
H: Eric Morris/ Amendola/ James
Z: Crabtree/ T. Walker

Z:
I really like the adjustments here. 1st, I think Britton moving to X was precipitated more by Crabtree's impending greatness than by Easy Ed's vertical potential. Britton needs to see the field a lot and wasn't going to as Crabtree's back-up. All reports say that Crabtree is truly special. Todd Walker on the other hand has been demoted to Z as MC's back-up. He's been injured this spring, but needs to get better in general.

X:
Over at X LA Reed brings a lot of Hicks's qualities, but has never been all that consistent and isn't the play-maker that Britton is. I predict Britton plays more downs this season than Reed, but both will be good.

Y:
Amendola has been moved from H to Y. This is an excellent move. He'll be on the field more, knows this offense well, and will have a chance at a great senior season. Our Y is always productive (Peters, Haverty, RoJo) but I take comfort in the fact that it will be DA instead of Grant Walker as the starter. Grant will play plenty and do well, but moving DA here as the starter was a good decision. Adrian Reese will play Y in short yardage and redzone situations with DA moving over to H when this happens. Reese is a huge mismatch at 6'6 and I look forward to watching him over the next 3 years.

H:
Another reason for moving Danny was so that Eric Morris could see the field. He's shown something every opportunity given to him and I look forward to him getting a full audition in Danny's old spot. I think the kid is clutch and I look forward to watching him play more.

This group will be better than last year's bunch IMO. More athletic, more to prove, and a greater variety of skill sets for the offense to work with as opposed to 3 possession WR's in Hicks, RoJo, and Filani.

2004 Draft Redux: Mavs Still Take Harris?

hubcityraider — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:00:19 -0000

AJM made a comment on lonestarball.com thinking Dallas would trade Devin Harris in the next couple years. So I got to thinking about what guys Dallas missed out on by taking DH at #5 in the 2004 draft.

IMO, there's no reason to think DH may get shipped just because his minutes are limited lately. He's nearly as valuable a piece as Terry is right now and will factor more heavily into the future.

So who would Dallas take if the draft could be redone today?

From NBA.com:
http://www.nba.com/draft2004/board.html

Dwight Howard | F | 6-11 | 240 (ORL)
Emeka Okafor | F-C | 6-10 | 252 (CHA)
Ben Gordon | G | 6-3 | 200 (CHI)
Shaun Livingston | G | 6-7 | 175 (LAC)
Devin Harris | G | 6-3 | 185 (DAL)
Josh Childress | F | 6-8 | 210 (ATL)
Luol Deng | F | 6-8 | 220 (CHI)
Rafael Araujo | C | 6-11 | 290 (Tor)
Andre Iguodala | F | 6-6 | 207 (Phi)
Luke Jackson | F | 6-7 | 215 (CLE)
Andris Biedrins | F | 6-11 | 240 (GS)
Robert Swift | C | 7-0 | 245 (SEA)
Sebastian Telfair | G | 6-0 | 165 (Por)
Kris Humphries | F | 6-9 | 235 (UT)
Al Jefferson | F | 6-10 | 265 (Bos)
Kirk Snyder | G | 6-6 | 225 (UT)
Josh Smith | F | 6-9 | 210 (ATL)
J.R. Smith | G | 6-6 | 220 (NO)
Dorell Wright | F | 6-7 | 210 (MIA)
Jameer Nelson | G | 6-0 | 190 (ORL)
Pavel Podkolzin | C | 7-5 | 260 (Dal)
Viktor Khryapa | F | 6-9 | 210 (Por)
Sergei Monia | F | 6-8 | 220 (Por)
Delonte West | G | 6-4 | 180 (Bos)
Tony Allen | G | 6-4 | 213 (Bos)
Kevin Martin | G | 6-7 | 185 (Sac)
Sasha Vujacic | G | 6-7 | 193 (LAL)
Beno Udrih | G | 6-3 | 203 (SA)
David Harrison | C | 7-0 | 250 (Ind)

Considering the team needs at the time and even now, Devin appears to be the best PG of the bunch.
I wouldn't trade his D for many other PG's in the league. Josh Howard fills the role that most of the best alternatives in this draft would have had with Dallas. But what could Deng or Iguadala have been traded for? Probably Devin plus a 1st round pick. Maybe I'm wrong.

Poll

Who would you take?

Devin Harris

39 votes

Luol Deng

16 votes

Andre Iguodala

12 votes

Al Jefferson

4 votes

Delonte West

0 votes

Kevin Martin

5 votes

Other

3 votes

79 votes | Poll has closed

Madden Video Game Educating a Generation?

hubcityraider — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 19:47:07 -0000

[editor's note, by Grizz] Just a reminder, please do not reproduce copyrighted articles in full on the blog. I encourage people to reference articles, post a few key paraqgraphs to get the idea across and then post a link. I've edited this diary down to meet those requirements. Thanks guys, I aprreciate it. [END NOTE]

Here is a nice article from the Washington Post talking about how Madden has allowed a generation of people who like football but never played to actually understand complicated schemes and terminology.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120401436_pf.html

Article:

T.J. Won was not born into football. He did not grow up the son of a coach. He did not play the game in high school. In fact, the sum of his playing experience consists of throwing the ball with friends in his home town of Milpitas, Calif., after watching San Francisco 49ers games on television.

But in front of his television now, he notices the kinds of details coaches pick up.

"I used to see people lining up and blocking people," said Won, a junior accounting major at Georgetown University. "Now I see players blocking in the flats, helping protection. You know where the quarterbacks want to throw."

He arrived at this knowledge not by hanging around coaches' offices or studying game tapes. He learned it all from a video game -- Madden NFL.

This is a phenomenon the National Football League never could have anticipated. In a world in which 53 million copies of the game have been sold in the last 17 years -- the latest version sold an unprecedented two million copies in its first weekend of release last summer -- Madden has provided the league a perfect conduit to its next generation of fans. And all because of attention to arcane details that has demystified the complexities of football to a population that never before understood them.

Giants Go Down, Tied for First

hubcityraider — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 04:56:00 -0000

I love it. Jacksonville has been hell on the NFC East 3-0. The stars seem to be aligning for a run at this thing. I heard several national prognosticators saying that Romo was their Pro Bowl QB along with Drew Breese today. The Giants are banged up and most importantly Eli might just suck for real. A win this Thursday and I'll start to count chickens.

Great week for the Cowboys.