SB Nation User Blog: thatguyben

Gonzo's Blogger Deathsport Week Eight Picks

thatguyben — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:37:59 -0000

Making your picks to loud music is mandatory

For the second week in a row Gonzo failed to post up his against the spread football picks in the Blogger Deathsport pool. Thanks to the wonders of technology I can accomplish the dual tasks of documenting Gonzo's picks and shaming him for a weak stream performance. For the second week in a row Gonzo could manage only five wins:

Sunday
ATL @ PHI (-9) (FAIL)

KC @ NYJ (-13) (Yes!)

STL @ NE (-7) (PUSH)

BUF (1.5) @ MIA (FAIL)

OAK @ BAL (-7) (FAIL)

WAS (-7.5) @ DET (Yes!)

ARZ @ CAR (-4.5) (FAIL)

SD (-3) @ NO (Yes!)

TB @ DAL (-1.5) (FAIL)

CIN @ HOU (-9.5) (Yes!)

CLE @ JAX (-7.5) (FAIL)

NYG @ PIT (-2.5) (FAIL)

SEA @ SF (-5) (FAIL)

Monday
IND 23 @ TEN 27 (off the board = straight up even) (Yes!)

This is a wake up call to DN readers, do not continue to tolerate weak football picks from Gonzo!

IPod fail from here

Gonzo's Blogger Deathsport Week Seven Picks

thatguyben — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:36:36 -0000

A man posts up his picks

Mr. I'm too busy posted up his Blogger Deathsport picks from two weeks ago... on email. Maybe he wanted them to be a secret, would not surprise me since Gonzo went 5-9 that week:

Sunday
SF @ NYG (-10.5) (Yes!)

PIT (-10) @ CIN (Yes!)

TEN (-8) @ KC (Yes!)

MIN @ CHI (-3) (FAIL)

SD @ BUF (off the board = straight up even) (Yes!)

NO @ CAR (-3) (Yes!)

DAL (-7) @ STL (FAIL)

BAL @ MIA (-3) (FAIL)

DET @ HOU (-8.5) (FAIL)

NYJ (-3) @ OAK (FAIL)

IND (-1.5) @ GB (FAIL)

CLE @ WAS (-7) (FAIL)

SEA @ TB (-10.5) (FAIL)

Monday
DEN @ NE (-3) - Broncos 27, Patriots 24 (FAIL)

Translation fail from here

Blogger Deathsport: Blitzburgh Week Six Picks

thatguyben — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:57:14 -0000

That Steeltown work ethic

Blitzburgh did not post his picks for Blogger Deathsport last week, oh he got them in on email, this is a blogger pool, not an emailer pool. For posterity and scoring purposes here are Blitzburgh's picks from last week:

Sunday
CAR @ TB (-1.5)

STL @ WAS (-13)

CIN @ NYJ (-6)

OAK @ NO (-7.5)

MIA @ HOU (-3)

CHI (-2.5) @ ATL

DET @ MIN (-13)

BAL @ IND (-4)

JAX @ DEN (-3.5)

PHI (-4.5) @ SF

DAL (-5) @ ARZ

GB @ SEA (-2)

NE @ SD (-5.5)

Monday

NYG (-8) @ CLE
(24-23 NYG)

Week seven picks are out, will Blitzburgh evolve past email this week?

Airline FAIL from here.

Blogger Deathsport: Skin Patrol and TexSkins Week Six Picks

thatguyben — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:18:24 -0000

It's not called Emailer Deathsport for a reason

Skin Patrol and TexSkins did not post their picks for Blogger Deathsport last week, oh they got them in on email, this is a blogger pool, not an emailer pool. For posterity and scoring purposes here are their picks from last week:

Skin Patrol

Sunday
CAR @ TB (-1.5)

STL @ WAS (-13)

CIN @ NYJ (-6)

OAK @ NO (-7.5)

MIA @ HOU (-3)

CHI (-2.5) @ ATL

DET @ MIN (-13)

BAL @ IND (-4)

JAX @ DEN (-3.5)

PHI (-4.5) @ SF

DAL (-5) @ ARZ

GB @ SEA (-2)

NE @ SD (-5.5)

Monday

NYG (-8) @ CLE
Uhhh 35-17

TexSkins

Sunday
CAR @ TB (-1.5)

STL @ WAS (-13)

CIN @ NYJ (-6)

OAK @ NO (-7.5)

MIA @ HOU (-3)

CHI (-2.5) @ ATL

DET @ MIN (-13)

BAL @ IND (-4)

JAX @ DEN (-3.5)

PHI (-4.5) @ SF

DAL (-5) @ ARZ

GB @ SEA (-2)

NE @ SD (-5.5)

Monday

NYG (-8) @ CLE
Final score: 41-21

Week seven picks are out, will Skin Patrol and TexSkins evolve past email this week?

Airline FAIL from here.

Blogger Deathsport: Week 3 Picks

thatguyben — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:12:07 -0000

Think I'll just stay in again tonight

Because RCR was too lazy to post his week three picks in the Blogger Deathsport against the spread pick 'em pool, I have done so for him from email picks he submitted last week. RCR finished 8-8, good for 4th out of 10 this for week three, results here.

RCR's picks in bold

Sunday
KC @ ATL (-5.5) (yep)

CLE @ BAL (-2) (yep)

OAK @ BUF (-9.5) (nope)

TB @ CHI (-3) (yep)

DAL (-3) @ GB (yep)

NO @ DEN (-5.5) (nope)

JAX @ IND (-5.5) (yep)

CAR @ MIN (-3.5) (nope)

MIA @ NE (-12.5) (nope)

CIN @ NYG (-13.5) (nope)

PIT @ PHI (-3) (nope)

DET @ SF (-4) (yep)

STL @ SEA (-9.5) (nope)

HOU @ TEN (-5) (yep)

ARZ @ WAS (-3) (nope) (ed. note: silly silly boy)

Monday
NYJ @ SD (-9) (yep)

Lame dude emulating River City Rage from here.

Gregg Williams and the Return to Washington

thatguyben — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:13:10 -0000

Gregg Williams Home Dentistry, LLC

Greetings Redskins fans, Ben from Curly R here, back in January River City Rage at Big Cat Country invited me to share my thoughts on Gregg Williams as the Jaguars' new defensive coordinator, with Gregg making his first return to Washington Thursday, the Washington Post today, seven months to the day since Gregg was fired from the Redskins, ran the rehash story, we learned a bunch, Curly R's take on it all is here.

We will see Gregg and these Jaguars Thursday!

Gregg Williams: Phil Coale / AP photo from here.

Gregg Williams and the Return to Washington

thatguyben — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:59:40 -0000

When asked about Redskins management Gregg reflexively makes himself puke

Greetings Jaguars fans, Ben from Curly R here, back in January River City Rage invited me to share my thoughts on Gregg Williams as the Jaguars' new defensive coordinator, with Gregg making his first return to Washington Thursday, the Washington Post today, seven months to the day since Gregg was fired from the Redskins, ran the rehash story, as a Redskins fan I thought I would share my thoughts on the piece, on what we did not know about Gregg and how everyone moved on, Curly R's piece is here.

See you Thursday!

Gregg Williams: Phil Coale / AP photo from here.

The Case for Brett Favre and the Washington Redskins

thatguyben — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:29:27 -0000

[Note by Skin Patrol, 07/14/08 8:16 PM EDT ]
Readers are once again encouraged to check out Ben's Redskins Blog, The Curly R, on a daily basis. There is a reason it sits at the top of my Blogroll. Many thanks many times over to Ben for helping tend shop in my absence.

Which Brett Favre is still in there?

Brett Favre is coming out of a four month retirement and wants his unconditional release from Green Bay. They do not want to give it to him. Should be interesting.

Via Will at Hogs Haven a week ago a press release from an offshore casino appeared on a free PR site betting that Brett would not land with the Minnesota Vikings but rather with the Washington Redskins.

I think this could work.

Though I may be in the minority. This post at Hogs Haven by mmford10 was up twelve hours after the news and, the comments trended against the idea early and then the thread became about Jason Campbell, not Brett Favre. That was totally predictable.

For the Redskins this could be an historic opportunity. It may play some havoc with the team yes, that is nothing new for Redskins fans. Disruption has been the norm under Dan Snyder, the difference, now before us is a disruption that could be good for the team now and later. Here is my argument:

1. It's Brett Favre. A sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer. No one ever thought he would be available. Now that he is, you talk to him. Just to see what he is looking for. It's Brett freaking Favre. We all know he can still play.

2. The new Redskins offense. What Brett ran in Green Bay and what Jim Zorn brings to the Redskins come from the same source, Mike Holmgren. Brett would have a short learning curve and it would get the new offense humming from the start.

3. The old Redskins offense. The Redskins offense is tooled to win now, it is full of veterans, the line should be healthy back from injuries and if they can play like 2006 that would be great for the running game, west coast offense or not you still have to run the ball in the NFC Beast. Santana Moss, Antwaan Randle El, Chris Cooley and the New Guys are plenty of weapons through the air.

4. The Redskins defense. Turns out the transition from last year to this year should be pretty smooth after all. Even if they slip ten places the team will still be in the top half of the league. A good defense gives new offenses and new players breathing room.

5. It's a tradition. Brett Favre would not be the first high profile Packer to come to Washington. After the 1967 NFL season, Vince Lombardi stepped down as head coach of the Green Bay Packers and after a brief quote retirement unquote from coaching, he took the Packers' general manager position for one season in 1968 before getting restless and coming back to coaching with the Redskins. Prior to the 1969 season the Redskins had not had a winning campaign in 14 years. Under Vince they went 7-5-2, by 1971 George Allen was in place and the team went on to nine straight winning seasons.

The value proposition: it has to cost little or nothing. Ideally the Packers will release Brett after he promises not to sign with a division rival. Frankly I have a hard time seeing Brett play for the Vikings but I digress. If the team demands a trade then it should cost the Redskins not higher than a third round pick, even though it's Brett Favre the team cannot sacrifice any serious portion of the long term future for a player that will give the Redskins one, maybe two shots at the Super Bowl.

The impacts: the elephant in the room here is obviously Jason Campbell, the Redskins starting quarterback, a first round pick himself that cost the team three draft picks in trade to acquire. In the long run, bringing Brett Favre in may be good for Jason Campbell's career. Or it may begin the door closing on what was never going to work out in the first place. Follow me here.

In the first place, there is no shame in being Jason Campbell if you get benched for Brett Favre, that's not a lack of confidence in Jason, that's just taking advantage of an unbelieveable opportunity, if one of the greatest ever in your professional field were suddenly available and your company hired him and he happened to do your job, you could hardly fault the company, it just makes good business sense. Jason is a big boy, if Vinny Cerrato walks into Jason's house this week and tells him Jason will be backing up Brett Favre this year, Jason can not only take it, he may jump up and hug Vinny.

Second, Jason Campbell's position with this team in the long run is still very much open to question. Jason has shown the skills and the potential to be a franchise quarterback in the NFL, he has never lit us up and what we may still be interpreting as growing pains may simply be Jason's limitations. As Randy Cross likes to say on Sirius NFL Radio, that the guy you see early is pretty much the guy you will see always. Players can improve at the edges, rarely do we see a guy go from average to great.

This is not to say Jason is not a starting caliber quarterback. If the Redskins have a good plan they do not need the best QB to make it work. The team could well be successful within Jason's limits, I mean come on this team won Super Bowls with Mark Rypien and Joe Thiesmann, good QBs, not all time greats.

If Brett Favre were to come and wear number four (sorry Derrick Frost, with Durant Brooks and all, this could be a bad training camp experience for you) here in Washington, it would mean Jason would be the backup. It would give him a full year to get familiar with Jim Zorn's offense, I for one along with Rich Tandler and Will-A have plenty of questions as to whether Jason can be a reliable executor of this offense a) now, b) ever. From watching as much football as I have, I am not sure Jason is physically or mentally the type of QB for this type of system. Then again I did not think Steve Young would be successful after Joe Montana and did not envision Donovan McNabb as a west coast quarterback either.

In any event, a full year to learn the system without having to run it on game day might be conducive to Jason digesting the system and being better prepared when his number is called.

True, the Redskins would not get value from Jason's contract this year, which according to PC's awesome contract page, runs through 2010. Brett has a chance to come in and make a run at a title for a season or two then the team gets to decide whether they have seen enough out of Jason Campbell to merit re signing him to a long term deal as the franchise starter.

So this is not just about Brett Favre. All that money and those draft picks spent on Jason Campbell, that's all sunk cost. Jason is either going to be the team's long term solution or he is not, as commenter Allskins at Hogs Haven wrote yesterday, Patrick Ramsey was also a first round pick future of the franchise guy.

The odd man out in this scenario is Todd Collins, who though signed to a two year deal is nothing more than insurance anyway. Colt Brennan will get a look as number three, he is a Jim Zorn pick and with or without Brett Favre, Colt will be salted away to see if he can run this team. If he can, if he has the chops to be an NFL quarterback in this type of system, Jason Campbell may be out in two seasons anyway.

This team is ready to win now. The offensive line should be back, how many more seasons do they have in the tank? How about Clinton Portis? Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El are ready to win now. Chris Cooley is in the prime of his career. There is veteran leadership on a defense peppered with young players, stewardship of the team from old to young has to start happening in the next two to three seasons. Two or three seasons I'd rather not see an offense and a QB getting up to speed, getting untracked, whatever.

Jim Zorn's offense would be friendly to Brett. Let's see what it can do now and now wait until 2010.

Compostite image by me. Brett Favre left image from here, Brett Favre right image from here.

Who can afford to pay Brett Favre 15 million?

thatguyben — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:22:11 -0000

Intellesting

Brett Favre is coming out of retirement and does not want to play in Green Bay. Remember this story?

Does anyone think it might be a good idea?

Brett Favre: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images from here.

The Cumulative Age Rule of Backup QBs

thatguyben — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:26:17 -0000

Ok maybe not that young

Football is a sport of continuity, teams maintain the same core players from season to season, even after bad years, and the teams that do not have a succession plan at each position risk that continuity. Just plugging in players does not always work, see also Adam Archuleta and every pathetic attempt the Redskins made last season to find a third receiver (~~Keenan McCardell~~ no wait ~~Reche Caldwell~~ no let's try Anthony Mix).

And no one can doubt that among all football positions, quarterback may be first among equals when it comes to continuity. QB has so many competing priorities and complicating factors that it can be difficult for a team manage them with only three roster spots. You need your starting guy, you need your cool hand off the bench, you need the guy of the future, you need the diamond in the rough to be developed etc etc and so on and so forth.

Watching the Redskins last season I was struck by something with the quarterbacks. While starter Jason Campbell was a spry 25, backup Todd Collins was 35 and backup Mark Brunell was a creaky 36. That's 71 years between the two of them.

And while Mark was never needed and Todd came through when the team needed him, the Redskins made no progress at the quarterback position with respect to the future. Yes they drafted a guy, seventh round pick Jordan Palmer, in last year's draft, Jordan was so bad in his only preseason action that he was cut two days later. They also cycled through Casey Bramlet again (op. cit.), a guy good enough to be the ~~WLAF's~~ NFL Europa's World Bowl 15 MVP but not good enough to make the Redskins roster.

Three roster spots for QBs. You got your starter, he is exempt from all age requirements. But the backups, together they are supposed to represent the present AND future at the position. Whether a team chooses to put their young gun at number two (like Aaron Rodgers behind Brett Favre) or a cagey veteran ready for a four game stretch (like our own Todd Collins) at number two, there should always be a youngster in the mix, a player that can be developed for the long term and possibly elevated to starter when the time comes.

This is not to say there is not a place for veteran quarterbacks, that is not what I am saying at all. What I am saying is that a team is not caring for the future when its two backups total 71 years of age.

And this is not about Jason Campbell either. As much as I love the guy, it was still a very open question as to whether Jason could run and be successful in a Joe Gibbs / Al Saunders style of offense, one suited to Jason's natual abilities and physique. Those questions will hold over this season and become more pointed if Jason does not look like he can run Jim Zorn's offense from day one.

So I am proposing a rule. The combined age of the Redskins' two backup quarterbacks should never tally more than 60 years of age. Update by Ben, perhaps 60 is too low, see comments below.

Likely configurations would break down this way:

Cagey older veteran at number two, ready for limited action but likely not an option for a full season much less the future, with young gun at number three, the guy to be groomed for the future.
Established young number two, waiting in the wings to take over while the wizened veteran QB coaches and helps the number two mature from the number three spot.
Two guys in mid career, fighting it out for position, or in a defined hierarchy.

With last season's backups, the Redskins were out of compliance with the rule. Keeping Todd Collins at number two and bringing in Colt Brennan at number three would satisfy condition number one above. With undrafted rookie Matt Moore stepping in for Jake Delhomme in Carolina and Vinny Testaverde at number three, the Panthers last season conformed to condition number two. The Bills, with 27 year old JP Losman at number two and and 27 year old Gibran Hamdan (himself a former Redskin) at number three would fit condition three.

New coach, new outlook, time to start stewarding the QB position into the future.

David Sills, the 11 year old phenom quarterback: Mark Owens from here.

[Note by Skin Patrol, 07/09/08 7:26 PM EDT ] Ben, you've been missed brother. Reader(s) are encouraged to enjoy other posts by this author at The Curly R, in particular his current running series Redskins Now AND Later (in its 6th edition). I'm tagging this thing up.