So they could include the guys Al Davis loves. 
Putting aside the draft for a second, I am, for the most part, thrilled that Joe Flacco will be the highest paid QB in the NFL. I’ve never been a huge fan of his, and while his playoff run was damn impressive, there is no way he’ll live up to his paycheck. He’s inconsistent and inaccurate and now is one of the most overpaid players in the NFL thanks to a string of 4 games. Maybe I’m wrong and he turned a corner in the last four games and will be a stud QB, but I, for one, am glad it’s the Ravens taking that chance.
And, in more NFC North centric view, I think this signing is OK for the Packers for two reasons. Yes, it ups the salary that Aaron Rodgers is going to be getting, but he’s one inarguably one of the top 5 QB’s in the NFL, if not the best, so they’re going to have to break the bank for him anyway. But I also think it ups the price for Jay Cutler, who I am on record, far and wide, as thinking is one of the most overrated players in the NFL. I’m really hoping the Flacco contract and just a slight uptick in Cutler’s performance next year, will mean the Bears will be paying through their noses for a mediocre QB for a long time.
I think Flacco is actually a little underrated, and I hate to say that. He’s not as good as his superbowl run indicates, and he is overpaid, but his accuracy and touch have been impressive as hell for about 2 years now. Fortunately he isn’t going to be one of the top tier decision makers in the NFL although he won’t be bottom half either. He’ll have a good career, enough to build your franchise around, but never one of the best. Still, I’m happy to see the team from crackmore having to dish out so much money - they’re going to have to let everyone else go.
Come on Vonta Leach to Cleveland. I’m worried we’ll get Paul Kruger too. Not that he’s bad, but someone is going to overpay him.
Total non-sequitur, but who do you guys want to see on Hard Knocks this year? My money is with the Eagles, but I don’t think Kelly has any taste for media attention. Chiefs maybe?
From Pro Football Focus: “Of 38 quarterbacks who attempted at least 175 passes, Flacco had the 33rd (or sixth-worst) adjusted accuracy percentage (a stat that accounts for drops, spikes and throwaways), behind guys such as Blaine Gabbert, Nick Foles and Sam Bradford.”
He’s cap friendly for the first couple years, but in 2015, he’ll account for almost a quarter of the Ravens’ salary cap. My guess is that the Ravens are planning on Flacco being willing to rework his deal in a few years so they can lessen the cap hit. We’ll see how it works out for them.
I’m not sure Hard Knocks hasn’t run it’s course, but I agree, the Eagles and Chiefs would be damn interesting. I’d love to see the Bears, Trestman seems goofy enough to be fun to watch, but I highly doubt they’d do it. Just don’t give us some crap team that has little to no hope and not much interesting going on like Jacksonville or Buffalo.
I’m surprised by that. In particular, I remember the second game against the Browns this year where he kept putting the ball in ridiculous spots where only his guy can get it. Maybe he’s flukey and just had a few good games - I haven’t seen him this much this year - but that second Browns game was one of the best pass-and-catch games I’ve ever seen. Boldin was fantastic too.
Flacco certainly has games where he’s a world beater, but he also has games that make you shake your head. Even in this playoff run though, I still saw him make throws that relied a great deal on Boldin making a play or Jones or Smith beating their guy deep, which won’t always work out consistently. That’s part of his game, these iffy throws that could go one way or another very easily. And in the playoff run, a lot of them went the right way. But some games, they certainly go the other. I think he makes too many poor decisions, it’s just that they sometimes work out well for him.
He’s certainly better than a I thought coming out, but I am more than happy to see Crackimore throw him all that money.
Jake Long is rumored to want $11 million a year. He won’t get that, but still. He’s going to be overpaid by somebody who thinks he can turn it back around. I think he’s done. He was awful last season. Because of his age, he isn’t likely to suddenly get healthy again. I wouldn’t touch him for half that.
Joe Flacco pretty much single-handedly lost the Eagles game last season (yeah, they lost to the Eagles). The Ravens took a 17-7 lead into the half and Flacco went 8-25 in the second half with 1 INT. Everyone has bad games, sure, but it’s difficult to describe how useless he was. And it wasn’t like the Eagles were any good.
Any accuracy he’s rumored to have is definitely overrated. He hasn’t topped 60% in the last two seasons. He throws a lot of deep passes, true, but he was 20th in the NFL in accuracy on deep throws.
That we live in a world where Joe Flacco is a Super Bowl-winning QB, and Super Bowl MVP to boot. Amazing.
I would be surprised if the Eagles ever did Hard Knocks, but Andy Reid is gone, so how knows. Andy Reid would never, ever do Hard Knocks. He’s too insular, too protective of access to his players.
I have no idea what happened to Jake Long, but why are we talking about him like he’s 33 and washed up? Dude is 27.
Fair enough, he’s a little younger than I thought. Maybe he could get back to where he was.
What worries me is that he was pretty bad before he had a serious injury you could point to. So even if he comes back healthy… he wasn’t good for the last couple seasons even when he was healthy. But maybe he had injuries that allowed him to play but really sapped his effectiveness.
Someone will overpay him. Hopefully they get something out of him.
So what do we think of Warmack? There are a lot on the Browns board clamoring for him.
I’m pretty torn. Even if you think the guy has a 50% chance of being the best guard in the league, I’m not sure that justifies taking him that high. To demonstrate this - could the best kicking prospect ever be worth taking #6 overall? No. Guards are more valuable than kickers, of course, but still amongst the lowest positions of importance.
On the other hand, the weakness of this particular draft makes the move not so ridiculous. There’s not a QB worth taking, the pass rushers all have questions, and the only no brainer snatch him up option is if Milliner falls to #6. So if everyone else available is kinda meh, maybe taking a really great guard could make sense.
I know it’d be great to see - Thomas/Warmack/Mack/Greco/Scwhartz would be the best line in the NFL for years to come, I’d love to see a healed up Richardson running behind it.
OK, so the Chiefs trade for Alex Smith, re-sign Bowe and tag Albert. Who the hell are they taking in the draft now? Unless they developed a serious hard-on for Bjoern Werner in Indianapolis they look to be paying someone 8 figures to warm a spot for a season.
It’s not so much a “weak” draft, weak at the top, certainly, but it is also a deep draft. Warmack could be a great players, and I love his combination of high ceiling and high floor, but, in the end, he’s still a guard.
Who are the greatest NFL guards today? Carl Nicks? 5th Round. Jahri Evans? 4th Round. Marshall Yanda? 3rd round. Brandon Moore? Undrafted Free Agent. Andy Levitre? Second round. Josh Sitton? 4th round. Brian Waters? Undrafted Free Agent.
There are some great guards taken in the first round. Iupati. Ben Grubbs. Mankins, but they were late first rounders at best. And does anyone think that the 49ers wouldn’t have made it to the Super Bowl without Iupati? Or the Ravens without Grubbs?
When I consider that guards simply aren’t that important to wins and losses as many other positions and that there is talent available later in the draft, I’d be against taking a OG, any OG, higher than 20 or so. Warmack may be a Pro Bowler, but a Pro Bowl guard doesn’t effect the outcome of a game nearly as much as an even solid QB, a good pass rusher, a shut down corner, or even a solid LT.
I think I’d be pretty happy with Long at $6M/year. Now that Albert got tagged I think it’s a safe bet that Long’s price went up significantly. Still, I think there’s a pretty good change that Long has a Jared Gaither like resurgence after a change of scenery that easily justifies that price. Even if he’s average you’re not wildly overpaying him at $6M. Certainly he could be bad, but I like his chances of not being bad better than the chances of any of the rookies in this or any class.
Every scout seems to love the guy. He’s getting far better pub than either Pouncey brother or DeCastro were at this point. I watched a fair amount of YouTube video on him since he was an early candidate for the Bears at 20 and came away unimpressed, he looked like a big body that wasn’t particularly agile or dominant. He easily beat middling players but he also had a bunch of NFL level guys next to him and rarely faced really complex schemes. I think he might be a system guy, but I know nothing of his intangibles and scouting interior OLs on video without the gameplan is pretty hopeless.
This might be a issue with perception. OGs get drafted low based on perceived value. That perception could be wrong though, great OGs might elevate the play of mediocre OTs and RBs without getting the credit or the pay. Maybe the 49ers win without Iupati, but maybe they don’t because Staley, Boone and Gore flounder. Staley and Gore probably get the heat if that happens, not the replacement level OG.
I know that every Bears fan wants OTs. That said, we were far worse at OG last year and I think a Pro Bowl OG might make Webb serviceable while a Pro Bowl OT probably isn’t going to do much to help the scrub we bring in to replace Williams and Spencer. I’d rather have Webb, Cooper and Garza on the left side than Fluker, James Brown and Garza.
Joe Staley isn’t Joe Staley because of Mike Iupati. Frank Gore isn’t Frank Gore because of Iupati. They’re both great players on their own. It was a pain, but watching Staley school Clay Matthews was as impressive a showing I’ve seen in awhile.
Bears pick 20, which is right about where I placed Chance’s worth. I don’t think he has the flame out potential of Chris Williams or Gabe Carimi, so a high floor guy like him might be a good step for the Bears. God knows I’ve been dogging their O Line for a few years now, anything would be an improvement. And another year of Webb at LT would be fun to watch (although he did get better, he’s still not very good).
Most Mocks I’ve seen post-combine have both Cooper and Warmack going in the top 15. Either the mocks are just crazy or there’s a shift in perceived value of OGs (that plus a universal dislike of the typical impact position prospects).
The question is would you rather have Warmack, Cooper or Lane Johnson (maybe toss in TJ Fluker too if you like him). It’s possible all three are top 15 picks after Fisher and Joeckel, but who is most likely to slide and who is most likely to bust? Me… I think the Alabama guys are the biggest question marks simply because of the rising tide raises all boats argument.
Some random thoughts:
Last year’s NFL draft was all about the QB’s. This year, it’s all about the OT’s. Joeckel, Fisher, and Johnson could all be franchise LT’s.
I like Matt Barkley. There, I said it.
Dion Jordan >>>> A healthy Jarvis Jones. Hell, I like Margus Hunt more than Jarvis Jones.
I don’t want the Bears to draft Tavon Austin.
I love Greg Jennings and losing him will hurt the Packers. I love Charles Woodson. Losing him, maybe not so much.
He comes up a lot on local talk shows and blogs. Personally, I think the Bears would be nuts to take Austin in the first round. There’s a need at WR for sure with Knox gone, Hester done on offense and Bennett being perpetually hurt. But after spending a 2nd on Jeffery I think the Bears will be looking to the middle rounds for a 3rd WR and I think there’s a lot of guys who are exciting there. Unless Austin is the equivalent of a healthy Percy Harvin I’m not seeing it…if that is what he is, well sign me up!
If the Bears do anything by OL, LB or TE in the first round they’ll need to nail both free agency and the last half of the draft to survive. TE can be done in FA, maybe also LB, but things get really dicey when you need to count on 2nd round our later OLs to start.
What’s to like about Matt Barkley?
You can probably try and replace Greg Jennings with Robert Woods.