I’ll just say that while stealing signals by watching the opposing coaches’ lips move is one thing, videotaping them is another. I know most, if not all, NFL teams tamper with prospective free agents; I don’t know that other teams (than the Pats) videotape opposing coaches.
I’m all for abolishing the force-out. I hate when people go on and on about how [insert play here] is a “judgment call”, and therefore shouldn’t be reviewable- like the force-out. Everything the officials do is a “judgment call”, for fuck’s sake.
Personally, I’d like to see the college catch-out-of-bounds rule adopted - one foot down inbounds = a catch - but I’d be perfectly happy with two feet and no force-outs. So it narrows the field; big fucking deal. Run your route two feet closer to the hashmarks.
Your point is well taken, but your stat is slightly inaccurate - Drew Brees was sacked 14 times in Weeks 2-17, Anderson 15 times.
Yes, I found the tiniest possible nit and picked it
Wanna know just how enforced hairstyle rules are among some employers?
I agree this suggested rule is purely a race thing, but I don’t necessarily disagree with it. It’s their league; they can enforce whatever stupid appearance guidelines they want.
Stuff like whether or not a receiver landed in or out of bounds can be objectively reviewed - sometimes it’s ambiguous, but sometimes the video evidence will show whether it’s the case or not.
A force out, or something like holding, can’t be objectively verified generally. I mean - really blatant cases of either will generally get you a consensus, but it’s not absolute in the same way “did his foot land inbounds?” can be.
Since irrefutable video evidence is the standard for overturning calls, force outs don’t fit. I’m fine with making it the receiver’s burden to get his feet in bounds - what would normally be considered good defense - a defender slamming a receiver as he jumps to catch the ball - works in the receiver’s favor on the sideline.
I may be overlooking something, but this page says Anderson has 14 sacks on the year and Brees has 16.
Anderson didn’t start week 1, but he played in relief duty and was sacked once, leaving him with 13 during weeks 2 to 17. Brees seem to have been sacked once also during week 1 leaving him with 15 from 2 to 17.
Where did you get your numbers?
The Browns’ O-line is very much underrated… like with pro bowls, it tends to take a while for the rep of offensive linemen to get around. Most people don’t notice line play, or watch that many different teams, and it’s not the sort of thing that shows up specifically on highlight reels or in fantasy football stats. Basically you have to wait for one of the commentators to start taking notice, and then other idiot commentators parrot it, and eventually your rep spreads around.
And the rep tends to stick around for a while even after decline - Johnathan Ogden is going to make the pro bowl for 2 or 3 years after he retires.
I argued the issue quite a bit in the Steeler’s March To Late Season Meltdown thread, where two delusional fans in particular still won’t acknowledge what I’d been saying in the preseason - that the Browns O-line had dramatically improved. At the time Jamal hadn’t had that many carries, so his rushing numbers weren’t great, but as the defense improved and the weather went south they were able to run more. Jamal finished the season with 1304 yards, 5th most, despite missing 2 games with injury and having that injury nag him for at least another 2. Another 38 yards and he’d be the number 2 leading rusher - only Tomlinson is significantly ahead of him.
Jamal also suffered from the Charlie Frye Makes Everything Suck effect in week 1 - since the team was down by 17 very early, he didn’t get any chance to run. I wonder how his week 2-17 numbers compare…
But anyway, you have the least sacked quarterback and the league’s 5th leading rusher - pretty good numbers for an O-line.
And it’s their first year together - pretty much a brand new line. Throwing out right guard because I’m not sure what’s happening this year, I think the oldest starter is 28 or 29… it has room to grow and improve yet, and it’s already one of the best. Phil Savage is the man. He rebuilt the O-line in a year from a big weakness to a great strength. This year he’s trying to do the same to the defensive line - and it looks good so far. He knows how to build a team.
So, no, I don’t think “elite pass blocking” is a stretch.
I think he made a mistake with the Brees comment, but obviously if you are to toss out Anderson’s week 1 numbers you have to do it for everyone and since Favre was sacked 4 times in Week one he falls back to 11 sacks between week 2 and 17. Favre wins that nitpicky distinction.
Extrapolation - you said Frye was sacked five times in Week 1, and I knew that the Browns had given up 20 sacks on the year. Didn’t realize Anderson played in Week 1- I thought Frye had stayed in the game from start to finish, so that was where I went wrong.
I got the Week 1 numbers from the NFL.com gamebooks, but my season numbers from here, which was also a mistake since I now note that it counted playoffs too.
Anyway, I’m prepared to concede the “elite” status of your line if they keep it up for another year.
I was certainly surprised by Jamal Lewis’ productivity. The one thing that’s always bothered me about him is that a guy his size should be a much better red-zone runner- especially now that he doesn’t have to do all the work in getting the offense into the red zone. Same goes for Fred Taylor- a 225+ lb. tailback should be a touchdown machine.
ETA: Ryan Tucker is still listed as the starting RG on the depth chart- did he retire or something?
The reason I said to throw out the week 1 numbers wasn’t because Anderson did badly in week 1 - he didn’t - but since he only had to start 2/3rds of that game, it would be slightly unfair to compare him to players who had to start the entire game. Plus you might want to include Charlie Frye’s stats against the O-line - but it’s pretty clear that when you compare Charlie taking 5 sacks in 20 minutes, and Anderson taking 14 sacks in the next 940 minutes that Charlie was creating his own sacks.
Saying 2-17 when Anderson was a starter just seemed to be fair. But it’s minor - Anderson played pretty much all but a half hour (20 minutes in the first game, 10 in the last) of the season and only took 14 sacks.
Yeah, it was pretty shocking. Frye goes into the season as the starter, plays all of 20 minutes, shows himself to be so terrible in that 20 minutes that he was traded away the very next day. You’d think that’d be a sign of disfunction so strong that the team would collapse the rest of the year…
NFL.com lists the total number of sacks given up by the Browns as 19.
Barring two major injuries (there’s enough depth that 1 isn’t a huge problem) it should.
Jamal has never really been a good short yardage guy, even in his prime. People think he’s like Bettis because of his weight, but he’s really not. He’s a burner, combined with being huge makes him very hard to take down when he gets up to speed. He has a high top end speed but average or worse acceleration and average agility. He’s not a bad short yardage runner but it’s not his strength - the best short yardage runners tend to be very agile and have short area quickness and acceleration. Jamal doesn’t work in traffic well, but once he gets up to speed he can run over linebackers and outrun DBs.
No, but he wasn’t the starter there to begin the season (although he was suspended, so who knows). McKinley went out with an injury and Tucker came in. The run blocking improved but he became something of a weakness in pass blocking. He was our starting RT for a few years, but as he’s aged he’s lost the quickness to pass block well. We signed Rex Hadnot in FA and he may be the starter at right guard.
Tucker is the only lineman - starter or backup - north of 30 IIRC.
Funny thing about Frye- he entered the league at a time where it was starting to look as though the MAC was suddenly the conference to go to when you needed a quarterback. Frye looked like he might be the next big thing when he showed up; he played pretty damn well in 2006 for a team that had almost no (healthy) offensive talent to speak of.
Daunte Culpepper (never actually played in the MAC, but UCF entered it the year after he was drafted, and the talking heads always refer to him as a MAC guy anyway) was an established superstar.
Chad Pennington looked as though he was going to be a top-5 QB in the AFC for the next ten years.
Byron Leftwich had taken over the starting spot for the Jaguars and looked like an excellent pro prospect.
Ben Roethlisberger had just gone 15-0 as a rookie.
Charlie Batch had settled in as a career backup, of course, but was a second-round pick in '98 and started half a season as a rookie.
Omar Jacobs from Bowling Green looked as though he’d be a first-round pick in '06, then missed half the ‘05 season with a shoulder injury and ended up buried on the Steelers’ practice squad (I’m still expecting someone to invite him to camp this year - he could be an astonishingly good NFL QB.)
Then, of course, it all fell apart. Culpepper destroyed his knee; Pennington destroyed his shoulder; everyone realized that Leftwich’s three-second release wasn’t going to get any quicker; Frye was literally eaten alive by Pittsburgh in Week 1.
Roethlisberger is the last one standing.
I’m serious about Jacobs, though. That guy is far too talented not to be at least learning the playbook somewhere. I’m looking at you, Detroit.
I’m looking at me too. I always thought that Jacobs had a good arm and didn’t seem dumb.
I want Josh Johnson this year, though.
(Quick Detroit Lions depth chart at quarterback: Kitna, Drew Stanton. Yes, we need another quarterback or two. I’ll take a Colt Brennan as well. It all depends on how much management likes Stanton, who I like.)
With our offensive line, I’d say that’s generous.
To be fair, Stanton’s injury was cleanup work in his knee…nothing ultra-serious. A fine holdover injury from college indeed.
Nor was it neccesarily a bad thing to put him on the shelf for a year. Give him time to learn the playbook and study film, rehab without a rush to get him back that year and be ready to be Kitna’s understudy this year.
Which is all completely fine by me, but there’s nobody else as a backup on the roster. Another young quarterback in the third round would be a decent safety net. Besides, if, for some amazing chance, both young quarterbacks pan out, that’s a decent spot to be in.
The Browns resigned Seth McKinney. They now have 6 interior lineman who are, at worst, a good backup - Steinbach, Fraley, McKinney, Tucker, Hadnot, Friedman. It’s not looking good for Bentley.
Makes me sad. Bentley was going to live out his dream of playing for his childhood team - and he was going to help the fans live some of our dreams by teabagging Casey Hampton 12 times a game.
He’s a center/guard, but yes he’d most likely play RG. Bentley is also a C/G and would probably play RG if he made a recovery, at least for now - Fraley is a solid center and it’s easier to swap RGs than center. RG would also be more suitable for Bentley is his mobility is limited.
As it is, we had Tucker and Hadnot both capable of being quality starters at RG, Friedman making a competant C/G backup (I think he’s played C, IIRC) - if Bentley was expected to compete or back up either spot, it seems unlikely we’d sign another starting-quality C/G.
Maybe he came cheap though due to his injury history, I don’t know.
Something funky happened to cause a rift between Bentley and the FO.
They passed the rule allowing one defensive player to have a radio in his helmet. I don’t really have strong feelings one way or another. It’ll prevent sign stealing stuff, but I wonder - does the NFL use encrypted radio signals and such? If I was an NFL owner I’d seriously look into aquiring some military grade encrypted frequency hopping radios if it was technically feasible (you have to fit it all into a helmet, so I don’t know).
Since the offense gets one, it seems reasonable to give the defense the capability.
I read that they’re delaying the schedule release yet again to an undetermined date. Frustrating - this is the most anxious I’ve ever been to see a schedule.
Rumor is that Cleveland might get the third Thanksgiving (nfl network) game - hosting it. I’d be okay with that, less convenient than the non-nfl network games though.
Speaking of which - I can accept the Detroit/Dallas tradition for Thanksgiving, but do they always have to be home games for those teams? Artificial turf and a dome and semi-dome every year - blah. They should alternate between home and away games every year for those teams.
