Green Bay at Detroit.
I don’t have any particular attachment to the tradition, not particularly liking Detroit and disliking Dallas, but I try to respect football traditions in general.
Thanksgiving games every year played in domes annoys me though. I’d have much preferred if the game last year actually was in Green Bay.
Bah.
If it’s less than fifty years old, it ain’t much of a tradition. More like a… trend.
Good news.
The writer is wrong - “decent” is a fairly glowing review coming from Crennel.
Rumor is that he reported a few weeks ago at 375, and even then he had a 33 (!) inch vertical. I’d like to see a 375 pound man dunk.
I’m starting to feel more optimistic about the Rogers deal. If he really works out (along with Corey Williams, who I’m not so concerned about), we could be looking at a majorly revamped defense. Not as major an improvement as the '06 to '07 offense, but if the defense can improve to “decent” then the Browns are going somewhere - they were almost 11-5 last year with utter crap for defense.
Heck, if the defense improves to “poor” you’ll make the playoffs.
IMHO, the Rogers deal is a win regardless of his motivation. He doesn’t need to actually collapse the pocket much; he’ll draw a double-team no matter what.
Jamal Williams hasn’t recorded more than one sack in any of the last three seasons, but still draws constant double-teams just because he’s there. I’d rather have a lazy overweight nose tackle than a hardworking skinny one.
The radio signal is encrypted.
Possibly. Much harder schedule this year - NFC East and AFC South. Wildcard spot isn’t that likely, but I think we’ll win the division. 9-7 or 10-6 will probably win the AFC North with that schedule. Possibly even 8-8.
I disagree - it’s true that Williams doesn’t get many sacks, but I’d imagine they yank him during obvious passing situations. Pass rushing isn’t his strength.
I can’t think of any good linemen in this league that simply use their big size. Just being 350 pounds doesn’t get you far. The good tackles draw double teams because if you don’t double them, they’ll cause havoc. Jamal Williams is a monster because he’s large, a good athlete, and he knows his technique well. He wouldn’t be worth anything just by being a giant slob.
That said, Rogers clearly has talent. I wonder how much the “lazy” tag got applied to him because he practically was the entire defense for the Lions a lot of the time and didn’t come off the field often… being tired can look like being lazy sometimes.
We’ll have a good rotation at NT with a capable starter Shaun Smith backing him up - and if we resign Ethan Kelley that’ll be a good rotation. Rogers won’t have to play more than maybe 60% of the snaps, if that many.
Plus - and I say this sympathetically as a fan of a team that (hopefully) formerly sucked hard - maybe getting out of the black hole of suck in Detroit will help his attitude.
Interesting. So you can jam it (and there are rumors about that…) but not listen in without significant effort. I wonder how good the system they use is…
My understanding of the current state of encryption – which I know next to nothing about – is that dirt-cheap and/or public domain encryption is sufficiently advanced (128 bit?) that it would give NSA codebreakers a run for their money.
The headsets are almost surely more secure than using hand signals.
I’m not saying Williams isn’t any good. I’m saying he doesn’t have to be. Giant nose tackles are there to defend the run, first and foremost, and that’s what Williams makes him name on.
Thing is, though, he’s able to stay on the field on passing downs (he does- he played something like 85% of the snaps last season) because he blocks so many passing lanes.
That’s all Rogers has to do- play the run, and stick his arms up a lot.
You’re probably right, although what PCs can do in arbitrary amounts of time and what a helmet device that needs to receive digital radio data, decrypt it, and convert it to audio in near real time while being very small will differ.
Unless I’m misunderstanding, you seem to be implying they don’t have to be good to defend against the run - they just have to be massive. That’s not true, of course, or there’d be about a million high quality nose tackles in the US instead of like… 5.
He had 7 sacks last year which is pretty impressive as what I assume to be either a primarily 0 or 1 technique DT. I’m expecting him to be a good interior pass rusher. That adds an extra dimension to your non-passing-down defense which guys like Casey Hampton or Jamal Williams, while very good at their jobs, don’t really provide.
Wimbley had a bad pass rushing year last year because of the lack of any penetration or push from the defensive line. Many many times he’d gumby his way around the left tackle only to have the quarterback step up into a well-formed pocket and miss. Between Rogers and Williams pushing that pocket, I expect his sack total to go back up and the pass rush of the defense to improve dramatically.
No, I’m not explaining it well. I’m saying he has to be good against the run, but just not be a liability against the pass.
Obviously the pass isn’t an issue with Rogers; as you said, he’s an excellent interior pass-rusher. Still, he’s built like a 1-technique tackle even though he plays like a 2-technique tackle.
In an unrelated subject, whatever happened to Antonio Bryant?
I’m watching a 2005 game I have on my computer, when Bryant was our #1 WR. He was very good - he was pretty fast, had decent hands, ran good routes, had a good ability to create seperation - at worst he’d be a good #2. He was a Belitnikof winner. The second most talented receiver the Browns have had in a decade (3rd if you count Winslow). But Dallas dumped him to us, and then we quickly got rid of him, and then IIRC San Francisco dumped him and he was out of football.
Talented receivers are tolerated as head cases for the most part - and he rarely publically showed any problems, so what happened to him? Any idea?
A play in this game also reminded me that Josh Cribbs is pure awesome and the best special teamer in the NFL - he was covering a kickoff being returned by Wes Welker and he hit Welker so hard that he flipped, legs flying through the air. He’s an awesome gunner and coverage guy. Does Hester even play on the coverage unit?
I wish I could get DirectTV for their NFL shortcuts… they cut everything out of the game except the plays and they show entire games in 25-35 minutes. If I had that, I’d probably watch 75% of the games.
2-year deal with the Buccaneers. I’d guess it’s guarantee-light and incentive-heavy, given his off-field issues, though.
Still, I was thrilled. I think he has the talent to be an excellent complement to Joey Galloway if he keeps his head in the game.
San Fran has made a lot of good wideouts look very pedestrian over the last five years.
Don’t think so, but then in addition to being the KR/PR, he’s been the #4/#5 corner (his “natural” position) and was arguably the #2 WR by the end of last season…
That game isn’t the only time he’s lit up opposing KRs… something Cribbs has going for him that most well-known returners don’t is size. The guy played QB in college, and has the legitimate size and strength to be an excellent receiver… if he didn’t have hands of vaseline.
I think they should use him on more gadget plays, Randel-el style. The gadget play for the 2 point conversion to Winslow last year was pretty fun. I love those unexpected snap type plays.
Looks like the Browns open at home against Dallas. 4pm game, Fox’s national game.
I’m a little surprised - given that Dallas will be in primetime for 8 games anyway, I thought that the Browns would’ve made one of their more interesting opponents for one.
It’s a tough challenge to open the season, but a great sign of progress if we win it. We have 7 home wins in a row going into it.
Does anyone know of any good discussion forums for the NFL in general? I’ve got a good board for my team, but most of the places I’ve visited for general nfl discussion are either fantasy football oriented, or not of very good participation and/or quality.
No… my experience matches yours- got a great board for my team, but every one I’ve tried for the NFL in general is 90% “lol your team suxxorz”, etc.
I think this place is as good as you’re going to get.
Yeah. I mean really, want more could you want- there are, like, fifty of us participating in this thread.
Well, not really. There are four of us, plus one random poster drops in per page.
Results of the owner conference:
Reseeding and hair/nameplate ideas weren’t voted on.
Passed:
Defensive radio
No more forceouts (cool with me)
Phil Dawson field goal rule - field goals are reviewable except on the issue where the ball travels over the upright, then it’s still a judgement call. (not sure if this one will come up anytime in the next decade)
Teams that win the coin toss can now defer like college
"• A direct snap from center that goes backward will now be treated as a fumble. Previously, it was ruled a false start. " (I’m not quite sure what this means)
The 5-yard face mask penalty was eliminated. Now, only the serious face mask will be called (and will be assessed as a 15-yard penalty). The major foul will involve twisting or grabbing the face mask.
Not sure how I feel about that one yet. 15 yarders are a severe penalty and now officials have the choice of letting something either go uncalled or the full 15 yards. As long as they reserve the 15 yarder for serious stuff only, I guess it may be an improvement… but you might see defenders start punching a guy in the face without twisting and getting away with it.