I am holding out hope that this is some sort of preseason trial or some kind of early emphasis on a new rule that they will back off of calling once the games matter. Surely they can see how bad the games are with 25 penalties per game, and mostly for really ticky tack stuff.
The Giants have now had a 5-0 preseason, while looking completely shitty. I mean, the 3rd team looks great, but that’s it.
Are you talking about his contract holdout? That was four years ago. I think Belichick is a cold, calculating talent evaluator. When the scales tipped against Mankins, he was gone. Plus, Belichicks M.O. seems to be get rid of them a year too early, rather than a year too late.
Final preseason games are done, now it’s onto real football. Thank God.
The Packers have a couple of tough calls getting their roster down. They have two pretty capable backup QB’s in Matt Flynn and Scott Tolzein; so they have to decide whether to keep 3 QB’s, something they’ve rarely done in the past, or cut one. I like Tolzein’s upside, he’s get a better arm and has developed a lot since his bad last season, but Flynn is a great backup because he knows the system, has been productive, and can win a few games if need be. I’d rather the insurance of Flynn, but I don’t think Tolzein would make it past waivers.
Their D-line is hard to figure too. With yet another fucking injury, this one to BJ Raji, there is a lot of concern that the NT position will be a weakness. The Packers will likely also lose a quality TE (Stoneburner? Taylor?) and a young WR (Dorsey and White), but nothing too bad. Jeff Janis has looked great against lesser talent and has made a great push to make the team at WR. And undrafted Jayrone Elliot has played himself onto the team with 5 sacks this preseason. Those two were nice suprises this offseason.
Now, bring on the Seahawks!
If it’s any consolation, they appear to have eased off the new emphasis halfway through last night’s Giants game.
In the first half, Bowman (a Giants DB, formerly of Seattle) executed textbook-perfect coverage on a WR and made an interception, only to have it called back for the standard totally bogus Illegal Use of the Hands penalty we’ve been seeing all preseason.
After that, for the rest of the game DBs were allowed to essentially tackle the receivers before the ball arrived without a single penalty flag.
Just curious- does the beatdown that Texas A & M’s (redshirt) freshman quarterback Kenny Hill laid on South Carolina give anyone pause?
It doesn’t appear that the Aggies’ offense has sufffered a whit from the loss of their seemingly irreplaceable quarterback!
That doesn’t mean Johnny Manziel can’t be a very good pro quarterback, but it DOES raise the question: MIGHT Manziel have been helped by a system that played to his strengths? If Kevin Hill puts up huge numbers this year, will HE win the Heisman? Or will people start to wonder if the Aggies system (like BYU’s or Houston’s in the old days) turns ANY quarterback into a stud?
Aside from all-around stud QBs like Andrew Luck, all college systems play to the their QB’s strengths, because colleges recruit guys that can succeed in their system. Maybe South Carolina is just overrated.
Manziel looks like a guy who only played 2 years in college. In other words, he’s exactly where you’d expect to be in terms of his progress. He’s already a much more polished scrambler than RG3, in terms of taking the yards available and getting down. The wobbly ducks he was throwing last night for some reason are concerning, but it’s not like he has a weak arm. His instincts look pretty good, he just needs more seasoning.
That said, I wouldn’t necessarily eliminate the possibility of the Browns drafting a QB next year and dealing Manziel. Next year’s QB class looks to be pretty solid.
I would be very surprised if there were anyone out there who had tried to bolster Manziel’s NFL credentials by saying that he was irreplaceable at A&M. If there had been anyone, I’d be even more surprised if they then changed their minds based on a single game against a South Carolina defense that had lost the foundation of its defense.
I admit to only watching a bit of the game, but, to me, I thought his instincts sucked and he needs more than just a bit of seasoning. I don’t think he knows (or possibly cares) how to run an NFL offense, read defenses, and run through his progressions. And to do all that quickly and accurately. I suppose that could just be “seasoning”, but he seems to be so far behind in the mental part of the game that I’d be worried he’d never develop beyond his sandlot game.
And he won’t get off your lawn.
I disagree. He was finding the open guys, he was just making shitty throws.
I would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids.
And I thought he took a sack because he didn’t know where to throw the ball, and that the only times he was successful was because of his improvisation skills. We’ll find out who is more right eventually.
He’s definitely not very comfortable with the offense yet. Which is fine, he’ll have till the middle of the season to learn, and then the rest of the season to not be very good. I would hope nobody would honestly expect a rookie QB to light it up right away, but the whole hype machine surrounding him has undoubtedly skewed expectations. But ultimately, he’ll succeed or fail based on those improvisation skills, not because he suddenly becomes a diligent student of the game.
I disagree. He can succeed in the short term based on his improvisation skills, but if he wants to have long term success in the NFL, he’ll have to learn to play the position. If he doesn’t, he’ll either get himself injured or will have the career Tim Tebow had where “run around for awhile until your WR gets open and then throw it (badly) to them” didn’t work for very long. Manziel does have the benefit of being able to actually throw the ball, unlike Tebow, but I don’t think coaches will have enough patience and Manziel will have enough positive plays, to make that style of play successful in the longterm.
Soooo…my Saints have released their 53 man roster, and it contains no kicker.
That’s pretty easy to fix. I’m more concerned that they have only one backup tackle and one backup guard. Is that normal? I think I’d cut somewhere else to have at least a utility guy that could be plugged in at guard or tackle in an emergency…
Looks like they kept 8 OLs, 5 starters a swing OG, a swing OT and 2 Centers. Pretty common, maybe a slight gamble for some teams with injury/performance concerns. It’s same as the Bears. The weird part is it seems they have 2 Centers and haven’t declared a starter. Usually if you have a backup Center that guy can play either OG spot and your backup OG can usually fill in at OT in an emergency, so there’s a bit of extra wiggle.
The kicker thing is a bit weird but the Bears are without a Long Snapper right now, so I sympathize.
They won’t be calling it at the same rate, but they’re trying to send a message to get defenders to back off.
Imagine the status quo for calling a defensive penalty on a receiver is a threshold of 10, and the NFL wants it to be a 7. So they call it as a 3 in the preseason, and try to get people to adjust their technique, so that when they stop calling it as strictly in the season, it has settled somewhere near 8.
The actual number of penalties called will increase, but not that much. But it ignores the hidden effect - defenders will be playing less defense. It still damages the game even if it doesn’t add 10 penalties to it like it does in the preseason.
Furthermore, it gives a lower threshold to a judgment call penalty so that officials are even more able to influence the outcome of a game with a conveniently timed foul at a critical moment. The star quarterbacks of the league are going to get more of these calls than others, creating a rich get richer sort of situation, and in general, unfair results for the league.
These shitbags mangled pass defense enough after Peyton Manning got beat in the AFC title game a decade ago, we don’t need round 2. They’re trying to turn this shit into arena ball.
Patriots trade Ryan Mallett to the Texans for a conditional 7th Round pick. Seems like a pretty good deal for everyone, particularly Mallett, who might actually get a chance to play if Fitzpatrick plays like he usually does. Pats were going to release him anyway, so getting anything at all is a bonus. Looks like they’ve settled on Garoppolo as the heir apparent (for now).
Actually, the loser in this deal is Case Keenum, who was released by the Texans. I thought he looked decent filling in when Schaub was hurt, but I guess Mallett makes him expendable. I suspect he’ll land somewhere, though. St. Louis, maybe?
Great, just as the 49ers get their starting right guard (Alex Boone) back from a holdout, their starting left defensive end (Ray McDonald) gets arrested for felony domestic abuse.
So, the rams cut Sam and didn’t even keep him on the practice squad. Do you think the whole thing was a PR stunt? It’s certainly possible he just wasn’t good enough. Lots of late round draft picks don’t make the team. From what I read he seemed to have a decent camp though.
How hard is it to NOT punch your wife/gf/mistress?
If I was Mallett, getting traded for a CONDITIONAL pick in the last round would serve as a wake-up call.