Except that they traded their own 2004 first-rounder (and arguably the best athlete in the league) for relative peanuts last season.
As suggested in my post #330, the 49ers cut Damon Huard. This means we won’t have to have four QBs on the roster, so I’m guessing Kory Sheets is more likely to be on the final roster.
Huard can probably go back to the Chiefs now, at least, since Cassel is hurt.
Why would they want him? Thigpen was shockingly good last season, and frankly deserves to start way more than Cassel does anyway.
Frankly, I don’t care.
And “shockingly good” ? Take your blinders off, man.
Quite frankly, Tyler Thigpen was the best quarterback aliiiiive. How you would say that Damon Huard is a better quarterback is prePOSterOUS. Let me ask you one question? How do the receivers get the ball? THAT’S RIGHT. The quarterback THROWS them the ball and nobody throws the BALL better than Tyler Thiiiigpen.
Sorry, Stephen A. Smith broke up with ESPN and decided to come over and post on my laptop.
What blinders? I don’t like the Chiefs or Tyler Thigpen or anyone associated with the organization, frankly.
Thigpen was a seventh-round pick from a Division II program. He was cut by the Vikings, and was KC’s third or fourth quarterback right until one week before the moment he became the starter (meaning virtually no practice reps, let alone actual game reps). He came in as an emergency starter for what was then the league’s 31st-ranked offense.
So, with no practice reps, no true #1 wideout, not much of a running game, and the league’s 31st-ranked defense (meaning everyone knew he was throwing), he put up 2600 yards and an 18/12 TD/INT ratio in 11 1/2 games. Oh, and ran for just shy of 400 yards, and another three touchdowns.
If you don’t find his performance shockingly good, you’re nuts.
That, and Cassel’s cheap contract was up. He was going to get a big-time *starting * offer from somebody, and had no reason to stay on the bench in NE even for the same money, which he wasn’t going to get, the salary cap being what it is. The Pats played it smart by franchising and trading him, so they’d get some compensation, at least.
Belichick won’t admit it, but he does make decisions based on emotion at times (cutting Lawyer Milloy, f’rinstance). O’Connell did suck in his last preseason game, and maybe there were some words as well as some reconsideration of his skills.
What the hell is happening in KC, anyway? The rookie coach fires the OC right before the season and expects to “win” something somehow?
He wins a bunch of confused offensive personnel, I guess.
That said, the last time somebody got fired right before the season, it was Tom Moore, who got fired by Denny Green in '94, and was replaced by Brian Billick, who ran the highest-scoring offense in the history of the NFL two years later…
Of course, it turned out that Moore was pretty good too.
…The Lions signed O’Connell after he got cut by the Patriots. Clearly, the Lions will mine a gem out of that.
Clearly.
On other news, there is currently only one player on the Lions roster now from the 2002-2006 drafts. That lone player is Ernie Sims. One might wonder how the Lions got so bad. That, right there, would explain it.
Matt Millen was one of the worst GMs I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t fathom how he kept his job year after year when everybody and their dog knew he was ruining the franchise.
On a happier note, it’s the last preseason games of the year tonight. I always find them interesting because it’s all about the bubble guys fighting for a spot on the roster. Cut down day is Saturday at 5:00 p.m., so these guys will be throwing their bodies around the field in an effort to make just one big play that will get them noticed.
I’m also interested in cutdown day. Each year there are a few players who I like who will be cut. It is kinda sad that a guy like David Tyree, a Super Bowl hero, is likely, the very next year, to be cut. Heartless game NFL football.
So, who are the guys on the bubble who might get cut but could actually play in the NFL. For the Packers:
RB: Grant and Jackson are 1 and 2, but with Jackson having an ankle injury, the Pack may keep 4 RBs on the roster instead of three. They can’t keep Wynn, Sutton, and Lumpkin. I think Lumpkin is the odd man out. He’s shown flashes but has trouble staying healthy. Which could be said about roughly 60% of the castoffs from this weekend.
OL: Their starting C from the last two years was demoted this year, and may be expendable. Also Tony Moll, who sucks royally, should be shown the door. I’m worried that my mancrush Jamon Meredith will be cut too.
FB: The Packers have 2 solid, dependable FB’s. But unfortunately for them, they drafted another one. So one, either Kuhn or Hall is going to be cut. Either would be nice catch for a team looking for a starting caliber FB.
There are other guys like Brian Brohm (their second round pick from last year, who has only started to look good this past week), Justin Harrell (first round pick who has never and apparently will never, be healthy. Biggest mistake of TT’s career), and some no name, but pretty good WRs who might get picked up too.
How about your teams?
There’s no way Brohm gets released. There are a half dozen teams who would give up at least a fourth-rounder for him.
Good point. The I want __________, should I trade for him or hope they cut him strategy is interesting too.
It’s looking like Joshua Cribbs may be back. Last year he had a high ankle sprain nagging him all year, combined with losing two of our best special teams player, returned him down to earth.
But he had probably the best returning season of all time in 2007 - no exaggeration - and he’s been looking great this preseason. In fact the Browns special teams have been looking spectacular - stuffing returners, forcing fumbles, blocked a kick, returning well - just good at everything.
What’s interesting about Cribbs is that he isn’t all that fast. Maybe slightly above average NFL receiver speed. But he has good vision, makes good decisions, and he’s powerful. He runs people over in a way that’s amazing for a receiver. I just was watching a replay of the Titans preseason game and he knocked a coverage guy straight back on his ass on a return.
I wish I could find video of my favorite Cribbs play of all time to show you guys, because it’s probably the best return I’ve ever seen - and it was only like a yarder.
The situation is… Baltimore is up 33 to 30, the Browns get the ball back with around 30 seconds. They really need a good return to get in position to score. Cribbs takes the ball and runs… and the defensive coverage is good. He has nowhere to go. So he decides to just go pure fucking savage manly warrior and drive right through the coverage team. There’s a point where 6 players of the opposing team has a hand on him, and he drove the entire pile another 10 yards. I don’t know how he runs so gracefully with balls the size of watermelons. It was a sight to behold.
This is most likely affected by how high or low a team is on the waiver wire priority chart.
That’s not the whole story.
The very next year after Tyree was a Superbowl hero was last year, when he started the season on the PUP list and never really got healthy enough to make it onto the field. I don’t know for a fact but I believe he ended up on IR late in the season.
All last season I kept being bummed about Feagle’s punts to the two not getting downed, and instead rolling into the end zone for a touchback. That’s the Tyree specialty, catching those Feagles surgical strikes inside in the 5.
So this preseason, two years removed from the Superbowl with a full year of being a ghost from injuries under his belt, Tyree was banged up again and missed most of camp. He finally managed to find his way onto the field in the fourth quarter of the third preseason game, in on a punt. He runs down the field, gets to the two yard line as Feagles’ punt comes down right to him and…muffs it into the end zone for a touchback.
You could see by his reaction he knew that play alone punched his ticket. The moment I saw him muff it I made peace with the fact that he is an ex-Giant-to-be. The guy’s been nothing but injured for the last 18 months, and when he finally gets on the field he can’t even do the one thing that made him valuable? It’s over, you’re gone.
It would have been heartless to cut him last year when he came off the PUP list, but they held open a roster spot out of gratitude and loyalty. Enough is enough, and his still being injury-prone is too much. (Though I’d be fine if they keep him and cut Sinorice Moss instead. I believe it’s between the two of them as opposed to cutting them both, but I could be wrong.)
The Bucs just fired their OC today too. Jeff Jagodzinski was canned for being a complete fucking disaster, not a good run for him of late, and the QB coach promoted. Well done Tampa.
Peter King predicted a 2-14 season (worst in the nfl) for the Browns. I’m not that high on the team this year and I’m not expecting the superbowl, but the idea that we have a much easier schedule, lost the worst (or at least bottom 3) coach in the NFL, and probably won’t have 6 games QB’d by Ken Dorsey and yet we halve our win total strikes me as pretty silly.
I picked up both your quarterbacks for my fantasy league (my started is Matt Schaub). Who has the inside track, in your opinion?
I’m actually not sure. There’s massive fan pressure to start Quinn and possibly ownership pressure, but I’m not sure Quinn is actually that good. He’s the first round pick hometown pretty boy and Anderson is flawed and mistake prone - the roar calling for Quinn is unmistakable, to the point where some people are rooting for Anderson to be injured so their precious Quinn gets his chance.
But Mangini is more interested in actual football performance I hope than all that BS, so I’m not sure.
I would say probably 2/3rds chance of Quinn, 1/3rd Anderson.
I’m surprised they didn’t trade away one of them, to be honest.