I think he’s worth about the same as Orton. Palmer had 3 percentage points higher in completion % at 61.8% compared to Orton’s 58.8% and he had more yards and 6 more TD’s than Orton…but man, those 11 more INT’s (20 compared to 9) really jumps out at you…at least three of them were pick 6’s too…I can say with some degree of certainty that at least a third of those INT’s were the fault of TO and Chad though, from running wrong routes/freelancing (Chad) or alligator-arming the ball (TO).
But those aren’t really the metrics that teams use when determining who is worth what. I can’t imagine a scenario where a team would give up as much for Palmer as they would for Orton.
Eagles news! I know you’re all excited. Chomping at the bit, I’m sure.
DJax ended his holdout. But trouble is still brewing as his slimeball agent Drew Rosenhaus came to town with him. The last time that happened, it didn’t turn out so well (T.O., circa 2005). It’s going to be real interesting to see what he demands in terms of salary, and what the Eagles can do to pay him. Does he want top 5 money? I don’t think he’s a top five kind of guy. Top ten? Well, that’s around 4-6 million per season, which would be doable. Either way, the Eagles can probably make it happen, but the former may require some unnecessary mortgaging of their future.
There are going to be some seriously good players cut from this team who end up having a real impact elsewhere. I think the second team in Philly could win 4-6 games in a season. I was making a mock depth chart the other night (the preliminary official one was released today) and there are going to be some seriously tough cuts made. Already the team cut WR DeAndre Brown who was flashing some incredible skills in practice. He’s gigantic, and I’m sure he’ll end up somewhere and get some reps. I was really hoping he would develop into another situational receiver/red zone target. Riley Cooper, who was last year’s training camp darling, hasn’t showed anything at all this year.
He’s not a top 5 guy in terms of receiving production, but in terms of his overall value - drawing coverage, rushing, returns, and so on, absolutely. Remember, at 3 years in the league, he hasn’t even hit his stride yet.
3,000 receiving yards in 3 NFL seasons, and another 330 rushing yards; plus four touchdowns on punt returns.
I’m not saying he deserves Larry Fitzgerald money, and I doubt the Iggles have the cap space to give him $10 million per anyway - but 6 years and $40 million seems about right. That’s roughly what Chad Johnson got in 2006.
In an effort to make Senor Beef very happy, the Lions signed Jerome Harrison to compete with fellow signee Mike Bell, as backup/co carrier with Jahvid Best. Let the fun begin.
Best will stub his toe and Jerome Harrison puts up 2200 rushing 1300 receiving 32 TDs. Book it.
I always think that when the Packers make their cut, and sometimes guys do go to other teams, but it’s pretty rare that they make a huge impact out there. Kregg Lumpkins, a backup RB with the Bucs, is about it. Lagarette Blount was such a big story because he was one of the very few who got cut and then had a huge impact. I think each team has their own guys they like and want to develop, more than they would like to develop someone else’s castoffs. Maybe it’s just my failing memory, but I’m not sure there are lots of great players out there who were cut and went on to find success.
Although you do get to play the pathetic Redskins twice, I think you need to put down the Green Flavor-Aid if you think the Eagles backups are as good as 6 first teams in the NFL.
I dunno, their back-ups almost managed to beat the Stephen McGee-lead Cowboys last year. 
The sum total of Lumpkin’s contribution to the Bucs last year was 1 attempt for no yards and 1 catch for 0 yards, and a couple of special teams tackles. I think he only actually got onto the field for something like 7 offensive snaps.
Good moves. I like it.
I think DeSean Jackson deserves Devin Hester’s contract. Here’s the details of it from a couple years ago. Keep in mind that Hester and Jackson’s rookie contracts were very similar and there’s a component of these new extensions which reward the player for outplaying those rookie deals.
Now, I feel that Hester is overpaid, or more accurately *was *over paid. He got a ton of money up front following the Super Bowl season. I think Jackson’s status as a return man and dynamic WR with health and consistency issues jibe pretty well with what Hester was perceived as when he got this deal. Jackson is a more polished receiver and the Eagles are going to rely on him in the same way the Bears relied on Hester, for better or for worse in both cases. Where Hester got too much, Jackson would be properly compensated when you factor in his better receiving skills and inflation.
I was listening to the Football Today Podcast on the drive into work this morning and they were discussing this. They mentioned how crappy the timing was for the Lions because just a couple days earlier and there would have been some available veteran backs out there who might have been able to replace Leshoure. Ricky Williams and Jason Snelling were two they mentioned who signed over the weekend. I was thinking about who the heck was left and Harrison never came to mind, honestly he’s probably an excellent addition and I think I like his upside better than Sticky Ricky. Snelling would have been better due to his size and receiving ability, but Harrison and Best are two dynamic guys who each need to have their use monitored. They’ll complement each other well and the Lions won’t have to have two totally different playbooks for when each is on the field, like some thunder and lightning type combos suffer from.
Things could have ended up much worse for the Lions, I had a brief fantasy that the Bears would trade Chester Taylor to the Lions for a 6th or 7th round pick.
And then be relegated to the bench!
He’s actually not. He’s been pretty durable. There’s this image that he’s a tiny little Darren Sproles style scatback, but that’s never matched reality. He’s only slightly smaller than MJD, he’s always been an inside runner, he’s not all that fast - he’s not at all a scatback and he doesn’t have significant durability issues. During the last 4 games of 2009 when he was getting 30+ carries per game, Mangini deliberately kept him on the special teams blocking teams just to try to injure him on purpose to prove some sort of point, and yet he handled the ridiculous load that no NFL running back would ever be asked to carry just fine.
Seriously - to really understand the absurdity of his treatment - after 34 carries and 286 yards in the game against KC, he was still out there all throughout the game on special teams units. Not even as a returner, but just as part of the normal kickoff return blocking unit. The only thing I can possibly think of to explain it is that Mangini, after benching him all year for a completely ineffective Jamal Lewis, was pissed that Harrison was making him look stupid, and set out to deliberately injure him so then he could say “oh see, he couldn’t hold up under the punishment.. yeah, uh, that’s why I didn’t start him”
So we have a team that’s a completely disfunctional 1-11 going into their 13th game. They have no passing game whatsoever - their quarterbacks are completely disfunctional, they have no receivers, and the stat lines from some of the passing games are absurdly bad. The defense is beat up and shitty. All they have on offense is a good offensive line, a good fullback, and a backup RB who’s always done well with every touch but never got more than 5 carries in a game for 3 years.
That backup RB decides to take the entire team on his back - this disfunctional, demoralized, completely shitty 1-11 team, and then lead them to 4 wins in a row. Wins that actually set records for how unsuccessful a passing game could be while still winning. Against KC, Brady Quinn despite having an absurdly good running game, managed only 66 yards and 2 Ints. The chiefs knew all the Browns could do was run and stacked their defense against it. And yet Harrison rips off 286 rushing yards against them - the 3rd highest total in the history of the NFL, and the only reason he didn’t run for more was because the Cleveland defense couldn’t stop the KC offense and keep getting the ball back.
He then runs for 150 yards against Oakland with Anderson only throwing for 121 yards. And to finish off the season, while getting Anderson to throw for 86 yards, Harrison runs for 127. A shitty, beat up 1-11 rips off 4 wins in a row to finish the year, while averaging 14 passes per game, all on the back of an absolutely dominant running back. He saved Mangini’s job, without a doubt, and he was the driving force behind the turnaround.
And it was vindicating for me. I was praising Harrison for years before this happened, saying that if he just got a chance to start he’d be special. And he exceeded my pimping. He was amazing. He set records under conditions that were about the worst that an offense could have.
The fewest yards Harrison has ever gotten in a game where he’s gotten 15+ carries is 127.
And then… the next year, they drafted a running back, traded for one, and put him back down the depth chart.
I have been in tune with Browns fandom for years. I hear the rumors about what goes on in the locker room, and what the fans are discussing, and all that. I have never been able to find any reason whatsoever that Harrison was treated like that. It was so fucking completely bizarre that it boggles my mind.
I still think Harrison is one of the best running backs in the league. I still have no idea what the fuck the deal is. And I think there’s a good chance Detroit will recognize this.
There’s been quite a bit of speculation about the Bears adding another defensive player in either Lofa Tatupu or Kelvin Hayden before the first preseason game. The Bears are in a interesting position at both spots, with establish veterans who’ll need eventual replacement on one side and a young up-and-comer with little name value on the other. At both the CB spot and the SLB spot the Bears like the players they have now in Zach Bowman and Nick Roach. Bowman is a middle round draft choice with freakish athletic ability and a nose for the football. He’s frustrated coaches with some mental breakdowns and has a bit of an injury bug. They hoped he’d seize the starting gig last year and came up short, this year the expectation is the same. In Roach they have a more proven commodity, he started quite a bit in spot duty in the past couple years with all the injuries across the LB group and always performed well. He’s essentially the analog to Bowman, he was an undrafted FA and lacks any standout physical gifts. However, he’s very smart, very consistent and the coaches love his fundamentals. He’s not dynamic but he’s always in the right place.
In seeking Tatupu and Hayden, the Bears would probably have to risk further stunting the growth of these two players. It’s one of the constant uncertainties of the NFL, do you throw the youngsters in there and make them step up or do you take the veteran option that might have less downside but also less upside. On the offensive line I’d have greatly preferred the veteran option, at these two spots I’m leaning toward sticking with the youth. It’s worth noting that adding either Hayden or Tatupu could not only slow the growth of these two near-starters, but it could cost some recently drafted rookies or special teamers their roster spots, namely Joshua Moore, Corey Graham, JT Thomas or Brian Iwuh.
It appears that in at least one of those cases the Bears agreed with me.
I’m just worried that we know who he is at this point. I don’t really think there’s going to be a jump coming in terms of his skillset and production. He is basically a known quantity now - elite speed and playmaking ability, small and unable to properly fight press/physical corners, questionable hands, even more questionable decision making.
The guy won’t be returning punts again, I’m sure. Partly because he’s an injury risk every time he touches the ball and partly because no team will kick it to him ever again after this.
I mean, the guy does deserve to get paid, and it looks like there’s no chance the Eagles get out of this without dropping at least 8 million a year. But they could afford $10 million per year. They’d have to restructure Vick’s contract and extend him in order to bring his cap number down far enough to make up the extra room, but they could do it.
Everyone is saying the Eagles don’t want to because that’ll result in too much guaranteed money to an injury prone QB on the wrong side of 30 and cripple their flexibility down the road.
Makes sense to me, although Jackson is 10 times the receiver Hester is and seven tenths the returner.
I was kinda cheating here, because the official Eagles depth chart won’t be the final one and has some strange listings in the second team… but the current Eagles’ second team would absolutely win 4 games. Without a doubt.
QB - Vince Young
RB - Ronnie Brown
WR - Jason Avant, Riley Cooper
TE - Donald Lee
OT - Winston Justice, King Dunlap
OG - Evan Mathis, Mike McGlynn
C- Jason Kelce
DE - Jason Babin, Darryl Tapp
DT - Trevor Laws, Cullen Jenkins
LB - Keenan Clayton, Greg Lloyd, Akeem Jordan
CB - Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Joselio Hanson
S - Jarrad Page, Jaiquawn Jarrett
I mean, there are some Pro Bowlers there. I’d take Vince Young as a QB over at least 10 QBs right now. The O-Line isn’t awful - Justice has a lot of starting experience, Mathis was a starter, McGlynn got a ton of work last year and has experience, and Kelce may end up being the starter outright by week one, so he has potential. It’s cheating, but there are 26.5 sacks in 2010 along that D-Line. And the LB corp, while obviously not good enough, at least has some experience and isn’t completely awful (Clayton, especially, was really good late last year). DRC is a Pro Bowler and Joselio Hanson was the best nickel corner in the NFL according to Football Outsiders.
Yeah, I think that team wins 4 games.
If it were 7 or 8 backups at positions of depth with the rest of the first teamers, sure, I’d give you 4 wins easily. But the entire team of backups? No way in hell. There’s a reason these guys can’t break the starting lineup. And there’s reasons guys like Young, Brown, and Lee were released outright by their teams and couldn’t even cut it as backups there. The O line would get eaten for lunch by a healthy majority of teams in the NFL, The linebacker crew couldn’t cover sideline to sideline, DRC was horrible last year, Jarrett is a rookie and Page is another retread who couldn’t cut it elsewhere.
There are some players who WERE Pro Bowlers.
Maybe. Maybe Young is better than I think, maybe Justice is healthy and stopped being bad, maybe McGlynn should have beat out a rookie each time the Eagles draft, maybe DRC returns to form, and Joselio is all that. Maybe you do get 4 wins.
I really doubt it though.
Any NFL team worth a crap would beat them. It’s not just that you have one or two guys who might, and it’s just a MIGHT, be really good, it’s also that you have a great majority who simply aren’t good enough. The weaknesses would be too weak, and you’d be counting on a lot of retreads to play not just well, but very very well. NFL caliber coaches would easily be able to counteract the good players, and take advantage of every little weakness or mismatch on the team. I think they’d be good enough to catch a couple wins. At home. Against really bad teams. And maybe they do get to 4 wins, if they stay healthy, catch a lot of breaks, and surprise everyone. But there is no way they get to 6. The difference between starters and backups and the high level of coaching and gameplanning is too much to overcome.
Looks like your pet made the 2 deep - link.
Yeah my parents had to buy the generic stuff too. 
Sorry I don’t see many references to Flavor-Aid.
I took the girls to the Rams practice this afternoon. It’s the first time I’ve been to Rams training camp and it was well run, but not crowded at all. I got to watch, really up close (like I was 5 feet from Steven Jackson up close) a RB blitz pick up drill with SJax, Cadillac Williams (who was amazing at blocking, not so much at running the ball later), and Jerious Norwood (who spent more time with the coach than doing the drill). It lasted about 10 minutes, but seeing the amount of minutea they get into (body positioning, knee bend, and hand placement), I realized that there’s a fair amount of mental aspects to even the simplest blocking stuff.
Some small tidbits (and yes I know it was only 2.5 hours of a padded practice, so any conclusions are completely unreliable):
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The Rams are royally fucked if Sam Bradford gets injured. AJ Feeley completely and utterly blows, Thaddeus Lewis has the accuracy of a wounded gopher, and Taylor Potts has 0 experience. Bradford, despite legs almost skinnier than mine (which is saying a ton), is the real deal however.
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I love watching Steven Jackson run.
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There were 3 ex-Packers there. Brady Poppinga was actually playing for a change (and he had great coverage on some no name coming out if the backfield during the scrimmage), Na’il Diggs (who I saw nothing of), and Al Harris. The last one was amusing because I was explaining the game to my oldest girl, and noticed a CB with the Predator dreadlocks and number 31 and mentioned his name, but I had no idea it was actually him till I checked the roster sheet. I didn’t even know they had signed him. He was a huge help to the coaches on one particular drill, and was constantly talking to the other CB’s. Here’s hoping he has a great season.
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Mardy Gilyard won’t ever cut it as a WR in the NFL.
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Mike Sims Walker can really catch the ball … and sucks at blocking. He’s not physical at all and will be a detriment on running plays.
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Spagnolo is very vocal. At one point he shouted at Schuylar Oordt “HOW ABOUT YOU TRY BLOCKING SOMEONE?!!” Spags ran a quick, very professional, well timed, and interesting practice.
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Billy Bajema needs a hands transplant. Denario Alexander needs a knee transplant. Justin King needs a brain transplant.
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After practice, they had an autograph session, and my girls got 6 signatures from the D Line. Those guys are effin’ huge, and it’s not all the chiseled muscle I expect. But now the girls have Chris Long, Daniel Muir’s, and others signatures and they really liked it. Fun times.
I sure wish I was in Green Bay though.