NFL 2016: Offseason: OTAs / Dead Zone / Gumbie Loves Kickers!

As long as the ball doesn't have to travel further than 10 yards, Teddy's your man.

That's worded like an insult, but Drew Brees throws for about 5000 yards a season the same way, so...

K Shaun Suisham cut from Steelers for failing physical as he rehabs knee.

That John Fox/Jeff Spicoli face might be the best thing ever.

garion333 wrote:

K Shaun Suisham cut from Steelers for failing physical as he rehabs knee.

Thank you for staying on-topic.

Hey maybe the Steelers wanna give Scobee another shot?

I don't even know how to preface a new Johnny Manziel news bit anymore.

Manziel's lawyer was apparently given a receipt that showed Manziel bought $1000 worth of "drug paraphernalia" a couple days ago (hours after being involved in a hit-and-run accident, in which he was apparently the one that was hit).

Best of all, the lawyer sent a text message that said, "Heaven help us if one of the conditions is to pee in a bottle", referring to presumed conditions of a plea deal in his domestic violence case. The text was supposed to go to another lawyer, but he accidentally sent it to the AP instead (replying to the wrong text, as the AP was reaching out to him for comment on the hit-and-run).

*Legion* wrote:

I don't even know how to preface a new Johnny Manziel news bit anymore.

Manziel's lawyer was apparently given a receipt that showed Manziel bought $1000 worth of "drug paraphernalia" a couple days ago (hours after being involved in a hit-and-run accident, in which he was apparently the one that was hit).

Best of all, the lawyer sent a text message that said, "Heaven help us if one of the conditions is to pee in a bottle", referring to presumed conditions of a plea deal in his domestic violence case. The text was supposed to go to another lawyer, but he accidentally sent it to the AP instead (replying to the wrong text, as the AP was reaching out to him for comment on the hit-and-run).

Did he follow it up with "MT, MT!!!!"

Edit: And since it's the thing to talk about today, the NFL's monitoring the situation with Brexit. It shouldn't impact this season's games in London, but going forward, who knows? Maybe this is the excuse the owners who don't have ties to the UK can use to end the practice.

Also, there's news that the proposed stadium in Las Vegas would be seeking $750 million in public funds. Public as in a tax on hotel stays, meaning mostly people from out of town would be financing the stadium instead of the locals.

Rat Boy wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

I don't even know how to preface a new Johnny Manziel news bit anymore.

Manziel's lawyer was apparently given a receipt that showed Manziel bought $1000 worth of "drug paraphernalia" a couple days ago (hours after being involved in a hit-and-run accident, in which he was apparently the one that was hit).

Best of all, the lawyer sent a text message that said, "Heaven help us if one of the conditions is to pee in a bottle", referring to presumed conditions of a plea deal in his domestic violence case. The text was supposed to go to another lawyer, but he accidentally sent it to the AP instead (replying to the wrong text, as the AP was reaching out to him for comment on the hit-and-run).

Did he follow it up with "MT, MT!!!!"

No, but his dad said that he's a "druggie" and that, "I hate to say it but I hope he goes to jail. I mean, that would be the best place for him."

The Pro Football Hall of Fame built themselves a holodeck.

Huh

Like this:

IMAGE(http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CirQ3PUUgAApi5Z.jpg)

Edit: Is that image showing up for anyone?

Back on topic:

Evaluating Kickers in Weather

Much was made of Roberto Aguayo’s lack of track record in cold-weather conditions after he was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second round. While his small sample size in this area was not impressive, it is also important to remember that a lack of meaningful data does not indicate a problem, but simply requires more information in order to draw a proper conclusion. In my mind, many kicking camps function in a similar way. They can be used by coaches and evaluators to gather a baseline evaluation on a player, with the caveat that further study is often required in order to gain a full understanding of a kicker’s abilities.
It is only when considering these performances in the context of the situations in which they occurred, and comparing them to other specialists, that it becomes clear that Vinatieri is one of the top kickers, if not the top kicker of all-time. Context is critical to effective evaluation, and for specialists, weather is an important piece of the puzzle that must take on greater importance than with other positions.

Buddy Ryan passed away the other day.. Not shocking as he was in poor health for some time. He will be missed.

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/art...

TheGameguru wrote:

Buddy Ryan passed away the other day.. Not shocking as he was in poor health for some time. He will be missed.

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/art...

Especially sad he didn't get to see his sons coaching together again.

One of my co-workers texted me about Buddy Ryan.

Yeah as a head coach he was one hell of a defensive coordinator

What a life.

I would like to have seen a GM try and sell Buddy on drafting a 2nd round kicker.

LEGIT NEWS!

Andrew Luck signed for 6 years, $140 million. That's only $23 million/yr, which is less than most expected.

Still, a lot of money. Hopefully he hasn't permanently regressed from all the sacks he's endured. If so, the Colts are in for a long, long six years.

Full breakdown here and here, if you care.

My immediate expectation is that they restructure/extend in two years to drop the $27+ million cap hits in 2018 and 2019.

Legit article title: Cleveland Is on Track to Become a Sports Powerhouse

Except not the Browns.

Missed this yesterday, but Johnny Manziel says he is going completely sober.

Starting Friday.

Spoiler:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/3NkCAYV.jpg)

garion333 wrote:

Andrew Luck signed for 6 years, $140 million. That's only $23 million/yr, which is less than most expected.

Yeah, that is surprising. There's no way his rough 2015 didn't cost him there. Even with that, I'm surprised to see that number below $25 mil/yr.

This is a much more straightforward contract than the QB deals we've seen of late. The only real wrinkle is splitting the salary numbers of most of the deal between salary and annual roster bonuses.

My immediate expectation is that they restructure/extend in two years to drop the $27+ million cap hits in 2018 and 2019.

It's actually 2019 and 2020, based on Sportrac's figures, but the point remains. That's about the time an extension would be on the table. At the same time, taking expected cap inflation into account, that number might not be quite so ominous by 2019. Of course, if he's playing at a level that justifies keeping him at that number, then the contract extension is coming anyway, so it'd probably be a moot point. It's not like Drew Brees right now, where there's no extension coming because of his age, and now he's playing the final year of his deal at a $30 mil cap figure.

*Legion* wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Andrew Luck signed for 6 years, $140 million. That's only $23 million/yr, which is less than most expected.

Yeah, that is surprising. There's no way his rough 2015 didn't cost him there. Even with that, I'm surprised to see that number below $25 mil/yr..

How much was that Luck, and how much was the Colts actively trying to kill him, though?

Johnny Manziel is going to be suspended four games for substance abuse, which will reduce the number of games he will play again in the NFL by exactly zero.

cube wrote:

How much was that Luck, and how much was the Colts actively trying to kill him, though?

Plenty of it was on Luck himself, who did not have a good individual effort. The Colts offensive line actually wasn't as bad as the common narrative might suggest (which usually assumes when a good QB has a bad year, the line was at fault). Indy had some problems on the right side and a major problem at center, but the left side was solid. The line certainly contributed to the problems, but was not the chief architect of them, IMO.

Really, what happened is that Luck played badly to start the season, and then he got hurt and tried to play through injury and that just made things worse. Injury alone can't be blamed as he was playing poor before that (which he himself has admitted to), but injury robbed him of the chance to get back on track and right the ship. He only played two healthy games.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Johnny Manziel is going to be suspended four games for substance abuse, which will reduce the number of games he will play again in the NFL by exactly zero.

Is he even on an active roster? How does that even work if he isn't even on a team?

Meanwhile, in Canada...

Spoiler:

...Am I a bad person for wanting something like this to happen in the NFL?

All or Nothing is up on Amazon. Free if you have Prime (who doesn't, right?).

What is it? Oh, only eight hours of NFL Films documentary footage following the Arizona Cardinals around last year. Eight goddamn hours of NFL Films. I can't wait!

Paleocon wrote:

Is he even on an active roster? How does that even work if he isn't even on a team?

It's like a debt. For Manziel to ever play an NFL game again, he would need to be under contract on a team and serve the 4 games on the team's Reserve/Suspended list. During that time, he would not be on the active roster, but once the suspension was up, the team would have to activate him.

garion333 wrote:

All or Nothing is up on Amazon. Free if you have Prime (who doesn't, right?).

What is it? Oh, only eight hours of NFL Films documentary footage following the Arizona Cardinals around last year. Eight goddamn hours of NFL Films. I can't wait!

Thanks for this heads-up.

Rat Boy wrote:

Meanwhile, in Canada...

Spoiler:

...Am I a bad person for wanting something like this to happen in the NFL?

Vince McMahon tried to give this to us.

*Legion* wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Meanwhile, in Canada...

Spoiler:

...Am I a bad person for wanting something like this to happen in the NFL?

Vince McMahon tried to give this to us.

Thanks for reminding me they're doing a 30 for 30 on the XFL.

*Legion* wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

Is he even on an active roster? How does that even work if he isn't even on a team?

It's like a debt. For Manziel to ever play an NFL game again, he would need to be under contract on a team and serve the 4 games on the team's Reserve/Suspended list. During that time, he would not be on the active roster, but once the suspension was up, the team would have to activate him.

So, effectively a stake through the heart of a corpse. Even at the league vet minimum, a team would have to sit him four games to roll the dice on him the moment he is signed.