NFL 2016: Offseason: Pre-Draft / St. Louis Trolling

Didn't you know running the ball is totally en vogue right now? Why both with pass protection?

*Legion* wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

Cap space is like timeouts though. You don't get extra credit for not using it.

This is something I have yelled at sportswriters for years now for criticizing the Jaguars for "overpaying" for free agents when they're sitting on a mountain of cap space.

Some owners are more concerned about cash spend than cap space. The salary floor prevents an MLB style system where the top 5 teams literally outspend the bottom 5 by more than 2x. But even still, there's room to spend less money than everyone else. With Whitner's release, the Browns should fall to 32nd in cash spend in 2016, for now at least.

I think it really depends on the situation. If the team's one or two impact players away from success and have the cap room, it can make sense to overpay with short contracts. Or when the team is Cleveland, where they need to massively overpay so the players can sleep on a pile of money and get the therapy they need because they're playing in Cleveland. Or if it's a superstar, it can make sense to over pay... unless it's Flacco money and time, nobody's worth that.

But when the team's in a situation where they need an entire defense(the Bears in 2016) or an offense(the Bears every other year), the problem is that overpaying now generally means that the team's going to be massively overpaying later, and if they do fall into a roster that's one or two pieces away from success, they're unable to make any moves because of how overpaid the players are.

Well, this is just weird.

Twitter to stream Thursday Night Football games

Facebook dropped out of the bidding.

So, there's that.

Bill Barnwell tweeted this article about Ryan Grigson saying about how it's a year old but feels much older. So true.

In addition to landing Cole, an 11th-year player who'd spent his entire career with the Eagles, the Colts brought in a pair of decorated offensive veterans, ex-49ers halfback Frank Gore and former Texans receiver Andre Johnson. Grigson's frenzied free-agent haul also included another ex-Philly player, 11th-year offensive lineman Todd Herremans, and former Rams defensive lineman Kendall Langford.

On Friday, Grigson made a move to reinforce the team's suspect run defense, signing former Broncos inside linebacker Nate Irving to a three-year deal.

... "They are looking to win the Super Bowl -- right now," Herremans said last week. "The players they brought in are immediate impact players."

Reading through that is an interesting exercise. Grigson says that when he came in they went on a youth movement, but when that didn't work as the team lacked veteran leadership they went out and got veterans like the above quote shows. They're gunning for Super Bowl 50. This'll work.

It didn't.

So now the Colts are relatively quiet during FA and will build through the draft.

*sigh* I'd hate to be a Colts fan. Too bipolar for my tastes.

Grigson feels like an extension of Jim Irsay to me.

*Legion* wrote:

Grigson feels like an extension of Jim Irsay to me.

I feel like Grigson is better as a GM than Irsay is as an owner.

This is not a compliment.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Grigson feels like an extension of Jim Irsay to me.

I feel like Grigson is better as a GM than Irsay is as an owner.

This is not a compliment.

....

I don't think I can argue with anything in that comment.

Grigson still has a job because he correctly chose Luck over RG3. Which speaks to how important it is to get the QB right. He landed T.Y. Hilton too, in that same draft. And Jack Mewhort has become a good guard after failing to be their right tackle. It's been all downhill from there. Werner was a bust and didn't seem a great pick on draft day either. The back-to-back TEs of Fleener and Allen did not produce Luck's Dallas Clark as imagined. Spending last year's 1st on Phillip Dorsett still seems odd, as it didn't feel like need OR value.

And, oh yeah, giving away a top pick for Trent Richardson.

*Legion* wrote:

Grigson still has a job because he correctly chose Luck over RG3. .

I mean really...was Luck over RG3 ever really a question? It was painfully obvious Luck was special coming out of college. I'm pretty sure a mop bucket would have picked Luck 1st overall.

Gumbie wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Grigson still has a job because he correctly chose Luck over RG3. .

I mean really...was Luck over RG3 ever really a question? It was painfully obvious Luck was special coming out of college. I'm pretty sure a mop bucket would have picked Luck 1st overall.

People tried to put RG3 over Luck, but I don't think I ever bought it. Luck was just such an obvious talent.

Gumbie wrote:

I mean really...was Luck over RG3 ever really a question? It was painfully obvious Luck was special coming out of college. I'm pretty sure a mop bucket would have picked Luck 1st overall.

Plenty of would-be mop buckets came out saying they would pick RG3. It was more of a question than it should have been, IMO.

I have to think the Redskins were floating that argument just to get a crack at Luck.

Greg Cosell was very high on RG3, and his is an opinion that I respect.

Tony Dungy came out saying he would draft RG3 over Luck. He's not a personnel guy for a reason, though.

There were a couple of ESPN knuckleheads on the RG3 train too, but they're not worth naming.

I won't bag on anyone too much, as all I remember about the 2012 draft is that I didn't like Dontari Poe, and that couldn't have been more wrong. (Even if Poe had a bit of a down year last year, but he was recovering from offseason back surgery and was better the the further away he got from the surgery).

To be fair, everybody pretty much got the top of the 2012 draft wrong. Luck and Kuechly are the only guys in the top ten who would definitely go there again. RGIII, Trent Richardson, Matt Kalil, Justin Blackmon, Morris Claiborne, Mark Barron. That's 2-7. Really dodgy draft.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

To be fair, everybody pretty much got the top of the 2012 draft wrong. Luck and Kuechly are the only guys in the top ten who would definitely go there again. RGIII, Trent Richardson, Matt Kalil, Justin Blackmon, Morris Claiborne, Mark Barron. That's 2-7. Really dodgy draft.

If not for his stupidity, Blackmon should be alongside Luck and Kuechly in that list. After a productive rookie year, he went on a tear to start year 2, averaging over 100 yards a game. Dude was well on his way to being a star receiver. Just could not put the bottle down or have someone else drive. :/

Steve Smith had the best response to Hardy claiming innocence: "So I guess she tripped on the carpet or something..."

I really with something would come along and replace ESPN in the TV sports journalism and documentaries space. Unfortunately, as cable news has shown, the profits in cable are in lowering the bar further and further.

*Legion* wrote:

I won't bag on anyone too much, as all I remember about the 2012 draft is that I didn't like Dontari Poe, and that couldn't have been more wrong. (Even if Poe had a bit of a down year last year, but he was recovering from offseason back surgery and was better the the further away he got from the surgery).

http://www.arrowheadpride.com/2015/9...
IMAGE(https://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kdJZWiDGmtfSKMvH8sJFvO8_WQ0=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4034608/poe.0.jpg)

I was over visiting my friend who's backyard was next to Dontari Poe's. I brought over one of my baby goats because she had never seen one before and while it was out back frolicking around, Poe stopped mowing his yard because he had never seen a goat up close before. He came over and asked if he could pick it up and I obliged. He had the biggest smile on his face and even let it help him trim some of the branches.
*Legion* wrote:

Steve Smith had the best response to Hardy claiming innocence: "So I guess she tripped on the carpet or something..."

I really with something would come along and replace ESPN in the TV sports journalism and documentaries space. Unfortunately, as cable news has shown, the profits in cable are in lowering the bar further and further.

To your point..

http://deadspin.com/of-course-adam-s...

Report: D'Brickashaw Ferguson is retiring. Now I feel sad that this might be the last time I type D'Brickashaw.

FO revisits the 2010 draft.

1 1 STL Sam Bradford QB
1 2 DET Ndamukong Suh DT
1 3 TAM Gerald McCoy DT
1 4 WAS Trent Williams T
1 5 KAN Eric Berry DB
1 6 SEA Russell Okung T
1 7 CLE Joe Haden DB

Now that's how you open a draft. Bradford and Okung didn't quite get to where they hoped, but this is one hell of an opening.

Heck, the rest of the 1st round was pretty special, with playoff-winning QB Tim Tebow easily being the biggest bust. Of course, Jimmy Clausen was the next QB taken so you know this QB class was Uncle Rico special.

Eagles supposedly wanting Wentz pretty bad and are in wanting to move up to get him. Titans GM Jon Robinson be like

IMAGE(https://media.riffsy.com/images/01dab167ff8fc0591ff4f41b5315f419/raw)

PFF has an article today breaking down Christian Hackenberg, stating that PFF does not give Hackenberg a draftable grade.

Everything they write jives pretty strongly with what I saw when I watched some video of him. Last month, I tweeted: "If you draft Christian Hackenberg, you'll need to raise some foul ball nets along the sidelines to protect your fans from errant throws."

PFF's very first GIF in the article puts some truth to that statement:

IMAGE(https://www.profootballfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hack-WR-Screen-Miss.gif)

I particularly like towards the end where they point out Hackenberg's "good" freshman season was more a case of a stud WR (Allen Robinson) going up and winning catches on throws that weren't necessarily good:

IMAGE(https://www.profootballfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Hack-Robinson.gif)

Hey, that looks a lot like what Mike Evans did for a certain QB, where were those articles? And hey, maybe having to catch passes from Hackenberg is why Robinson slid to the late 2nd round in the draft - in which case, I guess I should say thanks, Christian.

Plus at the combine he blamed James Franklin for being the reason he sucked the last two years. Not a good look.

Gumbie wrote:

Plus at the combine he blamed James Franklin for being the reason he sucked the last two years. Not a good look.

Well, to be fair, Christian was sorta right: Franklin brought in an offensive system that expected his quarterback to throw accurate, completable passes, and that just does not play to Hackenberg's "strengths".

Marvin Lewis gets a 1-year extension.

Seems an odd time to reward him after the team's self-inflicted playoff loss.

Well, he did go to North Dakota State. He can't be that smart.

Well the Jets didn't wait long. With D'Brickashaw retired, the Jets trade for Ryan Clady from the Broncos.

The trade frees up the cap money Denver would need for a Kaepernick trade if they were to make one. Be interesting to see if this moves things forward there.

*Legion* wrote:

Marvin Lewis gets a 1-year extension.

Seems an odd time to reward him after the team's self-inflicted playoff loss.

It sounds like you're surprised. But that can't be right. Everyone knows how Cincinnati works by now. Goal number one is finding a way to fail. It's like... carved into stone tablets and buried under the ground the stadium is built on as some kind of curse or something.

Thin_J wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Marvin Lewis gets a 1-year extension.

Seems an odd time to reward him after the team's self-inflicted playoff loss.

It sounds like you're surprised. But that can't be right. Everyone knows how Cincinnati works by now. Goal number one is finding a way to fail. It's like... carved into stone tablets and buried under the ground the stadium is built on as some kind of curse or something.

The Bengals are the Washington Capitals of the NFL. If it was possible to get a President's Cup in the NFL for best regular season performance, they would be major contenders every year. Then they crap the bed in the playoffs because that is what they do.