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Billy_TParticipantNow, if they get the chance to celebrate the SF Giants in your neck of the woods, I think that’s more than awesome.
;>)
But not the 9ers. Ugh!
They have done a very good job of team-building, are young, and might be smart to trade Lance for more picks. They appear to have struck Warner-like gold with Purdy.
I don’t understand the Chargers, either. They should be waaaay better than they are, etc.
. . .
The Rams are going to have to ramp up their FO smarts to a whole new level to get back in the race. In my view, it’s not going to happen with a coupla big signings or big trades. They need to upgrade talent in too many areas for that. Rather than go for another superstar or two, find solid, dependable players for first and second team spots instead, and bring in the kinds of coaches that can really teach and keep McVay grounded.
Billy_TParticipantDuckduckgo searches provide a ton of similar articles/studies.
Of course, I think it’s also self-evident that if we replaced capitalism with true economic democracy, the leap in living standards would dwarf even the best results from Europe at the moment. This is also the only way to save the planet for future generations and most current life forms.
But while we’re in the midst of Late Capitalism’s final thrashings, it’s also self-evident that conservative (and further right) policies are making a bad situation markedly worse, and people are dying as a result. That, too, is beyond logical to me. The ascendant wing of political conservatism in America and much of the world is a new iteration of minarchism, with a toxic dose of fascism and Ayn Rand to boot. All with the blessing of too much of the billionaire class. In an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, any political movement that preaches a radical reduction in public/social policy and the social safety net is an existential danger for humankind, and this movement is far more radically opposed to environmentalism than even its anti-green conservative forebears.
To make a long story short, I think leftists should put our intellectual and activist passion into the (metaphorical/rhetorical/public policy) war against the right, while pushing the center leftward. I think it’s a huge mistake to focus most of our energy on attacking the Dems, for instance, as seems to be the case on outlets like Twitter. By all means, hold their feet to the fire too. But common sense dictates that we work hardest against what threatens us most, and most immediately. That’s the right. That’s conservatism, writ large and small.
Billy_TParticipantAmericans die younger in states with conservative policies: study
Americans die younger in states with conservative policies: study
BY BRAD DRESS – 10/26/22 10:02 PM ETExcerpt:
Americans die younger in states with more conservative policies, while states with more liberal policies are associated with lower mortality rates, according to a new study published Wednesday in the scientific journal PLOS One.
Researchers analyzed mortality rates for all causes of death in all 50 states from 1999 to 2019 among adults aged 25 to 64. They compared that to state data on policy measures such as gun safety, labor, marijuana policy, economic taxes and tobacco taxes.
According to their simulation, if all states had switched to fully liberal policies, then 171,030 lives would have been saved in 2019.
If all states had switched to fully conservative policies, that could have cost an additional 217,635 lives, according to the study.
Researchers wrote the data is “striking” because modern U.S. society is becoming hyperpolarized and involves “growing policy divergence across states.”
“These tectonic political and policy shifts may have had profound impacts on health and wellbeing,” the authors noted.
Currently, Republicans control 46 percent of states in the U.S., while Democrats control 29 percent, with 12 states divided between legislative and executive control.
The U.S. already rates among the highest mortality rates compared to other developed countries.
Billy_TParticipantExcerpt: (Site has graphs and further links, etc.)
People in Republican Counties Have Higher Death Rates Than Those in Democratic Counties
A growing mortality gap between Republican and Democratic areas may largely stem from policy choices
By Lydia Denworth on July 18, 2022
. . .
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the link between politics and health became glaringly obvious. Democrat-leaning “blue” states were more likely to enact mask requirements and vaccine and social distancing mandates. Republican-leaning “red” states were much more resistant to health measures. The consequences of those differences emerged by the end of 2020, when rates of hospitalization and death from COVID rose in conservative counties and dropped in liberal ones. That divergence continued through 2021, when vaccines became widely available. And although the highly transmissible Omicron variant narrowed the gap in infection rates, hospitalization and death rates, which are dramatically reduced by vaccines, remain higher in Republican-leaning parts of the country.
But COVID is only the latest chapter in the story of politics and health. “COVID has really magnified what had already been brewing in American society, which was that, based on where you lived, your risk of death was much different,” says Haider J. Warraich, a physician and researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In a study published in June in The BMJ, Warraich and his colleagues showed that over the two decades prior to the pandemic, there was a growing gap in mortality rates for residents of Republican and Democratic counties across the U.S. In 2001, the study’s starting point, the risk of death among red and blue counties (as defined by the results of presidential elections) was similar. Overall, the U.S. mortality rate has decreased in the nearly two decades since then (albeit not as much as in most other high-income countries). But the improvement for those living in Republican counties by 2019 was half that of those in Democratic counties—11 percent lower versus 22 percent lower.
Billy_TParticipantNFL compensatory picks for minority coaches and executives explained
The news that the Lions are hiring longtime Rams executive Brad Holmes as Detroit’s new general manager means that for the first time, the league’s new rule rewarding teams that help develop minority coaches and executives will be put into place.
Holmes is a minority, so the Rams will now receive a third-round compensatory pick in both the 2021 NFL draft and the 2022 NFL draft for losing Holmes.
Those third-round picks will come after the compensatory picks that are awarded to teams for losing free agent players. We don’t yet know how many third-round compensatory picks will be awarded for losing free agents, but if there were five regular third-round compensatory picks, those would be picks Nos. 97-101. Then the first compensatory pick for losing a minority player or executive would be No. 102.
If multiple teams lose minority coaches or executives, multiple third-round compensatory picks will be awarded. They’ll be awarded in the same order that teams choose in the draft, so the team that’s higher in the draft order would also be higher in the compensatory pick order.
These compensatory picks are in addition to the 32 compensatory picks that are regularly awarded. So while the draft would typically have 256 overall picks (32 in each of seven rounds, plus 32 compensatory picks), there can now be more than 256 picks because of the additional compensatory picks.
The full text of the NFL resolution is below:
Billy_TParticipantI found this resource, searching for movie sites that stream stuff like “The Double Life of Veronique.” Krzysztof Kieślowski is one of my favorite directors, and he’s usually not on any of the major streamers. Not posting this cuz of him, though. I don’t know his politics. It’s what I found via further searches.
https://www.ovid.tv/search?q=anarchism
https://www.ovid.tv/search?q=socialism
I kinda doubt you’ll see most of this stuff on Netflix.
January 14, 2023 at 11:25 am in reply to: starting a new thread w/ BT’s post on a Rodrigue podcast #142579Billy_TParticipanti feel the one big mistake mcvay may have made was trading goff. that’s weird to say given what stafford has done and the superbowl. but i do think they could have accomplished a lot of things together. who knows what would have happened?
and if akers has been traded who knows what would have happened? but he did stay and he looked like a different man after that. of course. again. akers deserves most of the credit. but if mcvay and goff had somehow hashed things out preventing a trade to the lions. how would goff have responded the following season? we’ll never know.
I agree with ya, and have mentioned that here before. I do think the Rams could have won it all with Goff. My guess is that McVay thinks so too, now. He didn’t then, obviously. But I’m guessing he does now. We will never know, of course. It’s one of them thar counterfactuals. But it makes sense to me, especially in light of how well Goff has played for the Lions this season.
Goff is also six years younger than Stafford, another big plus. And just imagine the additional talent the Rams could have brought on board if they hadn’t traded away all of those picks along with Goff. Those rookie contracts are also a major benefit for the Cap. I’d bet the Rams would have found their LT and Edge, at least, and they’d still be under team-friendly contracts, etc.
I wouldn’t have made the trade. Not just cuz I think they could win with Goff, but because the cost was absurd, IMO. They just gave up waaay too much.
January 14, 2023 at 8:28 am in reply to: starting a new thread w/ BT’s post on a Rodrigue podcast #142575Billy_TParticipanti wonder what happened with akers. she does allude to it a little bit according to that summary you provided. but i wonder what specifically mcvay’s role in it it was. and if mcvay was able to glean anything from his past relationship with goff when dealing with the akers situation. i’m glad that mcvay is at least recognizing or at least seeming to recognize his deficiencies. it at least gives me hope that he’ll better manage himself going forward. help him manage his relationships. maybe even enough to last beyond 2023? he’s potentially the best thing to happen to this franchise since i’ve been following him. but only if he can bring the rams back a second time. i think it’s possible.
Jourdan makes the case that Akers’ rebound is mostly on Thomas Brown, not McVay. Though I may be misreading/mishearing her on that topic, I don’t think I am. Of course, McVay made the change, so he gets credit for that. He realized that he had made a bit of a mistake putting Samples there. At just 27, he likely wasn’t ready yet. So Brown goes back to the Running Back room, and Akers plays like a new man.
Of course, Akers himself gets a ton of credit too. So, perhaps it’s mostly Brown, followed by Akers, with a big assist by McVay for recognizing his mistake. A bit too late in the season to matter, but it bodes well for 2023.
Regardless, boiled way down, I think McVay is growing up as a coach before our eyes. That’s always going to bring a lot of highs and lows, which also fits the current ethos and vibe of the Rams right now, according to Jourdan and a few others with an ear in the building. As in, the Rams appear to dismiss any kind of Middle Path. They don’t want to be one of those teams stuck in the middle-winning range, neither here nor there. It’s playoffs or bust for them. They’re willing to risk the latter for the former.
IMO, it’s not really such a clear-cut either/or, and I disagree with some of their methods in the quest for staying on top. I don’t think, for instance, you have to give away the farm to stay there. If you draft well, demand more for the players you trade, improve your evaluations of players in-house, keep ascending players rather than letting so many of them go — that “next man up” ethos can backfire especially there — you can stay on top. Seattle, for instance, is in the playoffs after trading Wilson for the moon, and drafting exceptionally well. The surprising Lions are another example. They’ve turned their franchise around by hauling in a ton of draft picks and hitting on most of their picks.
Anyway . . . interesting times for the Rams. Roller coasters, etc.
January 14, 2023 at 8:06 am in reply to: starting a new thread w/ BT’s post on a Rodrigue podcast #142574Billy_TParticipantGood summary, ZN. And I agree about Jourdan. Best evah. She takes football analysis to a new level, and really, really knows the game. The stuff we grew up with, OTOH, with rare exceptions, was (and still is) pretty much a kinda refined bar-room banter. And too often on TV, it’s about the reporters themselves, not the game, really. Exceptions for me go way back. My favorite pair was Gifford and Summerall, before Gifford moved onto to MNF. They elevated the importance of each game for me. Took it all seriously, etc.
But most make it about them, not the players, coaches, league, etc. Jourdan makes it about the game, the schemes, the coaches, the players, in depth. Rams fans are lucky she’s covering this team.
Sidenote: I recently signed up for NYT digital, which includes The Athletic. Just $6.00 a month, on special. I tend not to go for any extras like that unless it’s a really good deal. I can live without it if it’s not.
;>)
Billy_TParticipanti’m sure he’s reached out already, but he has to talk to former head coaches and figure out how to find a balance so he doesn’t keep draining himself like this. a hard ask for sure. maybe he has to delegate better. i don’t know. or maybe he eventually will have to take that sabbatical.
Good news. According to Jourdan, the Rams thought he’d likely take that break after the 2023 season, and that it wouldn’t have happened this soon. In so many words, it seems like they expected it and were prepared — for next year, not this year.
I agree with you about delegating plus reaching out to former head coaches. Hopefully he’s in the midst of all of that. Vermeil? Cowher? Dungy?
IMO — and I’m not kidding — he needs a life coach, or two, or three. Perhaps keep that private, both cuz it’s no one’s business, and it might not fit with the culture. But if I were making millions a year, and I had that kind of “burn the candle at both ends” personality, as Rodrigue describes it, I’d have a range of help. This would include Zen masters, a world-class chef, dieticians, trained psychologists who specialized in the Sports and Entertainment complex, etc. I’d likely focus on guided meditation and micro-dosing with psilocybin, with medical supervision. I believe that’s perfectly legal in Cali.
If he doesn’t get help outside the Rams, however, it seems likely he’s just going to go through this every year until he crashes and burns. Not good for him, obviously, or his family, or the Rams.
My two cents, anyway.
Billy_TParticipantFollow-up, and a bit of a correction.
Listening (half way through) to Jourdan Rodrigue on another podcast, Bill Barnwell’s, I learned something kinda new, at least for me. This ties into the general BS that NFL teams feed us, but of a far less impactful variety than the injury front, etc. Though it’s tangentially related.
Jourdan said that the Rams FO didn’t think (before the season) that they had any shot to repeat, though they thought they could compete for playoff spots. She basically said no one in the building thought they could win it all again. Tied to this is McVay’s acknowledgement that they weren’t “ready” for the season in several phases of the game, especially via staffing. That he’s “running out of people” to implement his core ideas — and those he’s incorporated like Calahan and Fangio. This was prior to all of those injuries.
Jourdan is good here, and in her own podcast, of breaking down stuff about the way the Rams’ own model changed the entire league, even the draft and trade markets, but created a double-edged sword for them too. The league caught up, surpassed them in some areas, learned to deal with their D and their O, etc. And while she doesn’t exactly echo my thoughts about the negative aspects of trading all of those picks, she does at least suggest the lack of draft capital adds to the “falling behind.”
The show in question:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/comparing-different-hells/id1105991757?i=1000594120803
Billy_TParticipantThis is Orwellian. The term is overused, of course, but it fits here. And DeSantis is a fascist:
https://newrepublic.com/article/169937/new-college-desantis-rufo-crackdown
Excerpt:
Jack McCordick/
January 11, 2023
Under Threat
A Florida College Goes to War With Ron DeSantis
As the governor plots to topple Sarasota’s New College, the students of the historic liberal arts institution prepare to rise in its defense.What’s past is prologue. From 1956 to 1965, the state of Florida underwent a government-led campaign to root out LGBTQ people, civil rights activists, and supposed Communists from state institutions. Halfway through this McCarthyite witch hunt, which purged hundreds of students and teachers from the state’s universities, the chairman of a recently founded college in Sarasota spoke to Time magazine about his school, then aptly named “New College.” The chairman—coincidentally a third cousin of Alger Hiss, the government official whose 1948 espionage case helped lay the groundwork for the Second Red Scare—declared that the college would operate with “complete freedom of inquiry” and “no canned patriotism.”
Over the next half-century, New College developed a reputation for providing a top-notch liberal arts education, inspired by the tutorial model of its Oxford eponym. It was the first college or university in Florida to establish an open admissions policy, pledging not to discriminate based on “race, creed, national origin, or cultural status,” and was one of the first in the country to establish a program in environmental studies, an especially prescient move for a school located in one of the country’s most climate-vulnerable cities. It also became known as a haven for queer and transgender students: In 2021, a Harvard sociologist who previously taught at New College published a study on the school’s trans population and found that they “provide overwhelmingly positive assessments of their campus culture as related to issues of gender identity, a stark contrast to existing literature on gender-nonconforming collegians.” One former student estimated that 10 percent of the school is trans.
New College is undoubtedly a liberal enclave: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis carried Sarasota County by over 20 points in November, and two months earlier a slate of MAGA candidates won a local school board election with support from the Proud Boys. It was perhaps inevitable, then, that the school would find itself in the crosshairs of DeSantis’s ongoing neo-McCarthyite crusade. On Friday morning, DeSantis announced six appointees to the New School board of trustees. Of the six, the three most eye-catching are Christopher Rufo, who’s risen to notoriety as one of the best-known voices inveighing against “critical race theory” and stoking back-in-vogue incendiary anti-LGBTQ rhetoric; Charles Kesler, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, a far-right think tank; and Matthew Spalding, a professor of government at Michigan’s Hillsdale College, a deeply conservative private Christian college that both Rufo and DeSantis’s chief of staff explicitly held up as a model for the Florida school.
The governor’s press release didn’t elaborate on the new board members’ agenda. But in a tweet, Rufo said the group will seek to a create a new core curriculum, “abolish ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ and replace it with ‘equality, merit, and colorblindness,’” hire faculty “with expertise in constitutionalism, free enterprise, civic virtue, family life, religious freedom, and American principles,” and restructure academic departments “to reflect the new pedagogical approach,” among other policy changes. New College regulations give its trustees expansive powers to regulate student life and establish or discontinue degree programs and course offerings, so all of these changes are possible under a new right-wing majority, though attempts to fire tenured professors without cause would likely run afoul of the university’s collective bargaining agreement.
“Under the leadership of Gov. DeSantis, our all-star board will demonstrate that the public universities, which have been corrupted by woke nihilism, can be recaptured, restructured, and reformed,” Rufo wrote on Friday. In an interview with The New York Times, he added that he hopes this takeover will spur conservative state legislators “to reconquer public institutions all over the United States.”
. . . .
Billy_TParticipantMy top picks for the Rams, if McVay goes:
Ryans and Brown. Both are highly respected league-wide, young, have the production, etc.
Do not want them to go the old retread route, like a Payton.
If they can’t hire Brown, I hope he lands a HC position this off-season, both for his own career, and because it’s a benefit to the Rams as well. Same for Morris, etc.
Billy_TParticipantNfl-celeb-media-heads never emphasize this: == “You know all that next-man-up stuff? That’s just coach-speak,” said Steve Mariucci, former coach of San Francisco and Detroit, speaking generally about losing star players. “That’s like false bravado sometimes. The next man up isn’t as good as the guy he follows, OK? That’s the reality of it. When you’ve got a lot of next-men-up, you’re going to get your butt kicked. Let’s face it. Let’s talk real here.” == I have often wondered why? Why do they consciously avoid talking about injuries and their impact? I mean it is sooo obvious its a media policy. Maybe the NFL-suits just dont like the idea of talking about negatives like injuries. Whatever it is, its a media-policy. Do not talk about injuries, do not blame losses on injuries. Maybe its a capitalism thing. “Dont play the victim” I dunno. w v
Makes a lot of sense. The NFL has actually been rather “lucky” over the years, to not be regulated for work-place safety issues, and/or slapped with myriad billion-dollar lawsuits for all of those injuries. Especially the kind that never heal: brain trauma. It helps that fans and players have been heavily indoctrinated (for generations) into thinking that it’s a sign of weakness (or worse) to complain, much less call for serious changes. That makes it a thousand times easier for those suits you talk about to avoid the repercussions and ignore the moral and ethical implications. They’re riding a very long wave, created by tons of money/lobbying and endlessly successful cultural gaslighting.
As for the “Next man up” stuff. While injuries are the main trigger, of course, it can also be a matter of a team’s overall ethos and sense of itself, from the top down, and that attitude isn’t necessarily a good thing. To state the obvious, starters tend to be better than second-stringers, who tend to be better than third-stringers, who tend to be better than guys who’ve been retired since 1960, etc. The whole theory of “next man up,” if it goes beyond “We have no choice but to make the best of it,” and evolves into “We don’t need no freaking starters/draft picks/top drawer free agents! We can win with Joe and Jimmy from the local docks!!” . . . . well, I think you eventually hit a brick wall.
Again, to state the obvious, the first 30 picks in a draft tend to have more talent than the next 30, and the next 30, etc. etc. Exceptions all over the place, blah blah blah. But, at the very least, you have a much better shot to pick the players you really want with those early picks — the more the better. Having a first chance after 100 or more picks, for example, likely means your true board has been decimated.
/rant
Billy_TParticipantBT you don’t understand the purpose of the NFL. The NFL is to get us, ordinary fans, to accept a corporate dominated world of drudgery. Rollerball, 1975. So the question is how to do THAT better. 1. Play twice a week for 24 weeks. 48 games. In the end, matches will be exhausted struggles just to stay on the field. 2. Players have to play with injuries. 3. Not only that, but, if you are injured, your salary goes straight to the insurance firms. 4. Players can’t celebrate plays. Instead, whenever they excel in some way, they must yell enthusiastically that “I am glad my efforts serve the system.” 5. Instead of standing for the national anthem, before games, players are to watch jumbotron images of Chinese national leaders while they chant hatefully that “east asia has always been the enemy!”
Have you been reading Dystopian Sports Fiction again? I thought you had gotten over that phase.
;>)
Billy_TParticipanti was thinking they should have more bye weeks. gives them a chance to rest during a grueling season. but i agree. shorten the season. go back to grass fields. no preseason. probably not gonna happen. but those would all be good ideas.
I forgot about the turf. That’s a huge reason for the injuries, especially concussions and ACLs. Lotsa players say it’s like playing on concrete.
It’s gotta go. Mandate grass fields universally, and get all scienzy about it. Find the best kind of grass for the players. Most cushion, resilience, protection, etc.
I know most of the things I propose would be shot down by players and ownership, though I think the players would like some of them. They’d all take a hit in the wallet with fewer games, but I think there are ways around that. First off, ownership really makes their money on the radical growth in value for each franchise. Yeah, the TV money is crazy too. But if they bought their teams at least a decade ago, they’d likely pocket billions in profit if they sold them. So they’re making tons of money each year, and when they sell. But if they don’t start paying attention to the safety of the game, and its overly saturated TV presence, those values may start to fall.
Long shot for ownership: Sacrifice a bit of the yearly revenues for a far better on the field product and a healthier team, which will benefit everyone down the road. For the players, they’ll still make good money each year, but the grass fields, rules changes, and fewer games should keep them a lot healthier, which would extend their careers if they want that.
IMO, fans will support the league more if these things happen. I think the near-death of Damar Hamlin has a lot of people reevaluating that support. It should be a wake up call for the entire league.
Billy_TParticipantIt’s not personal. I don’t know him from Atom. But I do think it’s problematic for him to leave this early, especially after cleaning the cupboard out. Basically, cutting starters left and right, leaving the Rams with a major cap-crunch, and far too few draft picks. Snead has a huge role in that too, of course.
As the young kids used to say, that’s not kewl.
IMO, If you’re going to toss aside all kinds of young players, for nothing in return, you stay and take ownership of that “strategy.” If you’re going trade a Robert Woods for peanuts, when receivers are gaining more importance in the eyes of GMs league-wide, you stay to work that model. You keep working the model of Next Guy Up, or Next UDFA up, etc. etc. Don’t leave the next coaching staff all of those deficits in your wake.
Winning the Super Bowl was awesome, and McVay is a talented coach, obviously. It was joyous to behold. But, I think ZN makes a good point. Leaving after the first really tough year? And he’ll be leaving behind a big old mess.
Billy_TParticipantI’ve got a feeling he’s going to step away for a year or two, and then come back, but probably not with the Rams. He’s a very intense coach, from most reports, a workaholic like Vermeil, and this probably doesn’t go over that well with his new wife. They want to raise a family too, from what I’ve read, and TV announcers get to spend a hell of a lot more time at home, if they want to, than NFL coaches. It’s not close.
Like most Rams fans, I hope he stays. But if he goes, the Rams are likely going to be in very bad shape for the next few years. In the near term, they’ll lose some valuable time getting ready for the Draft and Free Agency . . . staring over from scratch . . . time they had gained as a kind of silver lining for failing to make the playoffs.
Of course, it all depends on their next hire, but how will this impact FA signings, Donald coming back, etc. etc.?
Not good. Not good at all.
Billy_TParticipantGood article by our friend Nathan Robinson, on bullshitting:
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/12/we-live-in-the-age-of-the-bullshitter
I think the right has always relied on massive amounts of lies and disinformation to remain in power. But in recent times, especially, I think the levels of mendacity have risen to record heights. Too many examples to relay here, but the above claim about those 87,000 IRS agents is a pretty good one to dissect. First of all, it’s a proposal to hire 87,000 new staff over the course of ten years, and it hasn’t even started yet, as far as I know. But right-wing media and most Republicans in DC have peddled the hair’s on fire lie that they were all being hired now, and would be heavily armed.
In reality, the vast, vast majority will be desk-staff, auditors, analysts, etc. wielding pens, not AR-15s. Plus, Republicans, with the help of some centrist Dems, have gutted the IRS for more than two decades, so even if they end up hiring all 87,000 by 2033, the IRS will still be woefully understaffed. There is also no better ROI (in dollars) than to spend money on the IRS. It’s more than a 10 to 1 return.
Anyway, I’m really trying to think about this stuff far less often, but thought I’d weigh in here.
Hope youze guys are enjoying the New Year.
Billy_TParticipantOh, and about Jeff George. My memory of him is that he had elite arm talent. Once in a generation-like. But he was a head case, consistently sabotaging his own talent and team. Ended up being locker-room cancer. IMO, Mayfield isn’t on his level as a passer — few QBs were/are — and isn’t as self-destructive.
But he has caused problems in the past. Could it be a matter of Mayfield just maturing? George never seemed to. He’s 27 now. Ramsey, remember, was supposed to be locker-room trouble too. With the Rams, he’s one of those “team-first” core guys, like Donald and Kupp.
The unicorns, of course, are the guys at the elite level as far as talent, athleticism, and team-first all the way. Rams have, arguably, four or five of them. IMO, Donald, Wagner, Ramsey, and Kupp are locks. Stafford is perhaps there too. Wagner may not be elite athletically any longer, but I think he makes up for that as a field general, mentor, and diehard player, etc. I’m guessing Donald retires before he senses he’s lost his elite athleticism.
It will be very interesting to see what the Rams do this offseason to get back into the race.
Billy_TParticipantI really like the way Mayfield has handled himself with the Rams — so far. But as others have mentioned, he doesn’t have a history of maintaining that. The Rams, I’m guessing, need the “team-first” mentality more than most, or they won’t win consistently. It may be among the most important aspects of their team-building model, and gives them a competitive edge when their overall roster talent would suggest they can’t.
As in, they have a core of very talented athletes, but they’ve elected to surround that core with what amounts to journey-men types. Cap issues and lack of draft capital being the main culprits, but it may also be a “choice” in many cases. The team-first concept may or may not lift those (non-core) guys well above that type, but without it they’re JAGs. For example, I don’t think Hoecht gets a chance to play, much less play so well, with another team. The O-line has some guys like that too.
So, in one sense, Mayfield really fits that model. Cuz he’s a pretty tough QB, like Stafford, and, as WV mentions, can be a good locker room guy. “One of the dudes,” kinda QB. But that doesn’t seem to last long, and then he starts to freelance in public, etc.
Regardless, the Rams are going to need to find a couple of solid backups, cuz the trend in the NFL is for more injuries, at more positions, at a more severe level, so they just can’t count on Stafford playing most games. That’s not to mention his age, or his history of being battered. That’s just a given for every team now. Where is the Ram’s Brock Purdy, for instance?
December 29, 2022 at 11:28 am in reply to: Around the league, going into week 17 & aftermath #142366Billy_TParticipantThe Rams, like every other team in the NFL, had a shot at Tariq Woolen into the 5th round. Yes, he does have ultra-rare closing speed. As in, a 4.26 forty. And, perhaps even more remarkable for someone a shade over 6’4″, a 1.47 10-yard split. Plus NBA-level hops, etc.
Also not sure why he gets compared with Richard Sherman so often, on size/speed grounds, cuz Sherman wasn’t as tall or as fast. An excellent player, but not as big or as athletic as Woolen. Woolen is basically a unicorn.
Love Lazard’s reaction to his own crazy play, and the play itself. He must have watched Woods and Kupp block.
;>)
Billy_TParticipantIf I were putting together an NFL team right now, with an eye toward the present and future, Herbert would be my first choice for franchise QB. Yeah, even before Mahomes, Burrow, Fields, or Jackson. No one else in the league has his combo of physical potential, size, athleticism, arm strength, and smarts. If you could build the perfect QB in a lab, it would be something like this:
Height Weight Arm length Hand span 40-yard dash 10-yard split 20-yard split 20-yard shuttle Three-cone drill Vertical jump Broad jump Wonderlic:
6 ft 6+1⁄4 in
(1.99 m) 236 lb
(107 kg) 32+7⁄8 in
(0.84 m) 10 in
(0.25 m) 4.68 s 1.62 s 2.75 s 4.46 s 7.06 s 36.0 in(0.91 m) 10 ft 3 in (3.12 m)
39
All values from NFL Combine[47][48]He’s just 24.
Seems like the Chargers may be blowing a once in a generation chance. They’re not maximizing what they drafted, at least to this early point in his career. They have not given him the weapons he needs, etc. I’d bet McVay, OTOH, would win several Super Bowls with Herbert at the helm.
Billy_TParticipantZN,
Good points too. Though I thought McCutcheon played yesterday . . . ?
What’s your take on the Rams at least trying to keep Mayfield? I know the odds are against it, both from a salary cap and personal goals POV. Mayfield is said to really want to start, and he knows that won’t be in LA, at least as long as Stafford is there. So he’s gonna want to go where he can start. But he looks really solid with this offense, even with it being decimated, and the Rams have invested too little in the backup spot. Wolford and Perkins do not look like starting-caliber QBs at this moment in time. They need someone as good as BMayfield . . .
Billy_TParticipantCanada,
Good points. I thought much the same. Both tight ends looked really good, and they battled for extra yards as well — always a good sign.
Watching on TV, I’m guessing we often can’t see how much of it is the lack of receivers getting open, doing what they need to do to get open, or other factors. Does this or that receiver look relatively bad because of their own failures, or is it just a lack of inclusion in the offense? Scheme, play-calling, QB-play, O-line, or the receivers themselves failing to get separation, etc. A mixture of all the above, and so on.
Throw in, as you mentioned, players like Kupp who get most of the targets, and there’s just not enough footballs to go around.
Going on the eyeball test alone, though, if Hopkins, for instance, can produce against a pretty good Denver D, it makes sense that he can do it in most cases. That tells me he’s been underutilized, and I’ve always thought Higbee was a solid TE.
Next season, it might be a good idea to diversify the scheme, become more inclusive. I’d also like to see the Rams implement quick, short passes more often, if for no other reason than to protect Stafford. It may not be pretty, but you can dink and dunk your way down the field for seven. Other teams do. A score’s a score, etc.
Billy_TParticipantWhere was this team all year? Akers ran with confidence, serious drive, and force. He looked great. So did, shockingly, the O-line. They often opened huge holes for the backs, and protected Baker, who looked excellent too. Made me think the Rams need to re-sign him. But I’m guessing he will decline so he can start somewhere else. Baker as a backup, though, would be seriously good for the Rams in 2023. They haven’t had a top shelf backup since . . . Foles? At the very least, it would allow them to increase compensation via a trade during the 2023 season, which might help Baker too. He might find a better situation during the season, after team injuries, than he would this off-season.
Regardless, it was a lot of fun to watch the Rams hitting on all cylinders. Offense, defense, special teams, generating turnovers, sacks, extra effort, etc. Players across the board were playing with passion and a ton of want-to. And I think they may have found a nice addition to the D-line rotation in Murchison. Seems to kinda fit the scouting report I read, which basically says he’s a limited athlete with a lot of play-hard in him. Guessing he’s a better athlete than initially credited, and has even more want-to than they thought. Short, squat, quick, and tough. Could really help give Donald a rest, and Donald could coach him up. He’ll be 26 next season, so he’s just coming into his prime.
Anyway, part of me, going into that game, just wanted the Rams to tank so they could get better draft picks. But another part of me thought they needed to end on high notes to build for 2023, morale-wise, etc. This game was a boost in that direction, obviously. May end up being far more important than a shift in draft spots, give or take. It’s also possible . . . though perhaps remotely . . . that if the Rams play terrible football from here on out, they risk losing McVay and/or Donald to retirement. This win may diminish that possibility.
Billy_TParticipantHang in there, ZN.
Best wishes.
Billy_TParticipantI was going to post the Raheem Morris article for a new thread, and then comment, but since it’s already here . . . .
From the article:
“As you guys have seen, Mike Hoecht the last couple of weeks getting acclimated to that position, we’ve been able to see Keir Thomas get activated and then last week our young rook came back up off the injury stuff and was able to play for us. Probably this week, (Lewis) wouldn’t have been active and what Sean says, he really means. He’s people first so in order to give Terrell the best chance to get back on the grass, we decided to part ways and let him move on and have an opportunity somewhere else where it’s probably going to be more fruitful for him. These young guys are coming in and playing, they’ve done some really good things the last couple of weeks and in order not to have a disgruntled worker, Sean really means what he says and people first, decided to let him go, give him an opportunity to play somewhere else and move on.”
IMO, it’s completely nutz to cut players outright, just to give them a shot to catch on somewhere else. That’s taking being “people first” way too far. Trade them, certainly, if it’s not working out. Do whatever you can to get something in return, even if it’s just a late rounder. But you can’t build a team if you keep cutting most of your draft picks for nada. Not only is it a sign that you’ve drafted poorly; it’s also terrible asset management.
I’m all for treating players with respect, kindness, and dignity. That’s the least they can do. But if you want to build and sustain a winner, you simply can’t give away players for nothing. Treat them with respect and try to maximize their value via compensation. It’s not an either/or deal.
Billy_TParticipantI still think the Rams gave up way too much for Stafford. And, yeah, I know: Super Bowl victory last year. IMO, though, the Rams could have won it last year with Goff, too, if McVay had been demonstrative in his support and faith there. Goff helped take the Rams to the Super Bowl in 2019, and I think he wins it if Kupp had played. He’s playing really well this year with the Lions. As mentioned above, it’s a confidence thing, etc.
Also: I see that trade as more than just Goff and future draft picks for Stafford. They also basically traded the picks needed to move up to get Goff in the first place. Plus, Stafford is six years older, and has taken a vicious pounding during his career. I love his toughness, and his chutzpah, but I just don’t see the difference between the two QBs as warranting that trade. Stafford has a bit more arm talent. But I think the age difference cancels that out.
If it’s me, I don’t make the trade. I support Goff, coach him up. Make sure he has the best QB coach possible, and build up the O-line too. He wins it all with a healthy Kupp.
Water under the bridge, of course.
Billy_TParticipantLoved the game. Mayfield was a great pickup, and I loved his hutzpah. Excellent plays from Skro, Gaines, Akers, Scott, and Tutu.
Probably missing some names. But that was a lot of fun to watch
Excellent pick-up for the Rams, to get Baker. Can’t lose with it. Keep him, re-sign him, or let him go and get a nice comp pick. At the very least, audition him for the rest of the league. Keep him if he plays really well. Mayfield is soooo much better than Wolford or Perkins. Lotsa good press from football players regarding his quality as a teammate. He seems like an inspirational player.
Smart move by the Rams. Great win. Loved watching this one.
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