nittany ram wrote:

So the Seahawks just improved their Superbowl-caliber team by adding Jimmy Graham.

Meanwhile, the always hapless Rams just traded their injured but talented QB for another injured QB with less upside.
Ok, I think a pattern is starting to materialize.

There’s just somethin about Bradford
they didnt like.

I have only seen Foles stats. I’m
curious what kind of “leader” he is.
Cause i got a feeling the Rams
might want a different type of leader.
Just wild speculation of course.

Sam Bradford, an Eagle. Wow.

w
v

Jim ThomasVerified account
‏@jthom1
I can confirm Schefter report that it looks like this Bradford trade is going down. Wow. Totally out of left field.

bnw wrote:

AP in AZ? Ugh.

Ugh is right.

They’d have to face Lynch twice,
and AP twice?
O my.

w
v

— X — wrote:

Winnbrad wrote:

– X – wrote:

Winnbrad wrote:
30 receivers, 23 o-lineman. That’s depressing. And that vid is from the 2013 season, right?

No. Week 7 of 2012.
Awesome set-up he had for that game. Steve Smith, Austin Pettis, Brandon Gibson and Chris Givens as his receivers. Only Givens remains, and probably not for long. The only lineman still on the team from that game is Barksdale; and again, probably not for long.

2012. That’s even more depressing. He’s probably had 40 WRs and 30 o-lineman by now.

I’m hesitant to depress you any further, but…

Craig Dahl was our starting strong safety for that game too.

I bin havin problems with the inter-nets,
but the phone company reattached the wires
to my house so I am once again able to
type words and send them into space.

Good to see you on the board X.

The universe keeps unfolding,
apparently.

w
v
“Every man has within himself the entire human condition”
― Michel de Montaigne

zn wrote:

Tough, tough player. Became
as classy a leader as Rams have had.

You know, uniformed fan types bug me.

If Jackson were so great, why did the Rams just release him this week?

Hunh? Answer me that.

The Rams released him because he wouldn’t
take a pay-raise like Tom Brady did.
Which just proves that Jackson was
always a disloyal traitor.

w
v

“… Under Carey, Goldman Sachs has worked on more than two dozen stadium deals, the company says, amounting to more than $11 billion in financing.
Carey’s specialty is crafting deals that are lucrative for team owners, often at the expense of taxpayers. What sets him apart, say his clients and critics, is his ability to steer projects through conflicting interests of teams and local government officials. He often does so by using obscure tools available in public finance to help owners get low-interest loans, avoid taxes or tap subsidies….”

I did not
need to read this,
first thing in the Morning.

Do you have any cute bunny videos?
Maybe a dog playing with an orangutan?

w
v

===================================
Greg Cosell’s analysis: Breaking down the Eagles-Bills trade
[sports.yahoo.com]
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/greg-cosell-s-analysis–breaking-down-the-eagles-bills-trade-175905938.html
The Philadelphia Eagles are a fascinating team this offseason, and their big trade this week makes them even more interesting.

Let’s assume Eagles coach Chip Kelly wants to draft University of Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. That’s a reasonable assumption, considering all that has been said about it. What that ultimately means is that if the Eagles have any chance of moving up to draft Mariota, they have to give up draft picks, and likely draft picks from this season. A team positioned high enough in the draft for the Eagles to take Mariota will want to get better right away.

So if we assume that’s what the Eagles want to do (that’s not to say it’s a guarantee to happen, of course), the Eagles can’t get better through the draft because they’ll have to give away so many picks. So what do the Eagles have to do? They have to cut cap. And they just got rid of about $10 million of cap charges by trading running back LeSean McCoy.

It’s just my sense – I don’t know it as a fact – that Kelly is far more comfortable with veterans than draft choices anyway. I don’t think he’d mind trading some if he could sign two or three free agents instead. And a free agent like Seattle Seahawks cornerback Byron Maxwell is not going to come cheap.

So the Eagles’ trade might have been done with an organizational philosophy or a bigger plan in mind. But let’s take a closer look at McCoy, who was traded to the Buffalo Bills.

I don’t think McCoy ran as well last season as he has in the past, and certainly not as well as he ran in 2013. His numbers reflected that. But I don’t think that he’s at the end of the rope, considering he’ll be just 27 years old. He’s a very, very good back. But he is a certain kind of runner.

McCoy is a space runner. In 2013, he had a lot of space. All five starters on the Eagles’ offensive line started every game and they were great. McCoy had a lot of room to run. When the Eagles had personnel issues on the line in 2014, McCoy didn’t have that space, and when that happens he tends to bounce runs outside. That’s not necessarily a knock, because McCoy has bounced runs outside and made many phenomenal plays that way. But that’s his style as a runner and if the play isn’t blocked well with initial space and a clear seem, his tendency of bouncing it outside is exacerbated.

Here’s an example from Week 4 at San Francisco. The line didn’t block it great, and with no clear seam McCoy bounced it outside and was stopped for no gain.

McCoy isn’t a sustaining runner, in that when there’s 3 yards for him to get he’s not going to fight through traffic and get 6 yards. Again, that’s not a knock on McCoy, it’s just the type of runner he is. I think the Eagles would have an easier time replacing what he does compared to the Seahawks replacing what Marshawn Lynch does or the Cowboys replacing what DeMarco Murray does. Backs who can grind it out and can bring a punishing mentality for 25 or more carries are hard to find. More backs can hit gaps, especially in the Eagles’ offense that is built on spacing and stretching the field. But McCoy is a tremendous back and the Bills will play to McCoy’s strengths. And I really think they made a good move trading for Matt Cassel.

Cassel is your classic (for lack of a better term) system player. He needs a strong run game, and obviously that will be the foundation of the Bills’ offense. Cassel has always been a good play-action quarterback. He has never had a problem turning his back to the defense and then getting his head around and figuring out the coverage. In some ways, Cassel is no different – and arguably better at times – than Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton. He fits a system, and that’s what the Bills are going to do.

The Eagles didn’t just get cap space in the trade. I really like linebacker Kiko Alonso, who the Bills will send to Philadelphia. I think he’s a true three-down linebacker. He can play the run and the pass. He’s big, physical, very athletic, can cover in space and he can blitz. So, he can do just about anything you could ask of him. He’s a really good player, even though he’s coming off an ACL surgery. I think the Eagles will have the NFL’s most athletic inside linebacker combination in a 3-4 defense between him and Mychal Kendricks.

The trade has benefits to both sides. We’ll just have to see how it fits into the Eagles’ bigger plans for this offseason

Agamemnon wrote:

Snead is guy who likes more draft picks. Give him credit for trade downs, good and bad. Nobody gets drafted unless Fisher wants them. Under Fisher, Sneads greatest talent is guessing how the draft will unfold and getting a bonanza of picks for RG3. imo Quick might have been Snead’s guy?

Well, we disagree about that, but,
ignoring the ‘credit’ notion,
what players did the Rams get?
I keep forgetting.

w
v

Well its a great topic. Most of us
have no idea what the ‘standard’ should
be for calling a draft “average”
or “good” or whatever.

As that guy emphasizes its a really
tricky subject.

If a team makes an All-pro-pick like Robert Quinn
does that balance out the draft if they pick a bunch
of busts after that? Does an Andrew Luck type pick
make the whole draft? How can we even compare getting
a “good starter” to getting a guy like Peyton Manning?
And what does it mean, that a team “figured out” that
Luck was the right pick, but couldnt do anything
in those tricky later Rounds?
And then there’s injuries — what if a guy was a
great pick but he got injured in his fourth game
and is out of the league now? And what if one
team has 12 picks and another team has 5 picks —
how do you compare them?

Etc, etc, and so forth. Good topic, but so
many nuances that its impossible to stop
asking questions.

I think with any ‘big picture’ algebra, you also
just have to look at each individual draftee and
just talk about it.
Seems like Snisher’s biggest question marks are:
1 The Bobby Wagner non-pick.
2 The Pead Pick
3 The Tavon trade-up
4 Brockers?
5 The No-QB until the 6th Round decision

w
v

Quinn is elite, not ‘very good.’

Tre Mason is good, not ‘average.
Corey Harkey is good and inspirational, not ‘average’
TJ McDonald is good, not average.
Ogletree is ‘good and sometimes outstanding’, not below average.
Mark Barron is ‘good-in-this-scheme’, not ‘below average’
Eugene Sims is a ‘good back-up’, not ‘below average’

Greg Robinson was a ‘confused rookie’; he was not ‘poor.’

Saffold, and Bradford are ‘good-when-they-are-healthy’

Tavon is ‘sui generis’

Just my opinion

The team has talent to be a ten-win team. If Bradford
had stayed healthy, and the Oline had stayed healthy,
they could have been pushing nine or even ten wins.

Its not an elite team by any means — its not in Seattle/New England territory,
but the nine or ten win level? Sure.

w
v

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by wv.

rfl wrote:

I am not at all sure that WV’s reasoning is sound….

We’ll see, won’t we?

They will put together a monster OLine.
They will throw everything at that problem.
It just makes sense in so many ways.
They need to protect Bradford, and they need
to be able to run and use play-action. They
need to withstand the defenses in the NFC West.
They will spin their wheels another year,
if they fail to fix that one unit.
They must know that.

I will weep,
if they piddle around
on other positions,
and fail to build a
topnotch OLine.

w
v
“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”
― W.B. Yeats, The Collected Poems

TackleDummy wrote:

Interesting numbers to think about when anyone from LA throws out the “St. Louis fans don’t support football!” insult.

Los Angeles Rams
Year Record Avg Att
1984 (10-6) 54,455 (playoffs)
1985 (11-5) 56,242 (playoffs)
1986 (10-6) 59,285 (playoffs)
1987 (6-9) 47,356
1988 (10-6) 54,469 (playoffs)
1989 (11-5) 58,846 (playoffs)
1990 (5-11) 59,920
1991 (3-13) 51,586
1992 (6-10) 47,811
1993 (5-11) 45,401
1994 (4-12) 43,312
10 Yr Avg 52,608

St. Louis Rams
Year Record Avg Att
2004 (8-8) 66,035
2005 (6-10) 65,585
2006 (8-8) 65,326
2007 (3-13) 64,294
2008 (2-14) 59,980
2009 (1-15) 55,237
2010 (7-9) 52,922
2011 (2-14) 56,394
2012 (7-8-1) 56,703
2013 (7-9) 56,957
2014 (6-10) 57,018
10 Yr Avg 59,677

That’s 7.36 wins per year for LA vs. 5.18 wins per year for STL. Attendance per win: 114,309 in LA, 184,266 in STL.

Not bad for a region with 2.8 million people!

Note: This is a post from the HERD board by courtland1.

Well, my own personal complaint about St.Louis is not about attendance numbers exactly.
Its about this —
I have NEVER seen another stadium that was filled
with so many Opponent-Fans as often as has been the case in St.Louis.
I mean there have been times were its been
downright embarrassing.

I love open-air stadiums btw. I will be thrilled if
St.Louis builds one and then
blows up the Jones-Dome.
The ‘elements’ should play a part
in Football. This isn’t badminton.

w
v

I am waiting for the day
fans in the stands can challenge
a coach’s playcall.

Ya know. And if more than, say
three-fourths of the fans push a button
challenging the playcall, the coach
would automatically be jettisoned from
the stadium. Literally. Maybe some sort
of catapult could be used.

I think the fans would like that.
Pete Carroll would still be in orbit.

…at any rate, I’m all for expanding replay
to penalties. It would correct a few big
mistakes every year. That would be worth the
annoyance I would think.

w
v