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znModeratorfrom off the net
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Rams Junkie
I saw a bit about Lynch. on Path to the Draft. From my perspective he came across as a sort of a goofy but likable character. He made me think of Marino’s personality when he was drafted. Lynch was asked about his first football memory and he said it was when he shaved the #20 in his head because that was his number. So maybe he is not your prototypical leader but I would guess he would be a guy teammates would like. With Gruden he talked about players being his brothers and that he loved the guys. Lynch mentioned his size (6’6.5 245lbs) and athleticism as his strengths. He mentioned watching Cam Newton as he is a QB with a large frame and athleticism.
Casserly was asked about what he thought about where Lynch would be drafted. Casserly said it would be to the Rams at 15 which was the high point and the lowest would be Denver. He said KC at pick number 28 has interest. Casserly said Denver might want to trade up to prevent someone else from jumping in front of them. Casserly said he could easily see a team trading back into the first round to get Lynch.
znModeratorNFL teams not liking what they hear from Christian Hackenberg
Michael David SmithNFL teams not liking what they hear from Christian Hackenberg
Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg is unusual among quarterback prospects in the NFL draft in that his best season was his freshman season: That year he showed great potential playing for coach Bill O’Brien, but when O’Brien left to coach the Texans, Hackenberg struggled mightily as a sophomore under new coach James Franklin, and only improved slightly in his junior year before leaving school early to turn pro.
Given that history, it’s not surprising that Hackenberg thinks the departure of O’Brien and arrival of Franklin hurt his college career. What is surprising is that Hackenberg turned off NFL teams in private interviews by blaming his problems on Franklin and the Penn State staff.
Two personnel sources on two separate NFL teams told Robert Klemko of TheMMQB.com that Hackenberg said all the wrong things in interviews. Specifically, Hackenberg blamed Franklin when asked what went wrong.
“Despite the fact that it’s probably true, you don’t want to hear a kid say that,” a personnel source on one team said.
As in any job interview, there’s a right way and a wrong way to talk about yourself when you’re a player talking to NFL teams. If Hackenberg says, “I committed to Penn State because I thought Coach O’Brien’s offense would be perfect for me, and after he left I didn’t do a good enough job of adapting to the new offense,” NFL teams aren’t going to have a problem with that. If Hackenberg says, “Coach Franklin didn’t do a good enough job of adapting his offense to me,” NFL teams are going to have a problem with that.
March 26, 2016 at 12:30 pm in reply to: Cowboys not planning training-camp practices with Rams due to 2015 brawl #41088znModerator-X- found this.
…
March 26, 2016 at 11:46 am in reply to: Is everything in the Universe made of the same 'thing'? #41086znModeratorI blame dark matter.
I blame Zygmunt.
znModeratorBut the lawsuit argues that the Rams’ departure doesn’t terminate the lease; the Rams went year-to-year, as allowed in the lease, and the year simply expires. The lease, the suit continues, says the $1 option survives a termination, not an expiration.
Moreover, the suit argues that the lease gives the Rams the option forever, without an end date — and the law does not allow someone to tie up a property in perpetuity.
Jim Shrewsbury, president of the Dome Authority board, said he wasn’t emotional over the issue.
“It’s a dispute over the terms of the lease,” he said. “They believe they have an option. We do not believe that option is enforceable.”
“It’s a business dispute,” he said. “My goal is to do what’s best for the regional sports authority and for the region.”
I actually think it would be kind of classless for SK to exercise that option.
It is true that it was yet another bad move by the St. Louis 90s negotiating team and another screw-job perk Shaw got out of them.
I do think that it’s valid to challenge whether or not the option is valid or enforceable. I am no lawyer but the challenge sounds reasonable.
But then I wonder why SK would exercise that option at all…IMO it looks bad and he really has nothing to gain from it.
znModeratorwell we all know elway had a feud with reeves.
but apparently he had a feud with shanahan as well?
Mile High Feud: John Elway and Mike Shanahan Still Have a Beef, but Why?
Jun 30, 2010
As far as recent history goes with the Denver Broncos, two personalities are held supreme atop the list of legendary Mile Highers.
Strangely enough, those two aren’t really that fond of each other.
This old story has become an issue again, as rumors are circling that John Elway now wants to buy a minority stake in the Denver Broncos if Pat Bowlen will let him. The timing seems interesting, because he waited until after Mike Shanahan was out of town.
That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as Dave Krieger has pointed out before that based on his long-term relationship interviewing Elway, he had always known that the two did not get along. Elway had told him point blank many years ago that he would love to get involved in a position with the team, but not while Mike Shanahan was around.
Surprisingly, there seems to be little evidence of animosity from Shanahan’s direction (at least in the public’s eye). That is probably because Mike Shanahan, unlike Jay Cutler, knew that challenging Elway’s persona in the media was not the best idea for anyone affiliated with the Denver Broncos.
Heck, Josh McDaniels wouldn’t make public comments about his distaste for the legendary Shanahan if they had any sort of problem with each other.
There has been a lot of speculation about what exactly might have happened between John and Mike to make them refuse to be a part of the organization that made them both NFL gods simultaneously after 1998.
Some people have claimed that Elway gave short notice to Shanahan in regard to his retirement. This, while probable, doesn’t seem to be enough to alienate the men from each other for 12 years.
I mean, their partnership did win two Super Bowls. Even Terrell Owens and Donovan McNabb have made amends now.
But both men have conflicted histories and are certainly type-A personalities. While they were only in the locker room together for half a decade (with a break in between), that was certainly enough time to clash in private.
John Elway certainly has a history of problems with coaches and authority in general. Coming out of college, he refused to play for the Baltimore Colts and was subsequently traded. His problem relationship with former long-time Denver coach Dan Reeves also got Dan fired in the early 1990s.
Yet even they were able to patch up their relationship in 2004 at Elway’s Hall of Fame induction.
At the time, Elway was quoted in the Denver Post as saying this about his invitation to Reeves:
“It never crossed my mind not to invite him. Time heals everything. Those types of things, those little problems, you just can’t let them linger. They add up. Bitterness is no way to go through life. There are absolutely no ill feelings on my part toward Dan. I’m looking forward to seeing him.”
Time heals everything? Bitterness is no way to go through life?
If Elway considered getting Reeves fired to be one of “those little problems,” then I don’t want to know what he would consider to be a big problem.
Either Mike Shanahan burned Elway’s house down, is responsible for slandering Elway’s name all over car dealerships, and headed some major, additional sinister plot against John, or perhaps the explanation is far more simple.
It is likely that the feud does actually exist, but at the root of preventing the two from patching things up is a character trait of Mike Shanahan’s.
Mike Shanahan is a bit of a control freak.
That won’t come as a surprise to people who work with Shanahan for any period of time, and even Denver fans can discover that pretty quickly with some basic analysis.
Mike lost his job in the Mile High City because he wouldn’t give up his hold on defense and personnel decisions, which were two areas he struggled in. If one looks at his new powers in Washington, he negotiated a similar situation.
Same old story, same old song and dance.
Elway can’t be blamed for not wanting to work in that type of environment, if he felt at the time that getting into management with Mike Shanahan would leave him powerless.
But it is undeniable that there is some other conflict separating the two. Shanahan did imply through Dave Krieger at one point that he thought Elway lacked the necessary motivation to take on a front office position.
That isn’t the type of thing you say to a reporter about a friend. He essentially was calling John lazy.
They have a long history together, going all the way back to fishing trips in the early 90s after Dan Reeves fired Mike from the position of Denver Broncos offensive coordinator. Unless one of them comes right out and says what is wrong, it will be difficult to ever know anything conclusively.
Shanahan certainly had the right to feel betrayed if Elway didn’t give him enough notice when he retired from Denver, especially since it left Mike’s team in a downswing. Shanahan never brought the team back up to that 1998 level again, and since the two had been such close friends off the field for such a long time, that would explain the sudden animosity.
But at the core, it would seem that there is something else separating the two that is, as of yet, unidentifiable.
With Shanahan’s departure, Elway might be coming back in the door, but all that would mean is further questions about why two of the Broncos’ most familiar faces are never seen together anymore.
In 1994, a story ran in the Sporting News quoting Dan Reeves as saying this about his firing of Shanahan: “That was my main concern with Mike, that he was too close to John (Elway). I felt like it was causing some problems within our staff.”
The problems seem to go back forever, and they still exist now, though it is certain John and Mike aren’t close anymore.
But with both men being a part of the NFL simultaneously again for the first time since the fabled 1998 season, albeit in drastically different positions, perhaps that will change.
The fans sure would like to see their problems resolved, but until they are, this will remain one of the biggest mysteries in sports.
znModeratorLaurinaitis wants to prove Rams wrong
Jim Thomas
The closer your parking space was to the players’ entrance at Rams Park, the closer your time was nearing an end with the team.
That was the running joke linebacker James Laurinaitis had with family and friends. With parking spaces assigned by seniority, turns out there was some truth to it. Laurinaitis made it all the way up to the No. 2 parking spot after seven seasons with the Rams.
Only defensive end Chris Long parked closer to the door, with eight seasons in St, Louis.
Both were released last month.
“You get to a point at (year) five or six and you never get surprised by anything anymore because you see so many guys you thought would be safe on cut day, and guys that would get released or traded,” Laurinaitis said Thursday in a conference call with New Orleans reporters.
Laurinaitis officially signed his contract with his new team, the Saints, this week.
What did surprise Laurinaitis about his Rams departure? Not only was sent information about the team’s March 4 informational meeting in Los Angeles, and asked if would attend, he also was asked by the team to do an interview for ESPN LA (and did so).
“And then two days later I was released,” Laurinaitis said. “That is what caught me off-guard. … You understand it is a business, but the fact that there was really no communication — I think to have certain players do interviews for your organization and then to be released shocked me.”
The NFL can be a cold, cruel business. Just ask Rams fans in St. Louis still struggling with the departure of their team to Los Angeles.
In looking for a new team, Laurinaitis told agent Tom Condon that he wanted an organization that was a playoff contender with an established offense and a successful quarterback. Basically he had none of that during his time in St. Louis.
Then again, the Saints haven’t exactly been making deep playoff runs lately. The team has finished 7-9 in three of its last four seasons — not too different from the Rams under Jeff Fisher. But New Orleans did finish 11-5 in 2013. The Rams haven’t seen 11 or more wins in a season since 2003.
Laurinaitis told New Orleans reporters he was excited about the stability of the organization.
“When you have a coach like Sean Payton and you have a quarterback like Drew Brees, you always have a chance,” Laurinaitis said. “That’s all I kept receiving when I would get texts from guys around the league.”
Laurinaitis said five or six teams expressed interest in him following his Feb. 19 release by the Rams, but New Orleans was the first team to call.
“Their vision for me was they want someone to come in that has leadership and that had football intelligence to help some of the young players,” Laurinaitis said.
The Rams released Laurinaitis because they felt he was a declining player. According to a source at Rams Park some of the in-house evaluations were harsh, saying Laurinaitis “was holding the defense hostage” because he had become a liability in man coverage, and that the team could “be so much better” at middle linebacker.
Laurinaitis, 29, obviously feels otherwise.
“Whenever you are released by a team or fired, because essentially that is what it is … there is definitely extra motivation to go out there and prove yourself,” Laurinaitis said. “Look, I have a lot left in the tank, and can go out there and play great football,”
According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Laurinaitis’ three-year deal is for $8.25 million. He was scheduled to make $5.8 million in 2016 with the Rams. Laurinaitis has sold his home in St. Louis, with an April 15 close.
FREE AGENCY REVIEW
Granted, Laurinaitis and Long were no longer wanted by the Rams. But even in a free agency period where the Rams prioritized re-signing their own players — particularly on defense — the team will have four new starters on defense in 2016.
“I’m pleased that we were able to retain some of our guys that were important to us,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said at the NFL owners meetings this week. “We knew going in there was a chance we’d probably lose one of the four defensive backs. I didn’t anticipate losing two. But we have depth on our roster.”
The Rams lost cornerback Janoris Jenkins (New York Giants) and free safety Rodney McLeod (Philadelphia) in free agency. They retained cornerback Trumaine Johnson via the franchise tag and re-signed hybrid Mark Barron to a five-year, $45 million deal that will have him playing weakside linebacker much more than safety.
As for Jenkins, who signed a monster $62.5 million contract with the Giants, Fisher said: “We were a lot closer than people think. I was a little disappointed. I thought we’d get him … and then the money did take off.”
The Rams don’t have a clear-cut replacement for McLeod at free safety, and one possible option in free agency — Arizona’s Rashad Johnson — agreed to terms with Tennessee on Friday. Cincinnati’s Reggie Nelson, in whom the Rams have expressed some interest, remains on the market.
SUBTLE CRITICISM?
Long signed a one-year, $2.4 million contract with the Patriots. And Fisher had plenty of good things to say about Long when approached by New England writers at the NFC coaches breakfast.
“There’s no holes there,” Fisher said. “He’s great. Really consistent day in and day out over the years. Loved to come to work. Always had a great attitude. Playful. Jokes around — the right way. … Obviously, last couple years injuries set him back. We released him and then 10 days later he texted me a picture of his newborn.”
But when asked how much Long, who turns 31 on Monday, had left in the tank, Fisher also suggested that Long needs to work out harder in the offsesason.
“If he’s gonna have anything to do with it, he’ll get it done,” Fisher said. “But that’s the question. It’s gonna be up to him. He’s gonna probably have to train a little bit more than he has in the past because of the injuries.”
znModeratorWill 49ers’ Chip Kelly, Colin Kaepernick ever work together?
http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Will-49ers-Chip-Kelly-Colin-Kaepernick-ever-7044875.php
Chip Kelly has a reasonable explanation for Colin Kaepernick’s 2015 nosedive, but it just happens to be inaccurate.
In Kelly’s telling, the 49ers’ quarterback struggled because of injuries to his left shoulder, right thumb and left knee, all of which have required surgery since late November.
“I think people forget about that,” Kelly said last month at the combine. “… There was something wrong with him.”
On Wednesday, at the NFL owners’ meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., Kelly delivered the same message to reporters: “It’s not like his skill set diminished,” Kelly said. “… He didn’t fall off. He got hurt.”
The problem with Kelly’s argument: Kaepernick was statistically better last year after his first significant injury.
To review: Kaepernick was healthy for the season’s first three games before suffering a shoulder injury that was later revealed to be a torn labrum in Week 4. He tore a thumb ligament in Week 7 and hurt his knee in Week 8, which was his last start before he was benched.
In his first three starts, when he was healthy, Kaepernick three two touchdown passes and four interceptions and had a 71.1 passer rating. In his final five starts, he threw four touchdown passes and one interception and had an 83.4 rating.
This isn’t news to Kelly, an offensive mind attuned to quarterbacks who realizes Kaepernick’s issues extend beyond physical ailments. So why is Kelly ignoring the truth to woo an unhappy player whose passer rating has declined in each season since his dazzling 2012 debut?
Well, Kelly’s situation is similar to what Jim Harbaugh faced when he was hired by the 49ers in 2011: Harbaugh saw potential in Alex Smith, the 2005 No. 1 overall pick, but he also couldn’t be too picky. His other on-the-roster options included David Carr and Troy Smith. Five years later, Kelly’s only other quarterback with starting potential on the current roster is Blaine Gabbert.
Harbaugh, of course, persuaded Smith, then a free agent, to re-sign with the 49ers and helped jump-start his languishing career. It’s possible a similar scenario could unfold with Kelly and Kaepernick, who has requested a trade but remains with the 49ers despite spending more than two weeks on the open market.
On Thursday, the chances of Kaepernick staying with 49ers might have increased when a potential trade partner — the Browns — signed former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III.
With the Browns no longer a trade option, the Broncos are the only other team that has negotiated with the 49ers. However, talks with the Broncos have stalled because they reportedly have placed a fourth-round value on Kaepernick.
The 49ers have maintained they are prepared to keep Kaepernick and pay him his $11.9 million base salary, which becomes guaranteed next Friday.
Still, it’s premature to say Kelly will get his chance to resurrect Kaepernick’s career.
It’s telling that Kelly’s private conversations with Kaepernick — combined with Kelly’s public praising — haven’t persuaded the quarterback to rescind his trade request.
It highlights the fact that Kelly faces a more difficult challenge than Harbaugh inherited. In 2011, Smith was disenchanted with the 49ers largely because he thought he’d been undermined and mismanaged by defensive-minded head coaches Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary. Given that, Smith was swayed by the chance to finally play for a head coach with offensive chops.
Unlike Smith, Kaepernick’s issues are largely with the 49ers’ still-intact front office, which he believes has undermined him.
As a result, Denver general manager John Elway might be waiting on the 49ers to see how they answer this question: Are they really willing to give their biggest salary to the player who might have the biggest problems with the organization?
Kelly has said he’s excited to work with Kaepernick, once his body has fully healed.
The problem for Kelly: Kaepernick’s bruised feelings could lingerznModeratorBroncos passed on RGIII due to character concerns
The Denver Broncos reportedly considered bringing in Robert Griffin III but chose not to seriously pursue him due to character concerns according to Mike Klis of 9News in Denver.
RGIII likely would have jumped at the chance to play for the team he grew up rooting for but the call never came. Klis reports that Broncos team president/GM John Elway made a few phone calls about Griffin but ultimately decided he was not a good fit in Denver. One of those calls was undoubtedly to Elway’s former head coach Mike Shanahan, who famously clashed with Griffin while both were with the Washington Redskins.
There are those who might suggest RGIII had some legitimate beefs with Shanahan considering the latter sent him out to play in the 2012 playoffs when he was obviously injured and may have wrecked his career. It is no secret Griffin did not get along with the Shanahans or some of his teammates and he sometimes inserts foot in mouth during interviews but it should be noted that he was pretty much a stand-up guy in 2015, not complaining about his permanent seat on the bench. Griffin has also never been in trouble with the law, never failed a drug test, and as far as we know has never hit a woman. is Mark “Butt Fumble” Sanchez really an upgrade from RGIII?
znModeratorthe one that really hurts is mcleod. i don’t know how they replace him unless joyner is ready.
They actually have 3 candidates for that spot, and some say 4. Joyner, Cody Davis, and Bryant. Some say the 4th is Alexander. IMO, hey wouldn’t have let McCleod go if they didn’t have options in mind to replace him. Or they could draft someone. I am not worried about whether Joyner is ready, if he is the guy. He was drafted in 2014, making this his third season. McCleod was starting in his 2nd season. I will say this—these coaches (including above all GW) know how to coach up secondary players.
March 25, 2016 at 8:33 pm in reply to: Jon Gruden's QB Camp w/ Case Keenum 2012 (has morphed into "the keenum thread") #41064znModeratorOld article. -X- found this. A lot of what it says didn’t hold up. Some of it IMO still does. Anyway different people will see different things in this.
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The Case for Keenum
He went undrafted in 2012 and spent a year on the practice squad—but he looks like the future of the Texans. What’s right, and what still needs work, for Houston’s new starting quarterback
FRI NOV. 8, 2013
by Robert Klemko
http://theramshuddle.com/topic/jon-grudens-qb-camp-with-case-keenum-2012/
HOUSTON — Get excited, Texans. You may just have a quarterback.
He has arrived in the form of Case Keenum, a sparkplug in stature and mood, the pride of the University of Houston and the new envy of every 6-foot-and-under college quarterback in America. Keenum went undrafted in 2012 and signed with the Texans’ practice squad after taking five years to become the NCAA’s all-time leader in completions, passing yards and touchdowns. How does such a player go undrafted? We’ll get to that.
What matters right now is this: The Texans are 2-6 after winning the AFC South a year ago. If the season isn’t lost, it’s heading that way fast. Yet in Week 9 they discovered an offense so potent it had one of the top teams in the AFC—one that bested Peyton Manning’s Broncos and Russell Wilson’s Seahawks—grasping at straws. It started when Keenum entered the huddle on the first play of his second NFL start with these words: “Let’s get this thing turned around.”
That’s big talk from a guy who played some cornerback on the practice squad last season and began 2013 as third quarterback on the depth chart behind 2012 Pro Bowler Matt Schaub and 2011 playoff starter T.J. Yates.
But Keenum delivered. Schaub’s replacement went yard to star receiver Andre Johnson on the third play from scrimmage for a 62-yard touchdown, Johnson’s first of the season. Keenum screamed and fist-pumped. He threw off his back foot, falling away, side-armed and overhanded. He threw a couple of near-picks that slipped through defenders’ hands, and two more touchdowns to Johnson, including a five-yard jump ball at the close of the first half after sprinting down the field and motioning for a clock-stopping spike. It wasn’t quite as important as Marino in ’94, or Stafford against the Cowboys earlier this season, but it was no less extraordinary.“That was my favorite moment,” said Texans wide receiver DeVier Posey. “That was pretty cool. I didn’t think that was going to happen. I kind of jogged off and I was like, Oh, what??”
It was the highlight of the night just before the lowlight of the season—coach Gary Kubiak collapsed from a transient ischemic attack (a mini-stroke) on the way to the halftime locker room. Kubiak’s fall took the wind out of the stadium and the Texans offense as the Colts came back to win 27-24.
Understandably overshadowed by Kubiak’s hospital visit was the play of Keenum in defeat—20 of 34 for 350 yards and three touchdowns, to go with 271 yards and a touchdown two weeks back in Kansas City, just before the bye. The Texans ran almost exclusively shotgun and pistol formations in that start, an adjustment made for Keenum, the Abilene native who played in a spread offense in college and was so unready to contribute at quarterback as a rookie that the Texans put him on the practice squad and asked him to chip in all over the field. Posey roomed with Keenum through 2012 OTAs and remembers him quietly accepting his hodgepodge role on the scout team when the season started.
“He got here last year, ran routes, played corner, ran down the field on kickoff,” Posey said. “He always prepared like a starter, and I just felt the past two weeks was our first chance to meet the guy who threw the nine touchdowns in a college game.”
That guy? That guy was too short, and his arm was too weak to convert all that success in college—including a nine-touchdown game vs. Rice in 2011—into a successful pro career. He was supposed to be a system quarterback who thrived in the spread and didn’t know how to read defenses back then. Plus he had torn his ACL in his fourth season, and escapability was the only way he could see over those offensive linemen, being 6-1 and all. (Texans running Ben Tate says he’s “more like 5-11.”)
“I’ve had a lot of people tell me I can’t do a lot of things,” Keenum said before his first start, in Kansas City. “I’m too short or this or that, but you can’t believe a lot of that stuff… I’ve tried to grow, but I think I’m done.”
Still, University of Houston coach Tony Levine figured he was a lock to get picked by somebody, anybody.
He plays like he has nothing to lose,” says Posey. “When he gets down on one knee in the huddle you believe any play can work.
“Every scout I talked to fell in love with him,” Levine says. “I guess between then and draft day something changed. Maybe they felt like the most yards and touchdowns in Division I history was an accident.”
The 32-team slight failed to shake Keenum’s confidence, and when Schaub went down with a leg injury during a stretch of four straight losses and Yates struggled as well, Keenum finally got the opportunity to open up.
The knocks on Keenum—too short, weak arm—have not been apparent.“He plays like he has nothing to lose,” Posey says. “And he doesn’t, so why not? When he gets in the huddle and he gets down on one knee you believe any play can work. He just has that good old Texas country boy swagger. It’s more like a cowboy, like he’s riding a high horse.”
Says offensive tackle Duane Brown: “It’s very contagious.”
He’s done well enough to keep a healthy Schaub on the bench, raising questions about the veteran’s future in Houston after the season. Despite signing the two-time Pro Bowler to a long term deal in September, the Texans left themselves an out that would save them $11 million by cutting him in June.
It’s undoubtedly tough to stomach for Schaub, who has lately declined to speak with media, and for his teammates and coaches who saw him at his best a year ago. Quarterbacks coach Karl Dorrell predicted a breakout season for Schaub over the summer but found himself endorsing Keenum in November.
“It looks good on paper before the season starts,” Dorrell says, “but as things start to take their course, a lot can go wrong, not just for Matt but for the whole team, with injuries and other issues.”The holes in Houston’s roster, particularly along the offensive line, have been part of the reason Keenum’s impressive stats haven’t yet translated into wins. Yet the offense is clearly improving under him, and it’s only a matter of time before the W’s start accumulating. Here are the reasons for quarterback optimism in Houston, and factors that could temper that hope.
Reasons for optimism1. Buying time, making the deep throws
Twice now, in two separate games, Keenum has bought time with his feet and unloaded for huge gains to Andre Johnson after Johnson had given up on a route. The first example came in Kansas City on a first down during the third quarter, when Keenum sensed pressure, escaped right, wove back across the field and unloaded off-balance 45 yards downfield to Johnson for a 42-yard gain, after Johnson had given up on his route and resumed running downfield once Keenum came back his way.
The next example was less risky but no less impressive. Keenum rolled right out of play action, located the oncoming rusher, cut the roll short and bought a split second—enough time to step into a bomb to Johnson. It was a thing of beauty, as Johnson had stopped running once he hit double coverage, then looked up and saw Keenum throwing him open deep over Colts safety Antoine Bethea. Johnson leaped to catch a 41-yard touchdown pass. The play revealed Keenum’s mobility—and also demonstrated the fallacy of the pre-draft “weak arm” diagnosis in the scouting community.
2. Offensive line improvement?
Texans right tackle Ryan Harris received more pass blocking opportunities than did season-long starter Derek Newton for the first time since this time-share began in Week 5, which was not surprising given that Newton has allowed 35 sacks, hits or hurries in 310 pass blocking opportunities, fifth-most among NFL offensive tackles according to Pro Football Focus. And just as he had in four previous opportunities, Harris performed slightly better than Newton in that capacity. Expect this trend to continue, and for the quarterback play to improve as Harris gets settled in the role.
3. Acclimating quickly to offense
Dorrell says Keenum is still working on the finer points of dropping back from under center, which explains why Houston ran passing plays nearly exclusively from shotgun or pistol formations in the narrow loss to Kansas City. And after Keenum threw from under center just twice in his first start, Kubiak opened the playbook to a degree against Indianapolis, calling for six passes from under center in that prolific three-touchdown first half alone. It bodes well that Keenum is progressing in this regard, given the steady performance of fullback Greg Jones in run-blocking out of traditional two-back sets. Jones logged a season-low 11 snaps against the Chiefs, then rebounded with a season-high 32 versus Indianapolis. Regardless, Houston has worked an effective play action game, with Keenum completing more than 60% of his passes, for a 145.8 passer rating, after faking handoffs, the majority out of pistol. Says Dorrell: “It’ll take more time to work on his drop mechanics, his play action movements, but he’s moving fast.”
Reasons for concern
1. Reliance on Johnson
There were occasions in both starts when Keenum stared down Johnson and threw into solid single coverage or double coverage while other receivers were open downfield. During the third quarter in Kansas City, Keenum forced a short pass to Johnson with time in the pocket while his No. 1 receiver was fighting through traffic for an ultimate drop. Meanwhile, tight end Garrett Graham had passed a linebacker in zone coverage and was a lock to beat the single-high safety if Keenum had noticed him. A touchdown would have put Houston over the hump in a one-score game. Against the Colts, Keenum forced a handful of throws to Johnson with open receivers in several spots, beginning with a second-quarter incompletion on a Johnson curl route with Graham and rookie wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins both open on the left side (see below). In total, Johnson has caught 13 of Keenum’s 19 targets to him, a ratio on par with the Schaub era.
As on this second-quarter play against Indy, Keenum has shown a tendency to force throws to Johnson when other targets are open. (NFL Rewind) As on this second-quarter play against Indianapolis, Keenum has shown a tendency to lock in on the veteran Johnson when other targets are open. (NFL Rewind)
2. Throws off back foot, falling away
Keenum’s mechanical flaws manifest themselves in pressure situations. In both games, while leading Houston drives at the end of the first half or in the game’s final minutes, the second-year pro tends to lean away from throws rather than step into them. It affected his accuracy at the close of the first half and twice nearly resulted in interceptions against Indianapolis. “That’s the inexperience. He’s doing the things he always did having success his whole life,” Dorrell says. “It’s an ongoing process. He’s worked hard over the course of the year to clean up his fundamentals.”
3. Easy to read
Both the Chiefs and Colts got away with ramping up pressure and leaving a single safety to defend the deep half of the field more often than the Texans would like. Though Keenum says he’s modeled parts of his game after Saints quarterback Drew Brees, he doesn’t yet have the ability to lie with his eyes, making it easy on so-so cover safeties like the Colts’ LaRon Landry. Keenum’s been getting away with it so far, but it’s only a matter of time before a more instinctual safety or an athletic defensive back take advantage of Keenum’s tendency to stare down his favorite targets. Watch Cardinals rookie safety Tyrann Mathieu and veteran cornerback Patrick
Peterson on Sunday.The future
Keenum’s optimism and swagger have been contagious. Give him the time to make the right adjustments, and the W’s will come. (Andrew Richardson/Icon SMI)
Keenum has several qualities you can’t teach, not the least of which is moxie. He is well-liked in the Houston locker room, and some inside that room quietly predicted his promotion when Schaub began to struggle in the first month of the season. Keenum’s immediate success will be contingent on the production of running backs Arian Foster and Ben Tate, each of whom has been sidelined with injuries in recent weeks. The Texans still have two games against the winless Jaguars and one with Oakland, so Keenum will have some suspect teams against which to keep the numbers going. But rough patches during the second half of the season should be no surprise. Provided he can shake some bad habits in the offseason, the future for Keenum looks bright.
March 25, 2016 at 7:12 pm in reply to: Is everything in the Universe made of the same 'thing'? #41063znModeratorWhat was the experimental evidence that made us divide protons into three quarks?
What is the experimental evidence that quarks have been separated?
If atoms are constituted of quarks, then why isn’t the quark considered the fundamental unit of matter?
Why are quarks confined?
Why do quarks and electrons have charge?
How did we prove that protons were made up of quarks?
Why does Proton have a charge of e when it is made up of two quarks containing e/3 charge and one quark containing -e/3 charge?
If I connect 3 down quarks will I make an electron?
If quark pair bonds get stronger the more you try to pull them apart and if successfully having done so a new partner is created, how would th…
What experimental data made by Murray Gell-Mann introduces quarks?There are actually answers to some of those questons.
BTW one of my favorite recent discoveries is gluons. They’re called that because they keep quarks together in composite bunches which turns out you can’t pull apart.
.
znModeratorRams exit could come with $19 million parting gift
By David Hunn St. Louis Post-Dispatch
CLAYTON • The Rams have left St. Louis but there may be a $19 million parting gift for the team still on the table.
The same lease that allowed the National Football League team to leave for Los Angeles, may also allow it to buy its practice facility in Earth City for just $1.
The public board that governs the Edward Jones Dome, where the Rams played, sued on Thursday to block the team from buying Rams Park.
The Jones Dome authority owns the park’s 27 acres. It leased the facility to the Rams for $25,000 a year.
Now the board wants to sell the land, once appraised by the county for nearly $19 million. The proceeds could be used to refill dome authority bank accounts, after efforts to plan a new riverfront stadium and keep the Rams in St. Louis totaled more than $16 million. The authority has previously acknowledged it does not have enough money for future facility upkeep.
But a clause in the Rams lease gives the team the option to buy the park — for $1 — after the dome’s 29th anniversary in 2024.
And the dome authority says it can’t sell the land if the Rams have such an option.
The suit, filed by authority attorneys Blitz, Bardgett & Deutsch, wants an answer now.
“The (dome authority) owns the training facility, which is a valuable asset,” said Blitz attorney Chris Bauman. “We have a responsibility to maximize the value of that. And to do that, we need certainty concerning this invalid option.”
Rams owner Stan Kroenke applied to National Football League owners in January to move the team to Los Angeles. In his application, he blasted the region, arguing St. Louis’ population and economic growth is so sluggish it can’t support three professional sports teams.
Later that month, the NFL owners approved Kroenke’s move, leaving local officials embittered and fans distraught.
Now leaders here wonder if the Rams really do want to buy the land; they have intimated they do, the suit says.
“I think it would be bad form and in bad character,” said Dave Peacock, co-chairman of the effort to build the riverfront football stadium, along with attorney Bob Blitz. “Just because you have the right to do something doesn’t make it right.”
It is unclear if anyone has asked Kroenke to give up the option. Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ chief operating officer, declined to comment.
The Rams lease on the Jones Dome expires Thursday. The lease on Rams Park was extended to April 30, according to the lawsuit.
On its face, the lease says the Rams have the right to buy Rams Park for $1. Moreover, it says, that option “shall survive any termination of the Lease regardless of the reason for such termination, and Lessee shall after any termination continue to have the right to exercise the Option as herein provided.”
But the lawsuit argues that the Rams’ departure doesn’t terminate the lease; the Rams went year-to-year, as allowed in the lease, and the year simply expires. The lease, the suit continues, says the $1 option survives a termination, not an expiration.
Moreover, the suit argues that the lease gives the Rams the option forever, without an end date — and the law does not allow someone to tie up a property in perpetuity.
Jim Shrewsbury, president of the Dome Authority board, said he wasn’t emotional over the issue.
“It’s a dispute over the terms of the lease,” he said. “They believe they have an option. We do not believe that option is enforceable.”
“It’s a business dispute,” he said. “My goal is to do what’s best for the regional sports authority and for the region.”
And the dome authority, he said, needs the money.[
March 25, 2016 at 5:07 pm in reply to: Is everything in the Universe made of the same 'thing'? #41057znModeratorWhat I’m really talking about is how science is reported. How it is communicated.
Well that’s a good clarification.
BUT if you want to see more “near as we can tell, at this point anyway” type writing, by guys who are closer to the actual science, I have always found you need the best search terms. (Which themselves consist of smaller search terms.)
In terms of search terms, try “preons.” I think it gets you closer to what you are looking for, both in terms of info and in terms of how the info is described and discussed.
znModeratorBack-to-back years of strong grades put Doughty higher than most, but he’s shown accuracy to all levels of the field.
===
Brandon Doughty (QB, Western Kentucky) was the NCAA’s most accurate passer in 2015.
Doughty led the nation in many categories, but the most impressive was his accuracy. No QB had a better accuracy percentage in 2015 or 2014 than Doughty’s 81.8. At the combine, Doughty will need to prove he has NFL-caliber arm strength.
===
===
==http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1765589/brandon-doughty
BRANDON DOUGHTY, QB
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6-3 / 213 LBS.
PLAYER OVERVIEW
A three-year starter in Western Kentucky’s spread offense, Doughty left school with 111 touchdown passes (15th all-time in FBS) and was 10th all-time with a 68.6 completion percentage. Doughty was the third quarterback in FBS history with 4,000 passing yards and 40 TD passes in consecutive seasons.
Doughty carries himself like a coach and is a never-say-die competitor. But he has an adequate arm, but relies on touch and timing over velocity and struggled to speed up his process vs. better competition on his schedule. Projects as a mid-to-late round prospect with the NFL ceiling of a backup, drawing some on-field comparisons to A.J. McCarron.
STRENGTHS
Stands tall and tough in the pocket. Adequate arm strength, squaring his shoulders to his targets and generating force through his hips. Shifts his weight well in the pocket with a calm shuffle to slide, reset and keep his eyes downfield. Improvises well when moved from his spot, showing much improved pocket maneuverability to regain his rhythm.
Detailed setup and delivery (sometimes too methodical, but can speed up his process). Above average field sense, awareness and vision. Smooth release. Relies on timing and touch, allowing routes to develop and working through his progressions. High football IQ and fully immersed in the playbook.Not intimidated by small windows, but not shy about throwing the ball away if the throw isn’t there – short memory passer (not a “rear-view mirror” quarterback according to WKU head coach Jeff Brohm). Tough passer to blitz, understanding where his outlets are.
Battled through adversity to work his way back from multiple knee injuries. Tireless worker preparer, especially in the film room. Highly productive and led the FBS in passing yards and touchdowns the last two seasons (first FBS quarterback to tally 97 passing touchdowns over two seasons), leaving school with almost every school passing record.
WEAKNESSES
Lanky body type and lacks ideal build. Average arm strength, lacking a howitzer to fire downfield strikes off-balance. Inconsistent deep ball thrower and routinely leads his receivers too far. Tape shows cracks in his foundation when pressured, not stepping into this throws or following through.
Accurate vision, but not proficient using his eyes – bad habit of staring down targets and leading defenders to the ball. When late making his first read, he can struggle to find his second and third option in time, holding the ball too long. Too much air under his passes, not hitting his target in stride or forcing his receivers to wait at times. Pocket awareness has shown improvement, but his internal clock is still a work in progress.
Benefited from a wide open offense with a lot of throws within seven yards of the line of scrimmage and plays after the catch. Ball security has room for improvement (13 career fumbles). Older prospect and will be a 25-year-old NFL rookie. Medicals need vetted after the ACL tear in his right knee (Sept. 2011) that held him back for two seasons.
IN OUR VIEW: A three-year starter in Western Kentucky’s spread offense, Doughty was an ideal fit for the up-tempo scheme that relied on a quick release and smart decisions, making most of his reads pre-snap and identifying soft spots in coverage. He has improved functional pocket mobility and carries himself like a coach.
Doughty has an adequate arm, but relies on touch and timing over velocity and struggled to speed up his process vs. better competition on his schedule. He got away with some bad habits at the college level that he won’t be able to in the NFL and although he’s very impressive when in rhythm, it’s the opposite when that rhythm is taken away.
He projects as a mid-to-late round prospect with the NFL ceiling of a backup, drawing some on-field comparisons to A.J. McCarron.
==
==
===WKU QB Brandon Doughty shows signs of pro potential
Bucky Brooks
MIAMI — The lack of quality quarterbacks in the NFL forces scouts to take a long, hard look at any prospect that displays a hint of potential at the position. After watching Western Kentucky’s Brandon Doughty post gaudy numbers as the director of one of college football’s most prolific offenses, I thought I would take a trip to the Miami Beach Bowl to see if the Hilltoppers’ standout has the goods to develop into a franchise quarterback at the next level.
Following his impressive showing (32 of 45 for 461 yards and three touchdowns) against South Florida in a 45-35 win, here are my thoughts on Doughty and his potential:
Athleticism
Doughty is a mobile quarterback with slightly above average athleticism. Although he is not a true dual-threat at the position, he flashes enough agility and movement skills to work the edges on sprint outs and bootlegs from the shotgun. The Hilltoppers take advantage of his mobility by featuring a number of movement-based passes in the game plan, which allows him to escape inside pressure to attack the coverage with a number of high-low concepts on the flanks. Inside the pocket, Doughty is capable of eluding and evading rushers by climbing toward the line of scrimmage or laterally sliding to the right or left to find a clear throwing lane.
Arm talent
Doughty has enough arm strength to attack every area of the field. Although I would rate his arm as a solid “B” on the scale, he pushes the ball down the field on vertical throws and fires intermediate routes (curls, digs and comebacks) with adequate velocity. Doughty capably fits the ball into tight windows on throws inside the numbers, but he lacks the RPMs to consistently squeeze the ball in against swift defenders keying his eyes in zone coverage. Thus, he must play with exceptional timing and anticipation against defenses featuring NFL-caliber athletes on the second level. I noticed this when I watched his performance against LSU on tape; it showed up against a very athletic South Florida team that appears to have a number of promising athletes in the back end.
From an accuracy standpoint, Doughty was on-point delivering the ball between the strike zone on short routes, particularly on “now” and tunnel screens at the line of scrimmage. Additionally, he showed adequate ball placement on intermediate throws (curls and comebacks) from the numbers to the boundary. This is an important aspect in the evaluation for teams employing a version of the West Coast offense with quick-rhythm ball-control routes. Doughty delivered a dart to Nicholas Norris on a dig route that resulted in a 69-yard touchdown. The pinpoint throw not only showcased Doughty’s anticipation and timing as a quick-rhythm thrower, but he showed scouts he could fit the ball into a tight window between the hashes. Although Doughty had a few intermediate passes knocked down by fast-closing defenders, he certainly has enough arm strength to throw most of the staple passes featured in most NFL playbooks.
On deep balls, Doughty is a little erratic with his ball placement and touch (high and outside). He repeatedly misfired on vertical throws in the first half, including a wide-open post route on a flea flicker in the first quarter. While Doughty eventually connected on a post route on a flea flicker in the second quarter, Doughty’s inconsistent deep-ball accuracy stood out in the first half. In the third quarter, Doughty finally settled in and looked like the red-hot passer that’s created a buzz in league circles. He opened the third quarter with a pinpoint pass on a seam route down the boundary to Norris for a 55-yard score that looked straight off a coaches’ clinic highlight reel. He later connected on another flea flicker along the boundary that showcased his touch, anticipation and ball placement. Although Doughty threw the deep ball better in the second half of the Miami Beach Bowl, his inconsistent accuracy and ball placement on a dozen deep-ball attempts will lead some evaluators to question his ability to thrive in a vertical-based offense.
Pocket poise
Elite quarterback prospects must be able to thrive in the midst of chaos within the pocket. This is one of the biggest factors scouts must discover during the quarterback evaluation. Looking at Doughty on tape, I thought he displayed good poise and patience in the pocket. He didn’t look to flee the pocket at the first sign of pressure; he showed courage by repeatedly delivering the ball with rushers in close proximity. Against South Florida, Doughty showed toughness and resiliency standing tall in the pocket, but I was miffed by his inability to feel free rushers coming off the edge. He took a few sacks (and unnecessary hits) in the pocket by not anticipating the extra rushers off the corner. Granted, defensive coordinators can make it tough to decipher which defenders are rushing, but Doughty’s lack of blitz awareness will need further investigation from evaluators.
Football intelligence
Doughty shows good football intelligence and situational awareness. He has a keen understanding of his scheme, as evidenced by his ability to get to his second and third read in the progression. Doughty will quickly dump the ball off to his backs on swing passes when the coverage blankets his primary receiver. This is critical to sustaining drives at the next level, which is why coaches will give Doughty positive marks for his overall intelligence.
In regard to Doughty’s situational awareness, I was impressed with his ability to execute a two-minute drill at the end of the first half. He quickly moved his offense down the field, but wasn’t overwhelmed by the moment. He wisely used a “spike” to stop the clock in the closing seconds to ensure his team walked away with a field goal at the end of the half.
With most NFL games decided by seven points or fewer, Doughty’s execution in critical situations will make him an attractive prospect in some circles.
Clutch factor
Quarterbacks from non-Power 5 schools must take advantage of their opportunities on the biggest and brightest stages to convince NFL scouts they are capable of playing with the big boys at the next level. Doughty has compiled quite an impressive resume during his time at Western Kentucky, including a number of single-season and career marks for passing yards and touchdowns. However, scouts will dig into the tape to see how he performed against the top competition on the Hilltoppers’ schedule. Prior to the Miami Beach Bowl, I had some concerns about Doughty’s ability to perform against defenses with ultra-athletic defenders based on his disappointing play against LSU this season. Doughty not only struggled with his accuracy and ball placement in that contest, but he had a number of balls tipped and deflected at the line. He couldn’t find clear throwing lanes against the Tigers’ athletic rushers and his inability to navigate through the trees was an issue.
Thus, I thought it was important for Doughty to carve up a South Florida defense that was loaded with speedy defenders in the back end. For most of the first half, Doughty struggled finding his rhythm as a drop-back passer. While his numbers were solid (21 of 30 for 221 yards), he misfired on a number of intermediate throws that were considered “lay ups” in the Hilltoppers’ offense. Doughty repeatedly missed high and outside on tightly contested routes, leading to a number of tips and deflections in the secondary. In addition, he also delivered the ball late on a few curls and comebacks, which allowed the Bulls’ defensive backs to bat the ball away from the intended receivers.
In the second half, I was impressed with how quickly Doughty made adjustments and attacked the Bulls’ secondary. He wasted little time exploiting the vulnerable areas of the Bulls’ coverage, leading to a 28-point third quarter on the strength of his impressive play from the pocket. Although he wasn’t completely flawless in the second half, I walked away convinced that Doughty’s guts, moxie and resiliency would give him a chance to succeed as a pro.
Conclusion
It is hard to find quarterbacks with the arm talent, football intelligence and confidence to develop into quality starters in the NFL. Thus, quarterbacks with any hint of potential deserve strong consideration in the draft. After taking a long, hard look at Doughty on tape and in person, I believe he is an intriguing developmental prospect with the potential to develop into a quality starter down the road. I believe he is best suited to play in a quick-rhythm offense that features a number of short and intermediate throws on the menu designed to take advantage of his quick release and superb decision-making skills. If I had to compare him to a current player, I would cite Ryan Fitzpatrick based on their similar skills as systematic playmakers. It might take a couple of years for him to develop into a capable starter, but he certainly possesses enough tools to warrant consideration as a borderline Day 2 (Rounds 2-3) prospect in the 2016 class.
March 25, 2016 at 4:02 pm in reply to: Is everything in the Universe made of the same 'thing'? #41052znModeratorwiki version … —>
In particle physics, preons are “point-like” particles, conceived to be subcomponents of quarks and leptons.
Well…that one was too technical. I didn’t get a lot out of the technical parts. Either way, so, yeah, there are theories that maybe both quarks and leptons (and leptons as a category include electrons) are both maybe made of something else smaller.
Which leads me to the question…why can’t things be made of BIGGER constituent parts? I mean why not?
znModeratorBreaking down Quinton Coples’ contract with Rams
Nick Wagoner
BOCA RATON, Fla. — The Los Angeles Rams surprised some by jumping out last week to sign defensive end Quinton Coples to a two-year contract.
Not that the Rams couldn’t use the depth but they had already re-signed ends William Hayes and Eugene Sims. The Rams went ahead and added to their group by bringing the former first-round pick on board with a deal that guarantees just $750,000. The deal is also voidable after one year if Coples meets certain requirements.
Here’s a breakdown of Coples’ contract with all numbers courtesy of ESPN Stats & Information:
2016
Base salary: $1.75 million
Roster bonus: $1.25 million ($750,000 is fully guaranteed and paid on 10th day of league year. The other $500,000 is payable in increments of $31,250 per game on the 46-man active roster)
Cap charge: $3 million
Cash: $3 million
2017
Base salary: $3.25 million
Roster bonus: $250,000
Cap charge: $3.5 million
Cash: $3.5 million
March 25, 2016 at 1:17 pm in reply to: Is everything in the Universe made of the same 'thing'? #41048znModeratorNear as we know now, before the new work gets deeper in, quarks and electrons are very different sorts of primary particles.
BUT there’s stuff afoot about that. More later.
wiki version … —>
In particle physics, preons are “point-like” particles, conceived to be subcomponents of quarks and leptons. The word was coined by Jogesh Pati and Abdus Salam in 1974. Interest in preon models peaked in the 1980s but has slowed as the Standard Model of particle physics continues to describe the physics mostly successfully, and no direct experimental evidence for lepton and quark compositeness has been found.
Note that in the hadronic sector there are some intriguing open questions and some effects considered anomalies within the Standard Model. For example, four very important open questions are the proton spin puzzle, the EMC effect, the distributions of electric charges inside the nucleons as found by Hofstadter in 1956, and the ad hoc CKM matrix elements.
Before the Standard Model (SM) was developed in the 1970s (the key elements of the Standard Model known as quarks were proposed by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig in 1964), physicists observed hundreds of different kinds of particles in particle accelerators. These were organized into relationships on their physical properties in a largely ad-hoc system of hierarchies, not entirely unlike the way taxonomy grouped animals based on their physical features. Not surprisingly, the huge number of particles was referred to as the “particle zoo”.
The Standard Model, which is now the prevailing model of particle physics, dramatically simplified this picture by showing that most of the observed particles were mesons, which are combinations of two quarks, or baryons which are combinations of three quarks, plus a handful of other particles. The particles being seen in the ever-more-powerful accelerators were, according to the theory, typically nothing more than combinations of these quarks.
Within the Standard Model, there are several different classes of particles. One of these, the quarks, has six different types, of which there are three varieties in each (dubbed “colors”, red, green, and blue, giving rise to quantum chromodynamics). Additionally, there are six different types of what are known as leptons. Of these six leptons, there are three charged particles: the electron, muon, and tau. The neutrinos comprise the other three leptons, and for each neutrino there is a corresponding member from the other set of three leptons. In the Standard Model, there are also bosons, including the photons; W+, W−, and Z bosons; gluons and the Higgs boson; and an open space left for the graviton. Almost all of these particles come in “left-handed” and “right-handed” versions (see chirality). The quarks, leptons and W boson all have antiparticles with opposite electric charge.
The Standard Model also has a number of problems which have not been entirely solved. In particular, no successful theory of gravitation based on a particle theory has yet been proposed. Although the Model assumes the existence of a graviton, all attempts to produce a consistent theory based on them have failed. Additionally, mass remains a mystery in the Standard Model.
Kalman observes that, according to the concept of atomism, fundamental building blocks of nature are indivisible bits of matter that are ungenerated and indestructible. Quarks are not truly indestructible, since some can decay into other quarks. Thus, on fundamental grounds, quarks are not themselves fundamental building blocks but must be composed of other, fundamental quantities—preons. Although the mass of each successive particle follows certain patterns, predictions of the rest mass of most particles cannot be made precisely, except for the masses of almost all baryons which have been recently described very well by the model of de Souza. The Higgs boson explains why particles show inertial mass (but does not explain rest mass).
The Standard Model also has problems predicting the large scale structure of the universe. For instance, the SM generally predicts equal amounts of matter and antimatter in the universe. A number of attempts have been made to “fix” this through a variety of mechanisms, but to date none have won widespread support. Likewise, basic adaptations of the Model suggest the presence of proton decay, which has not yet been observed.
Preon theory is motivated by a desire to replicate the achievements of the periodic table, and the later Standard Model which tamed the “particle zoo”, by finding more fundamental answers to the huge number of arbitrary constants present in the Standard Model. It is one of several models to have been put forward in an attempt to provide a more fundamental explanation of the results in experimental and theoretical particle physics. The preon model has attracted comparatively little interest to date among the particle physics community.
Motivations
Preon research is motivated by the desire to explain already known facts (retrodiction), which include
To reduce the large number of particles, many that differ only in charge, to a smaller number of more fundamental particles. For example, the electron and positron are identical except for charge, and preon research is motivated by explaining that electrons and positrons are composed of similar preons with the relevant difference accounting for charge. The hope is to reproduce the reductionist strategy that has worked for the periodic table of elements.
To explain the three generations of fermions.
To calculate parameters that are currently unexplained by the Standard Model, such as particle masses, electric charges, and color charges, and reduce the number of experimental input parameters required by the Standard Model.
To provide reasons for the very large differences in energy-masses observed in supposedly fundamental particles, from the electron neutrino to the top quark.
To provide alternative explanations for the electro-weak symmetry breaking without invoking a Higgs field, which in turn possibly needs a supersymmetry to correct the theoretical problems involved with the Higgs field.
To account for neutrino oscillation and mass.
The desire to make new nontrivial predictions, for example, to provide possible cold dark matter candidates.
To explain why there exists only the observed variety of particle species and not something else and to reproduce only these observed particles (since the prediction of non-observed particles is one of the major theoretical problems, as, for example, with supersymmetry).
History
A number of physicists have attempted to develop a theory of “pre-quarks” (from which the name preon derives) in an effort to justify theoretically the many parts of the Standard Model that are known only through experimental data.
Other names which have been used for these proposed fundamental particles (or particles intermediate between the most fundamental particles and those observed in the Standard Model) include prequarks, subquarks, maons,[4] alphons, quinks, rishons, tweedles, helons, haplons, Y-particles,[5] and primons.[6] Preon is the leading name in the physics community.
Efforts to develop a substructure date at least as far back as 1974 with a paper by Pati and Salam in Physical Review. Other attempts include a 1977 paper by Terazawa, Chikashige and Akama, similar, but independent, 1979 papers by Ne’eman, Harari, and Shupe, a 1981 paper by Fritzsch and Mandelbaum, and a 1992 book by D’Souza and Kalman. None of these has gained wide acceptance in the physics world. However, in a recent work de Souza has shown that his model describes well all weak decays of hadrons according to selection rules dictated by a quantum number derived from his compositeness model. In his model leptons are elementary particles and each quark is composed of two primons, and thus, all quarks are described by four primons. Therefore, there is no need for the Standard Model Higgs boson and each quark mass is derived from the interaction between each pair of primons by means of three Higgs-like bosons. In his 1989 Nobel Prize acceptance lecture, Hans Dehmelt described a most fundamental elementary particle, with definable properties, which he called the cosmon, as the likely end result of a long but finite chain of increasingly more elementary particles.
Each of the preon models postulates a set of fewer fundamental particles than those of the Standard Model, together with the rules governing how those fundamental particles operate. Based on these rules, the preon models try to explain the Standard Model, often predicting small discrepancies with this model and generating new particles and certain phenomena, which do not belong to the Standard Model. The Rishon model illustrates some of the typical efforts in the field.
Many of the preon models theorize that the apparent imbalance of matter and antimatter in the universe is in fact illusory, with large quantities of preon level antimatter confined within more complex structures.
Composite Higgs
Many preon models either do not account for the Higgs boson or rule it out, and propose that electro-weak symmetry is broken not by a scalar Higgs field but by composite preons.[15] For example, Fredriksson preon theory does not need the Higgs boson, and explains the electro-weak breaking as the rearrangement of preons, rather than a Higgs-mediated field. In fact, Fredriksson preon model and de Souza model predict that the Standard Model Higgs boson does not exist.
When the term “preon” was coined, it was primarily to explain the two families of spin-½ fermions: leptons and quarks. More-recent preon models also account for spin-1 bosons, and are still called “preons”.
Rishon model
The rishon model (RM) is the earliest effort to develop a preon model to explain the phenomenon appearing in the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. It was first developed by Haim Harari and Michael A. Shupe (independently of each other), and later expanded by Harari and his then-student Nathan Seiberg.
The model has two kinds of fundamental particles called rishons (which means “primary” in Hebrew). They are T (“Third” since it has an electric charge of ⅓ e, or Tohu which means “unformed” in Hebrew Genesis) and V (“Vanishes”, since it is electrically neutral, or Vohu. [Bohu means “void” in the Hebrew Tanakh (the Old Testament), though bohu may be pronounced as vohu by modern Israelis when the “b” is preceded by a vowel and thus lacks dagesh. All leptons and all flavours of quarks are three-rishon ordered triplets. These groups of three rishons have spin-½.
Criticisms
The mass paradox
One preon model started as an internal paper at the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) around 1994. The paper was written after an unexpected and inexplicable excess of jets with energies above 200 GeV were detected in the 1992–1993 running period. However, scattering experiments have shown that quarks and leptons are “pointlike” down to distance scales of less than 10−18 m (or 1/1000 of a proton diameter). The momentum uncertainty of a preon (of whatever mass) confined to a box of this size is about 200 GeV/c, 50,000 times larger than the rest mass of an up-quark and 400,000 times larger than the rest mass of an electron.
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that ΔxΔp ≥ ħ/2 and thus anything confined to a box smaller than Δx would have a momentum uncertainty proportionally greater. Thus, the preon model proposed particles smaller than the elementary particles they make up, since the momentum uncertainty Δp should be greater than the particles themselves. And so the preon model represents a mass paradox: How could quarks or electrons be made of smaller particles that would have many orders of magnitude greater mass-energies arising from their enormous momenta? This paradox is resolved by postulating a large binding force between preons cancelling their mass-energies.
Conflicts with observed physics
Preon models propose additional unobserved forces or dynamics to account for the observed properties of elementary particles, which may have implications in conflict with observation.
For example, now that the LHC’s observation of a Higgs boson is confirmed, the observation contradicts the predictions of many preon models that did not include it.
Preon theories require that quarks and electrons should have a finite size. It is possible that the Large Hadron Collider will observe this when raised to higher energies.
March 25, 2016 at 12:39 pm in reply to: Is everything in the Universe made of the same 'thing'? #41047znModeratorSo I read around on this.
That sentence is wrong. There are models out there that propose ways in which both quarks and electrons ARE made of smaller constituent particles.
In other words, there IS behavior that suggests quarks and electrons are not elemental. I didn’t know that until I read around on this today.
———————————
Well i was confused on the electron thing. I thought protons, neutrons AND electrons were made of quarks.So “at this time,”
“with the machines we have now,”
“to the best of our sciency knowledge,”
Electrons and Quarks are the smallest
“building blocks” of “ordinary matter” (not dark matter)
that we know about.Based on what little I’ve read, that is my understanding
of the state of science on the question of
“what is U made of.”Now, the thing that BUGS me, iz this — i want to see
more humility in the sciency articles. I want them to begin
and end with an emphasis on the fact that we
dont know what quarks are made of, and we dont know
what electrons are made of, and we dont know if they are made
smaller and smaller particles. We dont know what “quarkness” is. We dont know what the essence of “anything” is. At this point in time.
With the machines we have. Maybe we’ll know someday, maybe not.Without that kind of humble disclaimer i think scientists
do a disservice to the public. Just my opinion.w
vNo, electrons are not made of quarks.
Near as we know now, before the new work gets deeper in, quarks and electrons are very different sorts of primary particles.
BUT there’s stuff afoot about that. More later.
And when it comes to how scientists sound, that right there my friend is a prejudice on your part. (I say that as a friend gently ribbing a friend…it’s not heavy or confrontive or death-matchy.) Scientists never sound “one way” and there’s as many humble expressions of science as confident ones. There is just not one way of sounding science-y.
The reason people don’t say they don’t know what quarks are “made of” is because it’s only a dawning little, absolutely new, purely theoretical idea that they ARE made of ANYTHING.
There’s strong reasons to believe they aren’t made of anything but in fact are made just of themselves. In fact it took a while to even find reason to doubt that they are self-unitary and it is by no means certain that they are not self-unitary. I am not sure what exactly it is they would be all humble ABOUT.
Meanwhile, the reason an active minority is asking the question NOW is because they are pushing certain boundaries with what is just simply a theory. And that theory does not say no one knows what quarks are made of—that theory proposes they are made up something very specific, which they even have a name for. But that theory is just getting off the ground and is far from being anywhere near solid. It too like many theories could go the way of the dustbin.
In terms of those who still contend quarks are self-unitary….what’s wrong with saying that? (?)
200 years ago they didn’t know about electrons, protons, and neutrons, let alone quarks.
They didn’t know what the strong force was and they had no idea how the sun actually worked. (Actually the strong force is freaking wonderfully weird.)
You personally can keep asking science to back off and all that, but, I have absolutely no problem with it, myself. In fact I never think of science as One Thing, or ways of talking science as homogenous, and I happen to think the entire thing is wonderfully amazing in all its messily expanding and always paradoxical glory.
…
March 25, 2016 at 12:10 am in reply to: Is everything in the Universe made of the same 'thing'? #41026znModeratorHere’s one thing we can say we know: nothing is permanent.
Is that always going to be true?
March 24, 2016 at 11:39 pm in reply to: question: do you support the idea of the NFL expanding overseas? #41019znModeratorI personally am against it. I don’t much support the entire “grow the product” mentality of the Jones-dominated NFL era. I not only think it’s bad for football as a game, I think it’s bad business too.
znModeratori think matt waldman put it well. he said something about not just beating the first man but using his vision to think several moves ahead to beat the defenders at the next level. faulk has talked about that as well.
unreal vision. hopefully he can stay healthy.
Yes, that was a thing Faulk had. Gurley is a completely different back physically of course but he does have that kind of vision. I also like the initial acceleration which if anything is going to be even better this year, or so you would think.
March 24, 2016 at 11:01 pm in reply to: Is everything in the Universe made of the same 'thing'? #41015znModeratorthe behavior of quarks does not indicate that there’s anything beyond them. It’s the same with electrons.
So I read around on this.
That sentence is wrong. There are models out there that propose ways in which both quarks and electrons ARE made of smaller constituent particles.
In other words, there IS behavior that suggests quarks and electrons are not elemental. I didn’t know that until I read around on this today.
March 24, 2016 at 8:58 pm in reply to: Is everything in the Universe made of the same 'thing'? #41007znModeratorNow my question is what are QUARKS made of and why in the world would you say “its unlikely” quarks are made of something smaller?
Well, matter can’t be made of quarks, because without electrons orbitting a proton- that’s- made- of- quarks, there is no atom, and matter in all its forms…gas, liquid, solid…is made of atoms.
How do they know quarks aren’t made of anything else? Well that’s tricky because it’s hard to study quarks (for a lot of reasons which are in this conversation beside the point), but even given that, the behavior of quarks does not indicate that there’s anything beyond them. It’s the same with electrons. Meanwhile they even discovered quarks in the first placve because protons did funny things when studied that indicated they were not elemental or irreducible, so that fact was suspected long before the nature of quarks was reveated.
It’s not a TOTAL mystery. There are mysterious elements to the question “what is everything made of.”
We can say some things definitively.
For example, dark matter can’t be made of something, which, say, in your hypothetical take, quarks might be made of. The reason for that is simple. Quarks interact with at least 2 of the major forces defining the universe—electromagnetism and the so-called “strong force.” Dark matter by definition does not interact with either force, or if it does it does so so weakly it is still undetectable. That has at least one consequence. If dark matter does not interact with the electro magnetic force, then it can’t be seen. One effect of not interacting with e-m is that it does not reflect, absorb, or otherwise have anything to do with photons, so it is inherently NOT seeable. It also means that it can fly right by and/or through normal atoms without any effect (because the interactions between atoms has to do with electromagnetic attraction and repulsion). So for all you know billions of dark matter particles are flowing right through you right now. We know about dark matter because it interacts with only one elemental force—gravity. So masses of dark matter can be detected because we can measure its effects on large bodies such as galaxies. This has been shown, in very precise detail.
They have actually devised incredibly sophisticated ways of testing and measuring all of this (ie. the behaviors of quarks, electrons, and protons etc.) The science of that is uber-sophisticated. So when people say it’s unlikely quarks and electrons are made of something else, it’s based on real evidence and real study. It’s not just this shot in the dark.
…
znModeratorQ&A: Rams head coach Jeff Fisher on big move to LA, free agency and SoCal traffic
Advice for players from Rams head coach Jeff Fisher: Living in Orange County and training in Thousand Oaks, it’s not going to work.
By Vincent Bonsignore, Los Angeles Daily News
BOCA RATON – With the Rams headed to Los Angeles, head coach Jeff Fisher fielded questions on a number of different topics at the NFL’s annual league meetings in Florida.
Q: Case Keenum has been named the starting quarterback. What has he shown you in his time with the Rams?
JF: “When we first watched Case play, we just thought he was (a) very talented, very productive, instinctive-type player that moves around and makes plays. When we had the first time to get him in, we saw every bit of that.
Then (Houston Texans General Manager) Rick (Smith) called and said, ‘Hey, sorry, but I’m going to have borrow Case from you for a little bit – off the practice squad. We’ll make him available to you after.’ And I said, ‘What does that mean?’ Well, it meant a seventh (round draft pick) – or whatever it was.
Anyway, we got Case back. Nick (Foles) had kind of flattened out and was having a rough time a little bit last year, and we decided to go with Case. I thought he did a really nice job. We’re a blocked field goal away in the final game at San Francisco from winning four straight with Case.”
Q: What part of Case’s job as QB is to sell the team to the fans and media and how much is it about just football?
JF: “He’ll be all football, but they’re going to be curious about Case because he’s our quarterback. I think he’ll step in the door, all football. But, he’ll do that by winning games. I think that’s how he was when he backed up.”
Q: You were the head coach of the Oilers when they moved to Tennessee. How does that experience help in this move?
JF: “I think just from a players’ standpoint, relatively speaking, the most important thing from our perspective is what you do with the players and how you handle the players and your ability to communicate with them. We learned that in a lot of ways the hard way with the first move.
The major lesson that were learned is you have to stay in constant communication with the players and let them know when, where and how – whenever you can. We’ve started that process with that meeting, which went really well.”
Q: Have you noticed any technological differences this time around compared to the Oilers move?
JF: “Back then, for coaches, you grabbed your Beta (video) machine and your monitor, and that was all you had. As long as you took that with you, you got your tapes and you were fine. But now we’ve got all kinds of systems. We’ve got scouting systems, we’ve got EXOS, we’ve got football systems – we have everything.
It’s all electronic, so you have to make sure it’s all up and running with servers and things like that. It’s a little bit more sophisticated than that. You need Wi-Fi in the rooms and all of those things. But our guys are capable of getting everything set up, and they’ve ensured us that they will be set up in plenty of time.”
Q: Do free-agent players and draft prospects ask about the move?
JF: “Yes. Everybody wants to know. Any time we express interest or someone has interest in us, that’s where we go first. We had several guys in. We had what we call top 30 visits – we had three of our top 30 visits. These were non-combine players. We had them in to St. Louis.
The approach was, you’re experiencing history here. You walk down the halls, and there’s nothing left on the walls. Boxes are packed, and some things are stacked in my office. Coaches’ boards are down, and there’s no video to watch. If they had any question of whether we were moving or not, those were answered.”
Q: At what point does this cease to be about relocation and become just football?
JF: “Well, our approach is that the rest of the league doesn’t care what we’re doing. There are 31 other teams that are getting ready for the offseason program and training camp and the regular season, so we have to do the same thing. The sooner we get set up and ready to go, the better off we’re going to be.
I’m not looking at this as a distraction or an excuse. We have to develop younger players. We still have a few players that we have some interest in, in the second-tier of free agency. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do right now with the staff and the scouting department to get on the same page in respect to the draft, and we’ll go from there.
Wherever we open, we know where we’re playing home games, but whether we open at home or open on the road – they count. Players know that.”
Q: How much have you talked to the players about the major lifestyle change coming?
JF: “First and foremost, you’ve got to talk to them and tell them where we’re going to be located and where we’re going to be training. We’ve done that. We’ve had this meeting with them already.
We’re constantly talking to them, not necessarily about the lifestyle change but where you’re going to relocate. As we’ve told them, there’s traffic patterns, and we’ve explained to them the travel distance from a lot of different areas. They have a general idea where we’re going to set up our temporary (facility). Now, a temporary’s one thing and it’s important because it’s probably three years. So, for the next three years, in September, you’re basically working out at the same facility. You’re going to want to live somewhere in the vicinity of that temporary facility for the next three years.
Our hope is that the permanent (facility) is also built in the same area so we don’t have to move twice.
With respect to the players, yes, we spend a lot of time with them. You can’t live in Orange County and train in Thousand Oaks. You just can’t. Not with the hours that we put in. We have to be on time. We have meeting start times that fluctuate during the regular season. We have meeting end times that fluctuate, so they need to be on time. We also had some former players come in and talk about that – guys that were familiar with LA. They have been given direction, and they appreciate it.
Q: Do you feel you achieved what you wanted in free agency thus far?
JF: “Our players that we were able to retain (include) some of our guys that were important to us. We knew going in that there was a chance that we were probably going to lose one of the four defensive backs, I didn’t anticipate losing two. But, we have depth on our roster. We’ve drafted … (S) Cody (Davis who) proved last year that he has athletic ability, can play. (S) Maurice (Alexander) can play. We have (S) T.J. (McDonald) coming back. (CB) E.J. (Gaines) is a starter who is coming back. Important to us were (DE) Will Hayes and (DE) Eugene Sims and (C) Tim Barnes – talking about starters or almost starters for us. And (TE) Cory Harkey – these guys were important to us. We were very pleased that we were able to get them back.”
As we got into it, our focus, specifically, was to address the defense because we had the potential to lose quite a few players. To think that we kept (S) Mark (Barron) and (DE) Eugene (Sims) and (DE) William (Hayes), that’s good stuff from our standpoint to be able to hang on to them because there was considerable interest out there. Then to be able to lock (CB) ‘Tru’ (Trumaine Johnson) up for hopefully a long time is beneficial.”
Q: Where do you see improvements coming offensively?
JF: “I think it’s a combination. There’s still some players out there. We did re-sign our starting center (Tim Barnes), so it starts there. But, yes, I still think there’s players out there. No. 1, we’ll turn to the draft, No. 2, and also implied that we’ve said this … I’ve said this for a long time and we were able to accomplish it last year was I’ve always wanted to draft four or five offensive linemen in the same draft, and we did that. They all got to play and all developed. A need now becomes a strength for us. Obviously, having drafted (RB) Todd (Gurley) and (with WR/PR) Tavon’s (Austin) production, some potential tweaks on offense – we’re going to be productive.”
Q: You lost starting CB Janoris Jenkins in free agency. Can you touch on that loss:
JF: “We were a lot closer than people think. I was a little disappointed. I thought we’d get him. He really wanted to come back. I spoke to him several times during the process and prior to the process. I expected that we were going to get things worked out. The money did take off. The market was there, but we were a lot closer than people think. I was disappointed to see him go, but this is the first time since we’ve been here that we’ve had to deal with unrestricted free agents … because we drafted him, what, four years ago? We developed them and (are) now trying to keep them while we can. The staff did a great job, especially developing the DBs. You can see it.”
Q: You signed CB Coty Sensabaugh and DE Quinton Coples. What do you like about each player?
JF: “Coty’s an instinctive, smart, productive player that can plug in and play either side. He sees things well. He relates. He doesn’t have any difficulty learning defenses. He just makes plays. Coples, on the other hand, we think he’s probably better suited with his hand down and rushing in an even front type of thing. Now, we’ll do some variation stuff with him, but he was just a little out of place. Between his willingness and his lack of production and his ability to spend time with (defensive line coach Mike) ‘Wauf’ (Waufle), I think that will translate into some good things for him. I think it will translate into some solid production for us as a backup (defensive) end.”
March 24, 2016 at 5:31 pm in reply to: Balzer:"Rams drafted Michael Sam in 2014 to avoid being on "Hard Knocks" #41000znModeratorRich Eisen @richeisen
My colleague @MikeSilver was in the room when the Rams drafted @MichaelSam — does he think a conspiracy was afoot?Michael Silver @MikeSilver
Come on, manMarch 24, 2016 at 5:23 pm in reply to: Balzer:"Rams drafted Michael Sam in 2014 to avoid being on "Hard Knocks" #40999znModeratorJeff Fisher: Hard Knocks-Michael Sam story is “absolutely absurd”
Michael David Smith
versus
—
League Made Deal with Rams to Draft Sam
Howard Balzer March 23, 2016
http://590thefan.com/league-made-deal-with-rams-to-draft-sam
It’s been almost two years since the St. Louis Rams selected defensive end Michael Sam in the seventh round of the 2014 draft. At the time, the Rams were hailed for being progressive and drafting the first openly gay player in the National Football League. It turns out, according to multiple sources, that the league agreed not to ask the Rams to appear that year on HBO’s yearly summer series, HARD KNOCKS, if they drafted Sam.
Shortly after his college career at Missouri ended, Sam came put publicly, acknowledging he is gay. The SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2013, Sam was considered a fifth-round pick at best. But, as the draft proceeded on the final day, it appeared he might not be drafted at all. It is believed the NFL didn’t want to face questions about that eventuality, and the Rams were viewed as the ideal spot because of St. Louis’ proximity to the Missouri campus in Columbia, 90 miles away, and head coach Jeff Fisher’s ability to deal with whatever distractions there might be.
So it was that the Rams saved the day, selecting Sam with the 249th pick of a 256-player draft. Now, they have returned the favor.
Two years later, the Rams are now in Los Angeles, and as the annual league meeting closed Wednesday, in one of the earliest announcements ever, the NFL revealed that the Rams will be the featured team this summer on HARD KNOCKS.
It’s no surprise the league wants to showcase the return to a market that has been without a team since 1994. What’s somewhat odd, but understandable in light of the revelation, is that the Rams are now embracing the intrusion of HBO’s cameras in a year in which the distractions and logistics of the move will be a challenge for the organization, coaches and players. Especially since Rams head coach Jeff Fisher has consistently been opposed to having his team on the show.
In fact, in 2014, about two weeks after the draft and the selection of Sam, Fisher was asked about the possibility of the league picking the Rams for the TV show. If no team volunteers to be a part of HARD KNOCKS, the league can pick a team that hasn’t been on the show for 10 years, or doesn’t have a new head coach, or hasn’t made the playoffs for two years. The Rams qualified on all counts.
Fisher said, “We are eligible, but I think it’s highly unlikely they’d ask us to do it. I think this organization has a right to go through training camp with some normalcy.”
Of course, that “normalcy” included a record number of press conferences for a seventh-round draft pick, plus having an ESPN report late in training camp in which teammates were asked about their shower habits and those of Sam. By a woman reporter, Josina Anderson.
And, as if there will be any “normalcy” this offseason, training camp and regular season. In a press release announcing the decision, Fisher said, “This is an exciting time for our franchise. HARD KNOCKS will be an outstanding way to bring our fans into our training camp and preseason, and give a glimpse of the hard work and dedication of our players, coaches and staff as we prepare for the 2016 season.”
Of course, none of those players will be Sam, who was waived in the cutdown to 53 players in 2014, was briefly on the Dallas Cowboys’ practice squad that season, and then left the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in the summer of 2015 without playing in a game.
One player still with the Rams is defensive end Ethan Westbrooks, who earned a roster spot as an undrafted free agent the same year as Sam. His story is an interesting postscript to the Sam saga. The Rams were high on Westbrooks, and he was apparently the team’s target for one of their two late seventh-round picks. However, center Demetrius Rhaney was selected one spot after Sam, as it would have been unseemly to take Westbrooks there.
There is no direct evidence that the teams picking after the Rams were urged (told?) not to draft Westbrooks, but would anyone be surprised if that was the case as a thank-you to the Rams for taking everyone off the hook?
After all, Westbrooks received an unusually large $20,000 signing bonus in addition to having $30,000 of his first-year salary guaranteed. In the world of the NFL, that’s not a large sum of money. What’s notable is that the $50,000 total guarantee was more than the slotted signing bonus/guaranteed money of $45,896 that all of the seventh-round compensatory picks received, including Sam.
In addition, to steer attention away from Westbrooks as it related to any obvious competition initially with Sam, the Rams announced when signing him that the lanky, 267-pound player was a defensive tackle.
znModeratorGil Brandt @Gil_Brandt
One of the best pro days I’ve ever witnessed. Wentz reminds me of Joe Flacco. He had 2 55-yard passes that were as pretty as I’ve seen.March 24, 2016 at 4:30 pm in reply to: Balzer:"Rams drafted Michael Sam in 2014 to avoid being on "Hard Knocks" #40995znModeratorJeff Fisher: Hard Knocks-Michael Sam story is “absolutely absurd”
Michael David Smith
Jeff Fisher: Hard Knocks-Michael Sam story is “absolutely absurd”Rams coach Jeff Fisher is scoffing at a report that he drafted Michael Sam, the NFL’s first openly gay player, two years ago in a quid pro quo with the NFL to keep his team off Hard Knocks.
Asked about the report this morning on Mike & Mike, Fisher said there was never any such discussion with the NFL, and the Rams selected Sam solely because he was the highest-ranked player on their draft board at the time the pick came up.
“That in itself is absolutely absurd, it’s 100 percent incorrect,” Fisher said. “I was really taken aback by those comments. It’s insulting, from my standpoint, as it relates to Michael. We had three seventh-round picks. When we drafted Michael he was the best player on the board. Who in their right mind would think that you give up a draft choice to avoid doing something like that?”
Fisher said he thinks Sam has been subjected to unfair scrutiny that most seventh-round picks fighting for a roster spot don’t have to face.
“It’s really unfair to Michael. Michael worked so hard,” Fisher said. “It’s really not fair to Michael because of all the hard work he put in.”
The Rams have agreed to do Hard Knocks this year as they move to Los Angeles, and Fisher said he’s looking forward to it.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for our franchise,” Fisher said. “This is a historic move. The moves in the past have not been documented and I think it’s a great opportunity.”
If the Rams want a lot of attention for this year’s Hard Knocks, perhaps they should re-sign Sam.
March 24, 2016 at 4:29 pm in reply to: 2016 mocks & rankings & general draft commentaries, thread 2 #40994znModeratorMcShay Goes WR, QB, CB for the Los Angeles Rams In Two Rounds
Brandon Bate
The Los Angeles Rams have three picks in the first two rounds of the 2016 NFL Draft, and are in a great position to address positions of need. Just how they’ll use those picks, at this point, is anyone’s guess.
The Rams, in the eyes of many, should be targeting a quarterback. They’ve also lost a few key starters from last year, and could be eyeing their replacements in late April.
Over at ESPN, NFL Draft expert Todd McShay released his two-round mock draft [In$ider] on Thursday morning. Here’s what he did for the Rams with three picks inside the Top 50:
15. Laquon Treadwell, WR, Ole Miss
Case Keenum is penciled in as the starting QB right now, so there’s always a chance the Rams will try to trade up to grab one of the top-two passers. But with this being too early for Paxton Lynch and Los Angeles still needing a legit difference maker on the outside, Treadwell is the pick. He’s the best pure WR in this class, showing outstanding hand-eye coordination and body control.
43. Christian Hackenberg, QB, Penn State
Hackenberg had his best season when playing under current Texans coach Bill O’Brien. He has ideal size, a big-league arm and adequate pocket mobility. But his decision-making must improve.
45. Artie Burns, CB, Miami (FL)
Burns’ extremely long arms (33¼ inches) and ability to play press coverage give him a lot of upside as a cornerback. He had a career-high six interceptions in 2015 after having just one pick during his prior two seasons.
It should be noted, for those without In$ider, that the draft’s top QB’s Carson Wentz and Jared Goff were off the board at 2 [Browns] and 7 [49ers] respectively. The Rams did, however, pass on Paxton Lynch at 15 for the draft’s top wideout Laquon Treadwell.
Other notable names/potential fits left on the board after the Rams picked at 45: Jaylon Smith [LB, Notre Dame], Hunter Henry [TE, Arkansas], Michael Thomas [WR, Ohio State], Braxton Miller [WR, Ohio State][
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