San Jose Bills Fan

The nice thing I think everyone likes about the Dareus pick is that he has almost zero bust potential. His floor was high and his character beyond reproach… in other words, he was a very safe pick at #3. But yes, Peterson has a ridiculously high upside. He can become one of the all-time greats for sure and he benefits from having some great players around him on that defense. Campbell and Dockett, Washington, Wilson, Rhodes… like Seattle that is a great (no-name) defense.

What about this idea? Dress Spiller for the game… there's nothing wrong with his wheels. His very presence on the field completely changes the dynamics of the game. Use him as a decoy from time to time. Then as the game progresses and he becomes more comfortable and the adrenaline kicks in and the Cheatriots*** start to take for granted that he's a decoy, you find ways to get him the ball in space. Tell him to avoid contact and run out of bounds like Dennis Allen has instructed Darren McFadden to do.

Okay so there are lots of officials in the very top of professional sports who are volunteers? Can you point out some of the sports leagues which have "volunteer officials?" Also, why would "Mario Williams hold out for $20 million more in pension benefits?" He's a part of a class of people who collectively bargain for their benefits. Many pensions are ponzi schemes? I assume you're trying to talk about "defined benefits." Is it possible that some pension funds are administered well and others are not? There are many people who are owed money after their job is done. Are you familiar with the concept of severance pay? Have you heard of golden parachutes? It's pretty simple. There is a union and there is the employer. In a perfect world, the two sides negotiate to head off a work stoppage. Short of a perfect world, either the union strikes or the employer locks out the union. In this case, the employer locked out the union. This lockout has been detrimental to the game which includes the players (who's side do you think they're on?), the coaches (who's side do you think they're on?), the media (who's side do you think they're on?) and mostly the people upon who league benefits are generated… we the paying customers. Even in spite of the fact that only 52% of Americans have a positive view of labor unions, I'd bet that a much higher percentage is on the side of the locked out officials.

I don't doubt that CJ is a very dedicated professional but all things being equal a player's durability and the power that he plays with is more a function of his bone structure… the density, the mass, the thickness of the bones. All of these guys are workout warriors and many of them are at close to peak muscle development. Physically speaking they are mostly differentiated by their bone structure. It even determines what positions they play. Kyle Williams and CJ Spiller are within one inch of height from each other. CJ will never be as strong as Kyle Williams… even if Kyle didn't work out. Kyle's hip bone probably weighs twice as much as CJ's.

Leaving aside for a moment the debate of whether Papa John's is good pizza or not, what do you mean that "pizza sucks in the city…?" New York City is a pizza mecca and I can't imagine that Brooklyn is any worse.

Kind of a conundrum. Brady is excellent at picking apart blitz schemes but he also is human and will get rattled with pressure. I'm not sure how much the Bills will blitz but I expect them to stunt a lot more than they have in the first three weeks.

There's a difference between instructing a punter to punt it out of bounds and instructing him to place the ball between the sidelines and the hashmarks to narrow the field for the coverage team.

Exactly. Pass protection and the added assurance that mental mistakes will not be committed. NFL Coaches are very wary of leaning on young players in big games.

I didn't read the Barnwell piece yet but the other thing kind of odd about the Cardinals record (they've won 10 of their last 12 dating back to Week Nine of last season) is that they've been winning with mediocre quarterback play and in fact, without an established starting quarterback. Kudos to Whisenhunt and the organization.

Or right tackle.

Disagree. Thurman had a much thicker build. Chris Johnson is showing signs that the prime of his career was very short. Don't care that Spiller's neck is ripped… his body is slender for an NFL running back and this is the NFL, not the ACC. Thirty touches a game? Never. It's the same thing when people saw Maybin's photo… "look at his biceps!" "look at his pecs!" To which the answer always is, "look at his frame."

So this is turning into another Fitz thread? Look. Newton had plenty of doubters and documented character issues before becoming a pro. On several occasions, his teammates have had to lecture him about how to present himself in public. Now it sounds like the Bills would have drafted him had he slid to them and I'm just glad that it didn't come to that.

Drafting CJ Spiller is a prime example of why a team must take the best player available. Typically draft busts are players that were drafted out of need. Spiller did not play at a position of need but he was so far better than the other players available at that pick. The only other player considered to be at his talent level at the time of his selection was Dez Bryant, who was a major character concern who has proven his detractors right with his long string of idiotic behavior since being drafted. Of the other prospects, people knew JPP was a diamond in the rough but not a good risk at #9. And of course the needs-centric people here made a lot of noise for Bryan Bulaga. At the time of the Spiller selection, I wanted Brandon Graham who showed some promise with 3 sacks in 6 starts as a rookie before suffering a torn ACL.

Ooohh… you shanked that one…

The Packers did zero in the first half offensively because they tried to throw the ball and ignored the run. They only ran the ball 3 times and one of those was a wide receiver reverse. They had zero points and 88 yards offense in the first half. In the second half they took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards for a field goal in a drive which featured 7 runs by Cedric Benson. On their next drive, an 88 yard field goal drive, they handed the ball to Benson 3 more times. On their next drive, Benson carried the ball 3 more times including the TD run. In the second half, after balancing the offense (forcing Seattle to actually play some run D instead of pinning their ears back) the Packers generated 180 yards offense and 12 points. If Rodgers would have continued to throw on every down, he would have continued to get pummeled like he was in the first half. And Seattle's offense looks like a college offense. Russell Wilson didn't look very good but it's hard to evaluate him right now because the Seahawks either don't trust him or their offense is simply too simple to succeed in the NFL.

Lindell's a pretty big guy too. Not too many short or slender guys on this roster anymore. Powell seems to have a lot of natural ability and hopefully he'll polish up real nicely.

Thanks Gomper. I usually can't listen to radio at work so I miss both of those shows. The show hosted by Tom Tolbert at 3 pm PST is pretty good. His longtime co-host, Ralph Barbieri was recently fired but for me, he isn't missed. Tolbert is pretty smart, amiable, has a nice energy and good knowledge and a good sense of humor.

I don't get it. KB doesn't have the broadcast rights do they? If not, why would they be broadcasting in real time in the stadium?

I didn't want to start slamming the replacement officials but I agree with you that the increased contact is a function of the replacement officials. So in that view, it might be a one season aberration. I think usually that changes in the game are forced by changes in the rules. The significant and recent rule changes are ones which protect defenseless receivers so I'm skeptical that defenses will catch up to offenses. For the last several decades the league has continued to institute rule changes which favor the offense. Yeah I picked Seattle to win last night (in my mind, they lost) and after making my prediction I realized that I had picked Russell Wilson to defeat Aaron Rodgers… which even given that it's a team game, is still kind of absurd.

Or maybe you were sensing that someone will discount the importance of "franchise QBs" later on in this thread. I've seen in other threads where some are predicting the re-emergence of the run game so that belief is out there for sure.

I don't think anyone is saying that.

It sounds like you're saying that you think that defensive back on receiver contact has been increased. Is that your view and do you think that this started happening before this season or just this season?

Good point. Thurman was an interesting and fairly unique case in that he had his ACL removed. I remember before the 1988 draft that NFL scouts were concerned about Thurman not having an ACL so that probably had an affect on his draft position too.

Nice, fair and honest opening post. I don't personally believe that there is only one way to build a championship football team although that being said, there is certainly a conventional wisdom about how that is done and that conventional wisdom certainly centers around the passing game. The takeaway for me watching the evolution of the league is that even the best passing teams need to be able to run the ball efficiently… to get timely and tangible benefits from the run game, in order to have their greatest success. Using last night's game as an example, Green Bay had zero success offensively until they forced Seattle to honor Cedric Benson's physical running style. There are many games where the run game doesn't do a lot of damage, but it does keep the offense balanced (and the defense off balance) enough for the offense to really be effective. Again it's not an issue of how often a team runs or even how many yards per carry they get. It's an issue of keeping the defense honest, keeping the defense guessing, avoiding negative plays, and setting up manageable down and distance situations.

The argument that even "regular" officials make mistakes totally misses the fact that the replacement officials have done a horrible job and that the product has been damaged. Except for those who can't really appreciate a good product (can't discern quality), many of these games have been rendered virtually unwatchable by the poor officiating. I have yet to see a well-officiated game by the replacements and most of the games have been heinously bad. Just because the regular officials make occasional mistakes doesn't justify the piss poor officiating that the NFL has chosen to implement. Also, the NFL's belief that they can foist minor league officials upon the players, media, and paying fans in order to win a labor dispute is the height of arrogance. They really feel like they can take the fans for granted. The NFL makes money on we the fans but treat the fans to epically bad officiating which mars the product which we pay for. There was a time in this country when the people who ran baseball, boxing, and horse racing believed that they too, were omnipotent. The NFL should re-think what a victory in this labor dispute should look like. The owners could have approached this labor dispute in a much more considered way but they have opted to not bargain in good faith. While using questionable tactics in their dispute with the officials (changing the terms/issues), they are at the same time damaging the product, eroding goodwill among fans and media, irritating players, and allowing the media to feed on the dissent. Whether one believes that the NFL is right or wrong in this dispute, it would take a strange or dishonest person to hold the opinion that the NFL has handled this labor situation well.