Mark80

It's cool man, you can point to bubble sizes and charts all you want, but you can't list out those "significant" players. Cool, I get it. Maybe you are just lazy? The only team that is even close quality of players wise is the Vikings (who at worst will have the same record as us after this week). I could not care less about what a bubble is arbitrarily trying to represent. And I am curious, how does you "bubble" account for Lawson and Ragland who got hurt before ever playing a down? That's a top pass rusher and starting MLB that they are, most likely, not accounting for with very much weight.

Pretty easy huh? Perhaps you missed the part about "significant difference makers". That chart in no way accounts for the quality of player injured. Where is that list? The Bears could have their entire team injured and it wouldn't equate to the level of talent we have had injured as they simply don't have it. Or maybe you think that missing Lamarr Houston for 9 games is the same thing as losing Marcell Dareus for 8+ games, I sure as hell don't.

I'm so sick of hearing this. No, not every team has their best WR injured most of the year, their second best WR missing significant time, their third best WR missing time, their best RB missing time, the best defensive player missing more than 1/2 the season, their number 1 pick missing significant time, their number 2 pick missing significant time, their best safety missing significant time, now their starting CB missing time. I implore anyone here to find ANY team out there that can put up a list of injuries to significant difference makers that is even close to ours. And yet, we are still over .500 playing with some guys literally signed off the street. Rex and Whaley deserve a lot of credit in my mind, our training staff, however, can all find new jobs in the off season.

I continue to be amazed by the complete lack of knowledge around here on the cap impact of trading Dareus. It is not going to happen any time soon regardless of what happens on (or off) the field. Stop talking about it for another year at least. You're just wasting everyone's time.

My connections to police are chiefs and those that manage the budget and I can tell you for a fact that this is not true, for the most part. It's not like a police department is a company trying to grow their revenues year in and year out. They are a public service provide to and paid for by the people. Their main concern is keeping people safe, not how to maximize their budgets. If they could put resources to things that actually matter and are of real safety concerns instead of MJ, they would gladly do it. Most departments oppose recreational pot because it is illegal (state most of the time and fed all the time) and it is their duty to uphold the law. Also, they oppose it because of driving under the influence reasons and the safety concerns of that. Not saying that pharma's are responsible for making it illegal or how it's prosecuted (especially minimum sentencing rules), I'm saying they are one of the main reasons, if not the only reason, that it remains illegal.

Not sure on this one. While I would certainly agree that Private Prisons and their lobbying are to blame as well since they are paid by the number of inmates they house and they house a crap load of criminals just because of weed offenses (or previous weed offenses which are priors and lead to bigger sentences for other crimes, that is, getting them "in the system"). Knowing policing relatively well as I have family involved in higher levels of policing, I can guarantee you that most police would welcome not having to police this so they could spend more of their time on crimes that actually matter.

I respectfully disagree with most of this. It doesn't have to be a "candy cabinet" as you describe it. Even when you are taking these extremely powerful prescriptions as prescribed (for legit pain issues) they are highly addictive and dangerous. Again, that is when they are just used as intended. Players often subject themselves to a lifetime of addiction issues because of this. The improved regulation and monitoring of these medications has gotten slightly better, but it's still a ways off from strict. And that says nothing of legit prescriptions and dosages which are still very, very dangerous. Especially considering these guys can be taking these prescriptions for years and years (not just for recovery from, say, a surgery or something for a short period of time). And, once addicted, these are some of the hardest substances to break free from, snowballing their side effects. I do agree that, most likely, a majority of players are smoking for recreational purposes (with the added benefit of pain relief as secondary reason possibly). However, I disagree that there is not a notable portion of players out there who are consciously doing it just for pain relief to avoid the dangers of pain medication.

Tank a season before we even play a single regular season game with a team that is loaded with talent. Yeah, sounds like a great idea.

There is a legit reason to risk it, it offers an alternative to powerful and much more addictive prescription pain medications. Some (not all for sure, but some) players use it because prescription pain killers are flat out dangerous to use at the levels these people need to use them on a daily basis. On the other hand, you could smoke a little weed, not become physically addicted and cause minimal (if any) additional harm to your body. The ONLY reason it is still illegal is because giant pharma lobby big time to keep it that way so they can keep patients addicted to their artificially created medications instead of someone growing their own medication. The gov't is bought and paid for. It's that simple.

Yeah, but they have Cam Newton and Luke Keuchly.

Sorry, but this is flat out untrue. People do not come back better from an ACL injury. They may get back to 100%, but they are not getting stronger and better. He won't be getting a "new" ligament. He'll most likely get a piece of his kneecap or hamstring tendon, or an ACL from a cadaver donor. In either case, they are used ligaments and none are stronger than your original ACL.

There should be a minimum requirement of at least 1 playoff game played as a Bill to be considered for the Wall. Sorry Stevie and sorry Fred.

Nicholson, DiCaprio, Del Torro. I'll watch pretty much any movie with one of those actors in it at least once. When I watch them I never think to myself "this guy is obviously acting." That's the real test of a great actor to me.

Your story gave me chills. Sorry for your loss.

Cancer sucks.

EJ also brought us back and got us the lead in that game. He could have completely melted down after that set of disastrous plays in the first half. But, instead he re-grouped gathered himself and came out balling in the second half. That shows me a lot and it amazes me how so many people overlook it.

Clayton is the worst "insider" on any network / site. He never offers any fresh insight on anything but just states the obvious. He seems to have little to no sources as well. I often feel that I could make any of his same reports from the top of my head.

Man, didn't realize that Darby was that fast.

Unfortunately they are using Virtual Boys.

If you do the math properly it doesn't matter if you are paying taxes on it now or paying taxes on it later. It's a wash and really just personal preference. I prefer the Roth since I have already paid tax on it and know exactly what I will be getting later. Provides a bit more visibility into the future for my liking. But money wise, it is the exact same amount of tax either way. Believe me, I've meticulously compared them (assuming same tax rates now and later of course).

When healthy he has just as much positive impact on our team as ANY other player. He is a phenomenal talent and if you can't see the difference between him and the vast majority of the other RBs in the league then you have simply convinced yourself that every RB is a dime a dozen and there is no convincing you otherwise. So, in short, I think he is worth it for sure.

I say you just wasted your money.

Exactly. As if people are expecting Cam Newton type prospects to be available in the 4th and Megatron to be available in the 6th. Some people just completely lack any sort of realistic perspective.

Especially considering Aaron Rodgers was available when we should have picked in the first round of the next years draft.

In short, no he cannot. Ray Lewis had everything Ragland has but was also quicker and faster. That is something you can never really get much better at. That speed is the difference between all-time great MLBs and good ones (Willis and Kuechly too). Ragland could be good, very good, but he's not going to be an all-time great.