Sisyphean Bills

Did John Butler say anything about the backup's ~.500 being better than the starter's record? (.4 > .364)

What does this even mean? Tom Brady, a lock for the Hall of Fame, was a "whiff"? Maybe you mean because he was a 6th round pick so everyone passed on him? On the other hand, there are two #1 overall picks and a #2 overall in your list, so that leaves 1 team to "whiff" on those 3 draft picks by passing them over -- and that team drafted Andrew Luck.

Maybe the definition is something like: if there is a name penciled in at every starting spot, then there are "almost dire needs." To be fair though, when has the company line been anything other than that the team has more talent now [than when the last guy was here]? Meanwhile, they haven't reached as many wins as a Dick Jauron team yet.

His family, of course, includes his young wife, and country singer Jessie James, who is pregnant with the couple's first child.

I think it's more likely that they up the ante, say, to 8 guys on a set. What could be more "informative" than 8 people talking at once?

Still, he was moved to the slot last year, which may not have really been the best idea, but could also be opening ammo in a contract re-negotiation.

Maybe the same thing that prevents gays from entering public restrooms.

An expensive sky box ornament.

http://forums.twobil...dead-cap-money/ This subject matter is currently being discussed or has already been discussed in the above thread which has some more details.

Charlie Weis was giving (poorly) some sort of hypothetical apparently. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/07/sports/la-sp-charlie-weis-carroll7-2009dec07

Can they re-draft Aaron Curry?

I don't believe that your numbers argument fully explains the data I mentioned. OL has 10 guys in a 2-deep. DL has 6 to 8. DB has at least 8. All of those positions had a higher average draft position. QB was the highest average draft position and there are 2 QBs per team on a 2-deep. But, TE could have been 2 per team and it was only somewhere in the middle. To take two arbitrary data points using the Bills depth chart, their average at QB (1 and undrafted=8) and TE (4 and 5) are both 4.5. So, we see how a small data set is more susceptible to outliers here. Like I said, there are exceptions to "rules". No one should claim Ray Lewis (a LB by any definition) and Tom Brady (a QB not drafted in the 1st) are bad football players based on this. But the data did show how the average NFL team invested in the draft by position. We also both understand that regardless of the chart, NFL GMs will keep on drafting LBs and some teams will draft them high. There are still RBs drafted in the first round as well, even though there are arguments to be made against doing so.

Though I'm not sure if that explains why Belichick is 7-3 against the Ravens.

Still, BadOl has a strategic football point in there. No doubt, there are exceptions to anything, but QB as a position tends to be filled by guys taken very early in the draft. LB is the other end of the spectrum. There was a study, oh, a few years ago about the average draft position of every NFL player on each team's 2 deep depth chart, and LB was the very lowest group. By quite a bit as I recall. In other words, the average NFL team gets production at LB without high investment. Bill Polian has said on air that LB is not a position he particularly emphasized when he ran teams. He feels the drop off there just isn't that significant and if you do your homework, you can draft a very productive LB late in the draft. FWIW.

There has been a lot of debate about the QB position in another thread, but Allen dumped the Jim Mora Jr. program after a single season and went with the Pete Carroll plan. Four years later, he's hoisting the Lombardi Trophy and did it with the youngest team to win a Super Bowl. Should be more winning for these guys in store.

Yeah, Wilson sucks.

You know that Tuel's college team won 4 conference games in the 4 years he was there, right?

Goodell could only afford a seat in the stands?

To be fair though, the Seattle defense has barely been on the field until that drive ... and of course they scored. Ah, nevermind.

It's a strategic decision that can keep your team from bottoming out mid-season as soon as there are a few injuries.

Scenario #1 isn't necessarily a wasted pick. Green Bay, in particular, has been able to use their backup QB position as a position of strength to make deals to get more draft picks and so on. The second pick would have to have a career ending injury or look like cold garbage in pre-season. Of course, there is the question of whether Buffalo has the organizational support to develop backup QBs to the point that the work they show on tape in pre-season games is impressive enough other GMs will enter trade talks.

I agree with you. Pears is not a swing tackle.

I was talking from the context of what is written in the article. Sorry if that was unclear. Was EJ really angry? Or was he registering someone on his crow-eating list? The use of the term "handler", etc. is suggestive, is it not? The article paints a certain picture. That picture is of someone that ducked and ran in a face of adversity or maybe was dragged away by this "handler" person. The job of an NFL QB is one that puts someone squarely in the crosshairs, so dealing with the doubters comes with the territory. In this instance, the reader has no idea what was going on after this meeting and maybe EJ had somewhere else to be. Being defensive seems like a normal reaction to someone implying you may not be very good at your job and many people would have just walked away. Others might have realized they had "stepped in it" and laughed it off, confident that a reporter's opinion wasn't of serious importance. Others might have said something in their own defense. Some might have set civility aside, and "thrown their gloves off" and got into a verbal or physical altercation. Finally, some few might have seized the situation as an opportunity to speak their own mind freely and describe what the plan of action was moving forward, how adversity drives them, etc.

I don't know, Dibs. I seem to recall cases where veteran players restructured contracts. And, while it's a given that veterans lose jobs every single year, there are some veterans that were one-time starters that do stick around as insurance on some rosters. The original assertion that Pears could just be made the backup swing tackle to make room for a FA RT seems sketchy, not just from the contract sense, but from a football sense.

He's just saying Manning is human and not every single one of his throws is perfect. By "catching the laces", he's talking about the mechanics of throwing the football, squeezing the ball in the throwing hand, and rotating the ball out of one's grip perfectly to put the right spin on the ball for an accurate throw. Manning may get the ball out to the right guy at the right time but his release may not always be perfect, hence it's a "duck". For a smart CB bent on making big plays, that's an opportunity. PS: See the Kam Chancellor INT in the Super Bowl.