hondo in seattle

I don't think your remark about DBs is necessarily true. I don't think Beane set out to draft DL in the first two rounds. I'm sure he had edge on his mind but these guys were drafted because Beane thought they're were the most likely to - eventually - make an impact. But you're right, too: a good DL makes DBs better!

I couldn’t quite grade it an A just because BPA and need didn’t always match up. But I’m happy Beane didn’t reach and took guys who might become good future starters. Not a ‘sexy’ draft - no skill players in the early rounds. But picking late, Beane stayed true to his board.

What RB do you want to draft who’s better than the backs we already have?

Yeah, our pass protection sucked that game. But overall, I think our passpro is better than our run blocking. I think that's intentional. I think, on a limited budget, Beane brought in FAs to be Josh's bodyguards. In a perfect world, you want Pro Bowl offensive linemen who can road grade as well as protect your QB. In a salary cap world in a passing league, it's better to find pass blockers than run blockers. What Beane's been doing got us to the AFC Championship game. But to go further, we have to find ways to energize the run game.

I agree he's exaggerating to make a point. But there is a valid point there: Motor didn't always make lemons when given lemonade. And, look, I'm not absolving the OL. I watched Willie Ellison break Cookie's pro football single game rushing record in 1971 when he gained 247 yards on 26 carries. Most folks here probably don't remember Ellison. He wasn't a spectacular back but the holes that day were so big and lasted so long that you or I could have rolled a keg of beer through them. Neither Moss nor Motor ever see holes like that. But, damn, KC was lining up in a 4-1-6 and we still couldn't run. That's not all on the OL. The Chiefs sold out to stop the pass and dared us to run. We can't let teams do that in 2021. We need to be multidimensional. Both our OL and our RBs need to get better. So I'm hoping the change in Singletary is real.

I hope so, too. They said you can't teach accuracy. Look what happened with Josh. And they say you can't teach explosiveness. I guess we'll find out. But wouldn't it be fun if Motor took a leap as big as Josh's?

I laugh - but only because I agree. Our OL did not create a lot of holes for either back. Singletary can be a patient runner. I don't think that worked to his advantage last season. He would wait for an opportunity that never presented itself. Moss just went where the play was designed, whether there was a hole there or not. To me, these are the key sections of the article: "Hicks, who has worked magic with backs like Dalvin Cook, J.K. Dobbins and Jerick McKinnon, supplied what he calls a “humbling assessment” of Singletary’s game: Too much dancing, too slow, no explosion. And Singletary embraced it all. Singletary — 2 ½ months later — is now a different running back." And... "You’d think Singletary essentially is what he is at this point physically. Not so, Hicks says. He’s adamant that everything is 'trainable.' Start with explosion. Singletary’s greatest gift is elusiveness but, too often, he overplayed his hand. Too often, he juked himself right out of the frame. All of those dancin’ numbers — while perfect for any wedding, any Saturday night — muddy explosion. 'Motor’s got all the tools to just break one guy down in the open field and make him look like he’s never played football before,' Hicks says. 'But sometimes, you don’t have to do that. It’s all about explosive plays. I look at Motor’s explosive plays, man, and there’s not many. I think he has one carry over 30 yards for his career.' 'That speaks volumes. We’re not getting explosive plays. Why? Because we’re doing too much when all we need to do is just enough and then, also, you’re not accelerating through your cut. You need to put your foot in the ground and just go.'”

You're right - Motor isn’t Shady. But do you think Singletary attacked the designed hole as aggressively as Moss? I don’t.

I usually don't like threads that rehash old news. But this subject never gets old. It's amusing to me how much faith some of the analytics guys place in their numbers. There are always outliers. There's always a context that's unquantifiable. NFL talent evaluation is going to remain as much art as science for the foreseeable future. Physically, Allen had skills that weren't fully honed. Mentally, he possessed a "growth mindset" that would enable him to develop those skills. Beane saw this. The stat geeks didn't because they weren't evident in the numbers. Prescient note at the end of the article: "Allen will have a chance to be an NFL quarterback. One side will be right. The other side will ignore the result as a fluke and continue unfazed." And that's exactly what happened. The analytics guys (like the author) see Allen as a fluke, not a damning testimonial about the limitations of their methodology.

Sadly, I'm not invited to any NFL scouting meetings. I don't know if teams are overthinking the Justin Fields thing.

I think you missed the heart of the article. It wasn't about Motor as a good guy who works hard. Well, it was a little. But the beating heart of the article was about Motor doing specific drills to overcome his evident shortcomings - make him more explosive and decisive. Folks quoted in the article insist that we'll see a different Singletary this year. I'm hoping my own skepticism (mentioned above) is wrong and their optimism is right.

I hate to flaunt my ignorance but I didn't know RBs worked with RB gurus in the offseason. I thought RBs just did gym work on strength, speedy, agility, explosiveness, etc. Motor's guru seems to work on that - and more - in a very customized way. I hope it all pays off. As a cautionary tale, let me tell a story albeit from a different type level of football. When I was in college, my friends and I decided to put together the most 'high level' sandlot game we could. Most of the guys we recruited we're former high school starters. One or two were D1 backups. Two or three were ex high school conference all-stars. My team's offense could move the ball, even with me as QB. But our defense couldn't stop the other team's running attack spearheaded by a kid nicknamed Little Herschel. Little Herschel had led his high school team to a city championship and was now brutally running all over us. He might have been the most violent football player I've ever encountered. If you got in close to tackle him, you'd get clubbed, kneed, and otherwise abused. If you tried to arm tackle him from a safe distance, he'd easily run through your pathetically outstretched arms. We did our best to gang-tackle him but he'd carry the pile for a few yards before going down. Herschel was a beast. But what we noticed after a while is that Herschel liked to try to juke the first would-be tackler he approached. With a level of respect that sometimes bordered on fear, the tackler would go flatfooted when Herschel danced. And then Herschel would accelerate like an Olympic sprinter to the right or left of you and run through your outstretched arms. His juke became our aiming point. We knew he'd be there for a second - and vulnerable. So if you were in the vicinity and you saw him juking, you'd go full speed to that spot and ignore his fancy footwork. As strong as Little Herschel was, we put him on his ass more than once. His own teammates started yelling at him to stop the dancing and just run. But he couldn't help himself. Nearly every time he got the ball, he'd stop running forward at some point to dance. And that's what I worry about with Motor. Is his dancing so ingrained that he just won't be able to help himself in a game?

True, the army taught me many skills that have no value in the civilian world while NFL players !earn most of their skills prior to the NFL. Still, why do players learn those skills? I'll hazard a guess: because they dream of playing in the NFL. And that means going into the draft. If they didn't accept the obligations that come with the biggest employer (the NFL), they should have prepared themselves for a different career.

I'm torn on this. Our offense was one dimensional last year and that hurt us against KC. And yet I'm not convinced RB is our biggest need.

The free market economy is the best economic system humans have developed thus far. But it's flawed and some day we'll devise something better. As it is, IMHO, certain occupations (e.g. pro athletes, reality tv stars) are overvalued while other occupations (e.g. educators) are undervalued. I don't use the word "fair" much in normal conversation. There's no cosmic principle of fairness in life. Kind of like a massage: I appreciate it when my wife gives me one but I don't expect it and don't whine when I don't get it.

I was an armor officer. My expertise was to tactically employ M1 tanks to destroy enemy tanks. Like many in uniform, my skill set was very specific to the military. When I left the service, there were no "viable alternatives" for me. Even mercs didn't want me because they don't use tanks. I had to learn a brand new trade. I'm an empathetic guy but I can't find a lot of sympathy in my heart for ballers who may have to play a game in a city they don't love.

Is it "fair" that people who play games for a living earn more than teachers, fire fighters, law enforcement officers, soldiers, etc?

I did not choose Iraq specifically. But I did choose to go where ever the army wanted to send me. No regrets. And no sympathy for football players who don't get to choose when drafted.

Not folks in the army, navy, marines, air force, coast guard, space force, public health services commissioned corps, and NOAA commissioned officer corps. And these guys don't make millions

When I joined the army, I didn't choose to be sent to Iraq.

The school I went to was called “Purdue.” No chickens.

As a former Boilermaker, I’d love to see the Bills take him in the 3rd if he’s still there. He’s fun to watch once he gets the ball - always trying to find a path to the end zone.

The analytics guys say punting is rarely the right decision on 4th down.

When a QB accounts for 4000 yards while a good RB contributes 1000, it’s easy to understand why RBs have been devalued. But if the next Jim Brown or Walter Payton is available in the first, you still take him. How much more effective would our passing game be if our RBs were a legit threat?

I gotta admit that watching all our opponents make big moves had me nervous. But this is a pretty remarkable data point.