K-9

I’d like to see the CBA language governing drug tests. Do teams have permission to randomly check or is it strictly league mandated?

I’d argue a little about Mario. A couple All Pro and Pro Bowl seasons after he got paid. He totally quit on Rex and Co after that, though.

Makes sense and I could see it happening but I still won't believe it until I see the Giants passing on a QB.

Yep, mechanic's issues. Like rusty socket tools and faulty plug sets.

There is NOTHING Bill Polian is going to say that will cause ANY player to rise or fall on ANY team's draft board. Nothing. At. All.

Came across this article today from Bleacher Report, which means I take it with a Mt. Everest of salt. He's not without his supporters and it was nice to see Kiper have his hypocrisy exposed, too. Anyway, if he's not impressing at interviews in terms of breaking down plays or retaining information, it's going to be a red flag. Wish I knew if those at the combine that are worse were any of those expected to be selected before him. Here's the rest of the article. Again, it's Bleacher Report, so don't hold it up as a great example of sports journalism. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2766425-ditch-the-racially-coded-language-lamar-jackson-is-no-ones-wide-receiver

Yep. Bledsoe lost his job to Losman but for all the wrong reasons. Losman never came close to outplaying Bledsoe in camp and in the meeting room. When Donahoe demanded Losman be given the reigns, it caused that locker room to implode. That was the worst thing that could have happened to Losman, too.

Brings to mind another southern California QB with strong political leanings and a loud voice that wasn't shy about sharing them who came to Buffalo, embraced the city, and won championships. I'd argue that being unafraid to speak up is an requirement for being a successful QB.

I've long trumpeted that the best thing to happen to Kelly was learning under Mouse Davis for two seasons in the USFL and he had great tutelage under Schnellenberger as well in college. Qhile ahead of the curve when he entered the NFL, he wasn't a finished product, either. Marchibroda helped Kelly refine his game and to reach an elite level.

Per the bold text, I think it's safe to assume we would have failed with Ponder/Gabbert given their histories. Carolina was never going to move off that #1 pick to get Cam given the dearth of QBs in that draft. They needed a QB as bad as anybody.

The phrase in the OP that best summarizes the entire post is, "Admittedly, this is revisionist history at its finest. ..." The Bennett trade singularly shifted the balance of power in the AFC East.

I feel the only relevance is to any historical context one wants to ascribe to our drafting history. Period. Please show me how past regimes who ignored past QB prospects in past drafts bear ANY relevance to this regime and these QB prospects, in this draft and these teams. If McBeane are sitting there fretting over the past failures of previous administrations, they are the wrong people for the job. Somehow, I believe they aren't influenced by that in the least.

Again, an interesting tidbit. Again, totally irrelevant to the task at hand.

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They spent time with him in Mobile during Senior Bowl week.

Everyone knows he never bothered studying his playbook in college or in Cleveland and was usually last in, first out. I wouldn't touch him until he's demonstrated a complete reversal of form in that regard. Let him be somebody else's experiment. That said, I hope the kid can truly turn it around because he does have some talent as you said. CFL would be the best place to show he's turned it around off the field.

I don't necessarily disagree but I don't equate cerebral capacity with mental toughness, which is another way of saying CBs need short memories. I'm only looking at it in terms of the sheer amount of playbook material to master. Of course they need to dedicate themselves to film study but so does every player at any position that's committed to the game. It's the old "the closer you line up to the ball, the more you need to know" school of thought. I'm certainly not calling CBs dummies, either. Intelligence lends itself to all positions, after all. And CBs still have to be the best athletes on the field, too, as the sheer physical requirements of the position demand. My main point is that mastering zone coverage is a helluva lot more demanding than man to man principals.

Not as much as how he responds in the game after that bad game. I don’t care what player in what sport at which level, there are going to be games where you just don’t have it. It’s just the nature of the beast. It’s all about how the player gets off the mat.

I like the conjecture game, too, so here goes. If we had kept Darby, he would have been exposed in a scheme not suited for him, would have lost his starting job out of training camp and seen his playing time eventually decrease to just special teams as a result, and thus would have far less trade value and we’d just end up waiving him after finding no trading partners. There is no end to the scenarios we can create after the fact. Simple fact is, our secondary had its best season in a while without him so it’s a stretch for me to believe he would have contributed to the point of increasing his trade value to anything more than the 3rd rounder we received.

And got us into cap hell, too.

Sure would love to have that problem.

Franchise QB: didn't have one, couldn't get one. 'Nuff said.

Of course, he has all the athleticism necessary, although, as said earlier, he doesn't fit McD's preference for tall CBs with length. As to the cerebral aspects of the position, CB is by far the easiest position on the field to master; the playbook section for CBs is the shortest in the book. Especially where man coverage is concerned. But zones do require an entire mastery of the various coverage areas and knowing where everyone else is in relation to your position. Proper depths and drop angles are critical as well, kind of akin to a wideout that needs to run precise routes in relation to all the other receivers and needs to make sure his mistaken routes aren't running defenders into another area, etc.