Mickey

As good as Watson is, he isn't a pro bowler and NE has plenty of top talent elsewhere in their roster who deserve a larger piece of their salary cap than does Watson. On the other hand, our roster is bereft of top talent and we just let one of the few legit top 5 in the league guys we have go to philly. That seems to explain rather obviously why we are perpetually mediocre and a prime candidate to replace the Lions as the biggest joke in the league. We have some good WR's, a promising QB and good special teams though our PK is a bit shaky at times. That is about all we have to hang our hats on.

the usfl was pro ball in the same sense that a preseason game is an nfl game, technically true but....

With this rock solid proof, you should go to the police and offer to sign an affidavit. Really, witnesses with relevant factual information are obligated to come forward. By the way, if you would notice a bug hitting your windshield while staring at woman dancing in the streets, there are issues at play here beyond driving skills you need to explore. Besides, you can get married in Iowa now so it is a brave new world. Don't be afraid.

Actually, he didn't "basically fess up to it" and there was no proof he knew that he hit someone. The investigators concluded that he did not intentionally leave the scene of an accident. In court Lynch said that it was raining hard and he saw a woman dancing in the street and he slowed down to let her go by and then went home where he parked the car in the driveway and made no attempt to hide it. He was completely unaware that there had been an accident. Based on the facts of the case, he pled guilty to a violation. Lynch's traffic violation

We knew Kelly was the guy pretty much by half time of his first start if I recall. Jeeeezus I miss that guy.

I have watched them, but not just the "higlights", they tend to be a bit on the biased side. You need to look at the low lights too. Like the Cleveland game. This is the year we are most likely going to learn whether he is the guy or whether we need to look for another QB. Everyone likes him, everyone liked JP too. But he has to get it done on the field.

Yes, and we are also allowed to assess their performance whenever we want. Trent Edwards has not covinced me that he is a franchise QB yet. He just hasn't played particularly well in a number of games. The jury is still out but by this time next year we could be talking either about his new contract or about his release. This is a pivotal year for him.

I love your enthusiasm but some of this is pretty pie in the sky. For example, where does this "...such a solid interior..." notion come from? Wood and Levitre haven't played a single down of NFL football yet. Hangartner wasn't good enough to start with his last team. I think we are all hoping that they will improve over time but it is a little premature to prounounce the interior of the line to be "solid".

i think our problems running the ball have been as much about our inability or unwillingness to go down field. Since the QB, Head Coach and OC are the same I don't see the results being any different. Frankly, I will never understand this town's obsession with "smash mouth" football. The greatest success this team ever had was with an offense that was anything but "smash mouth". The modern game requires that a team be able to get the ball deep. There is nothing our offense does worse than going deep. As for the line, you have 2/5's of it returning with one of those moving to another position. The line sucked last year and a chunk of it is the same. The other 3 positions could be manned by rookies, free agents who were not starters for their old teams and practice squad players. Two of the guys we lost were stiffs but one was an all pro. So, no, I don't see a reason to be excited about this new line. Maybe over the second half of the year or next year when they have some experience. Maybin will hopefully improve the pass rush but he is just one guy and rarely do rookie DE's make much of an impact. We were 0-6 in the division and honestly, I can't see where we gained anything on the rest of the division this off season. They took some guys that will be good long term but for next year, 5-11 is as much a possibility with this team as 7-9. When you add in Lynch's suspension along with possible suspensions to Simpson and Whitner, you start wondering if 5-11 is a little too ambitious. Razberries to Brandon who has failed to put a winning team on the field so far and whose most important personnel move the last two years was to trade away a two time pro bowler. Attaboy Russ.

Perhaps but having a defense that can't presssure the quarterback and an offense that can't get downfield to save their souls cost us even more games. Seems the best teams stock up on DT's, not DB's. But hard to argue with the crack team of brainiacs pulling off 7 and 9 seasons on a regular basis. hard to argue with success mediocrity.

Tha would explain trading up for another guard in the second with OT's like Loadholt still on the board. Hangardner, Butler, Wood and Levitre = 4 guys for 3 positions while we have a practice squad guy about to start at RT. I was scratching my head. But if they had some other plan for a tackle, then it would make some sense.

Really? I thought there were tons of people drooling over Pettigrew. What happened to the TE bandwagon? I was never on it but it ran over my foot often enough.

Please let me know what I can and can't say about newly drafted players between now and camp. Of course we are going to let them play but they weren't created from dust yesterday, they have played, in college football. Heard of it? Thus, they have a body of work for us to go with for now. This is kind of what is fun about the draft, cheering the picks you like and going nuts over the ones you don't like. If we all restricted ourselves to gushing praise for every pick, would that be acceptable?

To be fair, the complete absence from post season play for the better part of a decade coupled with an offense as exciting as a trip to the DMV may have also had something to do with his attitude. Just a wild guess.

Now I see the brilliance of letting Jabari leave. Suddenly, it all makes sense.

I hate the "gym rat" cliche, right up there with "high motor" and "lunch pail". What if he didn't leave the gym because he never studied for his classes or was too stupid to absorb the system in the allotted practice time? Who is the better player, the guy who gets it right after an hour of practice or the guy that gets it right an hour after practice? Sorry, this pick has soured my normally sunny disposition.

Never saw it coming. Who would have thought that a team brilliant enough to pull off the Peters trade would eff up the draft?

any relation to Butch Byrd?

Holy Mother of God.......

No, it says that the appalling situation at center is even more appalling than the appalling situation at tackle.

Wow, we are going to have a killer line with Langston at RT, Buter at RG, the kid at C, Hangartner at LG and Peters at LT....oh...wait a minute...oh crap. Oh well, its a start.

Great, so we traded away a pro bowler for an extra pick in the weakest draft in history? Shrewd.

I agree but thanks to the Peters deal, OT is also a glaring weakness. You can't move forward by taking a step backwards and that is what we did. So now it really doesn't matter if they take an OT or they don't. Either way, there will be a glaring weakness that will go unaddressed in this draft absent mid to late round success. If either of those first two picks is a bust, there will be several weaknesses that will not get fixed. Hence the value of a pro bowler in the hand versus a draft pick in the bush.

I think it would be a perfect ending to the entire Peters fiasco. It would complete the circle of idiocy the front office has been drawing over the last two years. Of course, so would taking an OT at 28, likely the 6th in that round by then. Then we can boast that we traded a OT who was in the top 5 in the entire league for a guy who is only the 6th best OT in this draft. Outstanding.

...and what would you do to improve one of the worst pass rushes in the NFL? I love TE's but unfortunately, we have more pressing needs. You simply don't make the playoffs with a pass rush that is that bad.