Beck Water

That (tying together threads) is the real achilles heel of Beane's OL builds. It's not that he doesn't put resources into the line. He has - maybe not as many high picks as folks would like, but OL is hard to scout these days so there's an argument to be made for picking up guys who have put down some NFL tape. But there are two errors with a draft pick. One is giving up too early (analogous to Type I error in statistics. rejection of actually true null hypothesis) The other is giving them too many chances and too much time (analogous to Type II error, accepting an actually false null hypothesis). When it comes to Cody Ford and now maybe Spencer Brown, Beane has been a Type II guy.

I'm not done with him. But I no longer view him as a roster lock. He's got to figure out how to hang on to some of those contested balls, because he doesn't have the arm length or speed to hold defenders off and separate cleanly.

To me it usually falls into place, like "OK, Torrence was in with the 1s pre-stretching then it was Bates with the 1s in the first 11-on-11 team session then..... But it can seem like different practice, for example, Ajay Cybulski sees Khalil Shakir as dropping a pass he should have caught. A different perspective: Or, maybe it was a very good play by Cam Lewis, who has played 234 defensive snaps in the NFL; he can make a play. Davis has by all accounts had a good couple of days, and Kincaid so far is having a good camp as is Cook.

I'm hoping it's a thing where they're noting the drops more than the routine catches, but Yeah. Guy needs to get hooked up with Dawson Knox eye coordination guy or something.

If Dodson has improved in reading coverage and reacting, he could do OK. He can for-real *thump* on tackling and reading the run.

Good. Show Kinkaid that this is the NFL, it's not going to be easy

The only thing that could console me for drafting Boogie Basham with Creed Humphrey on the board, would be to see Basham succeed. It's why I value reading blow-by-blow accounts like Astro's. He usually clarifies which group is in when.

So now I'm confused, did Hamlin get two picks or one, and if one, was it thrown by Barkley or Kyle Allen?

Edit: from other reports, this was actually a Barkley pass, and the play had been whistled dead But still

I'm hoping that one or more of the guys who cover practice will spell out the personnel in the OL that are getting pwn'd. Apparently Dawkins, McGovern, and Morse are in there, and Brown. Is it Bates, Torrence, or Edwards at RG? Is this the lineup that's consistently getting owned?

Interesting that this is going on with McDermott apparently away from practice for a "family matter"

Uh-oh

(Note: this was said during practice, and is a joke. But yeah, would that be funny.

I care, and am also interested to know if it's Bates or Morse in at Center, because if the DL is pushing the OL back into Allen today but that didn't happen previously, it would be good if there are other OLmen on the roster who are capable of anchoring

Agree - McDermott's defense is totally designed to be a symbiotic unit where the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts - and it can fail and give up big plays when one guy is out of position. It fascinates me, actually. I'm forgetting who did a great breakdown on the 1st NWE game in 2021. We played some base D with Dodson, and whoever broke it down pointed out how Poyer chose the wrong gap and gave up a big gain, because Dodson looked the wrong way towards one gap, but then covered the other. Interesting look at the intricacies of how these guys communicate with each other on the field. Fans in preseason go for "eye candy" and can get all enthused about players like Tank Carder or Kiko Alonso who are actually free-lancing out of position and going for the ball - which can make for a big play at times, but is not what NFL defense is all about. AJ Klein First, it would help if you would explain what you mean by "below average player". Are you talking "no longer a starter"? But most teams keep 5 or 6 LB. Are you thinking, relative to the 180 or so LB that are signed to NFL rosters for half or so of the games during a given season, he's in the bottom 90? Whatever your metric is, what is your basis for your opinion that he is a below average player? That's something we can discuss.

Good writeup as usual, Gunner, with interesting points, so Thank You for that. I'm curious about how you see point #3 about Spector's "ceiling wise he is the best STer"? It's a fact that Spector was actually a healthy scratch much of the year, and when he did play, between him and Bernard, Bernard still got more ST snaps. Is this just hypothetical, based on athleticism and size?

From your keyboard to God's ears!

C'mon Dawkins, you gonna let AJE beatcha?

It could change, but so far it seems as though a bunch of the stalwart guys for real-time updates aren't at practice today. While that's understandable (tickets are scarce and maybe they gotta work for a living sometime), it means updates may be slim.