silvermike

I thought the Lions were displeased with Mike Williams - he's not even ahead of Glenn Martinez.

link?

I wonder if they'll just reach an injury settlement and let him go.

Well, if he was around to name the son after himself, he must have been fairly close to the mother at that point. So a minimum 9 month relationship, probably at least a year - maybe it's pretty stable.

The team that has JP Losman and Favre's backup is going to find a QB from other teams' scrap heaps? COME ON!

Drew.. let me finish. Henson. :-)

My point wasn't so much that Price is better than Porter, and we should stick with him, but that Porter is in the general class of WRs that includes Peerless Price -that is, pretty freaking average. Compared to two first round picks, you gotta do way better than Price, not be in his league.

Holy hell that's a lot of sacks. Once every five dropbacks, versus vanilla defenses likely not blitzing too often? Yikes. That's terrible. But it's better than throwing picks, and the fumbles likely won't stick .

This may be the worst suggested trade of all time. Jerry Porter? A guy who has never managed a 1000 yard season? Who has over 100 fewer catches than Peerless Price, despite only playing one fewer season, not to mention 1600 fewer yards?

Cleo Lemon is interesting. That's about all I can say for that list. Traveres Jackson won't be cut, and neither would Gradkowski -t hey'd otherwise be worth a shot

McNair has that co-MVP season to his name, which should help him a lot. Along with the Super Bowl appearance, although otherwise, I don't think he's had much in the way of playoffs since. I think his main yardstick is Drew Bledsoe. Each led a team to a Super Bowl loss (Bledsoe '95, that is). Maybe Donovan McNabb is on pace for the same.

Yeah, I should fix that - what I was thinking with the McNair comment - "drafted QB" is that Favre's success has been as a "traded QB" e.g. not with his original Falcons. The Manning thing was just a mistake, I'm editing it. I'll guess that McNair doesn't get in to the HOF.

Sorry, I was responding to Pyrite Gal - talking about where to get a QB. I think you might be on to something OCP. After '98, first round QBs are viable again: Manning, Vick, Palmer, Manning, Roethlisberger. There' still Harrington, Leaf, Ramsey in there, but we might also get to add Rivers, Losman, Smith, Rodgers, Leinart, Cutler, and Vince Young to that list. As to your point, I don't know enough about college football to comment, but wouldn't more talented, improvisational guys still show up somewhere in the system? Or were they drubbed into other positions - maybe Hines Ward and Drew Bennett would be great QBs.

Well, the main point of the article was just that there wasn't an influx of QB talent in the 90s - well, 1990-1997 to be exact. And if you look at the league leader charts from the 1998-2001 range - the time when the missing QBs should have been in their primes - it's a little weird. This is by passing yards, incidentally: 1999: Beuerlein, Warner, Manning, Favre, B. Johnson, Bledsoe, Gannon, Grbac, Kitna, Flutie. Manning was a young buck, part of a new era. Kurt Warner showed up from AFL, Flutie showed up from the CFL, Favre and Bledsoe were the only bright lights from the era, and then you have Beuerlein, Johnson, Gannon, Grbac, and Kitna. All journeymen who were in the middle of a good run. 2000: Manning (1998), Garcia (CFL), Grbac (journeyman), Culpepper (99) Favre, Testaverde (pre-90) Beuerlein, Brunell (late-rounder), Collins (journeyman), Gannon (Journeyman). Manning and Culpepper are signs of things to come. 2001: Warner, Manning, Favre, Brooks (99), Gannon, Green (journeyman), Collins, Plummer (um), Garcia, Flutie 2002: Gannon, Bledsoe (again, the rare 90s standout, but note he hasn't been showing up on this list before), Manning, Collins, Culpepper, Brady (new guy), Green, Favre, Brooks, McNair (again, showing up for a rare shot) 2003: Manning, Green, Bulger (new guy), Hasselbeck, Brad Johnson, Brady, Kitna (again!) Brooks, Culpepper, and Maddox. 2004: Finally, I think it breaks. Culpepper, Green, Manning, Plummer, Favre, Bulger, Delhomme, McNabb, Brooks, Brady. and last year: 2005: Brady, Green, Favre, Palmer, E. Manning, Collins, P. Manning, Bledsoe, Brees, Hasselbeck. Green and Gannon may diverge as journeymen - they're just late bloomers who had their best years in their mid-to-late thirties. Flutie too, I suppose. But there was a distinct gap where only a phenomenal kid named Peyton Manning kept it from being the Brett Favre & the Reject All-stars.

I had started an argument that the Bills erred in not finding a replacement for Jim Kelly sooner, and being left with Todd Collins. But in researching my point, I looked and discovered a huge gap in QB talent in the mid-90s. Following 1989, that saw Troy Aikman launch his career, you have: 1990: Jeff George and Neil O'Donnell battle it out for the top of the class. Andre Ware is a first rounder. And Scott Mitchell and John Friez round out the best of this yera. So O'Donnell is the only one who made the playoffs with the team that drafted him, but hardly was more than a serviceable backup for most of his career. 1991: Dan McGuire and Todd Marinovich are the only first rounders. There's a certain Brett Favre in there, but the rest of the class is topped by Scott Zolak and Browning Nagle. Nagle seems like the only non-Favre to even start a whole season. 1992: Klinger and Maddox are first rounders. The best QB in this draft is Brad Johnson. After that, you have Maddox, Jeff Blake, and Ty Detmer. Johnson got his team to the playoffs in '96 and '97, making him the best draft pick, so far, of the '90s. 1993: A talented draft, this one produced Drew Bledsoe, Trent Green, Elvis Grbac, and Mark Brunell. Brunell was shipped out to Jacksonville in a couple of years. Trent Green never managed a down with his draftee'd Chargers, and Elvis Grbac is the definitional journeyman. Still, three current starters is pretty impressive, even if none are on anything better than their third team. 1994: Health Schuler and Trent Dilfer are the only ones drafted before the 4th round. Jim Miller and Gus Frerotte are the best I can do after that. Ugly. 1995: Steve McNair might be the best draft pick of the era, since Favre was traded to, not drafted by, Green Bay. Kerry Collins has been serivceable, and even managed the playoffs for Carolina. After that, it gets sketchier - Todd Collins is still in the league, Kordell Stewart has been exciting at times, that Rob Johnson is the best you can do after that is statement enough. 1996: Tony Banks was the first QB taken, in the second round. He was also the best - beating out, um, Bobby Hoying? Danny Kannell? 1997: Jim Drunkenmiller in the first. Jake Plummer was a solid pick, but after that, Danny Wuerrfel and Koy Detmer are the best '97 had to offer. 1998: Finally, Peyton Manning comes out, the first unquestionable hall of famer since Favre. His classmates? Ryan Leaf, Charlie Batch, and Brian Griese. And a 6th round afterthought named Matt Hasselbeck. Still about the best class yet. 1999: The famed QB class of '99. McNabb and Culpepper, along with Aaron Brooks are passable. Cade McNown, Tim Couch, and Akili Smith leave this one unsettled. Only by 2000 does the tide begin to turn again, with Brady, Bulger, and Pennington. But what happened in the 90s that caused this catastrophic run on QBs? Favre is the only real star from 1990-1992, 1993 was a bumper crop of journeymen, and Steve McNair is the only legit QB until Peyton Manning. Take a look at the passing leaders from 1997-2001, and this is reflected: It remains full of old timers (Kelly, Moon, Marino, Young, Elway) before sliding into journeymen - Grbac, Beurlein, George, etc.) 1998-99 are the turning point. But that's after a long, gloomy era.

To be fair, though, Kelly was good in his first season, the team was just terrible - he finished top ten in completions, yards, and TDs. Just not much in the way of RBs (Robb Riddick) WRs (other than a green Andre Reed) or defense (talented, but not ready)

If you trust your scouts, generael manager, and the rest of the draft team, and they all say that you'll be better off spending the $16 million on a few veterans who were cut last week - I think you think about it. Sometimes, the talent just isn't there.

I'd be the most skeptical of Barber - he's a top-shelf RB, but probably only for this year right now. Longterm, keeping Manning-Jackson-Johnson might be dominant.

Playing to win raises a lot of questions, but what I always wonder is why they don't go for 2 after every touchdown in the preseason. Your standard PAT play doesn't require too much practice in live competition, but a few looks in preseason could help out that play. Ditto punting/kicking field goals in 4th and 1, 4th and 2, hell, 4th and 4 situations. The punt team needs some work, but what about the fourth down converters?

Williams, Tripplett, and McCargo has the makings of a very solid DT rotation. Anderson to spell them every now and then. Schobel on one side - Ryan Denny, Chris Kelsay - now's the fugging time!

They practically never bring a player's rating down. Anyone who was once good, remains good, in the world of Madden. Isaac Bruce is an 89. Priest Holmes is an 88, Curtis Martin is an 89! It's worthless.

Everyone loves talking about how awesome the rookie looks in camp

whoa.

And if it goes well this season, maybe we can trade Price back to Atlanta for a 1st round pick!

Evans-Price-Parrish-Reed-Nance-Aiken. Some size, lots of speed, decent hands, and solid dose of special teams. Sorry Andre.