dave mcbride

Fournette to me *looks* great when he plays, and I think a core reason why his stats are unimpressive is because the Jax quarterback is fundamentally terrible. Put him on the Saints, Pats, or Rams and watch what happens.

http://www.angelfire.com/ia3/colts2/walthistory.htm

Oh, absolutely, and the jury is still out. But amidst the negatives, the positives are VERY positive: blazing foot speed for a qb, ideal size, lightning quick release, amazing arm, and -- no small thing -- a ton of moxie. He's also bright too. They have to stick with him for the long haul, and we fans need to be patient.

Oh, I know. The jury on Allen is still waaaaaaaaay out.

Not on a rope like Allen, though. Allen is capable of throwing frozen ropes 60 yards downfield. I've never seen a qb who could do that, and I include Jeff George (who had a stronger arm than Vick) when I say this. There is a reason why a qb from a nothing school who had only ok college stats was seriously under consideration for #1 overall.

The Taron Johnson play was straight-up holding. It gets called a lot, although certainly not every time. Still, no one should complain about that one (the Edmunds one was a much dicier call.) There were a ton of penalties against Jax too. The big problem, aside from the terribly sloppy play by the teams, was the time taken to make calls and getting it wrong on the review plays -- all of which combined added about 10 minutes to the game. Bottom line though: both teams committed tons of legit penalties, and there were probably a ton that weren't called. It was a badly played game for the most part.

Allen is hardly a finished product, and yesterday was only one game. But he should have had more completions on deeper throws than he did; drops affected his numbers. His deep accuracy yesterday was remarkably good, and his arm strength is something every team will have to game plan against. He has the strongest arm I have ever seen, and it's not even really a close call. He was throwing 50-yards-in-the-air throws on a freaking rope.

He also made throws yesterday that literally no other QB in the NFL can make. His arm is staggeringly impressive.

8.4 ypa and an amazing 9.47 adjusted ypa wins you games.

I'll take 8.4 ypa with no negative sack yardage or turnovers all day every day. Adjusted ypa is the most telling qb stat of all.

I had escalating levels of punishment as a kid, with the belt being second worst. The wooden slipper was the apex punishment. Anyway, nothing to see here.

Bush never lived up to the hype, but he WAS a good player for a while (8 yrs; 2006-13). He was an exceptionally good receiver, and in his three-year run with miami and detroit (2011-13), he had ~1000+ rushing yards each season and averaged 4.6 ypc cumulatively. In NO, he put up big receiving numbers and had 4 return tds in his first two seasons. Still, relative to the hype, he was a disappointment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/11/21/nations-top-running-back-recruit-is-changing-positions-smart-guy-says-adrian-peterson/?utm_term=.39c5f08b1b37

I thought it was a good game; I just don't want it to become a norm. It's not about being a football traditionalist; it's my opposition to scores (in any sport) coming too cheaply.

Regardless of the source, goals and half-goals (FGs) shouldn't be cheap. It's why I find basketball mostly boring as a spectator sport. Both winners and losers routinely score 45-55 goals every game.

44-40 is still too high. The ideal score in baseball, in my opinion, is 4-3. Same with hockey. 4-3 in football is effectively 28-21. I actually prefer 3.5 to 3 in football (24-21). Last night was 7-6 minus the defensive scores and roughly 8-7.5 if you factor them in. That's too many goals for my liking.

Carr does not suck. He's not elite, but his 2015 and 2016 seasons were both above average (combined, ~8,000 yards, 60 TDs/19 INTs, and 11 4th quarter comebacks/game winning drives). This season, he's doing as about best as can be expected given the terrible personnel situation/clown show in Oakland. He's on pace for over 4200 yards and a 94 rating. Key stat - in his best season (2016), he had the lowest sack rate in the league. Actually, it was really just his first half season. He played pretty well, relatively speaking, in the second half of his rookie season. There's a better than even chance that Carr will be better than Allen ever will be. We're betting on the upside potential of Allen, which I understand and support, but Carr has actually had genuinely good seasons. I also expect him to land somewhere at some point that is a sane situation, and I won't be surprised if he turns into another Carson Palmer (great first couple of seasons followed by an early-mid career lull due entirely to organizational chaos followed again by near elite play).

Worth a read — https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2018/11/14/18094854/new-england-patriots-tom-brady-bill-belichick-super-bowl-contention

So the consensus seems to be that we’re nearing THAT time!

One of things that Amazon always focuses on is access to talent. NYC and the DC area simply have a lot more of it.

I don't disagree that the trendlines in upstate NY are worrying, and there are a lot of factors involved, including state policy. (That said, don't discount weather for older people; it's a HUGE factor in population flight). But the problem with the argument is that NYC has higher tax rates, is more heavily regulated, and is a more difficult business environment to break into than any other place in NYS. Yet it is booming, and its population has increased significantly over the past 25 years, from around 7.4 million to 8.623 million. Other high tax/high regulation states like Oregon and Washington are booming too, and near the top of the annual population growth list. I guess my point is that blaming state regulatory policy just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. There are too many factors involved, and why some regions decline and others thrive is a really complicated issue. To be fair, I don't doubt that misguided local policies play some role (Christ, the fact that they don't have an 8-lane bridge to the economic heart Canada--just across the river!--is outrageous).

NY is doing pretty well, driven largely by high-tax NYC, which generated roughly 3/4 of a million new jobs in the last 12 months. So I don't really understand your point. As for why the Derby plant is closing, New Era has a new business model that focuses more on branding and isn't tied to hats. It wants a manufacturing facility that can handle that. Derby ain't it. There is also the union issue, although New Era (somewhat implausibly) denies it played a role.

No. I simply inferred that your post indicated that you hadn't actually read the piece, which focuses on manufacturing process mismatches. NYS's unemployment rate is 4.1 percent right now (NYC's is 4.0), which is roughly average for the country.

You also need to factor in that they have the worst starting field position (32nd) of any defense in the league - that is, opposing offenses are closer to the opponent's goal line when they start their drives against the Bills than anyone else. The Bills D is first in yards given up per drive, 4th in time per drive, and 5th in plays per drive. They are also second in net yards per passing attempt allowed, which is an incredibly important stat. Sounds like top 5 to me.

You should read the story before making claims like this.