Fewell733

the only negative reviews of Stroud's play that I heard came from the mouth of Chris Mortensen and possibly Paul Hamilton. So take of that what it's worth (somewhere between nothing and less than nothing).

1st - you haven't even compared Levy's drafts to any of Donahoe's. How can you see he's not any better if you don't compare and contrast the picks made. 2nd - Donahoe's worthlessness stretched far deeper than the draft - refusing to resign Pat Williams at a below market deal was the ultimate show of incompetence - trading a boatload to picks for Losman, trading a 1st for Bledsoe, never investing inoffensive linemen in FA even though it was a glaring problem year after year (Bennie Anderson anyone - he's worse than our worst lineman today by several magnitudes) plus he was basically at war with the fans and media in the final years.

here's the Pats this year with Cassell: QB - 26 (Brady is 31) RB - 31 LT - 30 LG - 26 OC - 29 RG - 28 RT - 29 WR - 31 WR - 27 TE - 28 FB - 29 average starting age with Cassel is 28.5 (29 with Brady) our average age is 26.8 - about 2 years less experience on average at every position. this doesn't take account of the Patriots depth, which is predominantly veteran - Hochstein is 31, Gaffney and Kelley Washington are 28. even their young depth is older by about two years

best defensive front 7 guy available. If that's Rey Maualuga from USC I'm happy with it. I think he is athletic enough to play on the inside or outside. And if we had him I'd hope we'd rush linebackers more often than we currently do. George Selvie is another DE to consider.

actually what you're are suggesting - blow things up and rebuild - is what we've been doing over and over again over the past 10 years. What we haven't done is stuck with anything (granted Donahoe's style at team building wasn't building anything but hype)

well, first, the list only one random writer's opinion. I think totally overlooking McKelvin (who was NFL defensive rookie of the month in November and who might be the league's best KR already) kind of undermines any supposedly authority he has. However, Hardy has been a disappointment so far. What's strange is he chose Hardy as the disappointment but not people like Malcolm Kelly, Limas Sweed, or Devin Thomas - who all have done next to nothing and all went in the 2nd round.

hilarious - Jenkins really was funny everytime, so was Leodis Marshawn seems to live in his internal world. but its a pretty hilarious one. He's definitely not stupid, he's just funny.

Walker's pull a week prior sprang the Lynch 50 yard run

that's hilarious

why is an extremely on point topic in Off the Wall? This while the Wall itself is mired in firing coaches and trading probowlers. Oye. First drives have become so routine on us I'd rather just spot them 7 points on kickoff to give us more time to make up the points. I will say that Fewell seems to be very good at adjusting as a game wears on, but he whiffs on the first pitch week in and week out. That's gotta change.

you could make an argument against half the Cowboys and Redskins that made the team. I think the receiver and defensive selections were very good this year. QB was a joke with Favre. Offensive line is most consistently the worst selections - most prone to repeats and reputation. Joe Thomas was not very good this year from what I heard and neither was Peters or Chris Samuels. That doesn't mean they're not great players though.

I'd be surprised if there is an offense from top to bottom as young as ours. We shouldn't be surprised when we don't always look too hot. What makes things worse though is that our veterans - like Losman and Fowler off the bench and Royal at TE just aren't very good players (and that's being kind). Other than Reed, who is surprisingly only 28, Langston Walker, and to a far lesser extent, Dockery, where are the competent veterans? Lee Evans is getting there. QB - 25 RB - 22 LT - 26 LG - 28 C - 26 RG - 25 RT - 29 WR - 27 WR - 28 TE - 30 FB - 29 Turk - 1st year as play caller Our depth at WR and TE is ridiculously young and inexperienced - average age about 23. Generally, I think we need to bring in some at least middle of the road veteran depth to give some stability as these guys gain experience.

certainly worth bringing in. They had run a similar defense to ours with great success until Greggo came to town. It wasn't Harris's fault their entire offensive line got hurt before the regular season started.

getting named to the Pro Bowl doesn't mean much to me. It's a popularity contest. When you have an asset that's overvalued you sell it when it's overvalued. I'm not sure why you think my post was a ringing endorsement for Chambers - it wasn't meant to be at all. I wouldn't want to rely on Chambers as a starter. But if Chambers is a bum backup and Peters is the best in the league - the difference should show more on the field. Why not try relying on a normal NFL starter and pick up a boatload of high draft picks if we can? If we can't? so be it. Keep the pro-bowler.

Roy Williams is kind of a loser.

I think it would be organizational malpractice to not try and make a deal trading Peters. His value is through the roof but his play doesn't seem to be that big of a factor on the field. The drop off between him and even Chambers isn't big enough to not try and swing a major Patriots style killing.

keep in mind that Atlanta and Miami are more the exception than the rule. Generally flipping your organization results in at least a year or two of rebuilding and learning new systems - at which point we likely will be calling for another firing if we don't light it up that third year. The Dolphins turned it around for 2 major reasons - replacing total incompetence in their coaching staff and front office (say what you will about our current guys but they put the 1-15 Dolphins staff to shame); and bringing in a top 10 veteran QB replacing absolute ineptitude at that position, heck they were starting John Beck and Cleo Lemon last year - are either in the NFL anymore? The Falcons success is much more extraordinary. Matt Ryan has proved me completely wrong about him - I thought he made too many stupid throws in college. We'll see if they can sustain this for more than a year or if they're a flash in the pan. The difference between 6-10 and 9-7 or even 10-6 is basically within the margin of error in the NFL. A missed kick here, or a bad bounce there is often the difference between a successful season and a failed season. Think also of teams we were envying just last year - Jacksonville, Green Bay, Seattle even Washington - all we assumed were perennial powers with organizations to envy. Even the endlessly deep pockets of the Cowboys may not be enough to even get them into the playoffs, let alone go anywhere once there. They are stuck in the middle like most everyone else, regardless of what ESPN says. There is a lot to be said for our coaching staff putting a competitive product on the field week in and week out and being even in a position to win virtually every game we've played this year. I can't stand some of the playcalls - and think our defense plays too conservative a lot of the time. But I can't blame them for JP Losman's near unfathomable ineptitude that probably cost us the game against the 49ers, Dolphins and Jets (and Lindell with the Browns). To me, Losman is the talent that Ralph may have meant isn't good enough to win with - and even then we were in clear position to win those games.

what does this mean exactly? Does Ralph just call him more now or something?

One thing that's not brought up in the Cowher talk is how much longer does he actually want to coach.

seriously though, sports "journalism" is basically dead. It's now sports "commentary" with loudmouths throwing mud at the wall in a 24/7 news cycle. Just compare ESPN the Magazine to Sports Illustrated. ESPN the magazine is 100% flash and isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Sports Illustrated - which actually has good pieces - can't keep up because you can't pump out a quality product as quick and cheap (and still make it feel like its up to date) as you can crap. Good articles take time to write and the public want news and judgments immediately. It's like reality television vs. good sitcoms. Sitcoms are expensive and hard to get right (but done right they have value for generations in syndication and video sales because they convey humor and ideas that are lasting), reality tv is cheap and disposable but people still watch and advertisers still buy, but there is no lasting value to it.

I would take Gruden in a heartbeat. I think his offensive approach is ideal to our personnel - though our lineman might need to thin up a bit. The guy won in Oakland!! In Oakland!

for about as long as newspapers have existed.

it looked to me like the Bronco's were picking on Scott and the linebackers. McGee, Corner and McKelvin all played fantastic.

Sean Penn is ridiculously good in Milk.

every time he overthrew routes we were getting heavy pressure on him on the play, including - I believe- the play in the end zone . Just goes to show that when you get pressure on the QB good things tend to happen.