Saint Doug

Oh, calm down. The post was in half jest.

Great, another Corey Moore/Brandon Spoon/Gabe Northern in the making. If its not a DB, I don't have much faith in any defensive player we draft.

However, football is a team sport. How much your #1 corner can shut out the opponents #1 receiver is great for individual stats and PB appearences, but apparently had little impact on San Fran's defense. If shutting down the #1 receiver is not winning you games, then how have you improved your defense as a whole unit? Now, look at the winners of the SB the last 5 years: TB, NE, NE, Steelers, Colts, NYG. High paid CBs were not the centerpieces of these teams. Look at NFLs highest CB salaries (2007 numbers): Clements, San Fran: 11.1 mil/year McAlister, Saints: 9.4 Surtain, Chiefs: 9.3 Jammer, SD: 8.5 Samuel, NE: 7.7 Springs, Redskins: 7.3 Baxter, Browns: 6.9 Bailey, Broncos: 5.9 Henry, Cowboys: 5.6 David, Saints: 5.5 http://content.usatoday.com/sports/footbal...on.aspx?pos=127 Paying top dollar for a CB clearly does not equate to winning SBs (nor to even making the playoffs, in some cases). The one exception would be NE and it is entirely clear that Samuel was not the driving force behind the NE SB wins. Now, the CB is a very important position, but I don't think it is the position you "build around" or throw the most money at. Great CBs will probably get you into the playoffs, but there not going to win you a SB - you need the ultimate team balance (i.e. a true "team") to do this.

Actually... San Fran rushing defense: 2006: rank=19, YRDs/game=121.0, YRDs/attempt ave=4.1, rushing TDs given up=18 2007: rank=22, YRDs/game=118.5, YRDs/attempt ave=3.8, rushing TDs given up=9 However, just for fun, let's just imagine you actually knew what you were talking about. If San Fran's rushing defense stunk so much, why would a team dish out 80 million to one player who mostly defends the pass?

For what its worth, San Fran's defense didn't really improve much with him. 2006 (without Clements): Passing yards allowed/game=223.2, INT=14, PTS/game=25.8, overall rank=26th 2007 (with Clements): Passing yards allowed/game=227.7, INT=12, PTS/game=22.8, overall defense rank=25th It's a team sport. We don't need to blow our load on just one (apparently small) piece of the puzzle.

No doubt this is probably the most important position on the team (besides QB, of course). They should eventually show him the money - a lot of it. However, if you click on the link above, you will see a photo of Whitworth standing next to Levi Jones (another person we should have drafted, but missed on) at camp. Point is that Peters needs to show up at camp, that will send a strong message.

I agree that we hit the jackpot in obtaining Williams and Peters. But, isn't this a feat in itself? And yes, there would be other ways of obtaining these superstars, like drafting them early. But, we already failed in doing this. For some reason, the Bills FO has great skill in drafting DBs in the first round. But, we suck at drafting linemen on the first day. Williams and Flowers are great examples - both complete busts. Add Bannan, Anderson, Merz, & Preston into that group too. Truth is that our FO sucks at finding linemen in the draft. I would love to have faith in the FO to do this, but I don't think that drafting linemen early instead of DBs would work. It's a sad truth. Or, maybe its the coaching - maybe they just can't develop young linemen well. I wish Ellis the best of luck in avoiding being added to that list.

I agree that Jauron has no "swagger." Or, is it that he has no "ego?" He seems comfortable enough not to micro-manage; instead he just delegates. And I don't know if this is a good or bad thing. The good coaches seem to micro-manage - see Belicheat. And I don't think that letting all of our DBs walk at the end of their rookie contracts has lead to a "decade of losing" and I don't think you actually think this either. Letting Big Pat walk and not building up our lines have lead to our losing ways. Let the DBs walk - they don't matter as much - but retain the lines (which I actually see us doing now - for a change). I don't think our current FO would have ever let Big Pat walk like TD did.

Thanks a lot to both of you too! Great reports. And Mike, you're gonna have to cancel that trip to Maryland - it's overrated. I find it interesting that April had the "kickoff/punt catchers" catching with a ball already in their hands. How is this a realistic situation at all? When the heck ever are you going to have to catch a punt while already holding a ball? I wonder if this helps at all?

I would rather be a farm team for DBs than to sign one after their rookie contract expires. Look how much veteran DBs are making. It's ridiculous! I would rather draft a McKelvin and let him walk after 5 years than pay what San Fran gave to Clements. I say drafting a DB in the first round every 4-5 years is not devoting our resources. Signing a DB to Clement's contract is devoting too much resources. We can deal with young DBs here - we don't need expensive veteran-type DBs for our type of game. Our OL may be thin, but we are pouring considerable resources into it - with what Dockery and Walker are making. The jury is still out on how good Butler is going to be, but we did throw a bunch of cash his way. Now, I do agree that superbowl teams need great LTs, so I think we should pay Peters more, but I think he needs to be at camp (read: a team player) before we show him the money.

Yeah, make sure we lock 'em up at a young age so he won't be holding out for more money in a year or two, just like we did with that no-name Peters. Oh,wait!...

I agree that the undergrad campus areas and Mt Washington area nice, but Fell's Point, Canton, and Hampden are dumps. People have to realize that Baltimore is a very large city because the city limits are huge. The county and the city are the same thing. This is why there are some places in Baltimore that are very nice, like Mt Wash. If Buffalo=Erie County, it would be like saying: "there is zero crime in Buffalo, just look at the Amherst area." But the actual "city" part and its surrounding areas are very dangerous. And it is hard to tell the bad parts from the safe parts. You could be in a nice neighborhood, but then walk 2 blocks and find yourself in a very bad neighborhood. And Towson (which is like an Amherst area) shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence as Baltimore. In terms of safety, they are apples and oranges.

I too live in Balti-less, in the Canton area, and work in East Baltimore. I have to agree with the above poster - this place is a very dangerous dump. Some of these areas make the fruit belt look like Disney. Just 2 more years....

It is also what keeps (most) people from loading Mac's OS X onto PC's.

No, I did not. You're missing my point. My point is that we/the media/NFL make such a big fuss about stupid things like when white players are drinking in a hot tub when there are much more serious things occurring (like beating one's wife). If a black player was caught on camera in a hot tub drinking, we would never even know about it. But, when a white player is, then something "bad" has occurred. I think this is just another example on how white NFL players are held in a higher regard than black players. It seems that teams have higher expectations for their white players.

Its kind of interesting how, in the NFL, the behavior of blacks and white are held to an entirely different standard. Leinert was caught drinking (but he is 21?) and bathing with girls, but somehow this is unacceptable behavior. And everyone is "disappointed." Then there are blacks being caught with drugs or beating their spouses, and for this, "they need help," like they are some mental case. Its like they hold whites to such high standards and lower the standards for blacks, like they're supposed to screwing up so we mine as well just accept it. Now that photo of Leinert with the champagne bottle, that's a different story.

The whole Jimmy Johnson era, including Kareem Abdul Jabar.

My question is: what's this millionaire doing with a CRT TV in his house? Doesn't he know that we are going to HDTV in 2009? He should've changed to a nice 65 inch HDTV Plasma TV by now. That alone makes the whole story fishy.

Let's see: they let 2 of our best players walk last year (for nothing), they signed an overrated player to an ungodly amount of money (talk about painting yourself into a corner!), they continue to pay Connolly while he spends more time in a hospital bed than the ice, and looking towards the future, they fired all of their scouts. However, I don't think this is TGs fault. He basically saved the team. I would say Darcy has his head in the sand.

Taking a page out of Al Wilson's book? He needs to become a little bit more creative. This just doesn't come across as sincere.

Speaking of Moulds, any know if or where he is going to play next year? Kinda sad that he was such a great player for us, then starting complaining, then got traded, then fell off the face of the Earth.

Yeah, any link to the information on this presser?

This is my favorite part of the article: "He's as talented as any offensive player I've been around," says Cal coach Jeff Tedford, who has coached many NFL first-rounders, including Aaron Rodgers, Trent Dilfer, David Carr, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington and Kyle Boller. "He's so natural in doing it all. He's fast, strong, has great balance; he can catch; and he has a great feel for the game in all phases. He's so natural and explosive as an athlete." C'mon now, what was the author thinking!