Rubes

:lol:

OH YEAH Finally, I can rest at ease.

Well done, sir.

Dude, I think you need to take a minute and visit this thread.

Well, like you said, there's the concept of a "hole" and the concept of an "upgradeable position". The goal should always be to upgrade when possible, given the limitations of the salary cap. I agree with you when you say the only real hole on offense is LG. But I think most people can see that an upgrade would be warranted at RG, RT, TE, WR, and QB. Not that I think we need, or should get, an upgrade at each of those, however. I'm one who thinks that improved QB play will help cover up the holes and upgradeable positions more efficiently than finding new players. Better QB play will make everybody look better. I'm putting my hopes on EJ showing improvement in year 2. If that's the case, then on offense I think the main *need* is for an upgrade at LG. I think the outcomes would be significantly better with improved QB play and a better player at LG. The rest of those positions -- RG, RT, TE, WR -- probably give you less bang for the buck, given who we currently have there. And yes, we definitely need an upgrade to the Bradham/Moats position. Get a stud LB in the middle and move Kiko outside, and now you're talking. As long as we keep Byrd.

Delta now allows you to use headphones and small electronic devices throughout takeoff and landing. The main thing you can't use are phones (the calling function, at least) and laptops.

Hmm...I'd probably say the gathered data are just the data, while statistics is a mathematical description of those data.

He's not kidding. You can search the forums here for the main thread started when he was hired, and it was anything but a love fest.

Getting an early start on the weekend binge drinking, I see.

This is the rare example of a situation where I'm actually glad I opened a particular thread.

This is going to be an interesting one, I think. The touchback issue is, I sense, important to the staff -- I think it had a large role in letting go of Lindell. The question is, even with the bigger leg, can Hopkins be counted on to get touchbacks consistently enough to warrant letting go of Carpenter? It's tough when you know the incumbent is remarkably accurate and consistent at getting points, probably the most important part of kicking.

So much for the Pettine discussion...

I think he'd be very unlikely to accept that offer, knowing that there will probably be several other teams willing to pay him at least as much with more guarantee.

I'll wait to panic, but—HELL NO I WON'T WAIT !@&^#&^%$!!

Probably a tougher call at this point than I was thinking. Originally, I thought it would be a simple choice: pay the man. He came in at the last minute right before the season started, and proceeded to have one of the best seasons by a Bills kicker in their history. He was extremely reliable, especially from long distance, which is just about the best you can ask from your kicker. He scored the third most points in a season by a Bills player in franchise history. But such reliability comes at a price. As reported in the BN, the average salary of the 10 highest paid kickers in 2013 was $3.153 million. Bear in mind that Rian Lindell, one of the best kickers in Bills history, had a salary of $2.1 million when he was released. One area that Carpenter struggled a bit was kickoffs. As reported in the BN, he had just 34 total touchbacks, which ranked 23rd in the NFL. Only 41 percent of his kickoffs were touchbacks, which ranked 28th in the NFL. And of course, waiting in the wings for his second chance is Dustin Hopkins, he of the strong leg and rookie salary. So...what would you do?

I thought the Old Spice commercial was pretty damn funny. My wife, not so much.

There you go. I'm with you now.

That's nothing compared to the Hot Cinnabun eruption that occurred last time I ate there.

I believe you mean 1989.

So if Carpenter is lined up wide as a receiver, no doubt some defender will be assigned to him. Do you expect after the snap the defender will just let him go and go after the QB on the far side of the play, or would he more likely suspect "trick play!" and stick close to Carpenter? When he sees the ball coming back to the OL for the hold, he just has to touch the holder to end the play, since the ball is beyond the line of scrimmage and, presumably, also touching the ground for the FG attempt.

Thanks for the perspective. I think it's very reasonable. I still wonder about his performance over the last 10 years and how he maintains a job with that performance, but I appreciate the explanation.

To be completely fair, my question for my friend was, what did he think the main differences were between Manuel and Winston, and did he think Winston was truly that much better than Manuel. His response was that he felt they were pretty equivalent, but perhaps Winston was slightly better at some things. He felt the main thing was that Winston had a significantly improved team around him, with some better players and others that had an additional year under their belts. But in terms of quarterbacking and talent, he felt they were pretty close. His one comment about Manuel is that he had more of a tendency to make the occasional poor decision, the kind that made him go, "WTF?" I did not see Winston play at all this year, until the title game. So while I don't have much of a database to go on, my impression coming away from that game is that Winston has a bit more talent running with the ball, but I didn't see much difference in arm strength or accuracy. At the same time, however, the one thing that stood out to me is that it *appeared* as though he and Manuel have a very similar running style -- that is, Winston runs "too high" and doesn't do a lot to protect his body, especially his legs. He's a big boy, but the main takeaway for me is that Winston may very well have the same experience as Manuel when he gets to the NFL -- if he doesn't learn to slide or get out of bounds, he's going to get crunched and his knees may become a problem.

I never want other teams to win. I only want certain other teams to lose. The rest are just meh.

A good friend of mine who is a diehard FS fan said the same thing when I asked him about Winston vs. Manuel and what was different this year.

To be fair, this is (at least) the third Robey appreciation thread in the past couple of weeks. To be completely fair, all three of those threads don't add up to 50 pages, but still. Three threads. I would say strictly nickel/dime. He doesn't have the height to match up on the outside as a starter, as much as I think he has the talent.