Swift Sylvan

Is CJ still a bust? He's averaging 8 yards a carry.

My opinion doesn't matter in these parts, but I applaud this post. It's post like these that make a message board have value and allow people to communicate and relate to each other.

I think we have about 5-6 starters from FA which to me seems pretty significant. Florence, Merriman, Pears, Fitzpatrick, D Edwards, Barnett. Or are facts ruining our argument....?

So the real key then is to retain all of our worth while players this year. If we can draft 4 starting-solid depth players then we should be better prepared for injuries right? To add a little context, I think the patriots went 10-6 which means they still played quite well, however they did miss the playoffs. I think that was the only year in the last decade or something that the Pats didn't make it to the post season.

It will be interesting to see JP play Sunday. His performance could suggest if we had more problems with our ability to evaluate talent vs. the ability to develop it.

+1 Right and that is what the real issue is with this team. We ARE drafting talented players, but we are not using them well. We're not devising a system that plays to the strengths of our personal and that is why it is so hard to tell how far away we are from contending. We HAVE to start designing an offense and defense that knows how to take what our players are good at. The one thing I have to give the coaching staff credit for is the O-line. They have utilized that well, now we need to do the same with other players.

Just got home. How is Sheppard playing? His stat line looks busy.

This is ridiculous. Football is a team game. Dareus is a rookie DT on a team where no one around him can capitalize on his playing. Dareus is good enough to be a dominant player and to be one of the key players for an outstanding defense. We haven't given him the talent around him to play off of his contribution. This isn't madden where one player can dominate for an entire defense. Dareus has become target #1 with KW out for opposing offenses, therefore he is our best player on the DL. We're trying to measure the success of a player without giving him a chance to actually succeed. This is why players like Justin Bannan, Ron Edwards, Jim Leonhard, and others can be average at best here and yet play vital roles on other teams. For the last 7 years our team has not given the players the talent and schemes to be successful.

Has anyone gotten any pressure on their quarterback?

Spiller is clearly a bust.

Stop it, those facts might suggest that winning a football game involves a team effort instead of a quarterback. Dalton MUST be better, he has a better record

Disappointing...what were our expectations? Disappointing that our best players got injured...yes Disappointing that we showed real promise at the start of the year and don't still...yes Disappointing that we have a team talented enough to beat the patriots when we're relatively healthy? no If you don't mind, I'm going to wait until the end of the season before I actually proclaim how I felt about the whole season.

Isn't Fitz third in pro-bowl voting? At least that's what was said in another thread. As usual (and we seem to do this every 2 weeks), the idea of determining a players worth after playing in the NFL for 11 games is silly (not meant to be directed at you Edward's/Holcomb's arm, but at the whole thread) Players who were busts after their first year: Vernon Davis Aaron Rodgers Darren McFadden Drew Brees The list could go on for quite a while because any player in their first year who did not play at the level they are playing at now would be considered a bust. Our brains are hardwired to find patterns in limited sets of data and again we are doing this here. You could argue that most of the guys who you say are busts now will be, but that's not the correct reasoning.

We have had about 3 games where it was obvious our offense was failing. 3 (offense) is much better than all, minus the Redskins (defense). Fitz has played well enough to make this team a playoff team and for what we're used to he clearly is someone to build around. I could care less whether or not Fitz can lead us to a superbowl right now. I care about what we need for this team to function better and Fitz will be one of the last parts/players that will need to be replaced.

What's the strength of our defense?

If Chan knew the best ways to use Spiller, would we have the players to implement this playing style in the first place with our current o-line?

Yeah I think Spiller has the tools to be successful. If we have better run blocking he and Jackson could be extremely deadly. CJ needs to improve, but I think he will.

Why don't we wait until the end of the season before we decide what season this is most like.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the Jets try to make Fitz beat them with the same throws he attempted to Stevie in the giants game.

I find their percentages interesting. What do we get from ESPN if their wrong and there is a 100% chance we're not making the playoffs?

It's weird in that it seems like we just can't pour enough draft picks in to defense and yet our offense is clearly our strength. Or, at least I think it is clear.

I typically use the heuristic of the over/under of 21 points. My assumption is that if a team can put up 21 points (we can even say 24) then they should win the game. Either way, our defense is very underwhelming. If Fitzpatrick can give a team 24 points consistently every single game, then he is good enough to be a starting quarterback in the league. This is especially the case if he doesn't turn the ball over very often and if he does, the interceptions don't result in pick 6's.

2009: We might only have gotten 3 players from it. However, when those 3 players are Eric Wood, Jairus Byrd, and Andy Levitre I would say that seems like a decent draft to me.

True, but watching that game I saw Tebow complete 4 passes. 1 was for 0 yards, 1 was a screen pass at an opportune time, one was an amazing grab in spite of Tebows throw and the last was actually a good pass. Most of his throws were wobbly and off target. I think he is a gamer and could be much better, but that comeback was not because of great quarterback throwing by any means.

Pro football focus talked about Jackson and Kelsay the previous week for the Oakland week as well. Although that week both of them received a positive grade.