Monday Night Misc Items
Posted: May 12th, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 328 Comments »The Houston Texans surprised some people on Monday when they cut Safety D.J. Swearinger. He was a 2nd round pick in 2013 (57th overall) and started 22 of 32 games for the Texans. They tried to trade him this spring but found no takers. Now he’s there for the taking.
Will the Eagles have interest?
Highly doubtful.
One of Chip Kelly’s best friends is Bill O’Brien, who just happens to be the Houston coach. He is the man who just cut Swearinger. We don’t know for a fact what the problem is. There are reports that he refused to play on STs. There are some character issues with him. He was a talented, but flawed Safety.
I was not a huge fan of his coming out of South Carolina. Swearinger played too out of control for my taste. That might have been okay 10 years ago, but it won’t work in today’s football. You have to play under control. Big hits are still good, but killshots are no longer part of the game.
There are some reports that Tampa put in a claim on him. If that happens, it doesn’t matter if the Eagles are interested or not. I’m doubting they are, but we’ll see if we hear anything on the subject.
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The Eagles lost Jeremy Maclin in the offseason.
They drafted Nelson Agholor. They signed Miles Austin. They added a pair of UDFAs who could push for roster spots, John Harris and Devante Davis. They signed free agent Seyi Ajirotutu. They return second year players Josh Huff and Quron Pratt.
Is this enough to get Riley Cooper out of town?
I don’t think anything happens until the players get on the field this summer. 2014 Riley Cooper isn’t a guy you feel compelled to keep. But what if the guy from 2013 shows back up? You want that guy.
The pressure is going to be on Cooper. He can be cut after June 1st.
For whatever reason, Chip Kelly feels differently about him than most of the rest of the world. This year that will be tested. Kelly didn’t add all these receivers for the heck of it. He wants them to push each other so he can find the best 5 or 6.
Will Murphy got cut last week. I don’t know if Jeff Maehl has been re-signed. They list him on the roster, but I haven’t seen news of his re-signing. Kelly is making changes at receiver this spring. Guys have to earn spots, not to mention playing time. That is true for Riley Cooper just as it is for everyone else.
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Reuben Frank has a few good nuggets in his 25 Points column.
3. I’m not sure what any of this means, but it’s fascinating to me: This will be the first time since 1997 that the Eagles’ leading rusher won’t be a player the Eagles drafted. The last 17 years, the Eagles’ leading rusher was Donovan McNabb once, Duce Staley four times and Brian Westbrook and LeSean McCoy six times each. The last player the Eagles didn’t draft to lead the team in rushing was Ricky Watters in 1997.
4. Even crazier, there’s a chance no player the Eagles drafted will even get a carry this year. None of the Eagles’ running backs was drafted by the Eagles, and of the quarterbacks, only Matt Barkley was. Unless Barkley makes the team and gets in a game and gets a carry … or unless Riley Cooper, Nelson Agholor or Josh Huff has an end around … or unless the Eagles re-sign Anthony Toney … this will be the first time since 1943 no player drafted by the Eagles has a carry for the Eagles.
5. Similarly, unless Barkley gets in a game and gets a passing attempt, this will be the first year since 1984 no player drafted by the Eagles throws a pass for the Eagles.
I’m betting drafted players will run and pass this year. I’m guessing it will be receivers who do this. Josh Huff will throw the pass. Nelson Agholor will get the carry.
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In addition to any #culture concerns for Swearinger, he doesn’t seem like a scheme fit either. A lot like Landon Collins as a box safety with poor cover skills.
Cooper probably makes the team, but he could definitely be eclipsed by Huff and/or Austin as the third receiver this year. This is almost certainly his last year in Philly.
Tommy, in a non-Eagles related item, I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on the Patriots and Deflategate. I know Pats fans are butthurt about it, while I’m distressed that the Eagles have to play Brady and the Cowboys don’t. I was hoping Goodell would suspend Brady and Belichick for an entire season, but I knew he was too much of a Boston homer to do that.
I anticipate Cooper will remain unless they think he’s a complete waste of a roster spot, and I don’t think that will happen. But if they want to, they can cut him.
Swearinger really must have crapped the bed in Houston to be cut so soon on a rookie deal.
I think the punishment for Deflategate seems excessive, but it’s about time the Pats were punished for something, considering how much they cheat.
I think if anyone is going to push out Pooper they are going to need to learn the playbook, like yesterday. Even if the UDFA’s have the talent to replace him, it’s still their first year in the NFL and its Cooper’s 5th? 6th? I want him gone but idk if it’s gonna happen. I mean, have you seen him block!?!?!?!?
I think Ertz could be cross trained to do everything Cooper does only better.
And the only thing Ertz will drop is a racial slurs. You won’t even what race, but he’s gonna slur ’em.
Swearinger isn’t even a good Box safety. He has been horrible Against the run..
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I assume this bum will end up somewhere like Carolina, Washington or Dallas
Posted in previous thread right before new one came up:I think Harris looks like a good player and am surprised he didn’t get drafted as well. He finds the holes in zone defenses on a consistent basis, doesn’t drop balls and wins his fair share of contested balls. He also, generally has a good stem of his route tree. You don’t want to see receivers drift one way or the other as they set up their routes. You want them to run straight at the defender so you don’t tip the DB off. Eat up the cushion and then make your move. Harris has to be good at this because he isn’t the quickest or the fastest athlete on the field. I think he can get better at stacking defenders once he beats them on deep routes though. Too often I saw him in front of the CB but he allowed them to stay just offset behind him instead of Harris going straight over the top of them making it impossible for the defender to make a play on the ball without getting called on a penalty. I hated on one play against Iowa st. where the smaller db was able to ride Harris completely out of bounds. Harris should of let himself get so close to the sideline in the first place where there was no room to catch the ball. While Harris’ route stem is pretty good when he is running routes, it is easy to tell when he is run blocking because he doesn’t come off the line with the same speed tipping the CB that the ball is being run. However, once he gets his hands on the corner, he is going to give you a pretty damn good block. He keeps his hands inside and locks them down. I think he could get more consistent at completely extending his hands for the ball during a catch. When he catches the TD against Oklahoma, he does a great job of trolling the back of the endzone and making the TD but I fear, in the NFL, if he doesn’t fully extend his arms for the catch, it would give the cb extra time to make a play on the ball (this is very nitpicky stuff). Overall he looks like a good reciever with great blocking potential and RAC skills, however because he lacks some natural explosion, he will need time to master the offense and route running in order to create the separation he needs in the NFL. Of course, it helps he already has the ability to make contested catches which is evident in the Iowa St. game where he literally reaches over the db who had good coverage to come down with the catch. Lets hope between him and Davis, it spells the end for my least favorite Eagle as of now, Riley Pooper
last line is your best line
good stuff, though. I’m high on Davis. Like what Chip did this year, at least I feel better about it post-draft than I did this time ’14
Sounds like you are describing Jason Avant.
There’s always room on a roster for a guy who can catch contested balls, block, and find holes in a zone. Also sounds like a great special teams body to earn a roster spot while he picks up the offense.
That’s pretty fair but I think Harris is more on an outside guy as compared to Avant. They both have good hands and maybe Harris will develop the underneath route skills but as of now I see him more of a go up and get it endzone/blocking guy.
This is pretty funny.
http://www.gofundme.com/NewEnglandPatriots
Lol, the comments are the best. “You cheating, chowder-eating F$#&*.”
What a bunch of dumbasses
Riley Cooper can hang around as a #6 receiver and play special teams. He did recover the onside kick in the Miracle of the Meadowands II after all.
That’s MM-III
not to be confused with MS-II
I don’t think Chip will keep him if he’s in that position. JMatt, Huff, Agholar, Austin, Siri should have guaranteed spots. Keeping a rookie (who will be inactive most games) is a better situation.
Homegrown Eagle Trash Can will roll forward for a first down this year. Yes, he’ll end up behind the line of scrimmage because of centripetal force, but forward progress y’all…
https://twitter.com/JonVilma51/status/596851725211869184
OT:
Some of you may know him: the Eagles troll has landed in Queens. Any nice ideas where to take pictures of him?!
A troll? Under a bridge, of course
Yes, this little fella:
eaglestrolltheworld.wordpress.com
Why is nobody talking about how Tom Brady’s passing stats soared immediately after the new ball pressure rules went into effect in 2007? Before then, his career high passing rating was 92.6, good, but a mark Donovan had broken twice in that period. His average was in the high 80s. Since 2007, his average rating has been over 100. Something changed and it wasnt all Randy Moss.
What about how much the entire teams fumble rate improved after the rule changes.
http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/2015/the-patriots-and-tom-brady-suspiciously-out-perform-expectations-in-wet-weather
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/01/ballghazi_the_new_england_patriots_lose_an_insanely_low_number_of_fumbles.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/01/stats_show_the_new_england_patriots_became_nearly_fumble_proof_after_a_2006.2.html
http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/2015/new-england-patriots-fumble-more-often-when-playing-for-other-teams
I know Davis and Harris have a chance, but why aren’t we including Bailey in this group of UDFA WR gunning for a roster spot?
I am going to be honest, its starting to annoy me that Tommy seems to be completely dissmissing Bailey just because he ‘dominated’ at a lower level of comp. I’m not comparing to him Jerry Rice but look where he went to school? Bailey did everything he was supposed too, and gets no respect(not just from tommy who I am sure just hasn’t focused on him)
On the other hand, if you get too excited about too many UDFAs, you will get disappointed a lot. I, for one, completely understand why you have some hope for a 1000 Yard receiver out of Texas. Texas isn’t what it used to be, the Big 12 isn’t what it used to be, but it’s still a College powerhouse and he played good football there.
His chances of being in the NFL in three years are small, of course. Like it is with any UDFA. But at least there’s a small chance.
And that’s nothing against Bailey. I think nobody roots against him. I’m just saying, don’t get too excited for too many UDFA.
Anyone know what type of speed Bailey brings to the table?
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Jordan Mathews tweeted him to “welcome him to the family. Let’s get to work, #Runallday”
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Awesome to see Jordan step up as a leader. this kid is so selfless he never makes it about himself, and it’s GENUINE.. he isn’t just telling you what you want to hear, the man is the real deal, and will set a tone for a crazy work ethic in our young WRs… Two years from now our WR corp will be FREIGHTENiNG!!
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Wondering if Chip tries to get the young beast of an offensive weapon at Notre Dame via Roman Catholic to eventually replace Sproles,
I think he could push for a PS spot, but simply being realistic he has far too much to learn to push for a spot on the 53.
The average D3 corner is 5’9 180lbs and runs in the mid 4.6’s. He was a team captain in high school and likely either the starting or backup PG on the basketball team. He made all conference, and was one of the best athletes in the school. But compared to level of competition that guys like Davis or Harris played against and it’s not even close. I do think he has a realistic chance to make the PS though.
Tommy, you wrote:
I didn’t knew that. Belichick and Meyer I knew. And there seems to be a connection to Saban, too, not only through Marynowitz (or Belichick, for that matter). But where/how did these two become such good friends? Through Belichick? Through BOBs PSU time? Do you have info on that?
While we’re at the topic. John Harbaugh said he agreed to the joint practices because his brother only told him very good things about Chip. I knew Chip and Jim Harbaugh made the Pac 10(12) fun again because they destroyed USCs dominance of the Conference. But while Jim Harbaugh and Carroll respect, but pretty much hate each other, Chip seems to have a good relationship with both Jim and Carroll. Carroll also said very nice things when Chip took GM control.
I know both coached in the Ivy league with Brien at Brown and Kelly at Columbia
Crazy how small the world sometimes is. Two future, good NFL HCs coaching against each other… in the Ivy League.
Reminds me a little bit of Billy Davis, who was the best man at Urban Meyers wedding because they went to College together.
Just checked, they never coached against each other, but I think Brien was playing at Brown when Kelly coached at Columbia
There is 0% chance we would have any interest in Swearinger. he can’t play. It was no secret that he would struggle in coverage but he has also been terrible against the run.. He isn’t good at all!! 47yr old Bernard Pollard is a better safety today then Swearinger…. mark Barron is a better safety then Swearinger and he sucks too. can’t Cover, Can’t play the run, Character jackass, won’t play ST… Does this sound like a player eagle fans need to discuss?
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I know this post isn’t about deflategate at all, but who cares, one thing I wanted to say about the recent punishment in regards to the Wells Report: Everyone keeps saying that the Wells Report is bogus and that they punished the Patriots with no evidence and that the report itself only concluded that there was a 51% chance that Brady knew about and orchestrated the deflation of the footballs. After actually reading the report, I can’t help but to find all these reports coming out about how flawed the report was to be disingenous New England homer drivel.
Sure, by it’s strictest definition, “more likely than not”, can mean 51% to 49%, but that is not at all what the report states. if you are 90% sure of something it is still more likely than not. The report gives no percentage of their certainty. So to say that the report dished out this amount of damnation with just 51% assuredness that anything untoward happened is just false.
What the report found was that there was no evidence whatsoever and no scientifically possible explanation for the Patriots’ footballs halftime PSI levels besides human intervention.
And, this was true scientifically and statistically significant regardless of what assumptions were used about their starting values, which gauges were used, what physical insults the balls underwent during the first half, while taking into account the vigorous ball rubbing that Belichick discussed and the change in temperature as it relates to the ideal gas law. Even when every assumption that was used was wildly in favor of the Patriots, there was still no scientifically feasible explanation for their footballs to be at 10-11.5 PSI at halftime. It doesn’t matter what gauge was used by the ref before the game or whether he remembered using the logo gauge, it doesn’t matter whether the two gauges gave two different readings and weren’t calibrated. No matter what assumption was used there was no plausible scientific explanation other than human intervention.
Furthermore, the standard deviations in the balls measured from the Patriots sideline was huge compared to those of the Colts. This further points towards human intervention and crudely releasing air with a nonaccurate needle.
When taken into account the fact that a Patriot ball boy who referred to himself as the deflator, who regularly complained about how Tom Brady asked him to deflate the balls, who received monitary reimbursement from Brady himself to complete this job, and who joked about going to ESPN with details of his deflating, was seen on camera taking the balls into a bathroom prior to the game which is against the rules and then found to lie about this in the subsequent interviews he gave, coupled with Bradys multiple lies, it’s plainly obvious what happened.
And, the report lays that out quite clearly. While they lacked a smoking gun piece of evidence that definitively proved beyond all doubt that Tom Brady orchestrated the deflation of the balls and then covered it up, they didn’t have irrefutible video evidence of Tom telling the equipment managers to deflate balls and then videos of them actually doing it. However, they found ZERO reason to believe that anything else occured. They found ZERO percent chance that there existed a feasible scientific explanation of anything else happening other than what they concluded.
It is more likely than not that Tom Brady knew about and orchestrated this cheating and it’s a fact that he was then dishonest about it and attempted some sort of cover up.
Would this hold up in a court of law. Perhaps not, but this is not a court of law. The NFL came to the only plausible and scientifically supported decision that logical assesment of the evidence would allow.
If it were a court of law (civil), Brady would be forced to testify (there’s no Fifth Amendment in a civil case -someone correct me if I’m wrong here) and his phone would be subpoenaed. He would have to cooperate or be in contempt.
Therefore, if it was a court Brady would either be cleared of all wrongdoing based on the evidence he withheld from the NFL or guilty of misconduct. If his testimony would clear him -why not cooperate.
Brady would hire a very big and very expensive corporate law firm. The corporate law firm would claw and fight to prevent access to the contents of the cell phone. Only after a court order compelling production of the contents of the cell phone would this big corporate law firm selectively produce what is on the phone.
There is no right in civil litigation to inspect the contents of someone else’s cell phone. You have to rely on the good faith and ethics of the opposing lawyer.
Gotcha.
If it were a criminal trial, though, the phone would be in evidence, right? He wouldn’t have to testify though.
BB:
Criminal case . . . bingo. Totally different ball game.
Cops/Agents would take Brady based on a search warrant for its contents and then turn it over to a team of technical people to do pull info off the chip
I’m tired of this deflate gate already, but I’m hoping yesterday’s ruling is the beginning of the end of Roger Goodell… Bob Kraft sticking by his side during Ray Rice Debacle was Huge… Less then a year after Kraft stuck up for GOODELL at the low point in his career, and now GOODELL and the NFL hit krafts team with a stiffer penalty then anyone expected… Very curious to see what becomes of the Kraft/GOODELL relationship after this….
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GOODELL better mind his P’s and Q’s because next time he makes a boneheaded decision, he won’t be able to count on Krafts support.
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As for the Crime, the effects of the deflated football DONT matter. We don’t know how it actually effected the games, but that doesn’t matter. When a kid gets a 4game suspension for steroids we don’t know what impact the Roids had on the games he played in, but because you are trying to circumvent the rules to gain an advantage, you get suspended for 4 games….. What advantage the Pats got out of this doesn’t matter… They schemed and colluded to alter footballs during the 90 second window when Balls were out of the Refs custody. They Tried to cheat, they tried to circumvent the system to gain an advantage, that’s the same thing as a kid putting Roids in his body trying to hide a competitive advantage… Even worse, Brady lied and covered it up…
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4 game suspension matches that of a kid trying to gain an advantage taking Roids.. And taking away the draft picks is fair because of them getting away with SPYGATE, and because they tried to cover it up instead of cooperating with the investigation.. Brady flat out lied and said he didn’t even know the guy… Get real..
“As for the Crime, the effects of the deflated football DONT matter. We don’t know how it actually effected the games, but that doesn’t matter. When a kid gets a 4game suspension for steroids we don’t know what impact the Roids had on the games he played in, but because you are trying to circumvent the rules to gain an advantage, you get suspended for 4 games….. What advantage the Pats got out of this doesn’t matter… They schemed and colluded to alter footballs during the 90 second window when Balls were out of the Refs custody. They Tried to cheat, they tried to circumvent the system to gain an advantage, that’s the same thing as a kid putting Roids in his body trying to hide a competitive advantage.”
This is a good point, and that is why it has been driving me crazy when people try to go into detail to find out exactly how deflated the balls are and if there is enough evidence that they were below the lower limit. It doesn’t matter. They clearly messed with the balls to try to lower the PSI after they were approved by the refs. That is the problem.
Can’t agree.
The data — not to mention eye-ball test — show that steroid use allows players to get bigger, stronger, faster, and heal more quickly.
No information or data exists on (i) why the NFL — in the 1940s — picked the psi range of 12.5-13.5, and (ii) whether footballs that are over-inflated [Aaron Rodgers] or under-inflated [Brady] provide any measurable performance advantage.
Lol
LOL —
Maybe your most thoughtful comment ever.
A man’s got to know his limitations.
Eh. Pretty much by definition, a large number of rules involved in a voluntary participation sport are going to be arbitrary. It’s what makes American football not soccer or basketball. The fact that there was clearly a concerted, pre-meditated conspiracy to break this rule, no matter how arbitrary, is evidence to me that there was at least a psychological advantage, if nothing else. There is also some evidence, though far from conclusive, that the rule change coincided with statistically unusual performances from the Patriots.
I, for one, am sick of letting rich people off the hook for unethical behavior. And whatever else you may say about Ballghazi, or Deflategate, it’s hard to dispute that Brady and the Patriots as an organization, acted extremely unethically.
“I, for one, am sick of letting rich people off the hook . . . ”
___________
Bill:
This is the United States of America.
If being super-rich doesn’t get you special treatment, what’s the point of being among the super-rich?
This comment was paid for by the Americans for Prosperity and Cato Institute.
his entire point was not about statistical data though. You are right but his point still stands. They circumvented the rules to try to get an advantage, cheated. Integrity of the game is what matters in this case whether we want to laugh at that or not.
P:
The rule was violated. No disagreement.
Did the violation create an *actual* competitive advantage?
Insufficient, reliable historical data to prove one way or the other — I think.
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My problem remains the “cooperation” issue.
If it gives you no competitive advantage then why do it?
No one knows if it does.
Some players like to wear their jerseys out — which is a rules violation.
Does it create a competitive advantage? Why do it, then?
Don’t know.
Not all rules are equal, I guess.
Wearing your jersey out doesn’t have any impact on the field or integrity of the game, so not a valid comparison in my opinion.
Yeah we don’t know what effect deflated balls actually have but I think if it wasn’t perceived to give a significant advantage it wouldn’t be done just because of the risk involved. Brady’s not dumb
Mental game is as important as the physical.
Well said
Does it help you catch? How about tackle? How about diagnosing plays?
People always focus bigger, stronger, faster. That doesn’t equate to better. I can take all the steroids I want, it won’t help me hit a baseball.
Regardless of whether or not why they picked a PSI or how arbitrary it is, they broke the rules. Period. They deserve to be punished.
Yes sir… These scumbags plotted, schemed and colluded to take advantage of a 90 second window to alter balls. When the balls were unattended by the refs after after they had already inspected them. You don’t go thru all that trouble and take the risk of altering balls when you only have a 90 second window if you don’t think you are gaining an advantage… For all we know Lane Johnson started taking a banned substance two days before the NFL a sprung a drug test on him and he never actually got to play in a game with the added effects of a banned substance. But because he put it in his body and tried to gain an advantage, he was suspended for 4 games. We have no clue what advantage he gained or didn’t gain but that doesn’t matter, which is why it doesn’t matter what advantage the Pats actually gained, that literally has no bearing on this. They tried to cheat and gain an advantage.
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2 locker room equipment managers are getting fired, they didn’t risk losing their dream job out of the kindness of their heart. They did it because Brady asked them to and paid them, making it worth their while to cheat. 2 men are never going to work in the NFL a again, you can bet they didn’t risk getting caught in a 90 second window out of the kindness of their heart… Anyone who argues the Patriots didn’t do anything wrong are either bias or morons.. What they gained from it doesn’t matter. They sure lied, covered up, went thru a lot of trouble to alter those balls after they were inspected , so you can’t tell me that Brady and the Patriots didn’t think they were doing anything wrong or getting any advantage out of this. They obviously thought it was worth all this trouble.. 2 men will never work in the NFL again because of this, so I don’t want to hear about how they did nothing wrong. Friggin Brady wouldn’t even admit to knowing the guy. You don’t admit it, you make it worse, now deal with the consequences
is there a shorter version? lmao
haha…im bored.
kidding of course…that’s some good stuff…
This is a bunch of interesting data on whether or not deflating the balls has possibly given the Patriots any advantage. Look at how much the entire teams fumble rate improved after the rule changes.
http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/2015/the-patriots-and-tom-brady-suspiciously-out-perform-expectations-in-wet-weather
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/01/ballghazi_the_new_england_patriots_lose_an_insanely_low_number_of_fumbles.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2015/01/stats_show_the_new_england_patriots_became_nearly_fumble_proof_after_a_2006.2.html
http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/2015/new-england-patriots-fumble-more-often-when-playing-for-other-teams
I think it’s technically called “Ballghazi”
http://regressing.deadspin.com/wells-report-has-nine-page-statistical-analysis-of-ball-1702639905/+kylenw
and read the first comment below the article regarding stats. Good stuff.
per the fumbles:
http://regressing.deadspin.com/why-those-statistics-about-the-patriots-fumbles-are-mos-1681805710
Good stuff! I read the second deadspin article that you posted previously, but there are a lot of problems with that peice as well and some really good rebuttals to that analysis of Warren Sharps peice:
http://www.advancedfootballanalytics.com/index.php/home/research/general/224-the-patriots-have-great-ball-security
http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/2015/follow-up-to-discuss-differing-studies-regarding-the-new-england-patriots-fumble-rate-since-2000
Interesting read about undrafted rookie o-linemen on our roster right now. Bunche and coccacio grew up as eagle fanshttp://teamstre.am/1JEHrXw
Linemen Coccia, Bunche grew up as Eagles fans
via ble.ac/teamstream-
Continues to surprise me that no one reports that Bunche’s father was drafted by Vermeil and the Eagles in 1979.
Commenter D3Center (my former roommate) was high school teammates with him in Newark. He’s been a supremely gifted player his whole life, but has been a consistent underachiever. If you look at his college career (earning PT early in his career only to be benched after not improving) this trend continues to hold up. Of the 4 UDFA OL he’s my least likely to be with the team in some capacity in September.
Did Bradley Fletcher get burned constantly or did he simply not turn his head and look for the ball or have the instincts to break up the pass once the WRs hands went up? Was he in good position or was he just slow? If Davis puts the dbs in good position but Fletcher just lacked ball skills, Shepherd has a bright future.
Did Bradley Fletcher get burned constantly or did he simply not turn his head and look for the ball or have the instincts to break up the pass once the WRs hands went up? BOTH!!
to me it was much more of not turning his head around. So many times he was right with the WR and it didnt matter which is unfortunate because thats more than half the battle. When he did get beat, which all corners do, sometimes it was bad safety play not helping.
That’s what I was thinking too. I really believe Shepherd is excellent value in the 6th. I think he has 4th boborderline 3rd round talent and even higher if his tackling didn’t suck so bad.
They were taught not to turn their head once they were burned so that they wouldn’t lose a step on the receiver looking back for the ball. The issue with Fletcher was never that he didn’t turn his head, as so many people on the internet would have you believe. The problem is that there were receivers constantly behind him that required him to catch up.
He couldn’t even time to break up though. When the receivers hands went up he should have had the ability to get his hands up and knock down the pass. This is what is different with Shepherd he has that ability. So not only did Fletcher not turn, apparently like he was told, he also didn’t have the ability to break up passes. The technique taught was a kin to, ” we know our corners suck and they will get burnt if they turn their head so don’t turn your head, do everything you can to stay with the WR and try to make a tackle after the inevitable catch.” Thank god we got a new DB coach and more talent back there.
I have no clue why the Bucs would want to get rid of Mark Barron, to sign Swearinger a year later? Swearinger is like a crappier version of Barron..
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Hopefully DJ ends up in Dallas or Washington
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That 2013 safety class is turning out to be pretty Meh.. Vaccarro, Reid have cooled off since their rookie seasons..Elam has been horrible, this is a make or break year for him. Swearinger sucks… Cyprien has Prob been the best
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Finally next years draft will provide a true stud Safety, Jaylen Ramsey…
Hey Tommy,
what’s been happening to your friend Jimmy K.?! I get more and more the feeling that he’d prefer the Eagles to punt the season before it actually started…
Jimmy loves his age stats that he basically pioneered interns of the depth he put into it. He does team ages and OL ages. Years ago he loved using it to point out how terrible the Cowboys would be based on their OL age and how great the Eagles are based on the youth. Now he Eagles OL is old and he’s pissed because his favorite metric is backfiring on him in terms of the Eagles and because the Eagles didn’t draft OL forcing him into this situation. So a bit of it is ego driven here I think. He has to be down on the Eagles because his age reports say he should be and he loves his age reports. They were some of his first nifty posts that got him noticed as a blogger before philly.com.
Anyway that’s my take at least and I’ e been following him since he was Bye_dawk:( on BGN.
Good points well made.
It still amazes me to this day that Roger Goodell was able to survive his decision to “Burn the SPYGATE tapes” without letting anyonem see them. It’s amazing that this nation allowed that weasel to survive such an absurd decision. ..no one in their right mind would have thought burning the tapes was the best way to handle that situation… Such a shady, sleazy, scumbag move..
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How GOODELL was allowed to survive that from the other 31 owners, media and fans still baffles me…. But to burn SPYGATE tapes, help the Patriots cover up their cheating, and also disgrace himself with the handling of the domestic abuse scandal, it’s baffling to me how this Cockaroach managed to survive TIL now… Out of curiousity, what will it actually take for this weasel to lose his job? What mistake is big enough to where this scumbag will actually have to pay the price, because how he survived SPYGATE and Ray Rice is something I can’t wrap my head around……. If this man, hits a human while driving drunk I don’t think he would lose his job…… I need to know what would it take for GOODELL to lose his job, since he keeps surviving unthinkable boneheaded mistakes
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More important then the deflate gate punishments, did the NFL announce how they will change the process of cuntidy of the game balls? NFL job isn’t just to punish Patriots, they have to fix the problem so that teams don’t have access to the balls after the refs inspect them… Any word on NFL making changes to this Gameday process?
Can only think of one thing…if he does something that starts costing the owners money. That’s the only way he loses his job. Up till now, he’s made the owners a boatload of money and that’s his only real job description. The moment he fails at that he’s gone. Burning the tapes didn’t cost any viewership. The handling of Ray Rice, while a complete embarrassment didn’t result in decreased viewership or sales, so he’ll remain. If he runs down the elderly while drunk driving, people will still tune in on Sundays and he’ll keep his job.
Sad but true…their is pretty much nothing he can do to lose his job at this point as long as he keeps the money faucet flowing… Which is kind of ridiculous because I highly doubt he is the only man that can make this type of money with a product that is like crack cocain to this nation . Should be hard to replace him with someone who keeps this money faucet open
see, I dont get all the outrage over him on the domestic violence front. There was never any precedence set to begin with so everyone pretending to hate the guy and be angry at him flip flopping on punishments makes no sense to me. I can see being upset that he lied about not seeing the video of ray rice etc. Some of that stuff I understand but not the dishing out of fines and penalties. He should have known better than 2 games for that incident and I can fault him there also a bit but then again, had he done 4 games Im not sure his reputation hit would have changed much. You didnt even see anything harsher in the other sports leagues. Nobody cared until they cared. This even goes for the justice system handling these cases which is where the real outrage should be. I get some of it but it mostly seems way overblown. The league and Goodell are simply adjusting as they go based on public perception. Now they arent doing a great job of it but Im not sure many others would have done much better. I need some more specifics as to why I should hate the guy as much as everyone else seems to.
As for Spygate I couldnt agree more. I was thinking about that driving to work today. I dont care much at all about deflating the balls but Im still bitter about how they destroyed that evidence. That to me was much worse and the comparisons to widespread cheating just dont hold up to me. Teams were not all recording other teams practices. That to me was as low as it gets.
Destroying the tapes is like the exact opposite of what anyone with any integrity would do in his position… No one in their right mind would be confronted with the spygate problem, and think the best course of action is the burn the tapes.. It’s like getting caught throwing the gun in the river… It was some of the slimiest things I seen anyone with power openly do. The audacity to think he can get away with it, but the funny part is he was right… This slime all stood up, addressed us all and told us the best course of action was to immediately burn them so no one could see them and gain an advantage… like WHAT? Are you kidding? That’s worst then telling the public “I did not inhale”… How we let this man survive that, piss on our head and tell us it’s raining, while we all knew it was piss is baffling to me
It’s amazing how a guy as obviously dumb as Goodell apparently is could be chosen by so many Type-A multi-billionaires to safeguard their billion-dollar franchises.
Makes one wonder if all these remarkably successful business men are as dumb as Goodell apparently is.
He’s good at raking in the money. He doesn’t seem to do so well in the media glare, or reading these situations to come up with an appropriate punishment (though the deflate gate one was closer), and many decisions which may not be best for the game. But he’s good at raking in the money.
FO:
My comment was ironical.
Goodell’s a hard-ass negotiator on the business side, from many accounts on the TV negotiations.
He’s made these owners very rich.
His fault — as you say — lies in his handling of media-focused problems.
This is just sad…
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Justin Blackmon applied for reinstatement and it was denied because he either failed another drug test or missed a test which is the same thing as failing a test…. Stick a Fork in Blackmon, his NFL career is officially over. Hopefully Dion Jordan and even Josh Girdon open their friggin eyes and use Justin Blackmon as a wake up call. Such a waste of talent, promising career, down the drain over substance abuse. So sad
…
I am extremely against the NFL testing players for pot. I don’t know what Blackmon’s vice is. don’t know what he tested positive for, but if it’s POT, it may be even worse. While I think it’s absurd of the NFL to test for Pot, but it’s EVEN MORE Absurd if this kid pissed away his entire career just because of Pot. I can at least understand if you are struggling in a battle against physical dependence from drugs like Heroin, but to piss away a career over pot makes you dumber then the NFL is for testing for it..
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I have no idea what Justin Blackmons demons are, I don’t know what he failed a drug test for, but it’s sad to miss out on such a talent, and it’s sad to see a kid lose so much over substance abuse. Football is over, but hopefully this kid can get the help he needs, live a healthy life, but it won’t be easy to live with the regrets and realization When it actually hits him how much this cost him
…
Hopefully Josh Gordon and Dion Jordan can use this as a wake up call, and make the decision to not make the same mistake and pay the same steep price as Blackmon
…
chip gets ripped for “choir boys” and going overboard on character. But had the Jags cared about Character, maybe they wouldn’t have literally set their top 5 pick on fire which is what you essentially did by drafting Blackmon…
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Completely agree with you on the NFL and pot. Shouldn’t be tested for at all. Safer than alcohol, rapidly becoming legalized and certainly not a performance enhancer (unless of course they start hiding Doritos and cookie dough in the end zones). All part of the US’s absurd drug policy labeling marijuana in the same schedule as heroin and meth. Hell even cocaine is a schedule 2 narcotic with weed listed as a much worse schedule 1. How can they look the American citizens in the eyes and tell them that legally it’s classified as a drug with no possible medical uses at all. Especially with the preponderance of medical evidence that that’s not the case and the fact that more states have legalized and validated its medical use than have not. In today’s NFL players can get black out drunk on 151 rum until their bodies have no choice but to vomit the poison out forceably, and yet if they smoke a joint and play some video games or watch cartoon network while eating cookie dough straight out of the container they are deemed drug addicts that are stripped of their livelihoods and banned from the game. It’s pathetic.
That being said, I agree, we all know the rules. As illogical as the NFLs stance on marijuana is, their policy is a surprise for no one. If you can’t give up smoking weed for a few years when millions of dollars are on the line along with a chance to play in the NFL then you are completely pathetic as well and it’s hard to have much sympathy for you. No one should give up millions of dollars to get high that’s just plain stupid and demonstrates an absurd lack of control.
The NFL is not the problem.
The NFLPA — the players themselves — agreed to the testing.
That’s that, until the next CBA.
_________
J:
I’m sure you know that. But it’s worth mentioning in your excellent comment.
This can be addressed in the next CBA negotiations, But if the players want to end marijuana testing, the NFLPA is going to have to give something back. No one lets leverage go to waste in a labor negotiation.
yup, wont happen, think they tried an failed in recently
I think they raised the level needed for a violation. It’s still really low though. That still didn’t stop them from retaining Josh Gordon’s old violation with the old level, which would not have been a violation on the new level (at least I read as much). I thought that was pretty slimy. And going after Gordon for alcohol consumption on a party flight to Vegas just days before that would have been OK, I thought was a bit much as well (and probably wouldn’t have been under that restriction if the league threw out the one previous very-low violation).
They agreed to the testing because the NFL wanted the testing. There’d be nothing to agree to if the NFL didn’t push for it. Obviously the NFLPA doesn’t want marijuana screening, but they had to give something that the NFL WANTED to get something else that they thought was more importnant that they wanted. Still think the NFL is the root of the problem.
Weed limits reaction speed and has long term neurological and psychological complications that can limit performance. If i am playing a guy $$$ then i want him clean and in the best situation to perform.
The NFL is massively behind the sports science revolution that has hit many other pro sports, and the search for incremental performance gains over the next 10 years will redefine what we expect out of NFL athletes.
The reality is that ‘marginal gains’ add up to massive performance variances that ‘talent’ cannot overcome. Sleeping 10 hours a day, eating the correct diet, cutting out excess ‘toxins’, preparing both mentally and physically all improve mental and physical performance a percentage point at a time, and once they all add up you get a situation where a player can perform faster, longer, better.
The Eagles test and monitor their players diets, sleep patterns and performance levels to monitor their ‘buy in’ to the programme – but should not test for weed? makes no sense.
I wonder if the Eagles knew that Lane Johnson was using a PED?
Seems odd, with all the testing Kelly does, that the Eagles wouldn’t have known.
If they did, why didn’t the franchise report him to the NFL Central Soviet?
Argh . . . those damn, corrupt Eagles.
Well the CBA is very restrictive on testing for both recreational and performance enhancing drugs, teams cannot test themselves. I would imagine that they saw some non standard results from his performance gains but think they have no interest in passing that on to the NFL if they don’t have to.
But wouldn’t that make the Eagles “enablers”?
And therefore cheaters?
Let’s get Wells to investigate!!!
it does slow reaction time but only when youre high. I doubt these guys are getting high day of games but youre right about them being investments so it makes sense. Never heard about long term neurological complications so dont buy that at all.
THC (the active bit of weed), because of the illegality of the substance (until recently) and because of political motivation (both for and against it) has lacked high quality medical studies. However broad Meta analysis has shown impacts in the acute, short term and long term usage of THC.
recent meta study breakdown:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037578/
per the long term studies, its hardly convincing. Even says as much so its really not very thorough. Like you said, still very limited per politics. I usually equate neurological issues to much more severe damage compared to this. Also hard to discuss long term complications in such short careers. For those with long careers, its obvious they arent having limitations.
“The long-term effects of cannabis use have received the greatest
research attention in recent years. Nevertheless, this area of the
literature has been fraught with inconsistencies in findings and is
complicated by discrepant definitions of what constitutes “long-term
effects.”
You doubt guys get high on game day?
See: Foles, Nick vs. Dallas at PHL, 2013
hahahaha
Citation needed on those “long term neurological and psychological complications”. I imagine you don’t need a citation to tell me it limits reaction time, but you’re going to need one if you claim it limits your reaction time when you aren’t actively high.
Either way, we’re talking about athletes with an average career of 3-4 seasons, and 15 years as a max. You want to know what causes long term neurological and psychological complications? Playing professional football.
So guys shouldn’t drink either, should smoke cigarettes b/c that def. limits lung capacity?
You will not find many high end athletes who consistently smoke or drink at high levels. As with everything occasional usage is unlikely to have any quantifiable performance issue. But a player smoking a pack a week or drinking 10-14 beers a week would have a tangible performance drop off.
My point exactly, if it effects performances athletes won’t do it, that doesn’t mean they should be banned from doing it. Let the free market work.
Well i don’t disagree – i think it should be something that the teams should be able to test for themselves and then allow them to put in contractual clauses in contracts to in cases were tests come back positive. loosing significant chunks of salary will persuade players to be more careful.
That is not how the CBA is set up however, so for now it is just bans from the top.
yeah can’t imagine it’s ever legalized at the NFL level – the gov’t still can’t admit that pot has a medical purpose.
THIS!!!
I bet the Cleveland Browns would definitely take Gordon back as a starting WR despite the decreases in neurologic function and reaction time you’re speaking of. If I’m an NFL team I want my best players on the field not suspended for a year over BS and oversimplified scientific data about how weed affects neurologic function. Those studies all involve testing people when they are actively high. Studies on chronic smokers show no decreases that you talk of at all and no decreases when occasional smokers aren’t high.
Very well said… Everyone knows that they are continuing to test for it and everyone knows you won’t get a pass for it, so to allow yourself to let pot cost you your life’s work is just ridiculous… As ridiculous as the NFL is for testing for it, you are more ridiculous for allowing pot to cost you so much. It’s basically like using a winning lottery ticket as a rolling paper. Instead of cashing in the lottery ticket, you used the ticket to roll a joint… frighin Donkey.
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If this kid is fighting heroin addiction or something serious like that, I would t even rip him. I wouldbt even want him punished, I would want him to get help… But to lose a lottery ticket tonsmoke a joint or because you couldn’t go partying without popping a molly make you an idiot
When Chip Kelly comes out in favor of his players smoking dope, that’s the day the NFL will back off on testing for marijuana use — even in-season.
You should call the NFLPA and share your thoughtful analysis.
Here’s their contact info:
NFLPA
1133 20th St NW #600, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 463-2200
And here’s the NFL’s, too. Press *2 and ask for Roger Goodell:
NFL
345 Park Ave, New York, NY 10154
(212) 450-2000
I just called and left a message to complain about Trotter getting ejected before that Falcons’ game.
I had forgotten about that incident.
Great job.
Gotta love how hypocritical the NFL is. Pot is a banned substance yet there are countless alcohol advertisements during the games (which is much worse than pot). Same thing with player safety. NFL says they care about player safety yet they want to expand the season and have Thursday night games.
With all the dumb people running the NFL and the franchises, how did the NFL become such a powerful and money-flush business?
Staggers the imagination, really.
As the guy getting paid $44m a year. Great businessman, which is why his bosses love him so much.
“Great businessman” is insult in most of the world.
Being in the public eye often requires one to appear dumb. I’m sure Goddell is more than happy with his financial compensation for the pain inflicted upon his ego for doing so.
He’s probably a sociopath with an indestructible sense of entitled self-worth.
“a sociopath with an indestructible sense of entitled self-worth.” What a great phrase! I’m going to apply it frequently, but I’ll cite you!
It’s an excellent and addicting product. (That’s why we are here in middle of May)
2 possible, non-exclusive reasons off the top of my head: 1. The story of royal lineages may apply; the first king is brilliant and ruthless. By the time you’re into the third generation, you’ve got a coddled schmuck in charge. He’s still king, though, and has the ability to exercise a vast amount of power to protect his position. 2. The smart folk were able to create a de facto monopoly in the sector through the effective lobbying of state and local governments a generation or more ago to provide various government subsidies, thereby raising the barrier to entry for competitors to an improbable height. The de facto monopoly status makes it pretty hard to make a monumental mistake.
Not that I think Goodell is an idiot. He’s a smart guy who knows how to play the game (not football). But I think he’s good at being the caretaker of an established, entrenched business. He’s not real strong with the PR side, and I’m not sure he be nearly as effective running a fledgling enterprise that actually faced real competition. Obviously, that’s all just speculation.
Luck also exists.
Some notes from a Texas Longhorn’s blog: Hicks was unquestionably the on-field leader of the 2014 defense for
Texas, as he was responsible for making calls and ensuring that the
Horns defender were correctly aligned before every snap.
On his weaknesses: There are significant injury concerns with Hicks because he suffered
season-ending injuries in 2012 and 2013, along with a broken foot in
spring practice in 2011. Though he’s known as an intelligent player,
there are some scouts who believe that he’s a bit robotic on the field.
He can also give up some yards after contact because he’s not a
sink-and-explode tackler who can deliver big hits and he also struggles
to beat blocks at the second level.
This is not so much a reply to your post but my general thoughts on the Hicks pick.
Hicks was brought in to be Meco’s replacement as a the leader on defence.
If you look for a reason why the eagles will probably move on from Kendricks, look at what happened after Meco went down last year. They brought in Casey Matthews to play ILB to get the defence organised and lined up correctly. To be the ‘QB’ of the defence.
That is why they resigned Ryans, to do that role over the next 2 years, for his ability to lead the Eagles defence and get it organised (something vital for a league where more and more teams are going no huddle)
Hicks should not be compared to Kendricks – he does not play the same role on defence – he should be compared to Ryans – and athletically they are almost identical coming out of college. Hick’s ‘coach on the field’ is why the Eagles valued him so highly while other teams did not. Draftnik’s do not have access to meetings with a lot of players (especially not non 1st round talent), so they valued him less in the process.
Hick’s significant play limitation outside of injury (and the Eagles have shown they do not care about that consistently), is his ability to get off blocks. Luckly for him we have one of the best 3 man 2 gap fronts in the NFL which for the last 2 years has been very effective at keeping all our linebackers ‘free’ and able to make plays in the run game. Casey Matthews was not a liability in run coverage in this defence.
Kendricks is going to be replaced by Kiko in a years time (if not this season)
Ryans is going to be replaced by Hicks in 1-2 years time (if he works out like the Eagles hope)
His ‘robotic play’ is probably a positive in the Eagles plans – they want Kiko/Kendricks to go out and be the play maker, to take risks and make splash plays, and they want Ryans/Hicks to be reliable to clean up any ‘messes’, to be in the right gap, to be in the right zone in coverage, to not give up big plays.
I think personally Hicks is going to be a long term starter for us – because the Eagles are going to use him in a way to emphasise his strengths, and not put him in positions where we ask him to do the things he cannot.
Regarding Kiko, he was also the field general for Oregon under Kelly’s last year, so it seems while Kendricks has the “see ball, attack ball” skill set, he seems to lack the on field general skill.
If Kelly wants both his ILBs to have that skill, it makes sense why he is shopping Kendricks, but I still want Kendricks because his ability to attack the LOS is one of the best in the NFL
Agree fully with this. Let Alonso be the Field General. Let Kendricks attack and cover. And draft Clemmings in the 3rd Round (instead of Hicks) and Glowinski in the 4th round and we have a superb draft.
This!
While it’s possible that Kendricks truly cant QB the defense, it’s also possible that Casey Matthews was just better at it, despite being a backup due to his athletic liabilities. I imagine Matthews had the headset on for the second team all season anyway, as opposed to Kendricks being told what to do all season. All of this to say, that I don’t see Kendricks not being given the headset as the smoking gun that you all do.
are the injuries he’s suffered in college the kind that would permanently degrade his athleticism?
depends on who you ask, i’m guessing Eagles say no but others may different, think he had an hip injury / Achilles and then a broken foot that cut short his 2011 season.
Every body is different but Meco came back from the torn Achilles and had a great 3-4 years of service for us, and now the Eagles seem confident that he can overcome the 2nd Achiles Tear…. Doesn’t mean hicks can, but Hicks tore that achiles against Kansas state when he was lined up against a slot WR and covering him down field, which is impressive for a LB. And when he came back from the injury he was still able to cover slot WR’s. And tested well at the combine. If he can further avoid surgery he should be fine, even if he only plays special teams for 2-3 years…
Well he tested as one of the best off LBs at the combine
http://3sigmaathlete.com/rankings/lb/
So if it has zapped some, he seems to have plenty left.
Interestingly, but predictably, the Jets signed the least athletic guy on the list. Ha.
With Brady out looked at Jimmy Garoppolo’s draft profile.
http://www.nfl.com/draft/2013/profiles/jimmy-garoppolo?id=2543801
That’s pretty much Chip’s ideal QB wish we took him now.
Chip had a chance to take him
There is some serious flaws with him (and Im a believer in him) and that includes arm strength and pocket skills.
I don’t know much about him but said pocket awareness is good doesn’t take too many sacks. Glady taken a flier on him over MSII in hindsight
It is precisely Garoppolo’s turtleing under pocket pressure (even with limited pressure in his spread offense) as to why he was derided by scouts before the draft and why Kelly would not take him. See the section headed: “Phantom Pressure Haunting Garoppolo’s Process”
http://mattwaldmanrsp.com/2014/03/05/qb-jimmy-garoppolo-knockout/
Great find
Eh, we should have taken Teddy.
I’m gonna hate Nick Foles for the rest of his career for channeling Dan Marino one lucky year and costing us a young, franchise QB. Hopefully he made amends by getting traded for Sam Bradford.
I really don’t know what happened to former Mr. Rosy Pony Jimmy Bama. Every tweet of him is pessimistic about the upcoming season for the Eagles.
Eagles over/under win total is 9, per Bovada. Whaddya got?!
I take the over. I was surprised it wasnt at 10 or 10.5.
Every since Jackson got cut, Jimmy has been kind of negative in everything Kelly related.
Me too. I will be negatively surprised if the Eagles don’t win at least 10 games again.
Re Jimmy K.: it’s become really extreme as of late and I find the general pessimism along the Philly journalists quite depressing – especially since the season has not even started yet.
“I will be negatively surprised if the Eagles don’t win at least 10 games again.”
____________
Chip Kelly will be VERY negatively surprised, too.
And if the Eagles end up having the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in next year’s draft Chip Kelly doesn’t think he will still be employed by Lurie.
Yup. It’s a lot less fun to cover a team that doesn’t have your typical “stars”, especially ones who constantly draw attention to themselves through other means. Really how much content can they generate from the guys Chip has brought in now? They’re just butthurt. It’s not that much different from how they disliked Foles because he was such a boring, matter of fact guy who would never give them anything to sink their teeth into.
Jimmy is just mad his stick figure prediction didn’t come to fruition.
Not sure I agree with that. If I recall, Jackson being cut won Jimmy a lot of respect, because he called it before anyone.
I think a lot of the negativity I’m seeing has to do with him coming down from the draft. We didn’t get Mariota, and we didn’t address the O-line. Then the La’El Collins thing happened, adding insult to injury.
Frankly, I think Jimmy is overstating the issues with the O-line and draft. Secondary was a bigger issue for us, and we hit it hard in FA and the draft. I would expect a similar approach to other position groups in years to come, most likely starting with OL.
If we had taken Sambraillo/Morse/Fisher instead of Rowe he would be complaining that we tried to fix DB with late round picks.
Exactly. There were several priorities that needed addressing this year. Secondary was the biggest. They hit that hard. OL is up there, but not ahead of secondary, WR, or even OLB. They’ve got several probowlers on the line now, two of whom are young (Kelce and Johnson). They’ve got developing backups. It’s not nearly the position of weakness that people are making it out to be, and can be really solidified with another FA/draft batch. While the depth is questionable, it’s also a bit extreme to see 4 out of 5 starters go down like we saw last year.
Case in point: in 2013 we had arguably the best OL in the league. In 2014, the Cowboys did. Reason? Health. Why has Seattle’s secondary been so good the last few years? Health. No team can afford long-term injuries to quality starters without suffering. For us, it was the OL last year. It’s still a position of strength on this team, despite what the Chicken Little’s of the world would have you believe.
The Patriots were treated as repeat offenders when the NFL assessed punishment in Deflategate. – Roto
A:
Should they team have been treated that way — after the Wells report clears both Belichick and the franchise?
Is this a “Camel’s nose in the tent” moment that opens the door to more inter-team accusations of “cheating” and quasi-legal (well-paid hack) investigations into alleged competitive violation?
http://www.footballperspective.com/thoughts-on-tom-bradys-deflategate-punishment/
There is a good read at the start why the NFL was able to punish the Pats and Brady.
“Under the Policy, the “standard of proof required to find that a violation of the competitive rules has occurred” is a “Preponderance of the Evidence,” meaning that “as a whole, the fact sought to be proved is more probable than not.””
A:
I get the standard very well.
But with no evidence tying the activities attributed to Brady and the 2 stooges to any supervisory personnel, what’s the basis for punishing the franchise itself?
Pure logic. We know Brady lied about talking to the guy handling the balls and we also know that no ball boy would ever tamper with the balls unless instructed by Brady and Brady would never do it without approval from Belichick
“Brady and Brady would never do it without approval from Belichick.”
_____________
But the report explicitly clears Belichick.
No evidence he knew. No suggestion he had any reason to know.
Not even a general statement that Belichick — like every NFL head coach — tries to control everything and everyone.
Seems like a long leap.
Consider: Chip Kelly is a control freak, like Belichick. Should he be charged with knowledge of Lane Johnson’s use of PEDs?
Same logic applies: Johnson wouldn’t cheat without the approval of Kelly.
“No suggestion he had any reason to know.” I’ve heard Belicheat knows everything that goes on in that organization.
Were Brady’s balls on deflated on game day, or are his practice balls typically underinflated as well? that’d be interesting to know.
Anon:
Batting 1.000 today.
Well Im under the assumption that Kelly knows, but until a player rats with evidence, coaches will go clear.
Take Seattle, do people honestly believe Caroll didnt knew that his whole secondary was taking adderall?
Anders:
Good theory. Agree.
White-line rule applies: Players and Coaches v. NFL.
Usually.
“Consider: Chip Kelly is a control freak, like Belichick. Should he be charged with knowledge of Lane Johnson’s use of PEDs?
Same logic applies: Johnson wouldn’t cheat without the approval of Kelly.”
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Don’t let Goodell hear you. And Don’t ask what is in the smoothies.
No evidence tying Brady and the stooges to the organization, but it sounds like the Patriot’s organization was not especially forthcoming with the investigation. Brady did not turn over text messages, and the organization denied investigator’s further interviews with the equipment stooges. Maybe that contributed to the franchise punishment?
P1:
Yes . . . cooperation issue was a problem.
Good argument.
probably contained a lot of text messages to Kraft and Belicheat. Or maybe some Giselle photos that are NSFW.
Funny! Cowboys fan at work made same argument playing devil’s advocate.
I see the NFL like an old Sicilian syndicato -they take care of business in house, when one guy goes too far out line and brings attention to the syndicato, they reel him in. Otherwise, they all live by breaking the rules and not getting caught.
Bravo. Nice description.
Or like the old guys on 46th Street, Manhattan in The X Files who were plotting with the aliens for the full scale invasion on 12/22/12….
Well the NFL is a syndicate or cartel, so makes sense. Also see the Saints, Skins and Cowboys punishment for the cap thingy. Wasnt against the rules, but it was against what they was told to do.
yeah i was going to make the same point. So if any player does anything then the organization at fault, or is the rationale that since it’s Tom Brady (any QB? or just one with Brady’s stature in the organization?) his actions are imputed to the organization b/c he’s an affilaite in that he has the ability to control others within the organization (evidence of control is his ability to direct the ball boys to deflate the balls w/out being questioned). If Patrick
It’s good that none of these matters has any precedential value under Gooddell
Excellent summary. Excellent.
I was just typing something similar when I saw this. We take that approach in the Corporate world. The banks are still seen as evil, despite the fact it was a select few who committed the crime, not the majority of the people at the bank.
That being said, given the tight reign and control that the anal Belicheat has over the Patriots organization, I highly doubt anything goes on without his approval.
The key is plausible deniability, that’s how the GC of GM keeps their job while the rest of the legal department gets fired.
Brady makes more money for the organization than any other individual. Live by the Brady, die by the Brady.
If his transgressions bring the Patriots gain, they should be held accountable as well.
Hoping the 4 game punishment holds up under appeal.. It’s too damn juicy to have Brady’s first game back after disgracing himself with a 4 game suspension @ the colts, the team that ratted Brady out and started all this…
..
Couldn’t have scripted a better story… Brady returns for his suspension in Lucks house against the team that ratted him out….. Yes please!
I rather it is only 2 or 3 just because I do not want the Cowboys to get a free win
Middle fingers up to the Cowboys…I don’t care about them. no teams win the east two years in a row, and they won’t be the team to do it. Not that they no longer have Demarco to hide so many flaws…
..
I’d bet the Giants turn out to be our main competitor next year, not the Cowboys. In the middle of the Cowboys best season in over a decade they lost to Colt McCoy led skins. I’ll be damned if I give any thought to what Dallas does in September… Handle our business and what our rivals do DOESNT matter..it’s year 3, not interested in sneaking in because the division sucks. I hope the entire division improved, I’m comfortable with how good I think our defense will be and the advantages our Special teams will give us… Worried about staying healthy. Do that, and our coaching and training will shine through..
…
I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Patriots go like 3-1 without Brady.. I doubt they start the season 0-4 or 1-3…
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I’ll be very surprised if the Cowboys finish with a better record then the Eagles or Giants. A lot of things had to go dallas way last year for them to finally win, Just keeping Romo’s back healthy enough to play when he is another year older is a challenge, and Demarco helped to protect Romo.. I think its arrogant and foolish to think they can upgrade an OL, but replace the workhorse of the team with McFadden, and that klepto clown Wynona Ryder junior, John Randle, whatever his name is..
Lol….”Dallas Cowboys want an off field structure designed to limit risk during Bryant’s next contract”-Roto
,,,
In other words, no baby sitter, no money….. At this rate Cowboys will be the only franchise employeeing more baby sitters then assistant coaches…
Bryant is just going to get paid by another team while “greatest OL in the NFL” is protecting Weeden and clearing holes for McFadden.
Patriots, seahawks, Niners, maybe cardinals… One of the usual suspect,
.
No worries, his babysitter will have plenty of other clients, Hardy, Lawrence, Gregory…
Dez Bryant is going to get major paid. I could see Tampa pay him big bucks to catch passes from Winston
No way ‘Allas lets him go. I can see them paying him under the franchise tag every year before ever letting him go
Then offering him a 5 year, $200 million deal when he’s 35.
Then immediately after signing that deal he restructures every year so Dallas pays him until he is 48
Good call… Can def see him replace V-Jax… If Carr and Amari Cooper can turn the raider in the righ direction, maybe they can convince Dez to take their money. that’s one of the few dumb front offces that would pay Dez without insisting on him having a baby sitter..
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I’d love to know what would have happened to Dez all these years if the Cowboys didn’t have baby sitters watching him around the clock? Who knows what crap the dallas baby sitters covered up that we never heard about
See justin blackmon
Who knows what the Dallas “babysitters” covered up that we never found out about
we rehab injured players, they “rehab” bad guys. Each is a competitive advantage.
Bryant could feel right at home. Babysitter not doing the job.
http://www.theonion.com/article/buccaneers-house-counsel-already-has-26-missed-cal-50373
haha, great comment
Did Bryant not get an extension? Was he tagged?
tagged
Thank you. Courtesy appreciated.
tagged.
Your courtesy is appreciated.
Tag
Thank you.
Your Courtesy’s appreciated.
Look it up yourself, you lazy sob.
I broke my ribs laughing at this hilarious comment.
Not sure I’ve seen anything so funny —
Because the irony is GEAGLE, on a double-daily basis, throws out a comment and then asks if anyone knows the answer.
I’ll look forward to you repeating this oh-so-funny comment on a regular basis when anyone asks the community for some help.
Anyone know if Bruschi spoke publically since the suspension was handed out?
Why does it matter? He would never criticize the Pats?
Did you hear him disgrace himself responding to the wells report? He sounded like a brat that was arguing that Santa clause is real… Dying to hear what a bias imbecile he sounds like on espn…. He was so pathetic that Id be surprised if ESPN put him on the air again to comment about this, but I’m hoping they do… It’s TRAINWRECK you can’t take your eyes off of
..
If you haven’t seen it, check out the video of BRuschi arguing in favor of Brady against ex Patriot Damien Woody after the wells report was released..
So GEAGLE can complain about the media here.
My take on it: slightly deflating some footballs gives no where near as much a competitive advantage (if any) as the Cowboys get vs the rest of the NFC East by forcing them to play a Pats team without Brady, where the rest of the NFC East has to face Brady.
Not to mention if the Patriots organisation was truly cleared, they are clearly going to be the party suffering the most from these punishments. I’m not going to shed a tear for a team so successful for over a decade and no boy scout when it comes to following rules (not guilty is not the same as innocent). Still it’s hard to ignore that one of the least-affected parties is Tom Brady himself.
Still this will likely get reduced in the appeal, and the Cowboys will likely have to deal with Brady like the rest of us.
A87:
Great comment
Correct, interesting no fine on Brady (though I suppose he loses 4 game checks (I expect to see him loading up on Uggz advertisements in his free time).
4 game checks is almost 2 million dollars, so Brady stands to lose a huge amount of money.
Not that he can’t afford it, as he sleeps on his bed made of gold with sheets stitched from 100 dollar bills and bangs his brazilian supermodel wife.
Actually no lie I’ve never really digged Gisele. I think she was just kind of the “it” woman at the time, sort of how say Kate Upton was for a while these days and that’s why he went after her.
Thankfully we are playing the cowboys after our bye week and after they play seattle in week 9.
1/4 of his salary is a pretty significant chunk. Not to mention, seems highly unrealistic to believe that Brady did this in an environment where Belicheck was emphasizing playing within the rules. Pretty sure I know what #culture stands for with the Patriots.
yeah its obvious #culture stands for just win baby
WAAC.
yeah pretty fun that they save money in the end from the Brady suspension vs the mil fine
shit his wife makes more that some small countries…
True but, a million dollars, is a million dollars. Can’t objectively concern yourself with the guy’s net worth. Even if he and his wife are worth over a hundred times what he is being fined.
Don’t get me wrong. I do not cry for Brady. I’m glad he got the fine. I think it is a complete publicity stunt though.
I believe from what ive heard it only totaled 1.4 mill that he’s losing. Makes around 400k a week
Maybe I’m missing a joke, but no way that’s true. Unless bonuses don’t factor into fines. No way Brady makes 5.6 mill/year, even with a team friendly contract.
Hey man, the Pats dragged Matt Cassel to an 11-5 record, I don’t doubt for a second that they will be formidable even with Garropolo at the helm.
The way things have been lately in terms of the rich getting richer type of thing, Garropolo will be an absolute Phenom and the Pats will seamlessly transition into another decade of dominance.
Doubt the Pats are doomed without Brady..watch Bellichek make Garrapolo look better then any QB the Browns, Jets and Bills have had in a decade.
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Week 3 against the bills becomes really interestng now that the Pats won’t have an major QB advantage… I’d bet It won’t be too hard for the backup to throw it up to Gronk and the Pats run game will prob do most of the work… pats won’t start any worse then 2-2
It would seem to fit recent history for Garropolo to be shockingly good, supplant Brady as the starter and allow them to trade him for a first round pick.
I was thinking about a team that would give up a first for Brady’s twilight years, would have to be one of the teams that thinks they’re a QB away from a super bowl. Maybe Buffalo? Good D, good weapons in Sammy Watkins and Shady. They need a QB but perhaps more importantly, that O-line play needs to improve a bit. Maybe the Chiefs?
I would pay to get a filmed account of the shitstorm that would reign in Boston if Kraft EVER traded Brady. I doubt that Belichick would have the authority to do it. The guy is more of a matinee idol than a sports “hero”. Of course, I will recant this POV if Brady does a Favre and plays until he sucks, which, btw, he has said he will not do. Brady is like Tebow, in that he has a fan base that significantly transcends the sport he plays.
http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/2015/follow-up-to-discuss-differing-studies-regarding-the-new-england-patriots-fumble-rate-since-2000
http://www.advancedfootballanalytics.com/index.php/home/research/general/224-the-patriots-have-great-ball-security
No way to prove it’s the PSI of the balls that’s giving the Patriots such a huge advantage, but it’s pretty clear that starting in 2007 something changed that has given the Patriots a huge advantage in fumble rates.
Years of deflating footballs is worth a long suspension.
Can we all agree that balls that are slightly underinflated are (1) easier to throw, (2) easier to catch and (3) harder to fumble?
I don’t understand why people don’t understand this.
I remember playing HS football, every now and then you’d intercept a pass or recover a fumble, and the ball was waaaaay under-inflated. Makes sense in hindsight.
I used to love under-inflated balls as a wide receiver. The newer and harder and more inflated the ball the harder it was to catch for sure.
Yep, this is true (I preferred properly inflated balls as a WR, but literally the only skill I had was catching the fucking things, so it was sort of my own advantage).
I had no preference. Because frankly if I was handling the ball something had gone very wrong.
not sure I can agree, for me it’s a Goldilocks thing. When I break out the ball to toss on the beach every summer it’s always pretty soft (it’s been in the water and doesn’t hold air like it used to). Over inflated is hell to get a good grip on, under inflated is a pain to put a spiral on and catches the beach wind like nobody’s business. Hence it gets inflated to some point of preference every time I take it onto the beach.
So the question is simply: what is the spirit of the regulation? Is the football’s optimal inflation level below the regulation PSI? Or is “optimal” up to opinion? If the regulation PSI is empirically not the optimal PSI for playing football, was it placed specifically to raise the level of difficulty? If so yes this is a line the needs to be held and punish infractions severely.
If it is arbitrary regulation that just happens to enforce sub-optimal playing conditions for no reason: they ought to consider changing regulation PSI to improve the offensive product and removing a cheating front they have to battle (as if PED’s wasn’t hard enough to fight off).
Now if this is an arbitrary regulation that doesn’t have a meaningful impact on performance (as I suspect), this should be a hefty fine with little collateral damage.
Deflating footballs isn’t the point. Years of disdain for everybody in the league, including the officials, and for every fan, is the point. The entitlement and superiority some of them feel is pretty clear when Brady states he has no idea who the assistant trainer is and never met him. Either he is lying or he is total rectum. Or both.
What happened to the story that Adam Schefter was working on since last year?! *smh
Yea. Talk about. Major letdown.
He is saving it for the second the Cowgirls sign Bryant to a long term extension. Because he hate the Cowgirls… because he is american and it is just!
Mr Wells earnings for the deflate-gate investigations over/under $500k.
Over, i’m also sure his price for speaking fees is going up the more “investigations” Gooddell lets him handle. Good for him, it’s not what you know.
Wells laid the smack down today. He is absolutely right. Can’t put our heads in the sand over the fact that there is a text message from before the season where McNally calls himself the deflator and jokes about not yet snitching to ESPN. This means the deflator was born long before the afc title game. Who knows how long they got away with this
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It’s arrogant and foolish to think that the only two times this franchise cheated, we happened to catch them. Who knows what crap they have been getting away with over the years that we never heard about..
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As for punishing the patriots as an Organization ,’perfectly justified!! If McNally a year ago joked about running his mouth to ESPN back before anyone was even on to them, think he isn’t going to talk once he loses his NFL dream job? Right now he is suspended, but what happens when they fire him? He will run his mouth and reveal everything. if He doesn’t run his mouth, that means someone made it worth his while to not run his mouth, like the guy who was fired over spygate who now lives in Hawii and we never heard a peep out of… If McNally never runs his mouth, someone made it worth his while to take the fall, and who has the means to make it worth his while? Bellicheatl? Kraft? If the dude never spills the beans and accepts being fired, then the patriots organizaton got involved. If they get involved they deserve more then this punishment anyway.. Kraft and nellichek can pretend to be holier then thou, but a man lost what was probably his dream job over spy gate and he never said a word about it, you can’t tell me that’s out of the kindness of his heart. Someone paid dude off to retire in Hawii.. My money is on Kraft.. Bellicheatl is probably to cheap to not bill Kraft for silencing of witnesses lol
SB of 2004? Hmmmm…
Back then they were cheating their asses off. Video taped the Rams walk thru, heard the video taped TO running routes. They were video taping signals which means that Brady was playing the game with Coaches telling him the coverage that defenses were running in his headset.. The steelers claimed in the championship game that Pats were steeling the calls to where the Patriots defenders were calling out the steelers plays before Rothlisberger even could tell his players the play., stealing balls after the refs checked them to deflate them dating back multiple seasons… Who the hell knows what else they got away with that we never even heard about…
Wake me up when they win a Super Bowl without having to fire a “fall guy” afterwards LOL
I don’t want Riley Cooper if you combine his 13′ and 14′ stats into 15′. I really don’t. I haven’t liked him it seems… since we drafted him. At first I couldn’t put my finger on why, other than I thought he was a wasted 4th round pick. Pretty obvious now.
He was such a bad pick in the 5th round it was like the Eagles were wasting a 4th.
I don’t think he’s that bad for a 5th rounder.
For me, it’s not his production or even the concert incident. Its the summation of all his parts. He just rubs me the wrong way.
Pervert.
Basically he’s too pretty.
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dsdI70H75Dc/hqdefault.jpg
He’s no Jeremy Bloom.
(but seriously, the 5th has been gold for the Eagles -Celek, Cole and a bunch of solid back ups)
get ready for a starting three of JMatt, Cooper and Austin and Sanchez for good measure. Sorry, this is a sad possibility, I guess that would be a bad measure
no chance.
but we’d still win games
So negative. You could do this with any team.
Anything is possible, doesn’t mean the worst possible outcome is more then likely to happen.
He has had a bigger impact then most players taken at that point in the draft.
I wouldn’t call it a wasted pick by any means.
What time are the Eagles fix on sale tomorrow?
10 am
Thanks. Your courtesy is appreciated.
lol @ the “DEFLATriots”, Tom,”Shady” and Robert “Krafty”…
Football SAT question: Of the following pairs, pick the pair that does not belong A) Neale and Bednarik; B) Blanton and Jim; C) Lombardi and Hornung; D) Chuck and Joe; E) Tom and Roger F) Walsh and Montana G) Belichick and Brady.
Walsh and Montana . . . because Jerry Rice was cheating by illegally putting stickum on his catching gloves before every game.
Amazing how some of the legends of sports are found out to be cheaters after the fact.
Micky Mantle for instance. Analysis of some of the bats he was using shows he was corking for at least part of his career.
For your reputation to be tarnished I think you have to be caught during your career. If it happens 20 years later, your legacy is cemented. Even Ty Cobb is a legend of the game, despite all the amazingly messed up shit people know about him now.
“Micky Mantle for instance. Analysis of some of the bats he was using shows he was corking for at least part of his career.”
___________
I’d never seen that before.
Always a fan of Mantle and the Dynasty Yanks (’49-’64).
No player had a worse set of knees nor suffered from self-abuse than this guy.
But there he was, out there just about every day — at least for the first 10 years of his career.
Yep, and that’s what people remember, not the corked bats.
I imagine back in the day it was probably easier to get away with that kind of thing. No one was going to X-ray your bat, I’d imagine.
Stickum was legal according to Biletnikoff.
D. Gilliam couldn’t keep the job.
Jefferson Street Joe Gilliam.
First black QB on the cover of SI.
Think that science can come up with a way to accurately measure the effects of an under-inflated football, and the competitive advantage gained by using one in varying conditions.
Just off the top of my head:
human testing – blind ball test (mix of under, normal, over-inflated) of 5 (or more) QBs of varying height, hand size, arm strength, throwing motion, making throws in various conditions (indoors, outdoors, humid, dry, cold, warm, windy, calm) measuring grip pressure, velocity, rotation, accuracy, distance.
machine testing – same conditions and measurements.
I believe the Patriots have already done their own testing and have data to support the psi levels for varying conditions. The benefits of using a deflated ball must far outweigh the risk of being caught.
We’ve got performance evidence.
Brady before deflating (2007 procedure change) vs. Brady after deflating.
Someone here posted a swing of like 20 points in his QB rating. That usually doesn’t happen to 7 year veterans. Also his historically low fumbles.
see, they guy was 6th rounder for a reason.
get him an underinflated ball and he’s a HOFer…
Randy Moss helped. Also, rule changes that screw CBs have QBs breaking records every other week these days.
Peyton just posted back-to-back-to-back seasons with a 100+ passer rating and he’s almost 40/held together with sticky tape/technically dead.
True, but Peyton has always put up those gaudy numbers. He’s the best ever at his position.
Rule changes went into effect, what, 2005(?) would have seen the increase beforehand.
Better skill players -Gronkowski, Welker, Hernandez -could account for it. But we typically don’t see that great of statistical jump in quarterbacks, do we?
It’s not really that great. Here’s a chart of his QB rating since 2001. Couple of outliers in 2007 (huge influx of offensive talent) and 2011 (Gronk and some other TE who hasn’t done much lately) but other than that nothing that couldn’t easily be explained by better supporting cast, general improvement as a player, and hugely favourable rule changes for offenses.
FWIW, Manning bumbled along at “only” about 90 for the first five years of his career, then sky-rocketed way over 100 during the next five.
Romo just put up a career year despite significant health issues and old age.
It’s not unusual at all. Which isn’t to say Brady didn’t gain some advantage here (they didn’t do it for fun) but attempting to use QB rating pre and post 2007 as evidence that:
A. That’s when it started, and
B. The advantage gained is easily quantified, and was huge.
is a gross over-simplification of….everything.
So what you’re saying is that Romo should be suspended too.
YES!
And while we’re at it, Eli saw a big and sustained jump after five years in the league in 2008 so may as well ban him. He obviously just took a year to find his deflator.
I say we let Eli play out his contract, but suspend Odell Beckham instead.
I nominate Bert’s Bells to be the “independent” arbitor to take over the disciplinary process from Goodell.
maybe ODB will get injured so Chip will consider trading for him?
EDIT: I mean OBJ but ODB is just a way cooler nickname…
That is actually a very hard question to answer. One aspect of sports statistics that really needs to be addressed is the “normal” variability we should expect, and how to attribute the changes properly. We typically are fed means and led to assume that the means are representative of the player, yet that isn’t the case. For QBs it can get very complex. For example, trying to properly attribute any variation in Completion % includes accounting for drops, intentional throw aways, batted passes, pass break ups and interceptions. So an uptick in completion % may not be due to the QB performing better, but could be from his skill players catching, running better routes and making contested catches. And then there is the question of the discretization of the statistics, should they be considered over a season, game, or series. Typically we look at per game and per season but I am not sure that is really a good indicator of what to expect from an individual player or which is better and I have yet to see anyone really define what is appropriate (all stuff for me to do over the summer now that I have time).
Anyway, by now I am sure everyone has stopped reading so…
My point is that technology exists that can quantify the number differences – everything else is conjecture and educated guesses.
And as detail oriented as Belechick is, I have little doubt that they’ve already measured the differences and chose to take advantage at the cost of being discovered.
This wasn’t just Tom saying the ball feels better with less pressure – they measured and identified psi ranges and conditions.
Honestly I think all the evidence you need is that Brady was willing to break the rules in a pretty sneaky way to get the balls that way.
I’m guessing the advantage it would give varies from QB to QB. From what I’ve read the underinflated balls are easier to grip, so I will hypothesize that the smaller the QBs hands, the more advantage it would give.
The fumbles thing is debatable, but it does make sense that if the ball is easier to grip that you would fumble less.
It’s impossible to know how things would have been if he hadn’t been cheating. The Pats are a good team either way I think. Brady probably didn’t even need to do what he was doing, but that’s how the Patriots are… Any little advantage they can get, within the rules or not. Its starts with Billicheck and goes on down.
And I guess it works for them right? Do they really care if Brady gets suspended 4 games? They’ll still make the playoffs, and they just won the super bowl.
What’s really at stake here is reputations and legacy. Because of what Brady did he’s forever tainted, and by assocation so is the Patriot’s dynasty.
That’s really why Kraft is angry. He’s not pissed about the money or the suspension, he’s pissed because his reputation has been tarnished.
Well said.
It’s the reason the testing should be done to quantify the numbers – no need to guess when you can generate quantitative data.
If you can prove a measurable advantage existed and the Patriots numbers reflect the advantage, then screw Kraft and Belichick and the Patriot Way.
Just my opinion here, but I think its too subjective to really measure in a scientific fashion.
The fumbles data is pretty interesting, but other than that… Not really sure how you “prove” a competitive advantage exists.
Check out this video from ESPN Sport Science on Winston and Mariota – they can measure this:
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=12679043
Even if they can measure those kinds of things, how does that actually translate into yards and points on the field? That’s the subjective part.
Bucs claimed Swearinger and Kaseem Greene.., Kaseem makes sense, he can only play a 4-3 and Vangio is Moving the Bears to 3-4.. But I have no friggin clue why the hell the BUcs would get rid of Mark Barron and replace him with a worst version of Mark Barron? Neither Barron or Swearinger can cover or play the run..all you can really do with them is blitz them.. Really odd decision.. Then again they just bad a sociopath the face of the franchise so what can we expect?
I don’t get it either. If Barron isn’t their type of safety you would think Swearinger isn’t either.
Swearinger is a less talented version of Barron… Are they saying they miss Barron? I don’t get it,.. But I don’t get much of what Lovie has done since he took this job
Lovie strikes me as a very average HC that the players do like, respect and are very loyal to. I think he would make a better D coordinator then a HC. Doesn’t seem to have a real vision for offense whatsoever.
I think Swearinger does bring a certain toughness that I like and I could see Lovie admiring. He could have been a good safety about 15 or 20 so years ago.
Might be wrong but I think Barron was unhappy in TB and that was part of the reason for the trade.
I don’t know of the contract details but I guess if they got him for cheap it makes sense. It is possible he is an upgrade over what they did have. Not real familiar of their S situation.
Maybe the plan is to use him in a Chancelor type role. While he doesn’t excel at anything I think that hides some of his weaknesses.
Swearinger can sic his pit bull on his teammates if they don’t play well.
I assume this decision will end up costing Goodells job, he won’t be fired now, but when his deal is up, doubt he gets renewed.. he dropped the hammer down hard of one of the most influential owners who always had his back and helped him thru big scandals. The players hate Goodell, all he had was the owners, and he just crossed one of the most powerful who probably feels betrayed.. Kraft will see that Goodell won’t get a second term as commissioner.
..
no way the 4game suspension holds up. I don’t care about Brady missing the cowboys game or not, but I doubt 4 game suspension holds up. It will get dropped down to 2 games… But You can bet Robert Craft will have the last laugh… I hope Goodell was smart enough to at least take the temperature of all the other owners before he got the balls to bring this kind of punishment to THE pats organization and its powerful owner… Not that it matters, even if Goodell have the other owners backing for this move now, by the time his contract is up, I’m sure Robert Kraft will get enough backers to make sure he doeant get a new deal..
..
So as an eagle fan, I have to admit this doesn’t suck. pats finally get punished for their scumbag ways, and Goodell commited career suicide crossing one of the most powerful owners…this def doesn’t suck for
Eagles fans. And the fans who complain about Brady missing the ciwboys games will prob get their wish and the punishment reduced to two games, which will cost Brady a million dollars
Goodell will be fine, he still has other powerful owners on his side and over the years he’s helped make them tons of money. Kraft will get over it.
Yup. As long as Goodell ensures relative labor peace and the spice keeps flowing, the owners will be more than content with him.
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c187/TStatic/alia-dune.jpg
Not now… I’d bet he doesn’t get a 2nd term… But he won’t be fired… A monkey could make the owners money with a product that is like crack cocain to the American public
You should start your own blog and get the word out about Goodell.
I agree. And I’m sure I know at least one person here who’d give you a ton of page views and comments. (Hint: he lives in the office windows you pass on the way from and back to your mother’s basement, and on the surface of a calm lake)
Goodell is finished?
Because Kraft is upset?
Not a single other NFL owner or GM — speaking anonymously, on background, or on the record — to any media outlet has said anything remotely critical of Goodell or remotely supportive of New England.
No one. And I haven’t heard of any current players offering any dissent.
To think Goodell didn’t line up his support before dropping the hammer on the Patriots is pollyann-ish.
It’s possible, of course.
But Goodell didn’t get to be NFL Commissioner without having more than just 1 friend to go along with some excellent political instincts.
Agreed. Kraft will throw his tantrum, and he might get some of the punishment reduced, but he doesn’t have the power or the support he would need to seriously challenge Goodell.
Also, some of the other owners might have had just about enough of Kraft and the Patriots ongoing questionable tactics to withdraw any support they offered previously. Some of the more intelligent billionaire business men could be getting tired of a. not winning, and b. the very negative publicity.
http://yourteamcheats.com/PHI
The Eagles are above average cheaters but trail the Giants and Skins.
Since deflategate has been dominating the comments lately, I’ll toss this into the ring.
One of the most common things that has been repeated about the scandal since the start is that the balls wouldn’t have made much of a difference in the beatdown of the Colts.
However.
There was a game played one week before against the Ravens. A playoff game. And it was a very very close game. It literally came down to a 2 minute drill drive with the Ravens trying to win the game. It ended with Flacco throwing a bad interception, and the Patriots won.
Now, it’s obvious the Patriots would have beaten the piss out of the Colts underinflated balls or not. However, in a game as close as the one against the Ravens, even a slight advantage gained would have been hugely beneficial.
One could easily argue that the advantage gained in that particular game might have been the difference between winning and losing. And if the Patriots had lost, they would have been eliminated, and would not have won the super bowl.
Why people talk about deflategate in terms of the Colts game puzzles me because we know that they were doing it for at least most of the season, if not for many seasons beforehand.
For me, the real controversy is in the Ravens game, not the Colts game. That’s where a small competitive advantage might have made the difference. Or maybe not, who knows, but you certainly can’t definitively say that the Patriots would have won that game if they weren’t cheating. You just don’t know.
Didn’t the Ravens tip the Colts off? Isn’t how this whole thing started?
They clearly feel like they were cheated.
I’ve never read anything that definitively says the Ravens tipped the Colts off, but it might be out there, and it makes sense that they would.
Reminds me of how Mangini threw the Pats under the bus with spygate after he left the team.
That’s some ruthless shit right there.
The patriots have been deflating balls since before this past season. Before the season came the text message from McNally referring to himself as the deflator and joking about not snitching to ESPN yet… So forget the Ravens game, this dates back past the season. Who knows when this started… If Bellicheatl, Tom shady or Robert Krafty don’t hand over some hush money to McNally or the other guy who will get fired I would bet we hear all about the details.. If McNally was joking about going to ESPN a year ago. They better pay the man and be worried about what he will say… Someone gotta cough up some hush money.. Who knows what else they did that we never heard about.
“Got Your Back: Patriots Change Social Media Avatars To Pictures Of Tom Brady”
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/05/12/got-your-back-patriots-change-social-media-avatars-to-pictures-of-tom-brady/
Que up ‘Stand by Your Man’ . . .
Pats fans circling the wagons. Predictable. Their self-righteous “Patriot Way” reputation is at stake, as well as the legacy of their team.
They have a lot to fight for right now, and I bet they’ll fight hard.
In fact, they’ll probably cheat.
You mean, ” I don’t normally deflate balls or defy the officials, but when I do, I bribe that assistant trainer, what’s his name, who I’ve never met in the locker room, to do it for me.”
Who are they fighting? The league? The league don’t give a damn.
Other fans? They’ve already lost that battle.
They should just be happy with their four Lombardis and tell the rest of America to suck it.
It’s all appearances, reputation, etc.
They have this idea in their mind of the Patriot Way, the golden boy Tom Brady, the genius coach Belichick.
The idea that maybe they cheated to get to where they are is incredibly threatening to that mindset.
I just thought it was kind of a laughable move to begin with.
Don’t forget to comment in support of “No Brady No Banner”.
I thought us Philly fans were crybabies -sheesh, those guys are like turning Barney off in the toddler’s ward.
So, based on 76mustang’s idea, I have the data. I had my boys trow footballs at me and I recorded the data.
With the fully inflated ball, my younger son threw 20 passes to me. Eight bounced before they reached me, four hit the car, two hit his brother. I caught four and dropped the last two. That calculates out to a 46.
With under inflated balls, my boys had both gotten bored and went to battle the forces of evil with weapons that looked suspiciously like sticks from the yard. I threw the ball in the air 20 times and caught 19 of them (a blond in a convertible drove by). That calculates out to a 284.
So, empirically, I believe this proves that the Patriots cheating gave them a 238 point advantage. Now, we can put that conversation to rest.
Nope, you have to redo the whole thing because of the hot blonde. Can’t introduce those kinds of variables in a serious scientific study.
It’s actually more accurate because in the NFL you have the cheerleaders on the sideline.
Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/zrzMhU_4m-g?rel=0&start=209&end=233&autoplay=0
A DUCK.
http://media.giphy.com/media/TipjjeSlagWgU/giphy.gif
I don’t really like the nba, but the cavaliers vs Bulls series is fun to watch.
Jesus I wish I could have watched, but no dice from where I am.
My fanduel team was crushing it until Taj Gibson got ejected. Why’d you do it Taj?!?
He didn’t do anything. Delavadova or whatever his name is, tangled up Taj’s feet and he simply kicked Dela’s feet off of him. They called a flagrant on Taj and Dova didn’t get anything, not even a technical. It was a bull call.
I didn’t get to see it, but it definitely hurt my teams tonight.
Of course, Matt Barnes and JJ Redick are a combined 1 for 11 or something stupid like that, so it might not matter anyhow unless they get their shit together.
Yeah, great series so far. Bulls almost came back this game.
What happened to Noah? He looks so awkward with the ball in his hands anymore.
Idk, he was never a very good offensive player but at least he could pass well. This game, he had a wide open Butler running down the court and gave him the most awkward bounce pass I have ever seen. Just terrible. Not happy with his performance lately.
He wasn’t ever good offensively but at the minimum you could say he was adequate. It just seems so unnatural when that ball is in his hands now.
Yes his passing was bad tonight, I noticed the one you were talking about and at least two others.
It just happens that he rubs the ball the wrong way.
Random question I meant to ask a couple weeks ago…
So in the past, I remember Andy Reid being at the draft in person, and in several of the other teams’ war rooms this year in Chicago, you could see the head coach in there. Obviously, Chip remained in Philly for this draft. How common is it for the head coach not to be at the draft in person? Seems inefficient for him to be following the draft by phone bridge or teleconference…
Major Amtrak crash near Philly. Train going from Washington to New York. No confirmed reports yet but pics of more than one overturned train car and rumors that two trains may have collided. There are injuries but no clear reports on how serious the injuries are. Prayers for anyone involved.
5 confirmed dead, 6 critical out of 53 transported to hospital
Thanks for info. Unfortunately Amtrak just does not have a good safety record. Poor souls.