Dalton gets a lot of hate, but he reminds me of Flacco and Roethlisberger. He's not a flashy guy, but he's a much better option than the backups and an unknown quantity. Also, it's kind of hard to believe this is his 4th year. The Bengals will be decent this year, the Browns will....fucking not. Too much hype, too many ridiculous personalities and too few actual accomplishments. Cleveland is this year's circus, that's all. I think the surprising team to watch this year will be the Eagles. Foles could enter Brees territory this year, minus the Vick distraction. The Jets also made some fascinating moves that I think might help them. I know Ryan is the Tom Ford of coaches but they will be interesting to watch. Which team falls further: SF or KC?
No, I know how many terrible QBs there are. And as I said, I'm not hating on the guy - he's not a terrible QB by any measure. I just feel that the opportunity cost of paying your quarterback $20m per year is pretty high - it's knocking on the door of a top-10 salary and is displacing a lot of other talent on your roster. It's hard to say whether it's definitely better or worse since you don't have two identical teams, but a promising rookie or a middling QB like Alex Smith for less than half the cost sure frees up a bit of money.
Dalton's contract is basically 2 years for $25mm and then a bunch of 1 year team options, so based on that, I think its actually a pretty good deal.
The problems with this sentence are that (1) those QBs aren't much like each other, (2) one of them isn't very good, and (3) the good one isn't much like Andy Dalton. So basically the entire sentence. The thing is, the cost of a starter-quality NFL quarterback is very high. There aren't many guys who are (1) on a non-rookie deal, and (2) are paid less than $15 million a year. A quick search returns Ryan Fitzpatrick, Michael Vick, Matt Cassel, Matt Schaub, Carson Palmer, Alex Smith, Brady, Bradford, and Ben. There, I see Smith, two good players who were willing to sign team friendly deals (Ben, Brady), an old guy (Palmer), and bums. I'm a fan of Smith, but there actually aren't that many Alex Smiths out there. So you either have to be willing to gamble on a quarterback (want to be left with Blake Gabbert leading an otherwise contending team?) or be OK with a dip in quality. $15-$20 million is just what quarterbacks seem to cost in 2014 unless you hit the jackpot on a guy like Russell Wilson. Has to be KC. Not that there's anything really wrong with them except a lack of receivers, but they were fantastically lucky last year. They were due for a bounce-back, but 11 wins is a fantastic haul for the talent they had on the roster.
Not sure why you're discounting rookie deals. I mean, with the new rookie deal in place, even a first round pick gives you a hell of a lot more cap space to work with. I realize that drafting rookies can be hit or miss, I just think it's a worthwhile endeavor to give your team maybe $50+ million or more to work with over the length of the deal. Also, there are a whole lot more than that per year: <a class="postlink" href="http://overthecap.com/top-player-salaries.php?Position=QB" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://overthecap.com/top-player-salari ... osition=QB</a> As I said, I understand there are a lot of bad QBs around and I'm not saying everyone needs to jettison the guy under center and draft an unknown. Just that 6 year deals worth ~20m/year average is a pretty strong declaration of "this is our guy" and with the potential benefits of freeing up some of that money, I'd only expect that declaration from a higher class of performer. Though from JWags said it sounds like a more team friendly deal.
So the greatest team in NFL history and the greatest QB in NFL history are kicking off their pre-season opener in less than 12 hours. Bow to your god.
Tom Brady is now practicing against two top corners. I could not be more excited at the internal edge he's going to get playing against those two guys. I'm pretty excited to see how this first series looks.
The only reason Browner had success in Seattle was because his job was to basically run in a straight line and push receivers toward the sideline. Don't even think about using him in a zone or crossing routes because he's about as athletic as a 3 legged dog on sedatives. Unless Browner has someone with Earl Thomas speed over the top, he'll be consistently burned by anybody that's athletic enough to do a double move. With the officials now emphasizing illegal contact/offensive PI penalties, Browner's well-deserved reputation of Ike Turner'ing receivers is going to cost them. Let me know how Belichick looks with a eye twitch when it's 3rd and long and Browner gives up another first down.
Well I never said our secondary is going to be lockdown, just its good for Brady to practice against guys not named "Arrington." Browner is definitely not near the bottom of the list in talent. Hopefully he retains some of what Carroll taught him and I trust Bill to play him to his strengths.
Did you have to polish the bishop to some mid-2000s highlight packages with your boy not getting any shine last night?
For a pre season game that was pretty intense. Shoving, taking swipes at each other, (and the official) and an ejection...in a pre season game. The Seachickens, fucking D is still just stellar. At the end of almost every single play there were at least 3 defenders all over that shit. Manning’s back up, that dude can make some moves in and out of the pocket, something he does not do. And Mother Nature had to let us all know what a hater she is with her 45 minute weather delay. What a bitch.
one thing i've noticed is that "illegal contact" calls are constant. flags have been flying everywhere on pretty much every play. also, local channels have godawful announcers. i thought that espn and cbs had bad announcers, but i watched the vikings-cardinals game on some local television's stream, and the announcers were pathetic. how can you have a job like that and not actually know the rules? they're sitting there bitching about calls that are perfectly legit, trash-talking the cardinals, and acting like teddy fucking bridgewater is the greatest qb of all time. garbage.
that's paul allen and he has a radio show on the local sports station and is a massive homer. his radio show is pretty good and his calls can get entertaining, but yeah, he's not a good announcer. however, i'll still take him (or really any local guys) over the national teams; would rather listen to trash-talk and homerism than a cliche-fest. that said, that fumble td seemed like bullshit to me, that ball was clearly batted.
so that's the last time harbaugh wastes precious minutes of his week on petty shit like the ice bucket challenge. great way to christen your new stadium with a preseason bloodbath
that was a bloodbath. as a 49er fan i understand it was just practice. still i would think there would be concern when you have two consecutive weeks of poor practice.
come on... it's pre-season, it's practice. pre-season means nothing. look at pre-season records vs regular season records, the correlation is pretty week. i think herm edwards said something like "going undefeated in the pre-season is like winning at tying your shoes." do you think there would be some amazing 49er pride if they won and were like "yay, we christened our new stadium with pre-season win!!!" if there was, you and everyone else would be like "calm down fuckers, its pre-season."