nfl offseason transactions, fired coaches, general nonsense 2012

this seems like a clear improvement for the jets? smith is a bust as a top 3 pick, whereas hunter is a straight bust as an nfl player. i assume smith arrives with a hefty contract.

nah his deal this year is pretty cheap iirc

smith is terrible btw + also has a concussion history. he's a soft guy in a power run scheme. good luck, jets.

i mean wayne hunter was absolutely garbage so no harm no foul, but smith won't be starting there in week 8

Are the Rams trying to get Sam Bradford killed?

Chris Cooley got cut. :(

one of the alltime TE bros

Jason Smith was arguably the worst starting LT in the entire NFL last season

where are the arguments abt worst/best lineman happening? srs question, i always feel like i want to know more in depth shit abt o-linemen & how they're playin from wk-to-wk

i feel like when people talk about offensive linemen that don't play for their home team or the team they watch every week, they are just speculating

yes totally. thats y i wonder if theres some sweet resource out there im missing~

when they play really good they sparkle a little

where can u find good technical insightful writing about football anywhere? football outsiders i guess...

The O-line column on FO is Word of Muth, written by a former tackle. It's really good -- more analysis and diagrams, less stats than the usual on that site.

FO's attempt to turn football into Bill James is interesting but ultimately very limited. Sample sizes are too small and the game is too complex. They do a good job of explaining what's already happened, but whenever they try to apply that analysis to the future (like their playoff predictions articles) they hardly ever do better than off-the-cuff expert opinion. Best thing about the site was Tanier, and he's turned pro now.

There's another site that does snap-by-snap game charting of line play (and every position). Pro Football Focus I think.

Smart Football is excellent for explaining play diagrams and advanced strategy. They also cover the evolution of the various schemes over the years. A lot of their articles are published on Grantland.

FO has a limited approach.

maybe this is good?
http://www.sportsonearth.com/
mike tanier just joined.

<3 emma span

NEVER FORGET ;_;

Short Shorts: C/D?

where can u find good technical insightful writing about football anywhere? football outsiders i guess...

― Mordy, Tuesday, August 28, 2012 6:24 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

greg cosell is the best guy writing about football anywhere.

http://nflfilms.nfl.com/category/contributors/greg-cosell/
http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/greg-cosell-unheralded-maestro-of-n-f-l-matchup/

i'm trying to come to terms with the fact that the it's really the end of an era in washington now that cooooooooley is off the team
thanks for your support mookie

;_; RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNnqRAN_zIM

washington offense won't be having any fun without you cooooooley

"So we thought that just to add a little enthusiasm, we'd name some of these plays or calls or words that we need in our offense after small furry mammals. So you've got, like, weasel, beaver. We're still looking to try to get muskrat and mongoose into the gameplan. Wombat is a new one that Cooley came up with. That's a good one.

"You know, there's a lot of other ones. Squirrel is in, obviously. You could go chipmunk, woodchuck ... there really are a lot of them out there. I would say right now we've got, like, four in. And we're trying to get some of the other ones."

Mongoose would really seem to be a no-brainer. Vicious little creatures.

Yoder: "Right, exactly. Thank you. You've got ferret ... why wouldn't you want to have a 'ferret' call in your offense."

Does Coach Zorn seem happy with this trend?

Yoder: "I think the combination of Chris Cooley and myself, we've come up with some good stuff, and it makes sense."

i will never forget the vlog where cooley picked the iggles to beat the giants bc eagles are fearsome beasts that swoop down from the sky

http://espn.go.com/nfl/trainingcamp12/story/_/id/8309647/brian-westbrook-retire-member-philadelphia-eagles

awwwwwwwww

xpost oh i remember that, that dude from hawaii who was their 4th string QB but hilarious was on it, doing impressions of eli manning which were all exactly the same expression (UH)

iirc the context was coooooley and others from washington vloggin about the playoffs because WE ARE NEVER IN THE PLAYOFFS

your late 2000s washington (racist name)s: always weird, never in the playoffs

only jersey i own is westbrook's. i've loved him since i was a teenager. xp

where is flyingwestbrook.gif

i cannot find it

"reason #2: BRIAN WESTBROOK. Unstoppable. Don't even think about stopping THIS GUY."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIAFYlaotIU

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-eagles/Reid-Foles-No-2-QB-Kafka-wont-play-Thurs.html

current discussion running on philly.com:
Will Foles start at all this season? (39 comments)

i feel like when people talk about offensive linemen that don't play for their home team or the team they watch every week, they are just speculating

There are some sites that have o-line stats. I think FO had a stat for whiffing on blocks and Smith was number one.

I read an amazing article from a guy who spent a whole season scouting every team's o-line, and he was shocked by how the conventional wisdom for linemen is wrong most of the time-- usually the high picks are overrated almost uniformly. He was shocked by how bad D'Brickashaw is.

He was shocked, is what I'm saying

link?

I lost it when my computer crashed :(

"usually the high picks are overrated almost uniformly."

You get into the centers and some of the guards and there are tons of low picks and even undrafted guys that become long term stalwarts.

Jeff Saturday is one that comes to mind.

The Jets are the first team to go without a TD in their first 3 preseason games since 1977

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8314433/nfl-use-replacement-officials-start-regular-season

is this for real?

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last week that he expects replacement officials to do "a very credible job" and described the league's differences in negotiations with the NFLRA as "philosophical."

I hope this leads to a series of massive week one fuckups

It will. I dont know how a lingerie football reject is gonna handle a situation like the Saints onside kick in the Super Bowl a couple years ago. Remember that? It took about 3 minutes to unravel that pile and see who had the ball. This is gonna be a disaster.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8314725/chuck-klosterman-proposes-three-rule-changes-nfl

ilnfl challenge: would anyone like to take a stab at defending any of these 3 brutally awful ideas to "fix football" from chuck klosterman? i would like to see #2 implemented one time in like a high school game or something, just to see what batshit chaos would arise.

i would like to never have to hear from chuck klosterman ever again in my life

also if roger goodell had a heart attack tomorrow i wouldn't be sad

I guess narrowing the goalposts isn't completely stupid, but I have no idea how you could think "25-yard field goals should only be worth 2 points" for more than 10 seconds without realizing, "wait, that is the dumbest idea in the history of pro sports"

this is what happens btw when you've ascended to klosterman's level but are an unrepentant hack -- you can literally just write whatever nonsense you want and as long as it's not blatantly "offensive" it doesn't matter

like would this article be any different if klosterman had said "i think the nfl should be played on a giant mattress"

in some ways that would make it a far more quintessential klosterman article

giant mattress i could make an argument for.

so Klostermann's idea for more exciting football is "less field goals, more ties"

the fact that going for it on 4th down is often mathematically correct should be the thing that convinces coaches to go for it. not "well field goals are worth 2 now, if they're that close; so either drop back 3 steps and kneel, or go for it".

IMO soccer allowing for ties rather than using its awesome penalty kick system is one of its flaws

his ideas don't address the two things that slow down nfl games the most ime 1) commercial breaks (esp before + after kicks) 2) frequent penalty calls

the north american aversion for ending on a tie is really bizarre to me. it is the most popular thing ppl reach for when they have to knock soccer for whatever reason. imo it is a weird immaturity in the sporting consciousness over here that folks should be more ashamed of instead of sounding off about. BUT having said that, if there is one sport where you have to avoid ties, it is the 16 game season one.

how is not liking ties immature? or am I reading you wrong

well, maybe i could've chosen a better word