riseNConquer81

West, Allen, and Taliaferro are all pretty much the same guy, and none of them is a real alpha dog. Forsett's getting old, he wont be here long. and we could use some speed, or at least some down hill power. we dont have anybody that excels at either one of those really.

this is exactly it. long as he can not get hurt, we're actually pretty good at LT. It'd be nice if we could get somebody else, but if it aint Joe Thomas, really isnt much of a point besides depth. No guarantee any of the rookies from the draft dont get hurt. kind of a crap shoot really. if we pick up a new guy (that isnt Joe Thomas) what we're really hoping is that that guy is better than James Hurst.

Let's revisit at the end of the year. I'd make a substantial wager that touch backs will be up and return attempts will be down. The fact that the discussed reward from kicking short is like 2-3 yards on an average return would make me bet a ton that it's not nearly worth the risk. At the very least, if the opposite occurs, it'll be a one year rule change, since it would accomplish the opposite of what they are attempting to achieve. AT LEAST 2-3 yards. As with anything, you cant treat one stat as the whole story. averages only give you a starting point as far as expectations go, there's plenty of other things that factor into the decision. Level of their returners vs the level of your coverage units, scoreboard etc. If you're going against the steelers for instance, and looking at Jacoby jones on the goal line looking to receive the kick, you're definitely kicking it short to see if he can pull anything out of his aging hat. Likewise, if you're the Bills, and you only gave up 17 yards per return on average to ANYbody all last year, you kicking it short no matter who they got. I'd bet on more returns, but if not: i wouldnt be surprised if they break even and end up with no real or significant change. The teams with better coverage units or who are going against weaker returners will be aggressive about it, and the teams that arent wont. That's really why you do a trial: to see what, IF anything at all, changes

Actually, that's not the case. The distance the kicker has to kick the ball hasn't changed since they moved it to the 35, and neither has the desire to do so. It wouldn't make sense to purposely try to kick it shorter, because you still would only need a 20-25 yard return to cover that, which is pretty common. What this rule does is give returners less motivation to bring the ball out of the endzone on a return, because they now have to go 5 yards further to get back that yardage. So the first rule, kicks from the 35, makes it easier for kickers to kick touchbacks, thus reducing returns and reducing collisions from returns. The second rule, TB at the 25, makes it harder for players to gain back the return yardage when they do return it, and makes it riskier to bring it out of the endzone, thus reducing returns and reducing collisions from returns. I will 100% guarantee that touchbacks will increase in 2016, and kickoff return attempts will decrease in 2016. Precisely what they want. I dont think so. yeah teams will be less likely to bring it out of the endzone...but because of the extra 5 yards they'd be giving away, balls probably wont be making it to the endzone anymore anyway, so its a moot point. Only half the league averaged 24+ yards on returns last season. Only 9, got 25+. http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/returning/sort/yardsPerKickReturn Half the league will still likely lose at least 2 yards if forced to return it. Its a game of inches, so many will find it worth it. Aside from that: it will always make more strategic sense to give your coverage unit a chance to stop a returner than to guarantee them 25 yards. Kick it high and short and run him down. If he makes it back to the 25 anyway, so be it,but nobody's just gonna gift drop it for them though. Harbaugh has the right idea, and thats probably how this is going to go with most teams.

Not hindsight for me, Freeney over Babin was always a no brainer in my view. i opposed signing Babin through and through. outside of two random years where he made some noise fro TEN and PHI, he's always been a fairly average dude at best. I was just trying to make sense out of it again since this piece stated Freeney's salary demands were too high and then told us he signed with the Cards for a can of pringles in the same sentence.

It does matter when the excuse offered for not signing him is salary demands that are too high. He signed for less than he was rightfully due, and no more than any minimum salary on the pay scale. The point either way is that he didnt cost that much. and i highly doubt he spent the whole off season off roster in his 14th year after two completely forgettable seasons and still sought a $2 million deal as an emergency depth signing. He's not stupid. He only played 20 games in the previous two seasons and tallied up 4 sacks and 12 tackles. his numbers as of late dont add up to that kind of money. You're talking outlier possibilities. The San Diego deal was for $2.5M. he mightve been fool enough to leave SD with those crap stats and still try to ask for the same last March, but he certainly wouldve wised up by September after the whole league passed on him.

you get whatever they offer you when you sign midseason. The Cardinals offer just happened to coincide with the minimum yearly salary for a 9 year vet. It's not semantics. Freeney signed for a roll of bubble tape. we werent that close to the cap. Plus we lost Suggs week 1. Nobody was beating down Freeney's door, its not like he had so many options.

ummm....That's 8-9 year vet minimum. Freeny just finished his FOURTEENTH season. so im confused.

The dead ball spot on a touchback is in the endzone, thats what makes it a touchback. Plus, that has nothing to do with fouls after a change of possession. Its impossible to commit a play foul when the ball is dead. By definition, that means the play is over. If a player fouls a QB when the ball is dead, that's just unnecessary roughness. That's a conduct foul. Its just gets marked off from the new line of scrimmage which is the dead ball spot.

This is the rule as it stood before today: DOUBLE FOUL AFTER CHANGE OF POSSESSION Article 3 If a double foul occurs after a change in possession, the team in possession retains the ball at the spot where the team in possession’s foul occurred so long as that spot is not in advance of the dead ball spot. In that event, ball is spotted at dead ball spot. (a) If this spot is normally a touchback, the ball is placed on the 20-yard line. (b) If normally a safety, place the ball on one-yard line. (c) This enforcement also applies if one of the fouls is a post-possession foul. (d) If there is a subsequent change of possession (e.g., fumble recovery) after the double foul, and the foul by the team in possession is in advance of the spot of the fumble, the ball is put in play by the fumbling team at the spot of the fumble. (e) If the foul by the team in possession is a dead ball foul, the ball is put in play at the dead ball spot. courtesy of the NFL: http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/rulebook/pdfs/17_Rule14_Penalty_Enforcement.pdf This rule itself doesnt make a whole lot of sense. (how can the spot of a foul be in advance of a dead ball spot? how can commit a play foul after the ball is dead?) So whatever change they're making will definitely result in this rule being shorter and easier to understand. my guess is one of either the dead ball spot, or the spot of the foul will be completely eliminated from this rule.

eh. he's already flopped with three different teams. THe raiders didnt even let him on the field. hard to see anything changing.

except Trent is a terrible power back. He can t find the hole. thats rule one for any RB. maybe he can get better, but i wouldnt bet on him.

this suuuuuuuuucks

you a real one.

He's a witness, not a suspect. They need to find him because he can tell them what happened...

They're saying he died now. damn.

Typical New England clowns....think everything is about them and feel like they have the room to brag even though we're normally destroying them in the playoffs UNLESS they're cheating...lol they're so cute.

on the contrary: i could not care less.

so he cut the beard? for us?

the only guy in Minnesota that put up more than Wallace was Diggs, and he only got 720 and 4. Vikings dont throw the ball, NO receiver can be successful in that system.

Hill was far and away the best safety in the corps last season so i was confused initially, but apparently he's out 10 games which means, we wouldnt have him anyway. a shame, he's a pretty good player. But this means Elam gets a chance to come back for his old Strong Safety spot. Though i bet Weddle's probably gonna be there now, only because Webb has more range, he's faster. Our corner need just got bigger though, Webb's probably gonna have to be a full time safety for real now.

lol yeah. clears that right up. welp... smh

no, you attempted to explain that he only got the job BECAUSE he was the supposed "vet," which isnt true. Perriman is still a rookie who hadnt taken a snap, he doesnt have anything to do with it. None of those numbers means Butler was not more productive. All you're saying is that he ws productive in a different way. If one guy catches 5 balls for 100 yards and a Touchdown and another catches 2 for the same yardage and TD, then the two of them are equally productive as the product of their work was 100 yards and 1 TD each. all you're saying is that Butler caught longer passes than Aiken...which is irrelevant. Aiken was still the more productive receiver. Perriman is not a number 2 right now, and with Wallace here, he might not even been number 3 if he doesnt show something in training camp because Aiken is so productive and vastly improved. Im not ignoring THE truth, I'm ignoring YOUR truth, because your truth is fictional nonsense. THE truth is: Matt Elam is a first round pick and has yet to see the top of the depth chart. Jimmy Smith was behind practice squad and special teams players (Cary Williams, Corey Graham) for numerous years. Courtney Upshaw was a second round pick and has spent his whole career in a timeshare or behind somebody else. Terrance Cody was a second round pick and was a career backup. Torrey Smith got drafted in the second round and started his career behind Lee Evans, who is terrible. Arthur Brown was a second round pick and has been on the bubble every season since he got here, he doesnt even play in sub packages. He's behind Zach Orr, who didnt get drafted at all. need i go on?

the offense didnt really click. We just drew some equally bad opponents. sort of made things look like they were better. Cleveland and Miami were train wrecks and we still gave the ball up. beat the Browns on a walk off FG block. Steelers secondary is a disaster. The Bengals, Chiefs, and Seahawks blew us out liek you'd expect them to. The personnel still matters. That's why we scored less when we lost Forsett and Smith Senior. That's why we started averaging two picks a week when Joe went on IR.

just got that message. He's not even really big money though, only $4.5M against the cap. This doesnt make sense though, he played well and stayed out of trouble. They could just plug Kendrick Lewis in his spot, cuz he's really a box safety anyway. but i think they try to resign Hill to cut the cap number.