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This article sounded a lot like Aaron Hernandez's defense. They cherry picked individual exaggerations and problems they had with some of the specific data, but they failed to logically refute the overall conclusion. For example, it was a 15 year sample size, but they picked out 1 year where the Vikings fumbled less on the road, then asked "did the Vikings cheat too?". They came up with all kinds of reasons why the Patriots fumble less, but didn't explain why it didn't happen until 2007. They say the odds of the Patriots' fumble turnaround aren't 1 in 16,000, like the original article suggests, but 1 in 300, and that number doesn't even account for the timing of the whole thing, so when you throw in the fact that it happened directly after the rule change, which Brady lobbied for, the odds are obviously much less than 1 in 300, even when using your article's math. No matter what article you read, and how you manipulate the stats, the fact remains that the Patriots had a sudden, drastic change in fumbles right in the middle of Belichick's 15 years with the team. This change happened directly after Brady successfully lobbied for teams to be able to bring their own footballs to every game. No other team in the league has done that over such a long time span, and the chances of that happening are far less than 1%, and there are no other known variables that could have caused such a drastic change. The article you gave does not refute any of that. So, are you refusing to accept reality, or are you just clinging to that <1% chance that the whole thing was just a collection of giant coincidences that perfectly fit together?

As far as I'm aware, there's zero evidence that refutes this analysis. It's simply a comparison between the fumble rate from Belichick's first 7 years with the Pats(before Brady lobbied for the "bring your own ball rule") to his last 8 years, after they started allowing teams to bring their own balls to all games. The Patriots went from middle of the pack fumblers to the best in the league by far, almost doubling the touch/fumble rate of the next best team, with no transition period(dome teams not included). Those numbers are conclusive. What analysis refutes that? I notice you didn't provide a link or mention anything specific.

You have warped logic beyond recognition on this crusade that you're on to defend the Patriots. We are bashing Brady for cheating and compromising the integrity of the game, which the Ravens didn't do. There's a huge difference between lying to cover up a blatant violation of the rules, that can compromise the outcome of the game(what Brady did), and a lie that does nothing but protect PR(what the Ravens are being accused of). Teams tell "PR lies" all the time. It's no big deal. Cheating and lying about it is a big deal.

The Patriots obviously have been cheating since well before last season, and this data proves that anyone who thinks that deflating the football did not give them a significant advantage is wrong. http://www.sharpfootballanalysis.com/blog/2015/the-new-england-patriots-mysteriously-became-fumble-proof-in-2007

I want to see Trestman do what gives us the best chance to score on each drive. I hope he doesn't run it just for the sake of running it. Joe and the offense are at their best when they come out aggressive(see the postseason). This offense is too good to play ball control all game and hope the defense holds them like we did when Cam Cameron was here.

He didn't get many ints, and he only played half the season, but as far as taking the other team's best receiver out of the game, when he was on the field, Jimmy was the best in the league last year. He spent a lot of time on Antonio Brown, AJ Green, Julio Jones, and everyone else's #1 that we faced, and none of them did anything against him. I doubt anyone can name a cb that shut down every #1 receiver he faced. The only time he gave up more than a few yds was in Tampa, but he was playing in a prevent defense to protect a huge lead.

I feel the same way. In his limited time on the field last year, he showed the ability to quickly get open and he converted some big 3rd downs, and he can hold onto the ball even when getting hit. If he can stay healthy, I think he can be a great compliment to Perriman's playmaking ability on the outside. Fans talk about Aiken and Brown a lot, and I really like Aiken, but I felt that Campanaro was our most talented young receiver last year, when he was actually on the field.

Why wouldn't we be SB contenders? We had half our team out last year and still almost knocked off the SB champs, even thought they cheated. The odds that we'll have 5 players at one position go on IR again are extremely slim. We have 18 of 22 starters returning, we added playmakers, upgraded our biggest weakness, and we're going into our second year of our successful offensive system, but with an OC with a history of being more aggressive, and anyone who watches our offense knows that the more aggressive we are, the better.

Getting open and dropping a pass is better than not getting open and forcing your qb to take a sack or throw into coverage and get picked. Also, even though Perriman dropped some easy ones in college, he caught a lot of tough ones that most receivers wouldn't have caught, and he got open consistently. A guy who does that is going to be a much better player than someone who doesn't drop passes, but doesn't make tough catches and struggles to get open. Even if you catch 100% of your passes when you're open, if you can't get open or make contested catches, you are going to be worthless. Steve Smith had a ton of drops last year. Who was our best receiver? In the few games our offense was really bad last year, teams got away with blitzing us because our receivers couldn't get open against single coverage. That kills an offense. Overall, Flacco led the league by far in lost yds due to drops(according to PFF), but we still had the best offense in the history of the franchise. Drop hurt the offense, but they can be overcome. You can't overcome the inability to get open or make plays. All this is probably a moot point anyway, because Perriman has already started to clean up his focus drops issue. Like I said in another post, he caught everything in his final 4 games, caught everything at the combine and pro day, and other than one practice, he caught everything in OTAs.

Perriman hasn't dropped crucial passes. In college, he was money on 3rd down, he didn't have any drops in the last 4 games of the season, and he caught everything when the pressure was on at the combine and pro day. His drops came from a lack of focus, which doesn't happen in critical situations. Everyone drops passes. Randy Moss, Calvin Johnson, Brandon Marshal, and Terrell Owens all had at least one NFL season with a drop rate as high or higher than Perriman had in college last year. Would you not feel comfortable with any of those receivers in the situation you described? Besides not dropping the clutch ones, Perriman also made a lot of tough, contested catches in college. His scouting report said he "makes difficult catches look easy" and he has a "big catch radius". I want a guy like that on the field as much as possible, especially on a critical drive.

The Ravens don't put many projects in the top 15 on their board. I fully expect Perriman to be ahead of Marlon on the depth chart week 1.

This list was made by the media, not fans, but we get it. You don't like the guy. Just because you have something against him doesn't mean that he is overrated by the people who give credit where it's due.

Reed never played with Shannon Sharpe. Sharpe's last season with the Ravens was 2001, and Reed was drafted in 2002.

Based on what? Their 40 times were virtually identical, and Camp showed the ability to get open and make tough catches last year at an NFL level. Carter has never done that. He reportedly struggled to get open in mini camp once the veterans showed up. The injury concerns with Campanaro are legit, but it makes no sense to say that a guy who wasn't drafted, hasn't ever played an NFL snap, and struggled in a no contact mini camp is twice as good as someone who has proven he has all the skills necessary to get it done at the highest level.

They're both tall, fast, raw route runners, but I can see at least one significant difference between the two. Waller has more than 20 lbs on Streeter(in his rookie year), and he apparently knows how to use that to his advantage. Scouting reports say Waller shows great body control and uses his body to get position on smaller defenders. One report said that back shoulder passes were "nearly indefensible" with Waller, and I also read that he is tough to bring down after the catch. I'd be surprised if Waller gets a lot of playing time this year, but it's way too early to suggest he doesn't have enough potential to be worth keeping. If the Ravens saw another Tommy Streeter, they wouldn't have drafted him in the first place.

Only Ellerbe has played another season after being let go, and he did not appear to be ascending in Miami. Torrey has been the same player all 4 years in the league, so I wouldn't call him an ascending player, and I'm not sure Mcphee will ever be more than a part time player. The fact that all the examples you came up with were kind of a reach validates Eisenberg's point.

Maybe not an established veteran, but he played well towards the end of last season and in the playoffs, and he reportedly came into camp bigger and faster, got more reps with the first team, and played much better than Williams in mini camp. At this point, I think Gilmore is clearly ahead of Williams on the depth chart, so I don't think the TE competition is wide open. Based on what I've seen and read, Gilmore may not be a lock to start, but he has some separation right now, and Williams has a significant amount of ground to make up. Some of the receivers besides Steve Smith played well last season, but I don't think anyone has separated himself from Perriman at this point. He reportedly got plenty of reps with the 1st team and succeeded, and as I said before, he brings a significant element to the offense that no one else can.

No, but how good they were more than 5 years ago has nothing to do with how good they are right now. Just because Flacco hasn't played in the league as long as some of the other ones doesn't mean he's not as good. If a player is still in his prime, I think what he has done in the past 5 years is a pretty good sample size to evaluate a player's current ability. Ben/Brady/Manning have not played well enough to win the SB on an almost annual basis like Joe has. All 3 of them have been beyond awful in their last several postseason defeats. Flacco has played well enough to win 4 of the last 5 SBs, and he hasn't had a bad playoff game since 2009.(His stats were bad against Pitt in 2010, but he had some well thrown clutch passes that were dropped.) Joe has at least a 3-1 TD-INT ratio in his last 4 postseasons. That's as many as Ben/Brady/Manning have in their entire careers COMBINED.

That's because you don't know about the secret search engine where you can find it, right at the top of the first page. It's called Yahoo. http://www.footballdb.com/stats/qb-records.html

I think it's Perriman, and I don't think it's close. First of all, he is the only rookie that doesn't have an established veteran ahead of him. Steve Smith will have one of the starting spots, and the other is wide open. No one else even comes close to bringing the skillset that Perriman has, and it's a pretty important one. Also, Perriman fits perfectly with Trestman's offense and Flacco's arm. 1st round picks make an immediate impact more often than anyone else. Plus, he comes from an NFL background, so the moment shouldn't be too big for him when he steps on the field. Of all the players fighting for the #2 spot, Perriman is the only one I can see drawing double coverage and making an impact in the passing and running game just by simply being on the field. I think some of the other rookies will be part of the rotation and make an impact, but I think Perriman is going to be a starter and a key piece of our offense.

I'm not doing that at all. It has nothing to do with a "what if" situation. I'm strictly ranking Joe based on what I've seen him actually do. The mistake you are making is going strictly by numbers. I'm not ranking Joe based on "what his numbers would be if he had elite receivers." I'm ranking him based on what he already has done without them. He doesn't get easy completions all the time like Brady. He needs to and does make passes on a consistent basis with an extremely high degree of difficulty, that only an elite passer could make, and he is a great leader, shows poise, and elevates his own and his team's play in the biggest situations. Since football is a single elimination sport in the postseason, how a player performs in those big games is a huge part of how great they are. With Brady, if you take away his short, easy completions, he is awful, which is why he has crumbled in the playoffs for the last decade until last year, when he got to face a bunch of backups. With Joe, he has no weaknesses. He can make every throw at an elite level, and he's tough to confuse or rattle. Numbers can't show that, so if you're just going by numbers, Joe lacks the regular season stats to be top tier, but when you actually watch him play, and consider all the circumstances, there's no way anyone could do what he does without being top tier.

Nobody has won more than 1 SB since Flacco has been in the league, and I said Flacco was better than all of them in the postseason, and Aaron Rodgers does not have "WAYYY" better stats in the postseason than Joe. Joe has better postseason stats than anyone in the league since entering his prime. 24tds, 4ints since 2010. And judging qbs strictly by how many SBs they have won would mean Trent Dilfer is better than Dan Marino, so that shows how flawed that logic is. Flacco has consistently given his team a better chance to win the SB than anyone over the last 5 years. Even when he has lost, he has thrown perfect passes in clutch situations that were dropped, and last year he led his team to two 14 point leads. If someone drops a pass or if the secondary has 6 players out, that's out of his control, and it's one of the reasons why it's so ridiculous to say that he's need more help. That argument could have held up in his first 2 seasons, but not in the last 5.

No, Brady never put up big stats without Moss or Gronk. Brees never put up big stats in Cam's offense. Look at the stats: Brady's last season without Moss or Gronk: 16 games, 3,529 yds, 24 tds, 12 ints Brees' last season with Cam: 16 games, 3,576yds, 24 tds, 15 ints Flacco's numbers last year are better than both of them across the board, and that was despite leading the league in lost yds due to dropped passes. That proves that the "top tier" qb's don't carry a team without more help, and they don't put up big stats without a qb friendly system. Exactly. And what Flacco actually has done is win at a historical level in his first 7 years and put up historically great playoff stats with a mediocre receiving corps. ONLY A TOP TIER QB CAN DO THAT. Whether it's stats or wins, you can't just look at numbers. You have to actually watch the games to evaluate talent, and you have to consider all the circumstances. Other qbs have had "help" from a D and running game. Name 1 other qb in NFL history that has won more games than anyone over a 7 year period, and was on a level all by himself when it comes to playoff greatness, that wasn't considered "top tier".

People just flat out make stuff up to discredit Flacco. Not one of the "top tier" qbs has ever carried his team with less help than Flacco. And when Flacco puts up better postseason numbers than all of them, they credit his receivers????? As far as that goes, he's done more with less help than all the "top tier" qbs. Would any of those execs take Torrey Smith over Moss, Gronk, Antonio Brown, Jimmy Smith, Wayne, Harrison, or Thomas? No. The Ravens have invested far less in their receiving corps than any of those teams with a "top tier" qb, yet Flacco has been better than all of them when it counts the most, and he has won more than any of them since he's been in the league, with and without a great defense.

The top 3 things on this list will probably happen. The next 3 are possible but not likely.