Inqui

I'm going 4336.

Assuming you mean Rolando (and not the cake mould...), I agree. With regard to another thread here, how well would he fit if we went to the 4-3?

I always thought it was weird how the show was able to go into detail about his romantic life (including the one night stands) but keep any references at all to sandwiches vague. For the past few hours I've been having a look at their forums and gauging the reactions of the more dedicated fans. I'd be tempted to say they're coping worse than we did after the Bills game, but I remember this place melting in a pretty big way.

I agree there. I'd have had a few other problems with it had that been the case, but I was thinking what you just suggested. I'm standing by my "should have ended it two or three seasons earlier" point too. That would have ironed out a lot - or at least prevented a fair few of the kinks that emerged from showing up in the first place. The fact that it all took so long (and CBS having those stupid two-week breaks between episodes) just made everything worse.

Just watched the HIMYM finale. To sum up how I felt about it, I'll explain what I watched while I was waiting for the HIMYM finale. Do you remember that South Park episode where Indiana Jones gets raped by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas? Well, it was appropriate I was watching that because I now feel like the boys did during that film. I said before that show dragged on about three seasons too long (it used to be incredible - Barney made that show imo) and from the start of s8 I kept asking myself why I kept watching (the answer was that I dug up the older episodes again and loved them). Sadly it deviated from a good comedy to a decent comedy until s7, when it became a sappy drama with forced comedic elements. At least Game of Thrones comes out next week.

A few months back, a 9ers fan on another forum asked me what I think of the Boldin trade with hindsight, and I stand by what I said then: if I'm Ozzie and I get to go back in time, I'd still make the trade. Many fans see things in a vacuum: letting him go affects our offence, our offence sucks as a result. Personally, I feel that's a bit short-sighted. Ozzie makes a living by seeing things in the bigger picture. That means in terms of this past season (trading Boldin - who was in a contract year - gave us the cap room to sign Dumervil, Canty, Spears and Huff to lengthier deals. We added a quality pass rusher and addressed a huge weakness in the middle of the d-line), but it also means in terms of the future (again factoring in the multi-year contracts, but also the chance to see what Torrey can do as a WR1 and giving Marlon the chance to emerge). We even managed to trade up for Arthur Brown with the pick we got. Whether or not I'd make the trade again also assumes I don't know how the o-line will fare and not predicting Pitta's injury. Yes I get the depth argument, but $7.5m is a bit heavy for said depth, and I still support Ozzie's decision to shift that money from an underproducing WR (playoffs run aside) into a major area of weakness. What grates the most, even though it shouldn't really, is when people blame Joe's contract for trading him - even though Boldin carried the bigger hit.

HIMYM is a decent show, but I feel like it's been hanging around for two or three more seasons than it should have. I feel like it became too much of a romantic drama around season seven and ended up with a bit of a worst of both worlds. Season 9 was generally an improvement and I could see the finale being a bit sad but I also think it's a necessity at this point, lest it goes down the road of The Simpsons. Some of those older episodes were just priceless though.

Yeah, I was about to say. Since when did the FO get the reputation for being open and honest about their intentions during the offseason? Did I miss something big during the OC appointment?

To be fair, I still think he was a reach considering he probably would have been around in the middle of the second. But point taken - rookies can do well early if they're good enough.

I think we go playmaker. The dropoff from the top of the skill positions is significantly bigger than the dropoff from the top of the LG/RT spots. Honestly, I feel like the need to draft OL in the first round (even the second) was overblown anyway. The only thing this signing really changes is everyone's perception (which isn't a bad thing I guess, haha).

I'm happy to give Gary Kubiak the benefit of the doubt on that one to be honest.

I seem to remember hoping a strong outing against that weak Bills run defence would be just what the doctor ordered for Ray Rice. Yeah, didn't seem to work out that well...

We've had this talk in the Draft forum. I think anyone who can pancake JJ Watt has a place in the league. I see Gino as either a LG or a sixth man of sorts who can slide in when someone inevitably gets hurt. Maybe we draft another LG (say, Martin, with an eye for sliding him across if Monroe goes down) who competes with Gino for that spot, while KO and Wagner fight for RT. I still think we draft one or two guys, but I like how the puzzle's beginning to look at this point. I know we're not competing for the best with Denver or NE, but even an average o-line excites me at this point.

Depth SS or ST guy. This is just a routine cheapo signing from Ozzie, nothing to get really excited or upset about imo.

Ihedigbo. It's a reference to his name, and he has that cool shovelling dance as his celebration.

Haha, still too soon man. Although you have to love how he just throws his body out there for the team.

I got hit for -19 when I said we should have thrown the Super Bowl so we could land Markus Wheaton in the 4th. This place is serious business.

I wouldn't read too much into that, to be honest. If we re-sign him, it won't be to anything ground-breaking and I think he could easily be displaced as the #2 guy in the right (or wrong, depending on your perspective) set of circumstances.

Interesting thought. What's the FS draft class supposed to be like for next year?

Yeah but to be fair you'd call a six-foot pole an improvement over Flacco.

We didn't trade Boldin because he was old, we traded him because he had a bigger cap hit than Joe Flacco. There's also far more room for hanging onto Steve Smith - different years, different cap values, different situations.

Yeah, still hoping for a WR in either of the first two rounds. This does give us a bit of flexibility, and will even allow our new guy to ease himself in for the first couple of years, but I still really want us to pick up a long-term guy this year.

Not a bad price at all. If we can wrap up a FA C and/or FS and maybe extend Jimmy or Torrey, this will be about as close to an ideal offseason as you can get.

So we have a Torrey Smith, a Jimmy Smith, a Daryl Smith and now a Steve Smith. Hate to be a commentator for our games.

It only occurred to me a couple of years ago just how much work they put into those schedules. They have every NZ team's two SA games played in subsequent weeks (including having to make sure said SA teams are home for those games and not on their own tours), and do the same for the SA teams in NZ. They then try to get Perth at home as a pit stop for teams where feasible before or after those big trips. I haven't paid attention to the Australian teams, but I'd say it's similar. Imagine how brutal that must be to manage the schedule for 15 teams with that much detail and ensuring there're absolutely no overlaps. And to think they want to add an Argentine team.......