Jaybirds

With the pick after the ???th pick, the Squad of Pop select



Eric Ebron, TE 

38 minutes ago, Mt. Crushmore said:

@VeiledPsychosis has been skipped putting @Jaybirds on the clock 

Acknowledging I'm on the clock.  Also admitting I'm ill-prepared, so this might take a few minutes. 

Nevermind, pick is in.   If I'm going to miss the run on proven tight ends, I'm fine taking the upside guy. 

7 minutes ago, NFLfan123 said:

8 guys.

Oh okay, I thought we just started round 17.  But yeah, this is round sixteen. 

So yeah, just completely wipe out as many positions as you can.  I don't know who you already have, but your secondary/receivers/o-line/d-line won't be any worse than this, with a few picks to spare.  That's not nothing. 

29 minutes ago, NFLfan123 said:

Guys like Brent Grimes are coming off the board and I have to build my team from scratch? 

Well, not literally from scratch.  If you have 7 picks to make up then you already have around 9 guys already, right? 

I mean, it's a bad situation for you to inherit.  You didn't put yourself into this mess.  But you could draft every offensive skill position right now, no dropoff in talent, to go with the guys you already have.  Maybe not a star-studded team, but it'd be deep.

Just now, CalvinSmoke said:

It's not an advantage at all brother. It helps us, because they missed stronger picks earlier, and more guys fell to us. 

Like I said, early in the draft that seems obvious.  But the talent levels off after a while.  At this point The guys who went two rounds before aren't THAT much better than the guys going two rounds later... in general, at least. 

I pick at the opposite end of the draft.  The difference between having 58 guys going off the board between my picks and 64 or 65 is not nothing. 

2 minutes ago, Mt. Crushmore said:

@NFLfan123 has 7 picks to make right now.

It's really tough to plan a draft board when some teams are taking 1/4 of their team in one round.  I see how it could matter in the early rounds.  But this far into the draft skipping so they can pick whenever they want seems like an advantage.  I'm curious to see if it actually harmed their rosters in the end. 

4 minutes ago, ALPHA said:

A bit off topic but last night I went back to revisit his Bama tape and it wasn't as impressive as I remember or maybe I just know what to look for now, his lack of speed really stands out and how much yardage is blocked for him.

I had him on my fantasy team his rookie year, and I noticed the same thing:  lots of volume, good blocking.  The next year not so much. 

I'm also really skeptical on whether he has the awareness for a zone blocking system.  He doesn't always make the best decisions. 

It would be nice if we could move Yanda or Wagner over to the left side; stagger the newer guys with the vets. 

I feel like Jensen became our super-utility player on the line.  He was good enough to cover any of the spots, at least temporarily.  I'm hoping Alex Lewis shows enough that we can use him in that role.  Guard or tackle, I'd rather Jensen started mastering one role before we turn him into Eric Fisher.  If I had to guess, I'd say it'll be Stanley at LT and Jensen at LG.  For some reason I'm already comfortable with that. 

With the 451st pick, the Squad of Pop selects



Jeremy Not Giovanni Hill, RB  

Okay, I just ran a search on each page of the Draft thread.  "Arik" does not appear until my pick.  So I think he was available. 

Just now, BmoreBird22 said:

I thought Armistead was long gone for some reason. Solid pick

Honestly it was going to be Baker, and then Odrick.  But I'll take the upside here. 

With the 445th pick, the Squad of Pop select.....



69!  69! 

um... I mean... Arik Armstead, Interior defensive line. 

1 hour ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

Hey guys, this from that article on Perriman by that doctor... and i quote:

"MMMD 1: Offseason injuries piling up

I previously indicated that approximately half of NFL teams will suffer a significant/season-ending injury before OTAs and minicamps are done. Add three ACL tears to the list of teams already suffering injury. Besides Perriman, Saints pass-rusher Hau’oli Kikaha (3^rd time) and Patriots TE Michael Williams both tore ACLs. We are shy of 50% of teams losing players (and I hope it stays that way) but with another week and many minicamps to go, it seems inevitable that history will repeat itself."

Wait, so he predicted that half the NFL teams will sustain major injures before training camp even starts, and its coming true?? And this is a pattern he has noted as occurring nearly every offseason?? 

But, but, but.... i thought it was just Harbaugh and his super duper hard practices!?! Oh I know. Harbaugh is brainwashing all the other coaches and forcing them to practice their guys as hard as he does as an evil ploy to injure the other teams best players... AND he's been doing this for years and hasnt been caught yet!!

This wasn't our first one though.   Dixon hasn't practiced, and Kaufusi got hurt (coincidence that all three are fairly new?).    So I'd be curious to see what the data looks like for teams with more than 1, like 2 or 3.   Probably a lot less than half. 

14 minutes ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

Yea, that was actually surprising to me... but shouldve been a great experience for Camp and Reynolds. Wish camp couldve been on the field for it, but picking his brain and understanding how he would view route running, sitting in zones, winning off the line, and improvising for his QB should be valuable for those guys.

Wes in his day was a master. Maybe it leads to a job on our staff. Assistant WRs coach, specializing in slot play. That would add value to the TE group too.... Id actually love to see it.

Considering the youth and talent we have at those spots, I think it'd be a great value.  Even better if the nickels can listen in. 

8 minutes ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

Skewing above the mean in an incredibly small sample size isnt valid or worth anything either. Sure, maybe we are above the mean since 2014. Maybe we're not. 

But even if we are, Harbs and his practice regimen has been here since 2008. So without repeatedly falling above that mean since 2008, the small sample size of the past 2 years would do nothing to support the idea that its Harbs fault or practicing too hard.... especially since, if anything, his practices have decreased in intensity since the new CBA was signed (which if anything, would argue the exact opposite. our recent injury history has coincided with notably easier practices, and far less "pads on" practices) which of course is the opposite of what some want to believe, so that type of detail is conveniently ignored.

Well I can't "conveniently ignore" a trend I didn't know about.  So thank you for sharing that. 

I do disagree with the small sample size.  Two full season of 32 teams is 64 separate season.  53-man rosters means over 3,392 opening day players.  That's enough to get a pretty good feel for the mean if the data was available.  And I agree with starting back in 2008.  Let's see how we're trending overall, let's see if there was a change at the CBA, let's see how the past two unlucky years compare to our luck and the league's luck overall. 

But I'm disappointed to hear you don't know whether we're above or below average.  Your previous posts sounded (to me) like you did know already.  That would have been really helpful.  I guess I misunderstood. 

5 minutes ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

And without consistently falling above the mean in terms of number of injuries i dont see any way - scientific or speculative - to say its anything other than chance, and the ebbs and flows of football.

You're sure we're not consistently falling above the mean?  In the franchise's history, that seems likely.  Since 2014?  I'm less sure.

No idea if a site has that kind of data.  But yeah, I'd love to know if we're a historically healthy team.  Or if franchises trend towards healthy/not healthy the same way they tend to be winning franchises or losing ones. 

6 minutes ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

But then 13 teams had more injuries than us by then... so under your assumption here, that would say more injuries up front if you dont go hard.... more injuries on the back end if you do. The fact is still - darned if you do, darned if you dont. You're gonna lose them, do you just want to lose them early and for the whole year, or at least get half a season out of them.

And that premise is based on accepting the idea that we're going noticeably harder than all other teams in OTAs and preseason which is complete nonsense if you ask me. But even if we accept it - it still doesnt prove the point that everyone here wants it to.

The You're Going to Lose Them motto doesn't apply to the other 18 teams with less injuries though.  

I've already said (elsewhere in this thread) that there are other factors to look at:  age, schedule, field conditions.  We even got pretty far to explaining how it could be an issue with our trainers.  Similar issues could help describe the teams that were higher than us by October.  Or perhaps all 14 teams were below the expected curve; we spiked, they didn't.  It doesn't really say enough by itself.  It's interesting, but inconclusive without more info on those other teams. 

11 minutes ago, BOLDnPurPnBlacK said:

Was he injured during practice? 

And what about the previous 5 years? So, youre trying to tell me that for 5 years they were fine and then out of no where he decided to ramp things up? And, actually it was only last year that we were tops in injuries. The year prior there were a couple teams with just as many. And players on IR doesnt tell the whole story either.

And going into week 6 of last year, we were barely top half of the league in injures. The major complaint seems to be that we're going too hard in OTAs and training camp. So, why were there 13 teams nearly half way through the season with more injuries than us?? Oh, because it happens to every team, every year. It's just that it happened to more of our top players, so it was more noticeable.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/page/32for32x151021/ranking-most-banged-nfl-teams-1-32

Well, actually, that does make a case for repetitive motion injuries.  If a player is going nearly 100% all through OTAs, and then the pre-season at 100% (maybe they're competing for a job), then by mid-October they're going to have more wear and tear on their bodies than players who didn't hit 100% until closer to the regular season.

8 minutes ago, usmccharles said:

I would lean towards the training staff more so than the football coaches.  Its not like we blame the trainers for when a play goes wrong on the field. 

I'm assuming the trainer staff is still under Harbaugh in the organization chart.  I could be wrong about that. 

2 minutes ago, usmccharles said:

I would put that on the trainer.  But I can definitely see him doing that and I wouldn't even fault him.  Its not like this is what he wanted. 

If it is true and I'm a great guesser, then I agree it's the trainer.  Come to think of it, the trainers/med staff could be a common theme. 

4 minutes ago, usmccharles said:

Yea, there are definitely some constant variables.  Using BP's injury, it just doesn't seem like anything could have been done for him other than not moving.  Someone saying he was being pushed too hard, I mean he ran a fade from what I've read, not even a go route.  I think we can just agree that it just sucks overall. 

The only thing I can think of was maybe he was hitting the weights too hard.  Maaaaaybe he was trying to add muscle to his legs or get stronger to make a good impression.  But not adding any flexibility put some strain on the ligaments.  That's entirely speculation, but it seems possible.  And I don't have any better guesses. 

13 minutes ago, usmccharles said:

Understandable.  I don't think you can look at it as an overall situation, you have to look at the individuals because each player is different.  I mean, Joe has never missed a game, then a LT gets shoved into his knee.  Forsett gets thrown down like a ragdoll, breaks his arm, etc...I don't think you can practice not to get hurt, just like you cant play to not get hurt.

I find it odd they didn't have a conditioning coach prior

Okay, that's fair. For the injuries that were nationally televised, I think we can figure out what happened.  And I really do understand that injuries are going to happen.  I'm just trying to figure out why they're happening to us more than others.  Leading the league in IR moves seems like a bad thing.  I see how going person by person makes some sense.  But I know they all have some things in common:  the facilities, the coaches, and the practice schedule.  So that seems like a reasonable place to start. 

1 hour ago, usmccharles said:

I understand that its just preference.  But just from my experience, through all the sports ive played, myself and the team seemed to always perform better when getting beat down in practice.  Yea it sucks at the time, but when its late in the 4Q, you can really tell which teams are conditioned better, we won numerous games by just being in better shape.  Besides, are we just going to do walkthroughs every day....

It sucks that BP got injured, but it to blame the HC for players getting injured is just non sense, people are just looking for a reason to either justify the injury or someone to blame.  It sucks, but people need to get over it, how many teams does stuff like this affect? Almost every team.  Nelson, Fowler, White, Benjamin, BP- none made it to the regular season....it happens. Sadly, it happened two years in a row for us

I definitely 100% agree that you can tell who is conditioned better by the end of the game, that is consistent with my own experiences as well.  My concern is that the team with the most pulled/torn ligaments isn't well conditioned.   I've never seen an instance when that was the case. 

I do think there was some random luck involved in BP's injury.  I'm not saying that one is completely on the coaches.  But I'm seeing that this team has been more injured than most since 2014.  I'm not ready to say that's all just random bad luck.  I don't know how to assign responsibility for our complete record (aging vets, lack of conditioning, etc).   But I'm not ready to say the coaches had nothing to do with it.  They didn't bring in a conditioning coach this year for nothing. 

6 minutes ago, usmccharles said:

I think they should be pretty close to 100% going, I think the practices should be pretty intense.  Only way to get to 100% is to have pads...and we know how that goes

Okay, that makes more sense. 

But yeah.  Pads.  We've already shown the coaches want them to go 100% already. 

2 minutes ago, usmccharles said:

We are 3 months out.  So it should be a cake walk now, then a month before start killing them in practice? No.  You have to keep practicing the way you want to play, im sure its not a 100% right now....but it shouldn't be a breeze

When I played sports, I hated the two-a-days, our coached killed us.  But it made us better...but its just preference, agree to disagree

Well, actually, you're sorta agreeing.  If you insist the players aren't going 100% right now.... and he's saying players shouldn't be going 100% right now..... it looks like you're on the same page.