Lucky Luciano

if you can't draft well and rely on FA's you end up like george allen and the red skins and that was before the salary cap. drafting well in the top ten is ESSENTIAL. if you can't find players of NEED this high in the draft for 2-3 years straight it kills the roster and kills the future cap by having to bring in overpriced FA's on their last leg to fill the 'need'. the receivers we drafted in this draft was ludicrous. how many are going to be on the field for each play to even make a difference? yet we draft nothing at the 2nd most critical position on offense - OLT. we have nothing at the most critical position on defense - pass rushing DE. both of these positions are game changers as to whether you win or lose. it would be similar if we drafted running backs in the first two rounds with walter payton in his prime. no freaking need and nowhere to put them. to let these guys sit that means we also have to cut our practice squad of players to make room for these guys on our regular roster. add to this, again we draft injured players HIGH. a DT with a broken foot, a top 10 TE who is also injured. our GM's have done this numerous times with the same results. these are picks you might use if you already have a SB contender with a full roster of good + starters and can cover them on the roster for a year or two. NOT when there are this many holes at critical positions. example: we bring in cutler and give away the moon. yet we have the worst OL in football and never improve. this 2 first round trade was a complete waste of good talent in cutler, a good qb, who just basically snapped the ball and ran for his life and a waste of the players we could have drafted. we have made this mistake for decades. we bring in FA qb's or DE's that eat up our cap space and surround them with NOTHING to succeed here.

if you look at the position in the draft in the first and second round AND the number of picks we have had it is even worse. these were the once in a decade slots in the draft that you HAVE to hit on. if you don't get elite players you have to at least get above average starters out of this. poles has failed in every aspect of drafting talent. williams was a no brainer although that draft class it seems you couldn't miss if you wanted to. hopefully we didn't pick the wrong one again. the FA list is dismal. tj moore is the best out of the entire lot of them and he came in the trade from carolina. byard the safety is a good player also. sweat although good is in my opinion a #2 DE. so who else? another comment on our draft... the top picks in rounds 1 & 2 were for basically the same position, receivers. we already had an abundance of receivers. how many do you need on the field? they all can't be the target especially when they are on the sidelines. so how can that possibly be a good choice for us as draft picks?

we hire an up and coming HC, the good. then we give an extension to a GM who has done less than nothing... the BAD the draft? seriously, the draft??? he could pull names out of a fish bowl wearing a blindfold with better results. we need this to start the season: DE and LT. what do we draft? every position we have a strength at. at freaking #10, a luxury TE when we have at the LEAST a competent one in kmet. we pass up 2 or 3 LT's. how many DE's? we draft high in the 2nd. our first pick... what do we get? a freaking WR? we had so many WR's we let one good one go. what do we pass up? LT's and DE's? 2nd round pick #2... we pick a RT. yea a RIGHT TACKLE. a position we just drafted in the first round a year or two ago? do we need one to draft this high? oh hell no. 2nd round pick #3... not bad enough? let's draft a DT with a broken foot who probably would have been around in the 4th-5th round. now let's look at production: loveland looks like a 5th round pick at TE. ozzie? probably will be a good player but with who? we have no need for a RT. free agents? the ONLY one that stands out is the WR tj moore. he makes the catches and makes extra yards. anyone wanting him gone is wrong in my opinion. he is the most solid player on the entire offense. now the REALLY BAD.... the owners again. they spend the money for the best coaches out there and to my complete amazement they give the guy who has given us nearly nothing an extension when they didn't need to. a guy who can't judge FA talent and doesn't have a clue on draft day. it's de'ja vu all over again. 1 step forward and 2 steps back. and while i am on it... caleb williams need to really get his shite together or we have yet another huge bust.

anybody see our fattie DT getting walked back like braxton jones during that run play? where does poles find these guys, in tarot cards?

our defense was a double edged sword. all in all our run defense has improved a lot. our pass defense was good and bad in coverage. the scheme was also up and down. when we went into the soft zones they ripped us apart. limiting our rush on the qb didn't help. if we go into these soft zones, every play will give up 5-10 yards with an easy reception. most of these came when their qb had open lanes and all the time in the world with no hurry. if this were even a mediocre team we could have lost this game.

so none you know of have been fired for poor performance? also was wondering what were they demoted to? how does that work?

as atrocious as some of these games have been over the years, has a single ref ever been fired? are they reprimanded, suspended for a period of time? if not then this system is totally broken.

that seems a bit extreme for every game. maybe take one once a month? better yet have a quality control team that also looks into this to check for discrepancies. something to keep this game honest especially in this day and age of legal gambling.

the first paragraph is exactly why the officials should be full time employee's for their benefit as well as ours. they should have salary and benefits no different than the players or any other hired employee. i think also if they were given rule changes by the league that they intended to implement, officials should be able to review the rules to see if they would not only be of benefit but whether they could be enforced impartially each and every play. if the rules did not meet with the officials agreement then this should be sent back to the league to either fix the problem or cancel the change. agree on the 2nd paragraph but... with a review and regulatory board for officials they would be subject to approval and performance. they would also be subject to maintain integrity both in the spirit of the nfl and for legal ramifications. i believe MLB had some such system back in the day that regulated players and umpires against any gambling or other problems that could involve bribery etc. remember the black sox? the NBA has had a few troubles with crooked officials also if i remember right (i may not be remembering right as i never follow that sport) so it's not like this is something new. it is just something that the nfl may have turned a blind eye to for money. it has been stated that you would need an entire crew to be on the payroll for game fixing to work. that is not true. one official alone can influence the game and it's outcome. shaving points for refs or players has been around for a long time and has been regulated in the past. with a review board this would be a lot easier to control full time employee's. also the fear of being fired would certainly deter most officials.

didn't they just used to use the game ball for punts and kicking field goals? wasn't the teams able to use their ball that they handed to the ref like the brady deflated situation? it's been so long ago and quite frankly i never paid that much attention back then because it was usually a max of 50 yds consistently with the exception of the guy from the rams with a half foot and flat ended shoe.

after watching these new kickoff rules for some time now i truly dislike them. especially in tight games with time running out the field position caused by this new rule is atrocious. it starts teams out on a drive 2 first downs from kicking 60 yard plus field goals to win (somebody riddle me this... the nfl existed for 90+ years and a 50 yard field goal was considered nearly impossible. now it's almost like an extra point.). add to that mess, it eliminates legitimate on side kicks with this nonsense. if they are worried about injuries, make a rule that all special team players have to wear those helmets that help protect against concussions. add to that if they want to make all ST players wear knee support or whatever else to limit injury. thoughts?

the only solution i can see is if CONGRESS does the same thing they did with MLB and the juicers. bring GOD elle, his cronies and a few OWNERS up before a committee under oath and ask them why the NFL can't afford to not only pay for FULL TIME refs but review these bad calls and non calls and ask why this is happening. ask what involvement gambling has in regards to the honesty and integrity of the NFL. ask why these refs are not held accountable like any other job or sport. suspensions or flat out firings. ask why the nfl itself is not asking these questions. full time employed refs should be able to figure out how to amend the rules and regulations to make calls more consistent and get rid of rules that can't be enforced in each and every game. if not they lose their jobs just like anyone else. also held accountable for any bribery by ANYONE which would result in legal repercussions for fraud and jail time. also any tax breaks or subsidies the nfl gets is subject to being removed. money talks and bullshit walks.

it's a new era in the nfl. gambling cartels in all probablility decide who wins games and who loses or at least the spread on points and probably about a hundred different things that can be bet upon. it's not even close anymore. the refs can choose to shave points or decide who wins or loses on selective penalties and calls during multiple games every week. they control the clock and the flow of each and every game which in turn controls the scores or other gambling points. is there any investigation into these allegations? certainly not. too much money is involved. the nfl itself is either complicit with this or just plain stupid, the same is for the owners. the rules that they implement are so ambiguous that there is no right or wrong calls which lets these semi pro part time officials make calls however they want without ANY repercussions thus leading into corruption. bad call? no problem, see you next week. need a new vacation for you and your family? no problem. someone out there is willing to pay you. the nfl is a multi billion dollar corporation that is now sucking money out of gambling cartels through advertising and other means of income. YET... they can't afford to hire FULL TIME employee's that are accountable to being promoted or FIRED? do they receive any benefits other than salary? do they even have a department that monitors these temps for honesty and integrity? unless there is government intervention with threats to the nfl in regards to tax regulations or some other means that will cost the MONEY you won't see the nfl policing themselves. so... are we watching a sport anymore or just an exhibition similar to all star wrestling? inquiring minds want to know

simple... block him and ignore any posts he makes. give the rest of us a BREAK!!

this tit-for-tat flame war has BURNED out!! i'm sick of it and i assume others on here are also. it's repetitive/redundant and quite frankly boring as hell. the flames are as creative as copy and paste material from an instruction manual on how to use a sewing machine. watching three grown men go on for months trying to get in the last word on here is plainly enough. nobody gives a shit anymore who is right or wrong. all three of you contribute to this site when you give us Bear's info and are interesting and very informative and nobody wants anybody to leave. but you are wasting our time clicking on threads containing this BS. SOLUTION: i think there is a button or link on here to block/ignore certain posters. give us a freakin break and use it. To Admins: post a button or link in plain site for these guys will you?