nfoligno

Balta, see the link provided. Chicago Tribune

Prices go up now, so I don't think it matters. season tickets will go up, but I am not sure single game tickets would increase more than otherwise. I am for it. You say you like the 16 game season, but the season used to be 14 games, and pretty much every argument you are making today was made then, and you like the expanded league (from 14 to 16). Personally, while I think owners are serious, part of me wonders if this isn't part of the negotation process. A chip they have which they are willing to give up in exchange for something else. Similar, on the other side, I think the union is willing to move to a form of draft payscale, but they will not give that chip away for nothing, and will want something in return.

I think it will be a shortened season. Despite TV revenue, many smaller market owners will feel the pinch w/o game day profits. At the same time, while players like Peppers will feel nothing at the loss of a game check, many many more will feel the sting big time. Though the minimum is more than most any on this board makes, players live as though they make 10 times as much, and when those checks are not in the mail, they will press the union to make a deal. So while I would love to believe we have a full season, I fear it will take the loss of a couple games to really pressure both sides. Its one thing to know how much you will lose, and another thing when you open a mailbox and the check aint there.

Don't schedule a parade for the spring Hey, you know how I feel about Lovie. I was in the minority saying we made the SB in spite of Lovie. I never liked the hire, and hated the extension. But at the same time, the reality is he will likely be here next year. I think it would take a Detroit like tanking for the owners to dump him w/ time left on his deal and the CBA still up in the air. Team isn't going to pay two coaches for a season that may not happen.

I believe we will have a season, but either (a) the CBA is agreed on just before the season starts or ( we miss some games before there is a new CBA. I don't believe we lose the entire season. If the CBA is in doubt, I don't see the team making a move. Even if a new CBA is agreed on, it will likely be too late in the offseason to make any major coaching changes. Thus another year of Lovie.

Agreed, but with the CBA issues, we likely get him for another year.

Don't get me wrong. I am plenty concerned, especially when you combine an iffy OL with Martz' system. For whatever reason, I still simply have a level of hope. On the defensive side, I have less hope.

Bowling was the 10th, but was on the fence last I heard. i think he was sent a msg asking if he is in or not. If he is in, great. If not, I doubt it will prove too difficult to find someone to take his spot.

PapaBear votes for #1 also.

I believe Drunk is going to set up the same service (online) we used last year. Not sure how smart it is to trust the money part to a drunk, but .....

One. I think most should have expected this line to be pretty poor early on, but the hope is they improve over time. New faces at new places, youth and a new system are going to make for some rough going early on. Two. Something to also consider is, the staff is keeping players in one-on-one situations and not game planning so as to evaluate players. If this were a game, I think Tice would have likely provided Williams some support, but as he is trying to evaluate Williams, he left him alone. The bad is Cutler could get killed before the season begins, but the good is (hopefully) such weak performances will not necessarily carry over into the season. The OL was always the top concern on offense, and continues to be. We just have to hope they can continue to develop and mesh together. Honestly, I am more worried about the D at this point. It has looked pretty dang bad, and there are far fewer excuses as we have a D loaded with veterans, many/most of which have played in this same system for some time.

Okay, we are nearly done finalizing our rules. Thus far, we have voted on and decided that we will keep one player from last year. To keep that player, we will give up one round higher than the one the player was drafted. And finally, 1st round picks from the previous year are not eligible for keeper status. The final decision (I think) is how we set up the draft. I have seen several options listed, but again, based on discussion, and trying to keep it simple, I am going to put into the poll the two main options I think I have seen discussed. Pretty simple. Either the draft is random, or based on last year's standings. I vote random.

DT: I like some of the things Melton did last game, Toeina too. They were inconsistent on pressure but definitely showed up on several plays. If we're keeping 5 DTs it looks like Harris, Adams, Harrison, Melton, Toeina and surprisingly I feel a lot better about our depth here today than I did 3 weeks ago. Don't mistake that for confidence across the board it's just that coming into camp there were a ton of questions among this group with Adams being the only consistently reliable player for us last year. I am still iffy on Melton, but that is likely more due to pre-draft bias. I loved the article I read the other day about Toeina. Honestly though, Harrison is really the one to focus on for me. The others may offer nice depth, but I expect little more. For this position to stabalize, I think we really need to see Harrison step up. DE: Corey Wootton didn't do much last game. Jarron Gilbert did less. Can't see who's going to win this battle for the 4th DE spot but my money is on the rookie to step up the next few games now that he's gotten the first game jitters out of the way. Or to put it another way, if Gilbert makes it as our 4th DE we're in trouble. See above. While I like some of what I read about Wooten in camp, Anderson is the key for me. I think we basically know what we are going to get from Idonije, but to see a pass rush, I think we need to see more from Anderson opposite Peppers. CB: I would like to see Corey Graham (really anyone) step up as a solid NB for us. Not sure the Raiders are the right team to judge this against but it's game two and we should start seeing something good if it's there even if it's inconsistent. It sounds as if Graham can at least be a decent backup CB for us on the corners this year but we need to fill this NB role. Toss in Josh Moore (or again anyone) to show we have some more depth at CB. Tim Jennings? DJ Moore? Is Woodny even in camp? Agreed here. The nickel is about far more than just depth, and we need to see someone really take over that spot. RBs: How about some better blitz pickups? I didn't see the last game, but I read we actually did well picking up the blitz. There were a couple plays missed that were made a big deal about, but then I also read how much the other team blitzed and that we picked up most of them. I agree we need to see solid work in this area, but simply am not sure how bad we performed in the first game. Missed a couple, but as much as they blitzed, overall may not have been bad. Oline: Louis is strong but was often beat initially off the snap. Once he got his base anchored he was often able to hold his block. Can he get it right at the snap? Omiyale, same deal, can we fire off the line and make some holes? Can anyone make a hole for a RB? I suspect our real backup Center is Garza not Beekman, especially after what I saw last week. Not sure about Asiata but if it's him, Beekman, and Shaffer as our backups I only see one solid player in the three. Key for me is simply seeing development and progression. This OL is not going to look great for some time, if ever, but what I think is really important is to see continual development. WR: I like where our starters (all three) are at and expect a step up in performance this week. Juaquin Iglesias can you step up or will I be watching Rashied Davis for another year? This of course includes what Iglesias does on special teams. I would like to see DA used a bit more, earlier. I would like to see us use Olsen more too. And as you said, I would really like to see Iglesias step up. From what I read, Davis has actually surpassed Bennett on the depth chart. Some may say that is a good thing, as Davis may fit this system, but I still just feel he has a very low ceiling, in any system, and would rather the young guys step up.

Pretty much agreed all around. I am not too worried about Olsen. I have not read about him dropping a lot of passes, so I think it may be more a matter of (as you said) playing him downfield like a WR, and if you are a field stretcher, your % is going to be lower. Ironic about Davis. All I have read about was how great he has been looking in camp, even moving ahead of Bennett on the depth chart, but his % is really low, especially for a WR who likely does a lot more short/mid range work rather than downfield.

LOL. Hey, that just means you need to talk on the boards more By the way, I am not sure whether best to use a section on this board, or on the yahoo site, but one thing I missed last year in our FF league was a bit of trash talk (though my team was not really good enough to talk trash). Regardless, that is part of the fun with FF and something I would like to see more of this year.

Slowly but surely we are getting there. I voted no 1st round keeper. As before, while the poll will not reflect it, Papabear has said he also would vote for the first option of no 1st round keepers.

Okay, poll one is in the books, and option 2 won. So as of now, we are keeping one player (based on last year's vote) and we give up one round ahead of when that player was drafted. As a follow up to this, I want to bring to the table the question of keeping a player who was drafted in the 1st round of last year. This is in particular a bit of an issue as you can't give up a round higher than the 1st round the player was taken. What I thought a potential option here, if we want to keep 1st rounders, would be to make the person keeping a 1st round player pick at the top of the round. For example, I took Steven Jackson in the 1st last year. Lets say I want to keep him this year. I would move to the front of the draft, and give up my 1st round pick. Thus, my penalty for keeping that player is that I (a) give up max value (top pick) for him and ( my 2nd pick is not until the end of round two. I am not sure how else we can effectively keep a round one player while keeping the same mentality of losing a round up. What I am going to put into this poll are three options (a) no first round keepers ( the above description and © other.

PapaBear votes for #2 also, but doesn't visit this site, so that makes 6. I'll start a poll for the next issue.

Sulster, how we deal with the 1st round will be (IMHO) the follow up poll if option 2 wins in the first poll. That is at least my plan. Keep everything as simple as possible and get each question answered before moving to the next. Also, and I am not sure how to do this, but my friend (who is not on this board) votes for option 2 as well. I can't vote twice, so I dont' know how to put that in other than just stating it. So we option 2 thus far has 3 votes.

in truth i don't think lovie is a very good DC either. i think he is like the proverbial one trick pony who just doesn't move beyond past success into the nfl future through innovation and change. This is actually something I argued in the past. Really, has Lovie ever run a good defense? He was a position coach in TB. In Stl he ran the defense, but were they that good. Hell no. They forced a lot of turnovers and generated a solid amount of sacks, which sounds great, but they also gave up a lot of points. Stl had an amazing offense. That offense was so good it quickly made games lopsided, and once that happened, teams were forced to become one dimensional. Once that happened, the DL could pin their ears back and attack the QB, and the secondary could more easily defense as there was little fear of the run. This led to a lot of sacks and turnovers, but this same defense also gave up a lot of points. Stl won a ton of games under Lovie as DC, but they were still giving up a lot of points and winning due to the offense putting up 30+ per game. Hell, at times they would have that many points by halftime. I agree Lovie does not adapt his scheme to the talent around him, either on defense or to adjust to the offense he has. I am only questiong that past success aspect of you post.

I have read many times the staff talking about playing more aggressive, but had not read we were planning to play press coverage. I did read that our DBs were playing some press coverage in practice, but that was for the offense. On offense, Drake and Martz wanted our WRs to work on beating the press. The only way to do that is to have the DBs press them in practice. But this was done in order to help the offense, not because our defense was planning on making such a change.

Okay, enough discussion. Time to make some firm decisions as the date of the draft is fast approaching. In my eyes, we need to keep everything simple, thus why there are only two options. Please, only FF Keeper league owners vote.

One keeper is more based on last years vote than anything. We can't agree on crap right now, so the one thing we did vote and agree on, I didn't want to jus scrap and put that on the table too. If the group chooses to vote again, fine. Hell, I have 4 players I would love to keep, so that would be fine with me on some level. I just question putting that back on the table when we are having as much trouble with the other issues. I will see if I can put together a poll.

Just to point out, I have been one of the biggest Angelo critics. You are preaching to the choir when discussing his weak drafting record, and I would add FA record as well. Heck, I would throw in also the number of players we re-signed that seemed to go downhill soon after. And this does not even touch on his coaching record. No, I have been a high ranking officer in the Angelo sucks club for many years now. Even when we first hired him, I was not a fan, and felt then that Hatley was a better personnel man, but I was blasted because at the time, most fans were simply happy to have a legit GM as opposed to the pathetic structure we had prior. 1. then you see no need for a GM to draft well to keep his job? Not what I am saying at all. I am not talking in general, but specific to Angelo and today. IMHO, whether Hester starts or not carries very little weight as to the evaluation of Angelo. If this team sucks this year, IMHO, it would not matter if Hester has a 1,600 yard and 16 TD season. Not even that would save Angelo. 2. if you don't agree angelo is pushing certain players like hester who are the key to his GM survial then who do you think is making hesters case and downplaying the only person qualified (martz) to even understand how an offense is run? is it lovie the offensive genius when he isn't the defensive genius who thinks hester is the best WR on our roster? who? I would agree Angelo has in the past pushed for Hester some, but ultimately, I think it is Lovie who is more pushing Hester. When Lovie was asked about Hester, after Martz' comments, he was very quick and decisive to state that Hester is their starter. I am not sure Angelo would have spoken with Lovie about Hester yet at that point in the offseason. Maybe they had spoken in the past, but personnel is fluid each year, and at the end of the day, I simply think it is Lovie who is pushing him. Why? I am not truly sure. But I am not sure Angelo has much more reason to push for Hester than Lovie does. As I said above, I just don't feel Hester is key to Angelo's evaluation, so I don't see Angelo making the big push for him. While Lovie may not have a great grasp of offense, that doesn't mean he doesn't meddle. Remember who was first to make sure fans knew we would still be a run first offense. Lovie. I am not sure if that will really be the case, but Lovie was the one sticking to the "get off the bus running" mantra even after Martz was hired. I doubt that came from Angelo. So despite Lovie not being an offensive background coach, he still meddles on that side of the ball. IMHO, at the end of the day, I do not believe it is as set in stone as some believe that Hester is a lock as a starter. If Hester stunk it up in camp, while DA did well, I think Hester would be moved to the slot. But Hester, by most reports, has had a very good camp. Thus he likely keeps the starting job. I guess my points are (a) Lovie is the one pushing for Hester and ( despite that, if Hester didn't have a good camp, Martz would have the final say and demote Hester.

angelo is on the hot seat for his job (or at least if this organization was competent he would be). he has failed in the most important duties a GM can perform. he has failed to hire a good coaching staff and has failed over the last 8 years to draft quality ball players to fill his roster. every chance he gets he is wanting to push what few draft picks did turn out whether they deserve it or not just to keep his job. do you disagree with that? I know there are times when a GM is going to push "his" players, especially higher draft picks. Especially when that GM has a hit/miss record like Angelo's. At the same time, there are a few additional thoughts. One. I think this is far more true for 1st rounders (especially higher 1st rounders) than for later picks, including even 2nd rounders. When you miss on a high pick, it really hurts the team financially. 2nd rounders (and beyond) just are not that expensive. Same logic is true for FAs. Team will push their more expensive FAs often, even if they are not playing well, due to the investment. When a high pick or FA fails, it looks really bad on the GM. It looks bad if a 2nd round pick fails, but not nearly as much. Two. While it may hurt when a draft pick fails at a position, you also have to look at who could be taking that spot. For example, DA is an Angelo find. Thus if DA takes the spot from Hester, does Angelo not get credit for finding DA? If Payne wins the job over DM, does he not get credit for drafting Payne. Again, it is one thing if we are talking about a high draft pick, but otherwise, I am not sure how big the knock on the GM is if another player he added wins the job. Three. At the end of the day, it really is far more about wins and losses. If the team wins with DA and loses with Hester, would it not be in Angelo's best interst for DA to start? I get that Angelo is on the hot seat, but I am not sure I agree that Angelo would be pushing certain players because he believes those players are key to his survival. The true key to his survival is the success of the team.