Optimism Growing Exponentially Today...
1. Westy is back on the practice field. And to think, we've moved the ball up and down against the starters for Pittsburgh and Baltimore, 2 of the best defenses in the league, without him.
2. We just signed one of the fastest and best big-play receivers in the NFL to add another weapon to 5's arsenal. No more Thrash/Pinkston, Johnson/Small. No, 5's got some legit fast, skilled young WRs to throw to now.
3. Sim, the Reno Mahe of our LB core, is gone.
4. Buck is back. and I don't want to hear another g-damned word about bringing Duce back. Sure, we all loved Duce. When he was in his 20s. Now, he's slow and too fat. We held him last week to 21 yards on 11 carries. Is that the kind of production you want out of your backfield? If so, just keep Reno. I think you guys just want someone who's name rhymes with "boo." In that case, when Buck scores, just yell "dooooooooooooo-bage!"
5. Akers is back. Tell me losing him to injury didn't cost us at least 2 games last year (think OT vs. the Giants?)
6. Howard might be the best free-agent signing of this offseason, and our best D-lineman, to boot.
7. D-mac looks sharp, trimmed down, elusive in the pocket, and he's making good decisions.
8. The D-line has gotten pressure all preseason, mainly with just a 4-man rush, and it look like it will carry over into the regular season (or at least on opening day against the Texans, who gave up the most sacks in the NFL last year...)
9. Trotter is ready to split some wigs... and if yo mamma comes on teh field, he'll split her wig!
10. AND LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, Weapon X is playing like a MAN POSSESSED, God-Dawg it!!!
2. We just signed one of the fastest and best big-play receivers in the NFL to add another weapon to 5's arsenal. No more Thrash/Pinkston, Johnson/Small. No, 5's got some legit fast, skilled young WRs to throw to now.
3. Sim, the Reno Mahe of our LB core, is gone.
4. Buck is back. and I don't want to hear another g-damned word about bringing Duce back. Sure, we all loved Duce. When he was in his 20s. Now, he's slow and too fat. We held him last week to 21 yards on 11 carries. Is that the kind of production you want out of your backfield? If so, just keep Reno. I think you guys just want someone who's name rhymes with "boo." In that case, when Buck scores, just yell "dooooooooooooo-bage!"
5. Akers is back. Tell me losing him to injury didn't cost us at least 2 games last year (think OT vs. the Giants?)
6. Howard might be the best free-agent signing of this offseason, and our best D-lineman, to boot.
7. D-mac looks sharp, trimmed down, elusive in the pocket, and he's making good decisions.
8. The D-line has gotten pressure all preseason, mainly with just a 4-man rush, and it look like it will carry over into the regular season (or at least on opening day against the Texans, who gave up the most sacks in the NFL last year...)
9. Trotter is ready to split some wigs... and if yo mamma comes on teh field, he'll split her wig!
10. AND LAST, BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST, Weapon X is playing like a MAN POSSESSED, God-Dawg it!!!
posted by J Dubs at 11:22 AM
11 Comments:
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Not another word about Duce coming back huh? I'll give you 100 words instead...first of all, you're full of sh*t and you're channeling Spadaro again with your over-optimism.
1) Buck has been "back" for the last 3 or 4 years. Face it, there's a slim possibility that he'll be Comeback Player of the Year, but that was Theismann's comment - and he's a knucklehead. Buck has proved NOTHING over the years and has a long, long way to go to be back. My prediction is that when the regular season gets started, his knees are going to take a beating and he's not going to have much pop left my mid-season. I don't like thinking about that - I admire the guy for coming back, but it's preseason dude and we've been down this path many times before with him and others. Remember last year for instance when we had no worries at all about our offense during preseason ball, then Atlanta embarassed us? To sum up on Buck, not many players fully recover from devastating injuries like Buck has had, and I'm crossing my fingers that he's the exception, but he's a long way from being back.
2) Stallworth is indeed a solid improvement, but he's not going to produce TO numbers...not that he has to however. Have you looked at McNabb's stats when he had TO to throw to? A ridiculous spike in 2004 from previous years, but he didn't play much differently personally, other than staying in the pocket more (because he could). I'm hoping to see a bump in his numbers again this year, but it won't be dramatic like 2004 unless he does it on his own. We don't have guys who can get YAC like TO could. True, DS was a Saint working in their broken offense, but he had 70 catches for 945 yards - not a lot of YAC there with an average of 13.5 yards per catch. And nothing long! (One 40+ play). DS will be much better under our system though, so his receptions might jump as well as his averages. I'm hopeful, but not nearly sold yet. JDubs has already canonized this guy and he hasn't proven anything yet - he had one good year.
3) As for Dawkins, he is indeed in mid-season form and at this rate, will be a Pro Bowl lock by game 4.
4) Trot too. Gonna be amazing this year.
5) We still need a hard nosed RB and Duce is that kind of guy, old or not. Bettis was still getting tough yards for the Stillers last year and he was older than Duuuuuce. Duce is gonna be just fine this year and we would only need him for the tough yards, not the off tackle and outside runs.
6) Where's your Truckdriver now?
1. Buck is as back as being on this roster makes him back - Perry will be gone, and Duce is not coming, get over it. Your love for Duce (and love for calling me an optimist) is blinding you. Who the F in this league needs a back that will get them 2 yards a carry? Not much good having that short-yardage back when he's getting stopped in the backfield, and your team never runs on short yardage anyway... Duce is in serious jeapardy of getting cut by the Stillers, as in, he can't even make that team as their 3rd RB, and Bettis is gone, meaning he would be their short-yardage back if they kept him. The past 2 games, they've said "Duce will be playing for his job." When you're "playing for your job" in teh last 2 preseason games (when the roster guys are in street clothes), you suck. You must've been one of teh "Let's get Eddie George" guys after his ypc dropped to like 1 inch per. Besides, no room for him. Perhaps you'd like to clear up a roster spot for ol' Duce by cutting Akers?
2. Where in my Stallworth comments did I cannonize the kid? I said 5 has legit, speedy, young receivers to throw to, nothing more nothing less. DS is a deep threat, has legit 4.2 speed (track and game speed), hasn't reached his full potential yet, and was playing behind Joe Horn, one of the consensus top WRs in the game. The rest remains to be proven.
What does it take to make you haters happy? We get the best F.A. possible at the best price, and it's "Waaa, he's no T.O." You want TO back, really? I'm sure Jerry Jones would be happy to give him back. We needed a speedy receiver to stretch the field, and we got one. He's put up better #s than Lelie and Branch in a crappy offense on a crappy team with a crappy QB playing in a different state b/c his was under friggin' water. There is no other TO. TO is one of the best 2 or 3 WRs in the league. Did you think we'd be able to pick up one of the best 2-3 WRs in the league this offseason? We tried for Javon. Tried for Lelie. Got (and will likely cut) Gaffney. Drafted 2 guys, 1 of which will play, and traded McBusten for another. Give it a chance...
1) Well, I never wanted Eddie George.... but who on this team is going to get the hard yards for us? EVERY ANALYST (including legit ones like Clayton and Mortensen) has said that one of our biggest weaknesses is our poor running game. You don't see that weakness? We couldn't run at all last year. That's why we had to pass 70% of the time and defenses were shutting us down. When it's 3rd and goal on the 2, who gets it? Should we lob it up in the corner of the endzone? No, we don't have a tall enough WR for that. Should we run up the gut? No, Westbrook is shut down. Should we bootleg McNabb? No, not in our playbook. Generally, you can't win championships without a running game - basic football strategy. Someone like Duce can still get those yards - cut Tapeh, cut Parry if necessary, they both suck anyway. I don't really care about Duce necessarily, but what I care about is pounding the football from time to time. Moats and Mahe up the middle is going to get old after the first half of game 1.
2) DS is a legit deep threat huh? Where do his stats say that? His one 40+ play last year? Ok, he has 4.3 speed - so does Pinkston. and I never said I wanted TO back - in fact, I intentionallly said that DS doesn't have to be like TO in order for McNabb to be successful. Like I said, he's a solid improvement, so that's good news for now; however, he hasn't proven sh*t until he takes the field and does something. It shouldn't have taken this team 5 years to recognize that you need a legit #1 WR in an offense like this. We're always trying to get by on the cheap.
3) What does it take to make us haters happy? A Super Bowl trophy perhaps, or at least a commitment to winning one. When is this team going to commit itself to that ancillary goal? This team is more interested in being a profitable business than putting hardware on the shelf and giving this city something to be proud of. Every year we leave millions of cap room on the table, and we have come oh so close to winning that Trophy. If we would have just bulked up our roster with one or two more stars, maybe that would've been enough. If McNabb just had someone to throw to against Carolina or Tampa Bay....who knows? I do know however that DS is another example of us trying to find bargains everywhere. If he turns out to be one and produces, great. If not, it may be another wasted year. With a team this potentially good, sometimes you need to pay the extra money and get some top skill position players. Why you wouldn't dot hat if you have the money is beyond me. I believe we could have landed those other stars like Walker and Lelie, but the cheapskates in management didn't pull the trigger. I'm definitely happier this year than last year, but cautiously optimistic at best for now.
Oh, boy... so you want us to cut both fulbacks (we're only keeping 1 anyway) in order to get Duce Staley on the roster? I'm not going to even dignify that with a comment! Wait, yes I am... are you F-ing HIGH?!?! I love Duce, too, but let it go!
If you need a yard, THAT'S WHAT THE FULLBACK IS FOR. OR YOU SNEAK THE QB. OR YOU TAKE ANY FAN IN THE STADIUM, PUT A HELMET ON HIM, AND RUN HIM DIRECTLY BEHIND JACKSON, ANDREWS, AND RUNYAN. (Or, just do as Reid would do, pass it on 3rd and 1. They'll never know what hit 'em!)
Yes, DS is a deep threat, as those same analysts will tell you. He is faster than 4.3 speed, he was the fastest WR in the draft in '02, he breaks tackles, he runs great routes, Pinky couldn't catch his jockstrap, and he actually gets off the line of scrimmage, too. Knock him for being immature, knowck him for having some injuries early in his career, knock him for wearing a do-rag, knock him for drunk driving or whatever he did last offseason, knock him for dropping some easy catches, but don't knock his speed - that's totally legit. And Lelie is not a "superstar" WR, he's a bigger big-play guy, but disappears over the middle - essentially Pinky's big brother. Javon Walker is a legit superstar WR, and they tried to get him but GB was not sendnig him to use when they could package him off to Denver. DS also is not really getting by on the cheap, he's going to command easily over $3MM a year, he's making like $1.8MM in this last year of his contract with N.O.
As for hardware, I hear ya. But the FO has paid a lot for TO, Kearse, paid what people say was too much for Howard (though I bet we all agree he'll be worth it), and Stallworth won't come cheap. and this is all in the midst of signing young good players to long-term concracts, extension for B-Dawk, redoing Westy and McNabb's contracts, etc etc. I think they're trying...
As an aside, the random letters I have to type to post this comment spell "fuegij" - that would make a great word. I shall henceforth use it when Breme rips players just because he's salty that Dallas has 5 rings and we have none. FUEGIJ!
ps: Vermeil and another coach had Stallworth timed at 4.18 at UT's pro day in '02. Google it!
FUIGIJ!
First, of all, if anyone is high, it's definitely you. Second, don't use my real name online jacka$$. Third, now you're just mixing things I said around to suit your position. Those "same analysts" you mentioned above in making your point about Stallworth are the Analysts that I was talking about with respect to RUNNING BACKS, not WRs - so, let's stick to one point at a time. As to RUNNING BACKS, what has Parry or Tapeh done for us that Duce couldn't do better now or ever? Parry SUCKS dude - he drops balls routinely and isn't a tough blocker, and Tapeh has shown ZERO so far. Duce is bigger or as big as they are, plus he can catch too and pass protect. Call him a fullback if you want to, I don't care. You have short term memory loss - did you actually watch or do you recall any of the REGULAR season games last year (forget this preseason by the way, it's not an indication of what will happen in regular season)? We couldn't get that tough yard running last season - we were getting stuffed in short yardage situations so we had to pass on 3rd and 2 routinely and defenses saw it coming. Just leads to more Westbrook injuries. This is the last time I'll say this before I throw it back in your face mid-season: you can't win championships without a running game (unless you have a world class WR corps). PERIOD. Now, as to WRs, let's talk about Donte again. All during the Thrash-Pinky-FredEx years, you'd Google me stats and send me pieces about how our WRs were fine, stepping up, etc. whenever I'd critize them. How Pinky had 4.2 speed, Thrash caught this and that, blah blah blah. And every year, we'd make it to the big game and they'd get shut down AGAIN and AGAIN by the best teams. As soon as we got a real WR, BOOM - instant turnaround on McNabb's stats, our offense was unstoppable, etc. Those other guys weren't good enough to play on a World Champ team. Yes, now we at least have a serviceable WR corps - and I'm cautiously optimistic about DS's arrival. But, I want to win SUPER BOWLS, not just make the playoffs. I'll repeat for the third time, I'm not knocking Donte - I'm psyched to have him. And fine, you and the analysts think he's a deep threat - great. Show me on the field, not in his 40 time - his stats don't indicate a deep threat but we'll see. Pinky has a great 40 time too and I've heard from you for years how he was our deep threat ("those weren't alligator arms, he lost the ball in the lights!"). But, I also think in our usual fashion, we're out bargain hunting again. It's the Billy Bean approach except with football - find value everywhere, don't pay for it; except unlike Billy Bean in Oakland, we actually have the money to buy great players but just don't use it because we're CHEAP. We were cheap with TO too last year - his contract was a joke for what he produced for us (although he's an idiot and caused most of the problem). Sometimes you have to pay for performance - the best teams do it. The year after the Pats won the Super Bowl, they acquired Corey Dillon....would the Birds do that? NEVER in a million years (just to clarify, I'm talking about acquiring a star back, not winning a Super Bowl - I understand why you might be confused). Generally, you can't win Super Bowls with an average WR corps and a weak running game. Knock Jerry Jones or whoever who produces results, but at least they have a commitment to winning, whatever the cost.
Dude, you're the only person in the world doubting that is a Stallworth's proven deep threat, or that he was a receiver we picked up on the cheap, so I'll just assume you're channeling Mark Karr or something and ignore it. Honestly, sometimes I erally wonder why you watch this team at all. It can't be fun for you!
And for the last time, Staley, who has been out of our system for 3 years, is old, slow, and fat, and will be cut b/c he can't make it as the 3rd string RB for Pitt., and he is not going to be our fullback! Tapeh was out last year, by the way. So no, he could not have picked up the 1st on 3rd and 2... I think Tapeh beats out Parry this year.
Did I say Breme? I meant Smith!
I don't agree with any of that, but will just say "asked and answered" in response. Plus, I'm outta time to rehash everything I just said that contradicts your responses. Anyway, I watch because I was born in Philly and the Birds will be my team forever. Plus, our faults are the food of discussion on a Blog like this - it's a lot more interesting than talking about how great Dawkins is for the 100th time. If you only want to talk positives all day then join up with Spadaro already and just gush with him.
Staley's #s in the preseason:
42 attempts for 92 yards (2.2 YPC), with a long run of 6.
And he's been "auditioning for a job" the last couple of games, since he's banged up the last 2 years.
Just for comparison's sake:
Reno Mahe's #s this preseason (through the 1st 4 games): 17 for 46 (2.7) with a long of 17.
Buck: 12 for 39 (3.3) long of 13 (+ a 48 yd catch and run)
And the real comparison, b/c, ladies and gentlemen, this is your new short-yardage back:
Tapeh: 6 for 15 (2.5), long of 4, and a TD...
Ah yes, it's all about stats isn't it...
JDubs: "Todd Pinkston has averaged 15.3 yards per catch in his career and TO has only averaged 14.7 yards per catch in his career; therefore, Todd Pinkston is a better receiver."
Julius Jones' numbers for the preseason: 43 for 97 (2.3 average)...looks similar to Duce's doesn't it? I guess Dallas should cut him.
There are "intangibles" that players have that don't show up in statistics. You think Culpepper is a great QB for instance based on his numbers when Randy Moss was around...can he win clutch games? Does he have the QB intellect to be a world champion?
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