Bang

Buy. Nowhere to go but up for the Saints,, eyeing the bottom third of the rankings seems about right, even for an overrated Ryan. Buy or Sell: Cristian Ponder steps up and becomes the passer the Vikings are going to need to advance to the next level of the playoffs. ~Bang

Sorry folks, it took a long time for this to get rolling and of course i miss a day or three and boom, it picks up. Sorry to have been 'that guy" ~Bang

I voted for Lynch.. he's not the prettiest, he's not the fastest,, but damn if he isn't a BEAST of a running back. ~Bang

Lets hear your top Hall of Fame Snubs. These are guys who should be in, but are not. (They must be eligible) try not to be homer, and give your reasons why they should be in. For an added treat, those who post can vote on the guys others have posted. Not all.. but if you agree with one, let it be known. I'll start with 2 running backs Ricky Watters. 10 year career. 10,643 rushing yards, 4,248 receiving yards 14,891 total yards 78 TDs rushing / 13 receiving (91 total) Super Bowl ring Super Bowl record (3 TDs in a game) Durable, played in at least 13 games in all but this final season. 7 straight years of 16 game seasons. through the mid-90s you'd be hard pressed to find a runner more feared in the NFl. Not necessarily better or worse.. but feared. teams knew that Barry, Emmit, Robert Smith, etc.. they knew those guys were a defensive nightmare.. but Watters was nastier than those guys. He laid licks, pummelled people and laughed in their face. He'd bust the other team up while running all over the damn place with the ball. He doesn't get a look because of his attitude buying him no friends in the press, but he largely is overlooked when discussing running backs, especially from the era of smith and Sanders. And of course Roger Craig. how this guy isn't in, I dont' know.. we know it's a team game, and the Hall is about individual achievement, but every guy who's bust is in there knows they aren't there if not for every other guy they played with. Craig's stats aren't too shabby: over 8k rushing and nearly 5k receiving. AND, he was a vital part of that TEAM that was so dominant. And not just the 49ers Nifty stat; Craig played for three teams in his 11 years: the 49ers, Raiders, and Vikings. His teams went to the playoffs in every single year of his career, and there's no one else that can say that who played so long. Craig was just a great football player, and as we've seen with some guys who were on great teams who have gotten in not necessarily on their own numbers, Craig certainly deserves that recognition. Your turn ~Bang

Frankly, i'd rather the be forced to wear a cup. Some of those guys leave nothing to the imagination in HD. ~Bang

This is what happens to society when everyone must bend over backwards to avoid lawsuits. We are an overly litigious society conditioned by an overstuffed legal profession to consider every unfortunate occurrence as if we are victims of someone else's negligence. This is why elementary schools ban games of 'tag' all the way up to why the NFL must cover every one of it's possible bases before some lawyer convinces an ex-player that he can't walk because his football coach employer did not require him to wear knee pads. the best way to avoid a lawsuit is to not allow anything that can be used against you by the bottom-feeders who treat our legal system like an ATM machine. Practically every dumbass WTF decision like this can be traced back to fear of litigation. ~Bang

Tier 1 RGIII - Made it once, why not again? If he maintains what he's done he has a real shot. Trent Williams - Our beast of a left tackle. Routinely holds his own against the best pass rushers in the league. Tier 2 London Fletcher - Ageless wonder. go ahead and tell him he's old and can't have another 140+ tackle season. Alfred Morris - if the run game stays strong Ryan Kerrigan- With orakpo back he may get a lot more shots at the quarterback Tier 3 Brian Orakpo - Needs to show up Pierre garcon - dark horses can run, right? Kai Forbath.. Kobra Kai Kan Kick! ~Bang

Hard to argue those numbers for that criteria. Poor Matt Flynn. Nice guys and Raiders always finish last. ~Bang

Alright, i don't get it. Patiently waiting. ~Bang

sounds like fun. ~Bang

As a Redskins fan, the thing i particularly like about RG3 is that he does have the arm and accuracy to transition into the pocket passer they all must inevitably become. So long as his knee doesn't shorten his career, i like the future, and so long as the coaches evolve the offense to match his abilities at each stage of his career, it could be party time here in Washington soon. ~Bang

i DO like my Kool-Aid. ~Bang

While i'd agree, there still is that pesky fact that pocket or runner, they all get hurt. A running Qb MAY take 20 hits per game, if he's running like a running back and not using his slide, or the wide open broken field a QB on the run often sees is not there. A pocket guy may take fewer hits, but the chance is higher that he's going to get blasted simply because throwing leaves him in a very vulnerable position. There's more traffic that can accidentally cause him an injury. very very few Qbs take every snap, and when they do it's usually pointed out. Eli Manning has never been hurt.. and he's about the only guy I can think of that can say that. sorry,, don't mean to hijack. ~Bang

I think Cam's biggest problem last year was his attitude in press conferences.. it made small issues magnified, and gave the press something to seize upon. ~Bang

I'd buy into the whole myth of "running QB = hurt QB" if every other non running Qb in the NFL managed to not get hurt. but since they do, and at an alarming rate, i will point out that the Read Option is actually a fairly safe offense for the quarterback. namely, because he is in complete control. If the opening is there, he can keep it and go until it's time to slide. If it's not, he puts the ball in the RBs gut and gets a flag if anyone touches him. defenses can look at all the film they want, but unless they figure out how to get the DE to guess right on which one of them will have the ball, or they can somehow avoid the flags that come with hitting a Qb after he's handed off, the offense is still going to cause mismatch problems. RG3 got hurt last year on a couple of fluke plays, and NEITHER of them were read option runs. Both of them were broken plays with a scramble to avoid pressure, something every QB in the NFL has to do from time to time. (An injury on a scramble cost Alex Smith his job.. and he's not considered a " running QB", is he?) The last play RG3 got hurt on wasn't even with the ball in his hands,, the ball was snapped in the dirt, and his foot caught in that awful turf when he went down for it. Most quarterbacks take an injury during the season. It may not force them all to miss time, but chances are high they will miss some.. be it a half or a game or five games or what have you. Last year 48 quarterbacks threw 30 passes or more. 39 QBs threw more than 170 passes. Somehow i doubt very much that all those Qbs that missed time are runners. In fact, I'd bank my last buck that most of them are not considered runners at all. Is Matthew Stafford a runner? His history of injuries is ridiculous, and it happens in the pocket. even the best of them.. Manning missed a year for hits taken in the pocket, Brady missed a season for a shot taken in the pocket. Running does not result in injury any more or less than being a pocket passer. Every defender is looking to kill the QB on every play, not just the ones where he's off and running. And in the pocket they're more vulnerable when they take a hit. To the topic, it's hard to say who will suffer the Soph Slump, since all of these QBs seem to have pretty solid teams around them. Cam went through his slump, but the Panthers aren't very good as a whole. the 49ers are defending NFC champs, the seahawks are pretty solid, the redskins have talent, and so do the colts.. moreso than most of the Qbs that go through the Slump. Most of the time a rookie phenom QB leads his team to 8-8.. 7-9 (Sam Bradford) and people get excited because typically they're elevating a bad team... then the slump happens because the team can't live up to the expectation. (Cam, for example,, nice rookie year,, but the overall record of the team was a game better last year. so is that a slump?) In all but the Colts case, these teams have been building for a bit before inserting the young QB, so there's a bit more substance to work with. I'll make the bold assumption and say none of them will have a standard Soph Slump. ~Bang

just to throw this out there.. how much of the Colts' surprising success could be attributed to the emotional "lift" if you will of playing for a cause such as a seriously ill head coach? I'm thinking not a whole lot, but the ability to reach down for the emotional inspiration is there. Sometimes a player or a team has nothing left in a game except something like that, and they can serve as a lifter over the short term. ("Win one for the Gipper!", and such.) Luck played great, the defense really stepped up, and Reggie Wayne deserves a LOT of credit for giving his rookie QB the reliable veteran presence that often isn't translated when a young QB comes in after a legend has gone. I guess the main question here, of the hotshot young QBs, who's got the highest chance of a Sophomore Slump? (I count Kaepernick even though he's not a rookie.) Assuming everyone stays healthy, i'm thinking Wilson. for no other reason than I hope it's Wilson. I think of the group, they're the least conventional in that they expect and get more out of players who might not be able to do the same in another uniform. ~Bang

Ugh,, as a fantasy owner of McFadden in a dynasty league, he is the single most frustrating guy in the league.. he has every bit of what it takes to be the best RB in the NFL, but damn, he just can't stay on the field. "If he stays healthy" is a very BIG if for him. I won't hold my breath. ~Bang

Bronco fans can be happy knowing Champ Bailey will be going in the Hall of Fame, and IMO, he is and always has been better than Revis, and just about every other cornerback that has played over the last decade. IF Revis wants to be in there with Champ one day, he's going to have to do what Champ did, and that is change teams and remain dominant. It doesn't always happen. ~Bang

That rushing attack in Washington was in large part due to the multiple threat RG3 presents. It was nice to see Morris banging into linebackers 5 yards downfield, because half the DL was keyed on something else. I think Luck is greatness in the making. But I'm glad my team got RG3. ~Bang

If t's who are the worst guys yur franchise ever had, hell, i need a whole mountain range.. but for the recent past.. 1. Dan Snyder and Viny Ceratto. Along with them are a ton of bad pickups. 2. Albert Haynesworth. No need to say more. 3. Andre Johnson (Who? exactly. He was our first round pick in like 1996 or so.. he never played a fucking down. No injuries. He just sucked.) 4. Norv Turner - rescue me from ineptitude, gosh n golly, gee whiz. ~Bang

Maybe it's just me, but if a coach can get you to that point, i don't think i'd fire him fo making a mistake that costs you a trip to the next round. There's WAY too many coaches out there that cant' get to that level to begin with, that I think you have to trust that Fox learned his lesson. Unless Peyton gets him fired. ~Bang

Howdy, Martin Well as to the eagles OL, I say Show Me. They may get healthy, but really, i think the Eagles have handed the ball off maybe 34 times n the last ten years. "Throw it 75% of the time" Reid is gone. We'll see what they can do in a new scheme. Their run game has been anything but conventional, and the guys they have coming back may take some retraining. You know about old dogs and new tricks.. I'm skeptical. ~Bang

Actually, everyone on that list has a seat that is very warm. Shelf life for a coach these days is 3 years tops. Produce, or get out. Some guys like Schwartz have been given everything you'd think he would need. Other guys like garret work for an idiot who thinks he's given everything he needs. And then there's Rex Ryan, who just like all of the Ryans is a blowhard loudmouth, and what we've seen out of him is the best it's going to get. ~Bang

A couple of Raiders.. Kenny Stabler.. the Snake led one of the best teams of the 70s. Other than the Steelers, they were the team to beat in the AFC in that era. Stabler has so many signature plays it's not even funny, and while some of them may be a load of crap, like the fumble-rooski, the fact is it was legal, and he used it to win a very important game. But if you'd like to discount that for being cheap, he is also part of the famous Sea of Hands, thrown as he was going down, and effectively ending the Dynasty of the Dolphins in the early 70s. the Ghost to the Post.. he threw that. The Raiders were going deep, and Stabler was the Raiders. In John Madden's first book (Hey wait a Minute, I wrote a book, a MUST read for football fans.. really a GREAT BOOK.), he tells the story of the playoff game in Baltimore in which the Snake led them down with no time on the clock to win the game. As they neared the end zone, someone called timeout and Stabler was standing there just looking around while Madden was yelling and screaming the play to him. After madden yelled and was making sur Snake got it all, Stabler looked at him and said "Boy, these people sure got their money's worth today, didn't they?".. then he went in called his own play, and won the game. If you recognize how good the Raiders were in their heyday, you have to recognize their leader. You'd be hard pressed to find a QB with more poise under pressure. and everyone would expect me to say Ray Guy, but no, no way does a guy who gives the ball away get in the Hall, no no no. Tom Flores. The guy won two Super Bowls. How many other coaches with multiple rings get left out? One of the guys he beat is a Hall member already, Joe Gibbs, and the other one might be.. Dick Vermiel. If they put Whiny ol' Dick in before Flores, there's a problem. ~Bang

Well, King Dunlap is gone,, which is good news for you. That guy was horrid. ~Bang