Wellness

[Drythe]

Carolina Panthers fan here. We needed some backbone at tackle, but we didn't get it.

Last year at the start of the season I was riding behind the driver of a bus in NY city. We got to talking football and he asked me what team. I told him and he laughed at me. I said well, we'd be better if Cam got some support.

He said, No, Cam likes to be hit, if he didn't he'd throw that d..n ball sooner!

Almost fell off my seat.

[gardenman]

A lot of teams don't put a premium on the lines and hope to get by. That's a big mistake. A good offensive and defensive line can make average players look great, while a bad line can make great players look average.

I'm not sure what to make of the pick of Funchess in the second round by the Panthers. He doesn't have the ball handling/elusiveness you want in a wide receiver, and he's not really strong enough to be a tight end.They say he's a wide receiver, but I suspect he'll be groomed into being a tight end in the next year or two. It's easier to make a weak player strong than it is to make a guy with suspect hands who's not a great route runner into a guy with good hands who runs great routes. He's got great size, but drops a lot of balls and even those he catches he rarely catches them cleanly. He also tends to slow down to make a cut and then is slow to accelerate after making the cut. You've got to love the size, but I'm not sure how impactful he'll ultimately be. (At least in a good way.)

If you don't catch a ball cleanly in the NFL there's usually a db or linebacker there ready to take it from you. If you slow down to make a cut the DB's will be a step ahead of you coming out of the cut. He's going to be an interesting guy to watch. I suspect he'll get tons of coaching over the next few months and he may improve dramatically. If he doesn't, he may be out of the league pretty quickly.

[gardenman]

And the Eagles wrapped up their draft going heavy on defense. The only offensive player drafted was Nelson Agholor the wide receiver in the first round. After that it was all DB's a linebacker and a defensive end. That makes sense as the defense has been the weakest part of the team.

The Cowboys surprised everyone by not drafting one of the good young running backs in a running back heavy draft. I guess Jerry Jones really believes that anyone can run behind that Cowboy offensive line. Randy Gregory is a scary pick for the Cowboys. A lot of scouts think he's got many more problems than just the failed drug test at the combine. There's a belief that he's bi-polar and doesn't handle stress well. We'll find out soon enough. There's a lot of stress playing in Dallas.

If (and this is a big if) La'el Collins is cleared of any involvement in the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, then he'll have really been robbed. He was a likely first round pick only to end up going undrafted due to the police investigation. If he does get cleared, he'll be a priority free agent for pretty much every team in the league. Given the Aaron Hernandez fiasco though, no team was willing to gamble on him unless/until he's been cleared. It cost La'el millions of dollars by not getting drafted early.

[teganslaw]

The Colts drafted almost all defensive players. The exceptions being WR Phillip Dorsett in the first round and RB Josh Robinson in the 6th. I hadn't realized at first that the Colts waived Cribbs; the first pick made more sense then. Robinson could be a replacement for Trent Richardson.

Overall, I'm pleased with the Colts' draft picks. I don't know much about the last one, Denzelle Goode, a tackle from Mars Hill. The NFL analysts didn't even know much about him.

The Jets should be an interesting team. They seemed to do well in the draft. Wondering if Geno Smith will continue to be the quarterback, though. He has plenty of weapons now.

[gardenman]

That whole AFC East will be interesting to watch. I think the Jets, Bills and Dolphins are all better and the Patriots are a bit weaker. As long as the Patriots still have Brady you've got to give them the edge, but things are getting a lot closer there than they've been in recent years.

The last Eagles' draft pick (defensive end Brian Mihalik) is an interesting pick. He's something like 6' 9" and weighs around 300 lbs. On all of the measurables (speed, jumping ability, athletic ability, etc.) he's very similar to JJ Watt, but not as accomplished. If the Eagles d-line coach can polish the kid up and he gets a bit stronger, we could have something special there. There's definitely potential there.

[Spurt]

On 4/30/2015 gardenman said:

The Bucs did a lot of research on Winston and hopefully they'll be right, but a guy with his history would still scare me to death. False rape allegations are not uncommon, so I wouldn't be overly worried about that, but there's a lot besides that allegation in his background that would keep me sleepless for a while. I think he'll be fine on the field, but his off the field behavior is a bit scary to me.

And I didn't find the after draft photo with Winston and the crab legs particularly funny....too me it says this guy still needs to grow up....and the immaturity spells trouble! Sure he has great athletic ability, strong arm, good mechanics and leadership on the field, BUT OFF the field, that's the part you have to worry about! JMHO!

Hoovermom, hopefully Lovie Smith and staff can help him mature and teach him to make wiser decisions .......

[Spurt]

On 5/1/2015 gardenman said:

And the first round of the draft is now behind us. I think the Redskins did pretty well in picking up the best offensive lineman in the draft. Stealing him from the Giants was also a nice touch. I'm sure the Giants groaned when he went off the board. I'm surprised the Cowboys took a high character defensive back in Byron Jones instead of a defensive lineman. It's not like the Cowboys to take a high character guy when there are sketchy guys available. The Eagles got a Jeremy Maclin clone in Nelson Agholor who's younger, faster, and healthier.

GARDENMAN----I know some of the "experts" gave the Redskins a thumbs down for passing on Leonard Williams, who some considered to be the best player in the draft, BUT I loved loved loved the pick of Brandon Scherff . I'm with you a good offensive and defensive line can make average players look great, while a bad line can make great players look average. And I think the Redskins need help on the O line desperately and I think that will help the performance of our QB, RBs, and WRs......Some said we should've traded down, but like I told John Keim on Twitter....Scherff wouldn't have been available if we traded down!!, certainly the Giants were ready to take him, or someone else might have traded up to get him....What are these so called sports journalist thinking!!! And I loved the way we stole Scherff away from the Giants....too sweet!

And I was pleased with the pick of DE Preston Smith.

I thought it curious we picked RB Matt Jones, but we needed to replace Helu who we lost in free agency that complimented Alfred Morris, and Jones is known as a good blocker and good blocking was sorely missing amongst our running backs and tight ends.....

And when we drafted Kyshoen Jarrett SS Virginia Tech I laughed at the remark that a sports journalist wrote, "congratulations, Redskins, you finally have a safety that can tackle"....

I was a tad mistified at the WR picks but I think these were selected to fill a desperate need on special teams....yep, it's bad when you need help on special teams....

I think you can sum up the Redskins draft as big, strong, fast, and hard workers!

Overall, I was pleased with our new GM's selections and only time will tell how well he faired....

OMG I can't believe that the Cowboys took a chance on Randy Gregory between his pot addiction and mental issues you wonder how long he will be on the field or even in the league....I wonder if the Cowboys will create a new position of "babysitter" on their staff between Dez Bryant, Josh Brent and now Gregory.....OH MY!

Highlights of the draft presentations.....Danny Shelton's lifting the Commish off the ground, great to see Jim Kelly and standing O by the fans, and didn't ya love Ickey Woods doing the Ickey Shuffle....

TEGAN---I saw you drafted Jumpy Geather's nephew, Clayton Geathers!

[gardenman]

On 5/2/2015 SPURT said:

On 4/30/2015 gardenman said:

The Bucs did a lot of research on Winston and hopefully they'll be right, but a guy with his history would still scare me to death. False rape allegations are not uncommon, so I wouldn't be overly worried about that, but there's a lot besides that allegation in his background that would keep me sleepless for a while. I think he'll be fine on the field, but his off the field behavior is a bit scary to me.

And I didn't find the after draft photo with Winston and the crab legs particularly funny....too me it says this guy still needs to grow up....and the immaturity spells trouble! Sure he has great athletic ability, strong arm, good mechanics and leadership on the field, BUT OFF the field, that's the part you have to worry about! JMHO!

Hoovermom, hopefully Lovie Smith and staff can help him mature and teach him to make wiser decisions .......

Yeah, the photo with the crab legs was really stupid. This whole pattern of behavior from him (shooting at squirrels with pellet guns in 2012, then hours later shooting up their apartment with those same pellet guns doing $4000 in damage, the rape accusation, the stealing of soda from a Burger King, the first crab leg incident, not attending the code of conduct meeting in college, jumping on a table in the cafeteria and repeatedly shouting a profanity laced, sexually charged phrase, and now the latest crab leg incident) doesn't make him an especially trustworthy person. I'm very happy he's with Tampa and not Philly. He's had to be on his best behavior before getting drafted, but now that he's drafted and signed to a contract we're apt to find out what kind of a person he truly is.

There's a belief among many that money doesn't change a person, it simply amplifies who they truly are. Good people tend to become better people with more money while less good people get even less good. With the money he's getting it won't take long to find out if he's a good person at heart or not. The early indicators aren't especially promising though. I have a feeling Lovie Smith will have his hands full. College coaches don't want their starting QB's acting like idiots, but they weren't able to control his behavior then and I'm thinking Lovie may not be able to control him much now that he's out of college.

The Bucs insist they've done their homework and I hope they're right, but with two quarterbacks available as the first pick, I would have taken the safer pick in Mariota. He might take longer to become a competent starter, but he's less likely to implode on you.