I am soooooo ready for some football

[jack grebe]

off seasons suck

[Uncle Duke]

Hey - I've been a Redskins fan since I was a kid. Off-season is a very exciting time for us - which over-the-hill ex-star will sign up to be over-paid? What bone-headed deals will be done which strips the team of draft picks when they need them the most? Will they focus on defensive backfield while the offensive line is wet tissue paper?
Who is going to say the next patently stupid thing (current coach Mike Shanahan said the other day that he though the offensive was playoff caliber.. really? Rex Grossman? No receivers who scare anybody? Running back by committee? Really?)


Most exciting time of the year for us - the actual season is a comparative disappointment...

[BrianW]

I'm with ya Jack.

There should be two seasons instead of one.

Seems the most boring sports last darn near all year.

[Dutch]

actually its been a pretty interesting off season considering the taints and manning story

[B_B]

...Running back by committee?...

Seemed when he was in Denver they could put anyone at RB and they'd get a 1,000 yards. But then, they had an extremely good OL.

[Dutch]

Hey - I've been a Redskins fan since I was a kid. Off-season is a very exciting time for us - which over-the-hill ex-star will sign up to be over-paid? What bone-headed deals will be done which strips the team of draft picks when they need them the most? Will they focus on defensive backfield while the offensive line is wet tissue paper?
Who is going to say the next patently stupid thing (current coach Mike Shanahan said the other day that he though the offensive was playoff caliber.. really? Rex Grossman? No receivers who scare anybody? Running back by committee? Really?)


Most exciting time of the year for us - the actual season is a comparative disappointment...

I missed this before- youre a wise man - or at least you seem to have a very good handle on the skins

[jack grebe]

Hey - I've been a Redskins fan since I was a kid.

I'm sorry

[SaltyBoatr]

off seasons suck

Well, spring training for MLB is ongoing now, and baseball opening day comes up in a few weeks!

[leikec]

Hey - I've been a Redskins fan since I was a kid. Off-season is a very exciting time for us - which over-the-hill ex-star will sign up to be over-paid? What bone-headed deals will be done which strips the team of draft picks when they need them the most? Will they focus on defensive backfield while the offensive line is wet tissue paper?
Who is going to say the next patently stupid thing (current coach Mike Shanahan said the other day that he though the offensive was playoff caliber.. really? Rex Grossman? No receivers who scare anybody? Running back by committee? Really?)


Most exciting time of the year for us - the actual season is a comparative disappointment...

I'm sorry; I wish I could help you, but as a lifetime Detroit Lions fan I have no experience with perennial heartbreak....

Jeff C

[Uncle Duke]

I missed this before- youre a wise man - or at least you seem to have a very good handle on the skins

I'm a geezer. I've learned to live with disappointment....

[Bob Adams]

Gawd yes. We have to suffer through months of what is supposed to be MLB before we get relief from the Ravens training camp

[botebum]

I'm a 'Skins fan too. That's why they invented NASCAR.
Even Joe Gibbs figured that one out.

Doug

[B_B]

Hey - I've been a Redskins fan since I was a kid. Off-season is a very exciting time for us - which over-the-hill ex-star will sign up to be over-paid? What bone-headed deals will be done which strips the team of draft picks when they need them the most? Will they focus on defensive backfield while the offensive line is wet tissue paper?
Who is going to say the next patently stupid thing (current coach Mike Shanahan said the other day that he though the offensive was playoff caliber.. really? Rex Grossman? No receivers who scare anybody? Running back by committee? Really?)


Most exciting time of the year for us - the actual season is a comparative disappointment...

Hey!! You got your wish!

St.Louis's 1st round pick this year in exchange for Washington's #1 and #2 this year, and the #1 in 2013 AND 2014....so three #1's and a #2 for the right to draft either Robert Griffin III or Andrew Luck, whomever Indy doesn't take.

That's right. Two first rounders and a second rounder to move up four places in the draft.

Wow. Good luck with that.

(Remember the Hershel Walker trade? Dallas went from zero to Superbowl in three years. Minnesota? Not so much.)

[Meli]

tune to am 747 the real footy's started here

[John Smith]

Where does Peyton end up?

Assuming he gets a clean bill of health, what uniform will he be wearing.

If he doesn't get a clean bill of health, will he play at all?

[Beowolf]

I'm sorry; I wish I could help you, but as a lifetime Detroit Lions fan I have no experience with perennial heartbreak....

Jeff C

I was just about to post to the same effect.

Without Millen at the helm, we have been robbed of the thrill of figuring out which WR we're going to waste a #1 pick on while we continue to milk a subpar QB who gets no more than .85 seconds to get rid of the ball before Jeff "Backus up 5 yards"'s blocking assignment plants him like an oak sapling.

Yep, we've jumped back into the realm of 10-6 and out in the first game of the playoffs. (Woo hoo! It took us 15 years to bring back the glory days of Cocaine-Wayne!)

But just to keep us going...



Forget St. Louis. Barry Sanders will forever be the "Greatest Show on Turf."

[JimD]

Fortunately for me the CFL schedule starts in June.

[AussieBarney]

tune to am 747 the real footy's started here

Meli, My dear Girl. What you are talking about is most assuredly, not footy, it is 26 fairies poncing around trying desperately to avoid getting tackled. If you want REAL FOOTY, 900 kms up Sesame street will get you the game they play in heaven. Rugby League, 80 minutes of testosterone driven,mindless mayhem.

[Paul Pless]

I'm a 'Skins fan too. That's why they invented NASCAR.
Even Joe Gibbs figured that one out.

Doug

...

[jack grebe]

Meli, My dear Girl. What you are talking about is most assuredly, not footy, it is 26 fairies ...................

Would you care to define "fairies"?

[bamamick]

There is such a difference between where so many of you live and where I do. In Alabama when you say 'football' anything to do with the NFL is at best the third thing many of us will think of. #1 would of course be college ball. #2 would be high school football, and the NFL would come after that.

On Sundays around here I probably have as many friends who watch a replay of the previous day's game as I do who watch the NFL.

That being said, it appears most people believe Manning will wind up in Miami. Washington's name had been mentioned quite a bit but now they will most probably go with RGIII. As far as the big trade goes, I don't think I blame the Redskins for over-paying. It's a quarterback league. In college you can win a national championship with an average qb. Not the NFL. You must have one of the top half-dozen quarterbacks in the league to have great success, and RGIII has all the attributes to be one of those types of player.

Mickey Lake

[jack grebe]

it appears most people believe Manning will wind up in Miami.

Only in the off season if he is smart.........

And with fused bones in his neck, stepping onto a football field
is not too smart.

He has had a great career, why tarnish it with a few pathetic yrs.
with some sub par team and risking injury that would pale to what
he has now?

His day is done.......go to the broadcast booth.

[Dutch]

Only in the off season if he is smart.........

And with fused bones in his neck, stepping onto a football field
is not too smart.

He has had a great career, why tarnish it with a few pathetic yrs.
with some sub par team and risking injury that would pale to what
he has now?

His day is done.......go to the broadcast booth.

Miami is not a sub par team- they just need a quarterback to be contenders.

I think Manning will wind up a Texan- a nother team a quarterback away from a Lombardi trophy.

[John Smith]

Only in the off season if he is smart.........

And with fused bones in his neck, stepping onto a football field
is not too smart.

He has had a great career, why tarnish it with a few pathetic yrs.
with some sub par team and risking injury that would pale to what
he has now?

His day is done.......go to the broadcast booth.

I tend to agree with this. Go out while he's on top.

[Uncle Duke]

Re: Redskins give up the farm to get RGIII....

Hey!! You got your wish!
St.Louis's 1st round pick this year in exchange for Washington's #1 and #2 this year, and the #1 in 2013 AND 2014....so three #1's and a #2 for the right to draft either Robert Griffin III or Andrew Luck, whomever Indy doesn't take.
That's right. Two first rounders and a second rounder to move up four places in the draft.
Wow. Good luck with that.
(Remember the Hershel Walker trade? Dallas went from zero to Superbowl in three years. Minnesota? Not so much.)

Hope dies last.
Now we get to wonder if they are going to start him right away, or let some veteran show him how it's done ("Wrecks" Grossman? Grab Kyle Orton and only use him for 6 games while you groom RGIII?)
Still need someone for RGIII to throw to, and it wouldn't hurt to get a real right tackle, either. Oh well....

[Dutch]

I tend to agree with this. Go out while he's on top.

1st and only time peyton won a sb was 2007 - been a long time since hes been on top

[Dutch]

well looks like according to this manning will go with either the cardinals or broncos- again if he sticks with the broncs he might ride his way to another sb appearance.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/76...es-sources-say

[B_B]

1st and only time peyton won a sb was 2007 - been a long time since hes been on top

In 2010 he threw for 4,700 yards. Not too bad. In 2007 he only managed to throw for 4,000. QB rating was 92 in 2010 vs. 98 in 2007.

Another way of looking at it is that in 2010 Manning threw for more yards than anyone in the NFL besides Philip Rivers, who threw for a mere 10 more.
In 2010 Manning threw for 33 touchdowns, which tied Brees for second behind Brady's 36.

One might surmise that the reason the TEAM performed better in 2007 was the fact they had really good running game, and that Manning had to throw more in 2010 because they didn't have a running game and their defense sucked.

Or you could say Manning hasn't been on top since 2007.

[bamamick]

Jack, I don't see any way that Manning retires. If he was going to retire he would have done it the other day in his tearful farewell to the fans in Indianapolis. As far as his abilities go, if you followed the Colts you will remember that the year after they lost the Super Bowl to the Saints his whole receiving corps was hurt almost the entire season. Peyton Manning has a lot of good football left in him if he is 100% healthy.

Mickey Lake

[hokiefan]

Hey - I've been a Redskins fan since I was a kid. Off-season is a very exciting time for us - which over-the-hill ex-star will sign up to be over-paid? What bone-headed deals will be done which strips the team of draft picks when they need them the most? Will they focus on defensive backfield while the offensive line is wet tissue paper?
Who is going to say the next patently stupid thing (current coach Mike Shanahan said the other day that he though the offensive was playoff caliber.. really? Rex Grossman? No receivers who scare anybody? Running back by committee? Really?)


Most exciting time of the year for us - the actual season is a comparative disappointment...

Growing up in southeast Virginia, everyone was a Redskins fan. The only time I rooted for the 'skins was when they played Dallas. I was a Baltimore Colts fan. These days I'm a Va Tech Hokies fan. When I watch the NFL I root for the team with Hokies on it.

Spring practice starts in a week or so.

Cheers,

Bobby

[B_B]

An interesting read from Slate

The Washington Redskins today announced that they're trading their first and second round picks in this year's draft plus two future first round picks in order to get the second overall pick in the draft. That pick will almost certainly be Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, and the trade is almost certainly a fiasco for reasons explicated in Cade Massey and Richard Thaler's paper "The Loser's Curse, Overconfidence vs Market Efficiency in the NFL Draft" [SEE CORRECTION BELOW].The key to understanding why this is such a bad deal is to go back to the fundamental economic structure of the NFL. An NFL team's roster is built around the basic reality of the salary cap. Even hiring the best player in the league in a competitive auction can wind up being a bad idea because of the cap implications. But a secondary issue is that the teams have ganged up with each other and with a labor union representing the interests of veteran players to form a rookie-screwing cartel. If you're a rookie, you don't get to auction your services to the highest bidder. You need to play for the team that drafted you, and you need to play for a sub-market salary. What's more, the sub-market salary you get is a function of your draft position. This means that hiring a slightly-below-average player with a sixth round draft pick is a great deal, while hiring a slightly-below-average player with a first round draft pick is a much worse value proposition thanks to his higher salary. Long story short, since a football roster needs to be filled out with a lot of guys, you can secure tons of value in the draft by hiring low-paid guys on rookie deals. It's not all about stars.



This is the chart they made estimating the average quality of performance that teams find with different draft picks versus the wages they earn:

The key findings here are as follows. Any pick gets you, on average, an underpaid player. The top draft picks are, on average, better than the picks in the lower rounds. But the very first few picks and then the picks from the back half of the draft are the least underpaid. Late first round and second round picks get you the most value. Long story short, it's not totally clear that swapping the sixth pick for the second pick straight-up would have been a good deal for the Redskins. Throwing in the second round pick turns it into a disaster for a bad team with plenty of needs. And giving up additional future first round picks only makes it look worse. The problem teams make is essentially of overrating their own scouting abilities. A perfect talent evaluator might do better always using the top picks. But in the real world, loading up on second and third round guys and then just keeping the ones who turn out to player well is a smarter strategy.



CORRECTION: As several readers have pointed out, the Massey/Thaler analysis was conducted before the new collective bargaining agreement which altered the rookie scale and has likely eliminated the anomaly whereby the number 2 pick is a worse value that the number 6 pick or a second rounder. But I believe the overall point still applies. Given the underpayment of rookies, the number 6 pick plus a second rounder is almost certainly more valuable than the number 2 pick. And then you have to throw in the future first rounders. The point is still that when you consider uncertainty and the high value of guys on rookie contracts, this kind of "trading up" rarely makes sense.

[jack grebe]

The only time I rooted for the 'skins was when they played Dallas.

Yup, I have 31 favorite teams too. Eagles and who ever plays Dallas

[Dutch]

4 pm et today free agency starts- next month the draft- soon ota's

[Uncle Duke]

4 pm et today free agency starts- next month the draft- soon ota's

Interesting to see what the Redskins do now - they were expecting to be very aggressive in the free agent market since they had lots of cap room, but given yesterday's edict from the NFL stripping them of $36 million in cap over two years (not, you might note, for violating salary cap rules or for bad contracts) for the crime of "attempted to gain an unfair competitive advantage in subsequent years".
Going to be hard to be aggressive with only half your assets...

[Dutch]

but given yesterday's edict from the NFL stripping them of $36 million in cap over two years (not, you might note, for violating salary cap rules or for bad contracts) for the crime of "attempted to gain an unfair competitive advantage in subsequent years".

wow I hadnt heard about that- sounds pretty harsh. I dont think Id like to be a saints fan right about now.

[B_B]

Manning apparently signing with Broncos...who'da thunk it.

[Dutch]

Manning apparently signing with Broncos...who'da thunk it.

see post 27

[skuthorp]

It's about to start here too, won't be worth turning the TV or radio on till october.

[jack grebe]

until the contract is signed, it is all speculation.

That said, anybody want a Tebow?

[B_B]

until the contract is signed, it is all speculation.

Possibly. But he's told three other teams, Titans just yesterday IIRC, that he won't be signing with them, and he's not working out for anyone else.

Miami apparently likes Tebow. Why I don't know.

[jack grebe]

Miami apparently likes Tebow. Why I don't know.

Sigh............I guess you have to live in SFL to understand the
pain of the weekly asswoopins the fans down here feel.

[L.W. Baxter]

...Miami apparently likes Tebow. Why I don't know.

Tickets and jerseys.

[Dutch]

tebow isnt as good as matt moore

[B_B]

Sigh............I guess you have to live in SFL to understand the
pain of the weekly asswoopins the fans down here feel.

Hmm, apparently Jacksonville has the Tebow jones! Sorry, you may have to settle for Mr. Smith.

[L.W. Baxter]

I agree that Tebow is not better than Matt Moore, but might be better than Garrard!

[B_B]

Peyton signs with Denver: 5 years $96 million.

Now to see what the terms are - the only thing that really counts is guaranteed money.

[Uncle Duke]

Peyton signs with Denver: 5 years $96 million.

Now to see what the terms are - the only thing that really counts is guaranteed money.

Heard on the radio (not confirmed) that it's really a one year contract at $18 million, with years 2 and 3 happening if he passes the physical before the 2013 season (i.e., doesn't break down in year 1). No idea what happens for years 4 and 5.

Sounds pretty reasonable, though - "let's try it out for a year, if you are still healthy it is automatically extended."

[bamamick]

Wow. I have to admit, I wasn't ready for the Saints to get hammered THAT hard, and I am surprised by the Tebow trade.

Mickey Lake

[B_B]

Saints coach Sean Payton suspended without pay for 2012 season, effective April 1.

• Ex-Saints (and current Rams) defensive coordinator Gregg Williams suspended indefinitely, effective immediately. Commissioner Roger Goodell will review Williams' status at conclusion of '12 season.

• Saints fined $500,000.

• Saints forfeit second-round picks in the '12 and '13 NFL drafts.

• Saints GM Mickey Loomis suspended without pay for first eight regular-season games of the '12 season.

• Saints assistant head coach Joe Vitt is suspended without pay for the first six regular-season games of the 2012 season.

That $500,000 fine and two second rounders is pitiful as far as I'm concerned. The team needed to lose some first rounders and some real cash. Payroll is $50 million - so they're fined a measly 1% of payroll.

All the suspensions should be effective immediately. It's silly to suspend a GM for the first six games - most roster moves are made in the offseason and during training camp. Why let him conduct the draft?

Williams' indefinite suspension will probably only be a year...we'll see. Gregg Williams said after the Superbowl win: "My whole life … I've been trying to get people to play nastier."

When addressing his sons Little League coach: "I told their little league coaches my kids will play fast, they're going to play nasty, they're going to play tough. Tell the rest of the babies around them to speed up."

taken from here

The Vikings-Saints NFC title game two years ago may have been where the Saints' deliberate rule-breaking was worst. Immediately after that game, I wrote, "Saints players came after [Brett] Favre so hard -- four times slamming him in ways that invited late-hit or roughing penalties, only two of which were called -- Williams [seems to have] told his charges something along the lines of, 'Pound Favre every time you can; we will take a couple of roughing flags in return for making an old guy worry about the next hit.'"

So did I do a good job by noting two years ago what is suddenly considered obvious? No, I did a terrible job. Yesterday I watched every New Orleans defensive snap of that game and found four, not two, instances in which unnecessary roughness should have been called against the Saints but was not. In retrospect, my column should have led with dirty play by the Saints. The four unnecessary roughness penalties that were not called:

• On the game's first snap, Favre handed off, turned away from the play and was hammered with a forearm to the chin by New Orleans linebacker Scott Fujita. Not only should a personal foul have been called -- Fujita should have been ejected on the game's first offensive snap. Instead, no call. Scott, were you paid for behaving like a street thug?

• At 6:14 of the first quarter, after Favre released a pass he was hit with a forearm to the chin by safety Roman Harper. No flag. Roman, were you paid for delivering that cheap shot?

• At 4:15 of the first quarter, Favre released a pass and then Darren Sharper slammed him in the chest with a foreman. No flag. Darren, were you paid for having low standards?

• At 13:29 of the second quarter, Favre released a pass and then was hurled to the ground by Bobby McCray. No flag. Bobby, were you paid for doing something you should be ashamed of?

Reviewing the tape, another aspect of the game jumped out at me that I missed when watching live, and so far as I can tell, all sportscasters and commentators missed, too. Beginning midway through the first quarter, whenever Favre handed off, he immediately ran backward 10 yards -- to get away from New Orleans late hits.

[B_B]

The taints players havent been disciplined yet - I heard somewhere that was coming later today but it will be coming shortly

The fundamental point, though, is that the players wouldn't have done it if they weren't encouraged to do it by their coaching staff. And their coaching staff wouldn't have done it if the team leadership made clear that it wasn't acceptable. But the team wuz winning so no-one really cared at the time.