Flugel

Based on recent camp footage and preseason game #1 - did the film lie about Mack's instincts at defending the pass? He gets to his area and closes on the ball incredibly well crediting much of this to his prior experience on offense once upon a time.

Some good points made. That said, we're only 2 weeks into Training Camp so we didn't see some starters with big expectations. Some of the errors came via lack of communication and inexperience. I don't remember who criticized your evaluation but it looks like you bet on a good horse (Moreland) in round 7. I'm intrigued with our 7th round rookie CB Donnie Lewis Jr. When our 1st 4 corners are Ward, Williams, Mitchell and Carrie though - it's not too hard to trust the feller bringing in the CBs here. And how about that 5th round LBer that gave us 2 INTs and a TD?

Agreed. Plus it gives them far better muscular endurance.

Cal, I think those missed tackles last year might be an exception to the rule. I'm not worried about him missing tackles when he's healthy. When he played with 2 healthy hamstrings in 2017, he made the Pro Bowl. Another thing about 2018 is 2 of our 4 starting defensive linemen sucked against the run all year long. That's been addressed. I will say this, when you look at Schobert he doesn't look like an NFL LBer or an elite athlete. I got a real kick out of the reaction he got from his former teammates at Wisconsin in this video

Your point is if his show is about ratings and getting paid more it's okay to just report just the percentage of truth that paints Baker in a negative light. Do I need to be born in the new millennium to understand how wonderful this type of reporting is? No thanks!

Not to sound like Gipper's cell phone but: Ditto Ditto

I missed this too before I bashed the level of competition Tyson faced. Sorry for duplicating your point. I don't even know if Tyson would have beaten Larry Holmes if he found Buster Douglas too overwhelming after round 1. Tyson was wired to beat a bunch of bouncers with Beer guts, which is what he did. He did beat 1 Olympic Gold Medalist (Michael Spinks) who jumped up a weight class to face him. He lost to the other Gold Medalist that moved up to the heavy weight Class (Holyfield) because the heavyweight competition was too pathetic for comfort. Heavyweight boxing pretty much took a cliff dive before, throughout and after Tyson's career. It's not his fault; but who wants to waste any cake on pay-per-view just to see some slob with horrible fitness get knocked out in 30 seconds?

Exactly! Sorry, I just posted a lot of the same stuff Aggies before I read this.

Ali was far more strategic than you give him credit for. He knew the type of guys he could rope-a-dope vrs the type of guys he needed to stick and move against until fatigue and frustration set in. The younger version of Ali especially had some really quick hands and feet that could enable any style necessary. He also faced far better competition than Tyson did and nobody ever knocked him out. Buster Douglas, not to be confused with George Foreman, got Tyson to a later round and knocked his asss out. Douglas was a diluted version of Ernie Shavers that exposed what was possible vrs Tyson that a very weak pool of competition could rarely duplicate. Ali finished every single fight (even with a broken jaw). He also got up after a knock down to win fights. When Tyson fought, the competition sucked so bad guys like Michael Spinks and Evander Holyfield had to move up to the Heavyweight Class for bigger pay days. Who on Tyson's resume of W's was at the level of George Foreman at the time? Sonny Liston was a lot like Tyson until he fought Ali. So was George Foreman. Ali's sparring partner was an eventual long-time Heavyweight Champion (Larry Holmes) who also capitalized on a weaker pool of heavy weight competition. I'm not saying Tyson wasn't fun to watch or he wasn't impressive for a while. I'm just saying the level of competition in Tyson's era couldn't hold a candle to Ali's era.

DL is solid today but it was far from solid in 2018. Garrett and Ogunjobi were very reliable and fun to watch; but that's only 50% of a man front. The other 2 starters got rag-dolled in the running game. When that happens upfront, while your entire LBer Corps is either injured or playing injured. At CB, when Mitchell and Ward were injured - their backups also got injured At LBer, we lost Kirksey (which some felt was no big deal regardless of who replaced him). We lost Schobert for a stretch of games and when he returned to play through an injured hammy - he clearly lost a step. When he was healthy in 2017 he made the Pro Bowl. I'm not aiming this at you Ice; but Schobert is only 26 years old so why are people in here trying to race him out of town? The guy has already played 2 different LBer positions for 3 different Coordinators/Defenses. Now he's going to play for his 4th DC/Defense so there's going to be learning curves. Again, the last learning curve and position change ended with a Pro Bowl honor. That doesn't suck nearly as much as changing the defense and it's Coordinators all the time. Schobert & Kirksey have gone from Jimmy O'Neill to Ray Horton to Gregg Williams to Steve Wilks. That'snot going to make them look like the 85 bears LBer Corps overnight. That said, I'm hoping we experience some pay off for their experience volumes in the sense they have accumulated some film room pre-snap keys that make them play faster than wide eyed rookies. I think the bigger challenge facing our LBer Corps has been keeping healthy. 1 way to do that is bring in better talent on the defensive line, which was addressed this off-season.

That's 50% of the story some people prefer to cling to. Not that 2 wrongs make a right; but the other 50% was the same guys he did that gesture to didn't shake his hand at the pre-game coin toss. That's very disrespectful too - but which disrespectful act got more juice for Cowherd? The one from the Heisman Trophy Winner he preferred to dwell on. When a story broke that Baker visited a terminally ill little girl and later spoke at her funeral - guess who didn't want that getting any attention? And when Baker and his fiance (at the time) delivered Christmas gifts to kids - guess who stays away from reporting these things? Colin Cowherd. If he's only going to report controversies while not reporting the things I mentioned - that tells me and others in here he's a hack with a shadey agenda.

BINGO! I don't see Baker starting the fights either Mike. He just finishes them. The kid's a winner!

I bet it had the same sledge hammer effect on Tony's God Complex as watching Mayfield's record setting 27 TD passes as an NFL rookie in spite of only 13 starts.

When a shit-starter wants to see "he who he eats too many prunes sitting on the toilet a many moons" - why would he want our fans to have knowledge Freddie was an Assistant Head Coach? "Right Tony?"

I hear what you're saying; but the LBers in Wilks' Defense was very important to their success in Carolina. The personnel at hand dictates the type of gridiron chess attack Wilks puts together. This also includes what type of offense they have to clean up after in terms of how time of possession helps or hinders them as well as how frequently turnovers puts their backs up against the wall. Understanding this, Wilks was in completely opposite situations in Arizona and Carolina. When Wilks was in charge of Carolina's Superbowl Defense (w/a 15-1 regular season) - LBers Luke Kuechly and Thomas Davis both made the Pro Bowl and were named All Pro from his scheme; while only 2 other defenders made the Pro Bowl (CB Josh Norman and DT Kawann Short). Their 1st step instinct and overall performance mattered to the success of that defense. If you don't have this from your LBers, take a look at what NE's short passing game to the RB did to the SD Chargers in the playoffs. It rendered elite pass rushers like Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram to feeling like they were a million miles away. While the front 4 definitely helped the LBers in Carolina - it wasn't like Luke's talent got jumper cabled for the 1st time from it. He was a 1st round pick from his eyes, instincts and sound fundamentals. Speaking of the help from time of possession that gave their D fresh legs - the following offensive players made the Pro Bowl: C Ryan Kalil, OG Trai Turner, FB Mike Tolbert, RB Jonathan Stewart, TE, Greg Olsen, and QB Cam Newton. In comparison, Arizona was a train wreck. Injuries and suspensions to LBers. They had an Offensive Line that Poindexter (from the Revenge of the Nerds) could have started on. They were 32nd ranked rushing, passing, scoring and total offense. Their defense was 20th overall, 32nd against the run and 4th against the pass (which makes sense when they were so easy to run on), and 26th in points allowed. Maybe Poindexter could have started on Defense too. Relating all this to Cleveland? Our 2 LBers from the Big 10 will be playing behind the best front 4 of their NFL careers. That said, Schobert already has 1 Pro Bowl on his resume. This was when 1 of the Safeties (Peppers) was being lined up in Canada which not only made Schobert responsible for both inside hook zones; but it also extended his vertical boundary to the unreasonable. The biggest challenges we've had with our LBer Corps is injuries and getting them all on the field at the same time. Let's hope Wilks finds this defense a lot more like the one he coached in Carolina than the one he had in Arizona last year. Our offense can play a big roll in this too with winning the time of possession battles and not turning the ball over. We shall see...

In lieu of giving the monopoly 1 more penny - I happily terminated my contract with them. When AT&T took over, it was like they put a labotomy patient in charge of their billing. They didn't get 1 bill correct. Not only that, when we moved from Nashville to South Florida - they never honored anything they promised in terms of the stations they threw in at no charge - at least allegedly. Instead, I'm going the designated Browns Backers location with delicious food, nice drink specials and great fans to enjoy our team along-side. Even though I'm still somewhat contributing to their Monopoly via this avenue - I feel better it's only a fraction of the contribution I made previously. When 200 people share 1 viewing site - that's a lot middle fingers sticking it right up their dumpster IMO. Proud to be one of them. That was a very smart move to dump your DirecTV stock. I NOW understand why Roger Goodfella wants teams in Canada, England and Mexico. There's TV markets to tap and deceive. In the meanwhile , you can count on him making sure one of his LA Market teams if not both will revisit the playoffs. In fact, book it! You saw the farce of a game inappropriately labelled the NFC Championship Game. The LA Rams and the LA Raiders had a hard time selling out playoff games; but Roger knows the shared revenues of the TV contract/Monopoly we're discussing trumps the value/significance of home attendance today. And all this bs that he cares more about concussions and player safety above profits can be thrown out the window with his desire to increase the regular season to 18 games. Another farce is his response to fixing last year's NFC Championship Game with challenging PI calls or look aways. Really Roger?

Freddie knows a shit-starter when he sees one. Enjoy...

Who needs to even watch football any more when Pro Football Focus (PFF) has all the answers? Should I volunteer to tell Bill Belicheck how much time he's wasting especially when PFF has all the answers he can't possibly come up with himself? Can you imagine some smart asss waterboy in NE correcting Belicheck with "That's not what Pro Football Focus says?"

Maybe America's Got Talent has a surprise candidate or 2 or perhaps even Clevsies if he's got his frat boy beer muscles cap on...

It's a good thing he woke up before Rip Van Winkle and former 1st round disappointment - Chance Warmack . People were beginning to wonder why he was having trouble getting more work load than Dion Lewis half way into his 3rd NFL season. Lucky for him, he contacted Eddie George for input/feedback of what was holding him back and he began playing like the RB TN expected him to be. Good thing too because your buddy Flugel was getting too fat to hide from his prediction Henry would be a great back considering they got him in round 2.

Well said! I guess all those guys proclaiming Bill Belicheck knows exactly when to cut a guy loose started hanging out with ostriches the day Belicheck re-signed Collins. IMO, 1 thing people continued to lose sight of throughout last season was how banged up we were at LB. When starters weren't out injured, they played injured. As much as I want to say so what it's part of the game - this was a team coming off 0-16 football that couldn't afford the injury situation to our LBer Corp. Adding insult to injury, that Defensive Line only had 1 reliable DE (Garrett) and 1 reliable DT (Ogunjobi) while the other DT and DE often got rag-dolled. The combination of Ogunjobi and Garrett pass rushing Brees and Roethlisberger from the same side seemed too good to be true; and we learned soon enough - it was. People can blame the LBers all they want; but how many LBer Corps can succeed when offensive lines are consistently imposing their will on half of the defensive line in front of them? 1-2 weeks before we played SD, Philip Rivers said Schobert was one of the toughest LBers to throw at. He gave him oxymoronic praise in calling him a pain in the asss to challenge. Understanding the MLB was responsible for both hook zones the last time they met in 2017 while Peppers was lining up at Safety in another area code - it was significant praise. It only made sense that Schobert was injured and inactive when our defense failed to challenge Rivers in 2018. Just like RBs and QBs need a line in front of them in order to experience consistent success - the same holds true with our LBers. If we can keep our front 4 healthy this year, I think we have the personnel and experience to be successful at LBer. I'm not saying they're ready to be superstars; but did NE have any Superstars at LBer when they won the SB last year? No, they just had solid LBer play significantly helped by the dline in front of them. The additions the FO made this off season should help as well as getting some guys back healthy!

I gotta confess. I traded in everything I ever learned about football for the world according to Mary Kay Cabot. It's been an amazing transformation. I never had any idea that footballs are slippery when wet. If it wasn't for Mary Kay Cabot, I would have never understood why Jim Brown scored more TDs than Gene Hickerson and other Offensive Guards for that matter. She even got me up to speed that defensive players are supposed to tackle people but a lot of our defensive players in the new millennium have been unable to do so. And did you know it wasn't Legally Blonde's Elle Woods or any of our coaches dating back to Paul Brown that came up with the "Bend and Snap?" It was Mary Kay Cabot; and I'm just a blind man in the bleachers without her.

😄 Thatta boy! I'll never forget driving from Roch-cha-cha-chach-ester (still shivering) in a blizzard to the post season playoff victory over the Buffalo Bills. They can blame Ronnie's Harmons all they want; but someone should have known how dangerous Eric Metcalf was in the return game. Jim Croce once said "You don't tug on Superman's cape." Jim Kelly said "Oh yeah? Watch me!" We did; and Clay Matthews intercepted him at the 2 yard line to seal the deal for us. We sure played in a lot of playoff games after we drafted Clay Matthews and Ozzie Newsome in the first round of 1978 while participating in 3 Conference Championships during their tenures. It's a shame only 1 of those very reliable leaders made it to the HOF. As Pro Bowl Guard Joe DeLamielleure said "he not only played all 4 LBers positions for us - but he did it at an extremely high level." Same guy at a Browns Backers Banquet was asked who was his biggest challenge o block was? Without hesitation, Joe D said "Clay Matthews is the toughest SOB I've ever played against." But what would a Pro Bowl Guard know more than the media about the type of criteria that should be weighed for NFL HOF Selection process? It gave me such warm fuzzies all over to see the NFL HOF process on their knees going bobble head doll on TO's groin. What a teammate! What a leader! He totally deserved to be inducted for the NFL HOF at a place he preferred to the NFL HOF of course. Still keeping that "I before team" attitude with him to the gold jacket he now tarnishes. When Me-O started mouthing off, that would have been a good time to say "You're right punk. We'll give it to someone that was willing to sacrifice glamor boy stats putting the team before the self. This was done without pointing fingers at teammates during adversity or temper tantrums on the sidelines. Welcome to the NFL Hall of Fame Clay Matthews."

Thatta boy! Looking forward to it. I think this is the first day of contact. I'd love to hear how Forbes looks in the Okie drills if you get a chance as well as any scrimmage situations. These always show me a lot in terms of pad height, fundamentals, explosion and the ability to FINISH someone following initial contact! As for base, does he keep his feet wide enough apart to prevent over-extending? He probably has the biggest jump in competition levels; but his elite measurements of explosiveness really intrigues me. (Division III) Hobart's Ali Marpet reminds us it ain't the school you draft - it's the football player and what he's wired to accomplish. I'm looking forward to reading you Tia-off on all the skill positions you specified as well. Have fun today! As you were...

I'll bet Terrell Davis is