Email Chain

MFisH · Negus

RE: 2014 NFL FA

Jpoo · Guru

Giants complete new play acquisition offseason recap (it's a lot)

LG Geoff Schwartz [4 year 16.8m (5.75 guaranteed)] - Good value for what PFF rated as the best guard on the market. A true necessity, very happy.

RB Rashad Jennings [4 year, 10m (2.98 guaranteed)] - Right at market value for a known commodity in pass blocking and catching the football. He can basically be cut after this year if it doesn't work out. Another solid signing.

C J.D. Walton [2 year, 6m (3 guaranteed)] - Jerry Reese must know something we don't. He's basically the only Center on the roster at this point, cross my fingers with this one, but it makes me incredibly nervous....

LB Jameel McClain [2 year, 4.5m] - Good signing for a productive player making his way back from injury. Giants will mostly only have Beason w/ 3 safeties and 3 CB's on the field, so whatever contribution he makes will be solid)

S/KR Quentin Demps [1 year, vet min] - Signed to be a kick returner/special teams player. Good value, we haven't had a real kick returner in years.

CB Walter Thurmond III [1 year, 3.5m) - I love this signing, I think this dude is really damn good. Excited here.

CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie [5 year, 35m (16 guaranteed)] - we've already discussed this ad-nauseum, we'll see what happens.

PR/KR Trindon Holliday [1 year, vet min] - LOVE this, dude is absolutely electric in the return game, could be a massive difference maker on what has been a stagnant special teams... if he doesn't fumble.

WR Mario Manningham [1 year, vet min] - Good depth signing at a good price. Not much to see here, low risk high reward if he returns to form.

OL John Jerry [1 year, vet min] - Bully gate 2013 right here, whatever, he won't pull **** in this locker room. Good depth move.

OL Charles Brown (1 year, vet min) - Even more depth, a 15 game starter last year who struggled, will compete for swing tackle duties. Once again great depth move.

CB Zackary Bowman (1 year, vet min) - Depth on depth on depth. Struggled when pushed into starting duties due to injuries last year, as depth it's a great signing.

DE Robert Ayers ( 2 year, ??) - Justin Tucks replacement. Fun fact, Justin Tuck was the #1 4-3 DE in terms of run stop. Who was #2? Ayers. Good signing, it makes the loss of Tuck easier to swallow, and provides nice depth at the DE position.

In the end, all these signings will allow the Giants to go BPA in the draft this year. Expect one of Mike Evans, Eric Ebron, Aaron Donald, or Jake Mathews if he somehow falls.

MFisH · Negus

what is your post FA pre draft NFC east power rankings?

i'm going

1. eagles

2. giants

3. skins

4. cowboys

Jpoo · Guru

based upon last season, I'd say thats fair.

All depends on the Eagles D getting better then they were last year (which they probably will with another year in the 3-4) and how much of a blow Djax loss will be (I honestly think with Sproles on the roster it's not that huge)

Giants are a wildcard. Depends on what this new O coordinator has up his sleeve. Also depends on how this Secondary meshes, they have the opportunity to become one of the elite units in the NFL. Or they can suck due to Perry Fewell's questionable play calling.

Either way, Redskins and Cowboys definitely at the bottom of the barrel.

MFisH · Negus

obv as an eagles fan i'm gonna think the sproles addition is much bigger than you, but in all seriousness i really think the sproles move is gonna be huge for the eagles. kelly had a lot of routes for desean that started out in the backfield as a RB next to mccoy and had him running a flat route to spread out the d or a wheel route, both routes sproles will be better at running, and also a much bigger threat to carry the ball where desean really wasnt. plus sproles can take over as a full time punt returner where kelly didnt like jackson out there risking injury.

the key is maclin. if he comes back fully healthy he was the eagles #1 wr in yards and catches when he and jackson played together, people forget this since he was injured last year and jackson had the oppurtunity to explode in kellys offense. so if he comes back fine i have no doubt he will put up huge numbers as well. the problem is the injury risk. you don't know if your getting a follow up season like AP where he had a career year or a season like RG3 where he struggled the entire time and blamed it on the knee. luckily his injury happened the first week of training camp (late july) as oppose to the playoffs like RG3 (janurary) so that is a 4-5 month difference. i do know one thing, that boy who drafted maclin for $1 last year in fantasy sure is one shwred GM!

MFisH · Negus

from PFT a minute ago. i wish they could see my facebook feed, they couldnt be more wrong about this statement:

If anyone understands the Redskins haven’t won anything yet, it’s Redskins fans. Still reeling from a disastrous 3-13 season, few will presume that the team is destined to reclaim the division crown based merely on the arrival of DeSean Jackson.

Jpoo · Guru

Yeah i'm really bored at work and was hoping to start an argument with either a Eagles/Skins fan on your feed, no one took the bait though

MFisH · Negus

haha, ya so far the dumbest comment came from another giants fan claiming the division goes through them after missing the playoffs back to back years. can the giants win the divison this year? definitly. are they the favorites and does it go through them? uhh no.

again, i understand the exictment they have right now, its rare to get a pro bowl wr for nothing, but out of every teams fan based don't you think its the skins who should realize one big FA signing rarley turns into anything for them?

MFisH · Negus

i read somewhere the giants and the ravens lead the NFL in FA pickups this offseason? what happen to both these teams building through the draft?

Jpoo · Guru

Reese took too many risky picks that haven't panned out over the years, he's fighting for his job.

Despite the FA bonanza, besides DRC, none of their signings can really be considered Redskins esque blockbuster signings

they've been shrewd low cost moves for high quality players and depth.

I like this off season a lot.

6ixty · Young Money

Ur boy is back! all set up at the new job where I am a name with a face and no longer an employee # of 350,000.

Gotta admit Im a little dissapointed by the amount of new content. thats ok thou its a real slow point in sports news ATM. the biggest news coming out of baseball opening week is that daniel murphy took paternity leave. and oh yeah the might Nats swept the Mets because of it!

Wiz are back in the playoffs. they may be the 15th team in the west but theyre top 8 in the east!

hockey playoffs start in exatly 12 days. sorry josh not looking good for your islanders

Tiger out at agusta. is the masters still watchable? HELL YEAH

why did they move the draft back again? i know why but this extra 2 weeks sucks. im looking forward to joshs mock draft versions 4.0

LB and LB gonna be a force in the backfield this season.

guess this is why content is slow. not much to talk about (sarcasm) *sort of*

how about those wildcats!!

MFisH · Negus

i guess the reason the forum has been slow this week is cuz i have very little interest in basically everything you mentioned, baseball, hockey, golf and the backup rb FA market haha. the desean jackson story pretty much took all the fun out of sports news for me this week so i've been trying to do other less importnant things such as work. in all seriousness, this next few week period is an extremely slow time in sports right now. basketball playoffs havent started yet (ok fine hockey either) and won't get good in the east until round 2. so until then the games are almost meanling unless your the knicks battle for the right to get sweeped in the 1st round.

the biggest event to happen this week: THE RETURN OF GAME OF THRONES!

Jpoo · Guru

YEP! Silicon Valley which premiers right after it looks pretty great too... It's made by Mike Judge (Office Space, Idiocracy, King of the Hill, Beavis and Butthead... a must watch if you ask me)

6ixty · Young Money

yeah im pumped for silicone valley too haha

bold preditions of game of thrones?

i think aria becomes an assassian like the guy she met while in captivity. cant remember his name but he gave her the coin and said if you ever want to learn my ways just give this coin to someone and he would find her. knowing her family was killed at the red wedding shes gonna do some damage to either the freys, bolton, or less likely lannisters.

bran is going to be big this season too. once he gets beyond the wall hes going to do some damage to the whitewalkers

im hoping joffery is killed this season. im guessing episode 9 (usually the biggest reveal). dont think it will be kelisi since shes still so far away and doesnt have ships for her whole army. honestly, im not sure where shes even heading next with he crazy army. would be totally bad ass if the lord of the light gets a hold of joffery and kill him sinces hes done so many awful things.

royal wedding this season?

winter ever gonna come? or was that just a mediphor for the fact all the kingdoms are uprising?

just spit balling lemme know if you guys have any. NO SPOILERS!

MFisH · Negus

sorry to post a GoT thing here, I will respond to that via the tv thread. but first, the truth is finally coming out about djax. desean getting cut had nothing to do with gang ties, it was all about his attitude in the locker room and apparently he was a huge dick to chip. no wonder no current players defended him when he was cut, most wanted him gone. also a pretty big sign that both KC (reid) or jets (marty) had no interest in jackson when he was on the market at a discounted price with both needed another wr. lets hope he continues to act this way on the skins...

Philadelphia, PA (CBS) — In the days following DeSean Jackson’s release by the Eagles, speculation ran rampant as to the reasons why. Everything was to blame from Jackson’s petulant, rambunctious sideline behavior, to his alleged gang ties, to Jackson’s character, to this being Chip Kelly’s fault.

But what a number of sources close to and around the team, including current and former players, as well as additional sources within the Eagles revealed was that Jackson was not very well liked by his teammates, was blatantly insubordinate, with temper tantrums cussing out Kelly several times in front of the team, pushed the NFL rookie coach the way “a child would test boundaries,” and was more concerned with his rap label than he was about winning football games.

Several other sources also suggested that Jeremy Maclin may have had an issue if Jackson returned to the Eagles in 2014. He wasn’t alone, if that’s true.

“The fact is, [Jackson] was a ‘me-guy’ with an attitude problem and [Maclin] is the complete opposite, a team guy, a great character guy you go to war with,” said one source. “Funny how [Jackson] has this anti-bully thing and he thought he could push [Kelly] around; he found out otherwise. His being cut had nothing to do with the gang stuff. The team knew it. Everyone knew he had ‘ties.’ Those were his guys. That’s okay. What put him out was his selfishness. He can try and spin it all he wants how he’s ‘a team player.’ He’s not. I’ll put it this way, when it came out last Friday that [Jackson] was released, more than a few guys were happy it happened. They said ‘good riddance.’ He had no real connection with anyone.

“Yes, you can say he was the type that could catch three TDs in a loss—everyone would be down, but you had the impression he was happy, because he got his. It was all about him. A lot of guys thought that way about him. [Kelly] came in here with a plan to get this thing right, and the one major [obstacle] standing in his way was [Jackson]. If we were going to move forward as a team, he had to go. Think about it—did anyone come right out and back him publicly? Not one.”

Why didn’t Andy Reid or Marty Mornhinweg, the Jets’ offensive coordinator, want any part of Jackson before he signed a three-year, $24-million contract with the Redskins on Wednesday?

They apparently knew the potential headache Jackson was.

Kelly received some culpability in the opinion of some. But numerous sources confirmed that “Big Balls” Chip should have been canonized St. Chip after putting up with the instigating Jackson in 2013.

“You see little kids and how they cry and whine when they don’t get their way, that was D-Jax,” another source said. “I don’t think [Jackson] gave [Kelly] the respect he deserved. Kelly tried to reach [Jackson] plenty of times and [Jackson] tuned him out. Then you look at team functions, when everyone is out together at charity things or social stuff. He was the one missing. It was like he was in ‘D-Jax world’ and we just happened to be there.

“With Reid, [Jackson] tried pushing boundaries there, too, but he looked at Reid, I think, much differently than he looked at [Kelly]. Reid came in with an NFL pedigree. He was the guy that drafted [Jackson]. He was the one that called him on draft day and laid the law down right then: [Reid] wouldn’t tolerate any outside interference from anyone. Now you get this college guy [Kelly] and he’s not going to tell [Jackson] what to do. [Kelly] has a vision for this team—and he is a very old-school coach in a lot of ways. But there’s only so much [a coach] can take.”

In 2012, under Reid, Eagles’ management did reward Jackson a new five-year deal worth $48 million. He did have some minor flare ups with the law. In 2009, Jackson was pulled over by police for having illegally tinted windows and it was discovered he had marijuana in the car.

Still, Jackson stayed.

“That was all [Reid’s] doing,” opined someone close to the situation that asked that his name not be used. “[Reid] thought he could control [Jackson]. He could, to a degree. Kelly put up with [Jackson] behind closed doors. A lot of guys didn’t like how he talked to [Kelly]. And a lot of guys just didn’t like him. They thought he was too into his rap label than he was about winning games. The guy performed, there’s no questioning that. But you had to keep a constant eye on him. Guys put in extra time. He didn’t. It’s like he never grew up.”

Asked why the Eagles have been reluctant to go public with how difficult Jackson was to deal with, sources said Kelly likes to keep in-house dirt in-house.

“That’s [Kelly’s] way,” said one source. “It pisses me off that [Kelly] comes off looking like the bad guy here. It wasn’t just [Kelly] that wanted him gone. [Kelly] got a lot of feedback from guys that felt we were better off without [Jackson], too. [Kelly] is very much a player’s coach. His office is open to anyone. Now [Jackson] is the Redskins’ problem. We have something good going here and it’s going to get better without [Jackson]. He had to go.”

Jpoo · Guru

Non-spoiler spoiler.. the next book of the GoT series that is coming out soon is called The Winds of Winter... Winter is indeed coming.

6ixty · Young Money

so the books arent even done? i was afriad the series would have to end soon once it caught up to the books. this is very good news

6ixty · Young Money

so he was a distraction..... but they had the best team in 5-10 years...... man ur distraction/leader theory hold less water after every season.

i kid, i kid. sort of.

Jpoo · Guru

yah theres one more after "The Winds of Winter" is released. The final book will be called A Dream of Spring.

Jpoo · Guru

This season should cover roughly the 2nd half of book 3 and I'd assume some of 4

Jpoo · Guru

A Game of Thrones (1996)
A Clash of Kings (1998)
A Storm of Swords (2000)
A Feast for Crows (2005)
A Dance with Dragons (2011)
The Winds of Winter (forthcoming)
A Dream of Spring (forthcoming)

MFisH · Negus

leaders/distractions is just one part of a puzzle for an NFL team and season, but it defienitly plays a role. i am sorry after all these years you still don't understand since it doesnt have a stat line next to it to corrlate information. do you think miami enjoyed their martin/incongito media frenzy? i can't imagine that helped very much, being that they lost the very next game to the bucs who didnt win a game up to that point and then missed the playoffs in the crappy afc. how about the RG3/shannhan drama every week. did that not play a role in them going 3-13 or do you think a team that won the division the year before just had a minor setback on the field?

what about the ravens going from super bowl champs to missing the playoffs, do you think losing team leaders like ray lewis and ed reed among others had no impact? im pretty sure their talents alone wasn't the reason for their downfall being that reed was cut midseason and nobody else they lost made any impact on their new team.

jackson is an extremely talented player and also a headcase. his sideline temper tantrum definitly didnt help vs the vikings. some teams can put up with this and overcome it, mainly teams who buy into what their coaches preach (eagles, pats, etc), and some teams can't and it destroys them like what happened in miami or dc redskins.

Jpoo · Guru

I think Miami losing 3/5 of their offensive line was a bigger issue....

RG3 couldn't run and proved that he's not a great pocket QB, thats why they went 3-13 (along with an AWFUL defense)

The Ravens missed the playoffs because Flacco is a douche who demanded absurd money and hamstrung his team, forcing them to get rid of his #1 receiving option. Leaving him with basically only Smith to throw too. And their offensive line blows which is a result of the same flacco money.

MFisH · Negus

every team has injuries (other than the eagles *fingers crossed*) you can use that excuse for any team who doesnt play well.

like i said, this argument isn't an end all be all. the pats had a player arrested for murder and they didn't miss a beat. they also had multiple big time players of theirs get hurt and we're also fine, but that doesnt mean injuries doesnt play a factor.

i specifically remember the night the dolphins lost to the bucs the espn MNF countdown after show crew (ray lewis, steve young, trent dilfer all super bowl champs) said they dolphins clearly looked distracted to start that game and it had a huge impact on their loss that night. if 3 former pros (and even hall of famers) made this connection, i dont understand how you guys think it doesn't. and oh by the way, if the dolphins won that game they would have made the playoffs last year.

6ixty · Young Money

josh freeman to the gmen. hes a tough one to figure out. he sure went downhill quick but may still have something left.

Jpoo · Guru

Worth it for a camp arm for sure, Nassib is unproven and Painter is just worthless, I don't know why he's even on the roster.