Threads
-
To unlock all of features of Rams On Demand please take a brief moment to register. Registering is not only quick and easy, it also allows you access to additional features such as live chat, private messaging, and a host of other apps exclusive to Rams On Demand.
I Got Ram Surprised Big Time... with Pics (Now Working)
- By Selassie I
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 60 Replies
I turned the Big 5-0 exactly a month ago today. I was down in the Keys for a few weeks and I had no idea that some of my friends were going to show up and surprise me. Several days into our trip... the wife and I came back to the house from fishing and this is the huge banner I see hanging from the ceiling. I don't even notice my mug shot or the Ram helmet on the banner... I just yell to my wife - "Someone has been in the house!".
Soon after that my friends come running out of the back bedrooms and surprise me. The crazy thing was not just that they all came down and I didn't have any idea... the crazy thing was that they were all wearing Ram hats as they surprised me. One of them is a whiner fan from San Fran,,, I told him that I would never wear a whiner anything and that I was very impressed.
I thought that the surprises were over, but I was wrong. Two days later I wake up to everyone over at the house and they are all wearing these crazy salmon colored shirts (one for me too). We all went to Key West and partied all day and into the night wearing these things. @Ramrasta is on the far left.
I'll post a pic of the back of these shirts next... which is Ram funny as hell. The story behind it is a result of this site.
Soon after that my friends come running out of the back bedrooms and surprise me. The crazy thing was not just that they all came down and I didn't have any idea... the crazy thing was that they were all wearing Ram hats as they surprised me. One of them is a whiner fan from San Fran,,, I told him that I would never wear a whiner anything and that I was very impressed.
I thought that the surprises were over, but I was wrong. Two days later I wake up to everyone over at the house and they are all wearing these crazy salmon colored shirts (one for me too). We all went to Key West and partied all day and into the night wearing these things. @Ramrasta is on the far left.
I'll post a pic of the back of these shirts next... which is Ram funny as hell. The story behind it is a result of this site.
PFF: Ranking all 32 NFL teams' secondaries - Rams #24
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 9 Replies
To read about the other 31 teams click the link below.
*************************************************************
https://www.profootballfocus.com/ne...eams-secondaries-heading-into-the-2017-season
Ranking all 32 NFL teams' secondaries heading into the 2017 season
BY PFF ANALYSIS TEAM
After ranking several position groups as units on the offensive side of the ball, and ranking all 32 NFL team’s front sevens on defense, the time has come to unveil our rankings of team’s secondaries as we get ready for training camp to begin.
These rankings, churned out by our PFF grading system and compiled with our exclusive PFF statistics including signature stats and player participation, here are the rankings for all 32 team’s secondaries as a whole, entering the 2017 season:
24.
CB Trumaine Johnson will be one of the bigger Rams stories to follow heading into training camp, as he did not sign his franchise tag by Tuesday’s deadline.
While there are questions throughout the remainder of the secondary, S Maurice Alexander impressed last season with an 83.0 overall grade and a passer rating of 53.9 on throws into his primary coverage (eighth best among all safeties).
Nickell Robey-Coleman should factor into the Rams secondary as he saw a 74.9 passer rating when targeted in the slot last season in Buffalo, the fifth-lowest mark across the league.
*************************************************************
https://www.profootballfocus.com/ne...eams-secondaries-heading-into-the-2017-season
Ranking all 32 NFL teams' secondaries heading into the 2017 season
BY PFF ANALYSIS TEAM
After ranking several position groups as units on the offensive side of the ball, and ranking all 32 NFL team’s front sevens on defense, the time has come to unveil our rankings of team’s secondaries as we get ready for training camp to begin.
These rankings, churned out by our PFF grading system and compiled with our exclusive PFF statistics including signature stats and player participation, here are the rankings for all 32 team’s secondaries as a whole, entering the 2017 season:
24.
CB Trumaine Johnson will be one of the bigger Rams stories to follow heading into training camp, as he did not sign his franchise tag by Tuesday’s deadline.
While there are questions throughout the remainder of the secondary, S Maurice Alexander impressed last season with an 83.0 overall grade and a passer rating of 53.9 on throws into his primary coverage (eighth best among all safeties).
Nickell Robey-Coleman should factor into the Rams secondary as he saw a 74.9 passer rating when targeted in the slot last season in Buffalo, the fifth-lowest mark across the league.
O.J. Simpson is released from prison
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 111 Replies
Would have posted this in the 'NFL arrests' thread but this man has so much notoriety that he deserves his own thread.
****************************************************************************************
http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2017/07/17/oj-simpson-faces-good-chance-at-parole-from-nevada-prison/
OJ Simpson Faces Good Chance at Parole From Nevada Prison
By KEN RITTER, Associated Press
ABC News - Go.com
LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson, the former football star, TV pitchman and now Nevada prison inmate No. 1027820, will have a lot going for him when he asks state parole board members this week to release him after serving more than eight years for an ill-fated bid to retrieve sports memorabilia.
Now 70, Simpson will have history in his favor and a clean record behind bars as he approaches the nine-year minimum of his 33-year sentence for armed robbery and assault with a weapon. Plus, the parole board sided with him once before.
No one at his Thursday hearing is expected to oppose releasing him in October — not his victim, not even the former prosecutor who persuaded a jury in Las Vegas to convict Simpson in 2008.
“Assuming that he’s behaved himself in prison, I don’t think it will be out of line for him to get parole,” said David Roger, the retired Clark County district attorney.
Four other men who went with Simpson to a hotel room to retrieve from two memorabilia dealers sports collectibles and personal items that the former football star said belonged to him took plea deals in the heist and received probation.
Login to view embedded media View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RtmLhbfiUc
OJ Simpson Timeline: From Sports Hero, Movie Star to Infamy, Prison
OJ Scorecard: See How O.J. Does Point-by-Point on Nevada’s Parole Risk Assessment
Two of those men testified that they carried guns. Another who stood trial with Simpson was convicted and served 27 months before the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that Simpson’s fame tainted the jury. Simpson’s conviction was upheld.
Prison life was a stunning fall for a charismatic celebrity whose storybook career as an electrifying running back dubbed “The Juice” won him the Heisman Trophy as the best college player in 1968 and a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
Login to view embedded media View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1cu5ykSda0
He became a sports commentator, Hollywood movie actor, car rental company spokesman and one of the world’s most famous people even before his Los Angeles “trial of the century,” when he was acquitted in the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Login to view embedded media View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_VpVaPLWs
Simpson, appeared grayer and heavier than most remembered him when he was last seen, four years ago.
He will appear Thursday by videoconference from the Lovelock Correctional Center, to be quizzed by four state parole commissioners in Carson City, a two-hour drive away.
Two other members of the board will monitor the hearing, said David Smith, a parole hearing examiner.
The commissioners will have a parole hearing report that has not been made public, plus guidelines and worksheets that would appear to favor Simpson. It plans to make its written risk assessment public after a decision.
They will consider his age, whether his conviction was for a violent crime (it was), his prior criminal history (he had none) and his plans after release, Smith said.
Nevada has about 13,500 prison inmates, and the governor-appointed Board of Parole Commissioners has averaged about 8,300 annual hearings for the past four years. The rate of inmates who are granted parole in discretionary hearings held as they approach their minimum sentence, like Simpson’s, averages about 82 percent.
The same four board members also have experience with Simpson, having granted him parole in July 2013 on some charges — kidnapping, robbery and burglary — stemming from the 2007 armed confrontation. The board’s decision left Simpson with four years to serve before reaching his minimum time behind bars.
Board members Connie Bisbee, Tony Corda, Adam Endel and Susan Jackson noted at the time that Simpson had a “positive institutional record,” with no disciplinary actions behind bars.
Simpson’s lawyer, friends and prison officials say that hasn’t changed.
“He’s really been a positive force in there. He’s done a lot of good for a lot of people,” said Tom Scotto, a friend from Florida whose wedding Simpson was in Las Vegas to attend the weekend of the robbery.
Scotto said he visits or talks with Simpson every few months.
Simpson leads a Baptist prayer group, mentors inmates, works in the gym, coaches sports teams and serves as commissioner of the prison yard softball league, Scotto said.
Scotto will be among the 15 people with Simpson in a small conference room at the prison, along with Simpson’s lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, daughter Arnelle Simpson and sister Shirley Baker.
A parole case worker, two prison guards and a small pool of media also were expected, along with Bruce Fromong, one of the memorabilia dealers who was robbed.
Fromong said he will attend as a victim of the crime but will be “trying to be good for O.J.” He said he suffered four heart attacks and severe financial losses as a result of the robbery but later forgave Simpson.
The other collectibles broker, Alfred Beardsley, died in 2015.
Andy Caldwell, a retired Las Vegas police detective who investigated the Simpson case, will be at the prison but won’t be in the room.
“I don’t want to offer an opinion,” said Caldwell, now a Christian minister in Mill City, Oregon. “I’m just curious to see how everything unfolds.”
In a nod to Simpson’s celebrity, officials will let the proceedings be streamed live, and the board plans a same-day ruling. A decision usually takes several days.
Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor and longtime Simpson case analyst, predicted a “tsunami” of public attention if Simpson wins release.
“If this is the ordinary case, he will be paroled,” Levenson said. “But O.J. is never the ordinary case.”
Al Lasso, a Las Vegas defense attorney who has followed the case but does not represent Simpson, said any other defendant in a similar case probably would have gotten probation, not prison.
“I think he spent more than enough time in prison for a robbery in which he didn’t even have a gun himself,” Lasso said.
But Michael Shapiro, a New York defense lawyer who provided commentary during Simpson’s conviction in Las Vegas in 2008 and his acquittal in Los Angeles in 1995, said freedom was no certainty.
“The judge believed he got away with murder,” Shapiro said. “That’s the elephant in the room. If the parole authorities feel the same way, he could be in trouble.”
____
This story has been clarified to show that former police Detective Andy Caldwell will be at the prison but not in hearing room and corrects that his church is in Mill City, Oregon, not Lyons, Oregon.
****************************************************************************************
http://lasvegas.cbslocal.com/2017/07/17/oj-simpson-faces-good-chance-at-parole-from-nevada-prison/
OJ Simpson Faces Good Chance at Parole From Nevada Prison
By KEN RITTER, Associated Press
ABC News - Go.com
LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson, the former football star, TV pitchman and now Nevada prison inmate No. 1027820, will have a lot going for him when he asks state parole board members this week to release him after serving more than eight years for an ill-fated bid to retrieve sports memorabilia.
Now 70, Simpson will have history in his favor and a clean record behind bars as he approaches the nine-year minimum of his 33-year sentence for armed robbery and assault with a weapon. Plus, the parole board sided with him once before.
No one at his Thursday hearing is expected to oppose releasing him in October — not his victim, not even the former prosecutor who persuaded a jury in Las Vegas to convict Simpson in 2008.
“Assuming that he’s behaved himself in prison, I don’t think it will be out of line for him to get parole,” said David Roger, the retired Clark County district attorney.
Four other men who went with Simpson to a hotel room to retrieve from two memorabilia dealers sports collectibles and personal items that the former football star said belonged to him took plea deals in the heist and received probation.
Login to view embedded media View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RtmLhbfiUc
OJ Simpson Timeline: From Sports Hero, Movie Star to Infamy, Prison
OJ Scorecard: See How O.J. Does Point-by-Point on Nevada’s Parole Risk Assessment
Two of those men testified that they carried guns. Another who stood trial with Simpson was convicted and served 27 months before the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that Simpson’s fame tainted the jury. Simpson’s conviction was upheld.
Prison life was a stunning fall for a charismatic celebrity whose storybook career as an electrifying running back dubbed “The Juice” won him the Heisman Trophy as the best college player in 1968 and a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
Login to view embedded media View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1cu5ykSda0
He became a sports commentator, Hollywood movie actor, car rental company spokesman and one of the world’s most famous people even before his Los Angeles “trial of the century,” when he was acquitted in the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Login to view embedded media View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z_VpVaPLWs
Simpson, appeared grayer and heavier than most remembered him when he was last seen, four years ago.
He will appear Thursday by videoconference from the Lovelock Correctional Center, to be quizzed by four state parole commissioners in Carson City, a two-hour drive away.
Two other members of the board will monitor the hearing, said David Smith, a parole hearing examiner.
The commissioners will have a parole hearing report that has not been made public, plus guidelines and worksheets that would appear to favor Simpson. It plans to make its written risk assessment public after a decision.
They will consider his age, whether his conviction was for a violent crime (it was), his prior criminal history (he had none) and his plans after release, Smith said.
Nevada has about 13,500 prison inmates, and the governor-appointed Board of Parole Commissioners has averaged about 8,300 annual hearings for the past four years. The rate of inmates who are granted parole in discretionary hearings held as they approach their minimum sentence, like Simpson’s, averages about 82 percent.
The same four board members also have experience with Simpson, having granted him parole in July 2013 on some charges — kidnapping, robbery and burglary — stemming from the 2007 armed confrontation. The board’s decision left Simpson with four years to serve before reaching his minimum time behind bars.
Board members Connie Bisbee, Tony Corda, Adam Endel and Susan Jackson noted at the time that Simpson had a “positive institutional record,” with no disciplinary actions behind bars.
Simpson’s lawyer, friends and prison officials say that hasn’t changed.
“He’s really been a positive force in there. He’s done a lot of good for a lot of people,” said Tom Scotto, a friend from Florida whose wedding Simpson was in Las Vegas to attend the weekend of the robbery.
Scotto said he visits or talks with Simpson every few months.
Simpson leads a Baptist prayer group, mentors inmates, works in the gym, coaches sports teams and serves as commissioner of the prison yard softball league, Scotto said.
Scotto will be among the 15 people with Simpson in a small conference room at the prison, along with Simpson’s lawyer, Malcolm LaVergne, daughter Arnelle Simpson and sister Shirley Baker.
A parole case worker, two prison guards and a small pool of media also were expected, along with Bruce Fromong, one of the memorabilia dealers who was robbed.
Fromong said he will attend as a victim of the crime but will be “trying to be good for O.J.” He said he suffered four heart attacks and severe financial losses as a result of the robbery but later forgave Simpson.
The other collectibles broker, Alfred Beardsley, died in 2015.
Andy Caldwell, a retired Las Vegas police detective who investigated the Simpson case, will be at the prison but won’t be in the room.
“I don’t want to offer an opinion,” said Caldwell, now a Christian minister in Mill City, Oregon. “I’m just curious to see how everything unfolds.”
In a nod to Simpson’s celebrity, officials will let the proceedings be streamed live, and the board plans a same-day ruling. A decision usually takes several days.
Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor and longtime Simpson case analyst, predicted a “tsunami” of public attention if Simpson wins release.
“If this is the ordinary case, he will be paroled,” Levenson said. “But O.J. is never the ordinary case.”
Al Lasso, a Las Vegas defense attorney who has followed the case but does not represent Simpson, said any other defendant in a similar case probably would have gotten probation, not prison.
“I think he spent more than enough time in prison for a robbery in which he didn’t even have a gun himself,” Lasso said.
But Michael Shapiro, a New York defense lawyer who provided commentary during Simpson’s conviction in Las Vegas in 2008 and his acquittal in Los Angeles in 1995, said freedom was no certainty.
“The judge believed he got away with murder,” Shapiro said. “That’s the elephant in the room. If the parole authorities feel the same way, he could be in trouble.”
____
This story has been clarified to show that former police Detective Andy Caldwell will be at the prison but not in hearing room and corrects that his church is in Mill City, Oregon, not Lyons, Oregon.
Panthers fire their G.M.
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 18 Replies
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/07/17/panthers-boot-g-m-dave-gettleman/
Panthers boot G.M.Dave Gettleman
Posted by Darin Gantt on July 17, 2017
AP
The Panthers have made plenty of news this offseason. None has been bigger than this.
The Panthers just announced that General Manager Dave Gettleman has been relieved of his duties the week before training camp begins.
“After much thought and a long evaluation of our football operations, I have decided to relieve Dave Gettleman of his duties as General Manager,” owner Jerry Richardson said in a statement. “I want to thank Dave for the role he played in our success over the past four seasons. While the timing of this decision is not ideal, a change is needed.”
The Panthers are in the midst of a number of contract negotiations with beloved veterans (Thomas Davis and Greg Olsen) and Gettleman drew notorious hard lines with beloved veterans such as Jordan Gross and Steve Smith in the past. That might not have suited Richardson, who takes pride in his relationships with long-time players.
The move leaves them short-handed, as assistant G.M. Brandon Beane left for Buffalo’s G.M. job earlier this offseason.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/07/17/whats-next-for-the-panthers/
The stunning news that G.M. Dave Gettleman has been relieved of his duties after four years, three playoff appearances, and a Super Bowl leads to an obvious question: What the hell do they do next?
Login to view embedded media View: https://twitter.com/89SteveSmith/status/886992866479710208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2F2017%2F07%2F17%2Fsteve-smith-offers-sarcastic-comfort-to-dave-gettleman%2F
Login to view embedded media View: https://twitter.com/DeAngeloRB/status/886999001345740800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2Fcategory%2Frumor-mill%2F
Panthers boot G.M.Dave Gettleman
Posted by Darin Gantt on July 17, 2017
AP
The Panthers have made plenty of news this offseason. None has been bigger than this.
The Panthers just announced that General Manager Dave Gettleman has been relieved of his duties the week before training camp begins.
“After much thought and a long evaluation of our football operations, I have decided to relieve Dave Gettleman of his duties as General Manager,” owner Jerry Richardson said in a statement. “I want to thank Dave for the role he played in our success over the past four seasons. While the timing of this decision is not ideal, a change is needed.”
The Panthers are in the midst of a number of contract negotiations with beloved veterans (Thomas Davis and Greg Olsen) and Gettleman drew notorious hard lines with beloved veterans such as Jordan Gross and Steve Smith in the past. That might not have suited Richardson, who takes pride in his relationships with long-time players.
The move leaves them short-handed, as assistant G.M. Brandon Beane left for Buffalo’s G.M. job earlier this offseason.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/07/17/whats-next-for-the-panthers/
The stunning news that G.M. Dave Gettleman has been relieved of his duties after four years, three playoff appearances, and a Super Bowl leads to an obvious question: What the hell do they do next?
Login to view embedded media View: https://twitter.com/89SteveSmith/status/886992866479710208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2F2017%2F07%2F17%2Fsteve-smith-offers-sarcastic-comfort-to-dave-gettleman%2F
Login to view embedded media View: https://twitter.com/DeAngeloRB/status/886999001345740800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fprofootballtalk.nbcsports.com%2Fcategory%2Frumor-mill%2F
Rams won't have long-term success until they solidify O-Line
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 47 Replies
Rams won't have long-term success until they solidify offensive line
Jared Goff was sacked 25 times over a six-game stretch during his rookie season. Robert Hanashiro/USA TODAY Sports
Alden Gonzalez
ESPN recently put together power rankings based on how each NFL team is positioned for these next three years.Insider The Los Angeles Rams finished 28th. That is, um, not good. It's not good because, well, 28th is bad. It's really not good because of what these next three years represent for this franchise. Thanks to heavy rainfall in a city that never experiences heavy rainfall, these next three years now constitute the buildup to the Rams -- and Chargers -- moving into their vast, opulent, $2.6 billion stadium in Inglewood, California.
The Rams -- 13 years removed from their last playoff appearance, 14 years removed from their last winning season -- want to become legitimate contenders as quickly as possible. Really, though, they want to ensure they are a playoff-caliber team by the time they move into that new stadium. ESPN's Louis Riddick, Mike Sando and Field Yates don't think they will be. At least not as currently constructed. They graded each team's roster, quarterback, draft, coaches and front office, and put it all together to come up with a final score. The result: 27 of the 31 other teams are in better position from 2017 to '19.
The Rams can't have that. They can't have a disinterested fan base in the nation's second-largest media market, and they can't play second fiddle to the Chargers in a stadium they themselves are funding. This week -- the last full week before training camp -- we're going to take a look at the five things that need to happen in order for the Rams to be a lot better than the 28th-best team at the conclusion of this three-year stretch.
No. 5: Solidify the offensive line.
This offseason, the Rams signed Andrew Whitworth, a 35-year-old left tackle, to a $36 million contract over three years. And they added John Sullivan, a soon-to-be-32-year-old who started one game over the last two years, to serve as their new center.
Telling.
The Rams drafted seven offensive linemen from 2014 to 2015, but not one of them has lived up to his potential so far. Greg Robinson, taken second overall in the hope that he would lock down left tackle for at least a half-decade, was traded for a sixth-round pick last month. Rob Havenstein, a second-round pick in 2015, is moving from right tackle to right guard after a down year. Jamon Brown, taken one round after Havenstein, is being tried out at right tackle in what appears to be a desperation move. The others -- Andrew Donnal, Cody Wichmann, Demetrius Rhaney and Mitchell Van Dyk -- are either gone or on the bench.
Pro Football Focus, an analytics-based site that studies every player on every play, ranked the Rams' offensive line 28th in 2015 and 27th in 2016, two seasons in which the offense finished last in the NFL in yards. Behind that offensive line last year, Todd Gurley averaged 3.2 yards per carry for an entire season and Jared Goff was sacked 25 times over a six-game stretch. Enter new offensive line coach Aaron Kromer, who replaces 30-year NFL veteran Paul Boudreau. Kromer spent the last two years coaching the Bills' offensive line, a unit that enabled Buffalo to lead the league in rushing in back-to-back years. He is intrigued by the Rams' group because it is still very young.
Kromer needs to get the most out of what he has, but the front office must locate the next wave of offensive linemen.
Whitworth is still really, really good, but he is now too old to be considered a long-term solution. Sullivan was a solid player before back issues took their toll, but it's hard to consider him anything more than a stopgap at this point. The Rams likely still need to identify a long-term solution at center, either in-house -- Austin Blythe, recently claimed off waivers, could be one -- or elsewhere. At some point, they also need to draft their left tackle of the future and actually hit on him.
It's a dicey proposition. Thirteen left tackles were taken in the first round from 2012 to '16. Those 13 have combined for two Pro Bowl invites, one each for Matt Kalil and Taylor Lewan. The proliferation of spread offenses in today's NFL has made it very difficult to evaluate collegiate offensive line play, almost to the point where it may no longer be worth it to take a gamble on a spot as difficult to master as left tackle. The Rams learned that lesson with Robinson in 2014. Soon, they'll take another chance and hope to do a lot better.
The success of Gurley and Goff -- and thus, the long-term stability of their franchise -- depends on it.
[www.espn.com]
Jared Goff was sacked 25 times over a six-game stretch during his rookie season. Robert Hanashiro/USA TODAY Sports
Alden Gonzalez
ESPN recently put together power rankings based on how each NFL team is positioned for these next three years.Insider The Los Angeles Rams finished 28th. That is, um, not good. It's not good because, well, 28th is bad. It's really not good because of what these next three years represent for this franchise. Thanks to heavy rainfall in a city that never experiences heavy rainfall, these next three years now constitute the buildup to the Rams -- and Chargers -- moving into their vast, opulent, $2.6 billion stadium in Inglewood, California.
The Rams -- 13 years removed from their last playoff appearance, 14 years removed from their last winning season -- want to become legitimate contenders as quickly as possible. Really, though, they want to ensure they are a playoff-caliber team by the time they move into that new stadium. ESPN's Louis Riddick, Mike Sando and Field Yates don't think they will be. At least not as currently constructed. They graded each team's roster, quarterback, draft, coaches and front office, and put it all together to come up with a final score. The result: 27 of the 31 other teams are in better position from 2017 to '19.
The Rams can't have that. They can't have a disinterested fan base in the nation's second-largest media market, and they can't play second fiddle to the Chargers in a stadium they themselves are funding. This week -- the last full week before training camp -- we're going to take a look at the five things that need to happen in order for the Rams to be a lot better than the 28th-best team at the conclusion of this three-year stretch.
No. 5: Solidify the offensive line.
This offseason, the Rams signed Andrew Whitworth, a 35-year-old left tackle, to a $36 million contract over three years. And they added John Sullivan, a soon-to-be-32-year-old who started one game over the last two years, to serve as their new center.
Telling.
The Rams drafted seven offensive linemen from 2014 to 2015, but not one of them has lived up to his potential so far. Greg Robinson, taken second overall in the hope that he would lock down left tackle for at least a half-decade, was traded for a sixth-round pick last month. Rob Havenstein, a second-round pick in 2015, is moving from right tackle to right guard after a down year. Jamon Brown, taken one round after Havenstein, is being tried out at right tackle in what appears to be a desperation move. The others -- Andrew Donnal, Cody Wichmann, Demetrius Rhaney and Mitchell Van Dyk -- are either gone or on the bench.
Pro Football Focus, an analytics-based site that studies every player on every play, ranked the Rams' offensive line 28th in 2015 and 27th in 2016, two seasons in which the offense finished last in the NFL in yards. Behind that offensive line last year, Todd Gurley averaged 3.2 yards per carry for an entire season and Jared Goff was sacked 25 times over a six-game stretch. Enter new offensive line coach Aaron Kromer, who replaces 30-year NFL veteran Paul Boudreau. Kromer spent the last two years coaching the Bills' offensive line, a unit that enabled Buffalo to lead the league in rushing in back-to-back years. He is intrigued by the Rams' group because it is still very young.
Kromer needs to get the most out of what he has, but the front office must locate the next wave of offensive linemen.
Whitworth is still really, really good, but he is now too old to be considered a long-term solution. Sullivan was a solid player before back issues took their toll, but it's hard to consider him anything more than a stopgap at this point. The Rams likely still need to identify a long-term solution at center, either in-house -- Austin Blythe, recently claimed off waivers, could be one -- or elsewhere. At some point, they also need to draft their left tackle of the future and actually hit on him.
It's a dicey proposition. Thirteen left tackles were taken in the first round from 2012 to '16. Those 13 have combined for two Pro Bowl invites, one each for Matt Kalil and Taylor Lewan. The proliferation of spread offenses in today's NFL has made it very difficult to evaluate collegiate offensive line play, almost to the point where it may no longer be worth it to take a gamble on a spot as difficult to master as left tackle. The Rams learned that lesson with Robinson in 2014. Soon, they'll take another chance and hope to do a lot better.
The success of Gurley and Goff -- and thus, the long-term stability of their franchise -- depends on it.
[www.espn.com]
MMQB: 7/17/17 - Introducing The MMQB All-Time NFL Draft
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 7 Replies
These are excerpts. To read the whole article click the link below.
*****************************************************************
https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/07/17/all-time-nfl-draft-peter-king-monday-morning-qb
Monday Morning Quarterback: Introducing The MMQB All-Time NFL Draft
We assembled an all-star panel of 12 football experts for an intriguing—and wildly fun—experiment: an All-Time Draft, drawing from the pool of every player in pro football history. How do you build a team? How would today’s players stack up against the giants of the past? Who goes No. 1? The results are fascinating
By Peter King
Lawrence Taylor went No. 1 overall.
John Biever/Sports Illustrated
Today we kick off a project that’s been a long time coming. The executive editor of The MMQB, Mark Mravic, suggested a couple of years ago that we do an all-time draft of pro football players.
How cool would it be, he thought, if we got smart football people together and conducted a draft from the pool of every one of the more than 23,000 men who have played in the NFL, AFL and All-America Football Conference? How cool would it be if we made teams with Joe Montana throwing to Don Hutson, or with Von Miller chasing down Jim Brown from behind? Pretty cool.
Finally this year I took on the organization of The MMQB All-Time NFL Draft. You’ll find the results and related content—the round-by-round list, the team rosters, bios, galleries and more—our special draft hub, and during the week we’ll have follow-up stories on the project—how the teams would look on the field, who didn’t get drafted and why, and more.
There’ll be time in the weeks ahead to spend on training camp previews and other news; today’s column will be dedicated to this most fanciful of fantasy football drafts.
There are a hundred ways to tell this story. I choose the AP style. Just the facts, as the Associated Press would have covered it. Twelve competitive general managers who had the most pleasant drafting task ever—picking 300 all-timers to form 12 Super Teams—treating it like it was very real. Here, the draft picks, quotes and other takeaways about this very fun two-hour event.
NEW YORK — After The MMQB’s All-Time Draft kicked off with a logical trio of the most storied players in NFL history—Lawrence Taylor, Joe Greene and Johnny Unitas—going one, two and three, the fourth pick of the draft, by Hall of Fame quarterback and Hall of Fame voter Dan Fouts, elicited wows from the 11 other general managers drafting by conference call from around the U.S.: Raiders punter Ray Guy.
A punter? Fourth overall, with players from 97 years of football history to choose from?
“I really wanted Unitas,” Fouts said afterward. “But he was taken. So I thought I would shock the world. Not that many punters had the impact Ray Guy did on a game. He came into the league the same year as me [1973], and I watched him affect games for so many years. He was such a weapon. And I thought I could get a great quarterback down the road, and I did [Terry Bradshaw, in round five].”
Fouts finished with a fascinating team, led by several of his former Chargers teammates, as well as kicker Jan Stenerud in the fourth round and the electric Bo Jackson, whose career was foiled by a hip injury in 1991, taken in round 20. But Fouts, like the other GMs, also drew from deep into football’s past and drafted across the range of football history.
One of his offensive linemen, Bruiser Kinard, began his career in the 1930s. Another, Bruce Matthews, finished his in the 2000s. Each team was an amalgam of the new and the old.
For the 25-round draft, the mandate was that each team had to field an 11-man offense, 11-man defense, plus a kicker, punter and wild card player—either a special-teamer or another favorite of the drafter. (There was no requirement to draft a kick returner.) The 12 architects all had long pro football pedigrees:
• Ernie Accorsi, former GM of the Colts, Browns and Giants.
• Gil Brandt, father of modern football scouting. Has worked in NFL for the past 58 years.
• Joel Bussert, for 40 years the NFL’s vice president of player personnel.
• Dan Fouts, Hall of Fame quarterback, current Pro Football Hall of Fame voter.
• Rick Gosselin, longtime pro football columnist, and king of the mock draft.
• Joe Horrigan, Pro Football Hall of Fame executive vice president and chief archivist.
• Peter King, 33-year pro football writer, editor-in-chief of The MMQB and Hall of Fame voter.
• Bob McGinn, who just finished a 38-year run covering the Green Bay Packers.
• Bill Polian, six-time Executive of the Year and a Pro Football Hall of Fame GM.
• John Turney, editor of Pro Football Journal and respected football historian.
• Ron Wolf, architect of three NFL playoff teams, and Pro Football Hall of Fame GM.
• John Wooten, 10-year NFL guard, 23-year NFL scout, head of The Fritz Pollard Alliance.
The draft order was determined by pulling the names out of a
hat: 1 Bussert, 2 Wolf, 3 Gosselin, 4 Fouts, 5 Turney, 6 Brandt, 7 McGinn, 8 Horrigan, 9 King, 10 Polian, 11 Wooten, 12 Accorsi.
After the 25 rounds were completed, there was a one-round head-coach draft, in reverse order. Accorsi selected first (he chose Vince Lombardi), followed by Wooten, Polian, King, etc.
In this All-Time Draft, it was permissible to select a player who played both ways back in the day and to use him both ways on these rosters. But a player could only count at one spot on offense and one spot on defense. For instance, you couldn’t pick Ronnie Lott as a cornerback and safety, though he played both during his career. But you could pick Sammy Baugh as a quarterback, safety and punter, because he could theoretically do all three jobs in a single game—and most often did.
The exercise was meant to honor all eras of pro football. An All-Decade player in the ’50s, for instance, should have been considered on the same footing as an All-Decade player in the ’90s. Wolf’s philosophy was going to be to take the guys he saw whom he loved, with an emphasis on the pre-modern players.
Polian said he wouldn’t take any Colts, Bills or Panthers (the teams he molded) “because if I pick one, then I’ve got to answer why I didn’t pick all the others.” Gosselin loves the All-Decade teams, and he followed those, mostly, plus considered Hall of Fame pedigree. Brandt, in his Dallas home, made a board with position-by-position rankings.
“I’ve put hours into this,” Brandt said. “It was a labor of love.”
• The MMQB All-Time NFL Draft: Gil Brandt’s complete roster
Bussert needed just four of his allotted 30 seconds to kick off the first round, selecting Taylor, the most dangerous pass-rusher of all time. “For me it was a no-brainer,” Bussert said, “because even before the order came out, I said if I have a chance to get LT, I am going to take him. When you talk about the greatest defensive player, it’s almost always LT.”
Wolf, elected to the Hall of Fame in 2015, was clearly set on building a defensive powerhouse, and he started with the cornerstone of the Steelers’ 1970s dynasty, defensive tackle Greene. Then Gosselin chose the generational Unitas as the first quarterback picked.
“If he was gone, I would have taken Jim Brown,” Gosselin said. “So either the game's greatest quarterback or the game's greatest player. Those were my preferred options. If both were gone by the time I went on the clock, I would have taken Tom Brady. Heck of a consolation prize, right?”
Brady, as it turned out, lasted until the ninth pick, which was one of the upsets of the draft. But the biggest was Fouts drafting Guy fourth overall. Turney, the football historian, followed by choosing Bengals left tackle Anthony Muñoz, likely the best ever at the position, and Brandt happily chose the running back who dominated the game for a decade in the late ’50s and ’60s, Jim Brown of Cleveland, with the sixth overall pick.
At seven, McGinn chose a player he covered in the Packers’ glory days of the ’90s, defensive end Reggie White, the first great unrestricted free agent in NFL history. Like the GM (Wolf) he covered for many years, McGinn went heavy on defense early.
At eight, Horrigan honored history with the first wide receiver to come off the board: Don Hutson, a former Southeastern Conference 100-yard dash champion who caught 99 touchdown passes for the Packers from 1935 to 1945. When Hutson retired, he had three times as many TD catches as any other player in NFL history, and the record of 99 stood for 44 years.
King, who had hoped Muñoz would last until nine, happily settled for Brady, whom he felt established himself as the greatest quarterback of all time with his record 25-point comeback in his record fifth Super Bowl victory last February. That pick started a run on quarterbacks:
At 11, Polian, respecting history, chose Cleveland’s Otto Graham, who led his Browns team to seven pro football titles in a 10-year post-World War II career. At 11, Wooten tabbed Joe Montana, winner of four Super Bowls and the ultimate cool-under-pressure player. At 12, Accorsi finished the first round by taking the most ironic pick of the entire draft, John Elway.
Accorsi took Elway in the first round, and kept him this time.
John Biever/Sports Illustrated
In 1983, Accorsi was the GM of the Baltimore Colts, who had the first pick in the draft. But John Elway did not want to play for then-Colts coach Frank Kush, and though Baltimore picked Elway number one and appeared ready to call his bluff, owner Robert Irsay ordered Elway to be traded.
Against Accorsi’s wishes, the Colts traded Elway to Denver for a package of picks and players that, putting it mildly, did not stack up to Elway. (Though one of them, tackle Chris Hinton, became a Pro Bowl player for the Colts.)
“I drafted John Elway in 1983 and he didn’t play for us, and that’s why I quit,” Accorsi said after taking Elway a second time. “I resigned from the Colts because the owner traded him without me knowing it. I’ve gotten to know Elway pretty well, and I sent him an email and told him about this draft.
“I said, ‘John, I just drafted you in this draft. However, you will be surrounded by 10 Hall of Famers on offense, and your coach is not Frank Kush, it’s Vince Lombardi … And I am the owner, not Irsay. So will you play this time?’
“And he wrote me back and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll play on that team! No question about it! We will win some championships.’”
Rounds two through five featured players who easily could have been first-rounders. Even picks made in round 10 wouldn’t have been stunners if they’d gone in the first round.
• Bussert chose Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach to start round two and got the leading sacker of all time, Bruce Smith, at the top of round three.
• Wolf picked defensive tackle Bob Lilly (to play next to Joe Greene) and cornerback Deion Sanders in rounds two and three, then followed with two rock-solid defenders, Gino Marchetti and Mel Blount. “I don’t know how you’re going to score on this team,” Wolf said.
His quarterback—surprise—is Brett Favre, chosen in round 10. In his first major personnel move as Green Bay GM in 1992, Wolf traded a first-round pick to Atlanta for Favre, who’d just spent his rookie year warming the Falcons’ bench.
• Gosselin, fitting his defensive bent, got his top defensive end (Deacon Jones) and top middle linebacker (Dick Butkus) in rounds two and three.
• Fouts, minus himself, recreated the explosive Chargers teams of the ’70s and early ’80s, with Kellen Winslow at tight end and Charlie Joiner and John Jefferson at wideout.
• Turney got Jerry Rice in round two and Aaron Rodgers and Von Miller in rounds eight and nine, respectively. “If Aaron Rodgers continues on this pace he will throw his 400th TD pass before he throws his 100th interception,” Turney said. He did a good job melding the new with the old throughout the draft. In addition, he pulled off two trades, one of them coach-for-coach: Turney acquired Bill Belichick from King, with King using the choice he received to pick Chuck Noll.
(An odd trade. King actually chose Belichick with the fourth pick in the one-round coaches draft, then looked to trade the five-time Super Bowl-winning head coach. “I just wanted Brady to play for someone else, to keep it interesting,” King said. “I had a brain lock—I should have picked Paul Brown. But Noll is a terminally underrated coach and franchise architect, and I just think he would have loved coaching Tom Brady.”)
• Brandt got great value throughout, even after taking Brown and Walter Payton in the first two rounds. Best example: Randy Moss in round 12.
• McGinn will have a strong defensive core. After White, he chose Hall of Famers Ronnie Lott, Lee Roy Selmon and Junior Seau. It was a shock to see McGinn steal Dan Marino as his quarterback midway through round 10.
• Horrigan snuck Peyton Manning from the pack with the 20th overall pick, then made a couple of interesting backfield selections: Fullback Jim Taylor (round eight) will block for the leading rusher of all time, Emmitt Smith (round 13).
• King got one of his favorite players ever, running back Gale Sayers, in round two, followed by legendary cornerback Night Train Lane in round three. He added center/linebacker Chuck Bednarik to play both ways. “One of the thrills of the team I invented is thinking of Tom Brady pitching wide to Gale Sayers, and seeing Chuck Bednarik trying to clear room for Sayers to run,” said King.
King chose the electric Sayers in his backfield.
Getty Images
• Polian had nods to history throughout. And though he waited until the 22nd and 24th rounds, respectively, to get his two wideouts—Cris Carter and Tim Brown—both are Hall of Famers. His selection of Mike Ditka in round seven thrilled him. “He was the dominant tight end of his era, the first real offensive weapon who played detached from the line,” said Polian. “He was the [Rob] Gronkowski of his day.”
• Wooten said he wanted to draft some players he knew well from playing with and against them in his career (1959 through ’68, with Cleveland and Washington). Check out five straight Wooten picks beginning in round seven: tackle Bob Brown, center Jim Ringo, cornerback Herb Adderley, guard and teammate Gene Hickerson, guard Jerry Kramer.
• Accorsi remembered the city where he got his start in an NFL front office and became an NFL GM—Baltimore. His first three picks (Unitas, Lenny Moore, Ray Lewis) all have roots there, and 17th-round defensive tackle Art Donovan is one of the most colorful Baltimore athletes in history.
Larry Fitzgerald, who will play alongside Steve Largent as Team King’s targets for Brady, seemed to speak for a slew of the players when he said: “To catch balls from Tom Brady, to be able to practice against Night Train Lane and Lester Hayes, to be coached by Chuck Noll … this is a pretty big honor to be one of the 300 players in history drafted.”
The GMs seemed honored to be part of the project. The image of some of the combinations made possible by this draft gave it a Field of Dreams feel.
Jim Brown and Walter Payton lining up in the same backfield. Peyton Manning throwing a fade to Don Hutson. Doug Atkins and Jason Taylor coming around opposite corners to chase the quarterback. Brett Favre handing the ball to Bronko Nagurski. Dan Marino playing catch with Rob Gronkowski. Otto Graham, with his facemask-less helmet, drooling over having Barry Sanders in the backfield with him.
Unitas, kneeling in the huddle, calling a play of his choosing, looking up at Michael Irvin.
“Hey Irvin,” you can hear Unitas asking, “can you get open on Night Train Lane?”
“God ain’t made a DB who can cover me yet!” Irvin might say.
Yes, these would be some games to watch, in our dreams.
“This draft was way past fun,” said Wooten, 80 and a football lifer. “It brought back a lot of memories. And when you see my list, you’ll see it is a lot of guys I played against. It brought back so many guys that you don’t think about that were really outstanding players and people. To me, this was really joyful.”
I hope you enjoy the coverage of our All-Time Draft this week. We’d love to hear from you about it. On Tuesday, Tim Layden will have a story imagining what each of these teams would look like, assembled for the first time, and we’ll take a crack at an All-Undrafted team—can you build a squad comparable to these 12 from players who didn’t get picked?
On Wednesday my mailbag column will be dedicated to the all-time-draft. Whose team do you like? Who got left out who shouldn’t have? Who drafted well? Who didn’t? (Although it’s hard to look at any of these teams and think a single one is pedestrian.)
And I’d love to know your thoughts about which team would win the title if these 12 teams played a full season.
Dan Fouts told me after the draft: “Bart Starr won five titles for the Packers, and what an incredible team that was. Five! That’s why I hope people will look at this and have some appreciation for the history of the game. So many great players didn’t get picked. People think football history started with the Super Bowl. You can see it’s been a great game for a long, long time.”
The MMQB All-Time Draft Hub | The complete draft, picks 1-300, plus coaches
Team-by-team rosters, with player bios:
Team Bussert
Team Wolf
Team Gosselin
Team Fouts
Team Turney
Team Brandt
Team McGinn
Team Horrigan
Team King
Team Polian
Team Wooten
Team Accorsi
Things I Think I Think
1. I think without question Dan Fouts picking Ray Guy and Jan Stenerud in rounds one and four will be what people who don’t like this concept point to when they critique it. That’s fine. And people might say, “How can you judge players from different eras and put them on the same team, and …
” I know. There’s nothing perfect about the concept. It’s just fun. Just a little bit of summer fun, imagining scenes like the best center of football’s first 50 years, Mel Hein, snapping the ball to the wildest quarterback of the game’s 98 years, Brett Favre.
2. I think you’ll enjoy looking at who was drafted where … such as Jerry Rice not being the first wide receiver taken. Let’s think about that for a moment. Don Hutson (Green Bay, 1935–45) went eighth. Rice went 17th. If you’d had a seat at the table, maybe you’d have picked Rice first overall—and no one could have beefed if you did. But let’s consider Hutson.
When he retired after the 1945 season, he had exactly three times as many touchdown catches (99) as the receiver with the second-most touchdown catches in NFL history (Jim Benton, Cleveland, 33). Hutson’s record stood for 44 years, until Steve Largent broke it in 1989. Thus the reverence for Hutson.
Plus, for those who would question the athleticism of player in those days (fair, seeing that the color barrier in pro football was not broken until the year after Hutson retired, meaning that it’s virtually certain he played against less than the best players), Hutson did run a 9.8-second 100-yard dash, and he did twice win the 100-yard dash in the SEC Track and Field Championships. Rice versus Hutson is the classic case of apples versus oranges, and it’s not wrong to pick either as the greatest receiver of all time.
3. I think I’m not sure who will be angriest at this draft—Emmitt Smith for being the 16th back taken, or Thurman Thomas for not being picked at all.
4. I think three things about Ernie Accorsi’s team:
a. Vince Lombardi should lord over the squad, obviously, and have his fingerprints all over the offense. But if I were him, I’d give cornerback Dick LeBeau the player/coach title and let him game plan the defense every week.
b. I wonder what’ll happen when one of Lombardi’s pass-rushers, Michael Strahan, walks into the head coach’s office one day and says, “Hey coach! I’d love to get you on Good Morning America. How about it?”
c. Lombardi’s going to love the mack truck of a running back that is Marion Motley. Will he ever let John Elway throw the ball with Motley plowing for first downs?
5. I think the draft was occasionally a draft of runs. Such as: There was one tackle (Munoz) taken in the first 60 picks. There were eight picked between the 61st and 72nd selections. And after one linebacker (Taylor) going in the top 25, eight went in the next 20 picks.
6. I think some of those players shy of the Hall of Fame will be encouraged with where they went: special-teamer Steve Tasker at 184, versatile defensive lineman Joe Klecko at 186, and wideout Cliff Branch at 194. All were chosen before Troy Aikman, Bronko Nagurski and Tony Dorsett. And Jerry Kramer, whose candidacy has been the cause of much debate, was the first non-Hall of Famer (among those eligible) who was taken in this draft, at 131.
7. I think these are the coach/player situations that would be so fun to see:
a. John Madden coaching Lawrence Taylor. I have a feeling Madden would do what Bill Parcells did: Give LT enough rope, but always make it known to Taylor that there were limits on how hard he could pull.
b. GM John Wooten made an incredible trio come back to life … coach Bill Walsh reprising a cold day in St. Louis in December 1979, when rookie quarterback Joe Montana started his first NFL game, and an on-his-last-legs running back, O.J. Simpson, played in the Niners backfield. Those three men—Walsh, Montana and Simpson—lead the Wooten offense.
c. Paul Brown coaching Johnny Unitas. Fantastic. The problem: Brown wanted power over his offense, and Unitas wanted total control over the play-calling. Of all the stories in Week 1 of The MMQB League, the Brown/Unitas dynamic would be the most interesting to see.
d. Chuck Noll coaching a trio of Steelers on D: Jack Lambert was his fearless leader on the Steel Curtain … but I’d love to see Troy Polamalu and Kevin Greene playing for the old man. And how much would Noll have loved the multiple ways he could have floated J.J. Watt around his defensive front?
e. Curly Lambeau, the first bombs-away coach in NFL history, finding ways to have fun with Brett Favre’s arm and daring.
8. I think one of the things I’d be watching for early in this league would be special-teamers Steve Tasker (Fouts’ wild-card pick, in the 16th round) and Steve Gleason (a King wild-card in the 20th) rushing the punter. Those plays would be worth the price of admission right there.
9. I think I want to thank my 11 other GMs in this process. I fielded 20 or so calls and emails in the weeks before the draft, clarifying rules and enthusing about how much fun they were having prepping for the draft. Gil Brandt, in particular, was so fired up about the process. John Wooten too. I just appreciate so many busy people making time to have the ultimate fantasy draft. I hope you all enjoy it.
*****************************************************************
https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/07/17/all-time-nfl-draft-peter-king-monday-morning-qb
Monday Morning Quarterback: Introducing The MMQB All-Time NFL Draft
We assembled an all-star panel of 12 football experts for an intriguing—and wildly fun—experiment: an All-Time Draft, drawing from the pool of every player in pro football history. How do you build a team? How would today’s players stack up against the giants of the past? Who goes No. 1? The results are fascinating
By Peter King
Lawrence Taylor went No. 1 overall.
John Biever/Sports Illustrated
Today we kick off a project that’s been a long time coming. The executive editor of The MMQB, Mark Mravic, suggested a couple of years ago that we do an all-time draft of pro football players.
How cool would it be, he thought, if we got smart football people together and conducted a draft from the pool of every one of the more than 23,000 men who have played in the NFL, AFL and All-America Football Conference? How cool would it be if we made teams with Joe Montana throwing to Don Hutson, or with Von Miller chasing down Jim Brown from behind? Pretty cool.
Finally this year I took on the organization of The MMQB All-Time NFL Draft. You’ll find the results and related content—the round-by-round list, the team rosters, bios, galleries and more—our special draft hub, and during the week we’ll have follow-up stories on the project—how the teams would look on the field, who didn’t get drafted and why, and more.
There’ll be time in the weeks ahead to spend on training camp previews and other news; today’s column will be dedicated to this most fanciful of fantasy football drafts.
There are a hundred ways to tell this story. I choose the AP style. Just the facts, as the Associated Press would have covered it. Twelve competitive general managers who had the most pleasant drafting task ever—picking 300 all-timers to form 12 Super Teams—treating it like it was very real. Here, the draft picks, quotes and other takeaways about this very fun two-hour event.
NEW YORK — After The MMQB’s All-Time Draft kicked off with a logical trio of the most storied players in NFL history—Lawrence Taylor, Joe Greene and Johnny Unitas—going one, two and three, the fourth pick of the draft, by Hall of Fame quarterback and Hall of Fame voter Dan Fouts, elicited wows from the 11 other general managers drafting by conference call from around the U.S.: Raiders punter Ray Guy.
A punter? Fourth overall, with players from 97 years of football history to choose from?
“I really wanted Unitas,” Fouts said afterward. “But he was taken. So I thought I would shock the world. Not that many punters had the impact Ray Guy did on a game. He came into the league the same year as me [1973], and I watched him affect games for so many years. He was such a weapon. And I thought I could get a great quarterback down the road, and I did [Terry Bradshaw, in round five].”
Fouts finished with a fascinating team, led by several of his former Chargers teammates, as well as kicker Jan Stenerud in the fourth round and the electric Bo Jackson, whose career was foiled by a hip injury in 1991, taken in round 20. But Fouts, like the other GMs, also drew from deep into football’s past and drafted across the range of football history.
One of his offensive linemen, Bruiser Kinard, began his career in the 1930s. Another, Bruce Matthews, finished his in the 2000s. Each team was an amalgam of the new and the old.
For the 25-round draft, the mandate was that each team had to field an 11-man offense, 11-man defense, plus a kicker, punter and wild card player—either a special-teamer or another favorite of the drafter. (There was no requirement to draft a kick returner.) The 12 architects all had long pro football pedigrees:
• Ernie Accorsi, former GM of the Colts, Browns and Giants.
• Gil Brandt, father of modern football scouting. Has worked in NFL for the past 58 years.
• Joel Bussert, for 40 years the NFL’s vice president of player personnel.
• Dan Fouts, Hall of Fame quarterback, current Pro Football Hall of Fame voter.
• Rick Gosselin, longtime pro football columnist, and king of the mock draft.
• Joe Horrigan, Pro Football Hall of Fame executive vice president and chief archivist.
• Peter King, 33-year pro football writer, editor-in-chief of The MMQB and Hall of Fame voter.
• Bob McGinn, who just finished a 38-year run covering the Green Bay Packers.
• Bill Polian, six-time Executive of the Year and a Pro Football Hall of Fame GM.
• John Turney, editor of Pro Football Journal and respected football historian.
• Ron Wolf, architect of three NFL playoff teams, and Pro Football Hall of Fame GM.
• John Wooten, 10-year NFL guard, 23-year NFL scout, head of The Fritz Pollard Alliance.
The draft order was determined by pulling the names out of a
hat: 1 Bussert, 2 Wolf, 3 Gosselin, 4 Fouts, 5 Turney, 6 Brandt, 7 McGinn, 8 Horrigan, 9 King, 10 Polian, 11 Wooten, 12 Accorsi.
After the 25 rounds were completed, there was a one-round head-coach draft, in reverse order. Accorsi selected first (he chose Vince Lombardi), followed by Wooten, Polian, King, etc.
In this All-Time Draft, it was permissible to select a player who played both ways back in the day and to use him both ways on these rosters. But a player could only count at one spot on offense and one spot on defense. For instance, you couldn’t pick Ronnie Lott as a cornerback and safety, though he played both during his career. But you could pick Sammy Baugh as a quarterback, safety and punter, because he could theoretically do all three jobs in a single game—and most often did.
The exercise was meant to honor all eras of pro football. An All-Decade player in the ’50s, for instance, should have been considered on the same footing as an All-Decade player in the ’90s. Wolf’s philosophy was going to be to take the guys he saw whom he loved, with an emphasis on the pre-modern players.
Polian said he wouldn’t take any Colts, Bills or Panthers (the teams he molded) “because if I pick one, then I’ve got to answer why I didn’t pick all the others.” Gosselin loves the All-Decade teams, and he followed those, mostly, plus considered Hall of Fame pedigree. Brandt, in his Dallas home, made a board with position-by-position rankings.
“I’ve put hours into this,” Brandt said. “It was a labor of love.”
• The MMQB All-Time NFL Draft: Gil Brandt’s complete roster
Bussert needed just four of his allotted 30 seconds to kick off the first round, selecting Taylor, the most dangerous pass-rusher of all time. “For me it was a no-brainer,” Bussert said, “because even before the order came out, I said if I have a chance to get LT, I am going to take him. When you talk about the greatest defensive player, it’s almost always LT.”
Wolf, elected to the Hall of Fame in 2015, was clearly set on building a defensive powerhouse, and he started with the cornerstone of the Steelers’ 1970s dynasty, defensive tackle Greene. Then Gosselin chose the generational Unitas as the first quarterback picked.
“If he was gone, I would have taken Jim Brown,” Gosselin said. “So either the game's greatest quarterback or the game's greatest player. Those were my preferred options. If both were gone by the time I went on the clock, I would have taken Tom Brady. Heck of a consolation prize, right?”
Brady, as it turned out, lasted until the ninth pick, which was one of the upsets of the draft. But the biggest was Fouts drafting Guy fourth overall. Turney, the football historian, followed by choosing Bengals left tackle Anthony Muñoz, likely the best ever at the position, and Brandt happily chose the running back who dominated the game for a decade in the late ’50s and ’60s, Jim Brown of Cleveland, with the sixth overall pick.
At seven, McGinn chose a player he covered in the Packers’ glory days of the ’90s, defensive end Reggie White, the first great unrestricted free agent in NFL history. Like the GM (Wolf) he covered for many years, McGinn went heavy on defense early.
At eight, Horrigan honored history with the first wide receiver to come off the board: Don Hutson, a former Southeastern Conference 100-yard dash champion who caught 99 touchdown passes for the Packers from 1935 to 1945. When Hutson retired, he had three times as many TD catches as any other player in NFL history, and the record of 99 stood for 44 years.
King, who had hoped Muñoz would last until nine, happily settled for Brady, whom he felt established himself as the greatest quarterback of all time with his record 25-point comeback in his record fifth Super Bowl victory last February. That pick started a run on quarterbacks:
At 11, Polian, respecting history, chose Cleveland’s Otto Graham, who led his Browns team to seven pro football titles in a 10-year post-World War II career. At 11, Wooten tabbed Joe Montana, winner of four Super Bowls and the ultimate cool-under-pressure player. At 12, Accorsi finished the first round by taking the most ironic pick of the entire draft, John Elway.
Accorsi took Elway in the first round, and kept him this time.
John Biever/Sports Illustrated
In 1983, Accorsi was the GM of the Baltimore Colts, who had the first pick in the draft. But John Elway did not want to play for then-Colts coach Frank Kush, and though Baltimore picked Elway number one and appeared ready to call his bluff, owner Robert Irsay ordered Elway to be traded.
Against Accorsi’s wishes, the Colts traded Elway to Denver for a package of picks and players that, putting it mildly, did not stack up to Elway. (Though one of them, tackle Chris Hinton, became a Pro Bowl player for the Colts.)
“I drafted John Elway in 1983 and he didn’t play for us, and that’s why I quit,” Accorsi said after taking Elway a second time. “I resigned from the Colts because the owner traded him without me knowing it. I’ve gotten to know Elway pretty well, and I sent him an email and told him about this draft.
“I said, ‘John, I just drafted you in this draft. However, you will be surrounded by 10 Hall of Famers on offense, and your coach is not Frank Kush, it’s Vince Lombardi … And I am the owner, not Irsay. So will you play this time?’
“And he wrote me back and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll play on that team! No question about it! We will win some championships.’”
Rounds two through five featured players who easily could have been first-rounders. Even picks made in round 10 wouldn’t have been stunners if they’d gone in the first round.
• Bussert chose Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach to start round two and got the leading sacker of all time, Bruce Smith, at the top of round three.
• Wolf picked defensive tackle Bob Lilly (to play next to Joe Greene) and cornerback Deion Sanders in rounds two and three, then followed with two rock-solid defenders, Gino Marchetti and Mel Blount. “I don’t know how you’re going to score on this team,” Wolf said.
His quarterback—surprise—is Brett Favre, chosen in round 10. In his first major personnel move as Green Bay GM in 1992, Wolf traded a first-round pick to Atlanta for Favre, who’d just spent his rookie year warming the Falcons’ bench.
• Gosselin, fitting his defensive bent, got his top defensive end (Deacon Jones) and top middle linebacker (Dick Butkus) in rounds two and three.
• Fouts, minus himself, recreated the explosive Chargers teams of the ’70s and early ’80s, with Kellen Winslow at tight end and Charlie Joiner and John Jefferson at wideout.
• Turney got Jerry Rice in round two and Aaron Rodgers and Von Miller in rounds eight and nine, respectively. “If Aaron Rodgers continues on this pace he will throw his 400th TD pass before he throws his 100th interception,” Turney said. He did a good job melding the new with the old throughout the draft. In addition, he pulled off two trades, one of them coach-for-coach: Turney acquired Bill Belichick from King, with King using the choice he received to pick Chuck Noll.
(An odd trade. King actually chose Belichick with the fourth pick in the one-round coaches draft, then looked to trade the five-time Super Bowl-winning head coach. “I just wanted Brady to play for someone else, to keep it interesting,” King said. “I had a brain lock—I should have picked Paul Brown. But Noll is a terminally underrated coach and franchise architect, and I just think he would have loved coaching Tom Brady.”)
• Brandt got great value throughout, even after taking Brown and Walter Payton in the first two rounds. Best example: Randy Moss in round 12.
• McGinn will have a strong defensive core. After White, he chose Hall of Famers Ronnie Lott, Lee Roy Selmon and Junior Seau. It was a shock to see McGinn steal Dan Marino as his quarterback midway through round 10.
• Horrigan snuck Peyton Manning from the pack with the 20th overall pick, then made a couple of interesting backfield selections: Fullback Jim Taylor (round eight) will block for the leading rusher of all time, Emmitt Smith (round 13).
• King got one of his favorite players ever, running back Gale Sayers, in round two, followed by legendary cornerback Night Train Lane in round three. He added center/linebacker Chuck Bednarik to play both ways. “One of the thrills of the team I invented is thinking of Tom Brady pitching wide to Gale Sayers, and seeing Chuck Bednarik trying to clear room for Sayers to run,” said King.
King chose the electric Sayers in his backfield.
Getty Images
• Polian had nods to history throughout. And though he waited until the 22nd and 24th rounds, respectively, to get his two wideouts—Cris Carter and Tim Brown—both are Hall of Famers. His selection of Mike Ditka in round seven thrilled him. “He was the dominant tight end of his era, the first real offensive weapon who played detached from the line,” said Polian. “He was the [Rob] Gronkowski of his day.”
• Wooten said he wanted to draft some players he knew well from playing with and against them in his career (1959 through ’68, with Cleveland and Washington). Check out five straight Wooten picks beginning in round seven: tackle Bob Brown, center Jim Ringo, cornerback Herb Adderley, guard and teammate Gene Hickerson, guard Jerry Kramer.
• Accorsi remembered the city where he got his start in an NFL front office and became an NFL GM—Baltimore. His first three picks (Unitas, Lenny Moore, Ray Lewis) all have roots there, and 17th-round defensive tackle Art Donovan is one of the most colorful Baltimore athletes in history.
Larry Fitzgerald, who will play alongside Steve Largent as Team King’s targets for Brady, seemed to speak for a slew of the players when he said: “To catch balls from Tom Brady, to be able to practice against Night Train Lane and Lester Hayes, to be coached by Chuck Noll … this is a pretty big honor to be one of the 300 players in history drafted.”
The GMs seemed honored to be part of the project. The image of some of the combinations made possible by this draft gave it a Field of Dreams feel.
Jim Brown and Walter Payton lining up in the same backfield. Peyton Manning throwing a fade to Don Hutson. Doug Atkins and Jason Taylor coming around opposite corners to chase the quarterback. Brett Favre handing the ball to Bronko Nagurski. Dan Marino playing catch with Rob Gronkowski. Otto Graham, with his facemask-less helmet, drooling over having Barry Sanders in the backfield with him.
Unitas, kneeling in the huddle, calling a play of his choosing, looking up at Michael Irvin.
“Hey Irvin,” you can hear Unitas asking, “can you get open on Night Train Lane?”
“God ain’t made a DB who can cover me yet!” Irvin might say.
Yes, these would be some games to watch, in our dreams.
“This draft was way past fun,” said Wooten, 80 and a football lifer. “It brought back a lot of memories. And when you see my list, you’ll see it is a lot of guys I played against. It brought back so many guys that you don’t think about that were really outstanding players and people. To me, this was really joyful.”
I hope you enjoy the coverage of our All-Time Draft this week. We’d love to hear from you about it. On Tuesday, Tim Layden will have a story imagining what each of these teams would look like, assembled for the first time, and we’ll take a crack at an All-Undrafted team—can you build a squad comparable to these 12 from players who didn’t get picked?
On Wednesday my mailbag column will be dedicated to the all-time-draft. Whose team do you like? Who got left out who shouldn’t have? Who drafted well? Who didn’t? (Although it’s hard to look at any of these teams and think a single one is pedestrian.)
And I’d love to know your thoughts about which team would win the title if these 12 teams played a full season.
Dan Fouts told me after the draft: “Bart Starr won five titles for the Packers, and what an incredible team that was. Five! That’s why I hope people will look at this and have some appreciation for the history of the game. So many great players didn’t get picked. People think football history started with the Super Bowl. You can see it’s been a great game for a long, long time.”
The MMQB All-Time Draft Hub | The complete draft, picks 1-300, plus coaches
Team-by-team rosters, with player bios:
Team Bussert
Team Wolf
Team Gosselin
Team Fouts
Team Turney
Team Brandt
Team McGinn
Team Horrigan
Team King
Team Polian
Team Wooten
Team Accorsi
Things I Think I Think
1. I think without question Dan Fouts picking Ray Guy and Jan Stenerud in rounds one and four will be what people who don’t like this concept point to when they critique it. That’s fine. And people might say, “How can you judge players from different eras and put them on the same team, and …
” I know. There’s nothing perfect about the concept. It’s just fun. Just a little bit of summer fun, imagining scenes like the best center of football’s first 50 years, Mel Hein, snapping the ball to the wildest quarterback of the game’s 98 years, Brett Favre.
2. I think you’ll enjoy looking at who was drafted where … such as Jerry Rice not being the first wide receiver taken. Let’s think about that for a moment. Don Hutson (Green Bay, 1935–45) went eighth. Rice went 17th. If you’d had a seat at the table, maybe you’d have picked Rice first overall—and no one could have beefed if you did. But let’s consider Hutson.
When he retired after the 1945 season, he had exactly three times as many touchdown catches (99) as the receiver with the second-most touchdown catches in NFL history (Jim Benton, Cleveland, 33). Hutson’s record stood for 44 years, until Steve Largent broke it in 1989. Thus the reverence for Hutson.
Plus, for those who would question the athleticism of player in those days (fair, seeing that the color barrier in pro football was not broken until the year after Hutson retired, meaning that it’s virtually certain he played against less than the best players), Hutson did run a 9.8-second 100-yard dash, and he did twice win the 100-yard dash in the SEC Track and Field Championships. Rice versus Hutson is the classic case of apples versus oranges, and it’s not wrong to pick either as the greatest receiver of all time.
3. I think I’m not sure who will be angriest at this draft—Emmitt Smith for being the 16th back taken, or Thurman Thomas for not being picked at all.
4. I think three things about Ernie Accorsi’s team:
a. Vince Lombardi should lord over the squad, obviously, and have his fingerprints all over the offense. But if I were him, I’d give cornerback Dick LeBeau the player/coach title and let him game plan the defense every week.
b. I wonder what’ll happen when one of Lombardi’s pass-rushers, Michael Strahan, walks into the head coach’s office one day and says, “Hey coach! I’d love to get you on Good Morning America. How about it?”
c. Lombardi’s going to love the mack truck of a running back that is Marion Motley. Will he ever let John Elway throw the ball with Motley plowing for first downs?
5. I think the draft was occasionally a draft of runs. Such as: There was one tackle (Munoz) taken in the first 60 picks. There were eight picked between the 61st and 72nd selections. And after one linebacker (Taylor) going in the top 25, eight went in the next 20 picks.
6. I think some of those players shy of the Hall of Fame will be encouraged with where they went: special-teamer Steve Tasker at 184, versatile defensive lineman Joe Klecko at 186, and wideout Cliff Branch at 194. All were chosen before Troy Aikman, Bronko Nagurski and Tony Dorsett. And Jerry Kramer, whose candidacy has been the cause of much debate, was the first non-Hall of Famer (among those eligible) who was taken in this draft, at 131.
7. I think these are the coach/player situations that would be so fun to see:
a. John Madden coaching Lawrence Taylor. I have a feeling Madden would do what Bill Parcells did: Give LT enough rope, but always make it known to Taylor that there were limits on how hard he could pull.
b. GM John Wooten made an incredible trio come back to life … coach Bill Walsh reprising a cold day in St. Louis in December 1979, when rookie quarterback Joe Montana started his first NFL game, and an on-his-last-legs running back, O.J. Simpson, played in the Niners backfield. Those three men—Walsh, Montana and Simpson—lead the Wooten offense.
c. Paul Brown coaching Johnny Unitas. Fantastic. The problem: Brown wanted power over his offense, and Unitas wanted total control over the play-calling. Of all the stories in Week 1 of The MMQB League, the Brown/Unitas dynamic would be the most interesting to see.
d. Chuck Noll coaching a trio of Steelers on D: Jack Lambert was his fearless leader on the Steel Curtain … but I’d love to see Troy Polamalu and Kevin Greene playing for the old man. And how much would Noll have loved the multiple ways he could have floated J.J. Watt around his defensive front?
e. Curly Lambeau, the first bombs-away coach in NFL history, finding ways to have fun with Brett Favre’s arm and daring.
8. I think one of the things I’d be watching for early in this league would be special-teamers Steve Tasker (Fouts’ wild-card pick, in the 16th round) and Steve Gleason (a King wild-card in the 20th) rushing the punter. Those plays would be worth the price of admission right there.
9. I think I want to thank my 11 other GMs in this process. I fielded 20 or so calls and emails in the weeks before the draft, clarifying rules and enthusing about how much fun they were having prepping for the draft. Gil Brandt, in particular, was so fired up about the process. John Wooten too. I just appreciate so many busy people making time to have the ultimate fantasy draft. I hope you all enjoy it.
Golf
- By flv
- SPORTSBOOK
- 14 Replies
Odds for The Open are now available. As with other recent golf events i've covered prices mirror what bookies are actually offering BUT i'm excluding all the huge outsiders. So...you'll be paid if the player of your choice wins the tournament OR finishes as the highest of the the 61 listed players, (see 'Rules and general information' on the actual event page). Extra value for you. 
Johnny Manziel wants an NFL comeback
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 55 Replies
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/07/15/johnny-manziel-hoping-working-for-nfl-comeback/
Johnny Manziel hoping, working for NFL comeback
Posted by Charean Williams on July 15, 2017
Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer
The odds of Johnny Manziel getting a second chance in the NFL remain long. Yet, despite having not played since 2015, the former Heisman Trophy winner apparently is drawing more interest than Colin Kaepernick.
Manziel said Saturday he has had a couple of conversations with NFL teams about a comeback. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported in March that Manziel had breakfast with Saints coach Asshole Face at the Super Bowl to discuss a return.
Login to view embedded media View: https://twitter.com/jonmachota/status/886327497809432576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsportsday.dallasnews.com%2Fcollege-sports%2Fcollegesports%2F2017%2F07%2F15%2Fjohnny-manziel-still-wants-nfl-comeback-talked-teams-returning-league
The former first-round pick played two seasons for the Browns, going 2-6 while completing 57 percent of his passes for 1,675 yards with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. He received a four-game suspension for violation of the substance-abuse policy last summer but sat out last season as a free agent after his release from the Browns.
Manziel, though, has stayed out the news, while working out, in hopes of convincing an NFL team he’s worthy of a second chance.
Login to view embedded media View: https://twitter.com/jonmachota/status/886331422214107137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsportsday.dallasnews.com%2Fcollege-sports%2Fcollegesports%2F2017%2F07%2F15%2Fjohnny-manziel-still-wants-nfl-comeback-talked-teams-returning-league
If you could Select the 12 Playoff Teams this year?
- By Florida_Ram
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 11 Replies
At the end of every new NFL season, we get 6 teams from each conference that earn a ticket to the single elimination post season party.
Some of the teams that will make it back this year will be the usual suspects, while others might be returning to the tournament for the first time in several years.
Obviously the choice for most would be to have the Rams as the NFC #1 seed. I'm interested to see who and why your 12 teams selected would be where you seed them.
For various personal reasons, I'm sure some of the 12 teams some will select might be unrealistic because maybe you can't stand certain teams being in the playoffs.
Again, I'm not asking for predictions just your personal wish list if you could magically select all the 12 playoff teams that you want to see make the playoffs..
This would be my preferred wish if I could hand select all of the 12 playoff contestants.
NFC Playoff Seeds
#1 Cowboys - The Stars are here for the Rams to face in the NFC championship.
#2 Packers - The Pack are the 2nd seed and host one game at Lambeau field.
#3 Rams - The horns are here so they get 3 playoff games hosting Philly in first round.
#4 Falcons - Last years scoring machine to host NY in a classic first round match-up.
#5 Giants - Eli vs Ryan and the elite WR's Odell vs Julio.
#6 Eagles - Wentz & his Eagles fly to Los Angeles to square off against Goff's Rams.
AFC Playoff Seeds
#1 Patriots - Need to include the evil empire to spice up the playoffs.
#2 Raiders - The silver & black are loaded with beast mode and Carr.
#3 Titans - Mariota to host Flacco and the Ravens.
#4 Steelers - Big Ben & company battle the defensive juggernaut Texans.
#5 Texans - JJ Watt and his defense ready to rumble in Pittsburgh.
#6 Ravens - John Harbaugh returns to the playoffs at Tennessee.
What Teams and how would your 12 seeds look like?
PFF: The importance of pressure: It's not all about sacks
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 13 Replies
Since Aaron Donald was not mentioned in this article, despite generating 82 pressures last season, I posted this cool pic of him below. 
***********************************************************************************
https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-the-importance-of-pressure-its-not-all-about-sacks
The importance of pressure: It's not all about sacks
BY WILLIAM MOY
Every great team needs the ability to rush the quarterback. In PFF’s recently released Foundation Draft in fact, the first non-QB selected was Joey Bosa, a second-year edge defender who showed elite ability at rushing the quarterback as a rookie. Despite a general wherewithal of the overall importance of pass-rushers, there still seems to be plenty of debate as to what actually makes up an elite pass-rusher.
While often times it’s the players who tally the highest sack totals that get heaped with praise, simply using those totals to define who is and who isn’t an elite pass-rusher is an extremely unreliable, and frankly in 2017, lazy method. Pressure comes in a variety of forms and pass-rushers have a great ability to positively affect any given play for their team, even if they aren’t finishing the play off with a sack.
When looking at passer ratings from last season you can easily see the drastic effect that pressure can have even when the quarterback is still able to get off a pass: Aaron Rodgers led 37 qualified quarterbacks last season with a 93.8 passer rating while under pressure; 27 of those signal callers had a passer rating higher than 93.8 on attempts coming from a clean pocket. The average NFL passer rating fell from 99.3 to just 64.6 last season when pressured.
When looking at interception rates we see a very similar trend; there were 219 interceptions thrown by these 37 quarterbacks on 12,100 pass attempts from a clean pocket, a rate of 1.8 percent. When pressure was applied that rate shot up to 3.1 percent as they combined to throw 153 interceptions on 4,942 attempts.
Here at PFF, one of our overarching goals is to simply make football fans smarter. We watch every play under a magnifying glass in order to provide the public with more information than they’ve ever had access to.
As part of our efforts to debunk the myth that sack rates are a true measure of a players’ ability as a pass-rusher, we’ve developed our own metric called Pass-Rush Productivity (PRP). PRP measures all pressures created on a per-snap basis (hurries, hits and sacks) with a slight weighting towards sacks.
PRP allows you to look at a group of pass-rushers and paint a much clearer picture on the level of impact they have on all passing plays, not just the ones that end in a sack. With the knowledge of just how much a quarterback’s throws are effected by pressure, would you prefer a player who finishes the season with double digit sacks but a low overall pressure total?
Or a player who may only tally six or seven sacks but is consistently getting into the pocket to disrupt throws? You want the player who’s consistently disrupting throws and PRP helps to identify who those players are.
So using PRP, lets take a look at some of the players who deserve more credit than they’ve gotten for their performance as a pass-rusher in 2016.
BRANDON GRAHAM, EDGE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (14.0 PRP, FIFTH AMONG EDGE DEFENDERS)
There is no single-greater example as to why you can’t rely on sack totals to distinguish who is an elite pass-rusher from who isn’t than Brandon Graham. Graham – an edge defender who’s primary job is to rush the quarterback – finished this season ranked ninth overall in PFFs Top 101 Players despite tallying just six sacks.
Yep, you read that correctly. We considered Graham to be one of the 10 best players in football last season despite ranking 18th among his position group alone in sacks. Why? Because despite the low sack total, Graham absolutely wrought havoc in the pocket last season, lots of it.
Graham finished with 83 total pressures, the second most among all 4-3 defensive ends, trailing just Olivier Vernon, who required 156 more pass rush attempts than Graham to tally 86 pressures. Graham didn’t have a single game where he recorded multiple sacks in 2016, but he had nine games where he recorded at least five pressures, including a Week 8 performance where he abused a typically impenetrable Cowboys offensive line to the tune of 11 pressures. Graham alone brought pressure on almost a quarter of all passing plays the Cowboys ran that day.
CHRIS D. JONES, DI KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (9.4 PRP, EIGHTH AMONG DI’S)
If you were to just look at Chris Jones’ sack total from last season you might conclude that he had a disappointing rookie season as a pass-rusher, but that really couldn’t be further from the truth. Jones’ 42 total pressures were the eighth most among 3-4 defensive ends and Mike Daniels was the only other 3-4 end to record at least 40 pressures on fewer than 440 pass rush snaps (Jones did it in just 341 snaps).
It’s tough to overstate the effect that pressure from the interior can have on a quarterback and Jones provided an extraordinary amount of it for the Chiefs as a rookie. If he can build upon that performance in 2017, he’s going to quickly emerge as one of the most impactful pass-rushers in the entire league.
Now using PRP, lets look at some pass-rushers who’s 2016 wasn’t as impressive as their sack totals would suggest.
VIC BEASLEY, EDGE ATLANTA FALCONS (10.4 PRP, 29TH AMONG EDGE DEFENDERS)
Vic Beasley had a great season, and finishing 29th among 110 qualified edge defenders in pass-rushing productivity is nothing to scoff at and he’s a player that Falcons fans should certainly be excited about.
With that being said, since Beasley led the league in sacks last season, many people would see that and conclude that Beasley was the premier pass-rusher in the NFL last year and that would be a pretty big misrepresentation of his true performance.
Beasley finished the year with 45 total pressures. Despite besting Khalil Mack by five sacks, Mack had more than double (96) the number of pressures that Beasley had. Beasley had at least five pressures in just five games while having zero games in which he recorded double-digit pressures; Mack had ten games with at least five pressures last year, including three that reached double-digits.
If Beasley is going to force himself into the conversation in terms of elite pass-rushers, he’s going to need generate pressure much more consistently, because he will be very unlikely to repeat his conversion rate of notching a sack on 28.5 percent of all of his pressures in 2017 and beyond.
MARKUS GOLDEN, EDGE ARIZONA CARDINALS (10.1 PRP, 39TH AMONG EDGE DEFENDERS)
Despite ranking third among all defenders with 13 sacks last season, Golden just barely made it inside the top-40 among edge defenders in PRP; and his 77.0 pass rush grade also ranked 34th among the group.
There were 14 3-4 outside linebackers who rushed the quarterback at least 400 times last season, Golden ranked 10th among those defenders with 53 total pressures. 23 other 3-4 OLBs alone generated pressure at a greater rate than Golden (once every 8.0 pass rushing snaps).
Golden is in a similar boat as Beasley. He had a great season (his 81.5 overall grade ranked 24th among 109 edge defenders) and is by all means an up-and-coming player that Cardinals fans should be excited about… he just wasn’t quite the dominant pass rushing force his sack total suggests he was.
***********************************************************************************
https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-the-importance-of-pressure-its-not-all-about-sacks
The importance of pressure: It's not all about sacks
BY WILLIAM MOY
Every great team needs the ability to rush the quarterback. In PFF’s recently released Foundation Draft in fact, the first non-QB selected was Joey Bosa, a second-year edge defender who showed elite ability at rushing the quarterback as a rookie. Despite a general wherewithal of the overall importance of pass-rushers, there still seems to be plenty of debate as to what actually makes up an elite pass-rusher.
While often times it’s the players who tally the highest sack totals that get heaped with praise, simply using those totals to define who is and who isn’t an elite pass-rusher is an extremely unreliable, and frankly in 2017, lazy method. Pressure comes in a variety of forms and pass-rushers have a great ability to positively affect any given play for their team, even if they aren’t finishing the play off with a sack.
When looking at passer ratings from last season you can easily see the drastic effect that pressure can have even when the quarterback is still able to get off a pass: Aaron Rodgers led 37 qualified quarterbacks last season with a 93.8 passer rating while under pressure; 27 of those signal callers had a passer rating higher than 93.8 on attempts coming from a clean pocket. The average NFL passer rating fell from 99.3 to just 64.6 last season when pressured.
When looking at interception rates we see a very similar trend; there were 219 interceptions thrown by these 37 quarterbacks on 12,100 pass attempts from a clean pocket, a rate of 1.8 percent. When pressure was applied that rate shot up to 3.1 percent as they combined to throw 153 interceptions on 4,942 attempts.
Here at PFF, one of our overarching goals is to simply make football fans smarter. We watch every play under a magnifying glass in order to provide the public with more information than they’ve ever had access to.
As part of our efforts to debunk the myth that sack rates are a true measure of a players’ ability as a pass-rusher, we’ve developed our own metric called Pass-Rush Productivity (PRP). PRP measures all pressures created on a per-snap basis (hurries, hits and sacks) with a slight weighting towards sacks.
PRP allows you to look at a group of pass-rushers and paint a much clearer picture on the level of impact they have on all passing plays, not just the ones that end in a sack. With the knowledge of just how much a quarterback’s throws are effected by pressure, would you prefer a player who finishes the season with double digit sacks but a low overall pressure total?
Or a player who may only tally six or seven sacks but is consistently getting into the pocket to disrupt throws? You want the player who’s consistently disrupting throws and PRP helps to identify who those players are.
So using PRP, lets take a look at some of the players who deserve more credit than they’ve gotten for their performance as a pass-rusher in 2016.
BRANDON GRAHAM, EDGE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (14.0 PRP, FIFTH AMONG EDGE DEFENDERS)
There is no single-greater example as to why you can’t rely on sack totals to distinguish who is an elite pass-rusher from who isn’t than Brandon Graham. Graham – an edge defender who’s primary job is to rush the quarterback – finished this season ranked ninth overall in PFFs Top 101 Players despite tallying just six sacks.
Yep, you read that correctly. We considered Graham to be one of the 10 best players in football last season despite ranking 18th among his position group alone in sacks. Why? Because despite the low sack total, Graham absolutely wrought havoc in the pocket last season, lots of it.
Graham finished with 83 total pressures, the second most among all 4-3 defensive ends, trailing just Olivier Vernon, who required 156 more pass rush attempts than Graham to tally 86 pressures. Graham didn’t have a single game where he recorded multiple sacks in 2016, but he had nine games where he recorded at least five pressures, including a Week 8 performance where he abused a typically impenetrable Cowboys offensive line to the tune of 11 pressures. Graham alone brought pressure on almost a quarter of all passing plays the Cowboys ran that day.
CHRIS D. JONES, DI KANSAS CITY CHIEFS (9.4 PRP, EIGHTH AMONG DI’S)
If you were to just look at Chris Jones’ sack total from last season you might conclude that he had a disappointing rookie season as a pass-rusher, but that really couldn’t be further from the truth. Jones’ 42 total pressures were the eighth most among 3-4 defensive ends and Mike Daniels was the only other 3-4 end to record at least 40 pressures on fewer than 440 pass rush snaps (Jones did it in just 341 snaps).
It’s tough to overstate the effect that pressure from the interior can have on a quarterback and Jones provided an extraordinary amount of it for the Chiefs as a rookie. If he can build upon that performance in 2017, he’s going to quickly emerge as one of the most impactful pass-rushers in the entire league.
Now using PRP, lets look at some pass-rushers who’s 2016 wasn’t as impressive as their sack totals would suggest.
VIC BEASLEY, EDGE ATLANTA FALCONS (10.4 PRP, 29TH AMONG EDGE DEFENDERS)
Vic Beasley had a great season, and finishing 29th among 110 qualified edge defenders in pass-rushing productivity is nothing to scoff at and he’s a player that Falcons fans should certainly be excited about.
With that being said, since Beasley led the league in sacks last season, many people would see that and conclude that Beasley was the premier pass-rusher in the NFL last year and that would be a pretty big misrepresentation of his true performance.
Beasley finished the year with 45 total pressures. Despite besting Khalil Mack by five sacks, Mack had more than double (96) the number of pressures that Beasley had. Beasley had at least five pressures in just five games while having zero games in which he recorded double-digit pressures; Mack had ten games with at least five pressures last year, including three that reached double-digits.
If Beasley is going to force himself into the conversation in terms of elite pass-rushers, he’s going to need generate pressure much more consistently, because he will be very unlikely to repeat his conversion rate of notching a sack on 28.5 percent of all of his pressures in 2017 and beyond.
MARKUS GOLDEN, EDGE ARIZONA CARDINALS (10.1 PRP, 39TH AMONG EDGE DEFENDERS)
Despite ranking third among all defenders with 13 sacks last season, Golden just barely made it inside the top-40 among edge defenders in PRP; and his 77.0 pass rush grade also ranked 34th among the group.
There were 14 3-4 outside linebackers who rushed the quarterback at least 400 times last season, Golden ranked 10th among those defenders with 53 total pressures. 23 other 3-4 OLBs alone generated pressure at a greater rate than Golden (once every 8.0 pass rushing snaps).
Golden is in a similar boat as Beasley. He had a great season (his 81.5 overall grade ranked 24th among 109 edge defenders) and is by all means an up-and-coming player that Cardinals fans should be excited about… he just wasn’t quite the dominant pass rushing force his sack total suggests he was.