By the Way

This is happening. Good lord. What did Buffalo fans do to deserve this? Career (pre-season) Stats: 58/104, 455 YDs, 3TD, 6INT, 49.9 QB Rating.

The Wikipedia page says it all: Career highlights: None. That made me laugh out loud.

Interesting Things

I was all set to write up a post bitching about how Peter King (and others) have picked the Bears to be in the Super Bowl. That is despite the fact that Cutler's liver will surely explode at some point this season due to binge drinking and diabetes. And the fact that he is a gigantic douche that will get mad at Matt Forte for scoring all the touchdowns or something and refuse to throw him the ball to make a point. Or the fact that there are no discernible wide receivers on the team to throw to. Or the fact that their secondary was awful last year. Or the fact that Brian Urlacher is without a doubt the most overrated player in NFL history. Or the fact that the offense they run is so pedestrian, that it doesn't really matter who plays QB.

But then I listened to a BS Report podcast from last week. And Mike Lombardi from the National Football Post and the NFL Network picked the motherfucking Green Bay Packers. Which I was both surprised and delighted by. And this pick was made BEFORE the first team beat down the Pack put on Arizona. At the very least, a Super Bowl prediction by a respected journalist leads me to believe that the Packers should be a very, very good team.

It is a good thing that Peter King is not a respected journalist, because that would mean the Bears will be good too.

On a side note, I haven't heard anyone predict either the Viqueens or the Lions in the Super Bowl, meaning both are going to gargle cock all year.

On another side note, the Packers/Bears game on September 13th (that I have tickets to) is a de facto NFC Championship game.

On a third side note, the game tonight against the Titans is going to be boring as shit. I hope to (Sports Bottle's) god that Matt Flynn plays tonight. Because I would have to get pretty goddamn drunk to enjoy 3.9 quarters of Brian Brohm throwing passes to the other team.

The Packers Should Sign Vick

I'm quite sure that has shown up on 6.3 million blogs and sports-talk radio shows in the last month, but I haven't gotten to it yet. And since our fearless leader gave his classic response to the question yesterday, I guess I will tackle it.

I don't think Michael Vick is a very nice person. Anyone who electrocutes/drowns/tortures dogs earns that title. But he got convicted in a court of law, was sentenced to some time, and he did it. If he is good enough to play football, and someone wants to pay him to do it, he should be allowed. So from the NFL's standpoint, it is horseshit to keep him suspended.

Ignoring that factor, should the Packers sign him? I don't think Michael Vick is that great of a quarterback. He does things that nobody else can do, but he is extremely inaccurate as a passer. However, it is pretty tough to argue with the success he has had on the field. He adds an element that makes him a nightmare for defenses, even if he wouldn't be able to hit the ground if it wasn't for gravity. For the sake of argument, lets just say that he can get back to nearly where he was before he got caught gambling on canine MMA, factoring in that he will naturally be a step slower because he is two years older. Assuming that fact, can anyone honestly tell me that he wouldn't be a better backup QB than Matt Flynn or Brian Brohm? You can't, so don't even try. As a football player, which is what the Packer's play, Vick at game speed would be the best backup in the league, and probably in the top 20 starters.

While he doesn't fit the Packer's scheme at all, he doesn't fit ANY team's scheme. He isn't and never will be a normal QB, and every team runs a scheme for a normal QB. The mere threat of him taking off, negates most of his deficiencies.

It would be a shitstorm combined with a circus to have him here for training camp. But nothing is going to be worse than what happened last year with He Who Shall Not Be Named.

I'm not talking long term here, or to be brought in to compete with A-Rodg, but a year or two could be good for both sides. Vick would be able to show that he can not kill things, would generally stay out of trouble in GB because there isn't shit to do but play football, and could get some snaps here and there. Then he could move on, and by that point hopefully Brohm or Flynn would be ready. Or, if (Sports Bottle's) god forbid, A-Rodg goes down, we have someone with NFL experience to step in, and a bargain price. To me it is idiotic NOT to sign him.

But will they pull the trigger? No fucking way. The Packers haven't signed a controversial player (unless you count Andre Rison) in my life. And if you haven't noticed, Ted Thompson doesn't much like to take gambles, or not draft his own players. So unless we can fool Thompson into thinking that Vick is draft eligible somehow, it won't happen. Thompson's answers were his typical evasive answers, and he was clearly toying with the media. He would answer the same way if someone asked him if we were going to sign Bart Starr or Paul Hornung or a bag of dog shit. I would put the chances at .00045%

Trade Deadline

So it was brought to the attention of the JSOnline readers that earlier this week TT decided to offer a 3rd round draft choice for Tony Gonzalez while the Chiefs wanted a 2nd round choice. In the past TT has been unwilling to trade for two current studs in Michael Turner and Randy Moss, now granted we have a great wide receiving corps and we probably didn't NEED Randy Moss, but we definitely could have used Turner, we'd be paying him about the same as we are paying Grant right now, especially if Grant hits his incentives(not looking that way right now). Randy Moss would have been great, but we probably would have over-payed for a very good wide receiver who would bail out on us near the end of his contract if he felt like his situation wasn't ideal, so I'm not all that upset about missing the boat on him.

Back to Gonzalez, he is probably in the top 3 or 4 for receiving tight ends in the league, depending on if you count Kellen Winslows's 3 seasons of motorcycle accidents and syphilis as dependable enough to rank him higher than Tony. Not only that he's a complete tight end, he can block as well, now he may not be the best blocking tight end, but as I've already mentioned, great receiver AND he can block, so that's just a nice bonus. Donald Lee isn't a bad tight end, in fact I think he's good enough that once him and Rodgers develop a real rapport he'll start seeing a lot of balls thrown his way, and not swollen Kellen Winslow balls either, actual footballs.

The fact that we could have gotten T-Gon for a 2nd round pick, which has been a crapshoot thus far for TT, makes me wonder. We got Nick Collins and Greg Jennings, but we also drafted Terrence Murphy, Daryn Colledge(who will probably be let loose after his rookie contract), Brandon Jackson(verdict is still out on him, but I think he's terrible), and now this year, Nelson, Brohm and Patrick Lee the corner. Go through that list, tell me who you'd rather have than Tony Gonzalez. Greg Jennings, maybe Nick Collins? We'd also have just as good of a chance that TT would trade down that pick and turn it into 17 6th round picks(that's an exaggeration). Gonzalez also just said he was only going to play for another 3 years, which doesn't screw up our long term goals to keep our salary cap under control while we sign some of our younger studs we have on the team right now to long term deals.

I guess in the end I'm at least happy that we made an offer instead of just sitting on our hands, and hopefully Donald Lee starts getting more looks, but man I really think it would have helped our offense to have a safety valve like Gonzalez running around the field...

Retailers Have Spoken, Aaron Rodgers Sucks

I wish I had myself a digital camera to carry around, but I don't, so you'll have to use your imagination. I was walking around the mall in GB yesterday and popped into the Finish Line because I was thinking about getting a Brewer jersey. As I'm walking through the store I notice a rack of Packer jerseys. Not unusual. Packer jerseys probably do double the sales of Brewer jerseys even when they are in the offseason. Anyway, this particular rack has two jerseys on it facing the outside. On the right is the #4 Brett Favre jersey, still selling for regular price, and probably still doing pretty well in sales. Again, not unusual, he could run for supreme dictator of Wisconsin and win. He is a hall of famer, and his jerseys will be bought and sold forever. The interesting thing was the jersey on the left side of the rack was #11 Brian Brohm......I want to let that sink in for a minute....OK. That should do it. Given a choice of which jersey to sell apparently, Finish Line went with Brian Brohm over Aaron Rodgers. There were no #12 jerseys in the store. And as far as most Packer fans are concerned, they aren't used to the idea of anyone but Favre at QB, so it wasn't because the #12 was sold out.

If we were in the Packer Pro Shop, seeing a Brian Brohm jersey wouldn't be that wierd, because you could probably pick up a Matt Flynn or Patrick Lee jersey just as easily. Also, there would be plenty of Rodgers jerseys. Finish line is the kind of store that only sells popular items when it comes to jerseys: i.e. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, LDT, etc. So to see a Brohm jersey and no Rodgers jersey is bizarre to say the least.

My point here is that major U.S. retailers are firmly behind Brian Brohm, and assuming Rodgers will splinter his femur in training camp. Or there is some type of conspiracy to assassinate him, that has been cooked up by the retail industry and Brian Brohm's people.

Richard Spielman & the none-use of draft picks

While Juice took a look at the Green Bay Packers draft and wondered aloud about the validity of their selections, I will now look at the Minnesota Vikings to see how they fared (I don't like Wisconsin teams!!!). It seemed to me that the Vikings were paranoid about losing a player that they had targeted. They traded up in the second and fifth rounds to get their players, all at the expense of other draft picks. It's not like we are one player away from the super bowl, this is a team that finished 8-8 last year. We need all of the good/cheap young talent that we can find. It seems like the Vikings, a team that normally does a decent job identifying needs and talent, have sacrificed some valuable young players for the sake of their draft board. That being said, here is a rundown of their selections.

1st round: Of course this went to Kansas City in the Jared Allen trade. While I can't argue with acquiring a stud defensive end, especially since Derrick Harvey went 8th overall to Jacksonville for a 1st, two 3rds and a 4th, it seems like the Vikings and their fans may have raised the expectations too much. After all Tarvaris Jackson is still the starting quarterback. I'm not saying that Vikings should have looked quarterback with their first round pick, I'm just saying that the 2008 season will be defined by the quarterback play, not the defensive end. All the Super Bowl talk needs to go away until the Vikings prove that they can actually, you know, win more games than they lose.

2nd round: The Vikings selected S Tyrell Johnson from Arkansas St. I have no problems with this pick, it's just the manner in which they used it. The Vikings traded up four spots, in front of the rival Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears, to select a safety. I was expecting them to take Chad Henne or Brian Brohm. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed when I heard Johnson's name called. The Vikings have a strong team, but need some insurance at quarterback (Gus Frerotte doesn't count, no matter what Tommy says about him). Now we have a backup safety to take Darren Sharper's job in 2009. We had to trade up to get this?*

*Of course they had to trade up. Johnson was rated 17th on the Vikings board.

3rd round: Oh yeah, the Vikings didn't have a third round pick. We traded both of them.

4th round: Oh yeah, the Vikings didn't have a fourth round pick. We traded it.

5th round: We got our quarterback. I couldn't be happier. I love taking quarterbacks that were successful at big time colleges. John David Booty is exactly the kind of quarterback the Vikings needed to come away with. He's much more ready to make an impact than say, Joe Flacco of Delaware.** Of course the Vikings had to trade up to get him. Let's hope he has a great pre-season so he can become the starting quarterback sooner than later. Even so, Booty is a quarterback that was taken in the fifth round. Maybe I should temper my expectations a tiny bit. I just can't shake the feeling that he is already better than Tarvaris Jackson.

**The only other players from the University of Delaware in the NFL are TE Ben Patrick of Arizona and S Mike Adams of Cleveland. Can we say football powerhouse!!!

5th round: Wow another pick. Letroy Guion DT from Florida St. From what I've been told, he is the single biggest reason for the resurrection of Florida St. football. Great pick!!!

6th round: Wow two more picks. Although I can't say that I know anything about either player the Vikings selected. It does seem like they drafted a potential replacement for the superb Matt Birk. Oh yeah, and a potential kick returner from Jackson St. Whatever.

7th round: Fittingly, the Vikings had no picks in the 7th round. They were, of course, traded.

Overall, I think it was a so so performance. The Vikings came away with some seemingly useful players and a bona fide defensive end. It just seems like they could have done more.


P.S. Like Juice, I will use the royal we when discussing these teams: Minnesota Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves, Gophers, and of course the St. Louis Rams. R-A-M-S! Rams! Rams! Rams!