- 1: It's no surprise that John Dorsey offered his 35th overall pick to the Eagles for Nick Foles. That would not have been too much to pay for that quarterback.
They might even have done with Foles what they're doing with Tyrod: Rent him for one season (trust me: Dorsey was still going to draft a quarterback at one or four.)
Foles himself opposed the deal. Let's not take that personally guys. I happen to know that Nick Foles is kind of an oddball in that he's not a moneygrubbing hyper-competitive guy like almost every other quarterback. He's actually kinda like Josh McCown.
He's super-smart, too, and might have (oh heaven forfend) been introspective enough to doubt that he could match his amazing playoff performance with any new team, and forsaw his stock dropping on the eve of a new contract. Remaining the backup who won the Superbowl is probably his best long-term strategy.
2: Jarvis Landry was voted the 52nd best player in the NFL by his PEERS. But what do they know?
3: SHORTY (Joe Theisman) weighed in on Baker Mayfield and the Browns on NFL Radio:
Theisman said the game today is much different than it was when he played. When Theisman played, the shotgun was almost non-existant.
Joe thinks the modern NFL is much freindlier to vertically-challenged quarterbacks than it was in his jurassic period.
More specificly, Joe said that Todd Haley would know how to use Mayfield (and Shorty Taylor too).
Joe said that the rookie quarterback from this draft with the best shot to succeed in 2018 would probably be the one on the team with the best defense, and that was (drumroll please...) the Browns.
He also came out and said that Mayfield was simply the best quarterback in this class.
He also thinks that Tyrod Taylor will kick ass with this supporting cast. Joe Theisman agrees with Easy Ed McCaffery that the Browns should win eight games in 2018.
Joe obviously did his homework, because he says the current Browns are loaded with talent, and have exceptional coaching (he mentioned Haley and Williams...not you know who).
4: Oh no! More bulletin-board material! Myles Garrett just never learns! He said he wanted to sack Big Ben again!
Doesn't he know that this insult will inspire the Steelers to shut him down, and Big Ben to make sure not to get sacked?
5: Demarquis Gates is an interesting player with potential, but right now he has a decent shot to make the roster as a special teamer.
6: OTAs will be more competitive in 2018 than they've been in several years. John Dorsey has done an amazing job, at least in that respect.
While Taylor and Mayfield will be trying to out-do eachother, like Coleman and two gifted rookies, and a BUNCH of corners and defensive ends etc., I'm really talking about offense vs defense.
Garrett and Ogbah will acid-test the tackles. Denzel Ward will try to screw the quarterbacks and Josh Gordon (and vice-versa).
There will be some "scuffles", of course, but some fans don't really understand that, more often than not, the two guys who were fighting have it ironed out 5 minutes after they hit the locker room, and often end up best freinds.
They're teammates after all, and each and every real football player knows that competition is important.
Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward already have a "thing" going on between them. Ward picked him off (I think) in the rookie mini-camp, and Mayfield toasted him (I think but even if it didn't happen bear with me here ok?):
They respect eachother, but they both love the competition. Mayfield might even target Ward's receiver more than he should, simply because he's his biggest pain in the ass!
Ward and Mayfield will make eachother better, and they both know it. They're probably already best freinds, talking trash and pointing at eachother, and (shh) occasionally buying eachother beers...
Going deeper, Ward will no doubt be trying to press/man Josh Gordon, who is 4" taller, 40 lbs heavier, and did what he did to the best corners in the NFL in his record-setting 14-game season with three quarterbacks named Joe.
Mayfield has a huge edge (over Ward) here! As long as he puts the ball in exactly the right place, Ward is screwed.
Ward can't "jostle" that pile of muscle to the sidelines...well I'll save a bunch of this for later, but for now just count on Denzel Ward getting toasted repeatedly by both Mayfield and Taylor (vs Gordon).
But this will force Ward to get even better than he was at Ohio State, obviously.
He'll probably be pals with his nemisis Josh Gordon too.
Many fans don't get that either: These guys aren't politicians. "Real football players" don't hate other players who beat them. They just say "payback's a bitch", and go to work getting even.
Denzel Ward may not ever manage to cover Josh Gordon, but he'll be ready for AJ Green and the rest of the skyscrapers he'll face, and that works out fine.
As I've repeatedly mentioned before, the shorter, slower Joe Haden stifled Green and Megatron, so Ward should be fine...because Josh Gordon is better than both of them.
Competition is good. Competition works. Thank you John Dorsey for building this crucible.
This just in from Lesmerises: Joel Bitonio is smarter than a lot of fans (aint sayin much...)
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