JDaveG

FTFY

That earring gets more expensive every time I hear about it

It's different though, and I think that's where people are disagreeing with you. Poe's job in this scheme is different than it was in KC. And part of his compensation is "we want you to be your best in this scheme, so we're willing to pay extra if you can make weight, because we are confident you will be a disruptive force below 330, and we're confident you won't be at 350." It isn't like the team said "Poe, come play for the Falcons," and then Poe said "cool," and the Falcons said "wait, you're supposed to be in shape -- we'll give you extra $$$ if you lose weight." It was all built into the contract on the front in. So the $125K was a contingency built into the contract. Poe didn't have to lose the weight, and the Falcons didn't have to pay him. Both sides agreed that he'd be compensated extra if he would take the weight off, because both sides saw benefit in him doing it. That's an arm's length transaction, not some deal where we're trying to bribe the dude to show up to camp instead of hitting the clubs.

It sure didn't hurt at all. Mack is a huge part of Ryan's success last season. Instead of constantly fixing the protection, he could just go out there and play. That's huge.

Exactly. One of those "weapons" was a 5'8" 165 lb receiver who went undrafted and was cut by the Browns last season. Weapons come from putting players in a position to succeed. Putting Gabriel on the outside and having him try to get off press coverage isn't going to do anything for him. But the way we use him allows him to be in a position to be a true weapon. It's not like we're just chock full of blue chip players. We simply use each player to his best potential, whatever that may be.

Right. Or the slot WR. Or whoever. Shanahan's system was great at making the defense cover more of the field than they can cover with 11 guys. And when you have Julio Jones and RBs like we have, it makes it harder because you have to have someone who can cover the RB out of the backfield AND you have to double Julio. So then the other guys have to pick up the slack, which is why Ryan hit 13 different receivers for TDs last season. Because those guys are experts at picking up slack.

This to me is the real issue. 2017 was our best chance by far. We were the better team. We should have won. Winning IF you get back is the easier part by far. Getting there is the problem.

You need both. When we struggled in 2015 was when we were installing all the empty backfield, read option stuff. We got away from the 21 personnel, drop back and hit them fast mentality of the first 4 games or so, and it took a long time to get back on track. Part of the beauty of our offense is we can disguise looks and run from passing looks and pass from run looks. It keeps the defense off balance. A lot of the trickery isn't really trickery -- we aren't running statue of liberty plays and flea flickers. Most of it is just leaking a RB out on a PA pass for a wheel route, or getting the FB lost in coverage for a big gain, or sending a guy deep when the entire defense is spread out trying to cover horizontal stretch routes. It isn't complicated so much as very hard for a defense to read.

I don't think Worrilow's worst problem is athletic ability. He's plenty big, fast and strong. His problem is his vision. In the pass game he has trouble in coverage because he plays it safe (he has to because one true athletic weakness is fluidity) and in the run game he just runs past the play, takes bad angles and gets lost in traffic. He's just not a very good linebacker. He's all heart, and I love the dude. I'd love to think he can be coached up. But instincts aren't really all that coachable. And he plays slower than he is because his instincts are poor.

I still say the notion that Shanahan changed the offense substantially to accommodate Ryan's skill set is a trope. The fact is we still ran the waggles and rollouts and all that stuff that we ran in 2015. The difference was Ryan was more comfortable with the timing. The big thing to me, and where I completely disagree with the author, is this is Ryan's third year in essentially the same offense. This is the year where QBs supposedly "get it" with the WCO. And we aren't changing much at all. It's hard to top the 7th best offense of all time, but we have the potential for Ryan at least to be a lot better.

I like Worrilow, but I hope the tight ends are ready if we play Detroit in the next few seasons. They should eat with him manning the middle.

I half want electric cars so the hillbillies that live around me can quit ragging their non-muffler-having Mustangs, pickup trucks, dump trucks and donor bikes right in front of my house. It's not all that bothersome, but trying to hear dialogue on TV when some soon-to-be-decapitated redneck opens up his Kawasaki Ninja on the street in front of my house is annoying at times. You want to debate Darwinian evolution? Someone explain to me how these beaterheads survived to reproductive age.

I'm sure glad San Francisco has strict gun control policies so none of those teenagers get hurt while they're robbing BART passengers. I file this under "we get the government we deserve." And nobody deserves this more than San Francisco voters.

I wish we'd get serious about this stuff. The same people who would lose their **** over it because the government might fund research into electric vehicles or algae-based biodiesel or whatever don't bat an eye at spending tons of money fighting Islamists overseas, when we wouldn't have to if we weren't dependent on their oil. I know that as long as there are commodities, people are going to fight over them. But we shouldn't be so dependent on foreign imports of anything that we have to get in bed with the ****ed Saudis in order to survive as a country.

Also, this is a seriously fantastic political move on the part of Democrats. Other than having Schumer as its mouthpiece. It's exactly the kind of messaging that can turn a party's fortunes around in one election cycle.