LouisEly

A very uninspiring men's rumble. Not because Cody won, but there just wasn't an inspiring roster. Kofi must finally be showing his age and not even attempt any back-into-the-ring gymnastics. Would have been more interesting if McIntyre had a more believable build-up to actually be a credible threat. And why have the universal heavyweight championship before Owens-Paul?

It was only one year, but Staley’s defense was the best in the league in both points and yards allowed, featuring the top pass defense by net yards per attempt and the third-best in yards per rush. Both pass defense and rush defense. The Packers have a front four of Clark, Wyatt, Gary, and Van Ness... that's kind of deep in the front, isn't it? Plus they have Alexander, who can't be much of a step down from Ramsey, and Walker at ILB. What did that get them? The reason Barry was fired was because the Packers have all that talent and underperformed. Staley had talent on his defense, but they didn't underperform - they were literally the best in the league. They literally couldn't be any better. That's what you want in a coach.

In most instances, but not this. He took the role on Bielema's staff because he knew Bielema and thus would have the flexibility to get the hip surgery he needed without having to deal with the rigors of being a DC. He didn't interview for any other DC roles; it was either UW HC position or get surgery. FWIW, Leonhard didn't interview well with Mac. Spent too much time talking about what he would keep the same, not enough time talking about what he would (and needed to) change.

Biggest news is moving RAW to Netflix in 2025, premium live events in 2026 (I believe Peacock has contractual rights to PLE's through 2025). While Netflix may be in more homes than cable now, I don't think it's a good move to have one brand on subscription streaming and another brand on packaged TV (technically YouTube TV is streaming, not "cable", so I call bundled TV channel purchasing "packaged TV"). You're asking your fanbase to have both and spend incrementally on TV in order to watch both brands. Not a good idea. I think that WWE fans have more overlap with sports fans than cable-cutters, thus if push comes to shove they will keep their packaged TV plan so that they can watch their sports teams and Smackdown and forego RAW/Netflix. Only about 1/3rd of households have both "cable" and streaming (all streaming, not just Netflix). Their young fanbase (under 16) will likely force parents to get both, but I think they're going to see a dropoff in combined engagement with both brands in their 18+ fanbase.

He has 10 years of experience playing in a pro defense. You don't think after 10 years in the league, as smart as he is, that he doesn't know how to run a defense? He was an undersized UDFA who stayed in the league for a decade - you don't do that without knowing pro defense inside and out. He knows Rex Ryan's defense so well that he brought it to Madison; he wasn't piggy-backing off of Aranda.

On that note, can we please post minor-league signings in the Minor League forum?

Podlesny went undrafted because he doesn't have a strong leg. Not very useful from 50+ or kickoffs. Hope they scout the UFL, particularly for ex-soccer players.

On the surface, yes, it's not a good look. But they also fired a white head coach who won a championship for them and hired a black head coach to replace him, so any comments to that nature hold no water.

That, and FBTC is down 16% since issuance.

I don't know who Wallace is, but Newman wasn't credited with any offensive snaps: https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/2024/1/23/24046929/packers-divisional-round-snap-counts-49ers-expose-the-middle-of-the-packers-defense Walker was credited with 100% of the offensive snaps.

1) Go back and look at where his defenses at UW ranked and then tell me that you wouldn't want him to be one of the top candidates. B) He was MLF's first choice for DC (likely due to #1 because MLF had no ties to UW or anything in the state of WI). If he was transparent with MFL and said that the UW HC job was his dream job, Mac wasn't fully happy with PC/PC didn't enjoy coaching that much anymore/etc., and he thinks that the UW HC job will open sooner rather than later and that staying at UW was his best chance, then why wouldn't MLF reconsider him? Now the UW HC job is not likely to open up anytime soon and Mac spurned him at the last minute for LF, so the circumstances for why he said no have changed.

They absolutely need to keep Jones. Maybe something like guaranteeing $12M as a signing bonus w/a 2-year extension so that he gets ~$13M cash for 2024 w/only a $5M cap hit. Or $9M signing bonus w/2 year extension, $3M roster bonus for 2024, for ~$7M 2024 cap hit.

As of week 16/17, Zach Tom was 2nd in the league among RT in lowest pressure % on passing sets. The replacements could already be here. Interior OL is a different story. Can certainly upgrade at C and RG.

Exactly. Purdy led the league in QBR this season. He looked bad at times because - gasp - the Packers are good enough to make him look bad at times. Especially in the rain.

During the offseason, yes. But not during the season - the good kickers are going to be employed. If you want to say Crosby, they would have had to sacrifice kickoffs. The Packers were 14th in the league in average kickoff yardage and 9th in the league in average starting field position against (not sure if that's just kickoffs). And Crosby was 0-1 from 40-49 with the Giants, 1-2 from 50+; no guarantee he makes it. Plus, what roster spot do you give up and what player do you release to make room for him if you keep Carlson for kickoffs? The Packers had a lot of injuries later in the season; rarely did they have healthy scratches other than Cox.

They already were playing for a FG. And Love shouldn't have made the throw anyway. They had three red zone possessions in the first half and came away with six points. If you want to exclude the final drive, fine, they still had a bad throw for one turnover and dropped two INTs that should have been takeaways. Never should have come down to that kick to begin with.

1) I really hope people aren't blaming Carlson for this. I can easily think of seven worse plays off the top of my head (bad Love decision for INT, bad Love throw for INT, two dropped INTs, not converting on 4th and less than 1 in the red zone and coming away with nothing, bad missed tackle by Savage on McCaffrey's first TD, bad tackle attempt by Owens on McCaffrey's second TD) that were responsible for this loss if not more. And even if he makes it, the game goes to OT - and what are the chances of winning on the road in OT, especially the way they were playing in the 4th with a gassed DL/edge rushers? B) It looked like on that FG attempt that the snap was a little behind the holder and he had to reach back for it. Then on the placement it didn't look completely vertical - looked like the ball was tilted to the left which is the direction the kick curled. In order for a kicked football to go straight, the football has to go end-over-end completely vertical. If the top of the ball is tilting in any direction the ball will curl in that direction. To me, it looked like the snapper and holder were at least as much responsible for that miss as Carlson if not the main reasons for the miss. Bad snaps/holds happen in the rain. 3) The list of teams that have given up a one-score lead on the road in the playoffs to a #1 seed is not a short list. SF was the #1 seed for a reason. They're a better team right now. But not a much better team. Yeah, they had their chances - but they also forced SF into making a lot of mistakes that made the game close.

31 points - with 10 minutes left Indiana had 48. Wisconsin scored 50 in the second half, 22 in the last 10 minutes.

Finally, after 7 months and almost 300 job applications, I start my new job on Monday. 20% pay cut from last role, benefits cut (fewer vacation days, fewer holidays, higher deductible on health insurance options), but fully remote and that's not going to change because their HQ is in a smallish town not near any major metropolitan area. Surprised I got it - applied on a what-the-hell, haven't directly done that type of role in seven years, didn't put any effort into networking into them, and it's remote so I thought there would be hundreds of applicants. Company is employee-owned so no irascible CEO or PE firm overreacting to quarterly results. Almost everyone I interviewed with has been there for at least eight years. Smaller company, less opportunity for promotion, but seems like a lower-pressure environment where I can hopefully ride out the next 10 years to retirement.

Brock Wilken is interesting. More evidence that they plan on being fairly aggressive with him. Black and Gasser are more likely than not. Myers has a chance if they have a few injuries in the bullpen. Hopefully Rodriguez will not - that would mean several injuries to starters.

Amazon also knows what you buy, so they know what ads to send you between innings. Hypertargeted advertising that they can sell.

Unlikely that they move on from Preston Smith given that they would only save $2.5M by releasing him. Most of his cap space is dead money from signing and restructure bonus. Gary was limited early in the season but he's 100% now. Van Ness will be in his 2nd year and he's been showing some things the last few weeks. They kept Cox on the roster for a reason, so even though Enegbare will most most if not all of next year they'll still have a strong 2-deep. They think enough of Cox and the PS guys that they let Justin Hollins go once Gary was 100%, and he had 2.5 sacks last year for GB in only 6 games. S and CB are the big needs. Nixon is a FA, Stokes can't stay healthy, and Johnson and Anderson are the only safeties who are under contract for next year. Certainly LT if there's one they really like that they don't have to give up a bunch of picks to get; I could see a guy like Troy Fautanu appealing to them with their first two picks as he can play LT or slide inside to G and be really good at both.