HiAndTight

Next weeks game is going to be huge now that we're gonna be without two starters for the whole first half against a really talented QB. Plus, they just always play us tough.

The one area you really do Michigan's talent is at WR'er. Those guys are just going up and Mossing guys. Just throw the ball up...especially with two of our DB's now out of the game and them basically being the size of Jim Beilien team...

You weren't totally wrong, they weren't going through the SEC and getting 12 wins heading into the B10 Title game...but they also still had that elite defense. When the Badgers talked about how it'd take at least 3 years to recover from Anderson, that's all on the offensive side of the ball. That year was Taylor's freshmen year. Anderson is also the one who brought in this new defensive scheme we're running. Arnson I believe. He brought in that attacking, aggressive 34 D as well. So Anderson did help contribute to the defensive resurgence we've see in the past few years.

They were 13-1 two years ago. That was largely a product of the schedule. You can't be within a TD of the CFB Playoffs just because of your schedule. They lost a 6 point game to OSU or they were going to be in the playoffs. There were probably 30 guys on that team who are either now in or will be in the NFL. They did need to recover from Anderson, but Christ just did it pretty quickly...and Horninbrook had a pretty good year his Soph year. I think that was the season he lit up Miami in the bowl game.

Wut I assume sarcasm.....but it may not be given the tone of his other Badger related posts.

Michigan is that bad. They are ranked solely on history. The experts should pick up on that soon. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was a rhetorical question. They also have a whole lot of talent.

I've never seen a WI running back who can bounce to the outside like Taylor can. Melvin Gordon says hello! They're both great backs, but I'll take Gordon over Taylor. I think Gordon would have had a similar career had he not had White and Ball in front of him. I think Taylor's a great back...but I think things are getting just a bit overboard now. I don't think he's in that AP/Barkley type group. I mean..that's not exactly an insult though, is it? He's not as good as two of the top 5 backs from CFB in the last 20 years?

No, just Bulaga. Bahk has another year before he's a FA I believe. But you can almost always create cap space. How much cash you have is just as important as cap room. They can give Rodgers another 10 million and extend his contract 3 more years at 35 million base and his cap hit would go way down. There's always a way to do it, it's just how big of a hole do you want to dig. What I'm saying is at this point, who cares? You have Rodgers for a limited amount of time. You can keep pushing that down the road. Give Ramsey his extension, don't tear up those two years...that keeps his cap hit relatively inexpensive if you use the Cowboys type extensions. They give everyone these giant 7-8 year extensions. There have been a few times it seemed like they should have done that. Bahktiari is an obvious one. Adams is another. I don't really think we're going to trade for and then sign him, but he might be a great enough player that you get him, sign him and then worry about the rest later. The rest being Bulaga next year, Clark coming up, Bakh coming up...among others. It will be interesting to see what they do with Bulaga next year. Maybe you just tag him for a year while you try to develop a QB? I really don't know what to do about him. Maybe just tag him? See if you can get an extension along the lines of what Jimmy Graham signed for? But if he plays 16 games this year or stays healthy for the most part, it'd be tough to let him walk.

Not that I have to worry about this, but if my son was in the Yankees farm system, there still is no way I would buy Yankee merchandise. Maybe if the son was on the major league roster and it was his specifically his jersey..... still I don't know if I could bring myself. I grew up with the evil empire and 1981, etc That's a great hypothetical. I probably would, simply because, how many might ever actually make it. I would probably adopt the Yankees as my 2nd favorite team. Here's a good question - Your son plays for the Yankees and they play the Crew in the World Series. Who do you cheer for? Obviously you gotta root for your sons team. We've seen enough stories of lifelong Red Sox fans ending up playing for the Yanks, or vice versa or really any rivalry. I mean....if Dick Butkus can root for the Packers because of family(who's not even actually playing) then if your son was on the Yanks, you'd be decked out head to toe in Yanks gear and be the biggest fan of the Yankees. I mean, think how proud you get when your son does anything. Now he's playing for the Yankees?

Nobody's "twisting," your words at all. I'm taking exactly what you said. You said signing Starting pitching costs 7+ years. Just looking for these pitchers who've signed 8 years deals as that's what 7+ would be. It's 7 years. And then plus that. Which I just assumed meant 8 years. I fail to see how that's twisting your words? And if you don't see how for the last several years players on the open market getting less than they were projected to get has anything to do with this conversation, then I don't know what's relevant other than whatever it is that you absolutely guarantee will happen and fully agree with. And what was the "huge change of course," that Machado had before hitting Free Agency? Putting up his best offensive season last year while playing SS? Kinda seems like he just showed he was capable at SS and an elite 3rd basemen. If ANYONE is twisting anyone's words here, it's absolutely you. You're taking big parts of what I said and leaving it out in order to suit your argument. This is what I said, it was not in response to your first statement, but your absolute guarantee that Scherzer is the floor of what Cole gets. THAT is where I said you made the absolute guarantee...and you did. Now again, you didn't clarify. Are you accounting for Scherzer's deferred money or not? Because if you account for the deferred money, then I would say it's probably close to a lock he matches Scherzer and that's going to bring a whole lot more teams into it. If they can pay him between 15-22 for the first half of the deal.

Yeah, literally zero people said they were signing Cole in this "cool story." Who are you arguing with exactly? This just seems like a belligerent response.

I actually think that's reasonable. It'd be especially reasonable if we had another top of the rotation arm to go with Woodruff in that rotation. The pen next year could be as good or even better than it was last year if Knebel bounces back and...again, IF we managed to have two workhorses who could go 7 routinely for you. I think we've got a lot of good young arms who don't have that 3rd pitch, but have two and can be really dominant. Rassmussen could end up filling that Burnes of 2018 role for us at some point next year. Knebel should be back, Hader, Wahl, we should be pretty flush with BP arms by the middle/end of next year.

Will be, yes, by the end of 2021. Right now Cole DeGrom Buehler Verlander Scherzer Snell Maybe Greinke Maybe Strasburg. But by the end of next year DeGrom Verlander Scherzer Greinke Strasburg will be replaced by: Cole Buehler Woodruff Glasnow Snell. And what do you foresee happening to DeGrom, Verlander, Scherzer and Strausburg in the next year? Not to mention the other dozen or so pitchers who are probably firmly ahead of Woodruff as of now. How about Luis Castillo from the Reds? Ohtani, Bieber, Flaherty...and about a dozen or so other guys. And there is just absolutely no reason to think Scherzer and the rest of the best in the game right now will just fall off a cliff suddenly. Verlander is still throwing as hard as he has his entire career. Also...what makes you think Woodruff is going to start throwing OVER 100 MPH or that it'd even be a good thing if he did? I mean....just thinking he's going to be an ace is reasonable. But you always take it an extra step or 5 too far. Woodruff should be a legitimate ace next year based on how he pitched this year, his stuff and another year of experience. But Burnes should have been at least a #3/4 this year in his first full year or starting. Optimism is great, but you set yourself up for the type of...disdain you felt for Stearns at the deadline when you set your expectations so absurdly high and then you blame it on others for the Brewers failing to meet the standards you've set.

I take it nobody's really big on trading for Ramsey? I didn't realize he was still only 24. Obviously knew he was young, but 24. I still don't know if I'm all for trading for him because we'd have to sign him. But just looking around the NFL, if the Packers are playing for a SB...and that would seem to be the goal every year, IF you went out and got Ramsey for lets say a 1st, 5th and throw in Josh Jackson if you have to, then gave him 5/85 in new money, make the SB 55 million, spread it over 6 years. Then you've got your QB, LT and Corners locked up for the near future and you have All Pro's at each position It's sure increase our odds against the Chiefs, Pats, Rams, Saints. Plus, he brigs that attitude to a defense that CAN be helpful. Not a huge fan of it, but that Sherman type attitude that your D feeds off of. Just imagine King and Ramsey on the outside, have Alexander playing the slot and Savage and Amos at safety with Tramon ready to play wherever needed. Plus...we are at the point that we can start just kicking that can down the road on that cap, right? Rodgers is 36...Packers certainly have the cash to make these types of moves.

Bronco's seem to fit the absolute definition of a trap game. Two hard fought wins vs division opponents and they've got a QB who CAN get hot, and an elite pass rushing duo. The good news for the Packers, it sounds like Callahan will be out. But they still have Simmons who's a young stud and then obviously Harris Jr who's one of the best in the league.

I really think you guys are just looking at him and assuming he's frail. The only time he's missed games due to injury was last year with the Hammy. Otherwise, he was fine. You're definitely right about that. They've also gotten much-much better at using that rugby style kick to get the ball to bounce up more inside the 10 pinning guys back deep. A couple other things that I don't know for a fact are true, but feel true, they seem to leave the gunners out there with just one blocker on them. It always seemed like there were two guys just beating the living hell out of the gunners every play. I've noticed this in the Packers game, they lineup with 8 guys around the LOS more now. And there also seems to be a lot more penalties. Every time there is a big return, there calling EVERYTHING on that return. And they so often don't even call it right. The blocker gets his head in front and they still call it a block in the back. And every little tug is called a hold. That's why whoever said they'd be fine just fair catching the ball every single time, I agree. I bet when you add up the lost penalty yards vs the yards gained, it's a minimal difference. 2-3 times a game you're losing 5 yards right out of the gate, a particularly harmful penalty when you get a 10 yard return, get it out to the 30, but they called a hold on the other side of the field, so you're not starting on the 15.

I'm not laughing. I actually like it. If you're gonna suck anyway and you've been bad for over a decade, you might as well just go all in. As for them getting the 3rd pick in 2021, yeah, they could. But I don't really think it's likely right now. I mean....who else could get even close to their level in the next 12 months? It's even funnier now how they've just flat out stopped arguing that these women are OBVIOUSLY lying because they went back to Brown's house in the one case. Some even going so far as to argue that this was probably set up by the Raiders/Steelers organizations because Brown wanted to play in NE instead of there. If he doesn't come back, will he be the greatest athlete relative to his sport/position to kinda be blackballed while still in or near his prime in sports history? Joe Jackson is the only other one I can think of. Snapper mentioned Dez, but Brown is much better than Dez IMO. I just can't believe I wanted this guy. He's SOOO incredibly stupid. Even if he settles these cases and admits now wrongdoing, or whatever, just the way he's conducted himself, attacking one women, telling people to look up how broke an accuser was who's not even asking him for any money? I mean....who in the hell is advising this dude? Can they not just get him to shut up? Twitter is just horrible for...you know, society, but it's great for powerful people who think they're above the rules to spout off and dig their own graves even deeper. Pats will probably just take the money they were gonna give to Brown and put it towards Ramsey though.

Does he though? It feels like he's this scrappy underdog and that's more of a factor than him actually being this enormous steal. Similar kinda to if Joe Callahan would have started a few games and played well in them. He is an easy guy to root for though...and it's tough to argue with the numbers though. I watched that game and two other things stood out to me. What the hell is going on with the Titan's OL. You saw Conklin and Safford getting dominated like they were the 89th and 90th guys on a pre-season roster. Those two are pretty solid players. And the second part, building off the first a bit, Josh Allen looks like he's gonna be a stud. He looks like a CB coming off the edge with that thin frame, but he walked Conklin back last night into Marriota's lap and then threw him off for a sack. I know the Michigan kid is suspended, but that is supposed to be a pretty good OL anyway and they gave up I think 10 sacks. Baffling to me why the Jags wouldn't have just paid Ramsey this past off-season with how good that defensive front is and will continue to be.

I mean, can't say you are wrong. They are so freakin' bad though they likely draft #1 again next year. They could certainly slide down ever so slightly and still be Top 10 while gaining valuable future picks. Maybe just draft a different player #1 not named a QB, Chase Young? The tank job is more about not spending all that cap space. I see them just taking the QB this draft, really don't see them trying to tank it two years in a row like that. At least not to the point they draft #1 and grab Lawrence. Or trade out of the top spot next year for picks in 2021 that they can use to trade up to #1 in 2021 if they don't finish with the worst record. They already have a bunch of extra picks in 2021 that they should be able to do it. That being said, I'm not convinced that Lawrence is better than Tua, at least not that much better. I really don't know...I've been so wrong on so many College QB's lately. Wentz, Mahomes, Watson...and others, that you're probably right. I mean....I think everyone was a little wrong on them otherwise they'd have been taken 1-2, but I just did not see Mahomes becoming a good starter for 3 years at least. I thought he'd be throwing 30 picks a year early in his career. Instead he looks like he's playing a video game out there. BUT...I'm just kinda going off the scouting reports and it sounds like Tua's a obvious #1 pick for this year while they're putting Lawrence in that Luck/Peyton/Manning category of QB prospects. It is funny though, you see Jalen Hurts is now top 10 in these early mock drafts. If he's really a top 10 QB, and I've only seen his numbers at Oklahoma, but if his throwing ability has improved THAT MUCH, then Riley should be getting a John Gruden type deal from some NFL team. He was almost Tebow-esque at Alabama. Now that I've doubted him, he'll ending up being a Cam with a 75 pct compl pct. Anyway, I don't think the Dolphins are gonna have to really worry about trading up in either of the next two drafts unless they really go nuts in Free Agency this year. That team is so devoid of talent outside of the LB'ers that it'd be hard for them to not be bad enough to pick first in 2021 also. Though I imagine you'll see a few teams actually tanking next year trying to get that pick. Whoever has that pick though when Lawrence is up, IF he's still as highly regarded as some have suggested, it'll take a ridiculous trade to move up and get him. Like a Walker/Ricky type trade from some team.

They've discouraged kick returns. They haven't really done anything to my knowledge to discourage punt returns. In fact they eliminated that "halo," that allowed for the returner to have 2 1/2 yards around him to catch the ball cleanly. That's resulted in bigger hits. But I agree, a great punter is more important than a punt returner. The Packers can throw Tramon Williams out there and be fine. Let him wave and just hold on. I can only really remember one time Davis had a significant impact on a Packers game. Scott's had two enormously impactful games already.

How amazing would it be to go on a run in back to back seasons and ruin the Cubs shots and then come back and ruin the Cards? Especially in the second case when just about everything has gone wrong this year.

I mean, can't say you are wrong. They are so freakin' bad though they likely draft #1 again next year. They could certainly slide down ever so slightly and still be Top 10 while gaining valuable future picks. Maybe just draft a different player #1 not named a QB, Chase Young? The tank job is more about not spending all that cap space. I see them just taking the QB this draft, really don't see them trying to tank it two years in a row like that. At least not to the point they draft #1 and grab Lawrence. Young makes sense, but you've gotta think teams in the top 5-ish will really be looking at Tua as a franchise QB. And that makes sense. If I were them, I'd be looking at building up that OL. Wirfs, Thomas. Hell, draft 'em both with that Steelers pick and you've got a LT/RT set up for years! How mad would Dolphins fans be if they did that though? Pass up on the consensus #1 pick this year to draft a couple of tackles and then tank again next year? But since we're playing franchise mode in Madden here, they draft those tackles, throw Rosen in there at QB next year and see what he can do. Maybe he looks good enough that they can flip him for another pick. I mean, he was the 10th pick in the draft last year and he's pretty much an after thought right now. Just build up that elite OL so that when Lawrence steps in and they've got the GDP of France to spend in Free Agency, they can turn things around quickly. I'm sure they'll just end up drafting Tua this year though.

With that many early draft picks in hand and the cap space they've got, Miami's GM Chris Grier will have his fate in his own hands. The Steelers 2020 first rounder that he obtained might end up being really high in the round. And to think theirs will be #1 overall so they won't have to package any to get their QB. That is pretty insane. I've already said this, but I'll say it again, if I'm the Dolphins, I'm trading out of that top spot this year and looking at this as a two year tank-fest. Might as well just tank the following year when you've got Lawrence coming out. Draft your OL, pick up some pass rushers and then the following year start to spend that 200 million they've got in cap room, draft Lawrence and some weapons. Lawrence's upside is just far higher than Tua's.

I saw one nasty change and I know he got one of his K's on a 88 MPH slider right on the corner. But I'm listening more than watching.

No, you're not going nuts over Black. Calling a 30 yr old relief pitcher's ceiling "unhittable" seems reasonable. Actually...yeah, that is pretty reasonable. If he can command his pitches, he probably would be unhittable. If you can throw the ball 100 MPH where you want it, you're usually unhittable. Webb would also be "unhittable," if he could command all of his pitches. But neither have shown they can for extended periods of time.