SurlyRobot

The thing is that Boone getting cut removes the most consistent player on the line from last season and forces guys that should have been OL depth into a starting role. Those articles seem to not understand that Reiff played last year and was awful. I don't understand how simply changing teams and paying a guy a ton of money takes a well below average player and he's suddenly such a difference maker that the line goes from 29th to 14th or 16th. I feel like if the authors wanted to make a case for why the line will improve they should have done that, just blindly assuming they'll get better cause there's different faces seems a bit silly.

Actually they are atrocious. According to PFF, Reiff was the 48th ranked tackle last season, he was paid $11.5M to be the Vikings new LT. He played a few snaps of one game of the preseason. The new RT is Mike Remmers, who was part of Carolina's awful OL last season. The team decided to cut Alex Boone who was the most valuable offensive lineman last season because he wouldn't take a pay cut a year after signing a 4 year contract and he was making half of what the team signed Reiff for. The guards this year will be Berger and Easton who are both centers. The center will be rookie Pat Elflein. If that sounds like a recipe for success then I don't know what else to say. Oh and for depth they have Sirles from last year and somehow Rashod Hill made the team as a backup despite being a human turnstile.

I didn't say Cook looked awful, I said the offense did. Anyone who watched the preseason games would probably agree. Constantly giving up sacks and getting holding penalties kept them from scoring a first quarter touchdown the entire preseason. Reiff only played in one game, but he just wasn't very impressive last season so I'm not sure how much that will help. What Oline continuity are you speaking of? Or are you projecting that the line will get healthy and stay that way and everyone will eventually build continuity? I was just saying that realistically, it makes sense to have a guy who is in a much better offense and much better situation ranked higher than Cook. Saying things like "Oline is better than last year" doesn't really mean anything unless you actually explain why you're suggesting it will be better.

Or moving him up a full round has killed any value they might have seen.... Why wouldn't you draft Hunt ahead of Cook? Less vultures, better OL, better offense overall, more likely his team won't be behind 2 TDs by the end of the first quarter therefore more likely to get rushing opportunities. Maybe its because I'm from Minnesota, but I have absolutely no optimism for the team this season. They've looked absolutely putrid all preseason so I don't see where people are getting the impression that the first couple weeks will go so well that Murray is simply forgotten by week 5.

Mike Zimmer is the coach just for the record, Norv was the OC. Also, Patterson got chances to make a difference on gadget plays like Hill has, Patterson just never made anything out of them. Keep in mind, Patterson spelled his own name incorrectly on his Wonderlic test, this is not a very bright guy. Expecting him to suddenly learn to run routes while at the same time learning a new system is asking an awful lot. Also worth noting on Patterson's return average: he absolutely does not care where the ball is kicked, he will attempt to return it. When you take into account that the 30 yard average he's put up starts 9 yards deep in the end zone most times, him getting the ball out to the 21 on average really isn't as impressive as it looks on paper. I haven't watched a ton of Chiefs games but I don't see many other kick returners in the league who have such a total disregard for where they are catching the ball.

Anything is better than Matt Kalil at LT. Carolina paying the worst LT in the NFL $55 million seems like an even more insane move. Other than his rookie year Kalil has been incredibly awful, not only a poor blocker but showing almost zero effort, taking numerous pre-snap and holding penalties and just generally sandbagging the entire offense. Any time the Vikings would start putting a drive together, you just knew eventually Kalil would jump on one of the first downs and put an end to the whole thing. I agree with the rest, I just wanted to point out how terrible Kalil has been. Also, how crazy is the tackle market when Kalil and Reiff are getting that kind of money?

Pretty sure that is just the ones taken in picks 1-3 of round one, Leaf was taken second overall in 1998 for example and that lists him as a second rounder. Charlie Batch was a second rounder that year and isn't even listed.

Nice of the refs to save the Packers a timeout for no apparent reason...

...

The article gives absolutely no reasoning as to why building a stadium for billionaires is a good idea. Just a mayor and a developer(who stand to directly gain from the stadium) who claim it will benefit the city without any factual basis for their stance. In Minnesota, we just built billionaire Zygi Wilf a stadium after voting based on the idea that electronic pull tabs would actually generate money(they lost money, none of which came out of Zygi's pocket of course and none of the politicians ever had to answer any questions regarding the lies they told) and then when that was an utter failure, they decided to impose a vice tax on cigarettes. The first thing the Wilfs did once construction began on the stadium was begin cutting the things that they would have had to pay for, then they sold the naming rights and then they sold personal seat licenses and personalized bricks outside the stadium. Before a game was ever played at the stadium they had already made more money than they had invested. Interestingly the committee created to oversee the development of the stadium is already in trouble for abusing their suites at the stadium, after it was discovered they have been giving free tickets and parking to friends, family and politicians. http://www.startribune.com/stadium-bill-sponsor-u-s-bank-stadium-oversight-committee-is-ugly-government-that-must-be-changed/403760896/

Why even complete that? Throw it at his feet and kick the FG....

Lewis totally scored but New England didn't bother challenging....

Miller hurts his ankle trying to burn clock forcing the Texans to use a timeout and stopping the clock for Jacksonville. But Bortles throws the interception to end it anyways.

It isn't garbage time if its a tie game...

Icing the kicker backfires on Reid. What a crazy ending...