Big Blue Huddle

I would say starting him this year after how he played the last two years, which I am fine doing, qualifies as patience.

With that said the team needs to be responsible. He has had the whole offseason to get healthy, this is year three, and we now have a suitable alternative at the position. If Neal goes in in the first couple of weeks and is once again awful right from the jump, and it is clearly hurting the team, I would not continue to cling to him in that role much beyond that. I'd give Eleumenor a shot. My best guess is that that is the current plan.

Quote from: Jclayton92 on May 23, 2024, 08:51:23 PMI believe if the season started tomorrow and they didn't feel comfortable rolling with Neal, that Matt Nelson would get the nod at RT and Eluemunor would stay where he is.

It was confirmed last week and I posted it in another thread that Neal was significantly injured even while playing his rookie and sophomore campaign. They beat writer that was speaking on it said in practices and games he had personnel mention to him that Neal could barely move or couldn't move well bc of injury and everyone in the know could tell. That he still wanted to be out there even though he was badly injured.

With that now out and the combination of a new Oline coach, Stability at RG, him getting good reps before Injury last season, and him being completely healthy I think we get a substantially better Neal.

I sure hope you're right JC.

Quote from: MightyGiants on May 23, 2024, 11:42:55 AMhttps://x.com/art_stapleton/status/1793648013010776173

Neal should get one more opportunity to be a productive NFL RT. But that's it. This is year three, and the guy was a consensus top 10 pick. It's sink or swim time, and I frankly wouldn't give him much rope at all this year given we now have a competent RT in Eleumenor. If he starts at RT in week one, I would not keep him in for more than a couple games if he is bad again.

In fact, as I said in another thread about a month ago, it is not even clear to me why Neal should be some preordained lock to start at the position. The guy has been nothing short of awful at it for two years now. Eleumenor was solid last year at RT on the Raiders. Why is it a lock that Neal should start in even week one?

I thought we wanted to make things as favorable as possible for DJ, not try to cling to an agenda of making a hitherto draft bust work out.

So basically, if I understand this correctly, in about 15 years or so, one of the great sports debates in America is going to be who was the better NFL QB: Tommy DeVito or Tom Brady.

Is that indeed your position, BC?

I am rooting hard for Jones to recover well and to play well this year, because he is the QB of our team. And on a human level, knowing he's a good guy, I want to see him recover from him his injury and be well, if nothing else.

What I'm not going to do though is get swept up in these types of reports. And that includes what we read in late July and August, including preseason games. I heard all of this throughout last summer and bought into it a little bit, and then the guy and his offensive teammates were nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.

Needless to say I'd rather read reports from Giants beat writers that he "looks good" than that he "looks bad", but none of it really moves the needle for me. Also, these summer reports are generally always framed optimistically for all 32 teams. It's just the way this business works.

Quote from: uconnjack8 on May 23, 2024, 06:47:05 PM[/b]

I thought he did an amazing job in 2022 of creating an offense that was nothing like he wanted to coach and had some success.

Did Kafka really "create" the offense in 2022?

Daboll probably should call plays this year. Three reasons for that:

(1) He obviously had some problems with his DC last year. If he's more involved with the offense this year and gives the DC some breathing room to run his unit how he wants to, that will make it less likely that there is another issue.

(2) Daboll's job could be on the line this year. I think it would be a bit extreme to fire the 2022 NFL Head Coach Of the Year in 2024, but it's not impossible. If I'm Daboll, I'm focusing on my main strengths this year, which are designing and implementing an offense.

(3) Kafka has, in two seasons, displayed no clear evidence that he is particularly good in the OC role.

Quote from: MightyGiants on May 23, 2024, 12:33:31 PMhttps://x.com/patricia_traina/status/1793679576700219775?s=46&t=1vcQIN8GqF5J2oLdxEVEJQ

Flott was 175 at the combine. So it sounds like he's essentially not any bigger now than two years ago.

Funnily, I'm not all that bothered by last night. Yes, they didn't play particularly well other than in occasional spurts, but they were down 1-0 late in third period and got bad puck luck in this game.

Clearly the Cats are tough and, as Ed aptly noted, deep. And Bobby is obviously a top goalie.

I think this was one of these weird games where it just never quite game together, but we were hardly humiliated IMO. Not scoring once in a home game is a little embarrassing, but it's not like we got owned.

You'll see me hitting the panic button a bit more if they lay an egg tomorrow night, but I have high conviction that that won't be the case.

I would also add that I don't think home/away is that big of a deal. It's not 100% irrelevant, but it's dramatically less meaningful than in all the other big four NA sports, particularly basketball and football. My point being, those fans who are flipped out because the Cats just "flipped home ice advantage" ore technically correct, but I personally don't think it's that big of a deal.

I am very interested in this subject, but I recognize that I am less knowledgeable about it than those actively participating in the thread so far, so I will simply read this thread and likely not post again (unless it's a question).

Thanks for starting the thread Trench, and thanks to all the responders so far. Very interesting stuff.

Quote from: MightyGiants on May 23, 2024, 11:48:16 AMhttps://x.com/Connor_J_Hughes/status/1793643508727009468

Daboll looks like he lost a good 50 pounds. He was quite big last year.

I have absolutely no clue what the game "mafia" is. But whatever.

Strands #81
"No dice!"
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Not the easiest after the first two...


Connections
Puzzle #347
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My broad view on this series is I think Florida is a tougher opponent than Carolina. They have a much better goalie, they have snipers all over the place, and they have some bruisers on D.

BUT

I also think we will be better. It's no more than a hunch, but I feel like we bottomed out in that Carolina series. I don't think we'll see this team lay an egg again the way they did in game five.

With that said I feel like this one is going to go to seven, even if we play our absolute best. We're going from facing a bad goalie to facing a great one. Bobby is likely HOF material. Freddy Anderson was a sieve.

DeVito has officially jumped the shark.