Posts tagged Football Outsiders

Reads Listens Views 12/14/2012

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Arian Foster was a victim of sabotage by his alma mater's athletic program. Was Marquess Wilson? Doesn't look like it, but read more about the dynamics of whistle-blowing in Saturday's Futures. Photo by Will Rackley.
Arian Foster was a victim of sabotage by his Alma Mater’s athletic program. Was Marquess Wilson? Doesn’t look like it, but read more about the dynamics of whistle-blowing in Saturday’s Futures. Photo by Will Rackley.

Listens

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Thank You

Fantasy football is slowing down and draftnik season is heating up. I’ll be here and at Football Outsider’s providing analysis of the 2013 prospects as I compile my research for the 2013 Rookie Scouting Portfolio, which will be available for download April 1. If you’ve never seen the RSP publication, 2006-2012 versions are available for download here. If you are a faithful reader of the publication and this blog, thank you for your support. I have already conducted play-by-play analysis of over 100 skill position prospects for the 2013 publication. As I did last year, I will be donating 10 percent of every sale to Darkness to Light to help them combat sexual abuse through community training and awareness projects.

Football Reads

  • Chris Brown’s Q&A With Bruce Feldman – This was from May, but pretty interesting stuff Brown had to say about Texas A&M’s entry to the SEC.
  • Goodbye, Columbus – I wrote about former Washington State WR Marquess Wilson for this weekend’s Futures. I link to this Sports Illustrated piece by Austin Murphy about former Vikings and Buckeyes RB Robert Smith and his conflict with the Ohio State athletic program that ultimately caused him to quit the team but later rejoin. It’s one of several stories that indicate why athletic programs aren’t always trustworthy.
  • Bo Jackson is still a draw – A review of the 30 for 30 film on the Paul Bunyon of the 20th Century. The best human athlete I ever saw, no contest.

Non-Football Reads

  • The World In 2030: Asia Rises, The West Declines –  The National Intelligence Council, comprising the 17 U.S. government intelligence agencies, prepares this report.
  • Tribune Watchdog: Playing with Fire The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world. The toxic chemicals are present in nearly every home, packed into couches, chairs and many other products. Two powerful industries — Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers — waged deceptive campaigns that led to the proliferation of these chemicals, which don’t even work as promised.
  • The Case for More Guns (And More Gun Control) Jeffery Goldberg asks, “How do we reduce gun crime and Aurora-style mass shootings when Americans already own nearly 300 million firearms? Maybe by allowing more people to carry them.”

Views

This is surreal footage of driving in Russia. It’s perhaps the craziest collection of incidents I have ever seen.

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Life-affirming.

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Funny and true.

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Reads Listens Views 11/16/2012

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Listens

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More on La Havas later.

Views Part I – Real or Photoshop? I don’t care, it’s cool . . .

At Fantasy Throwdown: Annual Thanksgiving Tourney & IDP Tourney!!!

To our regulars out there, thanks for playing Fantasy Throwdown, including providing feedback and helping build a great community of fantasy football players.To our mailing list members who haven’t checked in for a while, or since last season, come on over. The regular season is past the halfway mark, but we’re going to continue playing Throwdown all the way through the Super Bowl, one week at a time.Here is a snapshot of things going on this month:
Turkey Day CompetitionIt is back. Or will be next week, that is. Our favourite (note the “u”) holiday that isn’t even a holiday where Mike lives – U.S. Thanksgiving. Three games on the NFL schedule, which is perfect for a little game we like to call Fantasy Throwdown. It will be similar to last year’s hootenanny. Look for details posted early next week.
IDP TournamentThe reason we don’t spell out acronyms like IDP very often is because we know we attract top fantasy football players who can break down expected tackle distribution numbers when stars Ray Lewis and Sean Lee are sidelined. If you qualify – or maybe it is time to learn – sign up for our next tournament that includes more Vontaze Burfict and less Trindon Holliday.
Player vs. Player StatsWondering how your head-to-head record stacks up against Players X, Y and Z? Sure, you could just count the wins and losses in your Game Manager history, but we’ve made it a lot easier. Go to our new stats tool, start typing your username, select and hit submit. Don’t get mad if you find one or two players are bringing your overall win % down. Get even.

Sign Up Now, IDP and Turkey Day

Coming Soon at the RSP Blog

  • My next Futures column at Football Outsiders on NC State corner David Amerson
  • A commentary on the thorny intersection of racism, politics, and quarterbacking in the NFL
  • Down the road . . . 2013 No-Huddle Series: Short takes of prospects under the radar

Views Part II

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You probably saw this terrific bicycle kick on Dead Spin, but here it is if you missed it.

Views Part III

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Neodymium is a rare earth mineral. It’s one of strongest of magnets, capable of holding 1000 times its weight. Hybrid cars use neodymium in its engines. Your computers and smart phones use it. Mining it takes enough energy per day to power 50,000 homes and water usage to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools. Because it’s found embedded near uranium and thorium, the process to extract the neodymium requires safety measures that have been problematic to say the least.

My ignorant, tin-foil hat question of the day is this: If this mineral in small amounts has this type of magnetic capability and our earth rotates and orbits based on magnetic fields then why are we digging it up? I know I have to be missing something about how our planet orbits and how the magnetic fields actually work that doesn’t include this mineral embedded throughout our planet. Otherwise, aren’t we eventually going to screw up the way our planet orbits the sun or how the moon stays in orbit? Considering the demand for the metal is expected to grow by 700 percent in the near future, I’m wondering if this is just another chapter in the book Here Today, Gone Tomorrow: The Shortsighted History of Humanity.

I feel pretty dumb to ask but my lunch hour is spent reading non-football material, and notice “hour” isn’t plural in this instance.

Football Reads

Football Outsiders Film Room: Colts-Patriots – Andy Benoit’s analysis of Andrew Luck’s drop against two-deep coverage is outstanding.

PFF Analysis Notebook: Richard Sherman – Sam Monson does a great job profiling the Seahawks cornerback and why “Revis Island may be about to become an archipelago, flanked by Sherman Island in a sea from which there is no escape for receivers.”

The New Old School – Chris Brown’s piece on Chip Kelly’s offense at Oregon at Grantland.

FishDuck – Rotoworld’s Josh Norris recommended this site for even more great analysis on this cutting edge Oregon offense.

Manti Te’0, The Example – Eric Stoner’s analysis of the Notre Dame linebacker at Rotoworld.

Non-Football Reads

Why Think by Numbers? While it’s difficult for me to buy the entire argument, which by the way probably feeds into this writer’s argument even more, it’s a well-written article that highlights the lack of balance in which we use the various parts of our brains to come to decisions, especially with politics.

Government Spends More on Corporate Welfare Subsidies than Social Welfare Programs – More fascinating stuff from this  site focused on the concept of “Empiricism” as a political movement.

Top Georgia GOP Lawmakers Host Briefing on Secret Obama Mind-Control Plot – If you’re wondering why I had that tinfoil hat question about neodymium just realize it must have something to do with the water around Athens, Ga. If Paul Broun wasn’t enough (and yes, I voted for Charles Darwin with pride), now we have an Athens-based group saying our president is using CIA-Jedi mind tricks to sway the country. You didn’t have to vote for Obama to realize this just beats all.

Listens

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Lianne La Havas: ‘The Golden Girl of British Music’: I heard this singer-songwriter on the drive to work. Elizabeth Blair writes, “the past year has been very good for La Havas, as she was nominated for a Mercury Prize in the U.K. Stevie Wonder also left her a voice mail message singing one of her songs, and Prince invited her to jam with him.”

Robert Cray Band: Tiny Desk Concerts : He had a big hit in the 1980s with his album Strong Persuader. I think he’s a fantastic writer and bluesman.

Futures: Texas FS Kenny Vaccaro

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This week’s Futures article at Football Outsiders analysis the next in a line of NFL-caliber free safety prospects from the University of Texas. Photo by Wonggawei/

Studying football players is a solitary pursuit. So it feels good when a performance catches your attention and months later you learn that it did the same for another writer, scout, or talent evaluator. Everyone enjoys that kind of validation.

One of those moments occurred last spring when I was watching Keenan Allen. As fun as it was to watch the Cal receiver, I couldn’t keep my eyes off Texas’ Kenny Vaccaro.

The free safety didn’t have an incredible game, but his potential leaped off the screen -– and in one case, over running back Iso Sofele (see below) -– as a versatile prospect capable of starting at either safety position as well as being a force on special teams. According to Orangebloods.com writer Chip Brown, it was this Cal game that had an NFL scout tell him that Vaccaro would have been “the best Longhorn in the [2012 NFL Draft] … He might have been a first-rounder with the way he can cover and the way he defends the run.”

Vacarro might be the most impressive defender on an underachieving Longhorns defensive unit. Six defensive backs from Texas have earned top-50 selections in the NFL Draft, Vaccaro is likely to become the seventh in 2013. There’s a lot to like about his game.

Although his edge sometimes crosses the line to recklessness, I love Vaccaro’s ability to play with abandon. Once he improves . . . Read the rest at Football Outsiders

Futures: Florida TE Jordan Reed

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Aaron Hernandez is a unique talent in the NFL, but one of his fellow alums has the potential to change that assertion. Photo by Patriotworld.

Last week, I wrote about Notre Dame’s Tyler Eifert and how his skills fit into the growing pantheon of versatile tight end play that is in vogue in the NFL. But versatility can have a number of different meanings depending on the talents of the player and his fit within an offense. The word doesn’t necessarily mean that the player can do everything well.

Players like Jermaine Gresham, Brandon Pettigrew, Brent Celek, andHeath Miller are versatile in the sense that they can run block, have enough speed to stretch the intermediate seam, and produce in tight coverage in the red zone. I think they do a lot well, but nothing great. If anything, I believe they are the current evolution of the “average” tight end. (Though I have to say that calling personal favorite Miller “average” insults my sensibilities because in terms of smarts and execution he blows away players like Gresham and Pettigrew.)

Jermichael Finley, Jimmy Graham, and Jared Cook are versatile because they have the speed to run more vertical routes and the height and hands to function more as outside receivers. While Graham and Finley have improved as blockers, neither would list this skill as a true strength of their games. All three are essentially big wide receivers that can do a passable job as blockers depending on the way an offensive coordinator incorporates them into a scheme. In other words: teams have to be more creative with them when they aren’t running a route.

The only tight ends I believe have it all are (Read the rest at Football Outsiders).

Futures: West Virginia WR Tavon Austin

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Evaluating players is a long process. It doesn’t end when an analyst watches a few games of a prospect. I want you to keep this in mind as you read this take or any take that I provide of a player before his college career has ended. My methodology of evaluation is as detailed as any and I often find that the third, fourth, or fifth game I’ve watched of a player only validates what I saw in the first performance. Even so, there are times that my fundamental opinion of a player will change with additional viewings of games.

Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall comes to mind. I had initial concerns about his acceleration that eventually diminished after additional viewings of his performances.  The more I watched him, the more I liked him. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the more I watched quarterback Matt Leinart the less confident I felt that he had the on-field makeup to become anything more than system player with fringe starter potential.

I share this because West Virginia receiver and return specialist Tavon Austin is one of those players where after my initial studies I have more questions than answers. Several draft analysts list Austin as one of the five best receiver prospects of the 2013 N.F.L. Draft class – including NFL Draft Scout and my buddy Josh Norris over at Rotoworld. I agree that the 5-9, 176-pound slot receiver and kick return specialist from West Virginia is among the most productive performers at his position in college football, but what I have seen of Austin continues to raise one question: Is there a slot receiver in pro football with the kind of marquee game that in hindsight would have deserved a first-day pick in April?

Read the rest at Football Outsiders

Reads Listens Views 10/12/2012

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Football Reads/Listens/Views

Alfred Morris’ ability didn’t surprise me, but the opportunity to get a real shot as a rookie did. See his 2012 Rookie Scouting Portfolio analysis below.

Alfred Morris RSP Evaluation – I grade on a 100-point scale. Morris received an 89 on my scale when I watched him play Auburn last year. An 89 is an immediate starter grade. I only watched one game and was reticent to rank him higher than 20th among backs because I didn’t get to see a strong sample size. However, I think you’ll find the details about what I saw commensurate with what you’re seeing from him in Washington. Continue reading →

Futures: Georgia LB Alec Ogletree

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Now here’s a room of equipment my former trainer would have been proud of. I share my Jenny Craig Moment for Guys below to give you context about Georgia ILB Alec Ogletree in my latest Futures at Football Outsiders. Photo by Lars Hammar.

Six years ago, I met an athletic trainer for the University of Georgia football team. I joined a local gym and wanted to begin a weight training program. I was leery of the bells and whistles that “athletic clubs” have in their facilities and even more skeptical of the trainers who seem to be more about sales than fitness. I also wanted a workout that incorporated a lot of body weight exercises and the supervision of an experienced, educated, trainer. The gym management got my drift and recommended one guy.

The only appointment that this trainer had available in his schedule was 5:00 a.m. three times a week. The idea of studying a football game at 5:00 a.m. was one thing, an intense workout seemed like masochism. But as bleary-eyed as I was that first morning, I knew I’d made the right decision when this trainer walked us right past the the sea of Nautilus equipment and other gadgets.

“You see all of this here? This sells gym memberships. We’ll use maybe three of these machines. Let’s do some real work.”

And within two months, I lost 20 pounds and 10 percent body fat with a workout that consisted of free weights, sprints, jump rope, and medicine ball workouts.

 I’m sharing this Jenny Craig moment for guys because, as I got to know my trainer, I learned a lot about the Georgia football team. My trainer wasn’t a 23 year-old whose career prior to graduate school was that of a glorified towel boy. Besides working as a professional trainer for a number of years in Major League Baseball, he came from a rich football background. He was a second-string safety at Florida State, and his grandfather was a former head coach and scout in the NFL

Among the several great nuggets of information that he eventually shared with me about Georgia football was the school’s preference to Read the rest at Football Outsiders

Reads Listens Views 7/11/12

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If Fitzgerald is at the pinnacle of the receiving position in today’s game, these three publications that are now available are at the top of theirs. Photo by Photogeek21.

Reads

This is a quick post, but one I want to make this week before my access to Internet becomes less constant. I have three recommendations for reading material before the season begins. One is a fantasy football magazine. The other is a book. I’m sure most of you have one and plan to get the other, but I still want to do my due dilligence and give them a mention.

The first is the Footballguys Interactive Magazine, which is iPad, Android, desktop, and laptop friendly. The magazine is jam-packed with fantasy football goodies, photos, swipeable navigation, and yes, even an Upside Down (and counterpunch) draft strategy that many of you have been asking me about. Check it out here and learn about the deal Footballguys offers for subscribers to the site.

And for the few of you that haven’t made the connection, yes, I write for the site. I love working at Footballguys and a big reason why is the quality of work that so many of the people produce. They produce far more than what they charge for it.

My newest gig is with Football Outsiders and I’m thrilled to be starting a column with a top-notch group of writers at this terrific football resource. The Football Outsiders 2012 Almanac is now available for download. This publication has become an annual “must-have” for football fans. Lot’s a great work there and the link I just provided includes links to samples from this highly praised annual publication.

One of the things I enjoy about Football Outsiders is the thought-provoking work that you’ll see there on a regular basis from excellent writers. The RSP blog recently posted FO columnist Ben Muth’s RSP team and Muth was instrumental in creating our player values to help this blog deliver a project that has been a hit with readers.

My final recommendation this week is a publication that I have no connection to in terms of employment, but I read chapters from nightly. I’ve probably read this book twice through since I got it six weeks ago: The Essential Smart Football by Chris Brown. Almost every writer participating in the RSP Project has cited Brown’s work thus far. That should tell you how influential his knowledge is to the writer’s community. I’ve learned a ton from Brown when it comes to the X’s and O’s of the game and it is helping me gain a valuable scope with the work I do.

These three publications are the must-haves that cover three of the four essential parts of football table today: fantasy football, statistical football analysis, and strategic X and Os analysis. What’s the fourth you ask? You don’t have to ask about rookie analysis, do you? 🙂

Listens and Views

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I get the sense that Dickerson is the most underappreciated of the great backs in recent NFL history.

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I’ll tell you about it when I get back.

RSP Writers Project Team Q&A – Ben Muth, Football Outsiders

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Ben Muth’s team is one to learn about offensive line play and running the football. Conversely, I like how he explains his use of the 3-4. Defensive end Red Bryant plays a pivotal role. Photo by Matt McGee.

Ben Muth is a former first-team All Pac-10 offensive lineman at Stanford. Muth authors an offensive line-centric column at Football Outsiders titled Word of Muth. Check out Muth’s blog and follow him on Twitter at #FO_wordofmuth. You can find his RSP Writers squad is posted here. 

It was personally encouraging to see that I had similar ideas about how to use Andy Levitre as Muth and a pleasant surprise that Muth thought highly of undrafted Ravens free agent Bobby Rainey as a budget-tier runner. Here’s Muth’s presentation of his team in Q&A form.

Describe your offensive system.

In an upset, I’m going with the Stanford offense. I’m bringing in David Shaw and Greg Roman to handle the passing game and running game respectively. You’ll see lots of I variations and multiple tight end sets. We are going to run the hell out of Power and Inside Zone. That’s about it as far as the running game goes. You’ll see them use every formation and shift you can imagine, but you won’t see much else in terms of play choice. The only other two run plays we’ll have is a toss crack concept and a lead/lead draw. I love the Outside Zone play, but Continue reading →

Football Outsiders Columnist Ben Muth’s RSP Team

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Football Outsiders columnist and former All Pac-10 offensive lineman Ben Muth reveals his RSP Writers Project team and to my surprise, undrafted rookie Bobby Rainey is one of his primary backups. Photo by Daaka2.

Ben Muth is a former offensive lineman. He played at Stanford for five years, lettered for four years, started for two, and he was first-team All Pac-10 as a senior. But Muth is quick to point out – as any team-oriented player in a team-first sport that Stanford lost too many football games during his tenure. The Cardinals had three head coaches and four offensive coordinators.

After his college career, Muth was picked up by the San Diego Chargers. He was eventually released because according to Muth, “I was injured, and then not picked up again because I didn’t block that many people when I was healthy.” It’s this kind of humility that inspires fans to appreciate the game and those who played it.

Because he played in a lot of systems and recognizes a lot of difference schemes, it was an experience that Muth believes helps him with his Football Outsiders column Word of Muth. I’m fortunate that Muth was willing to lend his expertise to the RSP Writers Project both as a contributor and a consultant on offensive line player values.

Still want to know more? Continue reading →