This is my first time really looking at Jay Cutler. He's kinda cute!
Looks like Jay Cutler will have more condoms than he could ever use by the end of the 2011-2012 NFL season. Sports Business Journal reported that starting September 8, NuVo condoms will be sending a pack of condoms to the QB that gets sacked the most that week. Their tagline: If your team can’t protect you, we will??
If last year’s offensive line performances are any indication, Jay Cutler (sacked 52 times last season), Kyle Orton (sacked 34 times in just 13 games), Michael Vick (sacked 34 times in 12 games) will be receiving quite a few packs with Jason Campbell (34) and Phillip Rivers (38) contending for a few as well.
I think this is an interesting marketing ploy. I’d never heard of this condom company until now. I think their sales will definitely be going up soon. They should give Cutler an endorsement. Looks like he recently broke off his engagement. Condoms are staples for those that are single and ready to mingle right???
Related: I’m working on a post about offensive lines, I just haven’t finished it yet. Just wanted to note, it’s not ALWAYS only the O-line’s fault when QBs go down. The more I read and assess and watch film , I see that it’s more complicated than that. Doesn’t take a way from NuVo’s awesome PR move though.
Michael Vick Should Be Able to Pay off His Debts and Have Something Left Over (I hope)
Philadelphia Eagles QB Michael Vick just signed a 6 year deal with the team that is worth 100 million dollars with about 40 million of it guaranteed. If you remember, back in 2004 Vick signed a 10 year 130 million dollar deal with the Atlanta Falcons. It made him the richest player in the NFL at the time. Before he was found to own a dogfighting business, it was assumed that he would play out the rest of his career in Atlanta.
Barring any further foolishness he should be ending his career in Philadelphia. If his legs don’t hold up, they can always cut him after a few years.Before this latest contract was signed, Vick was due to make $16 million from the Eagles for this season. This deal should take Vick’s cap number from 16.2 million to 14.4 million. That means he will make less for the season freeing up a room in the salary cap for wide receiver Desean Jackson, who held out of most of training camp, to get a pay increase.
Now we’ll have to wait and see how the signing bonus pans out to really have an idea of what Desean can get. Signing bonuses are prorated against the cap over the length of the deal. Either way this restructuring helps the Eagles cap. Philadelphia media is sold on the Eagles cutting corner back Joselio Hanson which would give them another 2.4 million in cap space (estimated). It is kind of crowded on the team at that position these days! If they do cut Hanson, that will help Desean’s case as well.
Peyton Manning’s was reported 5 years, $90M with $54.4M guaranteed. Tom Brady’s was 5 years, $78.5M with $48.5M guaranteed.
Congratulations to Vick and here’s lookin at you Desean.
As far as Vick’s debt is concerned, his creditors have to be smiling. Let’s take a look at his circumstances. First of all, he’s on a court-ordered budget until 2015:
Under the terms of the budget, he is permitted to spend $3,500 each month for rent in Philadelphia, with another $750 for “utilities and miscellaneous.” There is no provision in the budget for buying dinner for his offensive linemen.
He is also obligated to pay $3,712 per month on the mortgage for the only remaining residence he owns, an unimpressive house in Hampton, Va., where his fiancée, Kijafa Frink, lives with the couple’s two children, Jada and London. In a rare bit of extravagance, the budget permits Vick to pay $1,355 monthly for a private school for the children.
Although there is a budget provision for “living expenses,” his car allowance is only $472 per month, a far cry from Vick’s pre-arrest collection of F-450 pickups and $100,000 luxury automobiles.
Vick’s mother, who was on his payroll in his previous professional life, is limited to $2,500 per month under the budget, a significant reduction from the salary and gifts Vick once bestowed upon her. He is also required to pay $3,000 per month to support former girlfriend Tameka Taylor and their son, Mitez.
The budget provides more generously for Vick’s agent, Joel Segal, and for Vick’s team of bankruptcy lawyers. Vick will pay Segal $32,500 this year, another $104,000 next year, and then $160,000 each year through 2015. It’s a total of nearly $800,000.
The fees Vick will pay to the bankruptcy lawyers are scheduled to be $748,750 this year, another $1,058,080 next year and a total during the budget years of $2.6 million.
The budget is part of a plan that is supposed to allow him to pay off the debts he accumulated before his arrest. It’s based on Vick’s playing well enough to earn a bonanza free-agent contract at the end of the current season, and it provides for total payment to his creditors of more than $12 million between now and 2015.
As a “reorganized debtor,” Vick’s income will be distributed to his family and his creditors in accordance with a court-approved schedule. As his income increases, he pays more of it to the creditors. (See the accompanying table.)
Other People’s Money
The more Michael Vick makes, the higher the percentage that goes somewhere other than into his pocket. Here’s how it works
Schedule of Payments
Income
Percentage to Creditors
$0-$750,000
10 percent
$750,001-$2.5 million
25 percent
$2,501,000-$10 million
30 percent
Above $10 million
40 percent
As Munstor points out, Vick could have filed Chapter 7 and never paid back the bulk of his debts. But he didn’t. And that’s commendable.
It took the NBA less than 24 hours to pull down all footage of current NBA players from NBA.com once their lockout began. Apparently, the NBA cannot profit from players during their lockout. The NFL obviously has no such rule because every other day there’s a top 10 list of this or that not to mention this top 100 list that has had everyone, except me, talking for the past couple weeks. And more than that, NFL players are still appearing all across NFL network and NFL.com
First of all, I think the list is stupid. YES I SAID STUPID. Just like every other asine head-to-head conversation. It kills me that people never get tired of “comparing” and discussing who’s best. Yeah I get that sports is all about competition but having the same debates over and over isn’t for me. And that’s generally what it all boils down to.
Personally, I’d rather jab myself in the eye than hear people compare Ed Reed to Troy Polamalu or Adrian Peterson to Chris Johnson again. And God forbid there’s another Jerry Rice vs. Randy Moss debate. I even saw a Revis vs. Sanders debate. Count.me.out. I guess I’m just no fun too sensitive to the variables.
Now you know why I haven’t and will not be blogging about the list. Well, except for this post.
Anywayyyyyy, in the midst of ignoring this top 100 player list, I noticed that several players questioned whether players had actually voted in the list, or at least made a point of saying they didn’t know anyone who did. Those players include Troy Polamalu (Safety, Pittsburgh Steelers), Kerry Rhodes (Safety, Arizona Cardinals), Jerraud Powers (Cornerback, Indianapolis Colts), Jay Feely (Kicker, Arizona Cardinals), Brent Grimes, (Cornerback, Atlanta Falcons), Jimmy Kennedy (Defensive Tackle, Minnesota Vikings), Chester Pitts (Offensive Lineman, Seattle Seahawks), Tom Crabtree (Tight End, Green Bay Packers), and Ryan Clark (Safety, Pittsburgh Steelers)-who went so far as to call the list a “sham.”
Apparently, some players have been asking around and can’t find any friends who were chosen to vote on the list. Now, of course that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, it just called into question, for me, what the NFL means by “current players.” It could have been 10 out of 1700. If so, they are being indirectly misleading, but would that surprise anyone?
Even though no one cares, I was curious and I contacted the NFL to find out how many players voted and how the voting was carried out, and I will let you know if they respond and if so what they say. In the meantime, if you have the answer to this question (maybe they mentioned it on NFL network and I missed it?) and can take time away from debating the list to let me know I’d appreciate it.
Overall, this top 100 list was a genius idea by the NFL. Kudos to them for knowing how to draw people in and keep them talking about football as the owners seem to continue to conspire to destroy the game.
It’s frustrating to even talk about new contracts when teams aren’t even allowed to communicate with players. But shit, what the hell! Let’s jump into it.
Chris Johnson SHOULD get a new deal, and not just because I’m anxious for him to never rap again. I’m not into head to head competition but if someone said Chris Johnson is the best running back in the league right now, I wouldn’t raise an eyebrow or ask how they came to that conclusion. It doesn’t make sense for a player of his caliber to earn 800K a year ESPECIALLY at the most short lived position in the league. Even in this pass oriented league, running backs get worn down quickly especially in this age of gianormous defenders.
Despite the Titans being perennially challenged in the win column and having quarterback and coach drama galore Johnson, who is still under his rookie contract, has been productive.
A three-time Pro Bowler, Johnson has surpassed 1,000 rushing yards in each of his first three seasons, and in 2009, became the sixth NFL player ever to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.
The Titans drafted Jake Locker and most of the news coming out of Tenneesee is pointing to him starting right away now that Vince Young is no longer their guy. What better asset to a team that has a new QB than to be able to pass to a productive running back. I’d say that’s even more of a benefit than having an elite wide receiver since new QBs tend to struggle completing and need reliable options for shorter passes.
Locker in particular comes into the league with some accuracy issues:
While Locker’s rushing numbers at Washington are impressive — 1,939 yards and 29 touchdown — Palmer points out that he has plenty of room for improvement in other facets.
The biggest knock on Locker is passing accuracy. His career completion percentage was 53.92, lower than the other top quarterbacks drafted this year. In this film session, however, Palmer shows only completions.
On some plays, Locker’s footwork is sloppy as he gets anxious in the pocket. Palmer shows a play against BYU. Locker fails to show enough patience to let a screen develop. He rolls too wide, causing the play to break down.
Palmer also shows plays that Locker makes look easy but will be far more difficult in the NFL with ball-hawking safeties such as Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu lurking.
If there’s one thing I’m tired of reading on sports message boards it’s about how defensive backs can’t tackle. According to threads, Ed Reed can’t tackle, Dawan Landry can’t tackle, and neither can Darrell Revis, Asante Samuel, Deangelo Hall, Kerry Rhodes, Charles Woodson, Nnamdi Asomugha, Laron Landry and any other list of defensive backs EXCEPT Troy Polamalu.
There you have it, according to the Sportsworld, TROY POLAMALU IS THE ONLY DEFENSIVE BACK IN THE NFL THAT CAN TACKLE. CONGRATULATIONS TROY YOU FUCKING MADE IT.
Except that’s not true. And even if it were, it might not matter much.
This is the case of when stats and simple arguments (like head to head comparisons) skew a picture. Defensive Backs can become known for not tackling for a few different reasons.
1. They Aren’t Used For Tackling: Defensive Backs are now asked to do a lot. Not only do they cover, they are an integral part of the pass rush, they break up plays, intercept passes and on and on and on. Depending on how a DB is used he may or may not have a high number of tackles. If a DB like Ed Reed or Asante Samuel spends most of their time roaming to intercept passes, tackling may not be their primary role. When it comes to someone like Asomugha who isn’t even being thrown to or when he IS being thrown to doesn’t allow a completion, tackling is often of no consequence because the ball was never caught.
2. They Avoid Missing Tackles. Golden rule for DBs is do.not.miss.any.tackle. If you think of secondaries as last lines of defense then you understand why. If a DB misses a tackle there is a high likelihood that play action continues and results in a gain of several yards or worse a touchdown. To avoid missing a tackle, DBs will often deliver a hit or a simple hard shove out of bounds. To viewers at home the latter may look like a copout, but part of playing the role of DB is make good decisions not just entertaining ones.
3. They Get Burned on National Television. Most people who watch football keep their eye on the ball the entire time. Out of 11 players on the field, viewers probably see 4 at a time on one play, 2 on offense and 2 on defense (QB, Receiver the QB throws to, the defensive player covering the receiver, and the most prominent pass rusher on the play will also usually be in sight). Most viewers don’t see, or at least dont pay attention to, much else. So any time a DB gets burned on a play or missing a tackle they are visible. Same thing for when a DB breaks up a play or delivers a big hit or tackle. That’s why someone like Ed Reed can be both heralded for his play and criticized for tackling ability.
4. Receivers Are Bigger Now. Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, and many other WRs are the same size or bigger than most DBs in the league. Most DBs average somewhere around 6’1 and 210-210 lbs. With WRs like Johnson and Boldin at over 6’4 and weighing over 230 lbs and Tight Ends like Jason Witten and Visanthe Shiancoe also over 6’4 but weighing over 260lbs tackling ain’t no crystal stair. In particular, if a tackle is the 3rd function you perform on just one play.
This is not to say that all these DBs are good tacklers or that there’s no room for improvement. But it is to say that you have to look beyond stats and what plays made highlights to determine what makes a good DB in general and, in a more narrow sense, what makes them good for a particular team. DBs are used differently depending on the team and all are supported by different levels and types of talent. All of that affects how much they tackle and in many cases the likelihood of actually making the high number of those tackles.
At any rate, “does not tackle often” does not equal “cannot tackle.” “Missed a tackle on MNF” does not equal “misses tackles all the time.”
While I have you here, I don’t think I ever linked to this awesome article that Bob Herbert wrote before he left the NY Times a few months back. He talks about some former players and how they mentioned that defensive play (from a fundamental standpoint) had changed for the worse in the NFL.
The N.F.L. has taken some remedial steps, especially in the area of head injuries. But pro football, always violent, is now violent in the extreme, and there is some question as to whether that violent style of play — and the consequences that flow from it — can really be changed. Paul Tagliabue, a former N.F.L. commissioner, told The New Yorker about the comments of a group of former players who had looked closely at the way defensive play has changed. “They raised the idea,” said Tagliabue, “that it was no longer tackle football. It was becoming collision football. The players looked like bionic men.”
Post post post note, my favorite video of a Polamalu tackle.
