The NFL Draft occurred over the past few days, and I was watching pretty contently through the first four rounds. Generally speaking, I really liked what I saw.
Things started with a bang on the first night. We used the Browns' fear that another team would trade up and take Trent Richardson to move back a single slot and pick up 3 additional late round picks. Then we grabbed Matt Kalil as we had intended to for months, no matter what Rick Spielman wanted everybody to think. Kalil is the top left tackle prospect in years, and while he's not Jake Long or Joe Thomas, he's immeasurably better than what we had (Charlie Johnson) or even what we have had for ages (Bryant McKinney). He's an athletic blind side protector who is intent on doing things the right way -- whether it's technique on the field or building up power in the weight room to improve his run blocking. Almost as important, it lets us move Charlie Johnson inside to guard, where a lot of people suspect he's a better fit. Along with some off season moves we made, our O line is suddenly adequate if not legitimately strong instead of one of the top liabilities on the team.
Later, we used some of the ammunition we got from that early trade to move back into the first round to pick up Notre Dame safety Harrison Smith. Smith was the consensus number 2 safety in the draft, and last season made it incredibly clear that we had nothing at the position. Smith worked with our coaching staff extensively at the Senior Bowl, and they fell in love with him. Not only his talent and his positioning on the field, but his presence in meetings and his leadership. He should be a day one starter and provide a serious improvement in our secondary.
Our secondary saw further improvement with Josh Robinson, CB out of the University of Central Florida. Robinson set the fastest 40 time at the Combine, running it in 4.29 seconds. On top of that, he put up 17 reps of 225 lbs on the bench press, more than many larger, supposedly stronger backs. He should provide a powerful jam at the line of scrimmage, and he has the speed to recover if he gets burned and make plays on the ball from the other side of the field, and he's a willing tackler. He's an early entry from a mediocre program, so he may not be ready to jump in and start immediately is up to question, but he could develop into something special.
The fourth round saw a number of interesting picks. First being Arkansas wide receiver Jarius Wright. I watched a lot of Hogs games last fall with one of my roommates who comes from the state. Wright is small and best fit to line up in the slot, where we already have Percy Harvin, so a lot of fans may not like the pick. I've seen him play, though, and he's nothing like Harvin. He's possibly faster and more explosive, even if he doesn't have the strength or dynamic ability in the open field. Most important, though, he's a great route runner, which can't really be said about, really, anybody else on the roster. Combined with his speed, this makes him a great deep threat down the middle. I'm honestly excited about the potential to line Wright and Harvin both up on the slot or, better yet, Wright in the slot and Harvin in the backfield and play games with opposing defenses.
Later in the 4th, we picked up a second Arkansas receiver, Greg Childs. Childs is 6'3" and possesses ridiculous speed (clocked at 4.38 at his pro day). He produced extremely well while healthy, but he tore his patella tendon in 2010 and tried to come back too soon, hurting his 2011 performance. Because of this, I haven't seen as much of Childs, but he's a prototypical number 1 receiver in terms of size and ability. Friends who have watched him insist that he's a first or second round talent if not for the injury limiting his exposure last season, and scouts seem to agree. He was a steal who could pay dividends for years to come if he adapts well to the pros.
Between those picks, we made an incredibly un-glamorous but essential decision with USC FB/TE Rhett Ellison. With Jimmy Kleinsasser having retired, we were seriously lacking in supplementary blockers. Current top TEs Kyle Rudolph and John Carlson are great receivers but are only adequate at best in the blocking game. Ellison didn't have a lot of buzz in the media, but Spielman insists that there were other teams planning on grabbing him in the fourth round. Ellison is a hulking guy who was responsible for making holes nearly every time he was on the field last year, and he did it well, considering the high power of USCs offense. I'm sure the Vikings saw plenty of tape on him when they were doing their homework on Kalil, and this is a pick that should pay dividends with AP returning from knee injury and Toby Gerhart being a less dynamic runner in general.
In the top of the fifth, we made possibly our most questionable choice, drafting another DB from Notre Dame. I really haven't been able to find out much about Robert Blanton, other than the fact that nobody seems to see him as a CB in the NFL, meaning he may move over to Safety next to his past and present teammate. Considering the decisions made up to this point, though, I'm going to express faith in the pick. Time will tell, and everything is a crap shoot at this point in the draft, anyway.
We finally started the hunt for a successor to Ryan Longwell in the sixth, where we grabbed Georgia kicker Blair Walsh. Longwell had his worst season in ages last year, missing six kicks, and it's fully possible that he'll continue to regress as he pushes on towards 40. Blair might get knocked for inaccuracy after going 21/35 last season, but 10 of his 14 misses came from 40 or more yards as Georgia kicked more than any other team in the FBS. Kicks that long are always a crapshoot for college players, and he hit a long of 56 yards, so he's got the leg. NFL conditioning and coaching should help his accuracy. It could be an interesting camp for the old guard in special teams.
I honestly don't know much of anything about either of our seventh round picks (UNC linebacker Audie Cole and Cal DE/DT Trevor Guyton) except that several scouts had fourth round grades on the both of them and both play positions where we can always use depth. Along with the bevy of undrafted rookie free agents we've already reached agreements with, they'll fight for positions throughout training camp and provide perspective on our current crop of players.
In short, we've become a much better team over the past 48+ hours. I'm not holding out that we'll be truly competitive, but climbing back up as 6-10 is certainly possible. We've got potentially strong pieces in place at positions where we had nothing. We won't have nothing to work with coming into the draft next year, meaning we can focus on depth and a much smaller number of holes.
I feel good about being a Vikings fan right now. Much better, certainly, than I was after that dark, dark Packers game in November.
Showing posts with label over analysis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label over analysis. Show all posts
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Fixing the Vikings
I'm still numb after last night's soul crushing 47-7 loss to the Green Bay Packers. I've never watched a game this bad. If not for a fumbled punt by Randall Cobb, this would have been a shutout and, officially, the worst loss in franchise history. Instead, this was just the second worse loss by the numbers, made all the worse by the opponent.
First thing's first, I want to see Aaron Rodgers' birth certificate. I don't care where he was born, just that he was. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the dude is actually a robot designed to be the perfect quarterback, and that's just not fair. For the sake of everybody else's self esteem, he should not be allowed to suit up and step on that field.
On a more serious note, though, this is simply proof positive that the Vikings have an incredibly amount of rebuilding to do after fielding a Super Bowl caliber team just two years ago. It's time to take a good solid look at just what needs to be done, unit by unit (ignoring the looming fact that we're franchise free agents come February and God knows what will happen with the stadium issues).
Quarterback
I still have hopes for Ponder, but yesterday is going to make people question the things they've been praising him most for. For the last two games, we've been celebrating his poise and his ability to make plays on third down and in the fourth quarter. Yesterday, he struggled all night against constant pressure and couldn't get much of anything going. I'm going to hopefully insist that he wasn't the big problem there, but we're going to need to see some more flashes of life from him in the rest of the schedule. For now, though, we hope to be set at the most important position.
Running Backs
We still have Adrian Peterson, and he's still a force to be reckoned with. He doesn't seem to get battered the way most RBs do, so there's a chance we may still have 4 more years of serious production from him -- enough time to make this team competitive again and take another run or two at things. On the backup side, I'm higher on Lorenzo Booker than Toby Gerhart. Gerhart is a hard, between the tackles runner, but Booker is shifty in space and strikes me as the superior 3rd down option. We're not going to give up on Gerhart after trading back into the second round to grab him two years ago, but his best position may be at Full Back if he can improve his blocking (where he's already better than most of our skill players). Again, we seem to be set here and shouldn't make any major moves unless something falls into our lap.
Tight End and Full Back
I predict Shiancoe and Kleinsasser leaving after the season. They're both still productive players, but Kleinsasser is lagging this season after being one of the best blocking TEs in the game for most of his career, and Shiancoe almost certainly wants to put his athleticism to use on a team that can compete in the couple of legitimate years he has left. We do have hope, however, in Kyle Rudolph, last year's second round pick. The kid has fantastic hands, a great work ethic, and a solid relationship with Ponder. We also have a kid named Allan Reisner on the practice squad who everybody loved coming out of camp and who could be a real option with a full off-season of development. We could stand to grab a solid blocking TE late for depth, but Rudolph and Reisner will hopefully be enough to fill the position from a receiving standpoint. I see us running a lot of detached TEs next year.
On the FB side, Ryan D'Imperio has been next to worthless since we promoted him off the practice squad. He let Matthews run by completely unblocked for his first sack last night and has struggled leading downfield in all but a handful of opportunities. As I said earlier, I'd like to see if Gerhart can make the transition more fully (he plays a fair number of F snaps as it is), but I'm a big fan of two tight sets and would be fine with leaving the position unfilled officially. We managed that way for the first chunk of the season, and we were actually competitive in those games.
Receivers
A well documented area of major need on the offense. Right now we've got Percy Harvin and...that's it. I think that Greg Camarillo could do more for us than he's been allowed to do, but we don't need him fighting with Harvin over the slot. Aromashodu and Jenkins have both been competent, but neither of them are a real answer as number one or even number two receivers. Both can walk once their one-year contracts expire. Stephen Burton has reportedly impressed after a rough training camp that was hindered by unreported injuries, but he's only played a handful of snaps after being activated from the practice squad a couple of weeks ago. It would be fantastic if he develops into a real option for next year.
We could also see a bit of help if we can work yet another miraculous conversion: backup QB Joe Webb. The kid claims he can catch fine and that he did plenty of receiver work at UAB, but word is that his hands are awful. He pulled down a 9-yard toss yesterday, though, and if he can play the position, his athleticism would be a real gift for us. He could still occasionally line up in the Wildcat with the option to pass, and we could get a veteran backup for Ponder who isn't a former star and makes sense in the role. This isn't a RB to FB or Center to Guard conversion, though. It's not likely, and I see us making a big move at this position in the offseason -- either with a second or third round pick or a significant move in free agency.
Offensive Line:
Wow, this is a mess. They proved yesterday that they're incompetent against pressure (Ponder had to deal with unblocked rushers all night long), and they've been inconsistent in the run blocking game all season. We don't have a true left tackle, and I'll bet you money right now that this is where our top draft pick will go. Charlie Johnson hasn't been as bad as people feared following the preseason, but "not awful" isn't going to cut it at such an important position, especially with some very strong prospects in the pipeline.
Phil Loadholt is turning into another Bryant McKinnie, a guy with all of the physical tools to succeed at his position but none of the motivation. Anthony Herrera is never going to come back 100% after all of his injuries, and Steve Hutchinson is no longer a dominant force at Left Guard. He can still play at a better than average level, but he and Herrera are both on the wrong side of 30. It's time to find their successors soon here. On the brighter side, John Sullivan has been acquitting himself fairly well at Center, but he's undersized and will always struggle against the bigger Nose Tackles in the game no matter how good his technique.
We have a couple of young guys in the wings who have shown well in limited opportunities and could still develop into viable starters, notably backup center Brandon Fusco and OT Demarcus Love -- who projects better at guard. If we can find a way to make Loadholt get himself into gear and shuffle the interior of the line a bit, we might be able to make this a passable unit with just one high draft pick and a lucky hit late. That would be a miracle.
Offense Overall
It's a mess, but there's mild hope. If we have the guts to show people the door and make a couple of major investments, this could be viable again as soon as next year. When you have AP and Harvin and players with the potential Ponder and Rudolph have shown, that's always going to be the case. Development is essential, though, and the position conversions that could seal the deal are unlikely. With a bit of luck along the line, we're a year away from competency, two years away from real success.
Defensive Line
Jared Allen leads the league in sacks this season and still has the match-ups left on the schedule to challenge for the single season record. I'd say he's still got a number of productive seasons left. Brian Robison has largely disappeared on the Left End after a very promising start, but showed enough early that I'm still hopeful. Everson Griffen has proven on special teams that he has a motor that doesn't stop and has managed to provide his share of pressure in a reasonable number of snaps at End.
It's the interior where we have a bit more concern. Kevin Williams is showing age, and Remi Ayodele has done nothing but take up space this season. Christian Ballard, a rookie out of Iowa, has shown some good things, especially against the pass, and actually played Nose for most of yesterday. Letroy Guion showed promise against the run in the preseason, but hasn't done a whole lot this year. Both could potentially be options for next season, but we're going to be a long way off from the Williams Wall at its prime. Still, our run game has been stout this season, so I'm not too worried about the line as a whole.
Linebackers
E.J. Henderson is showing plenty of wear from his reconstructed knee and the titanium rod in his leg. There are worse linebackers starting in the NFL, but his time may have come. His brother Erin, on the other hand, is making an alright case for himself. Chad Greenway has dipped some since last season, but he's still a rock solid OLB, leading the team in tackles, and just got a significant contract extension. In an ideal world, he'd be better than consistent and would turn into a real play maker, but this soft Cover 2 defense doesn't give him many opportunities for it.
The rest of these guys are career special teams sorts, so we really need a lift at the position. There was talk for awhile of moving Everson Griffen into a stand-up role at least part time, which could be exciting to see, but would leave us short staffed at DE. It's easier to get deals on linebackers than on DEs in free agency. Just look at the improvement the Lions have had in the position this year. I'm guessing we make mid level move at the position in the offseason and possibly try to find value with a 5th or 6th round pick.
Defensive Backs
We have two legitimate players in our secondary right now. One is 34 and just broke his clavicle. The other is currently undergoing investigation and trial for felony domestic assault. This is why we're so far away from truly contending on defense -- especially in a division where we play six games annually against Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, and Jay Cutler.
Cedric Griffin has shown that he won't fully come back from a pair of knee reconstructions; Asher Allen is never going to be better than a dime guy; Husain Abdullah is spotty and does his best work against the run; and our Strong Safety rotation of Jamarca Sanford and Tyrell Johnson is going nowhere. We have two young players in Marcus Sherels, at CB, and Mistral Raymond, at FS, who have shown they might be able to play. But Sherels will likely never be better than a slot guy in the nickel, and Raymond hasn't been good enough this year for the coaching staff to be comfortable playing him regularly.
Our only hope at this position is that Cook turns out to be innocent of the awful things he's accused of and Cedric Griffin can resurrect his career at Safety, where he was projected to be best suited in the NFL, anyway. No matter the case, though, this is where our second round pick almost certainly needs to go. And maybe a third. And a fourth. We really just need to find as many kids with potential as we can and have a battle royale for the starting jobs in our secondary. Starting quality DBs generally don't hit the free market, and if they do, they go to teams that are championship contenders for a price tag we can't afford.
Defense Overall
Our line, while still strong, isn't what it used to be, and that means we won't be able to get away with the wishy washy secondary we've been fielding for years. Our linebackers are adequate but could use a boost. The secondary is a nightmare, though. Depending on how things pan out, we could be two years away from being merely competent in that department. It will take a minor miracle for us to be competitive again next year. Two to three years away.
Special Teams
Ryan Longwell is slumping after years of being rock solid. I won't blame last night's 52 yarder into the wind on him. It was right on target but simply died in the air. That doesn't change the fact that he's missed more field goals this season already than all of last season. It might be time to test new blood.
People who know me know that I love Chris Kluwe, so I may be a bit biased, but I'd still call him top 5 in the league. I've only seen one real botched punt all season, and the big returns have been the result of spotty coverage, not placement.
Spotty, by the way, is about the only way to describe our coverage. We're capable of making fantastic special teams stops, but the serious return guys in the league -- Hester, Cobb -- give us as much trouble as they do anybody else. Our return game, on the other hand, is strong. We've had 60+ yard kickoff returns from three different guys (Harvin, Booker, and Sherels), including Harvin's TD on the opening kick of the season. Sherels has made some poor decisions on both fair catches and returns in the punt game, but he's also made some big plays there.
Coaching
We've seen a handful of interesting things from Bill Musgrave on the offensive side. End-arounds, double reverses, even a poorly executed flea flicker last night. Especially with Ponder driving instead of McNabb, we're starting to get an idea of what this offense is supposed to look like, and it could be good. It's very West Coast, but seems to emphasize the intermediate slightly over the short. With better blocking and more talent at receiver (and more time for Ponder), it could be all right. The play calling in the first few weeks was iffy, but it's getting better. I'll wait to pass judgement until we see how things go next year.
On the defensive side, we're just too married to Cover 2. We're sitting in an era of amazing quarterback play, and that means constant zone coverage is just going to get carved up. We tried some more Cover 1 man last night, but we don't have the personnel for it in the secondary. Frazier needs to let Fred Pagac unleash things. If our secondary is going to get carved up no matter what we do, I see no reason to not get more creative and aggressive with the blitz. We don't have a whole lot left to play for this season, so let's see how much havoc we can cause if we let the dogs loose. We're already top 5 in sacks because of Allen's efforts. Let's give him some help.
Summary
We're a long way off, but things can turn around quickly in the NFL if you hit at the right spots. I don't have great hope for next year. Our holes in three separate units are just too big. We could still elevate ourselves back to a .500 team, though, instead of the 4-12 we'll be likely to get to this year. If we get incredibly lucky with development of this year's rookies -- who didn't get real training last year -- and some unlikely position changes, we could even be better than .500 next year. We play in the strongest division in football, though, and better than .500 won't be enough. In two years, maybe, we'll be able to win a game against the Packers again.
First thing's first, I want to see Aaron Rodgers' birth certificate. I don't care where he was born, just that he was. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the dude is actually a robot designed to be the perfect quarterback, and that's just not fair. For the sake of everybody else's self esteem, he should not be allowed to suit up and step on that field.
On a more serious note, though, this is simply proof positive that the Vikings have an incredibly amount of rebuilding to do after fielding a Super Bowl caliber team just two years ago. It's time to take a good solid look at just what needs to be done, unit by unit (ignoring the looming fact that we're franchise free agents come February and God knows what will happen with the stadium issues).
Quarterback
I still have hopes for Ponder, but yesterday is going to make people question the things they've been praising him most for. For the last two games, we've been celebrating his poise and his ability to make plays on third down and in the fourth quarter. Yesterday, he struggled all night against constant pressure and couldn't get much of anything going. I'm going to hopefully insist that he wasn't the big problem there, but we're going to need to see some more flashes of life from him in the rest of the schedule. For now, though, we hope to be set at the most important position.
Running Backs
We still have Adrian Peterson, and he's still a force to be reckoned with. He doesn't seem to get battered the way most RBs do, so there's a chance we may still have 4 more years of serious production from him -- enough time to make this team competitive again and take another run or two at things. On the backup side, I'm higher on Lorenzo Booker than Toby Gerhart. Gerhart is a hard, between the tackles runner, but Booker is shifty in space and strikes me as the superior 3rd down option. We're not going to give up on Gerhart after trading back into the second round to grab him two years ago, but his best position may be at Full Back if he can improve his blocking (where he's already better than most of our skill players). Again, we seem to be set here and shouldn't make any major moves unless something falls into our lap.
Tight End and Full Back
I predict Shiancoe and Kleinsasser leaving after the season. They're both still productive players, but Kleinsasser is lagging this season after being one of the best blocking TEs in the game for most of his career, and Shiancoe almost certainly wants to put his athleticism to use on a team that can compete in the couple of legitimate years he has left. We do have hope, however, in Kyle Rudolph, last year's second round pick. The kid has fantastic hands, a great work ethic, and a solid relationship with Ponder. We also have a kid named Allan Reisner on the practice squad who everybody loved coming out of camp and who could be a real option with a full off-season of development. We could stand to grab a solid blocking TE late for depth, but Rudolph and Reisner will hopefully be enough to fill the position from a receiving standpoint. I see us running a lot of detached TEs next year.
On the FB side, Ryan D'Imperio has been next to worthless since we promoted him off the practice squad. He let Matthews run by completely unblocked for his first sack last night and has struggled leading downfield in all but a handful of opportunities. As I said earlier, I'd like to see if Gerhart can make the transition more fully (he plays a fair number of F snaps as it is), but I'm a big fan of two tight sets and would be fine with leaving the position unfilled officially. We managed that way for the first chunk of the season, and we were actually competitive in those games.
Receivers
A well documented area of major need on the offense. Right now we've got Percy Harvin and...that's it. I think that Greg Camarillo could do more for us than he's been allowed to do, but we don't need him fighting with Harvin over the slot. Aromashodu and Jenkins have both been competent, but neither of them are a real answer as number one or even number two receivers. Both can walk once their one-year contracts expire. Stephen Burton has reportedly impressed after a rough training camp that was hindered by unreported injuries, but he's only played a handful of snaps after being activated from the practice squad a couple of weeks ago. It would be fantastic if he develops into a real option for next year.
We could also see a bit of help if we can work yet another miraculous conversion: backup QB Joe Webb. The kid claims he can catch fine and that he did plenty of receiver work at UAB, but word is that his hands are awful. He pulled down a 9-yard toss yesterday, though, and if he can play the position, his athleticism would be a real gift for us. He could still occasionally line up in the Wildcat with the option to pass, and we could get a veteran backup for Ponder who isn't a former star and makes sense in the role. This isn't a RB to FB or Center to Guard conversion, though. It's not likely, and I see us making a big move at this position in the offseason -- either with a second or third round pick or a significant move in free agency.
Offensive Line:
Wow, this is a mess. They proved yesterday that they're incompetent against pressure (Ponder had to deal with unblocked rushers all night long), and they've been inconsistent in the run blocking game all season. We don't have a true left tackle, and I'll bet you money right now that this is where our top draft pick will go. Charlie Johnson hasn't been as bad as people feared following the preseason, but "not awful" isn't going to cut it at such an important position, especially with some very strong prospects in the pipeline.
Phil Loadholt is turning into another Bryant McKinnie, a guy with all of the physical tools to succeed at his position but none of the motivation. Anthony Herrera is never going to come back 100% after all of his injuries, and Steve Hutchinson is no longer a dominant force at Left Guard. He can still play at a better than average level, but he and Herrera are both on the wrong side of 30. It's time to find their successors soon here. On the brighter side, John Sullivan has been acquitting himself fairly well at Center, but he's undersized and will always struggle against the bigger Nose Tackles in the game no matter how good his technique.
We have a couple of young guys in the wings who have shown well in limited opportunities and could still develop into viable starters, notably backup center Brandon Fusco and OT Demarcus Love -- who projects better at guard. If we can find a way to make Loadholt get himself into gear and shuffle the interior of the line a bit, we might be able to make this a passable unit with just one high draft pick and a lucky hit late. That would be a miracle.
Offense Overall
It's a mess, but there's mild hope. If we have the guts to show people the door and make a couple of major investments, this could be viable again as soon as next year. When you have AP and Harvin and players with the potential Ponder and Rudolph have shown, that's always going to be the case. Development is essential, though, and the position conversions that could seal the deal are unlikely. With a bit of luck along the line, we're a year away from competency, two years away from real success.
Defensive Line
Jared Allen leads the league in sacks this season and still has the match-ups left on the schedule to challenge for the single season record. I'd say he's still got a number of productive seasons left. Brian Robison has largely disappeared on the Left End after a very promising start, but showed enough early that I'm still hopeful. Everson Griffen has proven on special teams that he has a motor that doesn't stop and has managed to provide his share of pressure in a reasonable number of snaps at End.
It's the interior where we have a bit more concern. Kevin Williams is showing age, and Remi Ayodele has done nothing but take up space this season. Christian Ballard, a rookie out of Iowa, has shown some good things, especially against the pass, and actually played Nose for most of yesterday. Letroy Guion showed promise against the run in the preseason, but hasn't done a whole lot this year. Both could potentially be options for next season, but we're going to be a long way off from the Williams Wall at its prime. Still, our run game has been stout this season, so I'm not too worried about the line as a whole.
Linebackers
E.J. Henderson is showing plenty of wear from his reconstructed knee and the titanium rod in his leg. There are worse linebackers starting in the NFL, but his time may have come. His brother Erin, on the other hand, is making an alright case for himself. Chad Greenway has dipped some since last season, but he's still a rock solid OLB, leading the team in tackles, and just got a significant contract extension. In an ideal world, he'd be better than consistent and would turn into a real play maker, but this soft Cover 2 defense doesn't give him many opportunities for it.
The rest of these guys are career special teams sorts, so we really need a lift at the position. There was talk for awhile of moving Everson Griffen into a stand-up role at least part time, which could be exciting to see, but would leave us short staffed at DE. It's easier to get deals on linebackers than on DEs in free agency. Just look at the improvement the Lions have had in the position this year. I'm guessing we make mid level move at the position in the offseason and possibly try to find value with a 5th or 6th round pick.
Defensive Backs
We have two legitimate players in our secondary right now. One is 34 and just broke his clavicle. The other is currently undergoing investigation and trial for felony domestic assault. This is why we're so far away from truly contending on defense -- especially in a division where we play six games annually against Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, and Jay Cutler.
Cedric Griffin has shown that he won't fully come back from a pair of knee reconstructions; Asher Allen is never going to be better than a dime guy; Husain Abdullah is spotty and does his best work against the run; and our Strong Safety rotation of Jamarca Sanford and Tyrell Johnson is going nowhere. We have two young players in Marcus Sherels, at CB, and Mistral Raymond, at FS, who have shown they might be able to play. But Sherels will likely never be better than a slot guy in the nickel, and Raymond hasn't been good enough this year for the coaching staff to be comfortable playing him regularly.
Our only hope at this position is that Cook turns out to be innocent of the awful things he's accused of and Cedric Griffin can resurrect his career at Safety, where he was projected to be best suited in the NFL, anyway. No matter the case, though, this is where our second round pick almost certainly needs to go. And maybe a third. And a fourth. We really just need to find as many kids with potential as we can and have a battle royale for the starting jobs in our secondary. Starting quality DBs generally don't hit the free market, and if they do, they go to teams that are championship contenders for a price tag we can't afford.
Defense Overall
Our line, while still strong, isn't what it used to be, and that means we won't be able to get away with the wishy washy secondary we've been fielding for years. Our linebackers are adequate but could use a boost. The secondary is a nightmare, though. Depending on how things pan out, we could be two years away from being merely competent in that department. It will take a minor miracle for us to be competitive again next year. Two to three years away.
Special Teams
Ryan Longwell is slumping after years of being rock solid. I won't blame last night's 52 yarder into the wind on him. It was right on target but simply died in the air. That doesn't change the fact that he's missed more field goals this season already than all of last season. It might be time to test new blood.
People who know me know that I love Chris Kluwe, so I may be a bit biased, but I'd still call him top 5 in the league. I've only seen one real botched punt all season, and the big returns have been the result of spotty coverage, not placement.
Spotty, by the way, is about the only way to describe our coverage. We're capable of making fantastic special teams stops, but the serious return guys in the league -- Hester, Cobb -- give us as much trouble as they do anybody else. Our return game, on the other hand, is strong. We've had 60+ yard kickoff returns from three different guys (Harvin, Booker, and Sherels), including Harvin's TD on the opening kick of the season. Sherels has made some poor decisions on both fair catches and returns in the punt game, but he's also made some big plays there.
Coaching
We've seen a handful of interesting things from Bill Musgrave on the offensive side. End-arounds, double reverses, even a poorly executed flea flicker last night. Especially with Ponder driving instead of McNabb, we're starting to get an idea of what this offense is supposed to look like, and it could be good. It's very West Coast, but seems to emphasize the intermediate slightly over the short. With better blocking and more talent at receiver (and more time for Ponder), it could be all right. The play calling in the first few weeks was iffy, but it's getting better. I'll wait to pass judgement until we see how things go next year.
On the defensive side, we're just too married to Cover 2. We're sitting in an era of amazing quarterback play, and that means constant zone coverage is just going to get carved up. We tried some more Cover 1 man last night, but we don't have the personnel for it in the secondary. Frazier needs to let Fred Pagac unleash things. If our secondary is going to get carved up no matter what we do, I see no reason to not get more creative and aggressive with the blitz. We don't have a whole lot left to play for this season, so let's see how much havoc we can cause if we let the dogs loose. We're already top 5 in sacks because of Allen's efforts. Let's give him some help.
Summary
We're a long way off, but things can turn around quickly in the NFL if you hit at the right spots. I don't have great hope for next year. Our holes in three separate units are just too big. We could still elevate ourselves back to a .500 team, though, instead of the 4-12 we'll be likely to get to this year. If we get incredibly lucky with development of this year's rookies -- who didn't get real training last year -- and some unlikely position changes, we could even be better than .500 next year. We play in the strongest division in football, though, and better than .500 won't be enough. In two years, maybe, we'll be able to win a game against the Packers again.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Scott Pilgrim
Sometime in March or April of 2008, I heard that Edgar Wright, of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead fame, was writing and directing a film adaptation of a comic series called Scott Pilgrim and that it would star Michael Cera. I love Edgar Wright, I love Michael Cera (note that this was just before Michael Cera fatigue swept a good portion the nation along with the backlash against Juno), so I immediately went and checked out the series and fell in love with it. I've eagerly anticipated each new volume (up to the final one, which released in July) and this movie ever since. I just recently finished re-reading the books and tonight I finally saw the film, so I figured it was about damn time I blogged about it.
The comics and the movie are really cut from the same cloth, so most of what I can say will apply to both, and the same can be said of the most common criticism: what's really at stake? By far the most common criticism of the movie was that it was hard to care about Scott and even harder to see why he was fighting for Ramona. That's a pretty legitimate complaint, until you take a closer look and see the point: None of this is about being in love. It's entirely about growing up. This relationship is just a catalyst, as they so often are.
Scott and Ramona are, quite frankly, the two least likable characters in this story. Scott is an idiot with no attention span, job, or prospects. He doesn't particularly care about anything and moves through life on a whim, unwittingly hurting people left and right, often times without even remembering how things went down. Ramona is slightly more responsible in that she at least has a job and her own apartment, but she's similarly capricious. The only difference is that she's fully aware of the hurt she's created and simply runs away from it any time it catches up.
Scott's battles with Ramona's exes simultaneously force him to fight for something for a change and make Ramona confront her own baggage and acknowledge that there are things and people in her life worth keeping around. Whether or not she's "the one" or Scott really loves her is hardly the question. The issue at hand is that both of them are realizing that we have to live in this world as it is, not as we'd prefer it to be. We can't live by mooching off our friends and wasting our time on idle fancies or by staying ahead of the inevitable changes. More importantly, we can't live our lives thinking we're the perfect hero of our story. We need to take charge of our affairs and of our faults and face the hard fact that reality is tough and being a good person in spite of that is tougher.
The book and the movie, which entered development and writing about halfway through the series, have different ways of letting Scott come to terms with these facts. In the movie, Wright has Scott acknowledge that he's fighting for himself and "earning the power of self-respect" when he confronts Gideon for the second time. This is slightly more straightforward and certainly happier than the comic's approach. In O'Malley's version, Scott encounters nega-Scott and he finally admits to himself what he's done and how many people he's hurt more than necessary by being willfully oblivious. Being the guilt-ridden penance junkie I am, I think I like this better, but both work well. In either case, Scott comes to terms with the fact that his life is his life, and he can't continue brushing it off if he wants it to turn around, and that's the important part.
So, that's my big reason for not caring a whole lot about whether Ramona appears to be worth fighting for. The other one is simply this: who are we to judge? As a rule, I've generally given up trying to figure out what it is that draws people to each other. We all have our own criteria, and it's hardly our place to judge. Most movies and books try to establish that people are right for one another with grand arm waving and a showiness that just doesn't happen in life. I prefer it when I'm allowed to just trust that these people are making the choice that they feel is best for them in their lives.
Not much else to say on the matter. The other big component is just the referential/stylistic component, which is the upfront draw. Both O'Malley and Wright have a near perfect understanding of homage and parody, and they keep the in-jokes coming at a blinding pace while keeping the bulk of the overt material readily accessible. Especially as a member of the in-group, I can't think of anything to complain about on this end.
Short version: Check out both the movie and the comics. They're not perfect, but you'll still be glad you did.
The comics and the movie are really cut from the same cloth, so most of what I can say will apply to both, and the same can be said of the most common criticism: what's really at stake? By far the most common criticism of the movie was that it was hard to care about Scott and even harder to see why he was fighting for Ramona. That's a pretty legitimate complaint, until you take a closer look and see the point: None of this is about being in love. It's entirely about growing up. This relationship is just a catalyst, as they so often are.
Scott and Ramona are, quite frankly, the two least likable characters in this story. Scott is an idiot with no attention span, job, or prospects. He doesn't particularly care about anything and moves through life on a whim, unwittingly hurting people left and right, often times without even remembering how things went down. Ramona is slightly more responsible in that she at least has a job and her own apartment, but she's similarly capricious. The only difference is that she's fully aware of the hurt she's created and simply runs away from it any time it catches up.
Scott's battles with Ramona's exes simultaneously force him to fight for something for a change and make Ramona confront her own baggage and acknowledge that there are things and people in her life worth keeping around. Whether or not she's "the one" or Scott really loves her is hardly the question. The issue at hand is that both of them are realizing that we have to live in this world as it is, not as we'd prefer it to be. We can't live by mooching off our friends and wasting our time on idle fancies or by staying ahead of the inevitable changes. More importantly, we can't live our lives thinking we're the perfect hero of our story. We need to take charge of our affairs and of our faults and face the hard fact that reality is tough and being a good person in spite of that is tougher.
The book and the movie, which entered development and writing about halfway through the series, have different ways of letting Scott come to terms with these facts. In the movie, Wright has Scott acknowledge that he's fighting for himself and "earning the power of self-respect" when he confronts Gideon for the second time. This is slightly more straightforward and certainly happier than the comic's approach. In O'Malley's version, Scott encounters nega-Scott and he finally admits to himself what he's done and how many people he's hurt more than necessary by being willfully oblivious. Being the guilt-ridden penance junkie I am, I think I like this better, but both work well. In either case, Scott comes to terms with the fact that his life is his life, and he can't continue brushing it off if he wants it to turn around, and that's the important part.
So, that's my big reason for not caring a whole lot about whether Ramona appears to be worth fighting for. The other one is simply this: who are we to judge? As a rule, I've generally given up trying to figure out what it is that draws people to each other. We all have our own criteria, and it's hardly our place to judge. Most movies and books try to establish that people are right for one another with grand arm waving and a showiness that just doesn't happen in life. I prefer it when I'm allowed to just trust that these people are making the choice that they feel is best for them in their lives.
Not much else to say on the matter. The other big component is just the referential/stylistic component, which is the upfront draw. Both O'Malley and Wright have a near perfect understanding of homage and parody, and they keep the in-jokes coming at a blinding pace while keeping the bulk of the overt material readily accessible. Especially as a member of the in-group, I can't think of anything to complain about on this end.
Short version: Check out both the movie and the comics. They're not perfect, but you'll still be glad you did.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Dissecting Dr. Horrible
As of right now, you have just under 24 hours to watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog for free at www.drhorrible.com. If you missed it, fret not, it should be available on DVD soon (we'll know how soon within a week, I'm sure). I, for one, will be picking up a copy as soon as humanly possible.
What I am going to talk about are certain elements of the characters that I found interesting and their relevance to the nature of the project as a whole.
Here's the proposition I'm going to make:
Dr. Horrible is the emerging culture of the internet (and online broadcasting). Captain Hammer is the traditional media. Penny is the consumer, being asked to choose between the two. The analogy is far from perfect, but here's my explanation.
Dr. Horrible has two distinct faces. There's, well, Dr. Horrible, who is trying to disrupt the status quo, rule the world, and enter the Evil League of Evil. And there's Billy, the quiet, lonely guy just looking for somebody willing to take the time to know him; but too shy to take the first step. At the end, we see that Dr. Horrible is mostly Billy. He's not misunderstood - he honestly does want to upset the status quo, simply because it's broken. Instead, he's misguided; turning towards the problem outside himself - the one he can "fix" in any number of ways - instead of the one inside - the one he needs to find a solution for. This leads him into emptiness and despair.
Captain Hammer is the definition of superficial. Beyond this, his only goal is his own glorification. He does what is "good" and says what people want to hear (even if sometimes poorly) because he knows that these are the things that will earn him the most praise. The response of the masses to his action is one that says the ends justify not only the means, but also the intent. He picks on Dr. Horrible because he upsets the status quo that honors him, and because most people are comfortable with the status quo and will perceive its defense as right.
Penny is superficially attracted to Captain Hammer because of his ability to do and say what she wants. She's utterly unaware that his entire motivation is his own gain. At the same time, while somewhat wary of Dr. Horrible - even without knowing him as such - she sees the value in him and connects with him on a more human level...she's just not willing to pursue a relationship - something she does with Captain Hammer because, on the surface, he is immediately able to meet her up front needs.
The internet has two faces. There's the internet: home of obsessed with piracy, who sit and work to disrupt the status quo because it doesn't agree with what they feel the world should be (free). And then there's the internet: medium for mass communication and shared expression that, despite its technological nature, is human and connecting. This medium allows artists the ability to genuinely be themselves and connect with fans at a strong, personal level and to derive support from the dedication this relationship instills. This is contrary to the traditional model of being as generally "acceptable" as possible so as to gain a larger, less attached fan base, whom you reach, for a price, through the media at large. As people better understand the way the internet works, this second face becomes more obviously the true one, but that first face still lurks, patently visible to anybody, its motivations threatening to ruin the more personal nature of the internet for everybody.
Big Media exists chiefly to promote its own existence and create profits for those whom are a apart of it. The programming it provides is intended to distract us - be it through despair or amusement - from our other options so that the money keeps rolling in. is constantly trying to manipulate the general public into seeing that first face of the internet as its true identity, make people understand it as an aberration that seeks to destroy this construct with which they are so comfortable, which brings them so much joy. They do this because the internet, by allowing people to form stronger bonds with those from whom they consume, threatens to damage the way they do business if it is used as anything other than a new means of the distribution of their traditional message and programming.
Consumers still love the traditional, Big Media, because it meets their needs at the most basic level. They are beginning to be attracted to the personal level at which internet based content providers can meet their needs, but, by and large, they aren't willing to fully invest themselves in the endeavor because things aren't as reliable, or as cut and dry.
Just as Captain Hammer's continued advances on Penny drive Dr. Horrible towards plots of increased violence against him, the Big Media's ever stronger advances towards the hearts and attention of the typical consumer - and their vilification of the (non-corporate) internet, drives the acts of piracy to greater desperation. And yet, if this piracy succeeds entirely - resulting in the fall of Big Media, it is at the expense of everybody. Without Big Media around, there's nothing new for the pirates to "liberate" except for the independent content creators, whom the pirates will then attack, preventing them from creating anything new; this kills the creative spirit of the internet, leaving it entirely devoid of its second, more powerful character; consumers are left with nobody to consume from; and the pirates, having completed their task, are left with nothing new to do beyond reinventing what they've already done. It's a dire situation for creators and consumers alike, one which leads to the fall of culture.
Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog is, as much as anything else, a warning of what happens if we, the internet culture, allow our love of piracy and "freedom" overcome our desire for stronger, human connections and bold, new, exploits of creative energy. Doing so will certainly hurt Big Media, but at the expense of what truly makes the internet what it is. Joss Whedon and friends are helping to pioneer new ground in the use of the internet AS the internet - not merely a new means of distribution - in a new way of making a profit for creative effort. Please, support Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog; not only because everybody involved deserves to earn something, but because the internet is becoming more than we've let it be in the past, and we need to nurture that.
What I am going to talk about are certain elements of the characters that I found interesting and their relevance to the nature of the project as a whole.
Here's the proposition I'm going to make:
Dr. Horrible is the emerging culture of the internet (and online broadcasting). Captain Hammer is the traditional media. Penny is the consumer, being asked to choose between the two. The analogy is far from perfect, but here's my explanation.
Dr. Horrible has two distinct faces. There's, well, Dr. Horrible, who is trying to disrupt the status quo, rule the world, and enter the Evil League of Evil. And there's Billy, the quiet, lonely guy just looking for somebody willing to take the time to know him; but too shy to take the first step. At the end, we see that Dr. Horrible is mostly Billy. He's not misunderstood - he honestly does want to upset the status quo, simply because it's broken. Instead, he's misguided; turning towards the problem outside himself - the one he can "fix" in any number of ways - instead of the one inside - the one he needs to find a solution for. This leads him into emptiness and despair.
Captain Hammer is the definition of superficial. Beyond this, his only goal is his own glorification. He does what is "good" and says what people want to hear (even if sometimes poorly) because he knows that these are the things that will earn him the most praise. The response of the masses to his action is one that says the ends justify not only the means, but also the intent. He picks on Dr. Horrible because he upsets the status quo that honors him, and because most people are comfortable with the status quo and will perceive its defense as right.
Penny is superficially attracted to Captain Hammer because of his ability to do and say what she wants. She's utterly unaware that his entire motivation is his own gain. At the same time, while somewhat wary of Dr. Horrible - even without knowing him as such - she sees the value in him and connects with him on a more human level...she's just not willing to pursue a relationship - something she does with Captain Hammer because, on the surface, he is immediately able to meet her up front needs.
The internet has two faces. There's the internet: home of obsessed with piracy, who sit and work to disrupt the status quo because it doesn't agree with what they feel the world should be (free). And then there's the internet: medium for mass communication and shared expression that, despite its technological nature, is human and connecting. This medium allows artists the ability to genuinely be themselves and connect with fans at a strong, personal level and to derive support from the dedication this relationship instills. This is contrary to the traditional model of being as generally "acceptable" as possible so as to gain a larger, less attached fan base, whom you reach, for a price, through the media at large. As people better understand the way the internet works, this second face becomes more obviously the true one, but that first face still lurks, patently visible to anybody, its motivations threatening to ruin the more personal nature of the internet for everybody.
Big Media exists chiefly to promote its own existence and create profits for those whom are a apart of it. The programming it provides is intended to distract us - be it through despair or amusement - from our other options so that the money keeps rolling in. is constantly trying to manipulate the general public into seeing that first face of the internet as its true identity, make people understand it as an aberration that seeks to destroy this construct with which they are so comfortable, which brings them so much joy. They do this because the internet, by allowing people to form stronger bonds with those from whom they consume, threatens to damage the way they do business if it is used as anything other than a new means of the distribution of their traditional message and programming.
Consumers still love the traditional, Big Media, because it meets their needs at the most basic level. They are beginning to be attracted to the personal level at which internet based content providers can meet their needs, but, by and large, they aren't willing to fully invest themselves in the endeavor because things aren't as reliable, or as cut and dry.
Just as Captain Hammer's continued advances on Penny drive Dr. Horrible towards plots of increased violence against him, the Big Media's ever stronger advances towards the hearts and attention of the typical consumer - and their vilification of the (non-corporate) internet, drives the acts of piracy to greater desperation. And yet, if this piracy succeeds entirely - resulting in the fall of Big Media, it is at the expense of everybody. Without Big Media around, there's nothing new for the pirates to "liberate" except for the independent content creators, whom the pirates will then attack, preventing them from creating anything new; this kills the creative spirit of the internet, leaving it entirely devoid of its second, more powerful character; consumers are left with nobody to consume from; and the pirates, having completed their task, are left with nothing new to do beyond reinventing what they've already done. It's a dire situation for creators and consumers alike, one which leads to the fall of culture.
Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog is, as much as anything else, a warning of what happens if we, the internet culture, allow our love of piracy and "freedom" overcome our desire for stronger, human connections and bold, new, exploits of creative energy. Doing so will certainly hurt Big Media, but at the expense of what truly makes the internet what it is. Joss Whedon and friends are helping to pioneer new ground in the use of the internet AS the internet - not merely a new means of distribution - in a new way of making a profit for creative effort. Please, support Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog; not only because everybody involved deserves to earn something, but because the internet is becoming more than we've let it be in the past, and we need to nurture that.
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