NFL Off-season review

[michaelm]

Originally Posted by Vinny

Historically Ourlads has put out one of the best pre-draft guides for NFL fans year-in-year-out. How do you call a mock laughable in March? Unless you can see the future all mocks are questionable and all will change right up to the real draft. I'm not rendering an opinion on this article, but they have a good track record despite what you or others think.

I will admit that I may have painted too broad of a stroke in my earlier post regarding ourlads mocks being laughable. When I have time I will go back and dig up some of the analysis by ourlads that I found fault with. Until such a time as I provide specific evidence, I will refrain from bashing...
I do have a question for you though, Vinny...

Would you agree with this statement...?
and I quote
"but they are paying a lot of upfront money for a linebacker who has no track record as a true playmaker."

Unless I have completely misread the situation, the Texans will pay around 2.5 mil for Greenwood's services in year one. IMO, that in no way qualifies for 'a lot of upfront money'.
To me, this one statement places DeLucia's entire analysis squarely in the 'in error' category. He bases the validity of the Greenwood signing on faulty logic, or actually on an untruth...
try as I might, I just cannot see where people are saying we over paid for Greenwood. He is an improvement to our LB corps, without doubt(at least to me). His contract is not unreasonable figuring that he will most likely never see the backloaded portion of his contract which is, admitedly, pretty substantial...

[aj.]

Ourlads print draft guides have been second to none - at least the ones I've received the last two years. But since the new admin took over, some things have gone down hill. Their monthly newsletters - mainly their scouting reports from the Bowls and pre combine musings - have been terrible. That's not necessarily a reflection on the quality of their scouting, but more on who's composing/presenting the material to consumers. It's basically unreadable. We are less than two weeks from the draft and the 2005 Draft Guide still hasn't been published - at least I haven't received mine. In past years, we would get those in late March. I'm just about ready to pull the plug on those guys as a subscriber.

Their online depth charts remain their best thing going. Their top 64 seems reasonable and is a nice addition to their website. It's possible that under their new admin that they are putting more emphasis to their online products than their paper products. Shonka has been anything but enlightening during his radio interviews with John and Lance. In his last appearance they had to go to break because he was fumbling around looking for his notes while trying to answer a question on Texans draft needs. Now if you were going to be on a sports talk radio show in Houston, wouldn't it be smart to have your Texans draft cheat sheet handy?

I'm not aware of any special insight that DeLucia has on Greenwood so that falls into the category of one person's opinion as far as I'm concerned.

As far as paying Greenwood "a lot of upfront money," his cap figure this year is $1.94 million which is less than what Foreman was scheduled to make this season. Greenwood's base is 540k this year.

Next year, Greenwood's cap figure (base + pro rata s/b only) is $3.85 and the year after that, it's $4.7 which is still significantly less than what Sharper made in '03 and '04.

Contrary to opinions on this board and elsewhere, I don't think it's a stretch to think that Greenwood can equal Sharper's performance on the field. Aside from one sequence I recall in the Raiders game was Sharper a big "playmaker" last season? He was involved in a lot of plays and piled up tackling numbers because that's what inside linebackers do in the 3-4. He was durable and consistent and to his credit, he put himself in the right position to make those tackles, but I don't think it's as out of the question as some people think to see Greenwood equal Sharper's "playmaking" ability.

Obviously at some point, whether it was the '03 opener or elsewhere, Capers and Co. saw something they really liked in Greenwood. I think what they see is a smart player - a hard worker, a good tackler and a good pursue and cover guy who consistently puts himself in the right position to make plays. If he's faster/quicker than Sharper, as we are hearing, then that's a bonus.

If the season were to start today, Wong would be at the Buc and Greenwood at the Mac, and Peek at the weakside outside. But, things can and do change.

[beerlover]

Originally Posted by aj.

Ourlads print draft guides have been second to none - at least the ones I've received the last two years. But since the new admin took over, some things have gone down hill. Their monthly newsletters - mainly their scouting reports from the Bowls and pre combine musings - have been terrible. That's not necessarily a reflection on the quality of their scouting, but more on who's composing/presenting the material to consumers. It's basically unreadable. We are less than two weeks from the draft and the 2005 Draft Guide still hasn't been published - at least I haven't received mine. In past years, we would get those in late March. I'm just about ready to pull the plug on those guys as a subscriber.

should be arriving in the mail either today or tomorrow

Their online depth charts remain their best thing going. Their top 64 seems reasonable and is a nice addition to their website. It's possible that under their new admin that they are putting more emphasis to their online products than their paper products. Shonka has been anything but enlightening during his radio interviews with John and Lance. In his last appearance they had to go to break because he was fumbling around looking for his notes while trying to answer a question on Texans draft needs. Now if you were going to be on a sports talk radio show in Houston, wouldn't it be smart to have your Texans draft cheat sheet handy?

they also have a nice national forum to interact with fans of other teams & get direct answears from the experts, kinda like you and Vinny

http://ourlads.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=212

I'm not aware of any special insight that DeLucia has on Greenwood so that falls into the category of one person's opinion as far as I'm concerned.

As far as paying Greenwood "a lot of upfront money," his cap figure this year is $1.94 million which is less than what Foreman was scheduled to make this season. Greenwood's base is 540k this year.

Next year, Greenwood's cap figure (base + pro rata s/b only) is $3.85 and the year after that, it's $4.7 which is still significantly less than what Sharper made in '03 and '04.

Contrary to opinions on this board and elsewhere, I don't think it's a stretch to think that Greenwood can equal Sharper's performance on the field. Aside from one sequence I recall in the Raiders game was Sharper a big "playmaker" last season? He was involved in a lot of plays and piled up tackling numbers because that's what inside linebackers do in the 3-4. He was durable and consistent and to his credit, he put himself in the right position to make those tackles, but I don't think it's as out of the question as some people think to see Greenwood equal Sharper's "playmaking" ability.

Obviously at some point, whether it was the '03 opener or elsewhere, Capers and Co. saw something they really liked in Greenwood. I think what they see is a smart player - a hard worker, a good tackler and a good pursue and cover guy who consistently puts himself in the right position to make plays. If he's faster/quicker than Sharper, as we are hearing, then that's a bonus.

If the season were to start today, Wong would be at the Buc and Greenwood at the Mac, and Peek at the weakside outside. But, things can and do change.

The Texans linebackers should be set, it will be very interesting to see Peek come of the corner on Sundays and Greenwood stuffing the middle. But the Texans still need to strengthen the OL & this should be the focus of the draft.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by aj.

As far as paying Greenwood "a lot of upfront money," his cap figure this year is $1.94 million which is less than what Foreman was scheduled to make this season. Greenwood's base is 540k this year.
Next year, Greenwood's cap figure (base + pro rata s/b only) is $3.85 and the year after that, it's $4.7 which is still significantly less than what Sharper made in '03 and '04.

Good point. We should not confuse aggregate contract compensation (of which bonus money is a part as I understand it) which is the basis for cap
amortization with "upfront money". Big Bob McNair has gobs and gobs of money and cash flow is really not an issue for him (or most NFL owners for
that matter). It's when a player's contract is prematurely terminated (for reference see Jamie Sharper, former LB with the Houston Texans), that the
gradual, straight-line amortization of this "upfront money" ceases and accelerates for amortization purposes into the current year. The write off or cap hit for the unamortized portion of the "upfront payments" is taken in the current year while most other components of the contract compensation(unguaranted) of the player who was cut escape amortization against team cap. Cap constraints are of course an issue for McNair and
all NFL owners.