NFL 2014 Off-Season Thread

Bob Book_sl said:

The curse of JFF has begun. Lee went down against Zach Martin, the 1st round pick the Cowboys should have used on JFF.

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This is by far the stupidest shit ive heard in quite some time and I read the politics thread that Merlin frequently post in.

jooka_sl said:

Gotta suck to be a rookie and take out your best defensive player in a no contact practice.

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Dallas as an organization loses one of their best players and will probably be the one to explain how a guy could tear an ACL in a "no contact" practice. Don't blame the rookie guy...given Lee's history he should have been wearing one of the red QB jerseys anyway. He's looking at missing like 30+ games in 3 years now.

Meanwhile in Miami....

Dolphins Scout Says He Was Fired For Staying Home To Care For Sick Wife

Pretty fucked up if this is true.

The intent-to-initiate-litigation letter also states the Dolphins began excluding cystic fibrosis medications from their health care when revamping their insurance offerings in April. Harr told FOX Sports 1 that the cost of one prescription skyrocketed from $10 to $3,000 per pill under the new policy.

"It is our understanding that Cystic Fibrosis was the*only*terminal medical condition singled out," the letter states. "This drastic reduction in health care benefits jeopardized JoAnne Sullivan's ability to afford her pharmaceuticals, shifting an exorbitant financial burden on the Sullivans."


Stephen Ross must be jealous of all the negative press Donald Sterling's been getting.

The insurance part is fucked up. Him getting fired is not.

shrug

Foggy_sl said:

The insurance part is fucked up. Him getting fired is not.

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Almost with you here on the second part. If that was the only reason he was fired, and there's nothing documented to indicate the presence of other reasons, then that too is also fucked up. Of course, Florida is a shithole of a state so they probably have laws in place to allow employers to fire without cause.

I want to say they'll settle out of court but that organization is so fucked up I can see them dragging it out for no other reason than "just because".

There are still things you can't be fired for, regardless of state law. Your wife's cystic fibrosis is one of those things.

moontayle_sl said:

Almost with you here on the second part. If that was the only reason he was fired, and there's nothing documented to indicate the presence of other reasons, then that too is also fucked up. Of course, Florida is a shithole of a state so they probably have laws in place to allow employers to fire without cause.

I want to say they'll settle out of court but that organization is so fucked up I can see them dragging it out for no other reason than "just because".

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Laws in place to allow employers to fire without cause, like, you know, most states? He couldn't consistently work from the office, that is a legit reason for a new boss to fire an employee. It sucks, it isn't fair, and it is cruel, but I understand it.

He wasn't fired for his wife having cystic fibrosis. He was fired because he could not perform his duties in a manner and place satisfactory to his employer.

I'm more inclined to believe he was fired for being a shitty scout. The circumstances of his employment (through three previous GMs) and his wife's condition are just unfortunate additional facets that are going to be focused on instead of that first thing..

moontayle_sl said:

I'm more inclined to believe he was fired for being a shitty scout. The circumstances of his employment (through three previous GMs) and his wife's condition are just unfortunate additional facets that are going to be focused on instead of that first thing..

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Are you trying to imply that Miami might have less than adequate scouting? Come on, look at all those stellar first round draft picks in recent years like Ted Ginn Jr, Mo' Pouncey, and Ryan Tannehill. Or Dion Jordan who was the #3 overall pick last year, and top DE, who got them a whopping 2 sacks and 19 tackles in his first full season.(Compared to Ezekial Ansah who was taken 2 spots lower, thought to be a HUGE project who wasn't refined enough to start anytime soon, and got 8 sacks in his rookie year)

That whole franchise is a dumpster fire right now. Which pains me, because they are my 2nd favorite team and Dan Marino was my hero as a kid, my favorite player of all time. But goddamned the Dolphins suck at drafting. Marino covered up a lot of flaws in the franchise back in the 90s when the decline started(after their heyday in the 70s and 80s), but they've been making really bad draft picks for decades now. The good 1st round picks they have made in the last 30 years since Marino can be counted on 1 hand.List of Miami Dolphins first-round draft picks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marino, Webb was good, McDuffie was outstanding, Bowens was good, Avery was good, Milner was a great pickup sadly his career was cut short after the trade, Carey, Jake Long, Vontae Davis, Jared Odrick, Dion Jordan, Mike Pouncey, not Maurkice. Tannehill, all great pikcups. Not sure what you're getting at here.

Jordan under performed last year due to the defensive scheme and NOT actually getting starts. DJ's going to be awesome this year.

As far as the news story goes, oh well. Guy worked literally 4 hours away from the Miami facility (Edgewater) and that wasn't good for the new boss. It's unfortunate that his wife is sick, but people deal with this kind of stuff everyday, the guy and his lawyer are obviously trying to get off the negative presence that Miami has in the news lately to try and get a settlement from them. Why else would his lawyer even mention the bullying shit? This is literally NON-NEWS, it's just people being hungry for drama and football in the offseason.

While I'd argue against McDuffie being great(1 1000yd season in 8 years in the league, but he was ok, regularly getting 700-900yds and 6-8 TDs) , Bowens was good, Avery was shit(traded after 1 year and in the CFL by year 3), Yatil Grean was a disaster, no 1st round pick in 4 out of 5 years in one stretch there is a disaster, Brown was an above-average back for 3 or 4 years there, etc.

But honestly, over that 30 year period, you're looking at 2 HOF calibur players (Marino in 84 and Webb in 90), one very good pro-bowler(Troy Vincent in 92) and then jack and shit for about 15 years until 2007 and Jake Long.

Its not a good track record. They basically went a decade and a half with no really good 1st round picks, just a couple "above average" guys mixed in there that were decent for a few years.

Heck, my beloved Chiefs, who are also known as somewhat of a drafting trainwreck, at least pulled down Neil Smith, Derrick Thomas, Tony Gonzalez, Dale Carter, Derrick Johnson and Tamba Hali during roughly that same period from the early 90s to late 2000s (All Pro-bowlers, 2 certain HOFers in there)

I don't think anyone knew Yatil was made of paper, he got hurt what the first day of practice, out for season and then next season tore his ACL in spring again. I don't think the point of the draft is to try and collect as many HOF players as you can, it's finding the man that's best suited for the job that needs addressed and they've adequately done that in the recent years aside from stupid pickups like TGJr.

It's no mystery that Miami has been run by morons since the day Don Shula left, but I don't think it's as bad as some of the other organizations in the league.

And, I know you haven't forgetten, the Chiefs picked Todd Blackledge over Marino and Jim Kelly in the '83 draft. But they did pick Albert Lewis that year.