1802

I think it’s a bit tough to use raw interceptions as a very meaningful stat. I mean, obviously all interceptions are bad, but I think you really need to account for all the interceptions because the WR misread the coverage and ran the wrong hot read route, interceptions that were right on target but the WR deflected it up for a pick. On top of that, there’s the f’-it we’re down two scores let’s try and cram the ball into coverage which surely aren’t as bad as a first quarter red zone pick or whatever since the team is going for high risk high reward efforts there.

I’m a huge stats person as far as evaluating players, but it’s just so hard to apply them to the NFL without trying to contextualize the situations.

1803

Yeah, almost all aggregate NFL stats without context are somewhat useless.

1804

I think in order to pretend they’re useful, you mostly you just count on the numbers washing out some of the situational randomness, assuming that every time there’s a int because of a stupid WR mistake, there’s an equivalent WR heroic catch of a poorly thrown ball. Not that this is necessarily, or even likely to be true.

Of course, then you also start to get into sample size problems.

1805

Hasn’t been mentioned yet: Saints fire Steve Spagnuolo and their secondary coach.

1806

Yeah, the sample size problem is its own issue. Although I do think that starting a full season probably gives you enough of a sample size to infer some reasonably strong conclusions.

1807

I wonder if the Giants will hire him back as defensive coordinator. Perry Fewell had moments of brilliance but the defense seems to have regressed and was a major issue all season long.

1808

I hate to break up the riveting Flacco discussion, but the Cowboys have hired Derek Dooley as the WR coach. Seriously guys, am I on the Truman Show or being filmed for some show like Punked? It’s like Jerry Jones knows me personally and is hiring and firing people specifically to make my head explode.

1809

By the way, contrary to some, I liked the Flacco discussion. Exactly what a football thread should be in my opinion.

1810

Do you really want a guy that just lead the worst defense in history? There were obviously extenuating circumstances, like a complete lack of true talent on the defense, but still it has to be a bit of a mark against the guy. New Orleans’ defensive numbers were mind mindbogglingly bad this season. Even if you adjust for offenses faced 440.1 yards per game and 6.5 yards per play just do not look good.

1811

Pro Bowl what what!

…

Seriously does anyone watch that shit? The NFL fanbase deserves something better. It needs to die. The local afternoon sports talk drive time guy here suggested an awards show as an alternative, and I have to agree with him. I would be way more likely to watch that. I fucking love football but the pro bowl, to me, is unwatchable.

1812

I wouldn’t watch an award show either. I would, however, watch a skills competition of some kind. I can remember enjoying watching some kind of QB skills competition in the offseason when I was younger. I guess the problem is that I don’t have any idea what you’d do for players at other positions.

1813

It is somewhat baffling. The Giants have always been a defense first team and Spagnuolo’s defense was completely dominant when he was with the Giants. Not all defensive coordinators can make the leap to head coach but I had forgotten that he was behind New Orleans’ disastrous defense this season.

Meanwhile, Perry Fewell had the 7th best defense in the league two seasons ago and was a large part of the reason they won the Superbowl last season (though there were cracks beginning to show) and this season they were ranked among the league’s worst.

Fewell is apparently in no danger and it sounds like Spagnuolo will end up in Philly.

That would be fun but, yeah, it gets a little dull once you’re past QB. Victor Cruz catching bowling balls and big screen TVs? Jason Pierre Paul wrestling a steer to the ground?

1814

Well shit I’d watch a kick-off between the top kickers in the league. Start at the 55, you get two shots to make it. Everyone who makes it moves back 3 yards. They also used to do a sideline to sideline sprint to see who was the fastest in the league and an obstacle course for receivers to see who was the best route runner. I haven’t seen them do the skills competition in years though. I dunno what happened to it.

I really like the NHL skills competition as well, but I haven’t seen it in a while.

1815

That’s a great idea. They could do it in Hawaii so no one has to lose their mid-winter island junket, and it would be something for the players who aren’t on a Super Bowl team to compete in. I agree with Penny, the NHL skills competition is the much better part of their all-star festivities. The NFL could do a lot worse than to emulate one of the very few fan-focused things the NHL does better.

1816

There are a lot of fun things you could do with a skills contest. You could have tests of strength, speed, and agility. QBs and receivers and kickers could do skill tests. I’d like to know which QB has the strongest arm, who the fastest player in the NFL is, which RB can take a handoff and high jump the highest to get into the end zone.

And they could even get a bit goofy, too. How about a pie-eating contest? A go-kart race? A Madden tournament?

All I know is I don’t bother to watch the Pro-Bowl. I’d be much more likely to tune in and watch the players do something else.

1817

I wonder if the skills contest would continue to be interesting year-to-year. They’d need to invent new challenges each year probably to keep it fresh, since you’re getting a lot of the same talent in the Pro Bowl in consecutive years.

But yeah, if you’re going that direction, who cares if the challenges are even football related? Just make it the Battle of the (NFL) Network Stars.

The real exciting thing is the sponsorship opportunities. Like the Campbell’s Chunky Soup soup-eating contest, and the Cialis Presents: The Throw a Football Through a Tire Challenge.

1818

The Toyota Tundra Truck Pull!
Viagra Presents: Legends of the Game Pro Bowl Marathon!
The NFL Cheerleaders Fitness Challenge! Presented by Shake Weight.

1819

Madden 2-minute drill contest. Let’s see how many dumb linemen are better at clock management than head coaches!

Back to Flacco talk: apparently he wants Drew Brees level money, and his people are convinced he’s playing “better than Peyton Manning.” lolwut? What’s especially amusing is that, if the Ravens win on Sunday, I can see him getting that money. Which would be effing hilarious.

1820

Damn. I like Flacco but he’s certainly not worth that kind of money yet. Not sure what others are making but franchise tag is $14 something mil. So I could see $15-17 mil and that’s still overpaying him imo. But then a good QB is hard to come by in this league and even bad QBs are getting paid $10 mil plus.

1821

I think Flacco will get something around 15 mil a season.

As for pro-bowl alternatives, yeah anything is better than what we have. A skills contest would be fine, something like the combine but with the best of the best. I do think an awards show would be entertaining, something like the espys (which I dont watch), but focused on the NFL. I dont know that I would watch it but its more appealing to me than what they got going currently. Something else I have heard mentioned, is a rookies vs veterans game. While probably suffering from a lot of what makes the pro bowl sucks, I think it would be more exciting as the rookies would probably drive the vets to do more than they would normally do in a pro-bowl type game. I know at some point way back when there used to be something like a college AP team vs the NFL champion team. Even that would be better than what we got.