A.L. Central Smack 2015

[da55bums]

Looks like the Yankees are taking a page from the Royals, stock up the bullpen, Yankees look insaine after 6 if they keep em all.

 

[MiamiVice]

Looks like the Yankees are taking a page from the Royals, stock up the bullpen, Yankees look insaine after 6 if they keep em all.

What does insaine mean?

 

[dougplayer]

Yep. Stafford fault Caldwell defense on rodgers hail mary.was to play for the lateral. ..and Stafford fault he never ever had a running game. Stafford fault the O Line horse crap. All his fault

 

[dougplayer]

Just saying. Stafford razor sharp 2nd half. Lot of teams would take him off our hands. Ol Jim bob coot er let him get back to being a star

 

[dougplayer]

Yankees just got a lot better. Nice trade

 

[da55bums]

Yankees just got a lot better. Nice trade

Toronto's offense, Yanks- bullpen and Texas w/Hamels, Darvish will step up the post season

 

[mr.hockey4242]

Wild stomp the wings.

Is anyone surprised?

I know Doug isn't. He crunches the numbers.

 

[Howie115]

Just saying. Stafford razor sharp 2nd half. Lot of teams would take him off our hands. Ol Jim bob coot er let him get back to being a star

Stafford's second-half stats are being built against crummy, injury-depleted teams. You can cherry-pick stats a la Bums, or you can look at the whole: 2-28 against winning teams coming into 2015, 1-7 against winning teams this year. 3-35 overall.

 

[MiamiVice]

Stafford's second-half stats are being built against crummy, injury-depleted teams. You can cherry-pick stats a la Bums, or you can look at the whole: 2-28 against winning teams coming into 2015, 1-7 against winning teams this year. 3-35 overall.

I would take Stafford over just about every QB in the NFL not named Rogers/Brady/Wilson/ right now... Honestly... its not even a discussion. Anyone that says they would rather have Teddy Bridgewater over Stafford... or Ryan Fitzpatrick... They are nuts... The idea of even remotely thinking about cutting Stafford was retarded.. who are they going to replace him with? A rookie? This years draft class of QB's is shit. A free agent? No team lets a legit QB go... Like it or not the Lions are either going to win with Stafford or lose with him.. because he is the best QB they can have for next year.. and easily could be an MVP type player if the oline and defense does their part.

 

[Howie115]

I would take Stafford over just about every QB in the NFL not named Rogers/Brady/Wilson/ right now... Honestly... its not even a discussion. Anyone that says they would rather have Teddy Bridgewater over Stafford... or Ryan Fitzpatrick... They are nuts... Honestly.. The idea of even remotely thinking about cutting Stafford is retarded.. who are they going to replace him with? A rookie? This years draft class of QB's is shit. A free agent? No team lets a legit QB go... Like it or not the Lions are either going to win with Stafford or lose with him.. because he is the best QB they can have for next year.. and easily could be an MVP type player if the oline and defense does their part.

No argument. "Best of the Rest" means he is the best QB the Lions can possibly have next year. I was just providing context to dougie's "razor sharp" comment. The teams the Lions have played in that small window are mostly horseshit, with injury-depleted defenses. Stafford's need to find secondary receivers against these teams (which he still sucks at) is minimal. Thus, he has looked like a superstar.

 

[MiamiVice]

No argument. "Best of the Rest" means he is the best QB the Lions can possibly have next year. I was just providing context to dougie's "razor sharp" comment. The teams the Lions have played in that small window are mostly horseshit, with injury-depleted defenses. Stafford's need to find secondary receivers against these teams (which he still sucks at) is minimal. Thus, he has looked like a superstar.

I honestly think that the Lions can be a VERY good team next year if they fix their offensive line and add depth to the d line. They don't need major overhauls.. they just need depth and an upgrade at RT. Their defense is still solid and their offense has all the weapons it needs to compete. I think Stafford would be viewed much differently if he had a deep run in the playoffs once or twice. I am not even going to suggest a Superbowl.. because I have already come to terms with the fact the Lions are never going to win one... The NFL won't let it happen. After all the BS blown calls that have went against the Lions in the last 2 seasons its pretty obvious the NFL doesn't want it. The NFL literally handed the Lions 2 losses this year by means of last second calls from the refs that leave anyone that is not a Seattle or Green Bay fan just shaking their head in disbelief. Blown calls are one thing.. but picking up a flag on what was an obvious pass interference or not throwing a flag when the ref is right there watching a player purposefully bat a fumble out of bounds.. I can see how the ref could be sold on rogers acting job on the other BS call.. but the the first two mentioned were not even close. a professional ref should not EVER blow those calls... unless they are directed to turn a games outcome...

 

[MiamiVice]

You can't even call Stafford best of the rest.. The guy is a top 5 QB in the NFL at this point. Name 6 QB's you would rather have than him... Honestly. I would take Stafford over every single QB in the NFL not named Brady/Rogers/Wilson and you could even argue for him over Rogers and Wilson at this point because he is younger than Rogers and has more natural talent than Wilson. Even with the poor start to the season.. He is still rated in the top 10 in every major stat... You can easily argue he is having a better season than Rogers is. If the Lions were not screwed out of the 2 wins... and had actual playoff hopes still... People would be talking about Stafford as an MVP candidate.. and he most certainly had NOTHING to do with the loss in Seattle or to Green Bay. In fact.. in the loss to Green Bay he totally out played Rogers. I get the loses to winning teams stat.. but W's are team stats... The Lions this season were flawed from the get go on both o line and d line. That isn't Staffords fault.. and you can't expect him to lead the team to victory against good defenses when his line sucks like da55bums sucks poles on the weekend.

 

[Howie115]

You can't even call Stafford best of the rest.. The guy is a top 5 QB in the NFL at this point.

I know statistics can lie, but Stafford was about 20th in QB rating last year, and somewhere around 17th in completion percentage. In his two 4900+ yardage seasons, he threw an NFL-record number of pass attempts. To his credit, he has moved up to 10th among qualifiers in Efficiency Rating this year, and 7th in completion percentage. And over his last two seasons, his TD/INT ratios have greatly improved. (22/12 last year, 29/13 this year.)

While I'll allow that he's never had a strong running game, and has been sacked a lot, some of those sacks are on him. Yes, his O-lines have not been very good, but there are also many occasions where he can't pick up second/third options quickly enough and holds onto the ball too long.

He's above-average. Top 5 is a stretch. Besides Brady/Wilson/Rodgers, Carson Palmer, Andy Dalton, Drew Brees, Cam Newton and even Kirk Cousins are having better years, statistically. Until this year, Philip Rivers has consistently out-performed Stafford. The only reason one might take Stafford today over Palmer, Brees or Rivers is his age.

 

[MiamiVice]

I know statistics can lie, but Stafford was about 20th in QB rating last year, and somewhere around 17th in completion percentage. In his two 4900+ yardage seasons, he threw an NFL-record number of pass attempts. To his credit, he has moved up to 10th among qualifiers in Efficiency Rating this year, and 7th in completion percentage. And over his last two seasons, his TD/INT ratios have greatly improved. (22/12 last year, 29/13 this year.)

While I'll allow that he's never had a strong running game, and has been sacked a lot, some of those sacks are on him. Yes, his O-lines have not been very good, but there are also many occasions where he can't pick up second/third options quickly enough and holds onto the ball too long.

He's above-average. Top 5 is a stretch. Besides Brady/Wilson/Rodgers, Carson Palmer, Andy Dalton, Drew Brees, Cam Newton and even Kirk Cousins are having better years, statistically. Until this year, Philip Rivers has consistently out-performed Stafford. The only reason one might take Stafford today over Palmer, Brees or Rivers is his age.

Stafford is still just 27 years old.. You really have to take that into consideration.. He isn't really even in his prime years yet. Cousins is the same age as Stafford is and only has 4 years in the NFL.. Stafford has 7. Heck.. Even Rogers didn't really become elite until he was 26/27 years old. Tom Brady didn't start having elite level stats until his late 20's either... There is a lot of development left in Stafford. There isn't a QB in the history of the NFL that can say they were better at the age of 27 than they were in their early 30's decision making wise.

 

[Howie115]

There is a lot of development left in Stafford. There isn't a QB in the history of the NFL that can say they were better at the age of 27 than they were in their early 30's decision making wise.

Heh.... and Carson Palmer would be the poster child for that statement. He was pretty much run out of town in Cincinnati when he was 30. Now at age 36, he's having a career year. Could be this year's Rich Gannon.

 

[MiamiVice]

I know statistics can lie, but Stafford was about 20th in QB rating last year, and somewhere around 17th in completion percentage. In his two 4900+ yardage seasons, he threw an NFL-record number of pass attempts. To his credit, he has moved up to 10th among qualifiers in Efficiency Rating this year, and 7th in completion percentage. And over his last two seasons, his TD/INT ratios have greatly improved. (22/12 last year, 29/13 this year.)

While I'll allow that he's never had a strong running game, and has been sacked a lot, some of those sacks are on him. Yes, his O-lines have not been very good, but there are also many occasions where he can't pick up second/third options quickly enough and holds onto the ball too long.

He's above-average. Top 5 is a stretch. Besides Brady/Wilson/Rodgers, Carson Palmer, Andy Dalton, Drew Brees, Cam Newton and even Kirk Cousins are having better years, statistically. Until this year, Philip Rivers has consistently out-performed Stafford. The only reason one might take Stafford today over Palmer, Brees or Rivers is his age.

I would give you Carson Palmer if he wasn't always injured... Andy Dalton is in no way better than Stafford... Brees is past his prime, Cousins has less than a full season of play under his belt at the level he has been at.. and I don't know many people that think he will sustain it. I doubt many people would take Cousins over Stafford in NFL front offices. Cam Newton is an enigma... I am not sold on him being able to sustain his current stats either.. the guy puts his body through way to much. I wouldn't be surprised if Cam Newton isn't even a starter in 2 or 3 years... because once he loses his legs.. he isn't going to beat many teams with his decision making on throws.. Cam Newton is having a monster season that is MVP caliber and Staffords stats are just about as good or better in many categories.

 

[MiamiVice]

Heh.... and Carson Palmer would be the poster child for that statement. He was pretty much run out of town in Cincinnati when he was 30. Now at age 36, he's having a career year. Could be this year's Rich Gannon.

Yeah.. I could see Stafford being very similar... He will age well. I could see Stafford playing well into his late 30's if he can get behind a line that doesn't stink. If the Lions were smart they would extend Stafford now and lower his next years salary and get him under contract until he is 35 or so... You aren't going to just go out and find a QB of his caliber very easy. There are about 20+ teams that would literally do anything for a QB of his caliber... Heck.. I bet Jerry Jones would take it in the ass with a strap on from old lady ford if he could have Stafford next year.

 

[MiamiVice]

Cam Newton to me is like Donte Culpepper. He isn't going to age well.

 

[Howie115]

Yeah.. I could see Stafford being very similar...

Palmer played 7 seasons as a starter in Cinci, and those seasons look eerily similar to Stafford's... Passer ratings mostly in the 80s, a couple of 20 INT seasons, and two playoff games -- both losses.

 

[MiamiVice]

Here is a fun fact I bet nobody can believe... Matt Hasellbeck is tied with Terry Bradshaw for 31st place on the all time TD list... and has thrown more than Kurt Warner, Phil Simms, Bob Griese, Troy Aikmen, Bart Starr, and numerous other HOFers...There are 23 QB's in the HOF from the Superbowl era... and Matt Hasellbeck has more career TD's than 10 of them.

Other fun fact... Stafford only needs 5 more TD's to pass Troy Aikmen in career TD's...