Promote your business or product on 700level.com. For
more information about advertising with us CLICK HERE!

Bunkley? Let's wait and see.

Akers is solid.

Dawk is a has been (kills me to say it)

Oh, and f-dallas, I'm sure this was unintentional, but I should point out that you forget to include the Schoboat.

I usually put him in a third category separate from Good and great.

Transcendent.

In all seriousness, the Schoboat is about what they thought they were getting. I still can't believe how elated they were to sign him, though. You would have thought they talked Sanders out of retirement with all the Schoboat gushing at that time.

That was the best offseason ever, simply for the legendary Spuds broadcast

Bunkley? Let's wait and see.

Akers is solid.

Dawk is a has been (kills me to say it)

Dawk was an All-Pro last season and has played 1 entire game this year. While I agree he's near the end of the road, I don't think he's been on the field long enough for us to see.

With Bunkley, it might be early, but the run defense has been vastly, vastly improved and no one is running up the middle. Patterson was there last year. Gaither was there last year. I'm just deducing that he must be doing a really good job against the run based on the improvement...particularly in the middle.

That was the best offseason ever, simply for the legendary Spuds broadcast

Was that the Randel el year? God...that was good.

"WHAT??!!??!"

That was Randle-El AND Bentley.

Need to find that clip - good fun without breaking the law.

Patterson was there last year. Gaither was there last year. I'm just deducing that he must be doing a really good job against the run based on the improvement...particularly in the middle.

Or the team misses Trot's "guess harder" philosophy.

Let's not forget that Dhani Jones (who I always picture when I hear "He's the Greatest Dancer") was getting trucked on the strong side.

And THAT was a Reid failure.

Or the team misses Trot's "guess harder" philosophy.

Let's not forget that Dhani Jones (who I always picture when I hear "He's the Greatest Dancer") was getting trucked on the strong side.

No doubt. Trot's "guess harder" process of breaking down a play was hurting them, but having Walker in his lap wasn't helping him or Gaither last year.

The front 7 has been very good against the run this year (Spikes, Gocong, and Cole included).

Meanwhile, the back four haven't been, according to Greg Cosell last night.

He said that he wasn't surprised as to why the secondary looked so bad against Dallas because they were quite bad against the Vikings - their QB just couldn't take advantage of it. The timing routes they were using were open all over the place.

Lito can't stay healthy for more than 3 weeks at a time, Kingsford James hasn't looked good, and it'll be a bloodbath when Brady takes them on - JJ may decide to blitz 11.

FD

I guess it depends on your definition of good. I agree more with Eckel. I don't get 10 good players. By my defintion:
-must be producing at a level that other teams would want you if you were a free agent
- must not be in major decline or a work in progress

- Runyan - OK
- Tra - fits a solid category
- McNabb - OK, but still does not quite fit my definition
- Cole - OK, given his play lately
- Lito - when healthy, I agree
- Sheldon - OK
- Dawk - not now, last year, but not now
- Westbrook - no brainer
- Patterson - work in progress
- Bunkley - no. maybe work in progress
- Akers - come on, A KICKER? you are stretching when you name a kicker
- Andrews - OK
- Jackson - solid
- Herremans - work in progress

thats maybe 7. this team has a lot of work in progress/potential good to great players. they are not there now, though.

Well it all comes down to you're definition of a "good" player.

If I'm defining it in my head, it's probably:

"Would this player start on most teams"

Tra would start on about 20 teams in the NFL and is probably one of the top 5 LTs in the game. I think people really underestimate how good he is because of his early career struggles and false starts later, but they forget that he's been completely lights out as a pass blocker for about 7 years, has been unconscious for the last 3 or 4, and has cleaned up the false stats (which LT are prone to anyway).

Of course, Tra was a Rhodes guy so that still doesn't help Heckert, Reid, or Modrak.

JJ may decide to blitz 11.

Sweet. Who hasn't used a goal line stance in a non-gl situation in Madden?

Akers would have made the "good list" three years ago, but not now. He's nowhere near an elite kicker. He could get a job on a team that really needed a kicker, but he's done nothing this season or last to warrant any sort of praise, unless you get excited by kickoffs that travel to the 15-yard line.

I'm also sick of announcers, Al Michaels being chiefly among them, hyping up the fact that Akers is as dependable as they come, when that's no longer true.

Talon, Seth and I were speaking about that before the game on Sunday.

The guy bitches about wind, turf, the holder......blah blah blah bitch

Yup. Exactly.

He's far from elite and Id say he's at the bottom of the "mediocre tier".

Not dependable.

Cites too many other reasons to mask the fact that since his injury, the PK with the Cory Simon trunk, just doesn't have it anylonger.

He's dependable when you don't need to depend on him.

It'd be one thing if he was Vinitieri, but he's the sole reason why Neckbeard's career lasted longer than it should have.

And Mike Miss's verbal sparring with him was probably his only contribution to talk-radio.

Akers IS dependable everywhere except the Meadowlands. He's also 15-15 inside 40 this year.

He has definitely lost some leg though. No way would the Eagles have punted from the 36 (like they did Sunday) 2 years ago.

I was really bitching about Akers last year and got off it because they went on that run and he was 13/15 the rest of the way.

If you just look at the numbers, though, he has become a mediocre kicker.

The last time he was ranked better than 15th league wide in accuracy was 2002.

he's still consistent outside of the meadowlands, but his kickoffs are short then they used to be, he no longer has the long leg, and he whines too much about field, holders, etc.

His leg injury reaction looked fake, too.

He has ALWAYS had trouble at the Meadowlands. If you take away the 2 Meadowlands games he has missed 1 FG this year and it was over 50 yards. Even in the Meadowlands he made everything under 40. All the misses were over 40.

He absolutely is a dependable, above average FG kicker. Just look at the #s.

Yeah, he's pretty much the same kicker. I remember we had this discussion last year, and it showed how his numbers were very similar, just that attempts above 40 and 50 went up, while attempts of lesser went down

Here are the raw numbers on Akers. There are his accuracy rankings among other starting Kickers during his career:

2000: 9th
2001: 6th
2002: 3rd
2003: 15th
2004: 18th
2005: 30th
2006: 22nd
2007: 18th

Seems to show a pattern.

And last year (2006) he missed 1 FG at the Meadowlands, but still finished the season at 78%, which is pretty putrid.

Yeah, he's pretty much the same kicker. I remember we had this discussion last year, and it showed how his numbers were very similar, just that attempts above 40 and 50 went up, while attempts of lesser went down

I remember that discussion and the fact that it's being revisited again is further proof that things are just different than they used to me, IMO.

It's not like anyone is out to get Akers...he just hits a lower percentage of his FGs than he used to and doesn't kick the ball as deep on kickoffs.

1 2 3 4 5  6 7 8 9 10 11 12