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http://mmqb.si.com/2015/02/23/tampa-bay-buccaneers-jameis-winston-peter-king-nfl-combine-draft/
Todd Rosenberg for Sports Illustrated/The MMQB
The Bucs Start Here
Jameis Winston, No. 1 overall? Tampa Bay's investigation into what will become the most scrutinized pick in draft history has only begun. Plus Los Angeles and realignment talk, Sam Bradford-to-Browns rumors and Denver's potential problem
By Peter King
Rams mentions:
The Browns and Sam Bradford: Is there a chance?
Sam Bradford has missed 25 games the past two seasons with two ACL injuries. (Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
Could the Rams actually trade star-crossed quarterback Sam Bradford to the desperate Browns? It’s unlikely, and the biggest reason is that Cleveland would almost certainly not want to trade something significant for a quarterback, pay him $14 million in the last year of his rookie contract, and face the prospect of him being a free agent after just one season. But everything besides that in this story does make sense.
The trade could look something like this: The Browns send St. Louis a 2016 draft choice or choices that would be based on how durable Bradford is or how well he plays in 2015, or both. For example, the Browns could trade a third-round pick that would become a second-round pick if Bradford had 14 starts or more, and would become a first-round pick if Bradford reached certain performance benchmarks. The Rams are almost certainly taking a quarterback high in this draft anyway and could be looking at the last year of Bradford as a Ram. Given all that, however, Bradford does represent St. Louis’ best chance to win in 2015, so Cleveland would have to pony up a very serious offer for the Rams to even think of it.
But I can tell you that the Rams would listen if the Browns were serious. I just don’t think the Browns would be unless they had some assurance about Bradford being in Cleveland well into the future if he does play well in 2015.
Three questions with a coach.
Jeff Fisher of the Rams is the co-chairman of the league’s competition committee, which has several major rules issues to take up this winter.
How do you stand on moving the PAT way back from the two-yard line?
Fisher: “Personally I don’t want to kick a 19-yard field goal to win a game, and then miss a 35-yard extra point in Green Bay when it’s 20 degrees to lose a game. So that’s my position. I think it would be too drastic of a change, me personally.”
Rams coach Jeff Fisher (Tom Gannan/AP)
What is the best argument against coaches being able to use replay on every type of play, as some coaches, including Bill Belichick, have suggested?
Fisher: “Well, we have a lot of work to do to evaluate that. For the whole game?
Yes.
Fisher: “So if someone throws a touchdown pass against us to win the game, I’m going to throw the challenge flag. Somebody [committed a holding penalty] out there. Somebody did something. You start there and then go … I mean, I don’t know. Replay was designed to overturn obvious errors. It was never designed to include penalties. The game is fast. The game is hard to officiate. We’re making strides in that area. If I challenged a holding call and a false start in the first half, I’ve used all my challenges.”
Regarding the discussion of what is a catch, could you see that being amended this year, or is it too much of a rabbit hole to go down?
Fisher: “There will be a discussion. It’s going to be difficult to change it—particularly because of the standard and replay. It’s one of those areas where I think we have two standards. The bang-bang on-the-field call and then the replay standard, where it’s frame-by-frame-by-frame. I just think that we have to have a rule that is defined—that’s a bright line—so it can be officiated. And I think we have that with the catch now.”
So the co-chair of the rules committee sounds like he thinks it will be tough to make a change in what everyone was screaming about after the Dez Bryant non-catch in the playoffs. I asked Fisher about the chance of calling a catch a catch as soon as the player possesses the ball with two feet on the ground—without the so-called “making a football move” to finish the process of a catch. “Then,” he said, “you’d be eliminating the defenseless player aspect of the whole thing.”
Cowboy fans, get your outrage ready. The league meetings are four weeks away.
*****************************************************************
To read the entire article click the link at the top of the post.
Todd Rosenberg for Sports Illustrated/The MMQB
The Bucs Start Here
Jameis Winston, No. 1 overall? Tampa Bay's investigation into what will become the most scrutinized pick in draft history has only begun. Plus Los Angeles and realignment talk, Sam Bradford-to-Browns rumors and Denver's potential problem
By Peter King
Rams mentions:
The Browns and Sam Bradford: Is there a chance?
Sam Bradford has missed 25 games the past two seasons with two ACL injuries. (Joe Sargent/Getty Images)
Could the Rams actually trade star-crossed quarterback Sam Bradford to the desperate Browns? It’s unlikely, and the biggest reason is that Cleveland would almost certainly not want to trade something significant for a quarterback, pay him $14 million in the last year of his rookie contract, and face the prospect of him being a free agent after just one season. But everything besides that in this story does make sense.
The trade could look something like this: The Browns send St. Louis a 2016 draft choice or choices that would be based on how durable Bradford is or how well he plays in 2015, or both. For example, the Browns could trade a third-round pick that would become a second-round pick if Bradford had 14 starts or more, and would become a first-round pick if Bradford reached certain performance benchmarks. The Rams are almost certainly taking a quarterback high in this draft anyway and could be looking at the last year of Bradford as a Ram. Given all that, however, Bradford does represent St. Louis’ best chance to win in 2015, so Cleveland would have to pony up a very serious offer for the Rams to even think of it.
But I can tell you that the Rams would listen if the Browns were serious. I just don’t think the Browns would be unless they had some assurance about Bradford being in Cleveland well into the future if he does play well in 2015.
Three questions with a coach.
Jeff Fisher of the Rams is the co-chairman of the league’s competition committee, which has several major rules issues to take up this winter.
How do you stand on moving the PAT way back from the two-yard line?
Fisher: “Personally I don’t want to kick a 19-yard field goal to win a game, and then miss a 35-yard extra point in Green Bay when it’s 20 degrees to lose a game. So that’s my position. I think it would be too drastic of a change, me personally.”
Rams coach Jeff Fisher (Tom Gannan/AP)
What is the best argument against coaches being able to use replay on every type of play, as some coaches, including Bill Belichick, have suggested?
Fisher: “Well, we have a lot of work to do to evaluate that. For the whole game?
Yes.
Fisher: “So if someone throws a touchdown pass against us to win the game, I’m going to throw the challenge flag. Somebody [committed a holding penalty] out there. Somebody did something. You start there and then go … I mean, I don’t know. Replay was designed to overturn obvious errors. It was never designed to include penalties. The game is fast. The game is hard to officiate. We’re making strides in that area. If I challenged a holding call and a false start in the first half, I’ve used all my challenges.”
Regarding the discussion of what is a catch, could you see that being amended this year, or is it too much of a rabbit hole to go down?
Fisher: “There will be a discussion. It’s going to be difficult to change it—particularly because of the standard and replay. It’s one of those areas where I think we have two standards. The bang-bang on-the-field call and then the replay standard, where it’s frame-by-frame-by-frame. I just think that we have to have a rule that is defined—that’s a bright line—so it can be officiated. And I think we have that with the catch now.”
So the co-chair of the rules committee sounds like he thinks it will be tough to make a change in what everyone was screaming about after the Dez Bryant non-catch in the playoffs. I asked Fisher about the chance of calling a catch a catch as soon as the player possesses the ball with two feet on the ground—without the so-called “making a football move” to finish the process of a catch. “Then,” he said, “you’d be eliminating the defenseless player aspect of the whole thing.”
Cowboy fans, get your outrage ready. The league meetings are four weeks away.
*****************************************************************
To read the entire article click the link at the top of the post.
