Ray_T

generally if someone is ranked in your top 10, they should be a round 2 selection. either way, hes not without risk. (which is why hes not a first round pick) but hes a player who has significant potential for a good year.

hes falling to round 3? interesting. well it would be worth watching to see how his ADP moves as we get closer to the start of the season. My guess is the ADP creeps into round 2. I'd love to get him in round 3. but I suspect by the time we get to drafting his ADP will be in the 2nd round.

Fannin and Kraft are both very good picks in Dynasty. I like Krafts upside a bit more because Green bay has a better QB at the helm and Green Bay isnt the Dumpster fire that Cleveland is. for Kraft its all about his health and coming off an ACL in November that is far from being resolved. Hes a far better pickup in keeper/dynasty than he is in a redraft league. (for whatever that is worth) due to the injury I'd project him to get 600-700 yards with likely a bit less than his average number of TDs. (so 5-6) next year I'd project a fair bit more. but you are asking about this year. despite the dumpster fire in Cleveland, I'd bet Fanin puts up better numbers this year than Kraft. this is solely based on Kraft's ACL injury. you can come back to play in less than 12 months with an ACL but you wont likely be 100% until 18-24 months has passed and historically the year after an ACL surgery, stats are down for WR by about 20-30%. I'd assume roughly the same discount for TE coming back from the same surgery. in his case because he got injured late in the year, there is a very real possibility he misses a handful of games to start the year. once you adjust further for that risk, hes not a great pick for redraft this year. (despite how much I love the guy as a player) but. (there always is a but) you may wish to keep an eye on the medical reports for the guy. if it truly looks like he will play week 1 it may be worth your while to grab him. Just dont overpay for him. because of the injury, he should be a late round pick. dont let anyone else tell you otherwise.

honestly his health has been his greatest issue the last couple of years. I dont think hes likely top 3 but top 6 to 10 is more likely. his huge numbers earlier in his career were when every other team in the division was terrible and he got 2 games against each of those. I dont know that he was ever truly a top 3 QB. he was a top 8-10 QB that put up top 3 stats due to soft schedules those years. if healthy, with the talent around him I can see top 6. but if you look, lately it seems like he misses significant time every second year, so realistically hes a coin flip. draft him to be a low end QB1 or high end QB2 and if hes healthy he will pay dividends. if hes not, you better have a solid backup behind him.

take any policy too far and it can be a bad thing. that is the real problem in our society is that we continuously take things too far and overreact to everything. Diversity is one of those things that only helps in situations where all people are considered equals. if one or more groups are subjugated by another group, the diversity does not help you. or if the groups break into factions who fight constantly, then the diversity does not help you. but if the groups get along and respect each other then you get into the benefits of diversity. everyone has strengths and weaknesses. there are no exceptions to this rule. in the case of diversity you can sometimes take the strengths of both groups and be stronger in the aggregate if you work together. but this only works if the different groups/factions get along.

I think its crazy that anybody thinks this could possibly be true. and EV's dont actually save the environment. sure it is emission free, because the emissions are in the plant where they generate the electricity. in the end whether this helps the environment (or not) depends on what jurisdiction you live in. if you live in a jurisdiction where the electricity is generated by burning coal, you are not actually lowering emissions overall. you are better off burning gas. if you live in a jurisdiction where the electricity is generated by burning natural gas, emissions are lower but not by a lot. if you live in a jurisdiction where the electricity is generated by hydro electric dams, then the difference is large. but most people dont get all their power via hydro elecric dams. so its not as clear cut as you would think. either way this technology is advancing fairly quickly, so I suspect in about 5-10 years all this solar power stuff we are using now will be obsolete and worthless. but that is just my opinion. I'm not investing in an electric car because the technology isnt good enough. not yet. but we are not that far away.

Lets not blame liberals for everything. On this issue, Its the Environmentalists. there are liberals I know who dont care overly much for the envirionment but they do care about social programs and such. you need to make that distinction. because in the US you have a two party system, the environmentalists tend to vote for the party that cares about more social issues (this being just one issue). so maybe in your case it ends up becoming a general liberal issue. That said Sticking your head in the sand and pretending this isnt happening wont fix things either. There are coastal cities in the US that are gonna have major problems likely be the end of our lifetime to due sea level rise associated with global warming. thing is the science on this isnt complete. we do not know all of the facts yet and Nature does have ways of compensating for environmental changes in ways we dont even understand yet. but Nature doesnt care where we build our cities. I guarantee you of that. One way or another we do need to adapt. there is no one magic pill with a solution but we probably need our govt to provide funds to make larger levees to protect the affected cities from when this happens. maybe restrict people from building in low lying areas by the coast. it starts there but likely does not end there. things like this are a start. I know its not much, but those levees arent cheap. (just ask the govt of New Orleans.... they have plenty of them already) Chage is coming and there is only so much time to prepare for it.

here is the thing. Nature always finds ways to bring things into balance. it is only a matter of time. That said, the earth has been heating and cooling for longer than we can measure things. and we are coming out of an ice age. how do we know we arent returning to the natural state of the planet? history has shown that we have actually been substantially warmer in the past. the constant changing climate is likely one of the factors that drives evolution. each time the world changes, those that live in it need to adapt. that is the way of things. some in politics (and some environmentalists) want to turn back the clock. this is not realistic. the rule of evolution is adapt or die. we need to adapt to the new realities. not try to stop it from happening. sure, you can argue that fossil fuels contribute to this and to some degree maybe they do. but this is the direction we have already been headed. maybe this sped up the process a little. but we will at one point run out of fossil fuels and will be using other methods to generate power. the smarter move is to not try to defy nature on a global scale. I suspect that is a battle we cannot win. this doesnt make me anti pollution. there is nothing wrong with wanting to breathe clean air. but the goals we set should be easily achievable. and instead of pumping a lot of money into existing technology, we need to pump money into R&D. I am convinced that the solution is in better technology. not solar panels. (at least not the ones we use today) as this technology gets better I suspect we will be able to minimize how much we affect the climate change. but we need to be patient. Rome wasnt built in a day and neither was the Earth.

its certainly close. but you are right that when everything flexes out, position doesnt matter as much. if you think McBride outscores Javonte, then you should keep him. with Mcbride (as I mentioned earlier) I am worried about the TD regression that may or may not be coming. and that really is what likely tips the scales. if he gets double digit TD this year, he likely outscores Javonte. if he doesnt, then I think Javonte is the man. thus why I chose Javonte. and believe me I take no pride in saying that because I do LOVE McBride and the skillset he brings. but the rules of this league are such that I take Javonte by a hair. though admittedly its close enough that you could even argue the difference between these two players is mostly personal preference. I'd buy that if you made that argument.

while there is a chance Blue has a breakout of sorts in year 2 Most RB are more productive in year 2 and get an expanded workload of sorts. But...... Williams has seized the job. so barring injury or ineffectiveness, I dont think Blue will get a big enough bump in his numbers to threaten him. Blue needs to hone his craft and be ready if the opportunity comes.

yeah that tips the scale in favor of the RB's for sure. forgot to mention that part. even so, if you were required to start a TE, I'd be keeping McBride regardless just because if you have a TE that produces like a WR that gives you an advantage you cant make up for in the aggregate by keeping a RB who isnt in the top 5. but that is not the format we are looking at here.

20% of all the cargo thats not going through the strait. it will be a huge money maker! or not. this has gotten goofy. what I cant believe is that WTI spot price as of today is only $75. at some point the oil prices will balloon again and we will be where we were when all this nonsense began.

agreed. if it was manditory to start a TE then McBride is the hands down pick. anytime in a format like this if you can keep a TE that produces like a WR that's a win. in this format where TE is considered a flex, its a lot more Hazy. at this point hes just a regular WR and doesnt give the positional advantage. yardage wise its close last year. and TD wise was also close. the problem wity McBride is that last year he put up 11 TD. year prior 2. Some people avoided him last year in some formats because they didnt like the TD production. and I dont blame them. but In looking at his game, I thought he should have done better than the 2 TD. I felt like he was extremely unlucky. at the same time now I'm looking at the 11 TD from last year and wondering if there is likely a regression coming on this. I wouldnt bet on the 2 TD from the year prior, but 8 or 9 seems more likely. To that end I think Javonte wins the TD battle and becomes your keeper of choice even though I think McBride is the better player overall.

yeah from what I can tell, after the first year or two Biden was a do nothing presidency. and that likely coincided with his mental decline. but if youre an idiot its better to do nothing. so Biden at least didnt go trying to do wholesale changes. while Trump is changing everything to put his mark on it and I'd say more than 50% of the changes are not for the better.

thats fair. but the one that could get him impeached is the Epstien thing (if some more damaging info comes out) probably a better place to focus your efforts. From my perspective.....the pool thing, while dumb(and a bit goofy), probably wont result in anything significant at the end of the day no matter how hard you beat the drum. sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it just wont.

Look I get that there were some issues with procuring the contract on this, but this is algae in a pool. Pretty typical during the peak of summer. Likely they need some chlorine in there or some other chemicals to kill off the algae. dont we have bigger fish to fry here? There are plenty of stupid things going on that affect peoples lives in a significant way. this is just a sideshow. I get that there was some stupidity here, but the pool doesnt affect the day to day lives of very many people in reality. why dont we focus on those. or the Epstein thing. I'd rate both as higher on the importance list than this. (no offense)

well, you are not wrong. I guess if playing the long game, Etienne will take over the backfield but I figure it will take half a year (maybe a full year) to do it. there is less risk here for sure. hes more of a known commodity. Tuten is more of a wildcard. full disclosure: I am a bit biased towards youth in keeper/dynasty formats. So I wouldnt likely have done the trade. but I see and understand why you did do the trade. its not like your logic is out to lunch. I'm just siding with my bias. value wise you likely got market value for the guy. maybe even slightly above market. so its not a bad deal that way. to be clear.

good luck to you. Etienne is in a crowded backfield. While I do expect him to win out eventually, this first year might not be what you were expecting.

well, Lets put it this way. Tuten is still fairly unproven at this point. Its prudent planning to have a reasonable option to go to if he doesnt cut it. I'm a bit surprised Rodriguez is that guy but at the end of the day, its not my call. I would have gone with someone a bit more proven than this. this leads me to think something is going on here: 3 possibilities: Tuten is the guy, they've seen enough of him all last season. They are reasonably sure hes the guy. Rodriguez has been a capable backup in the past and they are comfortable with him. This is a timeshare of sorts. possibly a committee. Though for this scenario to play out, you probably want more on your roster as you need a backup for the guy in each role of that committee. it is the largest downside of going with a committee. you usually need more bodies to cover the bases. I guess we can say that Rodriguez gets the start. I'll throw this out there as a possibility. but hes been playing at the NFL level for 3 years now Croskey-Merritt came in as a rookie and jumped ahead of him on the depth chart and then the team brought in Rachaad White and let him walk. Not exactly a huge vote of confidence from my perspective #3 is certainly possible. there is a connection there from college, so maybe there is the belief that he was being used in the wrong way in Washington. This sort of thing happens. while its uncommon, its definitely a possibility. but I will add that Tuten was drafted by Jaxonville and has spent 1 year in the system. I would suggest it is more likely they let Etienne walk so he can be the guy. I dont think you let Etienne Walk and bring in Rodriguez who was allowed to walk in favor or Rachaad White in Washington. I could be wrong. the kentucky connection adds some cloudiness to this prediction, but taking that out of the equasion it seems obvious that they brought him in to be the backup. I'm a bit surprised at the lack of depth at RB on this team though. one way or another the team must be reasonably certain about one of these two players. if they werent, someone else would have been signed.

Argentina was the better team. we all knew it. they decided to play for like 20 minutes at the end to pull it out. 2 goals in 5 minutes to tie followed by the game winner in extra time.

well, I dont blame Trump for Trying. its all about putting on a show for your home crowd. truly the blame falls on FIFA for allowing it to happen. I've seen Belgium play the last 3 world cups. (Historically other than the one in russia), the furthest they have made it is the round of 16. this team was ripe for a loss. but in all the games I saw I never once saw them dialed in to this extent. as a coach, when I coach my team, I am always looking for things to unite the team. get them to play for each other. Thats how you get a situation where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. the world cup is basically an allstar game. you can have players on (belgium for example) who play on rival teams and dont even like each other. the number of high paid Divas in European Soccer is pretty high and managing all those egos is hard. How many times have we seen an athlete opens their yap belittling the other side (who happens to be the underdog) and then that underdog rises up to make the upset? It happens a lot. but in this case, the two sides were relatively evenly matched but Belgium was (in my opinion) more dialed in and united than I've ever seen them. This incident took a group of divided players and united them in a way a coach dreams of. I'd argue that America had a better chance to win if the red card stayed in place. But Trump is a politician, not an athlete. I wouldnt expect him to know that this could possibly be the result. (which is why I made the comment that politicians should stay out of sports) its ok to be a fan and watch. but trying to pull strings isnt advisable. and simply because of his name and involvement you had to know people would to some degree blame him for this. I'm with you, you win the game on the field, but at the same time its a team game, and a united Belgium is better than a divided one. What happened with the red card thing united them. And they played what was (in my opinion) the most impressive game I have ever seen them play at a world cup.

not looking good so far. but there is still a half a game to go. Argentina is the better side. I'd expect them to pick it up in the second half.

well, they are a top notch defensive side. once they get a lead, they more or less lock it down. US slighly dominated time of possession, but the strong defense of the belgium side kept the play out of the danger areas (for the most part) and it showed. when the US got frustrated and tried to press to get the equalizer Belgium capitalized on the transition which is sort of their specialty. this was how they beat Canada in the last world cup. and they actually got more shots on goal despite not having the ball for nearly as much time. They were way better on this day, but they had a lot of extra motovation due to the overturning of the red card. That sort of thing will often bring a side together and thats exactly what it did for Belgium. They were dialed in.

no shame in it. it is what it is. In the US most of the best athletes choose to go into NFL football or baseball or basketball. in some states even hockey. Soccer is a bit of an afterthought.. In Canada the best athletes go into hockey. in Europe the best athletes go into soccer. so of course they will have an advantage. Not to mention generations of history in the sport to boot. I always rip on Athletes to decide to stand on their soapbox for political stuff because that is not their Arena. I'll apply the same thing with politicians. They should not get involved in sports because that is not THEIR Arena. in this case, I think both teams under NORMAL circumstances are reasonably well matched. I'd give Belgium the slight edge because their goalkeeper is Really good. but this situation created an Us vs the World mentality for the Belgium football team. and history has shown that teams with that mentality tend to usually come up big. and that is exactly what happened here. I actually think the US had a better chance to win if Trump hadnt intervened. but that is my own opinion. Belgium had an awful lot of 'extra' motivation because of the rescinded red card penalty and this pulled them together as a team in a way that would not normally have happened. The American team is a good team. I take nothing away from them. dont let the score discourage you. These things happen when you are down late in a game and start to press to get the equalizer. When that happens you need to give something up defensively and Belgium is too good a team in transition and they took advantage of this in the way that good teams will do. This is the way things go sometimes. and the blowouts are honestly more likely once you get to this point in the tournament. Cheers guys.

hes missed a fair bit of camp so far due to injury. I'd suggest this is not a lock at this point. but I do look forward to seeing the training camp reports on him and Tuten