Historically, the award seems to go to coaches who exceed expectations, and no team with Brees or Manning is going short on expectations. I’m no fan of Kiszla, but I think he might be on to something.

Now, we turn around and call for McD to be coach of the year?

My oh my, do they forget quickly or what?

I have been paying as much attention to the O Line this year as I possibly can and I think you are spot on.

Polumbus becomes an ERFA (exclusive rights FA) once his contract is up. In essence, we have him for an additional year after his contract expires.

From what I’ve heard, backup LTs are a valuable commodity — especially cheap ones — so Polumbus’ value is higher than one would expect for a former CFA (college free agent). That value — oddly — doesn’t fully translate into dollars (although he’ll certainly make more, of course).

While I don’t endorse the idea of underpaying players, there’s a benefit to having a player who can perform an important function on the team at a reasonable price. Teams need backups who can perform when their time has arrived. Teams can insulate themselves to a certain degree by acquiring more talent, just is case of injury, but paying top talent to sit on the bench is a waste of money as well as talent. Cap logic says that you need to use the talent you’re paying. The same monies being spent on reserve talent could be applied to another area of the roster that contributes in a more ‘impact-ful’ way. There’s a sweet spot somewhere in-between paying a high-priced backup who sits and being unprepared for injuries because the backup is cheap but commensurately untalented.

‘Cap logic’ is poorly understood. A fine example of this is the signing of Haynesworth, whose ability is unquestionable, but his 100 million dollar price tag doesn’t fit within the restrictions of cost-effectiveness. Even though 2010 may become an uncapped year, the mathematics of cost-effectiveness don’t change appreciably. Teams that spend wisely will still be rewarded for their efforts. Moreover, not every team will have unlimited funds to spend anyways, whether there’s a cap or not.

My point is simple — players such as Polumbus play important roles on the team even though his salary and talent level are not among the league’s elite. Another player is this catergory is Haggan, which is undoubtedly why we re-signed him before the start of the season. In order to build a successful team, we need to find the Polumbuses and Haggans. They’re as important as the stars on the team, albeit in a slightly different way. My philosophy is that you build from the bottom up. Backup performers and STs may not appear important but they invariably come into play (so to speak). Teams win, not simply because of their stars, but because they’re able to withstand adverse conditions that reveal the quality with which they’re constructed. All teams lose players to injury but the better ones weather the losses and succeed despite them. And this is often because the lesser names on the roster can contribute once disaster strikes.

It’s premature bail out on him because of two — apparently — unrelated injuries but we still have to cover ourselves.

I see a possible silver lining in that it may make our decision of how to use our 1st draft pick easier. There are some talented OTs around the point when we’ll pick.

The desiderata for a 1st pick are, roughly, 1.) impact, and 2.) value. OT is an impact position that also holds value, because of demand, longevity, low risk, and positional impact, but the real question is — do you want to overpay a backup? In other words, they’re valuable as long as they see playing time. The only position that’s valuable as a reserve (i.e., emergency duty) is backup QB. But backup OTs come close, if they can play LT.

Uncertainty over Harris’ health creates a justification for adding a quality backup OT. As I’ve said recently, we were weak at backup OT (although I’m not discounting Polumbus’ chances of succeeding). Ideally, we’d like to have one quality backup at OT. Polumbus may become that player but his presence doesn’t preclude adding another one, especially since it’s also preferable to have two backups at OT, and Polumbus’ salary make him an excellent candidate for backup depth. If he exceeds expectations then it’s ‘just gravy.’

This draft is shaping up very much like the last, in that the special talents worthy of a high pick don’t (or didn’t until Harris’ injury) match up well with our needs. We picked Moreno because of this reason last year. Even though the defense was our priority, there wasn’t a good fit between what was available and our needs. Some of the higher ranked defensive players would have been poor positional fits. And some of the players were at lower impact positions, such as MLB, Safety, etc. A very special player at those positions could merit being selected but #12 was too high for player such as Maualuga, despite his appeal to many here. The availability of a player such as Curry would have given us justification for his selection but he was gone. And the DLs that we would have taken— Raji and Jackson — were also gone.

There are other players who appear to be worthy of a high pick ( ~ #10 – #12), so I don’t want to overemphasize this point, but I already noted that OT was a position that held potential because one higher ranked prospect might drop to us. And there’s even some prospects who play RG/RT that could fill OG while providing depth at OT (another of my proposals).

TRENT WILLIAMS

BRYAN BULAGA

Also —

ANTHONY DAVIS

There’s some more who fit, although not necessarily in the 1st, so this list isn’t inclusive of all the possibilities.

There’s sufficient justification now to look at OT as a serious option in the 1st but at the very least it makes selecting an OL higher in the draft a greater priority.

I had to read it like 4 times to comprehend what he was saying, then I followed it up with “what an idiot.”

…let’s wait and see how this season ends before we crown him. LOL

Or in ept? Y’know, fitting with in tact.

By season’s end, Ocho will probably have more fine totals than any of the other players in the NFL, which is ridiculous. Someone needs to compile the fines so we can compare. Ocho isn’t a bad guy, he’s just having fun. I think it is ridiculous to have cell phone celebrations or sharpies, but what Chad does is usually fun and in good taste. “usually”. I definitely think that if someone goes after another player and puts another player in danger, that fine should be significantly higher than a celebration penalty that doesn’t harm anyone (maybe the pride of the other team).