A link will do…But, if I may ask….What is the point???

What is the point of this link when put into the context of what Guru was talking about? The “point” would be better received in the fanpost or fanshot section. That’s all. I’ll read it, but I am tempted to ignore it because it has nothing to do with this thread.

I’m not trying to be rude…just making an observation.

It’s the context…

Like was said before, it had nothing to do with this post…I won’t remove the link, but it would get better pub elsewhere….

all about individual stats of players, not team successes or failures. Consequently they can love Jay Cutlers last season and not give a crap about the Broncos won/lost record.

A fantasy sites views on the Broncos draft would have far more relecance to fantasy players than to fans of the team.

That said, it is interesting and of little real relevance to this post.

NO we are not “non-biased”. We are Bronco FANS!! We are BIASED to the MAX!!! Do we all agree or drink the Kool-Aid….NO..But the absolute beauty of MHR is that you can say what you want….BUT you better be able to back it up with intelligent discussion and facts if necessary. NO NAME CALLING OF EACH OTHER OR THE BRONCOS NEW COACH. (I sound like I am talking to my two pre school daughters :-))
And unlike other blogs or websites – keep your comments to the discussion at hand …or start your own post. A word of warning though – when you challenge yourself to write a post you will have to present some depth to your thought or argument…but I sure you can do it…and the fans here at MHR will support you in you effort.

It wasn’t a shot at Saint at all. Just giving people who want to hate on the Broncos somewhere to feel welcome….

Speaking of the Podcast, Guru I love your analysis! I don’t know anywhere else I could go that would have Broncos information with fellow fans who care about the Broncos! I understand you are busy and I will be patient but I miss MHR radio so much!

I miss MHR radio a bunch

Couldn’t have said it better! and thanks TSG for an awesome site!!

I agree. Everyone should know I agree by now. It’s the only thing I know enough about to argue passionately about on this site! All my other posts are attempts at humor or questions!

I have actually LEARNED stuff from this place, actually a ton of stuff from the likes of HT and the others. Not only that but the positive outlook suits my personality much better than the negative, woe is me, attitude of most of the message boards that rarely provide any insight and almost always turn into some sort of pissing match.

You can share anything, you can talk about anything….Just keep it in the context of the post, that’s all….

Create a FanPost, if you have several thoughts about the article and want to go in depth.

Want to provide only the link? Create a FanShot which will allow you to do that…

Again, I am not criticizing the content, I just didn;t know what it had to do with THIS PARTICULAR post….

You certainly are, but I (too) thought your placement here was pretty odd. Why not a fanshot or a dedicated post on your take on the draft?

That content is ABSOLUTELY allowed…but using copy and paste to make a HUGE comment that wasn’t on the topic of the post. The comments are not the place to argue “is McDaniels right or wrong”, but to talk about the content of the POST.

As both Guru and Zappa mentioned: make that into a FanPost we can all discuss! Supply the link, give your analysis of it…and we’ll jump over there to talk about it.

…but the idea that the majority of us just stick to MHR for indoctrination is a bit misguided. I’ll put my daily consumption of what the MSM has to offer up against anybody out there. The idea is to think outside the MSM box, and if that makes us arrogant or zombies or whatever…well, sorry. That piece you posted (it was Rang, wasn’t it.) is a dime a dozen out there. They all say pretty much the same thing. MHR is more about not just swallowing it piece meal because, well, thats a little too easy.

No one is attacking you, they are just saying you posted something about the draft, from another site in this post and to them they don’t see what you are getting at with that post. If you explain why you posted that and how it relates to John Bena’s post then everything is cool..?

I almost used 8-4 as an example, since sometime a negative(-) can be used and still get to the same place as a positive(+)….Thanks for catching it, McGeorge!

The sad thing is: it was pretty apparent what you were trying to do, McGeorge. You blatantly hijacked the post with a measured response to the Broncos draft, then when you were called on it due to CONTEXT, not CONTENT, you’ve continually tried to come off as the oppressed victim of Guru’s excessive suplication to the Broncos.

Which is probably what you had in mind the whole time. Shame.

So, I’ll do what everyone else has suggested you do: make the link into a FanPost, giving it a place where everyone can discuss without hijacking someone else’s post.

-2*-2 = 4

8/2 = 4

Square Root of 16 = 4

Sorry, the nerdy engineer in me had to.

And there are several here that share your skepticism. You’ll have a much more enjoyable time posting here regardless of your perspective if you’re open to logical debate however. I can also assure you there are people who post here who know a lot more about football than you and I ever will, which is why I enjoy the site so much. If you’re not open to logical debate I suspect you’ll get very frustrated and make facetious remarks like:

Every single decision The Coach has made was brilliant and Denver will win the Super Bowl in 2009 due solely to his excellence.

Thanks for articulating that so well! Couldn’t possibly have said it any better. I’m looking forward to seeing some more posts from ya, HS!

I couldn’t agree with you more. Before MHR, the MSM mountain bias ruined my perception of the Broncos. As a misplaced fan, the only thing I had was the MSM. I love that MHR delves into each move and examines why it was done and what kinds of results can be expected from it.

I am so glad that MHR is on the web. It’s my homepage.

Nothin’ wrong with being cheesy!

That is the best description I have yet to see of this place. Leave it to you to come up with that! :P lol

Hairybear we must be the only two that can bleed both brown & yellow and orange & blue, LOL. I can agree with you ole guy, this is the only place where the talkingheads and so-called “experts” are just knuckleheads. The real information is here!

Thanks GURU!

The Broncos Bears should stick together….lol

Wait until the season…or check the archives. I was always positive, but the rest were not nearly all happy go lucky. :)

I would say it is opinionated without the stinging hatred or ignorance of other football blogs or fan posts.

Not all of the content on MHR is opinionated, some is informative. I love that there is some positive and realistic opinion on here, but the analysis is what keeps me coming back for more. Sure, I think people on here have great opinions, but I really love when people post on here something fresh, informative, correct and in an interesting context or spin that you can’t find on a MSM site.

Plus, there is no “Favre watch” on here, either. HAHAHAHAHA

Some people would much rather say “See, they suck, I was right!” than “Hey, they’re not as bad as I thought!”. It’s far more important to “be right” than to see “your team” do well when you predicted the opposite.

As a fan, I don’t get that at all.

how about expanding this comment into it’s own post & add a poll to see where people see themselves.

great insight.

 Whenever people preface a statement with, “Honestly”, or, “to be totally honest” or “to tell the truth”. It implies that the person making the statement has been BSing the whole time prior & has to qualify one true statement they have to make, after which they will revert back to the BS mode.

I think that some people on this site are very optimistic about the Broncos, however they don’t necessarily bring down an opinionated pessimist on all occasions. I am reminded of late march, when I was gandering the DP comment board. They were SLAMMING McD and Bowlen. It was outright hatred. They really wanted JC to stay and were so wrapped up in hatred that they couldn’t see the forest through the trees.

Here, it is a place where analysis takes place. It is a contrast from MSM like the DP and others. Not in that the MSM is negative and MHR is positive, but that sometimes the MSM doesn’t analyze as much as MHR does. It’s understandable that they don’t, because they have to cover lots and lots of teams, so to understand every little piece of every team is difficult and they do the best they can.

What makes MHR so great is that if opinions are displayed, you are completely encouraged to present your opinions if you provide correct analysis that backs up your ideas.

If your opinion is “DENVER IS TERRIBLE BECAUSE MCD RAN OUT A PRO BOWL QB”, that’s fine, as long as you base your opinion off the fact that denver will, in fact, be a terrible team because either McDaniels doesn’t have the people skills to keep his players united or that denver will be terrible because they have no pro bowl qb.
 
I am not saying that is my opinion, but I am trying to illustrate that anyone can present an opinion, so long as the opinion is based off of some form of fact, stat, history, or some other kind of provable context. Just providing a pessimistic opinion based on nothing else other than slandering the team will be sure to have the optimists pounding on your door.

It’s not like posts are being edited for content or anything (to truly force optimism). I mean, I can see where some people might see the whole “Kool-Aid” proposition, but even if this was an absolute “positive Bronco talk all the time” site, I’d take that over an endlessly negative Bronco talk site. I’ve seen posts on BOTH sides of the fence here. While some people may happen to look and see a lot of positive talk, there are also other opinions posted here. As Guru said, it’s NOT about the site “managers,” MHR is about the COMMUNITY and is driven by the community’s opinions.

Heck, I have had times here where I’ve disagreed with some people (or they’ve disagreed with me). I simply replied as kindly as possible (or they did so to me) and we discussed our differences. As it turns out, we eventually came to a respectful agreement every time (either someone’s point was misunderstood, or someone made a good argument, etc.).

I’m definitely not a highly optimistic person most of the time when it comes to events like the Broncos have experienced over the off-season. I was ticked off at Cutl** and I did not want to see Shanny go at first. Reading through ALL the viewpoints helped me form a better and more educated opinion on the situation. Yes, I find optimism helps me out and sometimes lets me see the other side of the story and its underpinnings and facts. With that said though, I’ve still seen “pessimistic” posts around these parts.

To close, I don’t know where those “kool-aid” comments came from, but it’s probably someone who’s jealous of the great COMMUNITY that MHR has built here. Heck, no fan should be TOO pessimistic about their SPORTS team loyalty…all in all, it’s just a game. True fans stick with the team through thick and thin. If you read some of the posts (you being whoever brought up the Kool-Aid) you’ll find both sides of the issues and mostly respectful discussions to follow. Again, I will say, top notch community we have all pieced together here at the Report.

People care about spelling!

1) I can kinda see the “cult” analogy being tied to “kool-aid drinking”. Didn’t those Heavens Gate nutjobs drink kool-aid before they boarded their comet? I do enjoy M. Clark’s La-La Land, but maybe we drink something else? Maybe some Orange Crush?
2) I told ya’ll that I play video games, and I have to say, HoosierTeacher’s posts about different defensive schemes has helped me tremendously at Madden 09. Multiple Defense playbook, employing the 3-4 scheme, all that helps me kick behind online! Keep it coming HT!
Before any lambasts me for being a moron, just know that I don’t care what you think, cause I’m a BRONCO FAN, baby.
In the spit-flyin words of Bill Cowher…LET’S GO!!!

These people filter out all information that counters the basic belief.

I think confirmation bias is part of human nature; I’m certainly more likely to read and carefully consider the articles that showcase the team’s new attitude and the great character and leadership that McDude is building than a less-than-stellar review of the Broncos’ draft.

for “magnifying and manufacturing” drama
so true, but thats what we all want to read about right?

as he was posting over at one of the old Mason blogs on denverbroncos.com.

I’ve always stayed away from the DP comment boards….I am not well versed in internet slang or word usage and I found it hard to understand what half of the people over there were talking about.

I am sure the other half have since found their way over here. ;-)

I think many of us agreed with you and styg that Moreno was not just the best running back in the draft but that he fit the Broncos one-cut system perfectly. A RB who fits our system can thrive even if he’s not the best RB in the draft by the usual criteria. If he fits our system and is the best runner in the draft the possibilities are mind-boggling. I felt that way even though I didn’t think we should draft him, and was sure it wouldn’t happen anyway, due to our defensive needs. But at the time of the discussion we didn’t have two first-round picks, we didn’t know Raji would be long gone when our turn came, and we either didn’t know about or didn’t understand McDaniels’ (and I think Xanders’) draft strategy. So now we have the unanticipated pleasure of seeing how this really talented one-cut runner works out for us. I can’t speak for others but my perception of the pick hasn’t changed, if by that you mean my evaluation of Moreno himself. I thought he’d be a good player, perhaps even a great one in our system. I just didn’t think we’d get the opportunity to find out.

1. That is the definition of FAN.
2. Both sides use stats to “prove” their point, whether it be that the Broncos have hope or that they suck butt.
3. What makes the negative stats that “prove their point” more valid than someone on MHR who has a different spin?
4. If I agree try to tell them, but usually I just let it be…if I disagree I try to voice my difference of opinion without making it personal.
5. “Rinse, Repeat”…isn’t that exactly what the DP, ESPN, and every other MSM source does? Daily…with ALL NEWS? lol

I think you are being too cynical here. To be negative for the sake of being negative is about as logical as being positive for the sake of being positive. I will admit that I err to being positive for the sake of being positive, because when your favorite team is rebuilding it is important to keep hope alive until hope is lost during the season.

I believe that several contributors are very objective, but because they happen to see some good many try to say they are kool aid drinkers and such. It seems rather trivial to me. If you disagree, voice it…don’t just criticize for the sake of being different. That’s weak.

yeah creamy, that’s pretty accurate. and not marching to that drum leads to some knee jerk responses.

I do appreciate the good analysis and commentary many people provide here, but I’m careful to just ignore the blatant unreasoned kool aid stuff. Many people seem to think you can’t be a fan without feeling that way, which is pretty annoying whenever you happen to say something besides “13-3!!!”

Kudos to TSG for acknowledging that you can be a fan without constantly drinking Koolaid and/or disagreeing with the team. Hopefully there’ll be some more “tolerance” for other views around here.

That’s as equally as well-supported with facts as the “biased” ones you complain about. I, for one, am interested in all Bronco info, so I’d like to read it, thanks!

As human beings, we can’t help it. What’s the alternative?

1. Have someone who has no rooting interest and ideally no knowledge of football whatsoever conduct analysis in order to remove bias or preconceived notions from the equation. That way, we could obtain truly unbiased scientific analysis in a manner that will completely erase our desire for the aforementioned analysis.

2. Just keep it to yourself. Better yet, watch the game and then don’t think about your team until the next kickoff. Pop Cap games will assist you greatly with the task of not thinking about the Broncos, or anything at all for that matter.

3. Simply parrot what someone else in the mass media or blogosphere said. A person who genuinely lacks their own opinion can’t be biased, since they are conducting no analysis.

OR!

Remember that this is a bunch of grown men playing with a ball, and that we follow their fortunes strictly for entertainment. This is for fun!

We appreciate both! I am FAR FROM an example of #1 on your list. I believe in tough love, almost to a fault. When I love something, i critique to death, to a fault. Nothing is good enough.

But, to create the community I wanted to create, that would welcome everyone, I knew I had to welcome different viewpoints. Zappa is an example. He, in a lot of ways, is ultra-positive about the Broncos. While we may not agree on everything, his opinion has its worth, and Mike Clark’s La-La Land has a huge following(13-3 BABY!)

All that said, we put in a lot of time into what we do(speaking from a Front-Page post point of view). I think, for the most part, we are very objective. I give my opinion, and I pick a side, and most importantly, try and give something the MSM is not.

A great example is the Cutler-fiasco. The MSM was being divisive, you either thought Cutler was at fault or the team was at fault. Here at MHR, we tried to look deeper that that. We were the first site to look at the Bus Cook angle, myself on MHR Radio, then a wonderful post by Styg to put a bow on it. That is what we try to do, bring the fan base TOGETHER. No tear it apart!!!

That said, many fans are angry. They are hurt by what has happened. The best way I can describe it is this —

Your wife or girlfriend cheats on you, but you love her and want to forgive her. You try, but find it very difficult. The anger keeps coming back. There will come a time when you have to decide if the anger, the hurt will win out or the healing and love will return. For many Broncos fans, that time is now. We are getting back to the business of the 2009 season, and I hope you are all with us!!!

A whole lot of your ‘cycle’ does happen here in my opinion. Exactly so. Hence the ‘cult’ or ‘kool-aid drunk’ feel of this place at times!

This cycle though, is not the rule though.

“I think the site is overwhelmingly positive…” is also a point I agree with. To the point of nausea.

But I’ll tell you, I’ve been angry over several of our recent moves, enough that many of my posts were over the top negative. I certainly wasn’t censored and amongst all the attacks from those cultists I refer to as ‘Kool-Aid drunks’, I was engaged intelligently and reasonably by several regulars. Over time, as my anger subsides, I’m able to take from the positives …enough to restore my enthusiasm to some degree and enough that I’m able to move on from the negative. (For the record, I was never one of those predictors of doom over the mistakes I feel were made this year) I’m so looking forward to the season! I can’t wait… I’d like to think that all perspectives have their place here… Moderation in all things.

In the mean time, I’d come here if only for the horse tracks! But I still come for the folks who are fanatical fans like me. (though the style fanaticism may differ) I come also for the folks who know more than I, few though they are…lol I learn much here. And even though much of it has been at the expense of my peeves of late… I come for the humor.

Thanks for the site. Don’t sweat the haters. The really positive slant here is in my opinion a given. It’s your world guru, if you’re world has a positive slant, more power to you!

Slide me a cup of that Kool-Aid, but just one for me thanks. I’ll pass on the ritual sacrifices & such but you go have fun.

Go Broncos!

Not only do I think you may be right, I think that sometimes as well. I actually want to find good arguments against some of the rosy stuff I read and personally believe. I’m looking hard for some good counter analysis. The problem is I haven’t seen anything from Creamy posting it. Please Creamy post some good counter-arguments. I am trying to make some and I don’t feel as though they are very good It could be that in my gut I think McD is gonna be the next greatest thing, so I don’t really try to break him down. However, thats not my style. I just wanna see some good points from you and McGeorge and every other Bronco fan that thinks things are going bad. Just saying I don’t see it and repeating the MSM mantra means nothing to anyone that enjoys deep arguments and thinks hard about things on their own.

I think AJF does a great job of this…..I love his posts!

I’ll be looking for your post b/c I’m trying to lose my “rosy specs”.

I clicked the link earlier and found it to be an interesting take. I was only questioning its place in this thread. I really think you could have made it into a fanpost and done it that way….definitely a lot more folks would have checked it out. ;-)

Not a bad way to put it…and for a big reason you mentioned: we don’t have a game to go off of yet. Speaking only for myself, I see some value in what has been done this offseason, and with almost nothing to go off of, I’ll stay pretty positive. Once the season starts, however, I think you’ll start to see a shift on MHR to a more critical angle, since we’ll have actual games to use as data.

I agree that posts here tend to be supportive of, even apologetic, about the team. At least in general. At the same time, pick and issue and I’ll show you posts that criticised then teams moves, in season and off season.

You will also find that some of us predicted that the Broncos would take Moreno if he fell to #12. I thought it was so obvious I still don’t see how the MSM missed it.

There even was a post that presaged the cutler trade and forecast that it wouldn’t be all that bad for the team. That wasn’t revisionist thinking.

In short, MHR may lean strongly toward the positive, but there’s plenty of room for contrary opinion here. That’s not true of the other sites I’ve seen.

I think we need to make a distinction between endorsing and agreeing with the FO moves and writing about understanding why they made the moves. I understand what McD was thinking with most of his moves, but that doesn’t mean I agree with them. We need to be careful to make that distinction. I think most posts are based on understanding rather than endorsements.

Maybe you or someone else of a group of you could get together and make a section or do a story about this, it would make for very interesting reading and it could be an ongoing thing much like STNO or something similar.. I don’t know if the powers that be would be interested but you could approach them and find out i guess.

What i have found amazing useful about this site is that through out the free agency process and the draft, players where profiled, and discussions where had about the value and abilities of the players we acquired. What this did for me was allow me to make up my own mind on the the moves.. like you i did not just rely on this site i also search other sites and read scouting reports and built an opinion of these players without seeing them play. Now if and when they finally see a real game and they don’t do well then my opinions could and will likely change if the errors are frequent. But that is the beauty of opinions they are fluid and they evolve depending on what you do and see. I, for one, try and see the good in every one and everything and IMO focusing to much on the negative things in life is counter productive, but thats just me and it does not mean that i am not willing to listen and evolve my own views because if it did then that would also be counter productive.

If we take the Phonz pick as an example, Initially i was confused by the trade, i had previously looked at who we could use our 2 2010 picks on and losing one of those choices was not so good, but because of where the Phonz was projected i had not done so much research on him so the pick was just ‘a small corner who was projected to go higher and was liked by Mayock that dropped because he was small’. So i thought, o.k lets be objective about this and not let me emotion get in the way.. my emotion basically WTF… i thought there must be a reason why the F.O liked him enough to trade away a next years first. So then you see his stats and statistically he is one of the best CBs coming out of college in a long time.. Then you read scouting reports and they sing his praises in every aspect except for height.. this is where my opinion comes in and i think well if he has so much production in college why the hell can’t he do it as a pro.. this obviously is yet to be seen.. but what topped it off for me was his attitude.. i loved his interview and think he has a very bright future.. But there are definitely some problems caused by being undersized as a corner and that shows in the fact that he did drop to the second despite his pretty impressive production. Add to that that in the combine his jump height wasn’t so good and you have a decent argument against the pick. But value wise i think it was all good. we get the player a year earlier and he has time to learn under our vets and it is pretty widely accepted that a second rounder this year is worth a first next year.. i think it was the jags that did a similar thing but that was widely ignored in the MSM.

Anyway the whole point of that rather long snap shot into my head was that i didn’t just arrive at the sunnyside without doing my own research and listening to the opinions of others and assessing the negative as well as the positive of the situation.. I came to rest on the sunnier side of the fence because i prefer it that way, as i have already stated, but i can also see the negative side and i don’t think it is less valid..

Ultimately this is all we can do, weight up the information and then form and opinion, then we discuss our opinions and they evolve and occasionally flip in the opposite direction because somebody put together such a good point that it gets through and makes sense to you so much that you assimilate it, fully or in parts into your own view.

It’s not about wanting to be negative all the time, but it is about calling them on it when they do stupid stuff. Hypothetical – what if Denver decided to unconditionally release Peyton Hillis (isn’t he the fanboi flavor of the moment right now?) without getting anything back in trade? You can love the Broncos and still think that’s a dumb move, right? Or would you have to spin that “positively” just because that’s what fans should do?

Nice post BroncoJoe :) I mean Han

nice rendition of the classic ‘kid peeing on something’

conjures up images of that Brown fellow who convinced a bunch of people to drink the real strong kool aid….

and also the Manson family…

those whackos who rented a mansion in San Diego so they could all commit suicide as some comet passed by that supposedly had some space ship hiding in it….

ect ect

Good point. “Wet Blanket” spawned good discussion without any rancor. It can be reached here.

http://www.milehighreport.com/2009/5/31/894638/the-wet-blanket

It even spawned another Post, titled New Blanket. Good discussions.

I’m the idiot that is chained up to that signpost outside the gates.

So… At least your allowed in the village.

I love that pic.

Wait until the season starts! :)

Most of this site is not ‘Kool-aide’ driven, most of this site is some of the finest game oriented minds I have ever read. I tend to be the driver of the, ‘Kool Aide 13-3 thought,’ but it isn’t pushed until the site gets into a negative mode. You’ll love many of the posters here (Styg, HT, Zappa, nyc, and Ted are great). My personel favorite is Broncobear and his very, ‘Up close and Personal’ “Tales from the Sunnyside.”

Once again…Welcome!

and just for fun…
.

to be a reply to you, Zappa. Still new to this place…

I tend to proclaim the 13-3 mantra, but it’s because that’s how I deal with uncertainty and turmoil.

Some of the most fun I’ve had here has been in the point/counter-point I’ve had with those who disagree with me.

I’ve learned a ton from reading the posts here and feel that I’m a much more informed fan than I was when I started reading & contributing here.

Thanks Guru for the excellence that you call all of us to rise to.

I had to Red it – civil, analytical, thoughtful and insightful. The best of MHR all at once. Thank you!

You just can’t resist coming here and enjoying our love…..

Yeah, I get the same feeling (except for the Raiders bit)… I don’t believe there’s a bias against us. Some like us less than others but I reckon that’s true with all teams. If anything we get more than our share of press and if some of the X players are anti-Broncos a bit too much, it’s cuz we kicked their butts so many times on the field!

Go Raiders!

no really, go.

good show Pete

The problem I have is bandwagon writers who will just say that McDaniels is an idiot and point to the drafting of Moreno and the Jay trade, etc., to prove their point. The only problem is that no one ever seems to say WHY these decisions are bad. Everyone assumes that Denver should have picked a “front seven” guy with the #12 pick. So who? Nolan worked out Orakpo personally and he probably didn’t like him or else I think he would have been the pick. And it wouldn’t hurt for an MSM writer to define what a “franchise quarterback” is before throwing that label at Jay. What makes Jay a “franchise quarterback?” Good fantasy stats? To me, he is still a “quarterback of the future,” and therefore still an unknown quantity.

The statement “the Broncos needed to draft defense at 12” implies that there were good defensive players available there and we could have drafted them. In the same sense the statement “the Broncos traded away a potential top ten pick” is a double whammy: it implies that the Broncos will be a bottom ten team next year, and that a top ten pick is inherently better than what Alphonso Smith will end up being. Maybe our front office had him pegged as a top ten player in this year’s draft. Maybe the Broncos are more cash-poor than they’re letting on, and cannot afford to pay for three top-10 picks in the two years.

My problem is that writers never take any of these questions into consideration and simply spew the same crap over and over again. So to summarize, the thing I hate is that writers make ASSUMPTIONS and IMPLICATIONS based on what other writers say.

To completely change tone…
I’m definitely critical of some of the moves we made in the offseason. Lonie-Paxton-for-Mike-Leach was a lateral move that still doesn’t make much sense to me. I still wonder if Richard Quinn would have been available in the third round and we could have gotten someone better than Seth Olsen, who I view as an injury liability and a guy who doesn’t at all fit with the zone block system. Some people say that we’re moving away from the zone block, but then why did we pick up Blake Schleuter, a prototypical zone lineman? The Kenny McKinley pick confuses me as well: he has the same strengths as Eddie Royal but is more injury prone. Ronald Fields had better be as good as Mike Nolan says he is. I never liked the Andra Davis signing as long as he is pegged to be a 3 down player. I think we acquired too many stop-gaps. I will love the leadership and intensity that Brian Dawkins will bring, but I’m worried that he has enough gas left in the tank to be a three-down player anymore. I mean, remember when we signed Jerry Rice?

But in the end, all of these things will be determined as the season goes on. I have held my tongue mostly because I don’t believe in offseason grades until at least halfway through the season. It’s all a crap shoot, really. There are so many variables involved that it is just stupid to say that a coach should be fired based on one offseason when that offseason is not even over.

I know yo are being toungue in cheek to some extent. But seriously, aside from the “13-3” mantra (which is a running tradition from La La Land, an not meant to be considered hard analysis), it seems most fans at MHR (including myself) see the team with a similar record to last year.

I think the team has improved, but with so many changes and a difficult schedule, I think the record will be close to 8-8. I’m looking at ’09 as a pre-season towards ’10.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Great to have you here. FYI, 13-3 is not an actual projection; it’s more a mantra from the most positive among us. I am pretty sure it’s always used tongue-in-cheek (at least within the past couple seasons and now).

You can listen/subscribe to some of the old podcasts here: http://feedproxy.google.com/MHR_Radio

I’m glad you enjoy the place, and the awesome angles, insight, and analysis is what’s kept me coming back for years. It also seems that the RMN going under has been great for MHR, as a lot of people have made their way over here.

I am Pro-McDaniels…for now. The guy has never even coached a game…why would I not be positive about him until he proves me otherwise?

Guru was stating that he does encourage contrary thought, but he is hardly going to force those of us he has promoted over the years to write against what we believe. Most of us were here long before the McJayGate saga and I can personally vouche that we were never told to be positive. In fact, Guru tempers me personally when it comes to having “too much” positivity. Last years 3 game debacle I wanted to be homerish even after the Carolina game, but he said it wasn’t a good idea to be positive. In fact, he was worried we were staring a complete collapse in the eyes even before the Panthers game.

All I am saying is that you are letting the McJayGate saga be the judge, jury, and executioner for this website and its staff writers. You may not have been around before this offseason, but I assure that we rarely agree on everything and hardly agree on most things and our opinion reflects that. Just because we are all willing to give McD the benefit of the doubt and reserve ultimate judgment until later down the road when we have a body of work to examine doesn’t make us kool aid drinking homers or even overly positive…its just realism or my new favorite word, pragmatic.

If you have a though, share it. That’s my motto. If its contrary to my opinion then great, if not, then great! I like it both ways as styg50 so eloquently put it in the comments above. :P

I state many times there is only one rule….No Personal Attacks.

For me, I had feelings about Cutler and Shanahan BEFORE the moves were made. The Cutler ones, especially last season when I criticized the multitude of media appearances he was making after the 3-0 start, or after throwing 2 picks in 3 passes in the ensuing Chiefs loss after berating Clifford Russell after he ran a wrong route, we non-too popular.

I encourage all thoughts. Just because I am pro-McDaniels does not mean I think he, or the team, is without fault. I have no idea what to expect, other than to say, being from the same area McDaniels is, knowing the type of coach his father is at McKinley H.S., and the background he had with Saban and Belichick, that I do not doubt his ability.

Turning ability into results are two different things.

Whatever gave you the opinion that I don’t encourage differing opinions I apologize for because I was saying the exact opposite, several times.

My view is that any new coach could probably bring in change that Mike Shanahan could not because he had made certain decisions and essentially was expected to win all of the time. Let’s be objective about the changes and realize that Rome was not built in a day and next season may be preparation for a strong second year of the new coaching era. I agree that both extreme views are bad and we should take a moderate tone this year, not expecting too much, nor too little.

Me and you are very similar. That is exactly how I feel!

I insist personally on refraining from generalizing. I like to address specific people and specific ideas. TO the extent that I can’t, I wait until I can.