TheLongshot

Little surprised no one posted the Jason Momoa/Aquaman image that came out last night. Edit: because it is in the other thread.  Well, it needs to be here as well...

http://screenrant.com/preacher-comic-book-tv-series-amc-details/

I also read this yesterday.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/02/12/ive-just-read-the-script-to-amcs-pilot-for-preacher-and-i-love-it/

It looks like many of the script fragments posted in the article were removed, but you should get the gist.

Marvel is doing all it can to slow the tide that is Batman V Superman down.  Now they are bringing in Spiderman in the middle of their cinematic universe?  Seems rushed.  A new Spiderman to appear in Cap 3... sounds like they are trying to copy what DC is doing with Batman.

Marvel has wanted Spider-Man for Civil War for a while now, because he's an important character to that storyline.  There isn't anything rushed about this.  I'm sure Marvel has been negotiating with Sony for a long time about this.

BTW, I was amused at Sony's tweet about this...  "Sony Pictures Entertainment Brings Marvel Studios Into The Amazing World Of Spider-Man" Really?

Translation of long rant: Fans don't trust Dan Snyder to hire competent people to run the football operation, no matter who he hires.  To be honest, I think this will continue until the team wins. Until then, fans will pick apart every decision.  Again, I think Allen has had a solid offseason, but this was a 3-13 team that well deserved the record they got last year, and expecting it to be much better, particularly with all the injuries we have had so far, is a pipe dream.  I mean, we are missing our starting QB, starting TE, our starting nose tackle and our #1 CB.  To be honest, we are fortunate we've had backups who can fill in at those positions, or else things could be even more dreadful.  Personally, I think there is hope, because outside of the last game, we've been in all of these.

I've never argued that Shanahan said "Without Bruce Allen, I'm staying home."

I never said you were, more responding to the thread in general.

 

I am just stating the facts.  The articles are out there discussing it.  Once Dan fired Vinny and hired Bruce some thought that led to the end of Shanny chase.  There is no evidence that Shanny told Dan to fire Vinny and hire Bruce Allen.  There is plenty of evidence that Dan needed to fire Vinny and Bruce Allen had ties and could improve fan relations.

People forget that Dan and Bruce met at the Senior Bowl and talked.  There were some rumors at the time that Bruce was going to join the organization in some manner at the time, but nothing came of it.

I think no matter what, Vinny was going to be gone.  Too much damage was done by that point.  Personally, I'm not sold that Dan really wanted to give Vinny the job in the first place.  I mean, if he was going to get it, you think it would have been years ago.  I think the only reason why Vinny got the job was because Gibbs recommended him for the position.

I don't think the hiring of Bruce had much to do with Shanahan, other than Shanahan wouldn't work with Vinny.  I think Bruce's ties with the organization's past (through his father) is a big reason why he was hired, as well as agreeing to the power structure.

Who takes the blame for Shanny?  It's got to fall on Bruce's shoulders.  Which is why his blame doesn't start this year.  Moving the goal posts and judging him by this year alone means that Dan Snyder interfered for the last 4 years as you don't want Bruce to have any responsibility.  I guess in another 3 years we can finally hope for a real front office.

Dan Snyder does.  Bruce was hired with the understanding that Shanahan was going to be the head coach and have personnel control.  Beyond that, Snyder handed off the responsibility to Shanahan.

 

What I'm saying is that he needs somebody with a GM title to work for him who's in charge of the scouting department, and makes the player decisions for him. The GM and the Coach would work for Bruce. He's still got ultimate responsibility, but there's somebody else who is a born and bred talent evaluator who's responsible for the roster.

And we have that guy.  His name is Scott Campbell.  Director Of Player Personnel.

 

I think that he knew exactly who he wanted and hired that guy without a lot of due diligence. And I know that's the perception, and I think that hurts him.

Except that's the way it works for most teams.

 

And with this I disagree. The GM/President is the Coach's boss. And sometimes your boss gets to tell you what to do. Now, the way that it SHOULD work is Bruce goes in to Gruden's office, and they discuss it, and Gruden comes to the realization that he's got to make a change there. Without Bruce having to drop the hammer.

However, if he has to drop the hammer, I think he has every right and responsibility to do that. Gruden should be involved in picking the next DC, but it should also be an organization decision.

Course, the assumption is that the majority of our defensive woes are because of Haslett and we'd be better off without him.  I don't think the defensive performance has reflected that perception. So far, the front 7 has mostly played up to expectations, being stout against the run and there is a lot of hustle to make tackles.  The problem has come from the long-neglected secondary, where the lack of experience and talent is really hurting us right now.  I don't think a change in DC would change much on the defensive side of the ball right now.

You can't have it both ways.  He isn't less than a year into the job.  I shake my head when I keep hearing Danny has stopped interfering with football operations, yet everything during the Shanny years was all of Shanny's fault.  Either Bruce supported hiring Shanny and giving him full responsibility so it's his fault, or that was all on Dan Snyder so it was his fault.  To lay no blame on Bruce for ANYTHING until this draft is the real head shaker.

Bruce does have the responsibility of who he had hired as the personnel department and their performance.  Certainly, you can question that.  That being said, I think he had a solid offseason and his FO has found a good selection of young players who are contributing.  You can second guess a lot of decisions, tho I'd be interested to see what the alternatives would have been.

A couple general thoughts in relation to a number of posts:

 

1. Bruce has not proven to be a good personnel guy, but he's proven to be a good cap guy.  He should accentuate that.

2. If I was Bruce, I'd give up the GM title officially, and hire a real GM to work for me. 

3. I think that he hired too many guys from Tampa.  

4. As much as I like Gruden, and I think that he's a good coach, I think the fact that they are buddies isn't helping the perception.

5. He is going to have to step in on Haslett.  I don't think he does it during the season, because I'm not sure who they've got that would be any better.  But he's going to have to force Gruden to make a change there, if for no other reason than he's going to have a fan revolt on his hands if he doesn't.  

 

There are some things that happened this year (so far) that are unpredictable, unfortunately, and nothing he can do about it. You can't predict that you're going to lose your starting QB, NT, CB, TE for extended periods of time, and also miss out on your LT, LG, SS and a few others for shorter periods.  

 

And the 'Skins DO have more depth.  But the problem is that it's being tested way too early, and where the depth is questionable is exactly where they are getting tested.

 

The biggest miss personnel wise for me, and I said it in the "Wish I got that guy" thread is that I would have stayed put and taken Bitonio, because he could have been penciled in as a started immediately. While trading back and picking up Murphy and Long with the 2 picks is nice, they are both backups, and Moses was a long shot to start the season as a starter right from the minute they drafted him.

 

And the biggest organizational miss is that I think they needed to move on from Haslett and Raheem Morris regardless of what Bruce thought of them.  Sometimes change is necessary.  And there were a few guys out there that could have been immediate upgrades.  Including Wade Phillips, who's freaking son is on the coaching staff.  

2. Some people don't seem to understand what a GM does.  He's not simply the personnel guy, but runs every aspect of the football operation.  Being a personnel guy isn't a requirement.  He's as much a real GM as any other GM in the NFL.

4. I don't get how knowing Gruden before hiring him is a bad thing.  I would think knowing a lot about a candidate would be a positive.  I guess one can argue that we didn't cast a broad net, but I think most teams are focused on just a few candidates and generally know who they want to hire.

5. I personally wouldn't like it if the GM was dictating who the head coach should hire as assistants.  I know people here hate Haslett with a passion, but he's the guy Gruden wanted to work with.  Also, let's be honest here: whether Haslett was here or not, the secondary would still suck.  (You want Morris to be the DC?  He's overseeing the worst unit on the defense.)

Personally, I shake my head that less than a year into the job, people are laying into him.  Guys, this team was a well deserved 3-13 last year.  Expecting a miracle turnaround, especially with the injuries we have been collecting, is really unrealistic.

Just as a note, Jay Gruden does have previous experience as a head coach, just not at the NFL level.  (8 years in Arena Football League, one in the UFL.)

As for the draft, it isn't about filling immediate holes, but also setting yourself up for the future.  To be honest, once you get past the second round, the pool of immediate starters goes down sharply.  Also, let's not pretend this OL was one RT away from greatness.  Outside Williams and Lichtensteiger, our personnel is pretty woeful.  Polumbus wasn't even the worst OL last year.  That went to Chester.  So, not only did we need a RT, we also needed at least one guard, maybe two.

Personally, with what everyone was saying about LeReibus, I was hoping he'd take over Chester's spot while Lauvao fills in long enough for Long to get ready.  I wasn't happy about Polumbus still sticking around, but the cupboard was pretty bare.

He's done a phenomenal job with the OL. <sarcasm>

Kinda hard to have much of an effect when the previous guy in charge made OL a low priority.  We've been mostly working with castoffs from other teams and hoping late round picks develop.  I'm hoping drafting Moses and Long lead to the OL rebuild that should have happened 4 years ago.

I doubt I'll ever get sick of the comic book movies.  Just too many properties worth making movies out there to do.

As an example, before X-Men:DoFP, there was a trailer for Kingsmen: The Secret Service, which I hadn't heard of.  Directed by Mathew Vaughn and based on a Mike Millar comic, it has Michael Caine and Colin Firth teaching young spies.  It all sounds good to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyxDVCb3ky4

On the "push" note, I would like to add a bit of info that might help you when deciding whether to check out a film or not.  Basically, at the end of January - the end of April is a big dead period for studio films.  If the film was any good, they would release it in the summer or at Christmas.  And then, August - Oct8ber is another dead period.

Catching up a bit here.  Yeah, that second Hercules trailer was less impressive than the first.  Hopefully it lands somewhere in the middle.

Kinda bummed about Jupiter Ascending.  I'm actually been quite happy with the Wachoski's output since the Matrix, tho given that it hasn't always delivered at the box office, I can see why WB is wary.

Adding a couple of animated films that I hadn't heard about before but look interesting:

Song Of The Sea, done by the director of Secret Of Kells:

The Book Of Life:

Just got an e-mail from Total Wine that they are now carrying Sweet Water Brewing Co beer.  I've had their 420 when I visited Atlanta, so it will be good that I can get it locally.

I think that Snyder had the opportunity to meet Jay Gruden, and clearly he had to sign off on the hire.  You'd have to think that's a must for any owner to sign off on the HC of his team.

 

Snyder was involved with interviews at Redskins Park, along with Allen, Campbell, and Brown.  Course, there isn't an owner out there that isn't involved with the HC selection process.  What is important is that they trust their football people to make the decisions.

Allen has a lot to prove.  This coaching search was much more professional than the one for Zorn.  Which seemed completely arbitrary, and poorly organized.

That is because it was.  Gibbs retirement took Snyder by surprise, and not having a football guy to handle the search in place, he had to scramble for the only guy in the organization who could fill that role.  If anything, he learned from that experience, which is why Allen was brought in before Shanahan.

1. I don't think Dan is being cheap.  

2. I am going to wait and see how the staff shapes up, who stays and who goes before making any real judgments.  But I also think that the D lacked talent, and that Shanahan might have meddled too much with it, and that caused some problems.  

It is pretty clear they wanted to keep some guys around so that whoever they hired can pick from them.  I mean, as long as you have them under contract and are going to pay them anyways, you might as well see if the next guy will want them.

I do think that if Raheem and Haz both stay, it's absolutely critical for them to find a REAL 3-4 LB coach.

Sounds like they are looking at the Bengals LB coach, so we will see.  Until the dust settles, we won't have a good view of things.

The problem with Zorn is that it came after a long, ugly coaching search that didn't feel like they knew what they were looking for and took what they could get.  This at least feels like they know what they were looking for.

To be honest, it is hard to get excited for any head coaching candidate, since no matter what the pedigree, coaches haven't succeeded here in recent years.  I guess we can be happy about Allen being in charge, but he also has a lot to prove.

Obviously, you haven't been here long. The board always goes into a depressive fit after a loss. Worse when our star QB got injured severely.

There is a reason why I don't come here for at least 24 hours after a loss.

So, I was in Bethlehem, PA over the weekend for a music festival and went to the Bethlehem Brew Works to get my beer on. I decided to try the Lupin Mass Attack and I thought it was a very good beer. It was a nice balance between hops and malt.

I also picked up bottles of the Nearfest Apocalypse in 9/8 (brewed for the music festival) and had one last night. A heavier beer than what I usually drink (9.8% APV), the alchohol overwhelms it a bit. It still manages to be interesting, but I'd prefer others.

The look is classic. Why change it?

The only reason there would be to do it is if he was a great special teams player, and I don't think he was even that in NY.

Why? Everyone knows the redskins are crazy.. Let them continue to think that?

I think the Redskins have used that image to their benefit in the past. I think it does help them in FA sometimes because other teams don't really want to get into a bidding war with us. We saw that with Fletcher and the Lions where they didn't even try after they heard that we were involved.

I do think a lot of the Sanchez stuff was a ruse. A lot of it goes back to his visit with us, which seemed far more public than any of the other visits. A big deal was made about taking him out for dinner, but we do that with all the potential top picks we bring in.

We weren't the only ones feinting. The Broncos did the same thing. The difference with them is that no one believed it. But, they believed the rumors about us, because the image is that Snyder does crazy things, despite what really happens.