National Football Post Tavern Talk

Delanie Walker is a natural pass catcher, however, he is still working on his blocking. This tips off the defense when he's in the game. Davis is an above average blocker, but very stiff catching the ball.

Really? The 49ers actually thought they would get pass rush help from Justin Smith? The guy had his career high in sacks in his rookie year and only had 2 last year. Seeing some Bengals games last year, it was pretty obvious he's not a pass rusher. How could a team actually think he would be when it's so painfully obvious to a casual observer that he's not??? The guy has never been much of a rusher, and they expected him to be? Ouch

I heard about NFP from James Jones and Greg Jennings because they kept wearing NFP t-shirts to practice and shouting the name over and over. Well, it worked on me. Great site.

Interesting point about Springs... he looks to be in great form so far this season. But actually, even after he left the game against the Cowboys last weekend, the Skins' secondary still looked fine and Carlos Rogers did a great job in man coverage on a couple of passes intended for T.O.

If the Skins are going to win in the City of Brotherly Love, they'll need another big game from Rogers.

Being attacked by scoundrels is actually a compliment. Your site has always stayed inside the mission statement eloquently stated in paragraph two of the post. I get knowledge here, not noise. Thanks for that.

Mike, your blog is very informative and you provide an aspect to the game that can't be found elsewhere on the web. However, I feel that your posts on the Raiders have a little bit of bias against them. I know working for Al can be tough, but it seems as if you don't pass up a chance to take little digs at the Silver and Black - so much that you don't even mention working for Al Davis in your bio. I will continue to read your blogs but wish the bias against the Raiders was less evident.

I visit PFT here and there, but the best source of football information is nfl.com and Mr. Lombardi’s blog. While I’m reading, I have a feeling that the information is accurate and that we are hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Yes, the Skins game worries me, and I don’t think that we can easily take a 2nd road game and the 4th W in a row. Springs is missing and Rogers is not the player to rely on. He was injured and before the injury he never lived up to the expectations. I still feel that our offense is ‘’work in progress’’ and that Coach Gibbs will be missed at some point during the season.

Hail

Florio's remark is more about Mike Florio than Mike Lombardi. " It wouldn't surprise us"..." if that happened..." I'd attach "egregious" rather than "gratuitous" to that (indisputable malice), but, well, either way...

On the face, that verbiage is is 100% content-free; perhaps intentionally so, crafted to skirt the law rather than inform. To my understanding, this is an exemplar of Florio's work: entirely insinuation, summing to worthless.

This old saw applies: "consider the source." This site provides more value in any day than PFT has produced in it's full existence.

Stay the course fellas.

Above: "If that happened" should be in quotes. Now, back to football.

Max Starks' situation is a puzzlement, and an embarrassment. Guaranteeing 6.875 million to a guy who can't break into a subpar OL group is not good.

I haven't seen Colon get a snap at OG. He looks like an interior linemen, and does not look like a quality OT, but there's been no on-field evidence that he's cross-trained inside. The Steelers will not make two changes to fill one hole, not before the bye anyway.

If the Niners thought they were getting an impact player in Justin Smith, they mis-evaluated. Smith is a nice complement (high effort, very good chase player) but he can be run at and he is not a difference-maker. They made a similar blunder with Tully Bantu-Cain. It doesn't help that Manny Lawson has done little for them. The Niners hit with twin R1 picks in 2007 (Willis and Staley) but not in 2006 (Davis and Lawson).

What puzzles me about Vernon Davis is that he was the complete package at UMD. He carried our entire offense, very productive. The combine numbers were amazing, but its not like he was some workout warrior who was a work in progress. I'm betting he turns it around soon.

Re the Niners:

1. I disagree with the assessments of Smith. I think he was PR'd as a pass rushing demon (they had to get the fans excited about something) but the guy is more of an all of around player (run and pass) and I think he has played well.
2. Dead on about Delanie Walker. Vernon Davis is an athlete, Walker is a Football player. Ben Watson is just like Davis, great athlete but not a player. Whoever said Davis is an above average blocker is on crack.
3. Banta Cain is a bust, Lawson was playing very well when he got badly hurt last year, please don't put a special teams player like Banta Cain in the same sentence as Lawson who is still not 100% yet. The guy made tremendous progress his rookie year, and was starting to get "it" in his second year before he got hurt.
4. Joe Staley is just fine, coming along nicely.

As for rumor-mongers, I'll paraphrase the great Graham Parker and say: "There's people in charge of keyboards who shouldn't be in charge of brooms"

Hey Michael. I'm glad you printed that intro about the other Mike. I got totally disgusted with his "washer woman" gossip some time ago and have since deleted him from my Google Reader. And I, too, cannot stand his continuous venom directed toward Coach Belichick and the Patriots.