I'll bet you the Bills win at least one of those games if you give me 3-2 odds. Anything up to $500.

Bills last won the division 22 years ago..mother of god. Got the Browns and Lions beat at least.

agreed and almost referenced this in my note. I had a quick look at his wiki page and apparently Mel Kiper had him rated 'somewhere between his 40th and 70th safety in that year!'.

to be fair too, even DHB is still in the league and headed into his 9th season, which isn't bad for a receiver who can't catch or run even 30% of a route tree.

Yeah, DHB has stuck around the league as a special teams player, which is always what you want out of your #7 overall pick.

I have to admit, don't really know how NFL teams operate in that regard. Soccer teams over here usually have scouting departments that are independent from the coaching staff and work for the club (coach gets fired, scouts are still with the team). If that's not the way it is done it would probably worth to take a shot at it. Apart from cutting into profits I think there's no cap for personell in the NFL, right?
I think MLB operates like that as well, right? At least there are a lot of scouts.

As a scientist I refuse to believe this is true in the long run. Machine learning is really great these days. If an algorithm can beat MDs at predicting diseases I feel like an algorithm should be able to outperform NFL front offices for example.

I think the issue with translating that to the NFL is the draft system - Man Utd or Read Madrid can have incredible junior development systems because they get to sign young kids and develop them within their system and they then have pole position to sign them if they continue their promise and either get them into the first team squad or sell them to another team to recoup the investment

until they get rid of the draft, I just can't see that it's worth the investment for NFL teams

maybe there'd be a way for a really wealthy franchise to hothouse/train up undrafted FAs/unsigned vets in a way they could own their rights to sign them to their roster or trade them to other franchises?

but I'm sure there's a load of rules (cap and others) as to why that wouldn't be allowed

Even with the draft you could still tightly couple your scouting to the franchise and make it independent of the coaching staff/GM being fired. Draft or no draft it's very valuable to be better at scouting than other teams (but I guess it is all on the GM and they can get rotated out quickly).

Bucs Phins postponed to Week 11, who needs byes

That's gotta just be about $ right?

Phins only got 8 home games, basically lose 1 to some game in Phi/Pitt that no one would go to.

And they play in London too

Michael Irvin is under NFL investigation into possible sexual assault, might want to move him down your fantasy draft board

http://deadspin.com/the-nfl-is-inves...ium=socialflow

totally agree, but I think it's an input problem. how can a machine know how fast + accurate a QB can throw a ball? it's possible if the machine can measure everything about the ball speed and path and everything about the receiver location down to the inch. MLB is doing similar stuff now with measuring defense, but those are the sort of inputs needed.

I also think you could quantify decision making. how well can a QB identify the receiver who is most open? how often is this a dumb decision bc of down and distance factors? etc

so totally think this is an environment where machines could crush human evaluators, but it takes the right data which is a bit far away I think

That's not how machine learning works.

They also play the bucs the week after london instead of getting a bye like everyone else. Bucs didn't want this either, both teams gonna have to play 16 weeks no bye in a row.

Surely just moving location is simpler enough. Obv selling tickets gonna be tricky. But 16 weeks on the bounce gonna make it way tougher. Plus london game. Glad i didn't get Ajayi in Fanta$y now.

yeah I dont see why they cant get this moved to another stadium. is it a matter of scheduling all the other people required to work an nfl game?

I guess there's more to it than just getting the game played, there's legit concern that people will need to evacuate but won't be able to because their family members are off playing football somewhere. Miami U canceled its game for this weekend with Arkansas State and it's a road game, presumably for that reason.

People are theorizing that it's a money grabbing move. The league makes more money from a week 11 regular season game that's well-publicized than a game moved on short notice to a neutral location.

seems like a drop in the bucket compared to the fixed media contracts

The Rivals college recruiting rankings actually are a pretty decent barometer of NFL success. I think like half the five-star recruits go on to be first round picks or something.

On the one hand I think you're right, on the other I'd never put it past the NFL to do something dumb/dangerous to pointlessly squeeze a dollar out of their product.

If they get better ratings because of the publicity of moving the game that helps them make more money down the road even if the revenue is fixed for this game.

It's a pretty mixed bag.

56% of 5 star recruits are drafted at all; 25% were first round picks.

Of the 28 QBs drafted in the first round, only 8 were 5 star rated.

https://n.rivals.com/news/rivals-qb-week-by-the-numbers

The move isn't unprecedented. In 2008, a week 2 game between the Ravens and Texans was canceled because of Hurricane Ike. The game was moved to week 10, which was originally the bye week for both teams.

it completely makes sense why miami wouldn't want to lose another home game especially since they've already lost one to london this season. ticket sales + concessions + parking = a lot of money out the door.

as for the raiders and al davis....
hunter s thompson wrote about it http://www.espn.com/page2/s/thompson/030812.html
and this SI article correctly connected it to davis' belief that freak athletes somehow would strike fear into their opponents. https://www.si.com/vault/1993/08/09/...-play-football

for QBs or overall? Id probably believe both, but at the same time how many of these QBs have simply "looked the part" their entire football career and it takes until NFL games are played to find out if they can actually do it

"impossible" definitely an exaggeration since there are clearly elite talents out there. just don't think nfl front offices can somehow identify future quality pro QBs who aren't simply the top recruits everyone already wants