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26 Jul 2011

Posluszny to Jaguars, Spikes to Chargers

Two linebacker moves to announce. Paul Posluszny is going to the Jaguars, because of course, why would the Bills ever keep any reasonable players when they reach free agency? We'll have to see if this means he replaces Kirk Morrison, or if Morrison kicks outside and Justin Durant goes. Durant and Morrison are both free agents.

Also, Takeo Spikes is leaving the 49ers for the Chargers. He is 35 at this point, so that's a bit of a risky signing. Apparently this makes Navorro Bowman the likely starter in San Francisco, because we needed more pointlessly capitalized letters in the middle of people's names.

With so many moves being made at this point, tomorrow we're just going to start a running thread each day to discuss all the announcements regarding signings, re-signings, and cuts.

Posted by: Aaron Schatz on 26 Jul 2011

25 comments, Last at 28 Jul 2011, 1:52am by jebmak

Comments

1
by Andy T (not verified) :: Tue, 07/26/2011 - 11:59pm

Love the Spikes signing. "another" football site has Spikes as the #3 ILB over the past 3 years. He's a real hard-nosed bart scott type who will do the dirty work to let other guys make easy plays

2
by Harrison Bergeron (not verified) :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 12:30am

I'd be curious to know how that other football site came up with that ranking. Spikes isn't terrible, but his speed is gone, and he benefited from playing behind a stellar nose tackle and next to perhaps the best ILB in the game. I think he's still rated highly largely based on his (earned) reputation from almost a decade ago.

3
by Stewart (not verified) :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 12:50am

T. Spikes is one of the better Strongside ILBs in the league, in the mold of Bart Scott, Rolando McLain in Baltimore now, his cousin Brandon Spikes in NE, etc. But ranked with all ILBs, including weakside stars like Jerod Mayo, Patrick Willis, David Harris, Karlos Dansby, (the list goes on), well, I'd say those guys are slightly more valueable / less replaceable than the Strongside block-eating guys, and yeah Takeo might make the bottom of that top 10 these days.

13
by Jimmy :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 8:41am

If it is PFF I suspect that they cut the heads off chickens and watch them run around on a board with varying grades on it to see where they fall over and die. It uses up a lot of chickens but does provide more relavant data than their charting program.

15
by Mungo (not verified) :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 2:03pm

I may be slightly biased in the opposite direction, having done some work for the guy who runs PFF when it was back in it's infancy, but you do sound kind of bitter. Did they slate your favourite player?

18
by Karl Cuba :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 2:39pm

A reasonably well known NFL journalist told me that an agent had told him that even their participation data is miles off. If they can't get that right then what chance do they have. Additionally, while Bill Polian might not have been right to criticise FO for their objective methodology, PFF's subjective methods have very little chance of success without knowing the playcalls and schemes, which they don't know.

For example, PFF called Chilo Rachal the best young guard in the NFL, I really hope they're correct but that isn't what I saw last year.

19
by Brendan Scolari :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 4:12pm

Maybe you should chart a few games yourself then. I've done a few games side-by-side with their charting and their mistakes are pretty rare. Sorry, I just don't by this anecdotal third-hand story BS as a reason to discount them, and unless I just happened to pick all the games they really charted that "agent" is just downright lying.

Disagree on the subjective methods as well. While there's bound to be errors, you can certainly discern a lot just by watching the plays a few times.

20
by Karl Cuba :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 5:11pm

I think that their scoring system is full of holes and I do trust the person I was talking to. I don't really see the point in arguing about it. You rate them, I think they're a waste of time, enough said.

21
by Karl Cuba :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 5:16pm

I would never disagree with your final point, you can indeed learn a great deal from watching a play a few times over and even more from treating a whole game like that.

4
by tuluse :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 12:50am

You can say PFF if that's what you mean (or whatever site you are talking about).

5
by Bright Blue Shorts :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 2:26am

Can someone please explain the "pointlessly capitalised letters in the middle of people's names" 'joke'?

6
by tuluse :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 2:32am

The v in NaVorro is supposed to be capitalized.

8
by Intropy :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 3:59am

That reminds me, Reading Rainbow is awesome.

7
by TheSlinger :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 3:26am

Durant is confirmed gone, the Jags have made no secret about the fact that they won't attempt to re-sign him.

9
by Raiderjoe :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 6:30am

T. Spikes agaain not goign to make playofofs.

14
by Dave0 :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 1:01pm

no no, you must have misread. he signed WITH the chargers. he'll be in the playoffs.

22
by CuseFanInSoCal :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 8:56pm

He'll lose in the playoffs, but this is the AFC West. The Chargers will be in the playoffs. Even with the epic special teams failure and player contract issues last year the Bolts darn near won the division.

23
by Raiderjoe :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 9:17pm

T. spikes doens't play in playoofos. Period. Guy bad luck chram. Plus, Raiders true class of AFc Wets 2011. Laugh now, vry later.

24
by Alternator :: Thu, 07/28/2011 - 12:18am

I really want to agree with you, RaiderJoe, but as long as Zombie Al Davis is meddling in the team, I just can't see them getting past eight wins, and I don't think eight wins takes the division.

25
by jebmak :: Thu, 07/28/2011 - 1:52am

Yeah! The Chargers will make the playoffs, just like last year...

10
by Karl Cuba :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 6:54am

Booo Boooo!

I wanted Spikes back, but then not on a three year deal.

11
by bubqr :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 7:18am

Isn't Bowman more of a weakside ILB ? Who is going to clean up the blockers with A.Franklin AND Spikes gone ? I'm worried for P.Willis.

12
by Karl Cuba :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 7:51am

Well Franklin hasn't gone yet . . .

But Soapoaga would slide over to the nose, where I'd quite like to see if his wierd two point stance thing works in the middle of the line and then either Ricky Jean Francois or Ray McDonald/some other fella not on the roster would play LDE.

Bowman is more of a Will type but he did look like a decent player at teh end of last season.

Personally I'm more worried about the secondary where there might not be a songle decent player under contract.

16
by Elroy44 (not verified) :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 2:31pm

Taylor Mays is good

17
by Karl Cuba :: Wed, 07/27/2011 - 2:35pm

Well he's big and fast but I don't see how you can say he's good yet because he hasn't done anything yet.

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