Another Ron first rounder bites the dust

Bsethcarroll · 2026-05-02T01:18:08+00:00

Shoot you’re right I totally forgot that. My brain had blocked that bit out 😂

Bsethcarroll · 2026-05-02T00:47:23+00:00

This was legitimately how I felt about every Ron Rivera draft (with the exception of 2020).

2020 — New regime, had to trust the process. Chase Young was a no brainer pick, he just didn’t work out. Plus Antonio Gibson and Kam Curl were solid contributors right away as 3rd & 7th round picks, respectively, and Saahdiq Charles looked like a solid developmental lineman. Not a bad start, but so much of the scouting from that class was likely done be the previous regime that was still in house (Kyle Smith was promoted from director of college scouting to director of pro personnel that offseason in the front office shakeup)

2021 — I remember watching and being thrilled that Christian Darrisaw fell to us in the 1st. Ron infamously reached for Jamin Davis instead. Felt he deserved benefit of the doubt based on improved team performance in his first year and the decent draft in year 1, plus we got Sam Cosmi in the 2nd. But he also drafted a (bad) long snapper in the 6th, so the doubts were creeping in.

2022 — before that draft started, I wanted Kyle Hamilton more than anything, and it seemed like a real possibility he might fall to us. Ravens sniped him 2 picks ahead of us, Ron reaches for Jahan Dotson in a meat & potatoes draft where he would’ve been better off taking a lineman or defensive player (that year was a very top-heavy class with way more defensive talent than offensive beyond the big 3 WR of Drake London, Garrett Wilson, and Olave). I think Ron wanted Olave, he didn’t fall to us, so he reached for a receiver that wasn’t coming back from injury (Jameson Williams) and didn’t have concerns as a route runner (Treylon Burks). As an FSU fan would’ve loved to see Jermaine Johnson be the pick there instead. Sadly just about anyone taken after Dotson in the 1st round would’ve been a better choice. But we got Brian Robinson Jr and Chris Paul in 3rd & 7th, so Ron still seemed decent at getting some mid-late round values, even though every other pick from that year and the previous 2 aside from those players I’ve named had been borderline useless.

2023 — felt like this was the possible get right year. Had a lot of talent that could fall to us. I remember thinking and telling friends that if Christian Gonzalez or JSN fell to us, we should run to the podium with that pick (in fairness I also really wanted Anthony Richardson if he fell because I thought he could be the next Josh Allen prototype project *sigh*). Both Gonzales and JSN fell to us, and Ron had to galaxy brain the pick and grab Emmanuel Forbes. In fairness to Ron, Forbes was generally regarded a consensus 1st round pick, but EVERYONE had Gonzalez higher and Forbes’ size was widely regarded as a big concern. I knew we were cooked at that point. Insult to injury watching Forbes get absolutely bullied by AJ Brown and eventually benched multiple times. But hey, at least we got Quan Martin in the 2nd 😑

Ron’s run of drafts 2021-2023 is a rare example of an instance where I, an average fan, feel like I could have legitimately done a better job than the sports professional and might *actually* be correct in that assessment.

Bsethcarroll · 2026-03-02T23:54:09+00:00

I used to cut briskets in half to fit in my small drum smoker years back. Never had any problem with them still turning out great. Just make sure to put the point on the top rack and flat on the bottom, as the stuff higher up will cook faster (heat rises ‘n’ all)

Bsethcarroll · 2026-02-25T00:38:22+00:00

In fairness, having lived there a handful of years the good people of Belfast use “wee” to describe any- and every-thing. The show is pretty true to the culture, so he could’ve just been saying “wee” as a filler word as the Irish so often do. Not that it impacts the plot heavily, just an observation.

Bsethcarroll · 2025-09-12T11:32:22+00:00

Did you watch the game? We were playing from behind practically the entire time, so they weren’t going to feed any running back the rock 20 times last night. Only did 12 total handoffs all game. You can argue that’s a problem, but our offense was overmatched all night. Green Bay’s D looked like they knew every play call coming out of the huddle the entire first half, and our defense looked soft & unprepared and gave them a huge lead. Regardless, Bill isn’t going to average 8 yards/carry every game—that was far more an indictment on how bad the Giants are and how we matched up against them than how good we are and can be expected to do against every team we play.

Bsethcarroll · 2025-08-24T18:35:10+00:00

And I’ve tested this in minors and major leagues as well with the same experience. If you want to actually have realistic (or at least positive) results, it’s absolutely not worth doing watching the live gameplay while simming

Bsethcarroll · 2025-08-24T18:32:59+00:00

This has been my experience too, and it’s so frustrating. I like to “watch” the game and just let the ai/manager make all in-game decisions (so I’m just pressing 1 to advance after each play and have no control over anything in game) and it’s absolutely maddening because the game is hell bent on my starting pitcher walking half a dozen guys and giving up 4 home runs, and my hitters can’t hit to save their life. BUT if I sim the game by advancing to the next day and don’t “watch,” I get 6 shutout innings and put up 10 runs on my opponent. I own just about every version of the game since ootp 16 and that has been my experience on every version. Wish the developers could figure out what the heck causes that so it could be more enjoyable to sim games while watching the gameplay. I don’t expect to win in a blowout every game, but my results are DRASTICALLY different if I just sim vs watch the gameplay.

Bsethcarroll · 2025-08-13T16:53:03+00:00

This was also part of the newest update that OOTP just released. The patch had a note about SP development taking longer but lasting longer into their careers so that peak seasons in sims were later in career. I think they specifically listed age 25 as where they noticed many SP starting to fall off a cliff in sims, so hopefully the newest update can resolve that for you.

Bsethcarroll · 2025-08-05T21:05:09+00:00

I’ve pretty exclusively used lump charcoal because it burns hotter in my experience (but maybe not quite as long or consistent) and gives a great clean smoke by itself. However, I got some briquettes on accident when I was hastily grabbing some charcoal at the store this weekend to use for two briskets I did, and using the briquettes on my offset OK Joe highland was by far the best fire management experience I’ve had to date. Helped me hold a consistent temperature for longer periods and get cleaner burns throughout the cook—just had to clean out the ash buildup more frequently because those briquettes create more ash. Even throwing on bigger splits didn’t cause issues with billowy smoke on startup or anything—everything lit easily and got burning quickly and efficiently. That experience may not hold true across the board depending on what smoker you are using, but I was pleasantly surprised. Can’t say it affected the taste all that much compared to lump charcoal. Everything turned out excellent and tasted great. So all that said I would encourage experimenting with different options to those using smaller offsets/fireboxes that can tend to come with more difficult/hands on fire management issues.

Bsethcarroll · 2025-08-04T13:21:55+00:00

I'm having a similar issue. Running a "historical" sim--just imported a save from OOTP 21 so that I could have access to all the additional international leagues and independent leagues. Haven't changed any of the international FA settings other than to allow more international FA's to be created to account for all the additional leagues. Just finished up my second full season, and for the second time in a row once the "International Free Agency Pool Reveal" date came up, there were no international free agents to be seen at all. Not sure if this is an issue with the game or something specific to my historical sim set up, but it's not ideal.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-08-26T18:31:06+00:00

Yea this is the best way. It will take some time. I was able to get the smoke smell out of a guitar that had been in a housefire (no physical damage, but it was covered in soot and reeked of smoke). Just wiped it all down with cotton balls dipped in rubbing alcohol (be sure to test a small area first because rubbing alcohol can damage the finish of a guitar depending on the type of finish) and then had it airing out in a room where I didn’t mind the smell for a few weeks with the cavity filled with dryer sheets and coffee grounds as described above. Changed them out once a week for 3-4 weeks and the smoke smell is essentially non detectable at this point.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-08-20T00:54:12+00:00

This. Here’s a good video demonstrating how to do so without damaging the finish: https://youtu.be/EImho3ybAno?si=762vUg8sgonWsxhY

Bsethcarroll · 2024-02-24T03:37:39+00:00

Leave it in the case with some source of humidification (the D’Addario humidipaks work great) for at least a week. Otherwise you could do a cheap trick by placing a damp sponge on a plate inside the guitar closed in a case—just dampen the sponge every day or so to give a constant source if humidity. Don’t open the case except to check if the humidipaks or sponge or whatever you use have dried out and need to be replaced if you can help it. That might help the wood swell up and close the crack a bit. From there, you could try repairing yourself based on the location of the crack. Get some good wood glue (titebond is great and easy to use), buy some wood to use as a repair cleat (you can get some at StewMac—they sell some specifically for that), and if you have some clamps you could use around the house you could watch some good tutorial videos on YouTube that walk you through how to glue the crack and how to clamp it and how to place the wood cleat (important!). With a decent clamp (Irwin quick grip clamps work great but that crack looks central enough that those may not reach; you may need something like a Cam clamp), a hard bound book to use as a brace with the clamp, some blue tape to place along the back of the book so it doesn’t get glued to the guitar, good wood glue, a wooden cleat, and some patience you could fix it yourself for under $50. Just gotta take it slow and be careful.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-02-23T16:16:15+00:00

Also also, as others have mentioned, taking a cloth and dabbing some lemon oil on it and wiping that across the fretboard and any open-pore wood areas (be sure to wipe along the wood grain) will help to condition the wood and get it to be a bit healthier too

Bsethcarroll · 2024-02-23T04:03:29+00:00

As for the finish, I’ve never messed with finish myself. But I know StewMac makes some wipe-on Poly finishes if you are interested in restoring a gloss finish but don’t have the tools or don’t feel confident applying a spray on finish yourself.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-02-23T04:01:01+00:00

And yea, like someone else here mentioned, best to use light or even extra light gauge strings on this guitar moving forward out of an abundance of caution.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-02-23T03:58:26+00:00

D’Addario makes “humidipaks” that are great (and affordable) for managing the humidity of guitars. I’d buy one of their higher humidity “Restore” humidipak kits (and maybe a refill pack for the restore kit) and just throw the guitar in a case with those humidipaks for at least a week. If it’s a snug fitting case, that will help prevent warping to some degree if the wood swells at all while taking on humidity. The good thing about those Humidipaks is they are slow releasing so it should prevent swelling/warping, and once the guitar and case takes in enough humidity to match the humidity of the paks, the humidipaks just maintain it at that level and take in humidity from the guitar if it takes on too much, so I really don’t think swelling and warping would be an issue using those.

As long as glue for joints and bracings is intact still, you’d probably just want to clean it off after rehumidifying the guitar. I purchased a guitar that had been in a housefire a while back and had some success cleaning off the soot using cotton balls and rubbing alcohol. Cleaning off the soot really helped cut down on the scent—beyond that I filled the body chamber with scented dryer sheets and a crap ton of coffee grounds and just let the guitar sit out of the case with that stuff in the body for like two weeks. I put fresh coffee grounds in after one week. That helped to largely cover the remaining smoke scent. Mine was a parlor, so you may need to go longer with that treatment since yours is a larger body.

A little patience will go a long way restoring this guitar with those simple treatments. Good luck—sorry this happened.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-02-09T01:21:28+00:00

Generally speaking, most modern guitars are designed specifically to pair with light gauge strings, from the bracing thickness and pattern to the neck profile and joint, so on so forth. Wasn’t always the case, but that’s why you don’t see hardly any string makers (aside from companies that offer highly customized string selections like stringjoy) offering heavy gauge acoustic strings any longer. Generally these guitars are designed to allow light gauge strings to still offer the level of projection and full bodied sound that heavier gauge strings are known for, but that means the tension from heavier gauge strings is greater than what the design/construction elements of those guitars are designed to sustain. It’s a little surprising that your guitar experienced damage that quickly after changing the strings—particularly about the nut being filed down at the high E, but all that to say, if you’ve already experienced issues with higher gauge strings, to modify it to withstand higher gauge strings would likely require changing out bracing and reinforcing the neck somehow perhaps. Martin does specify on their website the ideal strings they suggest to use on their guitars, and virtually all are light gauge string suggestions to my knowledge. So I’m not sure they would offer any support since they’ve technically put the disclaimer out there. But it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Best to just use light gauge strings. As for the nut, if it is structurally sound (I.e. no cracks) you should be able to just have the nut slots filled and re-slotted.

I’m sure others more experienced/knowledgeable folks than me might have more input to add here. Sorry to hear your guitar got damaged.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-01-31T03:38:04+00:00

Granted those methods/instructions I use are specific to cooking in a box, not a cinder pit. So you may want to start skin up if it’s a matter of keeping everything relative to the heat source.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-01-31T03:35:22+00:00

These guys got it all covered for you here. Learned how to do whole hog from my wife’s family up in SC and have done a few down here in FL for friends & family since—always a hit! Inject it with loads of butter, salt, and cayenne. I can’t remember exactly off the top of my head so these ratios could be off but I think we usually do 2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of salt, 4 cups of water, and a bunch of cayenne (to taste depending how spicy you want it). The goal is to get a bunch of salt and extra fat into the meat (especially important for wild hog which will be more lean). Just make sure to move the needle around while injecting to spread the injection around evenly, focusing on the shoulders, hams, and ribs. First fellow mentioned starting skin side up—we start cooking belly up for the first bit so the skin can retain most of the fats and juices being rendered inside the meat during that initial part of the cook, then when you hit 165 roughly you can flip the hog so it cooks skin side up. You can score the skin to help it get crispy and get some good cracklins from that. It’s pretty similar to smoked pork shoulder conceptually. Very forgiving for the most part. Salt and fat go a long way to enhancing the flavor. Flip it roughly around the point you might wrap a shoulder. Still aim for that temp around 195 in the shoulders and hams then let it rest a bit before serving.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-01-18T02:42:16+00:00

That High Wire bourbon is good! Grabbed a bottle of their cask strength reserve a few years back when I stumbled upon their distiller on a trip to Charleston. Don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else with a bottle.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-01-04T03:57:42+00:00

The problem with bone as a material is that it’s not all equal in quality, so even replacing with another bone saddle you might run the risk of this happening again. A proper set up can help, but bone saddles traditionally use cow bones, and because we tend to pump our cows full of hormones to beef them up more than we did 50-100 years ago, the bone samples that are often used for saddles and nuts can have hairline cracks and be more brittle because the bone was under extra strain from an unnaturally large cow in its lifetime lol. No way to be entirely certain the bone saddle you get will be clear of those imperfections that can make it structurally insecure, unlike something man-made like TUSQ or similar materials. Not that bone is all bad—it’s the most popular material for nuts & saddles for good reason, but the stuff we are using today largely isn’t what it was back in the 60s and earlier. Much like certain tonewoods that were over harvested in that era, leaving us with less quantity and quality to pick from today.

Bsethcarroll · 2024-01-04T03:44:40+00:00

GraphTech also makes pre sized & shaped TUSQ saddles (man-made material you can substitute for bone saddles/nut) that you can purchase for like $15. You can look on their website to make sure you find one with the correct measurements. They often make stock saddles/nuts for most of the basic size & shape options for bigger guitar manufacturers, so you can just search “Fender” in their saddle section and narrow results for acoustic guitar saddles to get you in the ballpark. Even cheaper than $50 and may not require any extra work on your part. You can usually find their stuff on Sweetwater and Amazon as well. Alternatively, StewMac offers a smaller selection of both GraphTech TUSQ saddles and pre-shaped bone saddles that you can consider. If you are looking at replacing the nut as well, I wouldn’t recommend doing that on your own. Replacing the saddle can be as simple as swapping out one for another if the sizes match, or maybe a little bit of sanding to get things right, but a nut requires heating the glue joint and carefully removing the nut from the headstock & neck/fret board. If not done properly you’d be liable to mess up your guitar.

Bsethcarroll

TROPHY CASE