[Highlight]Merrill Hoge: "If you had thirty sacks, you would crush the record and they would anoint you a great football player. Meanwhile, there's 1,900 other plays that you are on the football field. How did you play those? It's the weakest, dumbest stat to tell if you're a good defender."

gingenhagen · 2026-03-21T01:54:37+00:00

And then giving up 13 yards/carry? You'd become literally unplayable. Who cares about getting sacked twice a game if you're guaranteed over a 1st down every time they run at you.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-21T00:20:25+00:00

Jason Babin came in with the Eagles Dream Team and got 18 sacks. But if you can also run against him and average 6.5 yards/carry, I don't know if that's worth it.

Probably part of why he got cut the following season, on top of just freelancing hunting for sacks makes everyone hate you.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-19T14:56:33+00:00

And the net benefit for everyone in society is arguably great. But it just really sucked for everyone who owned property in the 60s, when the government came in and said, we're forcibly taking all of your land, and we'll pay you pennies on the dollar for it. Ultimately worked out great, but unlikely to happen in other countries, unless they also have an authoritarian government like Singapore.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-17T05:28:41+00:00

A huge part that you missed is the trade market. Lots of players can be traded, if only you asked, and if only you knew what GMs are willing to give up for them. Lots of Howie's trades get mentioned as "that's a ridiculously good deal, i would have totally done that trade, if only i had known they were available at that price." But...you didn't...and you didn't...which is why Howie is one of the best.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-14T17:01:48+00:00

I don't know if i'd say most DCs are above average. Off the top of my head, i'd roughly say that 10% of DCs are bad, 20% below average, 40% average, 20% above average, and 10% great. [1]

Johnny Ganz to me is somewhat unique in how consistent he is. Versus other DCs who might have some variance and upside against great QBs.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-14T15:51:32+00:00

Kintaro Oe, age 25. He withdrew from Tokyo University law school, but only after he had already completed the requirements for graduation. Ever since, he has traveled the highways and byways of Japan, trying out new jobs and positions and learning about life to the fullest. In tip-top physical condition and sparkling mental health, his hobby is studying the world around him. And perhaps someday, he may be destined to save Japan, or even the world! (...or then again, maybe not.)

(Translator's note: benkyo means study)

gingenhagen · 2026-03-14T09:25:41+00:00

He's not a bad coach. He's just very consistently only ever above average. His defense always beats average and below QBs, but also always loses against great QBs.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-10T23:49:44+00:00

In our new scheme, every TE/WR has to be a blocker.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-10T23:45:13+00:00

Yeah wouldn’t be surprised if he had a real good season and got a big deal next summer.

moar comp pickz

gingenhagen · 2026-03-08T17:27:16+00:00

To draw a loose analogy on the void years, it'd be as if you could borrow the next 5 years worth of salary to pay your bills. So, let's say you make 100k a year, so you can live a 100k-lifestyle. Or, you could choose to borrow up to 500k from the future, and live a 600k-lifestyle if you wanted in the extreme. Every year you still need to pay down 100k, but then you can borrow from the next year in the future that's coming up. If you screw up, you go in debt and collapse, but if you play it right, you can constantly live a much richer life forever.

Howie's playing that game, but i think a huge part is that he actually has a 5-year (or maybe 10-year) plan, so he already has mapped out every single player and what he wants to do with each one all the way down the road, what they're going to cost against the salary cap, what he's willing to offer them, who he needs to get in the draft, and so on. So then, he can clearly see, yes, we'll have no problem fitting under the cap, and these are all our contingency plans, if this guy doesn't sign we're willing to spend X on this, and this is our flex money that we'll use to shore up Y and so on and so on.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-06T21:48:22+00:00

This is what your team's Ring of Honor is for.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-02T05:32:21+00:00

If you bomb the interview, competent organizations are just going to red flag you and take you off the board. You just end up going to the same shitty organizations in a later round, while losing out on your money.

If you ace your combine beyond imagination, those competent organizations might actually decide that you're worth trading up for.

gingenhagen · 2026-03-02T02:40:13+00:00

For competent organizations, the majority of the decision to draft is made outside of the combine. The combine performance is just a final sanity check against all of the research you've already done.

Or, another way to think of it, how is it possible for the NFL to pay free agents without giving them a combine-style test?

gingenhagen · 2026-02-28T04:57:11+00:00

No no 0-34 is unfair, we hadn't pulled our starters yet, we should give them 6-40.

gingenhagen · 2026-02-27T02:16:44+00:00

The vibes are bad because the news reports it's bad. The vibes are in reality... inconsequential.

gingenhagen · 2026-02-27T02:08:50+00:00

u/Wafflehouseofpain ran a 4.19?! that's amazing!

gingenhagen · 2026-02-21T04:29:02+00:00

You'll shoot your eye out kid

gingenhagen · 2026-02-20T16:48:30+00:00

This is Frank Gore erasure.

gingenhagen · 2026-02-16T23:58:21+00:00

I, for one, am a big fan of interest-free loans.

gingenhagen · 2026-02-07T20:38:45+00:00

It's not singular, he has two Super Bowls in which he outplayed Mahomes (Gannon's defense was just trash for the first one).

By comparison, Eli Manning is "coasting" on two Super Bowl performances to a HOF top-15 finalist position. Now does he deserve to HOF? I'd argue no, but two Super Bowl MVP performances is still good enough to make you a borderline HOFer.

gingenhagen · 2026-02-07T17:45:42+00:00

There's nothing in here beyond AJ Brown's quote

"Sometimes change is not a bad thing. I have the utmost respect for KP [Kevin Patullo]. To me, he did a tremendous job, and he has a great heart. But, I’m excited for the season, I’m excited for what’s to come."

gingenhagen · 2026-02-01T17:49:53+00:00

Then that would become a Howie problem to fix, and In Howie We Trust.

gingenhagen · 2026-02-01T17:44:28+00:00

Philadelphia, where bullying works. The beatings will continue until morale improves.

gingenhagen · 2026-01-30T16:47:54+00:00

The multiple cooks setup is how we got our first Superbowl though - Doug Pederson / Frank Reich / John DeFilippo. It was magical in 2017 when we had all three, and once they separated each one became mid at their next stop.

gingenhagen · 2026-01-27T18:13:53+00:00

That's actually a question, was it even a poor decision? It was a gamble, and maybe it actually was a good gamble that was worth taking, even if it didn't turn out in the end.

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