Mike Wallace On The Trade Block!!!

Weather was a huge incentive to Wallace. There was an article or two about it at the time. He hated the cold weather of Pittsburgh.

 

I'm sorry, but that whole line of thinking is silly IMO.

Ireland was the GM, Philbin was the coach. Obviously they're supposed to work as a team but the idea that Ireland not doing what Philbin..Wait, who the fruck is Joe Philbin? Some guy none of us had heard of two years ago. A guy with ZERO HC experience on any level. Dude has never even coached a damn Pop Warner team, now he's walking into Davie telling the GM how to do his job? GTFOH with that. Win some games, make a playoff appearance, put a competent staff together, OUTCOACH someone. Do something other than clap and yell "let's go" on the sidelines during games. Make a post game speech w/o using note cards. Till then, shut the hell up about who you did or didn't want.

 

Did you see our receiver unit in 2012?

 

I will be happy when this is all old news this time next year when Lazor helps Tanny make big enough strides to find the oft-open Wallace and they both are Pro Bowlers.

Any guesses on who the new scapegoat will be? It MUST be someone, and generally the easiest target is a WR.

 

I'm pretty sure it'll be Philbin.

If we don't make the playoffs it'll be Joe's fault and the fans will want him gone. It's kinda funny, the same fans who wanted Ireland gone for being a terrible GM will want Philbin gone for failing to clean up the mess Irish supposedly made, within one year's time.

 

Sad but true.

 

I stated earlier it was entirely possible for that to happen. But a supposed well connected beat writer reported, before FA began, Philbin does not like Jennings as a player. Lo and behold we sign Wallace 10 seconds after FA began. It's likely Philbin was on board with Wallace.

 

Getting 3 years to get a team to the playoffs is a pretty standard deal and not an outrageous expectation for a coach. Fans aren't being unreasonable to think that we have to make the playoffs for Philbin's job to be safe.

 

I don't know that it's fair to say Philbin pounded the table for Martin specifically. As I recall, he and Ireland went into the 2nd round with Cordy Glenn and Martin graded evenly and wanted to come out with either one of those two. The Bills made the decision easy by taking Glenn a pick ahead. No way of knowing which one we'd have taken had both been on the board.

 

Man I hope it was Ireland's decision.

 

To say Ireland disregarded any input from Philbin is only speculation.

 

True that, but Ireland came across as such an A*****le that it makes one want to believe it. hehe.

 

Oh, but those plays don't count because the defense somehow just knew the ball wasn't coming to him then.

 

People want to believe because Ireland has already been tarred, feathered, and run out of town, while with Philbin most are still holding out some hope he will be as great a head coach as believed when he was first hired.

 

I agree. It is just illogical to think otherwise.

 

You kid, but the offense was very predictable last year, relative to other offenses, especially the better ones.

 

You do realize that defenders are sort of trained to do that and they do have responsibilities to know where the ball is thrown even if it's not their guy and you know, do a thing after?

 

Trained to let a WR get wide open, just because before the fact they know the ball won't be thrown to him? No, I did not realize that.

 

There's not a lot of plays he was legitimately open on the merits of the play or his ability and should have been thrown the ball. If anything, he was thrown the ball deep too. It wasn't doing anyone any favors.

No, there's really not a number of ways with a guy like Wallace. Creating a big play with him is throwing deep. Naming different deep routes isn't actually really a different thing, either. Occasionally you'll get lucky with some other type of play, but for the most part it's just going to be bad routes and body positioning.

 

I will say this.

When someone tells me that a player was open, I always need to see the play myself before I take their word for it. WAY TOO OFTEN I run into people insisting a player was open when in reality he wasn't. Defensive players have their eyes trained on the quarterback's drop depth and shoulders. All too often someone tells me a player was open and my response was nope, that was just good defense.

 

Incidentally Mike Wallace is not great at many things but one of the things he's pretty good at are screens and that's because of his pure acceleration.

 

Receivers look open deep more easily than underneath because of spacing and you're not seeing what the quarterback is doing, where the progression is, if the ball is out, etc. You really don't need to labor to turn it into something like you're doing there.

 

He'll break the occasional big play with them, but I think that's very much a function of them not being called that frequently and him getting the occasional curveball thrown with them. He isn't Percy Harvin, and diminishing returns would close in pretty quickly I think.

 

I'd like to see him used more on shallow crosses.

 

True, but Philbin wasn't saddled with Martin that first year.

 

I dont think the average person grasps the pure speed in the NFL. It would be cool to be able to put a highlight circle around a reciever....and depending on the quality of the coverage...the circle gets smaller..or larger. I think if you could illustrate it like that....people would get a better understanding of how coverage works

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I'm not so sure. Corners have to play pretty far off him because of his deep prowess. That keeps him open to screens.

 

I'd like to see him run more deep routes.

 

So when anyone says Wallace was open deep often, he really wasn't. It was just that the person saying it really didn't understand spacing, or know the progression like you do. I guess those simpletons can at least see if the pass has been thrown anyway.

 

He's also great at.....getting open.

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Ofcourse. Its the new thing...let a guy you can't catch behind you.

Very innovative.

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He isn't really open. He just looks open to you because you don't understand spacing and you're not seeing what the quarterback is doing, where the progression is, if the ball is out, etc.

 

Just another uninformed fan who doesn't understand how the game is played.

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Safety who doesn't have to worry about legit receiver speed, can play closer to the box, changes the whole fate of a play.

 

You mean like Davone Bess and Brian Hartline?

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No one is really saying he was. We're saying he was saddled with him last year.

 

And yet, Philbin was right about Martin and Cognito. You can't claim "what does Philbin know?", when he was exactly right. If ireland did what Philbin wanted the scandal never happens and we would have been in the playoffs.

Your GM needs to respect the coach enough to fix mistakes and move on from players if need be.

 

I said as much. Its also speculation that he went along with what Philbin wanted.

 

No, Philbin wasn't exactly right. That's something you're assuming based on hand picked media reports. According to those same media reports Cogs had his best season as a pro and went to the Pro Bowl after Philbin supposedly wanted him gone in 2012. And who wanted Long, Bush, Fasano, Davis, Smith, Dansby and Burnett gone? Who wanted to stick with the 3-4? Who wanted Jason Trusnik ahead of Dion Jordan on the depth chart?

I'm not defending Ireland I just think it's impossible for anyone on the outside to know what went on between he and Philbin.