Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Today is JaMarcus Russell's 26th birthday. I think it speaks volumes to just how big of an NFL bust he was to the fact that you don't even see a sniff of a rumor of any team having interest in him... 10 Incredibly Cool Staircases... I wonder how much money California could save if it passed a law saying no public employee can be paid more than President of US? The President is paid $400,000 a year and I really can't see a justification for any public employee being paid more than that... Betty Boop turns 81 today. She looks great for 81... Who knew? Red Sox third base coach Tim Bogar is actually three months younger than Tim Wakefield... Happy 83rd birthday to Boston Celtics and NBA legend Bob Cousy... 16 Sequels Nobody Has Ever Heard Of... Interesting stat from ESPN's Gordon Edes; "If either Sox and Yanks play .500 ball rest of way, they'll have 94 wins. Angels would have to go 32-16, a .667 clip, to tie for wild card"... It was 23-years ago today that Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings... Tweet of the day from @_otis_

Brazilians use the same word for "thank you" & "congratulations," which I think would make for some really interesting pillow talk.

I think languages that use the same word for both "Thank you" and "You're welcome" have the same issue after climax.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Here's a political prediction. President Obama's speech won't be about Afghanistan so much as it will be about the number of wars "saved" or "created"... A joke that never gets old: JaMarcus Russell was number 2 for the Oakland Raiders... Quote of the Day: "Sir, there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern" - Samuel Johnson... Do you remember when stories of suicide bombers in Israel used to be an every day thing? It would be very interesting to see if the decline in this specific sort of terrorism was directly related to US taking out Saddam and the ending of his program of paying bounties to the families of the bombers... Adrian Gonzalez leads all of baseball in hits, doubles, RBI and total bases. He is starting to give off a Ted Williams sort feel (not that I was old enough to have experienced Teddy Ballgame)... Not looking at them! Not looking at them!... I think if Mike Shanahan was given a do-over he'd pick the University of Colorado job over the Redskins job... Derek Jeter may be the Yankees all-time hit leader and just 6 hits away from 3,000 but he's still 425 behind Carl Yastrzemski... I've said it before - I like Mike Torrez more than I like John Lackey (and I hate Mike Torrez).

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Danny Ainge gets fined by the NBA for an unauthorized distraction. This makes me have to ask - are there authorized distractions? If so - what are they?... With all the focus on David Ortiz - the real problem the Red Sox have had (besides injuries to Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron) has been failure to get the job done in extra inning games. The Red Sox are just 1-5 in extra innings. If they reversed that then they'd be just 2 games behind Tampa Bay... PTI makes the JaMarcus Russell / Jim Plunkett comparison days after I did. Maybe they're reading this blog?.. The Mets are a surprising 11-5 at home. Who knew?... Dustin Pedroia leads the AL in sac flies with 4. Who knew?... Random trivia - In the movie Jaws - Captian Quint's name means "fifth" in Latin. In the movie he's the fifth person killed by the shark...

Player Comparison

Here's a player comparison that recently prang to mind. Both players were very highly rated college QB's who were both taken with the first pick of the NFL draft. Here's how these two compared through their first 3-years in the NFL:

Player A - 520 CMP / 1059 ATT / 49.1 CMP% / 6904 YDS / 40 TD / 58 INT
Player B - 324 CMP / 680 ATT / 52.1 CMP% / 4083 YDS / 18 TD / 23 INT

The players would seem similar with the exception that Player A got more playing time in his first 3-years in the league. Player A is Heisman winner Jim Plunkett who was less than stellar in his time in New England but who eventually flourished when he landed in Oakland. Plunkett is the only QB to win 2 Super Bowls who is not in the football Hall of Fame.

Player B is JaMarcus Russell who has also been less than stellar in his first 3-years in the league. I have to wonder if Al Davis is thinking about Jim Plunkett and maybe that's the reason Russell hasn't been released already.

2007 NFL Draft - the QB's

In the 2007 NFL Draft there were 225 players taken of which 11 were quarterbacks.

JaMarcus Russell - Oakland - 1st
Brady Quinn - Cleveland - 22nd
Kevin Kolb - Philadelphia - 36th (2nd round)
John Beck - Miami - 40th (2nd round)
Drew Stanton - Detroit - 43rd (2nd round)
Trent Edwards - Buffalo - 92nd (3rd round)
Isaiah Stanback - Dallas 103rd (4th round)
Jeff Rowe - Cincinnati - 151st (5th round)
Troy Smith - Baltimore - 174th (5th round)
Jordan Palmer - Washington - 205th (6th round)
Tyler Thigpen - Minnesota - 217th (7th round)

Yesterday 4 of those QB's saw action in NFL games. Here's how they did in order of effectiveness.

Kevin Kolb 24/34 327 yds 2 TD
Trent Edwards 20/35 156 yds
JaMarcus Russell 12/21 61 yds
Brady Quinn 6/8 34 yds 1 INT

It almost seems that the earlier a QB was taken in the draft - the worse the performance. One other thing I found interesting about this class of QB's - compare the career numbers for these 2 players:

Player A - 2,649 yds / 18 TD / 13 INT / 74.8 Passer Rating
Player B - 3,174 yds / 16 TD / 16 INT / 68.8 Passer Rating

Player A is Tyler Thigpen, the last QB taken in the 2007 draft and Player A is JaMarcus Russell, the first player taken overall in the 2007 draft. I think you could easily make the argument that Thigpen has been the more effective QB.

Jamarcus Janikowski

Heh heh - this is pretty amusing.

And I agree - Jamarcus Janikowski would be a badass name.