The NFL's New $41 Million Man

Skip Oliva is a friend/enemy whom I've made angry, entertained, broken up with, got back together with, and basically been round and round on.

Skip used to live here in Washington D.C. and created his own think tank regarding the government abuses of anti-trust laws and regulations.

He's been fascinating to read/listen to, because he will actually walk all the way down the path of "what would really happen if Utah's anti-trust complaint about the BCS actually got rolling."

(Note: It's not a pretty path, but I'll save that for later someday.)

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TO: Czabe FROM: Skip Oliva RE: Stafford Deal I know how much you enjoy random stats, so here's a graf from an article I posted about Matthew Stafford's new contract: "Of the 32 players who started the majority of the 2008 season at the quarterback position, the mean draft position was 90 and the median 62. (These averages are actually generous, since three starters went un-drafted, so for purposes of this analysis I assigned them one spot below the last player selected.) As for quarterbacks selected in the draft's first round, the recent evidence suggests at least a 50% failure rate. Taking the 16 quarterbacks selected between 2002 and 2006 - that is, quarterbacks with three full playing seasons since the NFL expanded to 32 teams - only eight are still with the team that selected them, and only seven are considered starters today. (And two of these seven may lose their starting jobs before the season begins.)" Skip

REACT: Which proves that for all of he so called "sophistication" of the NFL talent evaluation process (endless camps, workouts, 40 yard dash times, film sessions, etc.) teams are still compelled by the shiny object in the window. Quarterback. Is it the single most important position on the field? Probably, but there's a debate that can be had about that. (another day...) Getting to your franchise QB however, is most often NOT as simple as picking him out of college, and plunking him into your starting lineup.