The Buscher

On YouTube and probably an alternate ESPN feed. The regular guys (Kiper etc) will presumably be on the main ESPN feed. And I'll be watching on NFL Network as I normally do. Belichick's saltiness in press conferences is a combination of A) not liking having media obligations in general, he's the coach and wants to spend his time watching film, planning etc....B) never wanting to give the media any information his opponents could run with which is why he avoids answering most questions and C) the biggest one, the media often asks really dumb bullshit I've posted it before but when someone asked him about why long snapper is its own position and they don't just have a regular player doing that job, his eyes lit up and he went on a 12-minute filibuster about the history of the position. Anything to do with football history he loves discussing. He was brilliant on the NFL 100 coverage a few years ago, knew everything there was to know about every player on that list. I watched his appearance on McAfee yesterday and he was again really forthcoming and insightful because he has no team to protect, he's going over his scouting theories, his thoughts on the new special teams rules etc. He's super affable when he's actually talking about football. I know he probably will try to latch on to the Eagles or Cowboys next year to get the Shula record but part of me hopes he realizes it's just way more fun to be a media guy and stays there.

My issue with that mock is if the Giants don't get a QB in the first 2 rounds they really shouldn't draft one at all. Nothing against Michael Pratt but it feels like a developmental project QB is a waste of a pick given the other needs on the roster. You draft a guy you know you are playing next year or you don't bother. The top 6 QBs (Caleb, Daniels, Maye, JJ, Penix, Nix) are all guys that I could buy taking with the express intent of playing this season. Realistically the latter 3 are the only ones they have a chance at getting and I have different reservations on all of them. But I could at least see the vision. The rookie is either starting week 1 or sitting for a brief time while Lock plays. But the other ripple effect is they drag out Jones' rehab with a plan on making him inactive all season and getting out of that contract. Mid-round QBs rarely ever work out. Again nothing against Pratt, Rattler, etc but if you draft one of them you're still banking on Daniel Jones playing week 1. And when he inevitably gets hurt again you're not only throwing your QB project into the fire before they're ready, but you're also completely screwed for 2025 cap-wise since Jones has an injury protection clause that will trigger. You can only avoid this by taking someone where you can justifiably bench Jones from the jump. I'll never root for the Giants to lose. Winning is always way more fun in the moment than losing. But the Tommy DeVito run, while a lot of fun, undoubtedly screwed this franchise.

The 2020 recruiting class was pretty transformative. Of the top 5 players in it you had Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink, and Kamilla Cardoso going in the top 3 of the draft 4 years later with Angel Reese 7th. Paige Bueckers, had she declared, would've been in the top 2 most likely. Not too many recruiting classes where the top names all completely lived up to the hype in college. Hopefully they all see success at the next level and get some more exposure for the league.

The Knicks being the 2 seed is awesome. The Knicks possibly having to play the Heat in the first round gives me the heebie jeebies. Lots of bad history with that team including last year.

Mets DFA Julio Teheran just days after signing him to a $2.5 million contract. Without context it just sounds funny and like Cohen really doesn't mind setting money on fire even more than people thought. Pretty sure this was always the plan though. The guy the Mets wanted to be the 5th starter once Megill got hurt was unable to pitch the game they needed him to because he both wasn't lined up to pitch it and not enough time had passed since he was optioned to AAA before the season. So they sign Teheran, he pitches 2.2 innings against Atlanta and looked bad but he got them as far as he could while he ramps his own workload, then DFA. If someone claims him they have to take his contract they probably won't care but know it's very unlikely. So in all probability they've just paid a big league salary to him to go to Syracuse as emergency depth which they'll likely need as pitching injuries have already piled up early in the year.

I'm a few weeks behind on Curb but I've already seen FB posts giving the general synopsis of the finale plot and it's pretty much what I assumed it would be within the first 2 or so episodes into this season. And completely fitting. Gonna miss this show.

UConn back to back national champs! What a tournament. Play the good teams close in the first half and then just completely beat them into submission in the second half.

With Shane Bieber going down for TJS and Spencer Strider getting an MRI, MLBPA is blaming the pitch clock for the injuries. It might not help but I doubt it’s the singular reason. Nearly 3 years ago, Tyler Glasnow cut a promo where he blamed the sticky stuff crackdowns. He thinks MLB doesn’t seem to realize you need substances to grip the balls with how inconsistent the baseball are now with all the changes made. He admitted to using sunscreen and rosin for most of his career, not for spin but for grip. These were legal substances but to avoid risk of being thrown out he pitched a start with no substances, had to grip his fastball and curveball far harder than he ever has in his career and woke up the next morning with soreness in areas he’s never been sore in before. Gripping the ball harder like that engages far more arm muscles on top of what you’re already doing with pitching. Feel like that’s way more likely a culprit than the pitch clock.

Yeah now seeing other angles it was definitely the right call. Still feels like refs often let things like that fly in the closing seconds but ah well. I don’t think anyone’s taking down South Carolina anyway. Not a total loss for UConn either as they got the #1 recruit for the 2024 class today.

Refs pretty much just rigged the end of UConn/Iowa to get Caitlin Clark into the finals.

Sadly it feels like KB might already be washed. It feels like player primes last longer now than they used to with all the changes to sports science, conditioning, analytics helping guys make adjustments with age, etc. At 32 and in the ultimate hitter's park you'd think he should have a few more productive years but the real problem is it seems like his bat speed is toast and it's basically impossible to succeed in MLB without that. If he's got a nagging injury causing the lessened speed hopefully he can work through that but if this is just who he is now that's quickly become one of the worst contracts in the sport.

Diggs' production took a bit of a dive in the second half of last year. Obviously the Bills have some concerns over it but I feel like it's more of a by-product of the Bills not having other weapons making it easier to gameplan against Diggs. Well, my dynasty team sure hopes Diggs adjusts well to Houston.

A win! It took the longest hitless streak in Mets history (13 innings) but it’s a win. My little Mets cap in my office doesn’t have to end up in the trash tomorrow.

0-5. When Tommy Pham got traded last year he told the media that the Mets were the least hard-working group of players he's ever been around. None of the players even attempted to defend themselves in a rebuttal. And go figure, they're still playing the same way a calendar year later. Again my issue isn't the losing it's that they come across like a complacent group of losers just happy to be there. It's shocking how uncompetitive they look the second they face even a smidgen of adversity in a game.