OT: Non-Hockey Sports Thread X - The Search is on! (Scramblin' Fran Edition)

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TaLoN

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The sport books have to be loving the round of 64 for the men's NCAA. There can't be an unbusted bracket left after a 1 seed and a 2 seed both lost their first game.
Heard on the way home that reportedly only 25 entries nation wide that are still alive with perfect brackets. Likely to be zero very soon.
 

Wabit

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May 23, 2016
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The best part, is Barkley just assumed everyone did it that way too, just because he thought it was easier that way for himself! :laugh:

TBH I probably would have done the same as him, I'll admit I'm lazy like that.

I guess they didn't cover uniform washing in rookie orientation back then. Then again rookie orientation back then would mostly considered hazing by today's standards.
 
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TaLoN

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With the departure of Adam Thielen and a few question marks on the depth chart at the wide receiver spot, Hardman would be someone that would likely step in right away as the Vikings’ WR3 and provide an option that could take the top off of a defense. The Vikings don’t really have a “burner” type at wide receiver as things stand right now, and Hardman has speed to spare. There hasn’t been any indication that the Vikings have gotten to the point of discussing a deal with Hardman or what sort of money he’s looking for, but at this point in free agency he likely wouldn’t break the bank or anything.
 

Minnewildsota

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More and more there is speculation we're taking a QB early in this draft... here's the lastest one...

Is it bad I want the Vikings to draft Hooker just for the Fantasy Football team names that would be possible?
 

TaLoN

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When the Vikings were looking at the trade market last season to get another weapon to pair with Justin Jefferson, they were looking at a couple of wide receiver options, including Brandin Cooks. He was set to make a guaranteed salary of $18 million in 2023, and that was high for someone who is a complementary piece in an offense and not the top option. Is that worth paying? Likely not. The second wide receiver in an offense is likely to have a statline around 70 receptions for 850 yards and six touchdowns. That doesn’t feel like a good value.
Some of the recent big contracts handed out to wide receiver two types:
Big contracts to receivers who aren’t the alpha are proving to be not worth the investment. The wide receiver market currently is proving to be slow — a player like Jakobi Meyers is projected to get $16 million per season. Great for the player, awful for team-building. How do tight ends factor in here? In a few ways.
The biggest way is by utilizing 12 personnel. If you have multiple tight ends who can block and catch passes, that forces defenses to play with more linebackers on the field to defend the run, allowing offenses to get creative and create mismatches with linebackers who aren’t great in pass coverage.

When you look at EPA, the top two teams in total passing EPA this past season when running 12 personnel were the two teams in the Super Bowl: Philadelphia Eagles (31.76 EPA) and Kansas City Chiefs (31.25 EPA). What do those two teams have? A top tight end who they are paying instead of an expensive second wide receiver.
The Vikings identified that with Hockenson and it changed the complexity of the offense immediately. He finished 15th in the NFL with 86 receptions and 26th in yards with 914, and both ranked second among tight ends. The Vikings paid Hockenson less than $1 million last year, and he will make a shade more than $9 million in 2023.
How does Oliver fit in the equation? He came into the league as a one-dimentional receiver out of San Jose State. He wasn’t a blocker for the Spartans and tested really well athletically as an 81.6th percentile athlete.

After flaming out in Jacksonville, Oliver signed the Baltimore Ravens and re-invented himself as a blocker. Per PFF, Oliver posted a 72.3 overall grade, with blocking grades of 74.0 (run-blocking) and 71.9 (pass-blocking). He can do a little bit of everything for you, and his specialty as a receiver is running up the seam. With his speed and size, he can out-leverage linebackers easily while giving his quarterback a big target.
How does the market play in here? Tight ends notoriously take a long time to develop. There is a saying in the scouting community that you are drafting your tight end for their next team because they take three to four years to develop. The emergence of Hockenson this past year during his fourth season is a prime example of this. By looking at both a weak wide receiver class that was going to get overpaid massively in free agency and a less-than-stellar draft class, the Vikings’ front office identified that a second tight end with upside at $7 million average annual value on a contract that might not be that lucrative was a smarter play than paying a guy like Meyers $16 million.
 
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thestonedkoala

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