#2017 draft class truthing again no problem

[luckylq36-blog]

Iran says Saudi Arabia was behind deadly Tehran

Manchester United return to top of football rich list. Juventus unveil home strip for 2017 18 season. And it. Push the reset button, and the amber lights should go back on again. If they did, congratulations. You're done.. 5. Find a receiving tight end. Arizona has basically gotten nothing out of the tight end position recently, with Troy Niklas struggling with injuries after being taken in the second round of the 2014 draft, while Darren Fells has been a replacement level contributor.

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[theofficialstereklibrary]

Top 18 Sterek Fics 2017

Hello, our lovely followers!

For the past two years, we’ve been giving you guys a list of our favorite fics that we read and we are back at it again! These are the fics that really stood out to us in 2017. (here are our faves from 2016 and 2015)

Like always, this fandom came through with so many good fics this past year and we hope to see more and more sterek fics posted even with the show done.

We wish you all the best in 2018 <3

Kass’:

There Are No Wolves In California by kitsunequeen (1/1 | 7,579 | G)

Hunter!Stiles accidentally hits a wolf with his car and can't bear to leave him in the road to die. It's not till he gets the wolf home that he sees its eyes glow red... ------- Even everyday roadkill is upsetting, but this thing… Moments ago it was probably a majestic beast, and now it’s a mangled pile of soon-to-be rotting flesh. He presses a shaking hand to the only part of its chest left intact, not even thinking about whether it'll give him rabies or some other awful disease.

He’s about to pull back when something even crazier happens.

He realizes the wolf is breathing.

We Have Potential by dragon_temeraire (2/2 | 10,196 | PG13)

Derek has finally been invited to the annual North American Werewolf Convention. The only problem? They’re expecting him to bring a significant other. He doesn’t actually have one, but everyone volunteers Stiles for the job.

A Royal Christmas Engagement by skoosiepants (1/1 | 25,865 | NC17)

Young omega Warden Lord Mieczysław Stilinski, given the royal request of marrying Crown Prince Derek Hale of Triskelion, predictably messes the whole entire thing up.

Or –

An arranged marriage, mistaken identity, a/b/o, accidental heat fic

Hale’s Modern Encyclopedia of Playing Cards (and Dating Humans) by thepsychicclam (1/1 | 49,698 | R)

Wolves don't date humans. And Derek's okay with that. He's got his Pack, his friends in the Pack network, and lacrosse. Plus, he plays cards with his grandma all the time. Stiles Stilinski definitely doesn't factor into his life - no matter how much of a crush Derek has on him.

But when bird creatures attack Derek, Stiles, and their friends in the Preserve, Stiles finds out about werewolves and things get pretty complicated. For Derek at least. And he thought school was his only problem, but now he's grounded and Stiles is hanging around way too much for Derek to ignore him any longer.

Slow Hands by aussiebee (1/1 | 8,489 | NC17)

Derek is suddenly made aware of Stiles in an entirely new and uncomfortable way; specifically, his hands. His wide, strong, clever and dextrous hands.

Derek is kinda screwed.

The Start of Our Forever by Cobrilee (1/1 | 20,546 | NC17)

Stiles is ready to get out of Beacon Hills and start his new life, free of the supernatural. A random discovery in an antique store in Denver proves you can never leave it all behind... and encourages him to find it again. What ensues is four and a half years of pining, self-discovery, personal growth, a whole hell of a lot of love, and a realization that nightmares can still become fairy tales (happily-ever-afters included).

In Which Laura Is Never Going To Let Derek Live This Down by Omimouse (1/1 | 1,587 | PG13)

Prompt: A soulmate fic where you’ve got “Help! Save me!” on your wrist. So you do the martial arts classes, and ROTC, and get a concealed carry permit, you are READY, you are SO up for this… and then one day you’re at a friend’s house, and someone comes pounding down the stairs laughing and ducks behind you and goes “Help! Save me!” and that’s how you find out your soulmate was escaping a tickle fight.

“Laura, for the love of god, stop laughing and get him off of me.”

Gnashing Teeth and Criminal Tongues (conspire against the odds) by LadySlytherin (1/1 | 14,269 | R)

When Stiles mouths off to the wrong set of witches, he finds himself unable to control his tongue around a certain alpha werewolf. As Stiles struggles with the lesson the witches want him to learn, he knows it's only a matter of time until the truth comes out. It always does.

This is Not (In Fact) Okay by rileywrites (1/1 | 3,062 | PG13)

Derek and Stiles end up partnered for a project, and Derek contents himself with being a part of Stiles' life. For a while. ... Derek meets Stiles in his political science class. It's a 200-level class, so he doesn't expect any seniors to be involved. He definitely doesn't expect the hotshot senior midfielder from the lacrosse team to be in the class, let alone sitting beside him.

Tine's:

pick it up if we're moving too slow by standinginanicedress (12/12 | 139,856 | NC17)

“…I want a dude who’s going to take me out on dates. And I want him to meet my dad in, like, a sweater vest and khakis and shake his hand and talk about sports with the guy. And I want him to have a car and an apartment – not like, nice ones? But ones, you know? He’s got a dog, too. He drives me around and buys me stuff and is nice to my dad and my friends but then, like,” he squeezes the basketball extra hard and is sure he feels some air being let out of it, “…he ties me up sometimes, too. Is that too much to ask for? Am I reaching for the stars?”

Scott shakes his head, shuffling the cards and making piles out of them, likely by category. “There are no kinksters in Beacon Hills. We’ve been over this.”

To Make It Right by kitsunequeen (41/? | 121,147 | R)

In a society where the werewolves have been enslaved by the humans, Derek has had enough owners to know who the real monsters are. He's also had enough to know not to trust a word out of Stiles' mouth, no matter how nice an act he puts on.

The only thing that's kept Derek going for all these years is guilt. Now, though, he has a mission that might just allow him to set some of this right...

If only he can get away from Stiles.

-----

In which Derek's been abused all his life, Stiles just wants to show him he's not like his past owners, and they've both got a plan. The only question is, whose is more flawed?

And the Cold Pulls You Down by blacktofade (1/1 | 12,967 | NC17)

“Do you believe in ghosts?” Stiles asks Derek one night after he’s settled into bed, listening to the sound of Derek brushing his teeth in the bathroom.

“Ghosts?” Derek asks, voice muffled by toothbrush and paste as he stands in the doorway to stare at Stiles.

Or, the one where Stiles is 99.9% sure their house is haunted and no one believes him.

Seat Belts & Gravity by calrissian18 (1/1 | 22,411 | NC17)

People leave in Beacon Hills, give up on the town, the people, on life itself. And he and Derek are still here, six years later, still able to drink a beer and share space. It’s kind of remarkable in a really understated way.

Constantly on the Cusp by alisvolatpropiis (13/13 | 40,884 | NC17)

Stiles is gay, out and proud, and a Beacon Hills deputy. Derek is a firefighter and war veteran who thinks he's straight; or, Derek and Stiles have lots of semi-public hatesex on the road to Love.

Bruises and Hickies, Stitches and Scars by ElisAttack (12/12 | 89,808 | NC17)

“You’re my lawyer, Derek. What are you going to do, draft up a contract for yourself?”

Or the one where Stiles is a professional dominant, Derek is his lawyer, and their professional relationship suddenly becomes not so professional.

Also, faeries.

Start Small, Like Oak Trees by SmallBirds (1/1 | 24,234 | R)

The months following Allison's death have passed Stiles by in a haze of monotony. He sleepwalks through days that seem to lose their color, an unwilling passenger in a body he no longer trusts. Eventually, he thinks, he'll just fade away. He isn't sure anyone would notice. Then, during a spur of the moment grocery run, he stumbles upon Derek Hale attempting to console a lost child, and for the first time in recent memory the world doesn't seem so awful. He's not sure what he'd been expecting when he eventually convinces Derek to move into the Stilinski's spare bedroom, but a newfound passion for weeding and topsoil certainly isn't it.

Can't Take the Heat? by Ilovesocks_24 (15/15 | 55,425 | PG13)

“Hi, I’m Stiles, and what I have for you today is…”

“Stop, just stop.” Grumpy Eyebrows interrupted. “That is honestly the worst looking Pasta Primavera I have ever seen. I don’t even want to eat it, it looks so bad.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes. No one insulted his creamy bacon carbonara without even trying it. And no one insulted his creamy bacon carbonara after they tried it either.

“It’s actually a Creamy Bacon Carbonara, asshole,” Stiles snapped. “And for the record, it’s supposed to look like that.” Or the one where Stiles is a new sous chef at Full Moon Steakhouse and Derek is the Gordon Ramsay of all head chefs. So of course they fall in love.

Written in the Stars by Quixoticity (6/6 | 26,596 | R)

Derek Hale is a lucky guy. He's got a great family, good friends, and a fulfilling job as a tattoo artist.

He's also one of the twenty-five per cent of the population born with a soul mark.

He likes his life, but he's waiting for his soul-match. The odds of meeting them aren't great but hey, Derek's a lucky guy. He has faith.

He can't believe how good his luck really is when one day his soul-match wanders right into his studio, all long limbs and copper eyes. There's just one problem: Stiles is there to get his soul mark covered up. Permanently.

[aibidil]

2017 Feel-Good Drarry Fic

A few days ago I posted a rec list of 2017 Drarry fic that tackled Important Issues. But not every fic has to be important or political, and I wanted to also put together a list of some fics that have made us smile, laugh, cackle, awwww, and generally feel good about life. Thank you to everyone who puts a smile on the collective face of the fandom. Again, this is not a “best-of” or “favorites” list, and it is unavoidably subjective (and thank you to everyone who contributed ideas to the list!), but I hope you get some joy from these fics. Humor, fluff, crack, and smiles ahead (in no particular order)!

Pretty Fond of Not Very Good Ideas by @lqtraintracks: Harry Peterson, Orderer Extraordinaire, and his trusty sidekick, Ray. Or: Harry's been hit with a memory charm, but it's okay because he realises he's bent for Draco Malfoy.

It looked a lot bigger in the picture by @ravenclawsquill: Draco is determined to experience the full novelty of an authentic Muggle holiday. Harry doesn't quite understand, but when does he ever understand Draco? (Or, the time Harry and Draco accidentally went dogging in a car the size of a matchbox.) 

I Can’t Take It! by @xx-thedarklord-xx: After the war, Draco Malfoy became an author. A best selling author whose books move the hearts of those who read them. Which wouldn't be a problem for Ron if all of them weren't about Harry! It was obvious to him that Malfoy was in love with his best friend but why was it that no one else seemed to think so? He was going to get to the bottom of this and get Harry to stop mooning over the blonde idiot at the same time. Perhaps, they just needed someone to come along and get them to fess up. For the safety of his own sanity, Ron was going to help Malfoy ensnare Harry. That is, if they can get along long enough not to kill each other.

It’s Our Party and We’ll Fuck If We Want To by @firethesound: It's like if a tree falls in the forest, Harry thinks. Sneaking away to blow his boyfriend in a coat closet at their own housewarming is only a bad idea if they get caught, right?

A Hyperactive Fruit, a Nasty Neighbour and a Love Story by @synonym-for-life: Potter’s pet Niffler is wreaking havoc in Godric’s Hollow and Draco, the Assistant Head to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, is the one that has to deal with it. Repeatedly. The fact that Potter keeps coming to Draco’s office in grey jogging bottoms - repeatedly - does in no way help the matter. 

Just Friends (Or Why Draco Malfoy Shouldn’t Have Sex in His Office) by @unadulteratedstorycollector: Harry and Draco are Auror partners, friends, and um... well, that's it. Yes, Hermione, that is it. At least it is until Harry catches him doing a certain something that he can't get out of his mind.

Mugglewear and Broomstick Skills by @callingdrarry: The eighth years attempt a game of football in Muggle Studies. What is meant to be an insight into Muggle sports turns into a fashion show of ridiculous outfits and Harry nearly losing his mind.

when life hands you (lulu)lemons by @carpemermaidtales: Harry grows bored with his usual running path, and finds himself a surprising new jogging partner when he takes a different route. 

The River Thames on a Sunday by @lqtraintracks: A slice of their life in London. Harry jogs. Draco tinkers about. There's rimming. And tea.

Better Than an Origami Bird by @o0o-chibaken-o0o and @jadepresley: A series of letters in which Harry and Draco argue, play truth or dare, get kinky, and are a couple of very naughty (or very good, depending on who you ask) boys during class.

The Sleeping Beauty Curse by anonymous for HD-Erised: When Draco Malfoy falls into a cursed sleep and can only be woken – at least, according to the Daily Prophet, that impeccable source of truth – by ‘true love’s kiss’, Harry Potter knows there’s no way on earth he’s the answer to this particular riddle. Is he . . .?

The Full Monty by @magpiefngrl: Harry poses for a naked Auror calendar and Draco goes batshit crazy with lust.

Fervor by @goldentruth813: Draco hates being woken up in the middle of the night. But he likes sex, and he loves Harry. So maybe it's not so bad after all.

Divination for Dickheads by @seefin: It doesn't actually turn out to be the worst birthday present he's ever been given.

Can I kiss you? by @rose-grangerweasleyisbae: Teddy had been over the moon when Harry had allowed Draco to tag along with the annual Weasley beach weekend when Andromeda couldn't come. Draco not so much. Would Teddy's cousin and godfather ever get along?

Shatterproof Plan by digthewriter: Teddy drags Draco to Australia for Christmas. Draco is down on himself for being forty and still single. They see Harry. Angst. Past relationship drama. Happy ending.

There’s No Espresso in Azkaban by @sassy-cissa: When Harry finds Draco working in a Starbucks, he finds coffee has suddenly become more interesting.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Cake Rota by @gingertodgers: Harry and Draco are drafted onto the office cake rota.

The Slickening: From Devil’s Snare to Penetratio Totalus by @aibidil, @bixgirl1, @carpemermaidtales, @femmequixotic, @noeeon, @shiftylinguini: Sometimes help comes from the place you least expect it.

Moon-Eyed by @l0vegl0wsinthedark: Draco Malfoy, Head of Veela Affairs at the Department of Magical Beings, does not do people favours. Harry Potter, recently turned werewolf, is not “people” – not to Draco anyway. Does Draco plan to fall in love with Harry when he decides to help him? No. Does he end up falling in love with him anyway? Pft, what do you think?

He Whose Hand and Eye Are Gentle by khalulu: Draco reads poems and sometimes writes them. Harry receives poems and sometimes reads them. Rutherford delivers poems via the scenic route. Wombat snores. Eventually, all comes together, with help from the foxes in red bibs and the sumo referee.

Shades of You by @bloodyflammable: Draco certainly never intended to be a style consultant for the seriously fashion challenged, but after the war and the reparations his family had to pay, it was clear he would need to earn a living. However, if having to earn a living meant he got to admire Potter’s arse and shoulders in well-fitted clothes, it wasn’t that bad. Or was it?

Group Chat by @jadepresley: A screenshot of a group chat conversation between Draco, Harry, Ron, Pansy, Hermione and Theo.

Like Cinderella, But With Cock by @l0vegl0wsinthedark: ”Oh, shit,” he groans, “This is like Cinderella, isn’t it?! Like Cinderella, but with cock. Cock instead of slippers.” Where Harry’s hexed so that he can’t lose his erection until he sleeps with his soulmate. If only those were easier to find.

November Third by @queenofthyme: November third. It should have been a day like any other. Except it never was. Not for Draco Malfoy. Every November 3rd, the universe seemed to grant Draco Malfoy a chance with Harry Potter. A chance for what exactly, it wasn’t always clear. But something more than their rivalry. Something more than the empty words they shouted at each other across the schoolyard. Something that grew into a little bit more something every year.

Howlr by @partialtopotter: Howlr is the new dating application enchanting Witches, Wizards and Everyone in between. Are you looking for the one or a one-night stand; it’s all here folks. Howlr is sponsored by Weasley Wizard Wheezes, the same team that brought us the Spellular just two years ago. Ginny Weasley, famed chaser for the Hollyhead Harpies, swears by the app, ‘guaranteed to make sparks fly,’ she says. The magic awaits you!

It’s Joggers Season (or so the Muggles say) by @carpemermaidtales: Everything about Draco’s life since May has been one bloody long exercise in subverting everything he’s known, that’s expected of him, in an effort to get as far away from the mistakes he’s made—the wrong choices he was forced into. He’s returned to Hogwarts to take his N.E.W.T.s and everything is different—namely, Harry Potter strutting around in clingy joggers that Draco can’t get off his mind.

Quietly, as Requested by @shiftylinguini: Harry was trying to pretend Draco’s warm thigh against his own didn’t make his heart thump and his cock start to fill out inside his usual lazy Sunday attire ― which consisted of a t-shirt with a hole in the armpit and the world’s oldest, rattiest, ugliest and most comfortable pair of joggers. In comparison, Draco was wearing a buttoned up shirt and a pair of crisp, black trousers, which made him both seem impressively attractive and also entirely overdressed for this kind of occasion. Harry lifted one knee, trying to shield the view of his slightly tenting joggers, and the state he was rapidly finding himself in. Perhaps inviting Draco to Sunday Bad Movie night at Ron’s wasn’t that smart an idea after all.

Tackson Pollock [ALIYTM oneshot] by saras_girl: It’s a wet Sunday afternoon. What are a beetle and a Gryffindor to do? 

Dance Magic, Dance by @jet-playin: Only one person can make this Halloween night worth Harry's ridiculous costume, and he's not here...

Christmas lights to melt your heart by phrynne: The light does not move. It does not flicker, does not fade. He has the strange feeling it’s waiting for him. Basically, what the tags say + Harry is romantic af + Draco is clueless.

The Romantic Prawn Who Loved Christmas by @bixgirl1: When Draco, forced into sharing a room with Potter for the year, finds out that Potter has a sleepwalking problem, he expects the odd conversations and the weird games of chess. What comes as a complete shock are Potter's other activities...And why he seems so intent on having Draco join him. (Relax. It's just like a holiday Hallmark movie! ...With, uhm, sleepwanking.)

[rosedalemike]

The Mood: Blog #11 “WTF is next, ROSEDALE?!”

     I've had so many random ideas for what this next blog should be about. I wanna try to stay on track with the story of Rosedale's farewell/next chapter as that seems to be the most common topic with the lovely Rosedaliens that have been coming out to shows.      But the truth is that I'm just as unsure as everyone else. I don't even have a clear vision of what I picture September looking like. I guess my plan in September is to plan what 2019 is going to look like. 2019 seems so much further than it actually is, I'm sure.      The only things I'm sure of are that I would like to: 1: be a helpful contribution to music scenes (artists, venues, promoters, fans etc.) using more than just my own voice. 2: keep making new music under a different name (using my voice ...maybe some features...maybe a band? Who knows. I'd love for someone else to decide that.) 3: continue to work with other artists on their art and ideas.      I know those are all vague ideas. And regarding the name delema; I have a giant draft email to myself (the most common email address in my inbox is rosedalebooking@gmail.com) that has a bunch of artist names and band names. Some are pretty good, some are not. 

Self-Lyric Party: 

" 'cause I live entirely for the self-satisfaction that I made this- I turn Whiter than a song in C as I watch the room empty No! Just press on, believe. My numbers are truly sad Tell me again; can I beat Quicksand? Yes I Can! " - Quicksand

    As I check back to my last blog (to see how I quote/credit a lyric party...to keep continuity) I noticed that google placed a Chipotle add on the right side of the blog page! This is likely because I searched Chipotle at least 10 times in this past week. And that is because there is new company in the new Rosedale crew already and Chipotle sometimes hooks up traveling musicians with free food. 

     Her name is Siena. We all know Bryan, right? (cousin, hockey guy, #1 merch dude/email address collector...) Siena is the female Bryan. But luckily, she's not my cousin. I mean it'd be awesome to have known her all my life (like I've known Bryan all my life,) but for "heart-crush" reasons, I'm really glad she's most definitely not my cousin. 

     I met Siena at our San Diego show in November 2017. I say "our" because she's in a band called Going Postal, and they played that Soma show too. Like many bands today, they'll admit that their future is a giant question mark. But unlike many bands today, they sound awesome! 

Check them out

.https://goingpostalca.bandcamp.com/releases

     I call Siena "S Money" because one of her friends she was facetiming called her that and I, too, wanted to sound gangsta- "DJ $ Money" to be exact. Siena is finishing her final online college classes while traveling around America with me and selling my merch. When she's not selling merch she's helping me move my insane amounts of gear. When she's not selling merch and moving my insane amounts of gear she's teaching me how to promote in a more professional manner by helping me post enticing social media posts/stories/streams more regularly/organically. 

     Siena is a very kind-hearted, helpful champion that is way too chill to be so attractive. I just may be the luckiest Tall Canadian with Way Too Much Gear to have her on tour with me. After this tour she's moving to LA to become a world famous movie star so I only have about a month more of her awesomeness. She likes animals a lot, especially animal memes/vines. Mostly cats and dogs. So share/send any good ones and I'll make sure she sees them. (I'm also currently tethering off her wifi hotspot because all of Ohio's wifi is down right now.)

      Now that I've made you feel warm with paragraphs of cute kittens and puppies and rock n' roll princesses and awesome music and free Chipotle and sharing wifi; I must reveal some bad news; MY BACK IS F**KED!!! I somehow slowly injured my lower back while walking down some rusty stairs at the wrestling ring venue in Benwood, WV last Tuesday. I was getting ready to catch a little light-up-with-movement Nerf football, moving no different than any human casually walking down a set of stairs- then all of a sudden I felt my back juice trickling into the lower center of my back.     Don't be alarmed, this is not a career ending injury or anything. This actually happens to me every two years or so. And this time is not nearly as bad as the last time (when I was filling in for my Dad in his Canadian Tire men's hockey league and I casually skated behind my net to find out how 3 weeks of near paralyzing lower back pain felt.)      It's funny; when people ask if I have tall people back problems and I'm not dealing with back problems at that given moment, I usually reply "nope". But as soon as I do experience my dual-annually (I made up that word...) back pain, I remember the last time I had severe back pain.       So anyway, I had to cancel two shows and I'm not happy about it. It's getting better. I'm three days without pain relief meds. Stretching a lot. Rubbing Tiger Balm and Icey Hot every few hours. Just taking it easy in Cincinnati until Atlanta's show on Tuesday. That show is gonna be really awesome and there’s no way I’m missing it.      I played drums for a band on Warped tour in Dallas too. That was pretty fun. I learned their songs in three days. They have a lot of air horns in their music so I went kind of overboard with the Roland Pad's air horn sample. (Maybe that's why they found a replacement drummer for Pittsburgh Warped.)      It was fun seeing the Warped Tour for the last year and getting to play on stage again. We also went to the Cincinnati Warped Tour and learned what heat stroke felt like.

     Enough updates on my odd summer. I'll wrap it up with some insightful life/music stuff as I'm hanging out with the infamous Alex Baker.  https://alexanderbaker.bandcamp.com/ First though, his dad told us one of the greatest dad joke of all time: 

DAD JOKE PARTY:

"I was trying to think of a good reason to go to Switzerland and then I realized the flag was a big plus." 

But for real; we were talking about how things would be so different if we had just been understanding with our ex-bandmates in the golden years. We were all young and surrounded by the odd discovery of egos driven by art/success.  Alex was in a band called Dewey Decibel  https://alexanderbaker.bandcamp.com/album/the-dusting-dewey-decibel They had a fun indie style with a really organic, interesting production. Dewey Decibel recorded their album in their house in Nashville. From the sounds of it, once they started getting attention from NPR and local radio stations things started getting to everyone's heads. 

     It's not uncommon for a band to get along really well when things are on the up then fall apart when the going gets tough. The more I see it the more I understand the damage it did to Rosedale.      But on the other end of that unfortunate reality is the fact that I never would have met Alex Baker if the Rockstar ego-turmoil didn't happen to Dewey Decibel and Rosedale. I probably wouldn't have met Siana (AKA DJ $ Money) either. I'm not preaching that everything happens for a reason. I'm just kinda preaching that if you take the inevitable destructive events in life and turn them into fuel to move on and stay positive, better relationships grow. And those relationships are better because you've grown and learned how to be a better person.       So, like I keep driving home in all of these "Farewell Blogs", I'm looking forward to where things go. I'm happy I've experienced all the curveballs along the way to teach me how to eventually hit some home runs. I feel like I'm on the right track with these new friends that I've only met through grinding past the hard times and pressing on for what I had my heart set on.       Do you ever think of how you came to know some of your best friends? Like what events led them/you there that day and how grateful you are for those events and the transparent friendships they created? I know facebook gives us the ol "5 years of friendship" tag or whatever. But sometimes I see those and think "ohhh if you only knew, facebook...me and Casey Phillips go WAY BACK!"      Anyway that's all for now. If you've been thinking of meeting me or Siena or Alex Baker the best way/time to do it is to come out to an event we're at and experience some in person hangouts. This will be the last few weeks of touring for quite some time for me so really try to highlight these dates and make a solid effort to come catch a show. I promise you will not regret it. 

UPCOMING SHOWS:  7/24 - Atlanta,GA @ The Masquerade  7/27 - Jacksonville, FL @ Jackrabbits 7/29 - St. Augustine, FL @ Sarbez 8/3 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Black Forge Coffee 8/4 - Niagara, NY @ Evening Star 8/7 - Brampton, ON @ Spot 1 8/10 - Charleston, WV @ The Empty Glass 8/11 - Myrtle Beach, SC @ TBA Then a bunch of East Coast tour dates.

[juliebooks]

Favorite Books of 2017

It’s 2018!!!! Last year I read 20 books, so in honor of 2017 I picked my favorite reads out of this 20 books. Hope you’ll meet your next read.

1. The Problem with Forever by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Goodreads summary: Growing up, Mallory Dodge learned that the best way to survive was to say nothing. And even though it's been four years since her nightmare ended, she's beginning to worry that the fear that holds her back will last a lifetime. Now, after years of homeschooling, Mallory must face a new milestone—spending her senior year at a public high school. But she never imagined she'd run into Rider Stark, the friend and protector she hasn't seen since childhood, on her very first day. It doesn't take long for Mallory to realize that the connection she shared with Rider never really faded. Yet soon it becomes apparent that she's not the only one grappling with lingering scars from the past. And as she watches Rider's life spiral out of control, Mallory must make a choice between staying silent and speaking out—for the people she loves, the life she wants and the truths that need to be heard.

This book was such an emotional rollercoaster for me. It made me cry, laugh, jump. As the characters grow you grow with them. It’s so beautiful how Armentrout lets you connect with the characters so well. Their pain was my pain, and their now was my joy. This book will forever be in my heart and is just one of those books which you wouldn’t mind to reread over and over again. 

2.Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Goodreads summary: In a kingdom by the sea… In a secret world where half-angel warriors are sworn to fight demons, parabatai is a sacred word. A parabatai is your partner in battle. A parabatai is your best friend. Parabatai can be everything to each other—but they can never fall in love. Emma Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhunter, and the best in her generation. She lives for battle. Shoulder to shoulder with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries—the most powerful of supernatural creatures—teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries turn up murdered in the same way Emma’s parents were when she was a child, an uneasy alliance is formed. This is Emma’s chance for revenge—and Julian’s chance to get back his brother Mark, who is being held prisoner by the faerie Courts. All Emma, Mark, and Julian have to do is solve the murders within two weeks…and before the murderer targets them. Their search takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery where death is dispensed. And each clue she unravels uncovers more secrets. What has Julian been hiding from her all these years? Why does Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai to fall in love? Who really killed her parents—and can she bear to know the truth?

Shadowhunters!!!!!! Obviously at least one of the new books couldn’t stay out of this list. I was at first worried to start a new series after finishing TMI. I was so connected to the TMI characters that it was hard to imagine they would not be the main characters anymore and that we only would know glimpses of their life. However, I couldn’t bear to not submerge myself in the shadow world any longer. I’m so happy I did. I fell in love again with all these new characters, and there was more of the old characters in this book than I had imagined. Bravo, Clare, bravo. I can’t wait to read Lord of Shadows. 

3. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Goodreads summary: Darcy Patel is afraid to believe all the hype. But it's really happening - her teen novel is getting published. Instead of heading to college, she's living in New York City, where she's welcomed into the dazzling world of YA publishing. That means book tours, parties with her favorite authors, and finding a place to live that won't leave her penniless. It means sleepless nights rewriting her first draft and struggling to find the perfect ending... all while dealing with the intoxicating, terrifying experience of falling in love - with another writer. Told in alternating chapters is Darcy's novel, the thrilling story of Lizzie, who wills her way into the afterworld to survive a deadly terrorist attack. With survival comes the responsibility to guide the restless spirits that walk our world, including one ghost with whom she shares a surprising personal connection. But Lizzie's not alone in her new calling - she has counsel from a fellow spirit guide, a very desirable one, who is torn between wanting Lizzie and warning her that...

I feel every aspiring writer should read this book. I loved the perspective of having the two stories in the book. Seeing Darcy doubts and struggles as a young writer, and how she grows and becomes more herself and that reflects on her writing. Then we have Lizzie’s world which is full of mystery, and death. The only thing I’m crossing my finger for is a sequel. 

4. Happily Ever After by Kiera Cass

Summary: Meet Prince Maxon before he fell in love with America and a girl named Amberly before she became queen. See the Selection through the eyes of a guard who watched his first love drift away and a girl who fell for a boy who wasn’t the prince. This gorgeous collection features four novellas from the captivating world of Kiera Cass’s #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series

It’s been a while since reading a book of the Selection Series, and how I missed it. How interesting to read the background of some of the most loved characters. I just wished I could forget this series so I can read it over again and feel like it is the first time. 

5. Beware That Girl by Teresa Toten

Goodreads summary: This powerful psychological thriller with multiple mysteries is set against the backdrop of the megawealthy elite of New York City. Toten delves into the mesmerizing yet dysfunctional world of those who manipulate but seem ever so charming. With its gripping pace and Hitchcockian twists, Beware That Girl will keep readers guessing until the very last line. The Haves. The Have-Nots. Kate O’Brian appears to be a Have-Not. Her whole life has been a series of setbacks she’s had to snake her way out of—some more sinister than others. But she’s determined to change that. She’s book smart. She’s street-smart. Oh, and she’s also a masterful liar. As the scholarship student at the Waverly School in NYC, Kate has her work cut out for her: her plan is to climb the social ladder and land a spot at Yale. She’s already found her “people” among the senior class “it” girls—specifically in the cosseted, mega-wealthy yet deeply damaged Olivia Sumner. As for Olivia, she considers Kate the best friend she’s always needed, the sister she never had. When the handsome and whip-smart Mark Redkin joins the Waverly administration, he immediately charms his way into the faculty’s and students’ lives—becoming especially close to Olivia, a fact she’s intent on keeping to herself. It becomes increasingly obvious that Redkin poses a threat to Kate, too, in a way she can’t reveal—and can’t afford to ignore. How close can Kate and Olivia get to Mark without having to share their dark pasts?

Wow, just wow. This book is filled with surprises. In various occasions I literally jumped out of my bed from the “What the hell” reaction. It was just wonderful, it had the right amount of plot twists. The ending was so much better, I didn’t see it coming. I literally recommend it for anyone who likes mystery, plot twists, twisted stories. 

6. The Princess Saves Herself In This One by Amanda Lovelace

Goodreads summary: "Ah, life- the thing that happens to us while we're off somewhere else blowing on dandelions & wishing ourselves into the pages of our favorite fairy tales."

A poetry collection divided into four different parts: the princess, the damsel, the queen, & you. the princess, the damsel, & the queen piece together the life of the author in three stages, while you serves as a note to the reader & all of humankind. Explores life & all of its love, loss, grief, healing, empowerment, & inspirations.

A lot of people don’t like this type of books because they don’t consider it poetry. However, it’s up to people’s taste. I liked it, it made me cry in some of the entries, and it motivate me in others. I feel that if you’re open enough and willing to try you can give it a chance. 

I hope you find your next read in here. Enjoy!!!!!!!!

[jarrettfuller]

Favorite Essays of 2017

Every year, I keep a running list of my favorite essays, articles, and interviews I read throughout the year. The past years's lists can be found here: 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

Below are a handful of my favorite pieces of writing from 2017 with topics ranging from social media to Dwayne Johnson, North Korea to Homer, postmodernism to Olive Garden. Enjoy!

How Jokes Won The Election - Emily Nussbaum (January 23, 2017) Emily Nussbaum is one of my favorite critics and she kicked off this year with a brilliant look at the intersection of jokes, comedy and politics in the 2016 election. "By 2016 the wheel had spun hard the other way: now it was the neo-fascist strongman who held the microphone and an army of anonymous dirty-joke dispensers who helped put him in office. Online, jokes were powerful accelerants for lies—a tweet was the size of a one-liner, a “dank meme” carried farther than any op-ed, and the distinction between a Nazi and someone pretending to be a Nazi for “lulz” had become a blur. Ads looked like news and so did propaganda and so did actual comedy, on both the right and the left—and every combination of the four was labelled “satire.” In a perverse twist, Trump may even have run for President as payback for a comedy routine: Obama’s lacerating takedown of him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. By the campaign’s final days, the race felt driven less by policy disputes than by an ugly war of disinformation, one played for laughs. How do you fight an enemy who’s just kidding?"

A Father's Final Odyssey - Daniel Mendelsohn (April 24, 2017 I like essays about literature, about travel, and about father/son relationships and this one had all three. Mendelsohn recounts the story of his father attendeding a class he was teaching on Homer's Odyssey and the trip they took together before his father died retracing Homer's journey.

Dwayne Johnson for President! - Caity Weaver (May 10, 2017) Caity Weaver is the master of the celebrity profile — whether it's Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, or even the new Ken Doll — and her profile of Dwayne Johnson from May is no exception. Be sure to listen to her interview on the Longform podcast too, where she talks about writing about celebrities and celebrity culture.

America's First Postmodern President - Jeet Heer (July 8, 2017) Jeet Heer quickly became my favorite political writer this year with a series of essays applying Marxism, media theory, and postmodernism to our current political climate. I posted a Twitter thread back in October highlighting a few of my favorite pieces, but the one I come back to again and again is this piece where he argues Trump is our first postmodern president.

You Are the Product - John Lanchester (August 17, 2017) Countless books have been written about the influence and power of social media, especially Facebook, and this year saw a new critical lens put upon the internet giant. The best piece, in my opinion, is John Lanchester's piece in the London Review of Books where he synthesizes a lot of ideas around social networking, advertising, and Facebook's power into a coherent theory on the role of social media in today's society. I've read this piece a few times and even assigned it to one of my classes where it generated one of the more livelier discussions of the semester.

How America Lost Its Mind - Kurt Andersen (September 2017) The Atlantic ran an adapted excerpt from Kurt Andersen's new book Fantasyland and it couldn't be more timely. Looking at American history, Andersen traces the degradation of truth, facts, and expertise in place for fantasy and magical thinking, naturally ending with the election of Donald Trump and everything that comes with his presidency (fake news, birtherism, etc). Hanna Rosin, in her review for it in The New York Times, argues Andersen's book does for tracing the history of delusion in America what Richard Hofstadter's book did for anti-intellectualism, and I couldn't agree more.

Still Lives That Won't Hold Still - Teju Cole (September 7, 2017) I'm on the record of being a big Teju Cole fan and will read everything he has written but this piece, on photographer Marie Cosindas, is master work in criticism and form. The piece opens "Marie Cosindas, who was born in Boston in September 1923 and who died in the same city in May of this year at age 93, made photographs of such potency that they seem magical, dependent on something beyond mere sleight of hand for their mesmerizing effects and unified mood, so that the experience of looking at a selection of them is like watching a single sentence unfurl over several pages..." and then continues, rather brilliantly, as one run-on sentence.

The Mind of John McPhee - Sam Anderson (September 28, 2017) John McPhee is one of my favorite writers and I especially love him writing about writing (His piece on structure is another essay I assign to my students). His new book, Draft No. 4 collects much of his musings on writing into a nice package. Sam Anderson profiled the famously quiet writer for The New York Times and its delightful.

The Risk of Nuclear War with North Korea - Evan Osnos (September 18, 2017) If you read one thing on North Korea and a potential confrontation with the reclusive regime, let it be Evan Osnos's. Osnos spent time in Pyongyang and reflects on how those inside the country see themselves in relationship to the rest of the world and how that's changed since the 2016 election. It's powerful, scary, and fascinating. (And when you're done, listen to him chat with David Remnick on The New Yorker Radio Hour podcast.)

The First White President - Ta-Nehisi Coates (October 2017) This is an excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates's new book, We Were Eight Years In Power and simultaneously looks at the role race played in the 2016 election while also deconstructing the problems with pinning Trump's victory on economic hardships of the 'white working class'. Coates writes with an intensity that I really admire and is an intellectual force whose words feel ever more important.

Christ in the Garden of Endless Breadsticks - Helen Rosner (October 3, 2017) Helen Rosner is the only person who can spend the first four paragraphs waxing poetic on Paul Gauguin before transitioning to a brilliant critique of the national Italian restaurant chain Olive Garden. Despite growing up with regular visits to our local Olive Garden, I'd not stepped inside one since college but this brought back all sorts of memories.

Your Reckoning. And Mine - Rebecca Traister (November 12, 2017) Rebecca Traister is the person I most want to read on the sexual harassment reckoning and I think I've devoured everything she's written this year. This piece, written in the midst of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, pulls together a range of events of the last few years to explain how we got here, what it means, and the implications of the current cultural moment.

[gingerambition]

Ginger Ambition Update

If you don’t know me, I’m assuming I’m your favorite ginger you’ve never met. If you’re reading this and you have met me however, you either have a huge secret crush on me, you’ve dated me and you’re looking for a subtle reference to yourself, or you recite my name each night as part of your Arya Stark–esque murder list. Honestly you’re more than welcome to my face, it takes an hour to put on before a first date anyway and is almost immediately ruined by excessive heat and pouting. You’d really just be saving me time at this point.

 Anyway, before I can publish my drafts about receiving dick pics in my late 20′s (FUUUUUUCK), Tinder dates that result in me either A. bailing him out of jail or B. ending up at a bar that is actually a wake, and being a proud member of the girls still blacking out in Ubers while everyone else is getting engaged club, I have to get some things off my (perky) chest. It’s kind of long but typing it out will be like losing 20 pounds of emotional weight. 

It’s been eight months since I got dumped. Two hundred and forty days later (I haven’t been counting I just did 8 x 30 on my phone) and I am still getting the same questions, so to avoid prolonging the graduation party effect (answering the same 5 questions on repeat the way I’m currently listening to “Look What You Made Me Do”), I am going to just put it all on the table. 

I got dumped at the end of December. It was days after celebrating Christmas with his family and attending my best friend’s 90′s throwback party where everything seemed normal AF. In fact I hear he’s up for an Oscar for his portrayal of communicating, loving boyfriend. So no, it was not mutual. He had his reasons. (Sidebar: the self-control I just showed in resisting the urge to put air quotes around the word, reasons, is similar to how I felt the other night when this old dude who was buying me Coors Lights was texting Taylor Kitsch, YES – THE ACTOR, and all I wanted to do was spider monkey across the table, grab his phone, and get the digits of a B-list celeb).  I felt the breakup was out of the blue.  I’m sure him and I will never see eye-to-eye on it, and that’s because he’s way taller than me so it’s physically impossible.  If I’ve told you “my story” in person, just skip this post. If you’ve been curious, here it is . . . 

I Ubered to our apartment from the San Francisco airport (he couldn’t pick me up because he was drinking), and he was on the couch. He hadn’t unpacked from being home for Christmas yet. He got back to our apartment a day earlier. His shoes were on. I made us mac n’ cheese. I started nagging that he wasn’t eating his and it was getting cold, I even put the pepper out for you. I was snuggling our cat and asking him how much he missed his girls. He turned off the TV and said, using my full name, we need to talk. Every part of me between my throat and my belly button knotted together and tasted like acid and pennies, my limbs felt distant and heavy, I moved to him, but I felt more like I was watching myself. After we spoke (he whispered, I cried), he took his still packed bag, I tried to kiss him (I got his cheek), and I watched him walk down the hall as I so often did in the morning when he left for work before me. That was the last time I saw him. After 2 states, 4 apartments, 5 years, countless "babe, you need to double flush after that,” kitchen slow dance parties, and putting our mattress in the living room for pizza fueled sleepovers, it was done. And it is done, because I don’t believe in second chances when it comes to ex-boyfriends. At some point they always come back. Of that I am certain. It could be 5 weeks or it could be 15 years, but it always happens and I take comfort in that.

I called my best friend, she didn’t answer so I texted her husband. I called my mom. I called my sister. My best friend called back. I told my college best friends. I texted a few more girls. I told everyone I wanted to hear it from me, and gave them permission to pass it on like a shitty game of telephone, so I wouldn’t have to live it over and over. I cried myself to sleep wrapped up in a nest of blankets, pillows, and dirty clothes I made out of things that smelled like him. I woke up every hour, realized where I was, cried, fell back asleep, repeat. I left the TV on to feel less alone. The small studio, that I couldn’t wait to return to less than 24 hours prior, felt less like home and more like stumbling upon a movie set or the apartment of a stranger I follow on Instagram. I had an idea of who had lived there, how they felt, how I should feel, but I was suffocated between collections of crap full of memories I could imagine but not grasp, and inside jokes I could make an outline of, but not see. In 12 hours I had aged 5 years. Everything felt fresh, and sharp, and distant, and numb, and a thousand other emotions all at the same time and I didn’t understand how that could be. 

Then I did something I never thought I would do, I just left. I took a red eye flight back to Michigan, where I was just 24 hours prior. I left all of the apartment lights on, the TV, and our Christmas tree. I cut up our favorite t-shirt then refolded it and put it in his drawer. I snapped my Harry Potter wand in half (from our 4 year anniversary trip) and put it under his pillow. I took everything of his I could see from my bed and put it in the corner. I tore every Uno card in half and left them in a pile. I wanted to break all of his Legos and throw out the directions but my mom said no, and for some reason I listened. I pulled the felt monogram I made off his nightstand lamp shade. I deleted my wedding Pintrest board. I deleted all of our pictures together from my phone. If you don’t want me anymore, I don’t see the point in lingering. If I said doing all of that petty crap didn’t make me feel better, I’d be lying. It was better than drunk Taco Bell after a sorority date party. 

I took as many sweatshirts and yoga pants as I could fit in a carry on, my large suitcase, my purse, cornered our cat into her carrier, and I left the rest for him to ship. Here’s an old school story problem to give you a break from brown out figuring out how to tip and write your number of a bar tab at the same time, 1 sobbing ginger + 2 suitcases + 1 purse + 1 cat that weighs like 2 cats = this blog can write itself. But wait, there’s more! The Titanic soundtrack was playing at my gate and my Uber driver almost killed us. He didn’t understand English, so when my cat started clawing to get out of her soft side airplane regulation carrier, and I pleaded with her to stop (when it rains it pours), he slammed on the breaks - on the HIGHWAY - and said “stop? stop? stop?” I yelled, KEEP FUCKING GOING. Not a moment I’m particularly proud of, but it happened. I put in my 2 weeks notice and worked remotely, wrapping up projects, and apologizing in emails. I tried not to burn bridges. Hurt has a ripple effect not always immediately evident. 

The worst part for me is knowing one day, every adventure, every nickname, every private moment we shared together will be forgotten, will disintegrate, and I will be reduced to, “that ginger I dated for like 5 years in my 20′s and had a TV show no one watched.” I will be become one of his two truths and a lie options. I won’t even have a name. He will tell some Cliff Notes version of “our story” to the daughter he has with someone else who isn’t me when it’s her heart that is broken and craves assurance there’s someone out there for everyone.

I slept on and off for the next 4 days, a very Carrie in the “Sex and The City” movie when she’s on her honeymoon with her friends instead of Big, of me to do. I never said I wasn’t dramatic. I didn’t drink. I made myself shower. I went on long walks with my parents’ dog and listened to a “Guys Are The Wooooorst” Spoitfy playlist I made. Everyone was so proud of me and impressed by how I kept it together, how I’m still keeping it together. Friends were happy to have me home, to have me so close to them. I felt wanted again. It’s not hard to act fine when he’s on the other side of the country. I wasn’t going to run into him. He never drunk dialed me, never texted. As much as distance can make things hard, it can also make things easy. 

My first breakup with my first boyfriend when I was 19 was horrible. I lost a ton of weight (not in a hot way - in a, “her head is too big for her body” kind of way), I didn’t go to class, I passed out on porches, I took my anti-depressants on and off sometimes with whatever shot was on special or being handed to me. This time, simply put, I would not allow myself to be that girl again. I was like nope, too cute, too sassy, too many people who love me to go back to that. (Although it would be nice to basically fit my American Girl doll’s clothes again.) I received so many cards and presents in the mail from best friends, girls I hadn’t talked to in years, and old co-workers that I almost wish I got dumped sooner, preferably around the time of a Kate Spade Surprise Sale. 

So it’s been eight months. I’m 27-years-old and I’m starting over. I’m living at home. I bought a new old car. I thought 2017 was the year I’d be planning a wedding. Now the extent of my planning is what I’m wearing to work tomorrow and what city I will visit next weekend. But you know what? I’m happy. I’m loved. I’m done settling. 

[weekinethereum]

August 8, 2017

Ethereum News and Links

Protocol

Diving Into The Ethereum Virtual Machine

Bamboo 0.0.01 Tutorial. "Bamboo makes state transition explicit and avoids reentrance problems by default."

More Yoichi Hirai: What I think about what KEVM people think about EVM

Swarm's recent conference videos are online

Stuff for developers

ZeppelinOS technical details

Using Zeppelin contracts in Truffle

Insights from Ujo on building on Ethereum

Ethereum light client with React Native

web3js had a few releases this week

Matt Condon's Ethereum for Dev Beginners

Ecosystem

ETH Gas Station: it's time for wallets to lower their default gas price

EtherScamDB: MyEtherWallet's open-source database for Eth scams

Hudson Jameson: Why I Am Advising Status and SmartContract.com

Ujo: Distributing & Claiming the EGO Album Badge

UNICEF Ventures has an Ethereum multi-sig

r/ethereum passed 100,000 subscribers on August 7

How decentralized storage projects Storj, Swarm, Filecoin and Sia differ.  Also the Swarm v Filecoin view from LivePeer's Doug Petkanics

Project Announcements and white papers

Virtue Poker releases white paper draft

Legacy -- transfer memory and belongings when you die

Ethfinex -- Bitfinex's ERC20 dex. White paper

Docstamp:  timestamp your docs on Ethereum

Oracul: you can probably guess it's an oracle system. Prototype

Firefly -- $5 air gapped hardware wallet

Leeroy -- Twitter for Ethereum using MetaMask. Impressive!  See also Reddit thread.

FOAM -- Geospatial data protocol for Ethereum

Project Updates

KyberNetwork MVP release

PlutusDEX beta available to token sale buyers

Toshi - switch between test networks, iOS Chat improvements, main net release this year

FunFair releases baccarat and craps running on state channels, live on the testnet. Lots of interesting info from Jez San in the Reddit thread.

Mysterium Q&A update

Melonport July update

Iconomi July Update

Become one of the first DAA managers on Iconomi

Design for BAT Mercury

Jaak announces META token to incentivize sharing rights data

Jaak also has a trial project with Viacom UK

Interviews and Talks

Vitalik's Shenzhen talk and Q&A

Recent Vlad Zamfir talk

Bancor's Eyal Hertzog on Epicenter

Arthur Falls talks to MME, the Swiss lawyers who helped with the Ether sale

Swap Protocol on NeoCash Radio

Status Q&A series with Rocketpool

Andrew Keys on the Hidden Forces podcast

Brian Armstrong on the 20 minute VC

Token Sale Projects

0x token sale details -- must register first starting Aug 9

Announcing Airswap: implementation of Swap white paper

SlotNSlot's Android demo video

Token Sales

Ryan Zurrer: Keepers that maintain blockchain networks

ICOMonitor by Neufund -- transparency monitor for token sales

Matt Slater: The decentralized web is the birth of a new asset class

Julian Moncada: How VCs fit into a decentralized world

OmiseGo to airdrop their tokens for wide distribution

Concerning bit in this Nathaniel Popper NYT piece from a former SEC staffer who claims that if you buy a token because you think the price might appreciate, then it's a security.  That'd be an extraordinarily broad and novel interpretation of the Howey test, but certainly hints at the ambiguity of current SEC guidance that is hindering blockchain innovation in America.

General

Laura Shin on Shapeshift's Prism

Jay Rush with a meditation on the potential uses and misuses of this technology

Coinbase announces plan to support Bitcoin Cash - and maybe BCC trading - by the end of the year, similar to what they did for ETC

Brian Armstrong on how to hire executives

Sign of the NYTimes: Grandpa Had a Pension. This Generation Has Cryptocurrency.  

IPFS' Filecoin long anticipated sale is here. It has already and is going to raise a crazy amount. Stefano Bernardi didn't like what he found when he dug into Filecoin sale details

A week or so ago, they raised $52m from insiders at a big discount.  Not sure why this sale needs to be so rushed?

Preston Byrne: Thoughts on the Filecoin SAFT

Q&A (to come) with Juan Benet

"Fast" Fully Homomorphic Encryption c/c++ library

Dates of note

From Token Sale Calendar:

Upcoming token sale start dates:

August 9 – Lampix

August 14 – SmartRE

August 15 – Ox Protocol (mandatory registration Aug 9-12)

August 15 – BitDice

August 15 – Propy

August 15 – MyBit

August 15 – Latium

August 17 – Decentraland

August 20 – SlotnSlot

August 24 – REAL (Real Estate Asset Ledger)

August 25 – Avalon

August 28 – HelloGold

August 28 – ChronoLogic

August 30 – LookRev

August 31 - Monetha

September 5 – Viberate

September 12 – Evermarkets

September 13 – Unikoin

September 13 – Eventchain

September 18 – Winding Tree

October 1 – Hirematch

October 10 – Swap

Ongoing token sales:

Indorse

Fluence

Everex

Authoreon

Blocklancer

Agora

Macroverse

Blockpass

LastWill

NeverDie

Brickblock

Atlant

GroceryX

Agrello

TribeToken

RexMLS

Want to be included?  If you are building your project on Ethereum, email weekinethereum @ gmail [period] com with 1) your URL, 2) sale date and 3) a brief description of how you are using Ethereum.  Listings are free.  But please make sure to follow those instructions.  If you don’t follow the instructions, you likely won’t get a response.

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[I aim for a relatively comprehensive list of Ethereum sales, but make no warranty as to even whether they are legit; as such, I thus likewise warrant nothing about whether any will produce a satisfactory return. I have passed the CFA exams, but this is not investment advice. If you're interested in what I do, you can find my somewhat out-of-date investing thesis and token sale appreciation strategies in previous newsletters.]

New email

From now on, please use weekinethereum @ gmail [period] com for newsletter communications.

Some time in August, there will be an announcement that I've joined ConsenSys.  Here's a logo to draw your eye in case you were going to skip over this section:

I'm very excited about this move and will have significantly more to say in the future.  The newsletters should become more regular again! In the meantime, I wanted to make it clear so that you can judge whether I favor ConsenSys projects.

My charge from Joe Lubin is pretty similar to what Status has told me: keep telling the truth and covering the space objectively, even if the truth hurts.

Permalink

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[greggarner87]

My ‘Personal Statement’ for my PhD application

Warning: SUPER long post ahead. What follows is the personal statement for my application for NC State’s PhD in Design program, to begin Fall 2017.

I’d love to hear your feedback!

---

I’m not an artist. I don’t work in oils on canvas or throw clay into just the right shape. I don’t spend much time thinking about color theory or how to pull together the right elements in the right way to create the most compelling visual effect. I’m not a creative. I don’t have a portfolio of drawings or campaigns from which to pull. I don’t create web interfaces or think about UI. I don’t own expensive pencils or even a subscription to Creative Suite. I’m not a designer. I don’t have a drafting table and rolls of blueprints. I don’t create architectural marvels with CAD and work to raise them from the earth. I don’t have more than a cursory understanding of typesetting and I don’t spend my days sketching or thinking of ways to develop new, beautiful products to be introduced into the marketplace. In many regards, the pursuit of a Ph.D. in Design might seem to be a mismatch. With an undergraduate degree in Business and a Master’s of Education, shouldn’t I pursue education policy? Or at least some kind of doctoral level program in the College of Education? What business do I have in a Design program?

The role of education has always been to get out of its own way. Education is rarely, if ever, for its own sake. Education is the silver bullet not because of what you know, but because of what you can do with what you know. It might, perhaps, be more appropriate to say ‘learning’ instead of ‘education.’ Learning is about changing the way you see the world around you and developing new models from which you develop new opinions. Learning is taking a pinhole camera and creating a panorama. In my work at the Friday Institute, I have been fortunate enough to be able to tinker and explore new ideas. To play and see how things may or may not work. To puzzle and ponder, open my eyes and wonder. To talk with any number of educators from K-12 classroom teachers to building principals to district superintendents to college faculty and experiment with these ideas. Will students have deeper, richer, more meaningful experiences as a result? What are the pain points and how might I reduce the friction? What changes can I make and then try again? Whether you call it the scientific method, design thinking, iterative design, or even trial-and-error, my work puts me in the midst of some of the toughest work in the realm of education: how do we improve our practice, as educators, for the benefit of our students?

In my first year of teaching, I had applied to be an 8th grade math teacher. I had enjoyed math and wanted to see if I could spark the same interest in others. However, after being hired by a small, rural district in east Texas, I was informed that I would be teaching 6th grade math and 8th grade keyboarding. Keyboarding, as it turns out, is categorized as a “business” class and since I had a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, the principal thought it a natural fit. I was not, however, particularly excited about teaching a class that, when I took it in middle school, had stolen all joy from the computer lab, the one place school was supposed to be fun. I resolved, on behalf of my students, that they would enjoy the computer lab and learn something along the way. I went to work creating a new kind of classroom. The first problem I faced was that I had 25 teenagers and, since I had come upon my career nontraditionally, had none of the requisite skills with which to manage my classroom. So I created a business simulation experience, where students would learn to type as well as how to format specific documents by working through a series of required document types, but instead of each student working on an individual packet, I put them in teams of 5. Each team then had a ‘CEO’ that was responsible for overseeing their understanding of correct formatting, typing technique, and even monitoring their team’s overall behavior in class. I, then, worked exclusively with the CEOs, helping them to understand what to look for, how to format the documents themselves, and coaching them through some of the difficult issues that invariably arose in a group of two dozen thirteen and fourteen year-olds. I was praised at the end of the school year by both my principal and my superintendent for my innovative classroom practices, but the truth was that these practices were borne not from any particular pedagogical insight but rather my own naïveté.

In the interview for my second teaching job at a very large, urban school district, the principal mentioned that he wasn’t actually sure what was involved in the open position but that, “they make a lot of posters and the kids seem to like it.” Upon accepting the position teaching Technology Applications at the 8th grade level, I was congratulated and given carte blanche to create the class however I saw fit. And so, as a second-year teacher with essentially no formal training in how to teach, I started writing my own curriculum for a class in which I had no prior experience. I borrowed some of the structures from my business simulation but ultimately landed on a class that was set up much more like a production studio with creative products, open-ended assignments, and rolling deadlines that allowed for multiple attempts based on feedback they received. One year, students worked as travel agents, creating compelling pitches for where to go on your next vacation. Another year, they made short films where they wrote, storyboarded, directed, filmed, and edited their original creations. In my third year, they worked as political consultants, selecting a candidate and then working to get them elected President. In each of these projects, I was far more focused on what was happening between their ears than the raw quality of their work and, as a result, many students felt the freedom to continue developing their skills outside of class, creating websites, learning to write code, learning new video editing techniques, and more, far exceeding what I could have taught them in the constraints of a one-semester, 90-minute block schedule. It was the boundless possibility of technology as experienced by my students that piqued my interest in a Master’s of Education, focused on Educational Technology Leadership. I wanted to grow. I wanted to learn more. I wanted to improve. I wanted to expand my influence and help other teachers discover what had been revealed to me through these four years as a  classroom teacher. I had already started presenting at conferences and really enjoyed getting to share my ideas with others as well as continually feeding my own desire to learn and grow.

I would move from the classroom into an instructional coaching role in Austin, Texas to assist with an iPad initiative that would provide a device for every student and teacher in the district. My role was to work with middle school teachers to create new learning opportunities and I found myself again trying to blend a great student experience, strong learning outcomes, and ways for technology to create modalities of learning previously not possible. It was in this role that I really began to expand where I sought input for new ideas. I was fortunate enough to be a part of EdTech Austin, located in a downtown startup coworking space where I could connect with other educators and some entrepreneurs and ask more expansive, generative questions. These opportunities propelled me into a consulting role for a number of education technology startups, helping them to create new products and strategies to better serve teachers.

I was hired at a middle school in Chapel Hill shortly after moving to North Carolina and was given great latitude to design and execute a new vision for what teaching and learning might look like in that school. My thinking would shift again, this time expanding to encompass not just classroom experiences, but organizational structures and methods for systemic change. It was here I caught the attention of the Friday Institute. I was invited to facilitate one of their programs aimed at instructional coaches and not long after this, I was asked to join the team full-time. In this role, I am able to leverage the whole of my experience as well as untried, divergent theories. I am able to work with any variety of education stakeholders and not just hear about what they need, but I’m able to experience it for myself and help create mutually beneficial solutions.

In truth, I am an artist. My media are my learning experiences. My canvas is a room full of educators, wondering what their day holds in store. My muse is a vision for the future where students play substantive roles in creating their own destiny, well-equipped with the skills and dispositions they’ll need to take them there. Instead of color theory, I’m digging into behavioral psychology and organizational politics and neo-constructivist pedagogy. I’m spending a great deal of time pulling together the right elements to create the perfect effect: I’m changing what you believe to be possible. In truth, I am a creative. I have compiled a decade of research and practice into a portfolio that I can pull from at will. I spend a great deal of time in UX design, but instead of wireframes, I rely on sentence stems and metacognitive questioning strategies. At my core, I’m in sales. Will you “buy” with your time and your teaching what I’m trying to sell you? Will my sales pitch resonate through compelling design, meeting a need you felt but had never named? In truth, I am a designer. At my desk are notebooks and Google Drive files full of blueprints for how to facilitate deep, meaningful change personally and organizationally. I spend my days sketching notes about how best to connect you to a future you haven’t seen, a reality unknown. I am trying to design and create much more than a product: I am creating the very capacity you’ll need to create products for yourself.

In this spirit, I pursue my Ph.D. in Design. My strengths lie in my ability to take what has been a heretofore unconventional path and show others how to blaze their own trail.  I am not naive to what I lack, particularly in terms of the ‘hard skills’ of design, but have yet to shy away from a learning experience that didn’t also refine and sharpen my understanding and expertise. Further, I look forward to being able to work with trained designers and creatives, perhaps even in a studio setting, to be able to see how we might complement one another to create new opportunities at State, in North Carolina, and even around the country. Through research, through iteration, through design I am privileged to work alongside the best educators our state has to offer, helping to raise a new creative class. But Education cannot afford to remain in its walled garden. Education must reclaim its heritage rooted in learning, one that always excelled when it eschewed the silo in favor of the studio; when it remembers that it is in the diversity of our backgrounds and experiences that we find particularly interesting and nontraditional solutions to the problems we face. NC State offers a world-class College of Design and excels in its ability to bring together elite minds that both think nontraditionally and then do the extraordinary. I seek to continue this longstanding tradition of designing the future for our state, for our country, and for our world.

[smilystore]

Antonio Brown timeline

The rise, fall, rise, and fall of Antonio Brown rivals any roller coaster you’ve ever been on.

Um… what?

That’s the question undoubtedly in the forefront of many minds as it relates to Antonio Brown, a wide receiver who was heralded as the best in the National Football League not so long ago. While no one can question his legendary talent, even in the midst of a maelstrom of negative headlines, the fact is Brown’s stock has taken more hits in these last few months than a Deontay Wilder opponent. His story as a professional football player once read as inspiring and was used by coaches and parents around the country to motivate players into never giving up.

After all, Brown bucked the odds and made it out of the Miami urbanscape — where he was born and raised going on to become a star receiver at Central Michigan. From there, he was forced to again prove himself after being selected with the No. 195 overall pick — the 22nd of 27 wide receivers in his draft class by the Pittsburgh Steelers, and was viewed by many as undersized at the position. He’d buck the odds yet again, though, going on to dominate at the NFL level. Brown delivered an eye-popping 8,210 receiving yards and 50 touchdowns from 2011 through 2016. He landed a four-year, $68 million in February 2017 for his efforts.

He’d go on to add another 1,533 receiving yards and nine touchdowns to his resume in 2017, but the air around him that once smelled fragrant was rapidly souring deteriorating to the point where the usually forgiving and player-centric Steelers began to notice a tinge of mustard gas. Fast forward a bit to the 2018 season, and despite hitting the 10,000-yard mark for his career, headlines surrounding Brown were about anything but that achievement. It’s now August 2019 and Brown’s NFL legacy currently reads as the polar opposite of the once inspirational story it was, but more like a cautionary tale for all who would heed it.

In looking at the timeline, which includes noting the rapidity of his character’s de-evolution, it’s enough to make even the most bombastic NFL players past, present, and future blush with an awkward level of discomfort.

January 2017 – The Facebook Live debacle

It was supposed to be a grand time in the city of Pittsburgh after Brown caught six passes for 108 yards to help push the Steelers past the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Divisional Round in an 18-16 nailbiter. Instead, the story became what happened next in the locker room following the win. Brown pulled out his phone and live-streamed the locker room celebration on Facebook in violation of league policy. This was also done in spite of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger asking Brown to lay low a bit on social media, and his decision to do the opposite shone a light on head coach Mike Tomlin hurling at least one sharp expletive around about the next opponent to come the New England Patriots in the AFC Conference Championship for which he issued a formal apology via press conference.

Late January 2017 – Everything’s ‘fine’

Just one week later, the Steelers took action. Brown was reportedly fined $10,000 by the team for streaming Pittsburgh’s locker room celebration, as first reported by Jay Glazer. Tomlin informed his players during a team meeting this week that he was fining Brown. Tomlin disciplined Brown, but the matter was made worse when it was discovered Facebook had paid Brown $244,000 at the start of the 2017 season to create content for them. And so, his fall from grace in Pittsburgh began.

It started with a slow boil at first, though, with the subsequent 2017 season being mostly “quiet” aside from Brown battling injury.

December 2018 – We talkin’ about practice?

Not yet eliminated from playoff contention and still in the running for the AFC North crown heading into their Week 16 battle with the New Orleans Saints, the Steelers had defeated the rival Patriots one week prior and felt good about finishing the season strong and carrying momentum into the postseason. The perennial Pro Bowler would go on to torch the Saints for 185 yards and two TDs on 14 receptions, but the next few days saw a displeased and apathetic Brown roaming the halls.

A heated dispute with a Roethlisberger during a Wednesday walkthrough escalated to the point where Brown threw a football at the QB, and the wideout opted to then skip the remaining practices leading up to the team’s Week 17 battle with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Brown was benched for that game, and while the official team stance was injury-related, the reality could neither have been further from the truth nor hidden anymore from the public eye. The reign of Brown in Pittsburgh was at an end, and the final chapter with the organization was messy. The world would never see Brown in a Steelers’ jersey again, and teammates would later reveal the end had been years in the making.

February 2019 – The anti-Valentine

Two days ahead of February 14, Brown took to his beloved social media accounts to both thank the Steelers’ fandom and proclaimed it was time to “move on“. It’s a sentiment the organization itself mirrored to a degree but still had enough motivation to attempt a repair in the relationship. After all, Brown was still under contract for three more years and coming off of a 1,297-yard season, but the damage had already been done and no amount of Fix-A-Flat was going to reinflate that tire. The sidewall was completely shredded and the Steelers finally admitted it to themselves and everyone else.

March 2019 – For whom the Bell tolls

The Brown decision was a difficult call made that much more challenging by the holdout of All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell, whom the team was also locked in a battle with. Ultimately, they opted to not place a transition tag on Bell allowing him to walk in free agency followed by swallowing their pride and beginning the task of looking for trade suitors for Brown.

It was the end of an era in the Steel City.

March 2019 – Trader Joe

As bold and braggadocios as ever, Brown made it clear he was fine never suiting up again for the Steelers. It was essentially, as he went on to describe it, his way or the highway.

“I don’t even have to play football if I don’t want,” he told Jeff Darlington of ESPN. “I don’t even need the game. I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. If they wanna play, they going to play by my rules. If not, I don’t need to play. Obviously, I want the game, but I don’t need the game. It’s a difference.”

That’s not exactly the level of commitment to the sport potential trade suitors want to hear, but the ability of Brown was just too good to ignore for some clubs. With the Tennessee Titans, Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders all entertaining a possible trade for the mercurial wideout, it was the latter who emerged as frontrunner behind the scenes albeit it with reservations of their own. The problem in Oakland was they had sent Amari Cooper to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 8 via trade and needed to secure a new No. 1 receiver. It also helped that head coach Jon Gruden was lathering at the mouth just thinking about what Brown could do for quarterback Derek Carr and an offense that ranked near the bottom of the league in passing during the 2018 season.

“[Brown] can run every route you dream up,” Gruden said in December preceding free agency. “I say that about other receivers, but he can run double move. He can run by you. He can run crossing routes.

“He’s very good after the catch. What’s the greatest thing about this man, I’ve told all of our receivers, if you get a chance to watch him practice, you’ll see what unlocks the greatness in him. He’s the hardest-working man, I think, in football. Hardest-working player I’ve ever seen practice.

“I’ve seen Jerry Rice. I’ve seen a lot of good ones. But I put Antonio Brown at the top. If there are any young wideouts out there, I’d go watch him practice. You figure out yourself why he’s such a good player.”

Some of those words would come back to haunt Gruden in ways he had never even dreamed of.

March 2019 – What can Brown do for you?

And so it went, however, the Raiders sent a 2019 third- and a fifth-round pick to the Steelers in exchange for Brown only days after his questionable football commitment comments, and what should’ve been a fresh start rapidly become a bag of rotten fruit.

Brown had three years and about $39 million remaining on the massive contract extension he signed with the Steelers back in 2017. However, the star wide receiver had his eyes set on more. Trading for Brown meant restructuring his contract and adding more money to it the Raiders knew that before acquiring him. Shortly after the trade, Brown negotiated a new deal with Oakland that will pay him $50.13 million over the next three seasons. This deal included another  $30.13 million in guaranteed money.

May 2019 – The Hell-met

With the start of OTAs came a wind of change for Oakland, a team that finished 4-12 after awarding Gruden a 10-year, $100 million contracts to climb down out of the ESPN Monday Night Football booth and return to their organization after a near-decade-long hiatus from the game. Gruden and owner Mark Davis then convinced Mike Mayock to leave broadcasting to join them as new General Manager, and the organization felt things had rapidly begun to come together. In actuality, nothing could be further from the truth, and for one key reason:

Brown didn’t like his helmet.

In what has become a story pulled right out of the most twisted Edgar Allen Poe poem, Brown was so irate about the NFL’s new policy that would essentially decertify his longtime helmet and force him into a new one that he clashed openly with coaches at OTAs over the issue. This included him reportedly storming out of practice and attempting to sneak his old helmet onto the field, going so far as trying to paint it to mirror the mandated helmets in the hopes no one would notice.

Spoiler alert: They noticed, and it didn’t end well.

Following several exchanges over the issue, the team broke for summer break and believed HelmetGate was behind them going into training camp.

Late July/Early August 2019 – Frozen

The Raiders were wrong yet again about the mindset of Brown, because he was not done trying to take the field with his old helmet, and again he clashed with the coaches over it. This hadn’t been made public just yet, though, and mostly because there was an even more bewildering headline that emerged with the newly-acquired … well… a headache.

The team placed Brown on the Non-Football Injury list with a non-disclosed issue to start training camp, but they removed him immediately thereafter. Questions emerged surrounding the nature of Brown’s injury, and the truth turned out to be stranger than fiction.

The bottom of his feet was severely frostbitten after he entered a cryotherapy machine wearing improper footwear and he was sent to a foot specialist to determine the extent of the damage. Initially listed as day-to-day, Brown’s absence has since changed to what can only be described as indefinite, with conflicting reports now swirling about that claim he’s ghosted the Raiders and their attempts to communicate with him with an alternate report claiming there have been discussions and he’s expected to return “soon”. He took to IG to post a stomach-turning image of the soles of his feet, revealing just how bad they looked.

The [additional] problem is it doesn’t truly matter at the moment when his feet heal because it’s rumored Brown threatened to never play football at all for the Raiders if he isn’t allowed to wear his old helmet. The Raiders have financial recourse if Brown holds true to his threat with an arbitration hearing set to take place after he filed a grievance against the NFL but nothing could’ve prepared the Raiders for this circus of events.

This, of course, harkens back to March when he made it clear he doesn’t need football, and while the Raiders chose to ignore that likely assuming it was simply angst hurled toward the Steelers they’re finding out it’s simply how he feels.

At the end of the day, it’s Brown’s way or the highway.

“I’m really not into dreams anymore, okay? I’m into f—– nightmares,” Gruden famously said on the latest season of HBO’s Hard Knocks, speaking on how important the Super Bowl is. “You gotta end somebody’s dream.”

Unfortunately for him, his own All-Pro receiver might be the one that ends his, and before the two could even roll out of bed.

by Patrik Walker

The post Antonio Brown timeline appeared first on Smile store.

source https://smilystore.com/2019/08/10/antonio-brown-timeline/

[marymosley]

Enact Strict Law To Ensure Personal Safety Of Doctors

Let me begin with a candid confession: I have not seen God with my own eyes whom I worship but yes I have always seen the best creation of God – “Doctors” right from my childhood days because whenever I had any problem of any kind pertaining to my physical well being, my parents always took me to doctor who always took utmost care to ensure that I don’t suffer from any problem any more and prescribed the best medical treatment for my problem! The mere soothing words of doctors prove to be the biggest medicine for patients in many cases. Yet it is most unfortunate that doctors themselves in our country are not safe and are abused, attacked and assaulted by some disgruntled people on one pretext or the other! It is an unpalatable truth and sad commentary on the state of affairs in our country that three out of every four doctors admit to face some form of verbal or physical abuse!

                               To put things in perspective, we all saw just recently how the seven-day old strike by junior doctors and ‘cease-work’ in West Bengal medical colleges and hospitals was spreading all over India but ultimately when the Chief Minister of West Bengal – Mamata Banerjee agreed to accept their demand, the doctors promptly called off their strike! The strike was triggered by an attack on a doctor – Dr Paribaha Mukhopadhyay with bricks who is now being treated for a skull fracture by the family of patient who died at the NRS Medical College and Hospital at Kolkata! We all saw how doctors across the country joined the protests and observed a shutdown in response to a call by the Indian Medical Association.

                                    It is most distressing that people fail to realize that doctor can only perform operation but the survival of patient cannot be controlled wholly by a doctor! Which doctor will ever want that the patient whom he/she is treating should ever die? Is it fair that a doctor is beaten black and blue just because a patient fails to survive?

                               As it turned out, just recently we saw that when the Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan who is himself also a doctor wrote to Chief Ministers of States asking them to frame laws for protection of medical professionals, he also attached to it a draft law framed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA). The draft titled Protection of Medical Service Persons and Medical Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage of Loss of Property) Act, 2017 proposes a ten-year jail term and a Rs 5-lakh fine for violence against doctors. The IMA is currently seeking a seven-year jail term for the offence.

                             Needless to say, there is no reason why the IMA proposal should not be accepted in its entirety. Violence against doctors in any form cannot be justified under any circumstances! Those who still dare to indulge in it must be made to pay heavily for it and under no circumstances should be allowed to escape unpunished! Only then will the fear of punishment deter potential offenders from letting loose violence of the worst kind against doctors!

                                It may be recalled here that the draft law was submitted by the IMA to the Health Ministry in 2017. It had demanded a central law for the protection of doctors and has raised it again in the wake of the NRS Medical College and Hospital incident in Kolkata. Very rightly so!

                         To be sure, the provisions of the draft law are stringent: it categorizes both mental and physical abuse as violence against doctors and covers not just hospitals and a radius of 50 metres around them, but also home visits. Such violence, it says, will constitute an offence that is cognizable, non-bailable, non-compoundable and fit for trial by a court of the Judicial Magistrate of First Class. Apart from penal provisions, it also provides that the offender in case of any property damage will have to pay twice the price of the damaged property as compensation. Very rightly so!

                                        What’s more, the draft law lays down specifically that, “any act of violence, mental or physical abuse against medical service personnel during or incident to, including, but not limited to going to or coming from medical service institution, discharge of his lawful duties pertinent to medical and healthcare delivery within or within 50 metres of such medical institutions, (safe zone) or in a mobile clinic or in an ambulance or during home visits shall be prohibited”. 

                                    It cannot be lost on us that Dr KK Aggarwal who was President of IMA when the draft Act was submitted told the media that, “At that time, when we looked at the legal protection available to doctors, we found that 19 states have some provisions, many have promulgated ordinances. When we met the Inter-Ministerial Committee, the Additional Secretary told us that health is a state subject, so only if some states write to the Centre for such an Act, can a central Act be made. Their position was that there are enough provisions in the IPC to tackle this situation, but our position was that in public interest, doctors need a special provision. If one doctor is assaulted, several hundred patients suffer as he goes off duty.”

                            As things stood, in his letter to Chief Ministers, Dr Harsh Vardhan cited a July 2017 letter sent by the Union Health Ministry to all Chief Secretaries which contains the decision taken by the Inter-Ministerial Committee constituted under the Ministry to review the Ministry to review the issues raised by the IMA. The Committee, in its report, recommended that the Health Ministry suggest to all state governments, which do not have a specific legislation to protect doctors and health professionals, to consider one to strictly enforce the provisions of special legislation wherever they exist or enforce the IPC/CrPC provisions with vigour.

                                        To say the least, Dr Harsh Vardhan who is Union Health Minister also wrote that, “The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has raised this concern many a time. Since ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects, Government of India, on many occasions has drawn attention of State Governments for an urgent need for a robust criminal justice system with emphasis on prevention and control of crime.”   

                                       No doubt, this burning issue cannot be any longer allowed to hang fire! It must be addressed forthwith. Doctors must be provided adequate security so that they can function without any fear! When politicians can be provided security then why can’t doctors also be similarly provided security?    

                                       Be it noted, at least 19 states which includes West Bengal which is the real epicenter of the protests have already passed what is called the Protection of Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence And Damage To Property) Act, also known as the Medical Protection Act (MPA). The Act which is covering doctors affiliated to institutions as well as independent practitioners, outlaws attacks against physicians and damage to their property. The offenders under this Act can get a jail term of up to three years and a fine of Rs 50,000.    

                                Well, it must be said that as stringent as it sounds, the Act, however, utterly fails to really protect doctors because it features neither in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) nor in the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). It goes without saying that this makes it difficult for victim doctors to approach the police for help or the latter to file a complaint against suspects. The palpable reason underlying it is explained by Dr Neeraj Nagpal who is the Convener and Managing Trustee of the Medicos Legal Action Group in Chandigarh and who aptly points out that, “Without any provision in the IPC, filing a case can sometimes mean taking a copy of the Act to the police because she or he may not even know about it.” He also further added that, “Police may not even be sure under which section to file such a case.”

                                      It needs no Albert Einstein to conclude that all this can be addressed if the Centre displays political will power and brings in suitable legislation in this regard to ensure personal safety of doctors at all cost. It is known all too well that doctors have long been demanding that a central law be put in place instead of a state-wise MPAs as well as adequate security at hospital premises. Dr Rajan Sharma of the Indian Medical Association was at pains to point out that, “I have lost count of the number of requests we have made for a central law.”

                                      Going forward, Dr Rajan also lamented that, “Protests only take place after attacks happen and it has been impossible for us to keep track of the rising number of such cases.” Why can’t Centre accede to their legitimate  and well deserved requests which is their biggest grievance also? Centre must accede now!

                        It cannot be dismissed lightly that in 2017, the IMA released a study that found 75 percent of doctors faced some form of violence while on duty. Dr HL Nag who is a sports doctor at All India Institute of Medical Sciences rued that, “Violence is not just physical. We also face verbal abuse almost every day. I have even been forced to call the police several times.” It is very rightly feared by doctors that intermittent attacks on physicians may stop people from taking up the profession. Dr HL Nag also further rightly lamented that, “The number of doctors vis-à-vis the number of patients is already less in hospitals across the country. We skip food and work without taking breaks to cater to patients. With news about attacks against doctors on the rise, more and more people are leaving the profession. Resident doctors and those practicing in rural areas are most at risk of being violently attacked.”    

                                    To say the least, barring the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT)  Act, 1994 – making prenatal sex determination illegal – the Central Government generally does not intervene in any health laws. Here also, Centre is dishing out the same reason! Many nod their head in approval with Centre’s stand!

                                   Having said this, it is high time and Centre must also now consider the serious gravity of the situation concerning increasing attacks on doctors! Dr Nagpal very rightly hit the nail on the head by pointing out that, “Why is the PCPNDT Act a central one? It is because the authorities saw a unique problem that could be better monitored and remedied by a central law. The situation is same when it comes to violence against doctors.”  

                                It is heartening to note that the IMA too stands firmly with the protesting doctors and echoes demand for a central law and better security of physicians. Centre must now step up on the gas and take a strong stand on it and enact swiftly a strict law in this regard to ensure that unabated violence against doctors never goes unpunished and unchecked under any circumstances. Violence against doctors is completely unacceptable and unjustified.

                                     On a concluding note, it must be said that doctors too rightly want that their community should be left alone so that they can do their jobs safely. Shame on us, shame on our lawmakers and shame on our system that cannot even ensure that those who attack doctors are sent behind bars for at least 10 years as rightly proposed by IMA and heavy fine of Rs 5 lakh also imposed which may even be raised if the damage is more! No more excuses, no more delays, no more ifs and buts! Only and only prompt action is needed to enact a strict law that is enforced in totality and with swiftness to ensure that those who lay their dirty hands on doctors are made to face the dire consequences! Assault on doctors must be made a non-bailable offence! No compromise can be done here!

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[junker-town]

Jimmy Butler and the 76ers need each other, now more than ever

This is a gamble that both sides needed to take. It’ll either succeed wildly or fail horribly.

Late in the summer of 2016, Joel Embiid was fuming. According to ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz, Embiid was stomping around the Sixers’ old practice facility, at one point chucking a basketball across the hardwood. He had a workout scheduled with a marquee college big man prospect, but it got cancelled at the last minute. Instead, he had to face off against a 37-year old Elton Brand who was on the last legs of his NBA career.

”The night before, I’d been watching Shaq’s highlights, and I wanted the competition,” Embiid told Arnovitz. “I needed someone to go back at me.”

It sounds like he needed a competitor like Jimmy Butler, but Butler was 750 miles away at the Chicago Bulls practice facility, busy exchanging profanities with Rajon Rondo over who got to defend Isaiah Canaan, the hottest scorer on the opposing scrimmage team.

Two years since then, the number of people the business end of a Butler profanity-laced rant has gone up, ranging from teammates in Chicago and Minnesota -- who he chastised in private and in front of cameras -- to the Wolves’ front office. When he first returned to practice after demanding a trade from Minnesota, Butler challenged Karl-Anthony Towns to post him up, schooled the starters, and turned to GM Scott Layden.

“You fucking need me!” he screamed. “You can’t win without me!”

Meanwhile, Embiid got paired with Ben Simmons, who sat out a season due to injury and then won Rookie of the Year. In 2017, the 76ers drafted Markelle Fultz at No. 1 by trading the No. 3 pick — who became superstar-in-waiting Jayson Tatum — to Boston, in hopes of rounding out a homegrown Big Three. A shoulder injury held Fultz out most of his rookie year and infamously prompted the destruction of his once-perfect jumper.

Sam Hinkie, who led the Sixers into the Process era, was forced out, and Bryan Colangelo was ushered in. At least three burner Twitter accounts, an internal investigation, and an exhausting search for a replacement later, Colangelo was fired and Brand, now a front-office executive, was promoted to the big job.

Butler and the 76ers both had to take their hits. On Saturday, they merged out of necessity.

The Sixers traded Jerryd Bayless, a second-round pick, and two Process babies who had been handpicked by Hinkie -- Robert Covington and Dario Saric — to the Timberwolves for Butler and sophomore Justin Patton. Despite their meticulous planning, the multiple draft picks, and reserved cap space, the Sixers still needed a third star, so they took a gamble on the 29-year-old Butler, who is a free agent at the end of the year.

They didn’t trade for him to put the sputtering Process era to an end, but to refuel it.

They didn’t trade for him to put the sputtering Process era to an end, but to refuel it.

Built unconventionally around a 7-foot shooter in Embiid and two point guards who can’t shoot in Simmons and Fultz, the 76ers are prone to bouts of offensive malaise, compounded by envelope-pushing plays that too often end in multiple turnovers. They needed Butler, a nightly 20-point scorer and stabilizing on-court force.

And Butler, whose reputation for being old school has teetered into infamy over the past few months, needs a team like the 76ers — modern and analytics-obsessed, but also defensively inclined — to drag him into a version of the 21st century that aligns with his values.

Butler was consistently at odds with Towns and Andrew Wiggins, the young pillars of Minnesota’s rebuild. That’s why it came as a surprise when Embiid told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that he discussed his new potential teammate with them and “they thought we were definitely going to get along.”

It makes more sense if you separate personality from persona.

The kid from Tomball, TX -- who used to strut around Chicago in cowboy boots, blast Garth Brooks from the locker room, stan Taylor Swift, and imitate wrestling moves on his teammates -- is more famous for his 5 a.m. workouts, locker room tirades, and throwback attitude. Meanwhile, Embiid, the NBA’s best tweeter and troll, is known as the class clown.

But it’s easy to forget how serious Embiid is and how funny Butler can be. At their core, they’re both hard-boiled workers with a nose for mischief. There’s a reason why Butler is arguably the NBA’s most meme-worthy star, and why Embiid relishes roasting big men on the floor as much as he does online. Their jokes don’t offset their intensity. Instead, the jokes are an extension of that competitiveness.

After getting blown out by the Raptors on the eve of Halloween, Embiid stewed in his own frustration. The Sixers’ new switch-happy defensive scheme was out of sorts.

“I’m the guy behind, so if I call something, my teammates gotta respect it and they gotta honor it,” he told me that night. “We have a lot of communication problems. That’s the key to a great defense.”

Later, he added, “I gotta communicate better. “If our defense is not good, I feel like I’m not doing a great job so I gotta do a better job. I don’t ever allow someone to give up 129 points. That’s bad. I’m pissed about it.”

The message was not dissimilar to what Butler has tried to get across in Minnesota: stern, public, focused on effort, disappointed in the gulf between who they are and who they could be. But Embiid has a less explosive (read: less profane) way of communicating, and he put himself on the list of people who needed to be held accountable.

And unlike Minnesota, where Butler was supposed to imbue work ethic by osmosis to a franchise that hadn’t made the playoffs in more than a decade, Embiid isn’t alone.

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

When 76ers head coach Brett Brown took over in 2013, he deliberately hung posters all over the walls of the practice facility that read, “Philly hard, Philly real, Philly edge.” The goal was to constantly remind the team what it meant to be a 76er, evoking memories of Allen Iverson stepping over Tyronn Lue in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, or Charles Barkley crashing against floorboards for loose balls. A few days prior to the Raptors game, after the 76ers dropped back-to-back road contests against the Bucks and Pistons, the coaching staff convened with the players, hoping to remind them who they were supposed to be.

“They didn’t call out anyone as a person but they called us out as a team,” T.J. McConnell told me. “We all took it personal and decided it’s not good enough and that we need to be better.”

In Butler, Embiid now has an aid and kindred spirit: a dogged, prideful defender who will call out perimeter switches and funnel opponents into his towering 7-foot frame. A core of Simmons, Butler, and Embiid could wreak havoc defensively for years.

But Butler will have to adjust to Philly’s culture.

Simmons and Embiid are not Towns and Wiggins, but they’re still young players: prone to inconsistency and still figuring out who they are on the court. When things momentarily go off the rails, Butler will have to be patient and measured, especially if Fultz — whose road to reclaiming his potential, let alone tapping into it, looks long — sticks around. And if Butler chides, he must do it behind closed doors. The microphone never helps him.

Butler is a rare combination: an open book, easy to read, but hard to manipulate. His intensity does not flood onto the court and blur his decision-making ability. Instead, it is defined by Butler’s need to assuage his anxieties. When something is wrong, his first impulse has always been to consider what more he can do.

Butler’s instincts turned him from a near-homeless 13-year-old to a JuCo standout to a first-round draft pick to an NBA All Star, so you can see why he hangs onto them. But in the fragile ecosystem of a locker room, Butler’s aggression rarely translates positively to others.

He has always known that, even if he hasn’t been able to help himself. When I profiled him at the 2016 All Star game in February, he joked that he had to stop telling the truth (i.e. criticizing his teammates) in the media, because it always got him in trouble. He led the NBA in minutes at the time, and he liked presenting himself as an archaic heel, the foil to a league charging in the direction of rest and injury prevention. That didn’t lend much credibility to his insistence that he was sitting out games in Minnesota because his body needed it.

But even back then, he admitted his own intensity wasn’t healthy.

“I say that I don’t wanna sit down, I wanna play all those minutes, but I really be tired of playing like I’m Superman or something” Butler told me then. “They hit me with Kryptonite, then I hurt my knee.” He hurt his knee again last year, tearing his meniscus and missing almost two months.

Butler’s mentality may run in opposition to the way analytics have transformed the game, but he isn’t ignorant to their benefits. The question is whether he can lean into those moments of rationality. The Sixers, a numbers-obsessed franchise that wants to hang their hats on being tougher, longer, and grittier than their opponents, could provide the happy medium that allows his aggression to thrive and his joints to heal. At the very least, they’ll field one of the most intense locker rooms in the league.

Butler’s favorite pop star put it best: It’s gonna be forever, or it’s gonna go down in flames.

[hsews]

The NFL is on the cusp of an enchanting marketing campaign. These are the individuals in and across the league who will drive the conversations of 2018.

Greater than 50 ESPN consultants voted on who would be the greatest NFL gamers this season. Sure, AB, Von and Gronk are ranked excessive. However two GOATs prepared the ground.

The Texans hardly ever drop passes. The Cowboys are improbable defending on first down. Here is the hidden energy of every NFL group.

1 Associated

They are not essentially probably the most expert or necessary gamers, coaches and executives, however for one motive or one other, I believe we’ll both be speaking about them or noticing how they affect the upcoming season. I’ve break up them into a number of unordered teams, beginning with the oldsters who’ve probably the most driving on the season.

Soar to a piece:

Group I: The Now-or-Nevers Group II: The Rookies (or Nearly Rookies) Group III: Acquainted Faces in New Locations Group IV: The Rehabilitation Tales Group V: The Breakout Stars Group VI: One Extra Trip Group VII: The Wild Playing cards Group VIII: The Ghost

Group I: The Now-or-Nevers

These are the individuals across the league who’ve extra to achieve or lose than simply about anybody else over the subsequent six months — for every kind of causes.

I believe we’re underrating Bell’s MVP (or Offensive Participant of the 12 months) probabilities heading into the season. For one, he has truly been wholesome for a lot of the previous two seasons beneath a heavy workload. Previous availability would not at all times point out future well being, however it’s a constructive signal for a participant whose solely weak spot appeared to be harm considerations. If he stays wholesome, we are able to really feel moderately assured Bell goes to select up one other 350-touch season given the shortage of a notable second again on the roster, Pittsburgh’s probabilities of profitable 10-plus video games, and the advancing age of 36-year-old quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Bell’s yards per carry dropped in 2017, however he remained environment friendly and posted a hit charge of 49 % as a runner. As I discussed earlier this offseason, Bell’s totals fell as a result of he did not rack up huge performs as a runner. He had eight runs of 30 yards or extra on 908 carries from 2013 to ’16. The Steelers handed Bell the rock 321 occasions final season and did not get a single run longer than 27 yards. Bell had three catches of 30 yards or extra, and historical past tells us that there is little motive to assume that Bell will not rack up just a few huge good points in 2018.

A wholesome Bell with a heavy workload and some extra huge performs ought to be sufficient to provide a profession yr. Working backs are at all times at an obstacle in opposition to quarterbacks in award races, however Bell may very well be uniquely positioned to exceed even lofty expectations in 2018.

Marcus Mariota has an entire new offensive system to be taught this season, because the Titans fired Mike Mularkey after the 2017 season. AP Photograph/Steven Senne

Within the paradox that was the 2017 Titans season, Mariota was a microcosm of Tennessee’s stunted progress. The previous second general choose produced his worst season as a professional and concurrently led the league with three fourth-quarter comeback victories and 4 game-winning drives within the fourth quarter or time beyond regulation. He turned the primary Titans quarterback to win a playoff sport since Steve McNair, however he struggled a lot in Mike Mularkey’s antiquated scheme that the Titans had little alternative however to fireside their coach.

If Mariota stays wholesome and succeeds in 2018 below the stewardship of former Rams offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur, all can be forgiven. If he struggles, although, the Titans may be a Ryan Tannehill-esque scenario. No person doubts that Mariota’s mobility, management and propensity for highlight-reel performs make him an excellent prospect, however after years of biking via coaches and schemes to attempt to match their quarterback, at what level is it extra in regards to the passer than the individuals round him? If Mariota would not flip into the participant we have been ready to see this season, there are going to be cheap considerations about his ceiling.

Winston produced the perfect four-game stretch of his profession after coming back from harm final season, a run through which he accomplished almost 72 % of his passes whereas averaging 9.three yards per try and throwing for eight touchdowns in opposition to two picks. He improved in nearly each statistical class I can discover and was higher than league common by the overwhelming majority of measures.

Invoice Barnwell breaks down the NFL like nobody else: • Might Watson, Wentz regress?» • Can Jimmy G actually save the Niners? » • Constructing the right 53-man roster » • Predicting which breakouts will stick » • Meet the NFL’s Eagles Copycat Membership » • 6 groups probably to enhance » • These 6 groups will possible win fewer video games » • All of the fallout from Rams’ spending spree » • Finest, worst offensive arsenals from 32-1 » Extra NFL protection »

We ought to be a possible Professional Bowl season for Winston. As an alternative, he’s suspended for 3 video games after allegedly groping an Uber driver in Arizona in March 2016. It is a essential yr for Winston’s growth, however that has far much less to do with what he does on the sphere than how he acts off of it. Can the Buccaneers justify giving an eight-figure contract to a quarterback who has repeatedly been accused of sexual misconduct and would not look like studying any classes? Ought to we even be asking the query?

Four. John Elway, GM, Broncos

It is unfathomable to counsel that Elway’s job may be on the road provided that he is a franchise icon and two years faraway from profitable Tremendous Bowl 50. However it’s tough to imagine simply how a lot has gone incorrect in Denver for the reason that group raised the Lombardi trophy. The Broncos weren’t capable of come to phrases on an extension with defensive coordinator Wade Phillips, who went to Los Angeles and turned across the Rams’ protection in a single day. Six of the 11 starters who suited up for the Broncos within the Tremendous Bowl win over the Panthers are now not on the roster, and the protection regressed and fell from first to 10th in DVOA final season.

Extra disconcerting, although, is Elway’s lack of ability to enhance the offense. He mishandled the C.J. Anderson scenario and was pressured to match an onerous supply sheet from the Dolphins for what ended up being two years of atypical play. The efforts to improve the offensive line in each the draft and free company have made little progress; the Broncos are about to chop Menelik Watson regardless of owing the previous Raiders proper sort out $5.5 million in assured base wage this season.

John Elway has a brand new quarterback in veteran Case Keenum, who acquired $25 million assured this offseason. David Zalubowski/AP Photograph

What’s most worrisome, although, is how the transition from Peyton Manning has not gone to plan. Elway prevented a landmine when the Broncos have been outbid for Brock Osweiler, who went to Houston, however the commerce as much as seize Paxton Lynch within the first spherical in 2016 seems to be a misstep. Lynch was terrible in 128 go makes an attempt over two seasons and may not make the roster after slipping behind seventh-rounder Chad Kelly. Now, it is going to be Case Keenum’s flip after the Broncos made a $25 million guess on the previous undrafted free agent maintaining his beautiful kind from Minnesota.

It is hardly as if Elway was on an island along with his selections, after all. The Texans wished Osweiler. The Cowboys have been furiously upset in regards to the Broncos beating them to the punch in buying and selling up for Lynch, and after the Raiders drafted fellow goal Connor Prepare dinner, Dallas was pressured to accept Dak Prescott. There wasn’t a lot chatter round Keenum earlier than he signed with the Broncos, however it’s not tough to imagine that he would have attracted critical cash on a one-year deal if the Broncos had gone in a special route.

A part of the equation with Elway, although, has at all times been the concept that his expertise as a participant gives a bonus over executives who have not gained video games on the sphere on the highest stage. To be truthful, Elway has been humble and hasn’t expressed that sentiment himself, however this can be a league through which each John Dorsey and Dave Gettleman have been out of a job right now final season. If every other basic supervisor pieced collectively a five-year stretch of first-round picks that included Sylvester Williams, Shane Ray, Lynch and Garett Bolles (and the helpful Bradley Roby), would not we be worrying about his future?

Since 1970, 318 quarterbacks have thrown 500 or extra passes in a season. Of these quarterbacks, simply three have posted a worse yards per try index (Y/A+) than Flacco did final season, when the Tremendous Bowl XLVII MVP averaged 5.eight yards per try in a league through which the typical go went for six.6 yards per throw. Flacco hasn’t posted a Y/A+ above the league common of 100 for the reason that 2012 season.

Since profitable the Tremendous Bowl within the 2012 season, Flacco has been certainly one of 19 passers to throw 2,000 or extra go makes an attempt. He is a middling 13th in completion share, and that is the intense spot. Flacco ranks final in yards per try, final in adjusted internet yards per try, 16th in interception charge, final in landing share, 18th in passer ranking and 15th in Whole QBR. If a productive preseason is an indication that Flacco is responding to the problem of first-round choose Lamar Jackson, that is nice. Only one query, although: What has he been ready for?

Listed below are Ansah’s sack totals after which the variety of sacks we might have anticipated for Ansah given his quarterback knockdown totals:

12 months Sacks Knockdowns Anticipated Sacks Distinction 2013 eight 11 5 three 2014 7.5 26 11.7 -Four.2 2015 14.5 34 15.three -Zero.eight 2016 2 15 6.eight -Four.eight 2017 12 17 7.7 Four.three Whole 44 103 46.Four -2.Four

He’s proper the place we might anticipate him to be over the course of his profession, however he has dramatically under- or over-performed his anticipated sack complete in 4 of his 5 professional seasons. That does not bode nicely for 2018, throughout which Ansah can be taking part in out his franchise tag below a brand new coach in Matt Patricia and defensive coordinator in Paul Pasqualoni. Since 2006, 55 pass-rushers have outperformed their anticipated sack complete by someplace between three.5 and Four.5 sacks, as was the case for Ansah final season. The next season, 42 of these 55 gamers declined, whereas simply 9 improved.

7. Norv Turner, offensive coordinator, Panthers

Panthers followers who have been deliriously excited in regards to the franchise transferring on from longtime offensive coordinator Mike Shula had about three days to have fun earlier than being puzzled by the rent of the 66-year-old Turner, who was simply over one yr faraway from leaving the Vikings in the course of a irritating season. Turner has had a powerful profession as an offensive coordinator, however after the Chargers completed fifth in offensive DVOA in 2011, his offenses have not ranked higher than 16th in offensive DVOA in any season.

As I discussed earlier this yr, Turner has by no means actually labored with a cell quarterback throughout his profession. Is that an excellent match for Cam Newton? Turner has constructed his offenses round attacking groups downfield, which is smart given Carolina’s offensive weapons however may not be an excellent match given this offensive line. The Panthers already are lacking star guard Andrew Norwell, who left for Jacksonville, and may very well be down each beginning tackles with Daryl Williams possible heading to injured reserve and Matt Kalil present process a knee scope. It looks like certainly one of three issues will occur: The Panthers make miracles occur with their backup offensive linemen; Turner adjustments his spots as an offensive coach after a long time within the NFL; or Cam Newton will get hit greater than every other quarterback within the league.

Blake Bortles completed the 2017 with a 55.6 Whole QBR, which ranked 12th within the league. Sam Greenwood/Getty Pictures

The most effective instance of the distinctive place Bortles occupies within the NFL world is that he’s a former No. three general choose who had a company store for items to make him look good every offseason whereas concurrently making excuses as he failed to enhance and but, nonetheless, Bortles manages to have a persecution complicated.

We all know the lows have been unhealthy for Bortles. Even the highs, although, have not been spectacular. I took every quarterback’s prime 16 begins by Whole QBR over the previous 5 seasons and mixed their numbers into what quantities to their best-case seasonal line. Of these 37 passers, Bortles’ greatest 16 video games mix to rank 35th in completion share, 26th in yards per try, 34th in interception charge and 29th in adjusted yards per try.

The most effective-case state of affairs is that we see extra of the Bortles who pieced collectively the perfect three-game stretch of his profession final December together with the man who subsequently held his personal in opposition to Ben Roethlisberger and Tom Brady within the playoffs. The worst case is that we get the Bortles who confirmed up in between the stretches, the man who threw 5 interceptions throughout three video games and have become the primary quarterback in almost twenty years to throw 20 passes in a playoff sport and win regardless of failing to make it to 100 passing yards. If which Bortles goes to point out up in 2018, we’re all ears.

9. Hue Jackson, coach, Browns

Allow us to all develop as much as have Jackson’s confidence. Few coaches maintain their jobs after a 1-15 season, though it could have been harsh to fireside Jackson amid Cleveland’s tanking efforts. Even fewer handle to carry onto the gig after a winless marketing campaign, when the Browns truly have been purported to be extra aggressive. Jackson was employed for his capacity to work with quarterbacks, however he spent 2017 destroying DeShone Kizer’s confidence earlier than letting the rookie flail on the sphere throughout a brutal season. Deposed basic supervisor Sashi Brown and analytics chief Paul DePodesta have taken the warmth for buying and selling away the choose the Eagles used on Carson Wentz, although Jackson did not need to use the second general choose on Wentz.

Brown actually had his personal points and possibly deserved to lose his job, however Jackson framing the Browns’ future as the best turnaround in sports activities historical past looks like a case of placing the cart earlier than the horse. On this case, the horse is one thing like “two wins in a season” or “dealing with a quarterback scenario successfully for a month at a time.” Jackson was keen to border himself as a traditionalist in distinction to Brown after the latter was fired and changed by John Dorsey, however the determination to play rookie Antonio Callaway into the fourth quarter of a preseason sport as a punishment was panned by ex-players. To maintain his job previous 2018, Jackson goes to need to decide on a narrative and an id. With first general choose Baker Mayfield within the fold, the time for excuses is up.

10. Steve Sarkisian, offensive coordinator, Falcons

I am not satisfied Sarkisian deserves wherever close to as a lot of the blame for what occurred with the Falcons’ offense final season. For one, the Falcons have been at all times going to say no from the file marks they put up in 2016, no matter whether or not former coordinator Kyle Shanahan caught round. The Falcons produced the perfect first-down offense in league historical past in 2016, and in 2017, they fell all the way in which to 3rd in yards per play and third in conversion charge on first downs. Their offensive line additionally stayed wholesome for 80 begins in 2016, which is nearly unimaginable to repeat (and out of any coordinator’s management).

The largest downside with the Falcons’ offense in 2017, as an alternative, was that it spent an excessive amount of time on the sidelines. Atlanta’s protection allowed extra performs per drive than every other group in soccer. The Falcons’ protection allowed the second-longest common drive by way of time of possession. It ranked 26th in turnover share.

Steve Sarkisian is again for 12 months 2 with the Falcons, who’ve stored the identical weapons. Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports activities

Because of this, the offense ran solely 157 significant possessions final season, the bottom mark within the league by 9 full possessions. The league common was 179 possessions. It is as if the Falcons simply punted on first down each drive for 2 video games of the season. Atlanta additionally confronted the league’s second-worst common beginning discipline place. With that, the Falcons then averaged the league’s second-most yards per drive and its seventh-most factors per drive. They completed ninth in offensive DVOA. The offense held up its finish of the discount.

These numbers aren’t going to placate Falcons followers, although, and Sarkisian may make for a handy scapegoat if the protection would not take that long-awaited huge step ahead. He should hope for a constructive regression to the imply within the purple zone from Julio Jones, who scored a scarcely plausible three touchdowns on 88 receptions a yr in the past. I think about Falcons followers might need some playcalling options for what to not do within the purple zone after final season’s goal-line stand in Philadelphia.

There aren’t many comparisons made between Newton and Andy Dalton. Rightfully so. I am making one right here as a result of each Newton and Dalton put collectively 2015 campaigns that seem like large outliers in context with the remainder of their careers. Dalton’s passer ranking falls between 80.Four and 91.eight in six of his seven seasons. In 2015, he posted a passer ranking of 106.2. Cam’s passer ranking stays inside a equally modest vary in 5 of his six campaigns, with a low of 75.eight and a excessive of 88.eight. Throughout his MVP season, the previous Auburn star made his method as much as a ranking of 99.Four.

Passer ranking should not inform the entire story for Newton given how a lot he gives as a runner, however you may perceive why there is a sense of frustration with Cam stagnating as a passer. After their try to alter the offense and cut back the workload on Newton failed final season, although, the Panthers punted on the concept and leaned even additional right into a downfield passing assault by hiring Norv Turner to function offensive coordinator. It will be silly for the Panthers to place Newton on the recent seat given how productive he has been earlier than turning 30, however it’s additionally truthful to wonder if the MVP is popping out to play once more anytime quickly.

12. Adam Gase, coach, Dolphins

It took one yr for Gase to morph from darling younger coach right into a pissed off, probably overmatched chief. This time final yr, Dolphins staffers have been someway predicting breakout seasons for nearly each certainly one of Miami’s weapons. The breakouts did not come. Jay Ajayi was traded in an try to repair the group tradition, just for the Eagles to win a Tremendous Bowl with him within the lineup. DeVante Parker was hardly ever wholesome. Kenny Stills’ landing share regressed towards the imply. The much-ballyhooed reunions of Gase with Jay Cutler and Julius Thomas ended with each gamers retiring; Thomas to get his Ph.D., Cutler to function the languid, curious muse of a actuality present.

The Dolphins as an alternative structured this offseason round rebuilding their tradition, changing Jarvis Landry and Ndamukong Suh with Danny Amendola, Albert Wilson and Robert Quinn. The issue is that the tradition woes in Miami stretch past the 2017 group and even Gase’s tenure with the group. The Dolphins do not function in the true world. It is a group that may’t afford to make Suh the highest-paid defender within the league and does so anyway, drastically restructures the deal to liberate cap room, then cuts him to herald the subsequent big-name participant whereas patting themselves on the again for dumping their most proficient defender. If Gase can overcome that, he is a good higher coach than the man we have been impressed with after 2016.

UPDATE: The Jets have been, in reality, capable of procure a invaluable choose for his or her $500,000 funding in Bridgewater when the Saints despatched their 2019 third-round choice for the previous Vikings starter and a sixth-round choose. It is an excellent transfer for the Jets, who principally purchased a top-level compensation choose with out having to pay Bridgewater his base wage. It is a curious transfer within the brief time period for the Saints, but when Bridgewater wished to discover a long-term dwelling, it is laborious to discover a higher location for the 25-year-old than Sean Payton’s offense in New Orleans.

A league continually decrying the shortage of helpful quarterbacks did not worth Bridgewater this offseason; whereas veterans corresponding to Mike Glennon and Chase Daniel have been capable of signal multimillion-dollar offers, Bridgewater’s one-year deal assured him solely $500,000 at signing. It appeared like a logical touchdown spot for Bridgewater provided that he can be competing with injury-prone veteran Josh McCown, just for the Jets to commerce up and seize Sam Darnold within the draft, pushing again Bridgewater into the No. three function.

Darnold appears more likely to begin Week 1, which leaves each the Jets and Bridgewater in a quandary. Each Bridgewater and McCown have $5 million base salaries, however whereas McCown’s cash is assured, Bridgewater’s is just not. The Jets additionally worth McCown as an on-field coach for Darnold. There’s not an apparent match on the roster for Bridgewater, although he has appeared spectacular in the course of the preseason.

Teddy Bridgewater will possible enter the season because the Jets’ third quarterback, however an harm might see him traded elsewhere. Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports activities

Carrying Bridgewater’s $5 million base wage within the hopes of basically shopping for a compensatory choose additionally would not make sense. The league is not going to out of the blue worth Bridgewater at $16 million per yr if he sits behind Darnold. If he will get backup cash on the free-agent market in 2019, Bridgewater would qualify for a draft choose solely within the sixth or seventh spherical. Even that will require the Jets to largely sit out free company, one thing they have not accomplished below GM Mike Maccagnan (and should not do as they construct their offense round Darnold).

The probably state of affairs is that the Jets both reduce Bridgewater or commerce him for a conditional choose. The Jets can hope to get a second- or a third-round choose, however they’ve little leverage in maintaining Bridgewater and are not more likely to discover a determined group available on the market. The comparisons to Sam Bradford do not match; the Vikings have been a singular match by way of a group anticipating to be very aggressive, and the Eagles had a quarterback who the league continues to worth as a starter.

Whereas there have been people clamoring for the Jaguars to accumulate Bridgewater — and a swap of Bridgewater and a choose for Dante Fowler would make sense for each side — Tyrod Taylor can be a significantly better match for the Jags and their need to carry onto the soccer and defend discipline place. Bridgewater stays a helpful participant and deserves an opportunity to start out someplace, however that chance in all probability will not come till 2019.

Groups do not usually wait this lengthy to signal true franchise gamers, as we’re seeing from the opposite stars on this draft class. Mike Evans signed an extension over the summer season, whereas Odell Beckham Jr. simply signed an extension. Aaron Donald is near signing his deal. It is somewhat little bit of a shock that Mack is not but signed, however it’s much more disconcerting that the Raiders do not even look like near a take care of their star pass-rusher.

Do the Raiders actually assume Mack is not price Donald-level cash? Would they realistically commerce their star pass-rusher with no apparent alternative for Mack left on the roster? It is tough to fathom, partly as a result of 27-year-old famous person edge rushers do not usually come obtainable. Whichever group acquires Mack can be instantly paying him an enormous contract, which would scale back his commerce worth to some extent through which it is tough to think about the Raiders getting a return they may promote to their followers as viable.

The probably state of affairs continues to be that the Raiders and Mack discover widespread floor and work their method right into a deal. Oakland might nonetheless franchise Mack in 2019 at a defensible worth, leaving it with one other yr to barter. On the similar time, although, it isn’t as if Mack’s worth is about to come back down. The earlier the Raiders make this transfer would be the higher.

15. David Culley, quarterbacks coach, Payments

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It is potential that Culley is extraordinarily well-qualified to teach new Payments quarterback Josh Allen, for whom the group traded draft capital in extra of the primary general choose to maneuver up in April. Culley takes the stance that teaching is teaching no matter place, and as a 62-year-old coming into his 40th yr on the job, you observed he is aware of a factor or two.

On the similar time, although, what number of groups do you see handing the quarterback teaching duties to a man whose résumé at that particular job has a 30-year hole? The final quarterback Culley instantly tutored earlier than taking on as Payments quarterbacks coach in 2017 was future NFL operating again Brian Mitchell at Southwestern Louisiana within the mid-1980s. Culley labored largely as a receivers coach over the following a long time, however the early returns from 2017 weren’t very thrilling. Tyrod Taylor had his worst season as a Payments starter, and Nathan Peterman … nicely, what occurred. Culley deserves his likelihood to mildew Allen, but when issues go poorly, who do you assume goes to take the blame?

Group II: The Rookies (or Nearly Rookies)

Listed below are the oldsters who’re both debuting or virtually debuting on the nationwide stage this upcoming season.

When the Chiefs traded as much as seize the highest man on their draft board in 2017, they sealed Alex Smith’s destiny. What occurred subsequent couldn’t — and didn’t — alter the plan. Smith produced the perfect season of his profession and led the league in passer ranking. The Chiefs fired the final supervisor who drafted Mahomes and misplaced a lot of their offensive brainpower when Matt Nagy left for the Bears. Regardless of. The Chiefs drafted Mahomes in 2017 to start out in Week 1 of 2018. We’re about to get there.

Patrick Mahomes, who takes over for Alex Smith this season, threw for 284 yards and had an interception in his lone begin in 2017. AP Photograph/Charlie Riedel

Organizations do not do that fairly often, partly as a result of it is tough to be spoiled for alternative with quarterbacks. Groups peck and claw and keep up at night time dreaming about getting somebody like Smith, who nearly by no means throws his group out of a sport and will get them again into it extra usually than the general public thinks. Think about a group just like the Browns or the Jets being pissed off by a quarterback whose purported ceiling is 10 wins and a playoff loss. It is soccer privilege to shoot for a greater quarterback than Smith, even given Smith’s age (34) and cap quantity.

Groups have changed their sitting Professional Bowl starter with an inexperienced backup for harm causes, after all, however there aren’t many current examples of a group willingly buying and selling or permitting a Professional Bowl passer to depart in the course of the offseason whereas changing them with a first-round choose sans monitor file.

You bear in mind probably the most well-known instance, after all. The Packers traded Brett Favre after he retired and un-retired in the summertime of 2007 to show issues over to Aaron Rodgers, who had thrown 59 profession passes with a passer ranking of 73.three. It labored out advantageous. Drew Brees truly tore his labrum in Week 17 of the 2005 marketing campaign and would have possible made the Professional Bowl, however the Chargers sealed his destiny beforehand by utilizing their 2004 first-round choose on Eli Manning and subsequently buying and selling for Philip Rivers.

The opposite current instance, maybe not coincidentally, includes Andy Reid. The Eagles traded away Donovan McNabb after their longtime starter made it to the Professional Bowl and led the Eagles to the playoffs in 2009. McNabb was about to enter his age-34 season and had two years and $19.2 million in unguaranteed cash left on his contract, however the Eagles did not have the kind of clear succession path the Chiefs have with Mahomes.

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Matthew Berry, Subject Yates and Stephania Bell talk about Patrick Mahomes’ outlook after the Chiefs’ preseason sport in opposition to the Falcons.

Philly’s plan was to show the job over to Kevin Kolb. Their 2007 second-round choose had thrown seven interceptions in 130 go makes an attempt over two seasons, however he had been a wildly correct quarterback in school and accomplished 64.6 % of his passes over a 96-throw marketing campaign whereas filling in for McNabb in 2009.

Issues went awry nearly instantly. Kolb went down with a concussion after throwing 10 passes within the opener in opposition to the Packers, an harm that will sadly crop up repeatedly all through his profession. Reid was pressured to show issues over to Michael Vick, who had spent two years in jail earlier than throwing 13 passes as Philadelphia’s third-string quarterback in 2009. Vick excelled as Kolb’s alternative and was named the starter after Week 2.

There is no Vick lurking on the roster for the Chiefs, who must flip issues over to Chad Henne or Matt McGloin if Mahomes acquired harm. The 2010 Eagles season reminds us of two truths about quarterbacks, which apply to those Chiefs. One is that we do not know whether or not a quarterback can keep wholesome on the NFL stage till he has truly pulled it off. The opposite is that Andy Reid can certain coach quarterbacks.

Does any rookie operating again in current reminiscence come into the league below extra stress than the previous Penn State star? Ezekiel Elliott was drafted almost as excessive, however he was coming into a scenario with an excellent offensive line on a group that had run the ball nicely in earlier seasons. Leonard Fournette and Trent Richardson have been becoming a member of groups with low expectations, though the Jaguars rapidly exceeded theirs with Fournette’s assist.

Barkley, the highest-drafted operating again since Reggie Bush in 2006, has to single-handedly rescue a moribund Giants operating sport. He will not have the offensive line, provided that the transfer to swap Weston Richburg and Justin Pugh for Nate Solder and Patrick Omameh may not be an improve. (The Giants used a second-round choose on guard Will Hernandez, however because the Ereck Flowers saga will let you know, utilizing a excessive choose on a lineman is not any assure of success.) New York is concurrently relying on Barkley to take among the load off Eli Manning and prolong the longtime quarterback’s profession within the course of. It is lots to ask of a 21-year-old rookie, however Barkley may very nicely be as much as the duty.

The largest shock from the 2017 Eagles roster was … OK, it was Nelson Agholor. The second-biggest shock on the roster was Patrick Robinson, who was reduce after one season with the Colts and signed with the Eagles for simply $775,000. Robinson promptly changed into among the best slot cornerbacks within the league, giving the Eagles an enormous benefit at what turned near a beginning function. He knocked away 18 passes, which tied the previous Saints first-round choose for the sixth most in soccer. Robinson promptly returned to New Orleans on a four-year, $20 million deal this offseason.

Enter Jones, who tore his Achilles and fell to the Eagles in the course of the second spherical in final yr’s draft. Jones basically took 2017 as a redshirt yr, however with Robinson leaving, the Washington product can be taking on within the lineup as Philadelphia’s slot cornerback. The Eagles can nonetheless survive if Jones struggles, however a profitable sophomore marketing campaign from Jones would reinforce Philadelphia’s present plan below Howie Roseman. If they’ll get cornerbacks like Jones to provide on a budget, they’ll proceed to spend cash on the line of scrimmage and lock up weapons for Wentz. If they cannot, you may check out the Seahawks roster for what occurs whenever you attempt to make investments in all places.

First-year head coach Matt Nagy has significantly better weapons on offense, because the Bears added Allen Robinson, Trey Burton and others in free company. Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports activities

19. Matt Nagy, coach, Bears

When groups fireplace their head coach, they usually substitute that coach with somebody who represents the polar reverse of their deposed chief. It is no shock, then, that the Bears changed 63-year-old defensive stalwart John Fox with 40-year-old Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy. Fox has 16 years of head-coaching expertise; Nagy has 10 years of teaching expertise in complete, having been elevated to the offensive coordinator’s function in Kansas Metropolis after Doug Pederson left for the Eagles.

Bears followers understandably need to give Nagy the credit score for the Chiefs blowing groups away on offense with a contemporary assault in the course of the first two months of the 2018 season, however he may additionally deserve among the blame for that very same offense stagnating throughout a four-game midseason dropping streak. Nagy took over as playcaller from Reid in December and helped encourage a return to kind, however even after the Chiefs averaged 28.6 factors per sport over the ultimate 5 contests and dropped 21 factors on the Titans within the first half of their wild-card sport, Reid appeared to be the one blamed when the Chiefs went scoreless and appeared to overlook about Kareem Hunt within the second half of their crushing loss.

If every little thing goes proper, the Bears may very well be one of many league’s most entertaining offenses. The mix of Nagy, Brad Childress and former Oregon coach Mark Helfrich as offensive coordinator provides the Bears the chance to get forward of the curve on offense as professional groups bravely start to go the place school offenses have been seven or eight years in the past. The educational curve in going from the vastly skilled Alex Smith (who has thrown precisely 5,200 passes on the school and professional stage) to Mitchell Trubisky (who is available in at 902 makes an attempt) might restrict what Nagy can implement in 12 months 1.

The Steelers have not actually discovered a alternative for Troy Polamalu for the reason that future Corridor of Famer light after 30 and retired in 2015. Their protection took a step ahead final season, solely to regress after star linebacker Ryan Shazier suffered a career-threatening spinal harm, permitting a median of 28 factors per sport.

Whereas Pittsburgh did not purchase a direct alternative for Shazier this offseason, their greatest resolution could also be to get artistic. New security Morgan Burnett performed some linebacker in Inexperienced Bay and will characteristic there on passing downs. Edmunds, then again, may play somewhat little bit of every little thing. The primary-round choose from Virginia Tech will in all probability start the season as a part-time sturdy security, however by the tip of the yr, it would not be a shock to see Edmunds taking part in every little thing from security to linebacker to fit cornerback. If he could make a fast adjustment to the professional sport, the Steelers can have a Swiss military knife able to filling within the weakest spot of their lineup from snap to snap. They may even have somebody able to competing athletically with Steelers killer Rob Gronkowski, who has racked up 664 receiving yards and eight touchdowns in six profession video games in opposition to Pittsburgh.

Seahawks rookie Michael Dickson gained the Ray Man Award at Texas in 2017. AP Photograph/John Amis

There’s one thing somewhat unhappy about Seahawks followers who as soon as bragged about arguably the perfect roster in soccer pinning their hopes on a rookie punter, however Dickson has comfortably been the perfect punter in soccer in the course of the preseason. He’s averaging 48.1 internet yards per punt, almost three yards higher than every other punter and three.5 yards forward of Brett Kern’s league-leading 44.6-yard mark from a yr in the past. It is a small pattern, after all, however the NFL has preseason punting knowledge going again via 2000, and no qualifying punter has even hit 47 internet yards per punt. Ensure that to cite this preseason punting statistic at your Labor Day social gathering if you wish to be left alone for some time.

One query, although: If Dickson is basically good in the course of the common season, would he be a candidate for Offensive Rookie of the 12 months or Defensive Rookie of the 12 months? Might he encourage the league to create a Particular Groups Rookie of the 12 months award? And should not there be a Particular Groups Participant of the 12 months award already?

Group III: Acquainted Faces in New Locations

How will these names we already know fare in new digs?

Probably the most believable state of affairs for the 2018 Vikings, sadly, is that they do not want for causes nearly completely unrelated to Cousins, just for their $28 million quarterback to take the blame. Cousins cannot management how wholesome the Vikings can be on protection or whether or not Aaron Rodgers can be within the lineup for multiple quarter of the 2 Packers-Vikings video games. He additionally has no management over his personal offensive line staying wholesome, though the problem plagued Cousins’ ultimate season in Washington and appears to have adopted him to Minneapolis earlier than the season has even begun.

The scary factor is that the one method for Cousins to essentially dwell as much as this deal, given how good the Vikings have been a yr in the past, is to make it to the Tremendous Bowl. Something much less and there can be a portion of the viewers stating that they may have stored Case Keenum (or Teddy Bridgewater) at a fraction of Cousins’ price ticket whereas utilizing the financial savings so as to add an affect participant at one other place of want, no matter how efficient Cousins performs. Is that this truthful? Completely not.

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Subject Yates sees Kirk Cousins as a top-10 fantasy quarterback this season resulting from an improved receiving group with the Vikings in comparison with his Redskins days.

23. Jon Gruden, coach, Raiders

The league’s largest thriller is what we’ll see from the Raiders’ offense in Week 1. Gruden’s offseason strikes as shadow basic supervisor have not been inspiring, which is no surprise given his monitor file with personnel in Tampa Bay. It is also truthful to notice that there is nonetheless loads of expertise on the offensive aspect of the ball in Oakland, because the Raiders are solely two years faraway from trying fairly aggressive offensively below Invoice Musgrave.

What must you anticipate? Tempo, at the least on a selective foundation. Gruden goes to attempt to make Derek Carr’s life simpler by giving him less complicated reads and controlling the protection’s capacity to make changes, in a lot the identical method Sean McVay has in Los Angeles. It is laborious to think about that Gruden will get too far-off from the West Coast offense he grew up in throughout his time with the 49ers and Eagles, though it would not be a shock to see him add some tags to his core operating performs to present Carr the choice to throw a display or a fast hitch to Amari Cooper. I might additionally anticipate rising pains for each coach and quarterback alike. Gruden is starting a 10-year, $100 million contract. Endurance may be crucial advantage for the brand new Raiders.

The checklist of unheralded, cheap backs who made their names in offenses led by a Shanahan goes again greater than 20 years. It begins with Terrell Davis after which runs via Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson and Reuben Droughns below Mike Shanahan in Denver. Clinton Portis was a late second-round choose, then the Broncos traded him earlier than he acquired costly in a deal for Champ Bailey and second-round choose Tatum Bell, who briefly adopted in Portis’ footsteps as a starter. The Broncos gave Davis an enormous extension in 1998, however accidents restricted him to part-time work after that season. The one different operating again the Broncos paid up for was Travis Henry, who was ineffective earlier than his profession fell aside resulting from off-field considerations.

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In Houston, in the meantime, Gary Kubiak and Kyle Shanahan acquired strong numbers from rookie third-rounder Steve Slaton for a yr earlier than the West Virginia again struggled in 2009. Shanahan left after that season, with Kubiak subsequently turning issues over to second-year again Arian Foster, who rapidly emerged from relative obscurity as an undrafted free agent into the league’s most efficient runner.

Shanahan went to affix his dad in Washington, the place former Broncos backup Ryan Torain produced a helpful season in 2010. By 2012, Washington turned issues over to rookie sixth-rounder Alfred Morris, who racked up 1,613 yards and 13 scores as a rookie and adopted it up with a 1,275-yard season earlier than the Shanahans each left city. Kyle could not coax a lot out of the Cleveland speeding assault in 2014, however after he arrived in Atlanta, Shanahan turned midround picks Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman into one of many league’s most fearsome one-two punches.

The 49ers assured McKinnon almost $12 million this offseason.

New signing Malcolm Butler is anticipated to be the Titans’ prime nook this season. Christopher Hanewinckel/USA TODAY Sports activities

Given the occasions of Tremendous Bowl LII, Butler actually could not have had a greater offseason. The Patriots took loads of criticism for benching the Tremendous Bowl XLIX hero in a sport through which their cornerbacks could not maintain up in protection. Butler might need been pressured to accept a one-year deal if groups had questions on what Invoice Belichick noticed, however as an alternative, he discovered a five-year, $61.three million contract that does not actually signify any kind of low cost from what he would have gotten had Butler been anonymously advantageous within the Tremendous Bowl. He additionally landed in a snug spot, taking part in for a pair of ex-Patriots in Mike Vrabel and Dean Pees below former New England govt Jon Robinson in Tennessee.

Should you look backward previous the Tremendous Bowl, although, 2017 was a wildly inconsistent yr for Butler. He struggled all season, and whereas Stephon Gilmore drew a lot of the consideration for giving up huge performs early within the season, Butler was the nook groups have been selecting on by the point the second half arrived. Soccer Outsiders notes that Butler allowed 9.1 adjusted yards per go, which ranked 69th amongst qualifying cornerbacks. Cornerback statistics may be guesswork, however Butler did not look good on movie, both. He has to bounce again from one thing greater than the Tremendous Bowl benching in 2018.

Smith has spent the previous seven years within the protecting cocoon of quarterback gurus Jim Harbaugh and Andy Reid, and the checklist of quarterbacks who’ve light after parting methods with their coach is appreciable. Colin Kaepernick, Kevin Kolb, Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick all regressed after their spell below Harbaugh and Reid, and whilst you may argue that they have been hit by both accidents or the getting old curve, Smith is 34.

The most effective argument in opposition to Smith following of their footsteps is the 2017 season through which Smith leveled up and eventually added to his capacity to keep away from takeaways by making performs downfield. In Washington, Smith can have his beneath weapons in slot receiver Jamison Crowder and halfback Chris Thompson, however his capacity to make one thing out of former first-round choose Josh Doctson and costly free agent Paul Richardson downfield may be the distinction between Smith dwelling as much as expectations as Kirk Cousins’ alternative.

Jay Gruden additionally has lots driving on Smith. It has been two years since Washington made the playoffs, and no coach has gone three years with out making the playoffs below Daniel Snyder whereas managing to maintain their job for a fourth yr. Cousins broke out below Gruden, however it’s truthful to say good quantity of the credit score for that breakout goes to Sean McVay. Andy Dalton’s standout season did not come till 2015, two years after Gruden left Cincinnati. If Smith out of the blue declines below his new coach, Gruden may be the one taking each the blame and the autumn.

Group IV: The Rehabilitation Tales

These gamers are bodily or mentally rehabbing after traumatic ends to their 2017.

It ought to be telling that after two years basically misplaced within the harm wilderness, Watt continues to be the favourite to win Defensive Participant of the 12 months. As tempting as it’s to check Aaron Donald to Watt after the Rams star emerged in Watt’s absence, think about that Donald racked up 19 sacks and 58 knockdowns over the previous two seasons. These are unimaginable numbers, however Watt managed to generate 20.5 sacks and 51 knockdowns in 2014 alone. Over a four-year stretch from 2012-15, Watt averaged — averaged — greater than 17 sacks and 47 knockdowns per season. No person within the NFL has topped 33 knockdowns in both of the previous two seasons. A wholesome Watt is sui generis.

Future Corridor of Famer J.J. Watt says he is absolutely wholesome, however can he return to his pre-2015 kind? AP Photograph/David J. Phillip

After all, it is unclear whether or not we’ll ever see that model of Watt once more. Watt broke down in 2016 and underwent again surgical procedure, and whereas he mentioned all the proper issues about feeling improbable and raring to go this time final yr, he racked up simply 5 knockdowns with out a sack in 4 video games earlier than breaking his leg. The Texans do not essentially want the previous Watt to be aggressive on protection so long as Jadeveon Clowney and Whitney Mercilus are round, but when they get again the Deshaun Watson we noticed in 2017 and the Watt from 2015, they’re Tremendous Bowl contenders.

I needn’t let you know about Rodgers. Should you’ve forgotten, watch this:

Does anyone have extra driving on the 2018 season than Arizona’s star operating again? If we see a repeat of the 2016 season, when Johnson had a reputable case as the perfect operating again in soccer, he ought to problem for a Todd Gurley-sized contract with $50 million or so in new cash. If we see a repeat of Johnson’s 2017 season — which lasted all of three quarters earlier than Johnson dislocated his wrist — he is in all probability a one-year, prove-it deal earlier than hitting free company once more in 2019.

Clearly, it could be actually terrible to see Johnson go down in the course of the season opener once more. The excellent news is that the harm wasn’t to a knee or ankle, however Johnson did sprain his MCL in Week 17 of that 2016 marketing campaign. He additionally looks like a logical match for brand new Cardinals offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, who coaxed the 2 largest receiving seasons of Danny Woodhead’s profession out of the scatback throughout their time in San Diego.

Listed below are the 15 energetic quarterbacks who’ve thrown probably the most passes within the NFL since Luck joined the league in 2012, sorted by the distinction between their school and professional completion share:

The 2 outliers on the unfavorable aspect are Cam Newton (who threw solely 292 passes on the prime stage in school whereas taking part in in a ramification scheme below Gus Malzahn) and Luck, who threw greater than 1,000 passes throughout his time at Stanford, most of which got here below Jim Harbaugh.

Completion share by no means tells the entire story, however Luck nonetheless hasn’t had that MVP-caliber season since becoming a member of the league. The closest he got here was 2014, when he threw 40 landing passes and ran for 3 extra, however even that was extra a few dismal Indianapolis speeding assault than anything. Trent Richardson & Co. scored on simply 22.2 % of their tries inside the within the 5-yard line, the third-worst charge within the league that season. The following yr, Indy was even worse, falling to 14.three % on these runs. That was the fourth-worst charge of the previous decade.

No person would argue that the Colts are worse off with the return of Luck, however as we fret in regards to the former first general choose returning to his previous kind, is it truthful to wonder if there’s ever going to be one other gear for the perfect quarterback prospect of his era? Luck admittedly hasn’t had a lot assist up entrance, so a wholesome and efficient offensive line may unlock the MVP candidate ready to get out.

I really feel assured that no person on the planet is trying ahead to Week 1 of the NFL season greater than Williams, who will get an opportunity to atone for his main function within the disastrous finish to the Saints-Vikings playoff encounter from final season. What was forgotten in mild of what occurred is simply how spectacular Williams was throughout his rookie marketing campaign. Marshon Lattimore took a lot of the consideration and was transformative for the Saints’ protection, however Williams completed his with 4 picks and added a fifth earlier within the Vikings sport. One on-field mistake should not outline a profession. Everybody across the league ought to be rooting for the 21-year-old to return to kind this upcoming season.

I wrote about Watson earlier this month in context with Carson Wentz, however Watson is additional forward in his rehabilitation and a lock to start out Week 1. Skeptics need to examine Watson to Robert Griffin III by way of rookie quarterbacks who succeeded in offenses with school thrives earlier than struggling after knee accidents, however Watson wasn’t wherever close to as reliant on his legs final season as Griffin was throughout that fateful rookie marketing campaign. Then again, Watson may additionally be caught behind the worst offensive line in soccer. These legs might turn out to be useful.

Group V: The Breakout Stars of 2017 (and 2018)

Can the standouts of 2017 maintain onto their good points in 2018? And might the gamers who impressed beneath the radar final season take a good larger step towards stardom this yr?

Misplaced within the chatter about how the Browns foolishly traded away the choose the Texans used on Deshaun Watson is that they nonetheless might need ended up with the perfect participant within the 2017 draft. Garrett actually performed solely about 10½ video games throughout his rookie season, however throughout 500 defensive snaps, the primary general choose racked up seven sacks and 18 quarterback knockdowns. Prorate these numbers over a full season and also you’re trying roughly at what Melvin Ingram (10.5 sacks, 25 knockdowns) did throughout his 2017 marketing campaign, and Garrett did not have Joey Bosa to distract groups on the opposite aspect of the sphere. The comparisons between the Browns and the 76ers are realistically too simplistic, however if you wish to make them, Garrett is Cleveland’s Joel Embiid.

Jimmy Garoppolo has by no means misplaced as an NFL beginning quarterback, profitable all seven video games. AP Photograph/Michael Conroy

I wrote all about Garoppolo’s 2018 season to come back earlier in August.

Ramsey may not be the perfect cornerback in soccer. He may not even be the perfect cornerback on his personal group when you think about how good A.J. Bouye was final season. He is rattling good proper now, although, and you’d be a idiot to guess in opposition to the 23-year-old persevering with to enhance. There have been few complaints about Ramsey popping out of Florida State, however the scouting studies instructed Ramsey misplaced a little bit of his on-field fireplace throughout his ultimate yr in school. Three weeks into his NFL profession, Ramsey was calling out Steve Smith. There have been considerations about Ramsey as a playmaker provided that he completed his school profession with simply three interceptions. He racked up 4 interceptions final season. Because the wildly entertaining face of the league’s greatest protection, Ramsey is the subsequent Richard Sherman. Together with his capacity to maneuver across the formation and canopy any receiver at any time, it may be extra applicable to name him the primary Jalen Ramsey.

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The primary group in NFL historical past to amass 600 yards from scrimmage in a sport and lose was the Patriots in Tremendous Bowl LII, the final significant skilled soccer sport you watched. You lose a sport through which your offense marches up and down the sphere for certainly one of two causes. One is that the offense turns the ball over a bunch of occasions, which the Patriots did not do. The opposite is that your protection cannot get off the sphere. Invoice Belichick’s protection pressured Nick Foles into an interception on the 2-yard line, however it in any other case allowed the Eagles to attain on eight of 9 drives. New England didn’t sack Foles even as soon as on 43 dropbacks. A protection that completed the season ranked 31st in DVOA performed proper about that stage on the largest stage.

The Patriots spent the offseason making an attempt to repair that by including depth for the entrance seven, signing Adrian Clayborn and buying and selling for Danny Shelton. They will get again playoff hero Dont’a Hightower and possibly have sufficient on the sting to maneuver him again to inside linebacker. The man who might make the largest distinction, although, is Flowers. The previous midround choose racked up 25 knockdowns final season and added 9 extra in the course of the postseason, three greater than every other participant. The 25-hit complete often quantities to a complete of simply over 11 sacks in a given marketing campaign, however Flowers completed his season with simply 6.5 sacks, which was the sixth-largest hole in soccer. He is both a budding star or already a secret one.

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Mike Greenberg would not guess on New England or Philadelphia to make it again to the Tremendous Bowl this season.

37. Doug Pederson, coach, Eagles

What do you do for a follow-up after taking your group from worst to first and profitable a Tremendous Bowl? The league has watched what Pederson has accomplished in Philadelphia and brought from his bounty; the Eagles misplaced offensive coordinator Frank Reich to the Colts and quarterbacks coach John DeFilippo to the Vikings, with the Eagles selling Mike Groh and Press Taylor from inside to take their locations.

Groups additionally will discover what Pederson did on his approach to the Tremendous Bowl, however I am not as assured they will emulate his aggressiveness. When Ron Rivera morphed into Riverboat Ron in 2013 and out of the blue acquired aggressive on fourth downs, no person else within the league got here out and adopted. (Rivera himself hasn’t actually been very aggressive since, to be sincere.) The league as an entire is transferring slowly towards going for it extra ceaselessly in tight conditions, however no group transformed extra on fourth down than the 2017 Eagles.

Pederson has a aggressive benefit; to maintain that benefit up, he may need to lean additional into these tendencies. The Philadelphia offense was a multitude with Nick Foles earlier than Pederson started to focus extra on RPOs; with Pederson extra open-minded about borrowing school ideas than most different coaches, he has the chance to remain forward of the curve by mixing in additional of them for each Foles and Carson Wentz this season. And whereas Wentz is not more likely to run the ball as ceaselessly on fourth downs after his knee harm, the Eagles ought to keep forward of the pack on fourth down by threatening groups with their offense.

Marvin Lewis has a sample with regards to cornerbacks. He likes drafting them within the first spherical. He likes sitting them for some time or giving them restricted snaps. Ultimately, they break via and very often achieve doing so. (You may discover this pattern additionally popping up in Minnesota below former Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer.)

Jackson may make Lewis speed up his cornerback curve. After the 2016 first-round choose missed his complete rookie season with a torn pectoral muscle, Jackson muscled his method into the lineup final season and instantly emerged as Cincinnati’s prime cornerback. The Soccer Outsiders Almanac notes that Jackson was focused solely 41 occasions however managed to knock away 15 passes, which led the Bengals. Once you handle to carry Antonio Brown to zero catches throughout two video games, you are doing one thing proper.

The Houston product completed 2017 with solely 5 begins, however now that Adam Jones has moved on, Jackson has to tackle a starring function. Dre Kirkpatrick has been inconsistent over the previous couple of seasons, however the Bengals have a beginning cornerback duo with as a lot upside as any within the league.

Grady Jarrett had three sacks in Tremendous Bowl LI, however he solely had 4 all of final season. Jamie Squire/Getty Pictures

We’re nonetheless ready for the Falcons’ regular-season protection to dwell as much as the one we have seen within the postseason. The 2016 Falcons completed 26th in defensive DVOA, solely to dominate the Seahawks’ and Packers’ offenses earlier than shutting down the Patriots for a lot of the Tremendous Bowl (after which letting up below the pressure of a historic workload). The Atlanta protection acquired its greatest participant (cornerback Desmond Trufant) again for 2017, however it improved solely to 22nd in defensive DVOA. But once more, although, the playoff version of Dan Quinn’s protection held the Rams to 13 factors and the Eagles to 15, which is much more spectacular whenever you keep in mind that Philly would rating 79 factors over the 2 ensuing video games.

The protection is one thing lower than the sum of some spectacular components. The man who may have the ability to make the distinction is Jarrett, who had three sacks within the Tremendous Bowl loss to the Patriots and dominated for stretches in 2017, however completed the season with solely 4 sacks and 13 hurries. These are good numbers, but when Vic Beasley Jr. returns to kind as a full-time defensive finish and Jarrett provides to his dominance as a run defender by chipping in additional as a secondary pass-rusher, the Falcons might unlock their playoff code.

40. Sean McVay, coach, Rams

In 12 months 1 as coach of the Rams, McVay was blessed with good well being. The Rams’ offense suffered from the fewest adjusted video games misplaced within the league in 2017, as Los Angeles’ offensive starters mixed to overlook extra video games by sitting out a meaningless matchup in Week 17 than they did resulting from harm over the earlier 16 weeks.

Well being is not every little thing — the Rams additionally ranked because the league’s healthiest offense by AGL in 2016, too — however the user-friendly marketing campaign allowed McVay to have the most important potential affect throughout his debut marketing campaign. This was and stays a top-heavy Rams offense. Each group would endure by dropping their beginning quarterback, however the Rams have solely Sean Mannion and Brandon Allen in reserve behind Jared Goff. Their prime again behind Todd Gurley is Malcolm Brown, who has averaged simply three.6 yards per carry as a professional. Rookies would possible be the primary gamers off the bench if Andrew Whitworth have been injured at left sort out. McVay has already proved that he is a very good coach, however he will get an opportunity to see how he improvises in 2018.

DeForest Buckner had a stellar 2017 season, even when it did not present up within the statsheet. AP Photograph/David J. Phillip

If the 49ers need to make a transfer to the highest of the NFC West and into the postseason, it’s going to be much less about Jimmy Garoppolo and extra in regards to the protection. Robert Saleh’s bunch can name on as many 5 first-round picks on protection, however none of them has proven as a lot promise because the third general choose of the 2016 draft.

Buckner was drafted with the hopes that he would flip right into a younger Calais Campbell, and whereas the transformation is not but full, the Oregon product is additional alongside the way in which than most understand. The 24-year-old Buckner racked up solely three sacks final season, however these takedowns got here amid 22 quarterback hits, a determine which topped that of stars corresponding to Joey Bosa and Jadeveon Clowney. Twenty-two hits would usually generate about 10 sacks in a season, and the overwhelming majority of gamers who underperform their sack complete by as a lot as Buckner a yr in the past enhance their totals the next season. If Buckner can rack up 10 sacks in 2018, he would grow to be the anchor of the primary post-Harbaugh 49ers protection price writing dwelling about.

Group VI: One Extra Trip

These are the celebrities making one ultimate journey via the league whereas hoping to win a Tremendous Bowl earlier than probably retiring.

Whether or not that is or is just not Gronk’s ultimate season within the NFL, the 29-year-old has in all probability already accomplished sufficient to earn his place within the Corridor of Fame. Terrell Davis’ arrival in Canton confirmed that the voters is keen to honor gamers with shorter careers, and whereas Gronkowski hasn’t gained league MVP, he is probably the most impactful and dominant tight finish we have ever seen. Gronkowski already has been named a first-team All-Professional 4 occasions, a feat which has cleared the trail to induction for every of the 10 eligible ability place gamers to drag off that trick since 1970. Tony Gonzalez, Peyton Manning and Adrian Peterson additionally can be first-ballot Corridor of Famers once they’re eligible for election. Another typical season would not harm Gronkowski’s probabilities, however he has merely been too good to maintain out.

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Subject Yates, Mike Clay and Stephania Bell supply their perception on the place Drew Brees ranks heading into the season.

ESPN has air yards and yards after catch knowledge going again via 2006. Of the 393 qualifying seasons from quarterbacks over that time-frame, Brees’ 2017 season had the fourth-smallest hole between air yards per throw (6.36) and yards after catch (6.18). The one quarterback who has been capable of have constant success with a variety that small is Alex Smith, and Brees’ 2017 season was extra productive than any of the Smith campaigns that will come near a good break up. This archetype has an especially skinny margin for error.

This may go certainly one of two methods. One is that the 2017 season was a once-off aberration for Brees, whose air yard share had been declining however fell off of a cliff final season. Quarterbacks like Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers make cameos towards the highest of this checklist. The choice is that Brees depends too closely on his receivers, will get what’s going to nearly certainly be a much less spectacular season from Alvin Kamara, and sees his numbers endure.

Speaking about Whitworth is tough. The 36-year-old LSU product might be probably the most underrated soccer participant of the previous decade, provided that he performed extraordinarily nicely at a premium place for an prolonged time frame. His 2017 season was additionally someway overrated, provided that he took a step backward as a go protector after leaving Cincinnati for Los Angeles. Much more paradoxically, Whitworth was concurrently a large improve at a place the Rams have spent almost a full decade making an attempt to unravel. Appraising offensive linemen is tough.

A panel of 50 NFL executives rated all 32 starters on a scale of 1 to five. The place does your group’s QB land?

• 2018 QB Tiers outcomes: Execs charge all 32 starters • Title that QB: Match the quote to the participant • Execs consider way forward for 2018 first-rounders

Should you’re on the lookout for a spot through which the Rams may unravel on offense, although, the offensive line is the possible entry level. There simply have not been many offensive tackles to play at a excessive stage into their late 30s, and whereas Whitworth might slip inside to protect, the Rams do not have a lot veteran depth at sort out. Heart John Sullivan, who’s 33, began 15 video games after suiting up for only one begin between 2015 and 2016. The Rams had one of many league’s healthiest offensive strains final season; if the road cannot maintain up in 2018, all of the schemes and weapons on the earth will not save Los Angeles.

Group VII: The Wild Playing cards Who Might Resolve the Season

Whereas not essentially the primary names we consider as game-changers, these are the gamers who might assist swing a division in the event that they’re wholesome and productive.

The Cowboys are quietly enthusiastic about their protection, which should not be a shock after investing three of their previous 4 first- and second-round picks on that aspect of the ball. For no matter DeMarcus Lawrence and Leighton Vander Esch may supply, although, the protection is more likely to stay totally depending on the 32-year-old Lee, who, extremely, continues to be but to play a full 16-game season as a professional.

You possibly can perceive why the Cowboys used a first-round choose on Vander Esch when you think about how their protection disintegrated with out Lee within the lineup in 2017. With Lee on the sphere, the Cowboys allowed a passer ranking of 86.6 and a Whole QBR of 48.2. On the 244 go performs through which Lee was on the sidelines, although, the Cowboys allowed a passer ranking of 106.eight and a Whole QBR of 65.three. Issues have been even worse in opposition to the run: Dallas allowed three.5 yards per carry with Lee at linebacker and a whopping Four.9 yards per rush whereas he was sidelined.

Sammy Watkins acquired an enormous free-agent deal from the Chiefs, however now he has to remain wholesome. Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire

You may argue that the Chiefs made an much more stunning guess on Anthony Hitchens than they did on their new extensive receiver, however the signing of Watkins makes extra of a press release. The Chiefs did not actually want one other weapon given the presence of Kareem Hunt, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. They desperately wanted assist at cornerback and will have signed somebody like Trumaine Johnson with the cash they spent on Watkins, though it could have required an extended dedication on paper.

As an alternative, Kansas Metropolis went in the other way and went all-in on weapons for Mahomes. Watkins continues to be solely 25, however he has a critical foot harm in his previous and spent final season as a comparatively innocuous afterthought within the Rams’ offense. Reid has been capable of kind coherent offenses round workmanlike wideouts like James Thrash and Jason Avant previously, however Watkins did not stand out below the halo of Sean McVay when nearly each different Rams weapon had a profession yr. At $16 million per yr, the Chiefs are paying Watkins like he is a top-10 wideout. If he lastly comes of age in Kansas Metropolis, Reid will break even on the deal. What occurs if Watkins would not?

47. Damon Mitchell, head athletic coach, Chargers

Nothing has harm the Chargers extra over the previous three seasons than accidents. They’ve overcome horrible kickers and terrible particular groups. They made it over .500 final season regardless of taking part in their dwelling video games in a soccer stadium largely full of opposing followers. They made it to 9 wins as a result of they acquired full seasons out of Keenan Allen and Joey Bosa and a 15-game marketing campaign from Russell Okung. Philip Rivers wasn’t throwing to undrafted free brokers and being protected by ailing tackles in December, which should have been a nice shock.

The Chargers improved from 31st in adjusted video games misplaced in 2016 to 16th final season, a transfer that coincided with the ascension of Mitchell into the function as head coach. Correlation is not at all times causation, and the Chargers are already down a number of would-be contributors with Hunter Henry, Jason Verrett and Jaylen Watkins all out for the yr, however Mitchell is on this checklist as a reminder of what the Chargers have to do to thrive in 2018. Few groups in soccer can compete with their core of stars on each side of the ball. A number of further begins from Denzel Perryman or Forrest Lamp may be sufficient to push Los Angeles over the road in a crowded AFC West.

Is Smith the final star Cowboys lineman left standing? With Travis Frederick sidelined by Guillain-Barré syndrome and Zack Martin lacking a lot of the preseason with a knee harm, Smith’s return from again and knee points is totally essential for a Cowboys line in main transition. Even when Martin comes again for Week 1, the Cowboys can have new starters at left guard and middle for a season that begins with matchups in opposition to Kawann Brief and Damon Harrison. We noticed what occurred when the Cowboys have been pressured to exchange Smith within the lineup final season; contract-year defensive ends are salivating on the concept of an Adrian Clayborn particular.

Samson Ebukam might put up double-digit sacks with Ndamukong Suh and Aaron Donald speeding from the inside. Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports activities

You realize what the Rams did this offseason. Ndamukong Suh, Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib are all right here. Trumaine Johnson, Alec Ogletree and Robert Quinn are in different places. It appeared possible that the Rams have been going to make use of their title-adjacent standing to lure a veteran or two in to hurry the quarterback from the surface, however it by no means actually occurred. The Rams discover themselves coming into the season with the reigning Defensive Participant of the 12 months and a five-time Professional Bowler speeding from the within … and the duo of Ebukam and Matt Longacre on the surface.

Wade Phillips has made stars out of unheralded gamers previously, however these breakouts have not actually come at edge rusher. Actually, Phillips has had at the least one famous person and/or a first-round choose on the sting for many of his current profession. Quinn was round final season. In Houston, Phillips had J.J. Watt drifting exterior to finish throughout from second-round choose Connor Barwin and subsequently first-rounder Whitney Mercilus. Phillips’ Dallas tenure coincided with DeMarcus Ware’s peak alongside Greg Ellis and first-round choose Anthony Spencer. Shawne Merriman was a freak for Phillips in San Diego, though Phillips did assist mildew fourth-round choose Shaun Phillips into a really helpful second choice. The legendary defensive coordinator inherited first-round choose Patrick Kerney in Atlanta and took over a protection with Bruce Smith, Phil Hansen and Bryce Paup in Buffalo. You get the concept.

There is no doubt Phillips is more likely to get probably the most out of his inexperienced expenses, however this can be a wildly aggressive transfer from a group that has dealt away draft picks and handed out huge contracts to gamers at positions on each side of the ball. Groups that function below this mannequin usually need to punt a place or two. The Eagles are presently making an attempt to save cash at operating again and cornerback. The Peyton Manning-era Colts skimped on linebackers. In a league that values edge rushers as probably the most invaluable non-quarterback entities obtainable available on the market, the Rams are putting an enormous guess of their defensive coordinator and a 2017 fourth-round choose with two sacks to his identify.

Group VII: The Ghost

The participant who dominates extra dialog in regards to the NFL than anybody with out even stepping on the sphere.

It is nonetheless unimaginable to speak about crucial individuals in and across the NFL with out mentioning Kaepernick, whose protests in opposition to social injustice nonetheless reverberate and affect the league. The NFL has repeatedly bungled its makes an attempt to ascertain some kind of coverage surrounding the nationwide anthem, a problem President Donald Trump has used to energise his base in opposition to the league.

The on-field story nonetheless hasn’t modified. Kaepernick is overqualified for a job; there isn’t any fashionable precedent for a wholesome quarterback with Kaepernick’s résumé failing to search out work within the NFL. Each time a group has a gap in the course of the season, it goes after and finally acquires a quarterback worse than the man who’s freely obtainable on the open market. The Packers and Texans tanked their seasons in 2017 with Brett Hundley and Tom Savage, passers who no person might credibly say have been more likely to outplay the 30-year-old Kaepernick. Some group will make the identical mistake in 2018.

Colin Kaepernick had 16 landing passes to solely 4 interceptions in 2016, his final season within the NFL. Ezra Shaw/Getty Pictures

There is no finish in sight to the battle between the gamers and the league. Kaepernick has filed a grievance in opposition to the NFL. Eric Reid, the proficient security who knelt alongside Kaepernick in the course of the 2016 season, additionally has filed his personal collusion grievance. The grievance may forestall Kaepernick from discovering work; the one group that expressed curiosity in him this offseason was the Seahawks, who reportedly declined to deliver Kaepernick in for a go to after he refused to say whether or not he would kneel in the course of the anthem if signed.

I have been overlaying the NFL for 10 years now, and in the middle of that decade, I’ve met loads of individuals for the primary time and had that pure dialog about our lives and what we every do for a dwelling. Earlier than 2016, after I mentioned I wrote in regards to the NFL, it often led to a dialog a few favourite group or participant. Often, it led to participant security. Since 2016, those self same conversations have nearly with out fail led to the opposite individual giving their opinion about Colin Kaepernick and the way the NFL has dealt with his scenario. Kaepernick and his determination to protest have grow to be shorthand for political sides in these divided occasions. That is not going anyway anytime quickly.

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The post Invoice Barnwell 50 most fascinating NFL individuals appeared first on HS NEWS.

[hotspotsmagazine]

The Six Household Chores You Should Farm Out

In my other life as a gay personal finance expert, I write a lot about saving money, but what about time? That’s worth something too, especially if you can save more of it by eliminating some of the tasks you dread doing. From having your groceries shopped and delivered to hiring an occasional housekeeper, here are a few affordable ways to farm out your chores and leave yourself the time to enjoy life a little more.

Yard Work/Lawn Care

There’s not much I won’t do around the house: I clean toilets, pick up the dog poo. I even scrub the bottoms of those nasty trash bins every once in while. But I avoid yard work and mowing the lawn at all costs. I just don’t like it, and it takes up more of my leisure time in the summer than I want to give up.

A 2017 survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of TruGreen, the lawn care giant, found that of the 12 hours Americans spend in their yards per week in the summer, more than half are used working to maintain their lawns.

Who needs that when there are burgers to grill and margaritas to blend?

To me, hiring a lawn care specialist to tidy up my space so I can enjoy it is well worth the cost. It runs about $500 for the first visit right after a long winter of neglect (there’s a lot to clean up on my small parcel of land) and then about half that or less for a spruce up every other month while the weather is nice. To save money, I generally don’t have the backyard serviced from October to May since nobody uses it for recreation.

During the summer, I still have to mow the lawn a few times in between visits, but not nearly as much as if I didn’t have someone coming in monthly. Rates will vary, of course, depending on where you live and how much work you need done, but it’s worth checking out if you want to wash your hands of one of the most universally despised household chores.

Pool Maintenance

Maintaining a backyard pool can seem like a full-time job during the warm months — at least it seems that way. The time commitment may be manageable in four-season locales, but it can prove insufferable if you’re lucky enough to live in a climate where you have to do it year round.

Money-saving expert Andrea Woroch (andreaworoch.com) says she fought her husband on hiring out the pool maintenance at first because it seemed like an easy job, though admittedly she had never cleaned the pool herself. She eventually caved when pool care started really cutting into his free time.

“The truth was, it was hard to keep up with, and he found himself working extra over the weekend to get the right balance of chemicals,” she explains. “Not only were we already paying a lot for chemicals and supplies, but it sometimes cost us more to fix issues that a professional would’ve maintained from the start. We spend approximately $100 per month for maintenance service, and this includes supplies, so it really isn’t that much more of a cost.”

If you want to try out a maintenance service for your pool, ask friends and family for recommendations and collect bids from multiple contractors. You can always try haggling, too.

Grocery Shopping

I don’t have my groceries delivered on a regular basis, but I’ve tried several different services to mixed results. The deliveries are fine, aside from one or two missing items over the years, but for a couple services it was hard to justify the fees that I would have saved by doing it myself. In one case, there was about a $40 markup on the groceries — and that was with free delivery; I decided not to use that service again.

Busy small business owner Marty Estelle Lundstrom — a senior attorney with a large firm and the founder of Manners Pro, which offers etiquette and social skills classes and seminars — swears by grocery delivery, however.

“I live and die by Instacart and Amazon Prime,” she says. “It saves traffic time, line waiting, hunting and gathering in stores, and my budget because I don’t idly buy things; I only buy from my list. Instacart can be about $10 for each delivery, but I have an annual membership for $129 [now $149] for as many deliveries a year as I want at no additional cost. But don’t forget to budget for tips for your shoppers. Amazon Prime is typically $99 a year and allows for free two-day shipping on many items.”

House Cleaning

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2015 women spent an average of two hours and 15 minutes per day performing tasks such as cleaning, food preparation and laundry. Men spent one hour and 25 minutes. Just hiring a cleaning service could save the average American family nearly six hours per week.

I recently hired a housekeeper to give myself a break, and it’s really made a difference. My cleaner comes every two weeks on Fridays (coming home to a clean house at the end of the workweek totally helps me relax going in to the weekend). She spends about four hours cleaning my three-bedroom home and charges me $70. That’s very affordable in my opinion, especially when you consider that she mops my floors, which is right up there with mowing the lawn on the list of tasks I like to pretend don’t exist.

The fee my housekeeper charges is rather low, I think (I’m a bargain hunter!), but anywhere between $80 and $120 per clean is quite reasonable, depending on the size of your home.

Pet Grooming

I’ve never attempted to groom my dog — it would probably look like Attack of the Flowbees if I did — but some folks do, including Woroch, who has a shaggy Goldendoodle who needs regular grooming to keep his hair from getting matted and unmanageable.

“We bathe him in our backyard and dry him using our Shop-Vac in the garage, which saves us some money,’ she says. “But we decided after a couple of years that it was worth sending him to a groomer to get a proper haircut every few months. This costs us $80 each time but saves us so much time.”

“We used to spend over two hours trying to cut and buzz him — yes, it took both of us to do; my husband to cut and me to hold him — and another 30 minutes cleaning up the mounds of hair and then another hour the next day trying to fix the jagged cut. It was always the thing we dreaded doing the most. You can find companies that come to your home to save you the hassle of driving to a groomer, and often there are coupons available for pet store groomers for additional savings.”

Check your local papers for pet grooming coupons and deals, daily-deal sites, and the websites of the grooming services.

Home Energy Audit

Is your heating and air conditioning system working as efficiently as possible — even if you don’t have energy-efficient models? You probably don’t know, or you may be trying to fix problems that don’t need fixing because you can’t identify the real culprit. That’s where the professionals come in.  

“We keep up with general energy maintenance like caulking around windows or sealing drafts around doors, but we have a HVAC company reassess our heating and cooling system every year to ensure there are no leaks in the air ducts so that it runs efficiently to maintain costs,” says Woroch. “It gets really hot here [in Bakersfield, CA] so our A/C goes into overdrive, and it’s really important for us to make sure it runs smoothly and efficiently.”

This service usually costs around $120. Angie’s List is a great resource for more information on a home energy audit.

from Hotspots! Magazine https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2018/06/28/the-six-household-chores-you-should-farm-out/

[investmart007]

AP FACT CHECK: Trump extols work on wall that isn't underway

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/ps7ERH

AP FACT CHECK: Trump extols work on wall that isn't underway

WASHINGTON/April 1, 2018 (AP)(STL.News)—President Donald Trump is trumpeting the start of his U.S.-Mexico border wall, but no new work on it is underway. Photos he sent with his tweet last week showed the continuation of an old project to replace 2 miles of existing barrier.

Also in recent days, he lambasted Amazon with a questionable claim that its contract with the post office is a “scam” and offered a subpar civics lesson in citing Republican control of the Supreme Court, an unelected branch.

Meanwhile, former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, whom Trump dismissed unceremoniously in a tweet last week, sidestepped the truth in asserting that his ethics problems were all about politics.

A look at the recent statements:

TRUMP: “Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!” — tweet Wednesday, showing photos of workers building a fence.

TRUMP:  “We’re going to be starting work, literally, on Monday, on not only some new wall — not enough, but we’re working that very quickly — but also fixing existing walls and existing acceptable fences.” — Trump, speaking the previous week after signing a bill financing the government.

THE FACTS: Trump’s wrong. No new work began on Monday or any other time last week. And the photos Trump tweeted were misleading. They showed work that’s been going on for more than a month on a small border wall replacement project in Calexico, California, that has nothing to do with the federal budget he signed into law last week.

The Calexico project that began Feb. 21 to replace a little more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of border wall was financed during the 2017 budget year. A barrier built in the 1990s mainly from recycled metal scraps is being torn down and replaced with bollard-style barriers that are 30 feet (9.1 meters) high.

Ronald D. Vitiello, acting deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, defended the president’s statements, saying Friday “there’s construction” underway.

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SHULKIN, defending himself against ethics accusations that contributed to his firing:  “I have been really clear. Everything that I did was done properly. It was preapproved by our ethics team. …I think what the IG found was that a staff member had made essentially some problems in the way that they put the paperwork through. But the IG said I had no knowledge of that.” — ABC interview Sunday.

THE FACTS: Shulkin grossly misrepresents a report by the VA’s inspector general that concluded he had violated ethics rules during an 11-day trip to Europe in July. The watchdog office determined Shulkin had improperly accepted free Wimbledon tennis tickets and failed to consult with VA ethics counsel beforehand. According to the February report, Shulkin belatedly asked VA counsel to expedite an ethics review of his acceptance of the tickets in September — two months after the trip — upon learning that journalists were making inquiries.

The inspector general also concluded that Shulkin’s chief of staff, Vivieca Wright Simpson, had lied to ethics officials by falsely claiming he was receiving an award in Europe to justify his wife’s free travel at taxpayer expense — and doctoring emails to back up her claim. While the VA watchdog “found no evidence” that Shulkin was aware of his staffer’s actions, Shulkin understates the extent of Simpson’s deception to justify the free trip and his own actions abroad.

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SHULKIN, citing reasons Trump fired him as Veterans Affairs secretary:  “I have been falsely accused of things by people who wanted me out of the way. But despite these politically based attacks on me and my family’s character, I am proud of my record and know that I acted with the utmost integrity.” — op-ed Thursday in The New York Times.

THE FACTS: His statement that he and his family were subjected to politically based attacks is disingenuous, though politics contributed to his dismissal.

White House support for Shulkin eroded after the blistering report in February by VA’s internal watchdog, a nonpartisan office, about his travels in Europe.

It is true, though, that Shulkin had encountered resistance from about a half-dozen political appointees at the VA and White House who rebelled against him. In an extraordinary telephone call, top communications aide John Ullyot and VA spokesman Curt Cashour asked the Republican staff director of the House Veterans Affairs Committee to push for Shulkin’s removal after the release of the inspector general’s report. The staff director declined to do so. Those political appointees were not involved in drafting the inspector general’s report.

Shulkin expressed regret for the “distractions” caused by the report and agreed to pay more than $4,000 to cover the costs of his wife’s coach airfare and the Wimbledon tickets. He continues to insist he did nothing wrong and points to what his staff did in doctoring his emails as a “mistake.”

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TRUMP: “If the P.O. ‘increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 Billion.’ This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!” — tweet Saturday.

TRUMP: “I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!” — tweet Thursday.

THE FACTS: Trump is misrepresenting Amazon’s record on taxes, the U.S. Postal Service’s financial situation and the contract that has the post office deliver some Amazon orders. Federal regulators have found that contract to be profitable for the Postal Service.

People who buy products sold by Amazon pay sales tax in all states that have a sales tax. Not all third-party vendors using Amazon collect it, however.

As for the post office, package delivery has been a bright spot for a service that’s lost money for 11 straight years. The losses are mostly due to pension and health care costs — not the business deal for the Postal Service to deliver packages for Amazon. Boosted by e-commerce, the Postal Service has enjoyed double-digit increases in revenue from delivering packages, but that hasn’t been enough to offset declines in first-class letters and marketing mail, which together make up more than two-thirds of postal revenue.

While the Postal Service’s losses can’t be attributed to its package business, Trump’s claim that it could get more bang for its buck may not be entirely far-fetched. A 2017 analysis by Citigroup concluded that the Postal Service was charging below-market rates as a whole for parcels. The post office does not use taxpayer money for its operations.

Trump is upset about Amazon because its owner, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post, one of the targets of his “fake news” tweets.

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TRUMP: “Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!” — tweet March 26.

THE FACTS: Trump is floating the idea of using “M” — the Pentagon’s military budget — to pay for his wall with Mexico. Such a move would almost certainly require approval from Congress and there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical about the notion of diverting military money for this purpose.

Only Congress has the power under the Constitution to determine federal appropriations, leaving the Trump administration little authority to shift money without lawmakers’ approval.

Pentagon spokesman Chris Sherwood referred all questions on the wall to the White House. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to reveal specifics but said Trump would work with the White House counsel to make sure any action taken was within his executive authority.

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TRUMP: “THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!” — tweet Wednesday.

THE FACTS: As a basics civics lesson, Trump’s tweet falls short. The Supreme Court is the unelected branch of government and no party can “hold” it. That said, both parties try to win confirmation of justices who are considered likely to vote the way they want.

Republican-nominated justices have formed a majority of the Supreme Court for nearly 50 years. The five more conservative justices were appointed by Republicans while the four more liberal justices were Democratic nominees.

Republicans would have the opportunity to cement ideological balance in their favor if Justice Anthony Kennedy — the most moderate of the conservatives — or one of the older and more liberal justices were to retire with Trump in office and Republicans in control of the Senate.

Trump was citing retired Justice John Paul Stevens, who called in a New York Times article for repeal of the Second Amendment to allow for gun control legislation. Democratic leaders are not proposing repeal of the amendment, as Trump implies. Also noteworthy: Stevens was nominated by a Republican president, Gerald Ford.

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Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Cal Woodward in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

By HOPE YEN and JILL COLVIN, By Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (Z.S)

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[flauntpage]

The NFL's Impossible Mission: Making Us Feel Less Guilty About Watching

The 2017 NFL regular season has mercifully reached its end. The ratings were down again, the concussion protocol continues to be extremely unreliable, and the league's most exciting new stars, DeShaun Watson and Carson Wentz, both suffered season-ending injuries. To make things worse, we're about to enter a postseason where once again, the Patriots look like the clear favorites. If this were the NFL's first rough season in awhile, no one would be noticing much, but football has been trending downward on a consistent basis. There's always a scandal for Roger Goodell to handle poorly. There's always atrocious Thursday games to complain about, and overhyped Sunday Night games to disappoint. And finally, there's always the CTE crisis lingering in the background of our consciences. The NFL's problems aren't going away, But will fans?

New York magazine wondered if the league could be crumbling, noting that the combination of liberals appalled by the game's barbarism and conservatives outraged at anthem protests could leave the game without a logical audience. Bill Simmons, no stranger to criticizing Goodell, rang in the season with a piece bemoaning the many ways the league has fallen under Goodell's reign, noting that "football might have to go away" at some point. David Roth posited in Victory Journal that we might just have to get used to the NFL being a shell of its former self. The picture being painted here and elsewhere is one of increasing pessimism regarding the NFL in recent years and this year was the bleakest.

Then again, maybe things aren’t as bad as writers on the internet will have you think. Yes, the ratings are down, but it's not because fewer people are watching the games, but rather because they don't watch for quite as long. This is still a problem when we consider the recent issue of poor quality of play, but it would indicate that there hasn't actually been a widespread drop-off in viewership due to anthem protests or concerns about player safety. And with Wentz, Watson, and the rise of Jimmy Garoppolo, not to mention a loaded draft class this year, the NFL appears to be getting a much-needed boost in marketable, star-caliber quarterbacks. So what’s going on? Is this the beginning of the end, with people growing increasingly troubled by what the NFL is actually selling? Or could we just chalk all this existential NFL dread up to a momentary blip, the bust portion of the cycle that always follows the boom?

We like to think this depends on the NFL’s leadership, that this is a watershed moment for Roger Goodell and Co., but the truth of it is that it mostly comes down to us, the fans, casual and die-hards alike, and what we are willing to countenance in exchange for our entertainment. We know that the league is at least trying to sell a safer product to us, despite hearing about most of the initiatives from Roger Goodell’s forked tongue. Still, the part of us that would desperately like to watch football without being ravaged by guilt would love to see the concussion protocol somehow work, or get some concrete evidence that things are actually getting better. When we become outraged by events like the Tom Savage debacle in Houston, we like to believe our righteous anger is on behalf of the players in question. How could you let that poor man back in the game when he had clearly had a concussion?! Really though, our rage has more to do with a desperate desire for someone, in this case Goodell and the NFL, to make it OK, or at least palatable, to watch 300-pound men give each other brain damage each week. This is not to absolve the NFL of its never-ending string of fuckups, but we should also acknowledge that ultimately, we're the ones watching, and we have no choice but to turn our moral outrage inward.

Pro football requires players to assume significant risks to both their current and future well being. They do assume this risk in exchange for large paychecks, but we have only just realized that for a very long time, they did not know the extent of this risk. In fact, the league actively misled players about the inherent dangers of playing. If we're torn between knowing how bad football is and still liking it in the present, can you imagine the dilemma as fans and players continue to educate themselves? We might feel that the morally righteous thing would be for both the NFL and football as we presently know it to fall off the face of the earth. And yet, we already know such horrible things about the toll football takes, and many of us still watch. We might just want the game to continue to exist because we like it so much.

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Of course, we could defend ourselves here by saying that even if we want the league to be safer for selfish reasons, at least we still want it to be safer, right? But that’s the thing: we don’t want the league to be safe—injuries at this point are a feature of football, not a bug—we just want it to be safer. Safe enough that we won’t be harangued by our guilty consciences when we tune in for America’s Game Of The Week. The absolute best-case scenario is that there’s less CTE. A concussion protocol that actually worked could remedy the situation somewhat, but it wouldn’t change the fact that CTE has more to do with the accumulation of hits throughout a career than concussions. But if we’re being honest, most football fans just want the amount of brain damage to decrease to a more manageable level, where they wouldn’t have to hear about it so much.

That's where I continue to face my own hypocrisy. Ask me if I'm watching football on any given weekend, I'll say "yes" even though the right answer is "no, I haven't watched that Barbaric garbage since 2011!" Same goes for the future, when I ponder the possibility of whether I want the league to survive its current morass or be taken down once and for all, I know that I'm supposed to want it to die. And yet, I don't. I hate everything the NFL's empire stands for, and yet, deep down, I still want it to be there when I'm pushing 60, and I’m guessing you do, too. We’re all massive hypocrites, in part because football is our most paradoxical game: it's the most brilliantly designed combination of strategy and athleticism ever conceived, and it's also a factory of violence, brain damage, and early death that has no place in a civilized society.

And, at the end of the day, maybe that is really what’s going on here. Between a lull in bona fide stars in recent years, and an increased awareness of just how brutal the sport can be for those who play it, watching every game every week for many is suddenly not worth the mental gymnastics required to justify it. It has never been about the anything league itself, or Roger Goodell, has done or will do. And it’s not about anything Colin Kaepernick has done either. The single greatest threat to the NFL has always come down to how much of our humanity are we willing to ignore in order to tune in.

The NFL's Impossible Mission: Making Us Feel Less Guilty About Watching published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv