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The FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, 2013 Volume 7: TEBOW-FREE!

In the latest edition of the podcast, we talk everything going on around the world of football…except that.

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...and THIS is why.

…and THIS is why.

The FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, 2013 Volume 5

Usually, we work up a clever title and a theme around which to base the podcast.  Yeah. Not this time.  This time it’s just Burns & Sen Dog BS’ing football.  Some NFL, some rookie fantasy thoughts, the Dog gets off the leash a little bit…in other words, it’s nothing too special, but special nonetheless. But as always, remember: Safety first. GET YOUR HELMET ON.

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Kelly Barkley

You’ve been warned, Sen Dog.

The FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, 2013 Volume 1

After a long winter, Burns and Sen Dog are excited to finally be back with a new episode of the FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST!  We might have been down, but we were not out.  The Super Bowl provides the perfect backdrop for the return of the ‘cast.  We’ll make predictions and break it all down from more angles than a geometry teacher.  We’ll look back at some of the highlights from the NFL and college football seasons, we’ll tease you with some NFL Draft goodness, and of course we each get to vent about our respective squads.  Can’t wait to take in this Ravens-Niners matchup and discuss it with you all next week.  But now, for the final time this season…GET YOUR HELMET ON!!!

Click HERE to listen to the FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, 2013 Volume 1

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The FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, September 16, 2012

The boys are back after the crazy, 72-hour football whirlwind around the country.  It’s time to break down the first couple of weeks in the NFL as well as the sheer chaos that is college football.  You’ll get a few treats along the way, like the return of the DONE stamp, a few new members to the Sickness Approved club, and Burns even graces you with his angelic singing voice.  Believe it.  There’s something for everybody in this one.  Just make sure you GET YOUR HELMET ON!!!

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Click HERE for the FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, September 16, 2012

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CJ Spiller is #SICKNESSAPPROVED

 

The FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, 2012 NFL Kickoff Edition

It is finally here: the kickoff of the 2012 NFL Season.  And quite an appetizer we just had with the college football season kicking off in earnest.  We’ll review it all, make some Super Bowl predictions, and basically act as (totally overqualified and underpaid) hype men for the start of the NFL season.  Look, if you want to get in the game, you have to GET YOUR HELMET ON!!!

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Click HERE for the FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, 2012 NFL Kickoff Edition

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Let’s get it on!

The FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, Eastbound & Down Edition

In the last of our division preview podcast series, Ryan Burns & Sen Sogah get deep into the NFC and AFC East.  The Beast is in the NFC, where all four teams have things to be excited about. Kind of.  Nasty schedules, nasty weather, and nasty pass rushers appear to be the story of the season. Over in the AFC, we’ve got quarterback “situations” and the big bully up in New England (and that status ain’t changin’ anytime soon).  The season is getting tantalizingly close.  If you haven’t yet, we strongly recommend that you GET YOUR HELMET ON!!!

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Encore time?

The FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST: Great Sick North Edition

The third set of divisional preview and prediction podcasts is now live, as Ryan Burns and Sen Sogah head north to tackle two of the NFL’s most hotly-contested and physically demanding divisions.  Will the Pack be back?  Will the Bears keep Jay Cutler upright long enough to be as good as they look?  Will the Lions’ circus in the offseason create a 2012 hangover?  Will the Vikings score touchdowns?  And in the AFC, will the Steelers and Ravens maintain their dominance over their traditional Ohio whipping boys, the Bengals and Browns?  All these questions get answered, along with many others.  We also may have noticed the MJD fiasco and all the young quarterbacks seizing the torch.  We’re almost there, folks. The season kicks off in two weeks. You’d better make damn sure you GET YOUR HELMET ON!!!

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Click HERE for the FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, Great Sick North Edition

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The FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, Dirty Dirty Edition

Last week we went out West. This week, we’re going way down South for the Dirty Dirty Edition of the FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST.  FootballSickness.com’s Ryan Burns and Sen Sogah get in depth on the AFC and NFC South divisions, hitting all the big stories.  From the quarterback battle in Tennessee, to the commencement of the Andrew Luck era in Indy; from the Saints circus and potential Atlanta offense explosion to the re-build in Tampa…it’s all in there, plus much, much more.  We’ll pick the division winners and oh, and there’s a chance we mention a certain former Miami Dolphins wideout.  So GET YOUR HELMET ON and have a listen.

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Let’s get down (South).

 

The FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST: Back To Camp Edition

At last, our long national winter is over. FOOTBALL IS BACK!  NFL training camps opened up in 32 American cities this week, and provided story after story worth batting around on the FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST.  FootballSickness.com’s Ryan Burns and Sen Sogah know you’re depending on them to break it all down for you, and they won’t let you down. They talk about big stories around the NFL, introduce new nominees for the HALL of SICKNESS, drop some fantasy tidbits, and even cover some quality college football items.  The SICKNESS PODCAST reverts to its natural weekly state from here on out, and the camp-opening edition has a little extra goodness for you.  The only thing left to do is to GET YOUR HELMET ON!!!

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Click HERE for the FOOTBALL SICKNESS PODCAST, Back To Camp Edition

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Did Greg Little Give Browns Fans Reason to be Excited?

This article is a guest post by the Fantasy Douche.  You can follow the Fantasy Douche on Twitter where he is simply @FantasyDouche.  You can also find him on his website where he writes about fantasy football and real football.  Lastly, you can check out his book “Game Plan: A Radical Approach to Decision Making in the NFL” on Amazon.

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Greg Little is the kind of wide receiver that presents the age old question of whether teams should be drafting physical specimens (who might learn to play wide receiver) or whether they should instead be selecting accomplished college wide receivers.  Little was certainly a physical specimen coming out of North Carolina, but he wasn’t much of an accomplished wide receiver.

When the Browns took Little in the 2nd round of the 2011 draft, they were looking at a receiver that had many of the physical traits of Andre Johnson, but no college record that would make teams comfortable.  Little was close to 230 pounds and yet still ran extremely well at the 2011 Combine.  But Little’s best college season had been a little over 700 yards with 5 touchdowns.  Because he was a converted running back, Little wasn’t giving pro scouts much of a resume to look at.  The Browns didn’t know at the time whether they were wasting a draft pick, or getting an extreme bargain.  Either outcome is within the range of possibilities.

It’s much too early to pass any judgment on the Browns’ experiment with Little, but we can look at Little’s rookie season and compare it to other similar seasons to see if it tells us anything about what Little’s future might be.

The below table contains the 20 most similar receiver seasons to Greg Little’s 2011 campaign.  Note that I said receiver and not wide receiver.  That’s because rather than breaking comparisons off at position, I use things like height and weight to make comparisons.  The list of comparable receivers is interesting to say the least.  The list of similar players has been created in much the same way that Pandora determines which music is similar to a song that you like.  I look at things like height, age, weight and receiving stats in the same way that Pandora looks at things like percussion and major key tonality.

Greg Little (2011) Similar Seasons (All Per Game Numbers Based on Games Receiver Had > 0 Catches)

SubjectPlayer Year Tm Age Wt Ht G  Rec/G  Y/G  TD/G  YPR
Greg Little

2011

CLE

22

220

75

15

            4.1           47.3           0.13           11.6
Similar Players Year Tm Age Wt Ht G  Rec/G  Y/G  TD/G  YPR
FRANK SANDERS

1996

ARI

23

215

74

16

            4.3           50.8           0.25           11.8
SHANNON SHARPE

1992

DEN

24

228

74

13

            4.1           49.2           0.15           12.1
JOHNNY MITCHELL

1994

NYJ

23

241

75

15

            3.9           49.9           0.27           12.9
BRANDON GIBSON

2010

STL

23

204

73

14

            3.8           44.3           0.14           11.7
MIKE WILLIAMS

2011

TB

24

204

74

15

            4.3           51.4           0.20           11.9
REGGIE WILLIAMS

2006

JAX

23

225

76

15

            3.5           41.1           0.27           11.8
RONALD CURRY

2006

OAK

27

220

74

15

            4.1           48.5           0.07           11.7
DONALD HAYES

2001

CAR

26

220

76

15

            3.5           39.8           0.13           11.5
ANDRE JOHNSON

2003

HOU

22

219

75

16

            4.1           61.0           0.25           14.8
BRYANT JOHNSON

2004

ARI

23

214

74

14

            3.5           38.4           0.07           11.0
J.J. STOKES

1997

SF

25

218

76

15

            3.9           48.9           0.27           12.6
KEVIN WALTER

2009

HOU

28

221

75

14

            3.8           43.6           0.14           11.5
OWEN DANIELS

2007

HOU

25

245

75

16

            3.9           48.0           0.19           12.2
KEVIN WALTER

2007

HOU

26

221

75

15

            4.3           53.3           0.27           12.3
SYLVESTER MORRIS

2000

KC

23

206

75

15

            3.2           45.2           0.20           14.1
JORDY NELSON

2010

GB

25

215

75

15

            3.0           38.8           0.13           12.9
EARL BENNETT

2009

CHI

22

205

73

16

            3.4           44.8           0.13           13.3
RANDY MCMICHAEL

2003

MIA

24

250

75

15

            3.3           39.9           0.13           12.2
DEZ WHITE

2003

CHI

24

215

73

15

            3.3           38.9           0.20           11.9
MICHAEL CRABTREE

2009

SF

22

215

74

11

            4.4           56.8           0.18           13.0
Averages               24.0         219.8           74.6           14.7             3.7           46.4             0.2           12.4

 

Note that while individual players might differ in some way from Little, the average numbers are extremely close to Little’s 2011.  It might be appropriate to say that in considering Little’s future, the most likely outcome is the average of all of these players.

But that’s no fun, so let’s look at some individual names.  The list contains some extremely encouraging names for Browns fans… and some not so encouraging.  Andre Johnson is on the list… but then so is Reggie Williams.

Andre Johnson was actually in a similar situation to Little in that Johnson’s team, the Texans, were extremely thin on offense in the same way that Little’s 2011 Browns were.  Johnson had a better rookie season than Little did, but it wasn’t better by orders of magnitude.  It was just a little better.

It might seem odd to see Shannon Sharpe’s name on the list, but he isn’t separated from Little by very much size and Little’s yards per reception of just 11 yards looks more like the production that you would get out of a tight end.

Perhaps the most disappointing name to see on the list is Reggie Williams.  Somewhat like Little, Williams was selected more for being a physical specimen than an accomplished receiver.

Using these names it’s actually possible to look at what they did in the year after they were similar to Little.  They actually improved as a group.  They didn’t improve by a lot, but they improved.  Thirteen of the eighteen receivers* improved their touchdown numbers, and a little better than half of the receivers improved their yardage numbers.  The other thing that’s worth noting is that even among a group of similar players where age was one of the criteria for similarity, Little is younger than the group.  He still has three to four years before we would expect him to be playing at peak level.

Perhaps somewhat disappointingly, looking at Greg Little similar players doesn’t give us a lot more clarity on the topic of what his pro career might look like.  The issue that the Browns had when they were trying to know whether to draft him is still there.  He is a physical specimen, but unfortunately, that hasn’t translated to career success for every similar receiver.  Little has a lot of upside, but it’s too early to know whether Browns fans should get excited.

*Mike Williams hasn’t played the following year yet and Sylvester Morris was injured in the offseason following the 2000 season.