Mind Character

The 5 Overall Draft Picks: 1.) Chase Young, DE Ohio State 2.) Jedrick Wills Jr., OT Alabama 3.) Jeffrey Okudah, CB Ohio State 4.) Javon Kinlaw, DT South Carolina 5.) Joe Burrow, QB LSU ---------- The 5 "My Guys" : 1.) Jedrick Wills Jr., OT Alabama 2.) Robert Hunt, OT/OG Lousiana-Lafayette 3.) Netane Muti, OG/OC/OT Fresno State 4.) Troy Dye, Hybrid-LB Oregon 5.) Antoine WInfield Jr., SS/FS Minnesota ------ Bonus 5 "My Guys": 1.) Daishawn Dixon, OG San Diego State 2.) Brycen Hopkins, TE Purdue 3.) Jack Driscoll, OT Auburn 4.) Matt Peart, ZBS-OT UConn 5.) Adam Trautman, TE Dayton ----- Honorable Mention: 6.) Joe Reed, WR/KR/PR Virginia

Pass rushers, Pass defenders, Pass Blockers, and Pass Receivers. That lens/filter on the prospects we've all talked about will be interesting as we approach the draft. I have a strange feeling that Jeffrey Okudah will be the highest player on the Browns board as he'll shine in personality tests, intelligence tests, what analytics say about his elite athleticism and size, as well as his ability to be an elite pass defender. If the Lions don't take Okudah, I wonder how far he falls. Wills and Okudah will be at the top of the Browns draft board, and it would be unexpectedly amazing if one should fall to us.

We have a way now. 1.) Andrew Berry laid out his philosophy on placing a premium on players that effect the passing game (on both sides of the ball). 2.) Smart, tough, and accountable on and off the field football players is the stated cultural ethos and player acquisition philosophy of Berry and Stefanski. Taking both those things into account, I think it suggests that the Browns may be valuing certain players over others in the draft.

That's actually not the case, but you are right in one regard. While it's true that Baker has the time to change his prior attitude toward off-season QB trainers/tutors, Drew Brees actually worked with an off-season QB Trainer since his 2nd year in the league as it was a requirement by Marty Schottenheimer. The previous year under Mike Reilly it was not. Marty Schott required footwork and timing drilling training in the off-season even for his veteran QBs and it was a point of interesting awkwardness between Brees and newly drafted rookie QB Phillip Rivers when both were asked to work together on training. You are right though that Brees didn't start working with the "Throwing Coaches" of the variety of 3DQB much later in his career along the stark rise and evolution of the sports performance industry. Before 3DQB, he hired trainers for the off-season, but they were more of the footwork, drilling variety but it was nothing close to what he experienced with 3DQB. There is a key distinction that also has to be made though. That is, Brees grew up in the early 2000s in the league where there was no substantial awareness on concussions and during those times the sports performance science and technology (i.e., computers, motion trackers, simulators, video cameras, etc) was still in its stone age. Even in those days, Marty Schott, the Peyton Mannings, the Brees' of the world were at the forefront of off-season QB training. Now, imagine growing up in these times where the science and technology is at its height; where Baker's elite QB peers are all in on the cutting edge sports performance, nutrition, sleep, fitness, and QB training science, and still rejecting trusted off-season rigorous regimen QB Training experts. That's the issue with Baker's previously held attitude toward things is that he's not in alignment modern times. As with all things, nothing is certain and nothing is fatal with Baker and he can absolutely turn it around and evolve his perspective and approach. It would be to his benefit and to Browns fans if he does so.

Soon the, "does anyone ever remember Berry's nervous tick of head nodding when he was here before" posts shall arise. Soon he'll be nicknamed the "nerd nodder" and that nerd nodder shall soon lead us to nerd victory.

**(No one’s EVER going to read even a sentence of this… nor will it last long … and it feels good; the long post to end all long post…. drank a ton of coffee and rather zone out on this than be attentive in the nails on chalkboard personal misconduct & harassment HR meeting … helped me blow through the monotony and now I’m 7 minutes from lunch for the win)** Your points raise a fascinating discussion imo regarding the stark contrast between the actual motivations, reasoning, and rationale used by those in power and in government for decisions on war force according to their own words and the rationalizations and justifications created to pacify the mass public. Ultimately, there’s a lot of untruths, generalizations, and ahistorical assumptions to your points. The Key: A major portion of my family past and present has learned the life-altering realities and chaos of war; how things aren't so simple as they often seem and we're taught when we're younger. In the rear-view mirror of history, on country roads far away from where napalm and other horrifying forces are dropped, War & State-sponsored violence is rationalized and justified as having purely necessary, righteous, and just aims whether that be to save women and children; to save the world/populations from evil dictators and/or poisonous ideologies. The reality is that there’s a long and deep documented record of the truly held rationale and reasons for such actions as evidenced by the direct spoken or written words of those responsible for designing, commanding, and/or profiting from such endeavors. That record includes private and public memos, telegrams, journals, accounts of conversations, meetings, investigative journalism reports, leaked official documentation, etc. What that long body of work illustrates is that as is in the case of Vietnam and numerous other “Wars” the true held rationale and reason for such actions are primarily to satisfy Global Corporate Interests, War-Machine Profiteering, the Display of Military Might & to Send messages to other Imperial powers, Resource Extraction, Group Supremacy, Xenophobia and hatred of the other, Geopolitical Dominance, and an ahistorical understand of others amongst other things. It’s only prior, during, and after the fact that socially accepted rationalizations and justifications are engineered to pacify the minds of the masses that might dissent against such actions if they the true nature of things. To a few of your more specific points: 1.) The calculus for Vietnam was not, “We’ve seen the scourge of communism and the human costs it has wrought around the world so we must undergo the noble and righteous cause of defeating such evils before the spread around the world” as you allude to. That’s what we’ve surely been taught and what’s popularized in film, but the real reasons as stated by the architects of the war were to first defend French Colonialism, its profiteering, and continued rule and domination of Vietnam and its people from the movement for Vietnamese independence from French rule. 2.) There’s a long history that can be discovered in leaked official government documents and private memos and public comments (Pentagon Papers, Gulf of Tonkin Report, etc.) that clearly illustrates that it began as a war of reprisal for various Vietnamese groups rebelling against French Colonial rule, it continued as a means to primarily display our military might and power to the rest of the Imperial world order, and reached it height motivated by xenophobic beliefs about brown Vietnamese people as uncivilized savages in the minds of the architects and profiteers of such wars. Along the way false flag events like the Gulf of Tonkin were fabricated to justify war to the population and before all was said and done over 60,000 Americans lost their lives and 4,000,000 Vietnamese of which most civilians were killed via napalm, agent orange, fire-bombing of villages, and/or war-related deaths. 3.) There’s a huge difference between Forms of Government Power Allocation like Democracy, Autocracy, Monarchy, Oligarchy, Plutocracy, Theocracy, Authoritarianism, Totalitarianism, and Dictatorship –VERSUS— Forms of Life Resources Allocation (Economic Systems) like Socialism, Capitalism, and/or Communism concentrated in State, Private Entities, or Social Cooperatives, etc. We’ve all been taught to speak of the Forms of Government as if they aret he Forms of Resources Allocation, but the two historically aren’t the same. As such, most countries we’ve been taught were “bad” Communist weren’t communist at all but Authoritarian-Capitalist -Oligarchies who were communist in name only where a select few Capitalize and extract inequitable power and wealth on the backs of the labor of the many. In the same way one can’t group the Russian Holomodor or Stalin in with Castro/Cuba, Mao/China, and the Kim’s in Korea. The flow of history in those countries is about a wide-array of different variables most of which have nothing to do with the word we’ve been taught to associate with those situations. 4.) The comment about other “communist countries,” “murdering and jailing their people” is always an interesting one in comparison to the mass murder of indigenous people, chattel slavery prisons and tombs, murdering and imprisoning during the reconstruction era up through Jim Crow to the present day and along the way interesting things like mass imprisonment and murder to turn Mexico into entities known as California, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, etc. That and many other interesting treats of our government’s interesting existence. 5.) The forgotten war/Korean War has its roots when Kim Il-sung (Kim Jung-Il’s father) began armed resistance against the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and Korea. Our country’s government then decided that for geopolitical strategic reasons and dominance at the top of the new forming world Empire order that it was better that Japan maintain its economic dominance over parts of Asia, including Korea, or at least the Southern half in order to prevent Korea from becoming a rising independent geopolitical force in Asia that could rival US, French, and Japanese economic strangleholds on the regions. As a result, our country’s government partitioned and divided Korea into a North & South region separating families, empowering terrible leaders that ensured conflict and violence in the region. Subsequently, every city and town in the North was flattened via napalm and fire-bombing and many in the South such according to US generals and military officers’ reports “no building left was two stories high and whole towns of people looked like Pompeii.” In the end, over 2 million civilians died as did 37,000 US soldiers. As designed and planned, there was no discrimination of civilian targets because of the xenophobic motivations for such bombings as described in a wide variety of investigative journalism and leaked official government telegraphs and memos. In the wake of the rubble, chaos, loss of total infrastructure, and mass depression, the popular political forces and social institutions that moderated the Kim’s autocratic rule were totally wiped out leaving the now hardened Kim’s to enjoy full spectrum control of the country’s institutions which interestingly enough was one of the goals of the war in the first place as it would legitimize a permanent presence in the region. We’ve seen that confirmed as true up until present day.

... a fresh shave and tattoo have we ... ... You sick sick son of a b*****... .. when they find out about you and your "male friend" it's going to get rough ...

I mean of course not. But an Assistant Head Coach designation is standard on almost all coaching staffs. So, in that light it would be surprising to not have one on staff; thus, my questioning of what's in the offings and if it could be something exciting.

I could see that. Brad Childress next year for the loss ... you heard it here first

Who in the heck is getting the Assistant Head Coach title? Callahan didn't receive it in the press release event there's stories of him having the office right next to Stefanski's. Is there a big fish out there we're saving that title for, and who could it be? Could it be Wade? Is it going to be announced as Callahan at a later date? What's is happening?

I wonder when it's all said and done what type of defensive scheme we most dominantly call... Is it going to be the Wade Phillips 3-4/4-3 Hybrid, the Quinn/Carroll/Saleh Seahawks 43 with 2 high, or more of what the VIkings did when Woods was there.

Once a coach always a coach, but it is interesting that Pagac has been out of football for 3 years or so. Woods must have a profound respect for his coaching and teaching ability. Here's to hoping he's been staying up to date with current trends.

It would be very surprising to me (assuming guys stay healthy) if Baker continues to regress. The public and even Browns fans that previously worshiped him have turned against him some ... he's acknowledged that the guys weren't as ready for the season as they should've been and doesn't want a repeat of last year ... the scheme and coaching will be better ... we'll likely add more talent around him ... If he doesn't bounce back, it would really be shocking and devastating as I and a lot of us aren't anywhere close to ready to accepting the realization that we don't have a quality starting QB for many years to come. Now, a lot of us disagree on whether he's a superstar or more than just a quality starter, but he's certainly capable of playing at or above Jimmy Garoppolo level in my mind. And that is good enough to get to the playoffs and compete. He might not be bonafide superstar great QB we all wanted, but as long as he can play at a top 14 QB level it'll give us a chance.

We disagree. On Planet Earth, a deep and lengthy well of history and documentation of lived experiences illustrates that Thee factor in determining those and other Countries development and outcomes has been and continues to be Imperialist, Colonialist, and Neo-colonialist dominance and destruction of other country's resource allocation systems, lands, wealth, religious and cultural institutions, educational institutions, ties to history and shared pro-social beliefs, ties to community trust and sense of belonging, sense of hope, security, and self-determination. Interestingly enough, the idea of, "Civilizing or Saving Backward, Savage, Underdeveloped Countries" was/is used as justification and rationalization of military force, resource extraction, and colonization. As in the case of Vietnam and many others, the idea of ridding the world of the scourge and terror of "communism" was popularized as righteous service and calling to save the people of Vietnam from their backwards leaders and to prevent the spread of the poisonous ideology before it destroyed the world. History tells us that the reality of ours and other Empire's motivations for destroying Vietnam as well as the catastrophic reality of what was actually done there in the name of "ridding the evils of communism" don't match what was and is popular held beliefs about what "communism" was doing to the people of Vietnam before our country's imperialism there. Now, totalitarianism is typology of capitalism/socialism/communism but that's something different. That's not just the case in Vietnam but many other countries around the world. Much like Capitalism in one country functions differently in another Capitalist country so did socialism, communism, collectivism, etc function differently in other countries. No country is all one system or another but hybrid systems much like the US where social security is a socialist social contract between citizens or in New Zealand or Canada where health care has been socially decided by citizens to be "free" or highly subsidized and de-facto "free" via a socialist allocation of resources. But as in other things I'm sure we don't see it the same way.

You do live on planet Earth right? All of those countries named had their country resources/wealth extracted, were pilfered, partitioned, and/or freedom-fire-bomb destroyed by Imperialism and subsequently colonized via non-Communist Empires for capital gains or dominance/subjugation purposes, namely the French, Portugese, British, German, and our very own beloved American Empire. Those countries weren't dealt fatal blows by an ideology of resource allocation (i.e., their economic system) or forces within, but instead by detailed, thought-out, and planned colonial/neo-colonial imperial projects of dominant military and geopolitical Empires. The individual is subject to history and place and time. Where that individual finds themselves in a certain place and certain time decides mostly whether they have individual sovereignty and rights of self-determination the likes that many of us privileged few get to enjoy in our lives to varying degrees just b/c we live in a certain place and time or look a certain way. A lot of people across the globe and our neighbors in our own communities or on the other side of town don't get that benefit unfortunately. Also ... be afraid.. the reds are coming ...

Not that he was still in the running for us, but it's not like he went elsewhere. Smart move by him as Kyle Shanahan will be King maker for HCs and OCs in the future. I do wonder if Mike McDaniel gets the same extension. Probably so.

Aww crap. Apparently, Castonzo is considering retirement if he doesn't go back to the Colts. (https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/colts/2020/01/21/colts-still-waiting-anthony-castonzos-retirement-decision/4534739002/ Even though he's at the height of his powers and game that takes him out the picture. The Browns issue is with more organizational turnover, a not well established GM and HC, and a poorly perceived ownership group we've somehow found ourselves back in that position where Free Agents might not want to come here unless we pay a serious premium. Even then they still might say no (i.e., Tony Jefferson). I wonder how Andrew Berry and DePo see signing an injury porne 31 year old Tackle at top dollar like a Bryan Bulaga. Likely they're not on-board with that. I think they should be as there's no bigger year for Baker, our offense, and new Coach than this first year. Have a stabilizing force could do wonders. It's also what makes me worried about potentially starting one or two rookie tackles. No matter who they are or how good they are they are going to struggle their rookie year most likely. I'm down for drafting rookies, but I'm more for filling 2 of our 3 open stating OLine spots with veteran starters a la the Matt Flynn and Russell Wilson route. If the rookie beats out the guy, then so be it, but we need a contingency plan. The starting caliber tackles that appear likely to hit the market are: Jack Conklin, RT Titans (26yo), DJ Humphries (26yo), Halapoulivaati Vaitai (27yo), Bryan Bulaga (31yo), Anthony Castonzo (31yo). With Bulaga, any injury that can happen will happen. Vaitai's still a project football-wise but he'll be the cheapest of them all and probably wouldn't mind coming here if Berry could recruit him. I don't know how good he'll be though. So, it probably does come down to DJ Humprhies and Jack Conklin if the Browns want to use free agency to fill a starting Tackle position. People aren't going to like it, but Greg Robinson might be a better option than Humphries at Left Tackle. His play by a wide variety of metrics suggest that's the case. Conklin will likely have a wide-variety of options. It might be advantageous for the Browns to sign Halapoulivaati Vaitai and Greg Robinson then draft 2 rookies to see if they can beat out the vets right away and/or be ready to step in as the season goes on. The same goes for the Guard spot as we'd likely miss out on a Brandon Scherff, but have a shot at a Graham Glasgow. Sign Glasgow and hope Drew Forbes or more likely another draft pick can upgrade that spot in time.

Oh he's a lot better than Solder even at his apex. He's still a good player for sure, but is he worth top Tackle in the league money? With his deficiencies if we have to allocate top Tackle cap space, it's just I'd rather put it on Antony Castonzo

Ultimate "My Guys," Trade Down(s), New Youth Core/Foundation Mock Draft: Trade 1: Trade Down from 10th to 20s range and receive a 2nd this year; a 4th this year; and future draft capital considerations. Trade 2: Trade Down from 20s to late 1st and receive a 3rd and 4th this year and future mid/late round considerations. Trade 3: Trade Out of the 1st round this year to the top of the 2nd round this year and receive a 4th and 5th this year and future draft capital considerations. Picks Gained this year: a 2nd; 3rd; 4th; 4th; 4th; 5th ... Picks Gained in future drafts: Unspecified but valuable higher and mid round draft consideratins The Draft (Jedrick Wills goes top 5): 2.) Robert Hunt, OG/OT Louisiana-Lafayette 2.) Xavier Mckinney, FS/NS Alabama 2.) Matt Peart, OT Uconn 3.) Jack Driscoll, RT Auburn 3.) Antoine WInfield Jr., FS/SS Minnesota 3.) Troy Dye, Hybrid-LB Oregon 4.) Brycen Hopkins, TE Purdue // Adam Trautman, TE Dayton // Thaddeus Moss, TE LSU 4.) Akeem Davis-Gaither, Hybrid-LB Appalachian State 4,) Noah Igbinoghene, CB/NCB Auburn // Darnay Holmes, CB/NCB UCLA 4.) Daishawn Dixon, OG San Diego St. 5.) Joe Reed, WR/KR/PR Virginia 6.) Tyrie Cleveland, WR Florida // Antonio Gibson, WR/RB Memphis 7.) Josiah Deguara, TE/HB/FB Cincinnati

One thing to realize about Jack Conklin is that advanced analytics have him as the Tackle that receives the most help out of any Tackle in the league on pass blocking sets as evidenced by the Assisted Block metric and True Pass Sets metric (i.e., no assisted sets, no play action, no screens, time to throw at least 2.1 seconds, 5-step concepts/pass drop depth, no roll-outs.) Conklin's a bit of fools gold when you look at his blocking analytics from that perspective. So, when you separate out his blocking grade when assisted versus when he's not, he looks like a much different blocker. The Titans helped him a lot based on his deficiencies and it's important to keep that in mind. Conklin is a really good run blocker, but as a pass blocker he's not the type of Tackle that you can just sit out there on an island and he'll dominate and play at a high level. If we want a true Tackle that can do his thing at a high level at tackle, we should look to Anthony Castonzo, OT Colts. Humphries has trouble in zone blocking tasks.

... that movie, character, and scene choice though ... ------------- Live Look at LGB ... On his bad days ... On his good days ...

Good news for you charlatans is that as draft day is nigh so to is my post-draft 5-month hibernation and internet slumber until the start of the season.... ... soon you all shall once again be free to roam these internet lands with gay and merry hearts away from reason and long-posts... the foolery that will commence when I'm gone will be the likes these FF-lands have not heretofore seen.... The slumber ... is nigh..

I wanted to like him. I kept hearing people talk about how good he was and how high he should be ranked. I kept feeling like I was just convincing myself that he was better than I actually was seeing. The tough thing about Niang is that he always looks like he's battling a bum knee or injury of some type. He has solid lateral agility and uses the Packers/Campen/Bulaga/Baktiari outside hold technique really well. He's really stiff, big upper body, smaller lower body, not a strong anchor, and against top competition he gets consistently exposed badly. Ultimately, I have two main groupings in my mind of players/OLineman: 1.) Starter and 2.) Contributor/Back-Up. Niang's not an immediate quality or high quality starter. Is he a developmental starter? Maybe, but currently I saw him as a immediate quality contributor with developmental starter upside by the end of year 3. To me, that's not the type of Tackle I hope the Browns are interested in based on my personal evaluation and assessment. Then came the head to head match-ups with other prospects where I said to myself "who would trust or bet on to eventually be a quality starter, Josh Jones or Lucas Niang? Jack Driscoll or Lucas Niang? Robert Hunt or Niang?.... and so on and so on until I was looking at a list of 12-14 Tackles (I had Wirfs as a Guard exclusively) that I liked ahead of Niang. Guys I think are better than Niang: 1.) Jedrick Wills Jr., OT Alabama 2.) Robert Hunt, RT Louisiana-Lafayette 3.) Jack Driscoll, RT Auburn 4.) Mekhi Becton, OT Louisville 5.) Prince Tega-Wanogho, LT Auburn 6.) Matt Peart, OT UCONN 7.) Andrew Thomas, LT Georgia 8.) Isaiah Wilson, RT Georgia 9.) Terrance Steele, RT Texas Tech 10.) Austin Jackson, LT USC 11.) Josh Jones, RT Houston 12.) Ezra Cleveland, OT Boise State

Misses the point. Boiling the argument down to "Does he look good physically? If yes, he's working hard and is going to be great; If no, he's not working hard and he's going to be bad" is a bad oversimplification and not at all the point that's been made. Baker is not like every other QB. He's short, not fast or ultra athletic. His winning edge is not the same winning edge of QBs like Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz, or Big Ben. He's doesn't play the position that Marshall Faulk or Duke Johnson played where their athletic gifting let's them shine in various areas. All of those QBs can use their rare athletic gifts to help them make winning plays be it their ability to run and evade defenders or their ability to stand strong in the pocket and shrug off or slip off defenders while buying extra time and space to make winning plays. Baker has really nice arm talent but it's not that of a Big Ben, Wentz, or Mahomes; it's certainly better than Deshaun or Lamar's arm. So, what is Baker's winning edge? History and performance suggests that his winning edge is Preparation, Developing a next level understanding of Defense and how to manipulate it, and being able to quickly and accurately place the ball in spots to beat defenders. That takes elite preparation, off-season training, and off-season and during season QB skills development. That's the Drew Brees and Tom Brady playbook for elite sports performance; that is, what it takes to be elite when you're a QB with athletic deficiencies. So, did Baker prepare like an elite sports performance QB in his first full-offseason heading into his 2nd year? By all accounts including Baker's and the offensive playmakers around him the answer to that question is no. Now, he's young. A lot of QBs get to that point faster than others and not everyone comes out the gate with elite preparation and sports performance commitment like Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, and Carson Wentz. Baker still has still has time. Then the interesting question: What evidence do we have to believe that Baker will find that elite preparation and high-level sports performance and QB training groove this off-season? Well, for starters he said he's not going to work with the expert QB trainers but that he'd do things on his own (we have no reason to yet believe that isn't the case). Secondly, he doesn't appear to be in the best of off-season shape (though that alone means nothing). Though there usually is overlap in an athlete's commitment to a lifestyle of elite sports performance preparation and their physical fitness. That's not always the case (especially with naturally big guys with crazy natural athletic talent like Big Ben), but generally speaking an obsessive athlete who takes their QB training/drilling seriously with daily routines often has a stringent diet/nutrition and exercise and recovery routine. Engaged or Obsessive daily work habits tend to find their way to other aspects of living. So, in the end you very well might be right that Baker's outward body/physical fitness might not actually be indicative of an overall work habit/routine approach to his QB skills development, but in truth physical fitness is often indicative of other underlying approaches to elite work habits and athletic performance. In the end, because of Baker's athletic limitations he has to invest more and find a winning edge in his training and preparation for the season much like the Brady and Brees. Those guides approached the off-season different than how Baker has to this point approached it given the limited information we've had until this point. We don't have all the info and Baker is still young and can grow and learn, but there are plenty of reasons to believe he might not have gone all in yet on the things he needs to do to take that next step. Even if he doesn't the Browns can still have success based on how the team is built around him.

It's these types of posts that illustrate a funny lack of understanding or even a basic grasp of the life of Tom Brady (or a wide-array of elite QBs in this era for that matter) or the arguments being made. Tom Brady is obsessed with living each day with maintaining elite sports performance in mind. He's structured his life around that end to the detriment of his children and family (not good). TB12, health, nutrition, and exercise nut, has a whole team devoted to maintaining optimal performance including sleep experts, cryotherapy experts, pays for his fitness and nutrition team to travel with him; pliability/yoga/core strength instructors on the daily, trains with a team of QB, offense, and defensive exports on his QB skills development, and trains with his core offensive weapons. A picture of Tom Brady not ripped like DK Metcalf isn't proof of Baker's commitment or lack thereof to QB training off-season work or his commitment or lack thereof to implementing or preparing his own elite sports performance team of experts to help prepare him to pursue elite performance. That's not to say that Baker isn't going to implement such things in the future or learn that in order to compete with the elite that he has to step up into elite preparation. Brady like most QBs didn't have it all figured out when he entered the league, but that was a different time and place when sports performance technology, training, and understanding was different. Brady soon after entering the league became ahead of the curve in his prep. Nowadays, athletes start the elite sports performance lifestyle in college and expand it in the NFL much like the likes of Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, Dak Prescott, and Carson Wentz. They've all bought into a life-style of preparation and training that only gives them a chance and doesn't guarantee to perform at an elite level once the season commences. Based on Baker's public statements and his past/present activities there doesn't seem to be requisite evidence to suggest that Baker has bought in to an elite sports performance lifestyle. It matters much more for a QB like Baker instead of for a a QB like Big Ben b/c of the disparity in natural physical athletic gifts. What also goes missing is how clearly Baker was in better shape prior years to this year and that's even controlling for the desire to add some weight and strength to absorb NFL contact. As I've said before, none of this is fatal for Baker's future success but it certainly isn't an upward trend or something to point to as a positive.