🏀 KuBuckets Archive

My whole idea of favoring Kendrick over Bender is that KU's best offensive players are the running backs. Not just Williams (although he is the best of the group), but the overall strength of the unit. That's the most talent on the KU roster.

As a result, you want a QB (since neither Kendrick or Bender is a star) that gets the most out of the most talented players on the offense. Bender is not a threat to run, so you don't have to spy him. Kendrick is. Since KU doesn't have a group of game breaking receivers to take advantage of Bender's passing, Kendrick is the right choice because he can open up a lane for the backs to take advantage of.

If KU had a receiving corps like they did in 2007, Bender would be the right choice. Since they don't, Kendrick is the guy.

Playing two traditional big men most of the time will push the rebound numbers. Additionally, having KJ, Grimes, Garrett and Vick getting wing minutes should also boost the rebound numbers since two of those guys will almost always be on the floor. Even when we go "small" we will still have good size inside because of how big the Lawson brothers are. It will also help that both McCormack and De Sousa are very good rebounders. Azubuike gets rebounds, but he isn't a dominant rebounder like De Sousa can be.

Our best lineup may end up being De Sousa-D. Lawson-K. Lawson-Grimes-Dotson because that group has good balance and checks all of the boxes on both ends. I wouldn't be surprised to see that group closing a lot of games out.

BeddieKU23 said:

BShark said:

That's my expectation as well. This KU team is good enough to have 5 starters in double figures but the minutes figure to limit that to probably 4. I would expect:

Dedric-18 pts, Grimes- 13, Vick - 12, Azubuike- 11.

After that Dotson- 8, Garrett- 6, De Sousa- 5, Moore/Lawson 4 & 4 I figure in that order. So many mouths to feed..

I think you're probably underselling KJ Lawson and Charlie Moore a bit there. I think Azubuike probably scores a bit less, but more efficiently (8 or 9 ppg, but 80% or better from the field). I think both KJ and Moore average 6 or 7, probably at the expense of a non-scorer like Garrett. Dedric probably only scores 16 or so a game because there are so many options.

This team will score 80+ a night, but it will be fairly spread out, as you outlined. Dedric will be in double figures every night, but after that, a revolving cast of characters will have big games. Grimes will have a couple of games where he goes off for 25-30 (I wouldn't be surprised if Grimes has the highest scoring game of the season). Dotson will have a 20 point game or two. Moore will go for 15-20 a time or two. De Sousa will have some nights where he gets some offensive put backs that push him to 12 or 14. Vick will have a game where he hits 4 or 5 threes to get him near or over 20. Heck, Dedric has a 30 point night in him, too. Azubuike will have a game where he dunks a team to death and goes for 20.

This KU team has six guys that can go for 20 on a given night, and probably eight that can go for 15. That's going to put a lot of pressure on defenses.

Like you said, so many mouths to feed... but I think everybody will get their chances to eat.

@drgnslayr

I think OU could be better in basketball, but its a matter of emphasis. OU doesn't focus on basketball. They don't pour a lot of resources into basketball. OU could be a top 25 program if they put the resources into it.

Kruger is a good coach, but OU doesn't recruit at an elite level. If they did, they would be consistently in the rankings.

@JayHawkFanToo

I'm speaking more from a progress perspective.

You can't just keep being the worst team in the conference and call that progress. You have to be better than Baylor. If KU isn't good enough to beat Baylor, Beaty gets fired. Period.

You also can't just keep being a bottom two team in the conference because that worst team is going to fire their coach. You have to beat one of those teams that is holding out some bowl aspirations, but probably won't be ranked. That's that next tier of games. And you need to win at least one or two of those games at your place, and maybe be able to steal one on the road. That's progress.

If you can't do that, you're done. Period.

I get that KU isn't necessarily better than any of those teams. The hangup is that Beaty needs to demonstrate some sort of progress, otherwise what has the last couple of years been for?

@JayHawkFanToo

My view is this - 4-8 would have been good enough if you go 3-0 in non-con, plus beat Baylor and stay competitive against the middle tier Big 12 teams.

Losing to Nicholls State changed the calculation. KU can't lose those kinds of games and still claim they are making progress under Beaty. That's what put pressure on Beaty - he had a bad loss.

So now, the calculation is this:

Beat Baylor.

Win at least one "toss up" game (Iowa State, KSU, Tech, Texas)

Win a game against the upper tier (TCU, OU, WVU, OSU)

--or--

Beat Baylor

Win two "toss up" games, including one road win.

He has to make up for that bad loss with a surprise win either against KSU or Tech on the road (in addition to beating ISU or Texas in Lawrence) or OSU or TCU in Lawrence. Either of those gives Beaty the ammunition to argue that he is making progress with multiple road conference wins (since Baylor game is also on the road) or beating a ranked opponent.

Failing that, I think he still probably gets fired at the end of the season because beating two really awful teams doesn't prove KU isn't awful anymore.

The only way I change that stance is if KU can stay within 14 points in every game this year. If KU is competitive against everyone in conference and gets only one or two conference wins, Beaty can argue that he's a year away, but if he gets blasted by the ranked teams and loses to the middle tier as well, there's not much progress that fans can see.

If Beaty can't see that Kendrick opens things up for KU's RBs with his own running ability then he should accept his fate.

Kendrick gives KU the best opportunity to hang with the better teams in the Big 12, and maybe beat some of the lower ranking teams. KU's offensive line just can't give Bender the time he needs to make plays, and their WR corps is not as strong as the RB corps. Putting things in Kendrick's hands gives KU a chance at 4+ wins. Bender may be where KU wants to go, but Kendrick is where KU is right now.

I don't want to give in to the hyperbole, but two games into the season, Patrick Mahomes is probably the best Chiefs QB in the last 40 years. I look at that sentence and can't believe that it could be true, but that statement could very well be true.

Mahomes is better than I imagined he would be. He can't possibly continue to be this good, because if he is, he should be inducted into the Chiefs ring of honor during the last regular season home game as an active player this year. This is just crazy.

This KU team is certainly better than the last couple of versions, but that was expected. The big question is if the progress is enough. A 1-8 or 2-7 run through the Big 12 probably still gets Beaty fired unless KU is competitive in every game. More likely, KU will need 3 or 4 conference wins to preserve Beaty's job because that's some real progress you can point to.

We are still waiting to see real progress. If Beaty can get 3 or 4 more wins, I count that as enough to keep his job. 2 puts me on the fence, and 1 I think a change has to be made.

Convincing win, but Beaty isn't out of the woods yet. If he were 3-0, his job would be much safer. That bad loss will continue to haunt him this year.

The DBs here look solid with another pick. KU outclassing Rutgers here. Looking for the kill shot here.

@JayHawkFanToo

Yes, but with the Kansas rule that limits games and travel during the HS season, this rule hurts Kansas prospects.

Kcmatt7 said:

Stock down 3% today.

Nike stock closed at $83.47, an all time high for the company, yesterday.

Still needs some time to stabilize before we can really say what the trend is, but it looks positive right now after an initial dip. Probably should check back in a month or so to see where its at then.

KSU likely wins, but I struggle to see them winning by three TDs unless they get another big game from Zuber on special teams, or get some defensive plays.

JayHawkFanToo said:

Here is an interesting question in view of how everybody seems to have OU at the bottom. In spite of his big numbers, was Trae Young a net positive or a net negative to the program? By catering to one player to the detriment of the team, did Lon Kruger damaged his career and coaching reputation?

Young was a positive for OU. That team probably finishes 9th or 10th in the League without him, and definitely misses the tournament. They basically repeat the previous year.

This year we will see them without a good PG again, and OU will likely finish 8th or worse in the League and miss the tournament.

I think Kruger has hurt himself by struggling as much as he has since Hield and Co. left. Rather than building on that, the program has fallen flat. I think that hurts him more than letting a top 5 pick have free rein over the offense.

mayjay said:

Well, what did we expect? I would think if you farm out a homicide investigation to an MLB team, they are likely to screw it up. Winning the WS is no substitute for police training.

Everyone knows the Astros would have done a better job anyway.

This is going on in Dallas right now ↗.

As long as college athletics, specifically football and basketball, are big money industries, there will be corruption.

@JayHawkFanToo

The biggest change is that it shortens the summer evaluation period from 19 days to four days. Right now, college coaches can go to all of the big AAU events and evaluate dozens of players at a time. By slashing that evaluation period down to four days, it really eliminates the ability to evaluate kids in person, particularly early in the process.

@JayHawkFanToo

Any school that plays for KSHSAA state titles would be subject to the KSHSAA rules, so even though Miege is private, they are subject to the rules, as are other private schools like Topeka Hayden, Wichita Collegiate, etc.

@dylans

Cauley Stein played for tiny Spearville HS his first two years of HS before transferring to Olathe NW for more exposure. Ron Baker is from Scott City. There is some talent out in Western Kansas. And that doesn't count guys that are low level prospects, or even D2 prospects. This rule would hit them hard because how many coaches will drive out to Tiny Town X to see one guy when they can go to a game in a bigger city and potentially see a couple of potential recruits?

In all honesty, this rule has a good chance of absolutely crushing smaller town schools because any athlete with potential collegiate prospects may have to transfer to a bigger school, meaning that once in a generation talent may not be able to stay at a smaller school and have a shot at being recruited.

@JayHawkFanToo

For a lot of the major HS tournaments, these are sponsored events. As such, many of those tournaments don't cost the school's that participate anything because they are invited and sponsored to go.

A few years ago, when Highland Park High School in Topeka was a powerhouse program, they were invited to a sponsored tournament in Arizona (could have the location wrong because I am doing this from memory). The trip would cost nothing. However, because it was in Arizona, Highland Park had to apply for a waiver from KSHSAA to participate. They were denied. Here, an inner city school was denied this opportunity because the rules forbid it. Bishop Miege (where Robinson Earl and Bol Bol were) and Wichita Heights (Perry Ellis' alma mater) also received invites to similar tournaments, but had to turn them down.

Like I said, these are generally sponsored, so cost isn't a factor. Also, many of these tournaments take place during the holiday time, so the travel isn't as problematic. But because KSHSAA rules restrict travel, Kansas schools cannot participate unless they get a waiver, which has typically been denied by KSHSAA. Additionally, KSHSAA rules restrict who Kansas teams can play in these tournaments, so if a Kansas team wanted to go to a tournament in Missouri, for instance, they still could not play against a team from Michigan.

@BShark is right that these rules hurt low and mid tier prospects most. Right now, if you're the #350 prospect in the country and you're from western Kansas, you can use AAU to prove your wares against D1 talent that you don't see in the regular season. But now, with the emphasis on high school schedule, it makes it much more difficult to evaluate a player at a school that doesn't see high caliber competition regularly. This basically takes any incentive away from a kid playing below 5A in Kansas that is a prospect. You need to transfer to a higher tier program. If you're at a smaller program now, you had better transfer to the Sunflower League, or the Wichita City League, or the Eastern Kansas League, or some of the other big class leagues, because that's the only way to get reps against high caliber talent.

We had some discussion a few weeks ago about the new NCAA rules, but I wanted to ask this question, and didn't want to hijack the thread to do so.

The new rules ↗ are designed to limit the outside influences (i.e. AAU) affecting college hoops and recruiting. That's a good motive, but I wonder if that motive will have negative consequences.

As some of you may remember, I have been somewhat critical of the limitations of Kansas HS rules, specifically the game and travel limitations. With these new rules seeking to minimize the influence of AAU, Kansas kids may now be forced to get outside the state in order to see other top talent.

As I noted before, Perry Ellis and Willie Cauley-Stein were in the same high school class, yet never once matched up in HS.

Semi Ojeleye never faced Perry Ellis or Shavon Shields in HS.

Looking at players currently in HS, Zach Harvey and Ty Berry never played each other. Neither of those guys has faced KT Raimey, either. Berry and Raimey are the top juniors in Kansas. Harvey and Robinson-Earl would have been the top seniors had they not gone to Prolific Prep and IMG, respectively.

Because Kansas HS produces only a handful of D1 prospects each year, AAU gives those prospects opportunities to face other D1 talent that simply don't exist if they played only their HS schedule. With so many classes in Kansas, and the state as spread out as it is, top prospects may not ever see each other. AAU gave our local talent a chance to show what they could do against national competition.

Without that opportunity, it's likely that more Kansas players could follow the Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Zach Harvey and Bol Bol route - play in Kansas for a few years, then move to a prep school for their last year or two because Kansas HS basketball can't match the exposure that a top prep school like IMG can, and without AAU ball to help even that playing field, a kid in Kansas is left with few options.

Of course, the KSHSAA could help eliminate this problem with two rule changes.

1. Allow more regular season games. Most states are allowing their schools to play 24 regular season games. Simply put, allow teams to play in three tournaments instead of two, and then they have the chance to schedule one more free standing regular season game (maybe its a showcase game against another team in Kansas, maybe its a showcase event out of state).

2. Eliminate the travel restrictions so teams in Kansas can play teams from all over the country. Currently, schools in Kansas in basketball cannot play an opponent in a state that is more than 500 or so miles from Kansas. This prevents Kansas players from ever competing against teams from most of the country (population wise). Without AAU, this means that Kansas kids would never face kids from Florida, California, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, Arizona, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Jersey, etc. Those are some of the biggest basketball hotbeds in the country. Only about 20 players listed on the ESPN top 100 live in states that are close enough to Kansas to allow Kansas prospects to face them. That's simply not enough exposure to top talent. Eliminate that restriction and the playing field evens.

I posted about Littrell and others back in July.

Littrell was listed as my number one at that time. If he's not interested, Neal Brown (Troy) and Jason Candle (Toledo) are probably the next in line.

Troy is currently 1-1, getting routed by Boise State, but blowing out Florida A&M. Toledo is 1-0, having blown out VMI.

Both squads have big games this weekend, with Troy on the road at Nebraska, while Toledo hosts Miami. Both of those games kick at 11, you may want to do a bit of scoreboard watching or channel surfing during the KU game to get a look at Brown and Candle with their squads in action against P5 opponents.

The thing about sports, and football in particular, is that windows can close really quickly, sometimes before you even realize that they were open.

Take the Colts for example. They were supposed to be top contenders in the AFC for a long time behind Andrew Luck. They may end up still doing that. But Luck is just now back after missing a ton of time. Maybe their one shot with him was their best shot? Same for a team like Jacksonville last year. Their defense was amazing. Maybe last year was the year to go all in, and now that chance is gone. If the Texans with Watson and the Chiefs with Mahomes roar to life, maybe Jacksonville's best chance was last year, and their fans will look back years from now realizing they blew it.

Maybe this is the year, with Mahomes on a cheap deal, Kelce in his prime, Hunt, Watkins, Hill, Thomas, etc all young and electric, for the Chiefs to make a run. Maybe the window is 2018 and 2019 and that's it. After that, someone else will emerge, or the roster will get too expensive to fit under the cap, or injuries will happen, or whatever.

That's the thing that I loved about the Royals. They realized in 2015 that their window was open and they stepped through then. They didn't hold back and see if they could maybe improve their chances in 2016 or 2017. They seized 2015 for what it was. No one knew that Gordon and Moustakas would run into each other early in the following season, effectively torpedoing any hope before it could take root. No one knew that Yordano Ventura would die in a car accident. But the window opened in 2015 and the Royals stepped through. Had they waited, they miss that chance. But they didn't, and they got a parade for their troubles.

Look at a team like the Utah Jazz on the other extreme. They have been "pretty good" to "really good" for most of the last 30 years. Zero titles. They never went all in. Never added an extra piece. They just kept running that pick and roll with Stockton to Malone, churning out playoff berth after playoff berth, but no titles.

Maybe the Chiefs get it done with Mahomes. Or maybe we sit around a decade from now with our buddies talking about an amazing offense held back by a defense that couldn't stop anybody and was one good DB short.

I have a feeling there will be quite a few games this year where the Chiefs could use a shutdown corner. It wouldn't surprise me if we see him helping lift a Lombardi trophy in February wondering if it could've been us.

Just as a note, after the match, Serena was telling the crowd to stop booing to allow Osaka her moment. A lot of people were upset at how the match went in that moment, but Serena was not a poor sport in the aftermath. She got carried away with her competitive side during the match, but did not disrespect Osaka afterwards.

@Kcmatt7 @BeddieKU23

Bamba was not a very polished offensive player. Tons of potential on that end, but not polished at all. If he were a Wendell Carter type, he would have been easier to run the offense through, but he's more of a shot blocker, rim runner type that can step out and shoot a bit. Once Jones went out, UT lost a lot of their offensive identity (he was easily their best perimeter player).

I think Texas will be improved, but I still think the top 4 teams in the conference will be Kansas, WVU, K-State and TCU.

I don't think she was a victim, per se. I think other players have been given a longer leash than she was given in that match, but she let it get to her and affect her play.

I certainly don't think she should be suspended when the enforcement of those penalties is so inconsistent. She lost. Perhaps a fine for criticizing the ump (similar to what other sports due for criticizing officials in post game), but that would be it.

It's like technical fouls in basketball. Some players and coaches get a T for saying one word, while other players or coaches can scream at a referee for two or three possessions without drawing a T. Unless there was some sort of consistent enforcement, it would be unfair to further penalize someone with a suspension.

If Beaty finds five more wins and gets bowl eligible, he will have coached well enough to deserve to keep his job. That would mean beating Rutgers this weekend and four of these five opponents - Baylor, Iowa State, Texas Tech, K-State, Texas.

That would also mean at least two more road wins.

If this team goes 6-6, Beaty will be in Lawrence next year. I envision 3-9 at best, and 1-11 is obviously in play since KU won't have a huge advantage in any game this season. Like @Woodrow says, this team isn't winning 5 or 6 games. If they do, Beaty may get a statue and a new contract.

@Kcmatt7

At this point I'm more arguing the collusion case for Kap than arguing that he should start anywhere in particular.

If Jacoby Brissett was a free agent right now, someone would sign him tomorrow.

@JayHawkFanToo , @Texas-Hawk-10

In terms of percentages, I would say basketball at KU is probably at 90%-95% potential.

Football is probably around 50%-60%.

So if basketball is 90% capacity in terms of revenue potential, that means basketball could potentially earn $20M or so (about $2M more). I think that matches up well with the numbers from earlier that I estimated.

Football, if it's at 60% potential revenue, could earn $20M more, or roughly the maximum that basketball could earn. If football maxed out, it would be like adding another KU basketball program to the athletic department.

Even if KU increased the capacity at AFH from 15,300 to 20,000 (not advocating for this, just playing with numbers) and increased from 17 home games to 18, that would lead to an increase of 100,000 tickets over the course of the season.

That would create roughly $5M in additional ticket revenue over the course of the season.

And that doesn't consider the cost of either replacing AFH or increasing the capacity in some other way through a remodel, etc. KU's basketball program makes about as much money as any college basketball program can, particularly since most of the revenue generated from apparel sales can be drawn from the basketball program. If the basketball revenue isn't tapped out, it is very close.

The football team could make quite a bit more in ticket revenue, and in bowl revenue. That right there would surpass the $5M increase from remodeling AFH, and that's without making any investment in new facilities.

The Buffalo Bills started Nathan Peterman at QB yesterday. His 2017 numbers:

24-49 (49%), 2 TD, 5 INT, 38.4 Rating, 13.8 QBR (to his credit, he took only 1 sack in 4 games), 252 yards.

Yesterday's numbers: 5-18 (28%), 0 TD, 2 INT, 0 Rating (3 sacks), 24 yards.

Thankfully, first round pick Josh Allen was able to come in and perform capably

6-15 (40%), 0 TD, 0 INT, 56 Rating (3 sacks), 74 yards.

Wait, those numbers are bad. Maybe Allen isn't quite ready yet. Let's check his college stats:

Last year: 152-270 (56.3%), 16 TD, 6 INT, 6.7 yards per attempt, 1812 passing yards.

Career: 365-649 (56.2%), 44 TD, 21 INT, 7.8 yards per attempt, 5066 passing yards

Offensively, the Chiefs are in good shape.

Yesterday we got to see what Hill can do. The safeties were both really keying on Kelce in the middle of the field, and they were trying to take away Hill's deep ball, so Hill was open underneath (his long pass TD was a lot of RAC yards). As @BShark and @Kcmatt7 said, Kelce and Watkins opened things up for KC against the Chargers. Once teams are having to dedicate an extra guy to control Hill, Watkins will open up, and Kelce will get one on one coverage again.

And that doesn't account for Hunt getting going on the ground. Teams can't put extra guys in the box, because Hill is too fast to walk up your safeties.

The Chiefs offense is going to be very good.

Now that defense...

@JayHawkFanToo

Agree with everything that you said. The best you are hoping for with the minor sports is break even. That's the absolute best case scenario.

More likely, you're just trying to minimize your losses.

When Tennessee was the top women's basketball program under Pat Summit in the late 80's through the 90's, they were operating at roughly break even some years, or a small loss in others. UConn operates at a loss in large part because, although they recruit nationally, they are located in an area that requires a lot of expense to bring in recruits. That's best case scenario.

KU isn't hoping for that. They are hoping to minimize the losses so that the amount that football and men's basketball have to subsidize is lower. That's the ideal. That's what happens at places like UCLA, Ohio State, Texas, Florida, etc. The losses are minimized.

KU's track programs have had on again, off again success. The womens basketball program had a solid run of success under Washington for a while, but none really since she left. Baseball has had some good years. Women's volleyball has been particularly strong the last few years.

The key to minor sport success is high quality coaching. Because you don't have the recruiting budget to recruit far and wide, you have to really have a strong overall program. KU is at a bit of a disadvantage compared to other programs because the local area does not produce a surplus of D1 athletes in minor sports like soccer, track, baseball, softball, etc. This is why you see SEC, ACC and Pac-12 schools excel in minor sports (as well as schools like Texas and OU). The local area produces enough of a surplus of D1 performers in those sports that a school like UCLA can have their pick of great HS volleyball players locally without having to recruit nationally.

KU doesn't have that luxury because the state of Kansas (and the four state region of KS, MO, IA, and NE) does not produce an outright surplus of D1 talent in many of these sports. The smaller population in Kansas also makes that more difficult.

You will notice that KU has had quite a bit of turnover in coaching in several minor sports. That's indicative of the issue with needing to find the right coach. It looks like volleyball has done that. If one or two other minor sports do the same (soccer? womens hoops? track?) that can help, but many of those minor sports aren't hugely popular locally like say, lacrosse is in New England, or like baseball and softball are in the gulf coast and sun belt.

Being in a P5 conference is what allows KU to make money on its football program. A similar quality program in a small conference would make almost nothing, and could actually cost the university money.

The basics of football are this - If you are in a P5 conference, your football team makes money because the playoff guarantees so much money to each conference, regardless of whether your team makes a bowl or not. The additional bowls are just gravy.

If you are in a non-P5 conference, its important to make a bowl at least every few years to offset the costs. Perennially bad smaller conference teams can lose money.

At KU, you notice that basketball ticket revenue is much more than every other sport. This is largely because, with such a poor football program, KU isn't selling out its small stadium, while every basketball game is a guaranteed sellout.

Meanwhile, at most other schools, if football is coming close to filling up the stadium that will always trump basketball revenue. KU can have about 17 home games in basketball. That means KU can see a little over 260,000 tickets for basketball in a single regular season. If KU were filling up 50,000 seat Memorial Stadium every game for six home games, they could sell about 300,000 tickets. That means if KU were at about 85% capacity in football, they would come close to equaling basketball ticket sales. If KU were at 90% capacity, they would surpass basketball ticket sales, and likely revenue as well. Add in concessions, parking, etc. and you see why football generates the revenue it does.

@BigBad

You can, to a limited extent, develop better (i.e. stronger) hands.

You are limited on natural physical gifts as far as hand size, so if you have smaller hands, it will be more of a challenge, but you can make your hands stronger.

Palming medicine balls, squeezing tennis balls and hand grips, etc. can help strengthen your hands. Obviously, this doesn't make up for having really small hands, but if you have average size hands with elite hand/grip strength, you will still have great overall hands.

I can't find any measurements of Wiggins' hand size specifically, so its anyone's guess on that. He's certainly not Kawhi Leonard.

BShark said:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/College-of-the-Ozarks-Drops/244446 ↗

Embarrassing.

I don't find this embarrassing for them at all. They have decided to select a specific position. That's their right.

It would be wrong for me to mischaracterize their opposition to Nike's position as being veiled racism, or being in support of police brutality.

Although, come to think of it, College of the Ozarks has mischaracterized Kaepernick and others that protest as being anti-US or anti-military, when the protesters have clearly stated that this is not the case.

But it's still wrong to mischaracterize someone's position when they have explicitly stated their position. In this case, College of the Ozarks has stated that their intent is patriotism, so I will go with that.

My point is not that Kaep would be a top ten or even necessarily a top 20 QB. But I bet you he could start for five teams in the league right now, and that doesn't include teams that are starting young QBs like Chicago, KC, Houston, etc. But there are other teams that don't have young QBs that are starting QBs that are terrible (Bills, Jets, Giants, Ravens if they don't start Jackson, Broncos, you could argue Cincinnati and Arizona could be on this list also).

Kaep has definite shortcomings. I wouldn't build my team around him. But he's better than several QBs in the league now. That's the point I'm attacking. Not that he would be All-Pro or above average - but that he could, absent the NFL freezing him out, be a starting QB in the NFL right now, today, this week. He is not.

Therefore he did sacrifice something. There are many that wish Kaepernick was poor and destitute on the street so that they could rub it in his face because he offended their sensibilities, so they undercut him by saying he wasn't good enough to be in the NFL when that is clearly not true. I'm not trying to change anyone's opinions on Kaep or his social positions. But saying he couldn't start in the NFL is still false because there are starting QBs in the NFL that outright suck, and some of those teams don't even have a young QB that they are building around. Maybe Kaep would be the 25th best QB in the league. Maybe he would be the 30th. But he would almost certainly start, and I guarantee you that in a few weeks, when some teams starter goes down with injury, Colin Kaepernick will be better than the guy that team chooses to replace him with. After all, Jay Cutler got the call last year.

@Kcmatt7

Are you citing QB wins? Does that make Blake Bortles a top ten QB? Asking for a friend.

We have gone over this a few times, but I just want to remind everyone of some of the QBs that will be starting for actual NFL teams this weekend, along with their passer rating from last season (Kaepernick had a rating of 90.7 in 2016, and will turn 31 later this year):

Again, this is just football reasons and doesn't take contracts or anything else into account.

Eli Manning and Joe Flacco (both at 80.4)

Blake Bortles (84.7)

Derek Carr (86.4)

Andy Dalton (86.6)

Cam Newton (80.7)

Marcus Mariota (79.3)

Now, here's a list of teams that do not have a QB on their 2018 roster with a higher rating than Kaepernick in either 2016 or 2017:

Buffalo, Denver, Kansas City, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Giants, Cleveland, Chicago, Jets, Indianapolis.

If we take out the teams that either have new, young QBs or a guy returning from injury (KC, Chicago, Indy) that still leaves us with 7 teams that don't have a STARTING QB on their roster better than Colin Kaepernick. Cleveland isn't starting Mayfield this year. Buffalo isn't starting Allen. Denver's QB situation is horrible. Eli Manning was past his best by date two years ago. Jacksonville might have gone to the Super Bowl last year with a QB better than Blake Bortles. The Jets QB situation is a tragic comedy. And Joe Flacco is basically Eli Manning with less famous siblings.

Saying he's just a backup is flat out false. He's better than maybe a third of the QBs that will start this weekend. He's better than basically every backup not named Carson Wentz. Heck, the most damaging thing the NFL has against them regarding the lawsuit is that the Miami Dolphins brought Jay Cutler (yes, that Jay Cutler) out of retirement to start actual live NFL games for them last year.

Like I said, anyone is free to disagree with Kaepernick, his protest, his methods, or anything else you want to. But saying its a football based decision is a false narrative.

@Woodrow

Well, considering who the Panthers former owner was ↗, I think the Panthers would have probably cut or traded him. Whether he was blacklisted like Kaep is a harder question.

@JayHawkFanToo

The type of offense Kaepernick excels in is the type of offense run by the following teams:

Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Carolina, Miami, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Seattle.

Of those teams, Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa and Tennessee all have/had openings at QB. The football argument is a tired argument. It was about the protests. Just own that. Same as the Chiefs should own that trading Marcus Peters was not a football decision, now that they will be trotting out a bottom third secondary this season.

As for what Kaepernick sacrificed, he gave up his career, and a lucrative one at that. Perhaps you disagree with the reason why he gave that career up, but its a false narrative to think Kaepernick is not in the NFL now because of his football skills.

This is a tough team to put together. You need guys with talent, obviously, but you can't get the top players (no one wants to risk their stars that close to the start of the season). You also can't get guys that don't have contracts locked in - no one wants to risk injury when they don't have a guaranteed deal. So you are looking at guys that are young and trying to establish themselves, but on guaranteed contracts so they aren't risking losing their roster spot (and career).

Frank fits right in that mold, and I think he could play a key role on this team.

@Kcmatt7 and @kjayhawks are absolutely right. These guys should have been playing since mid June at least. Once it was clear the Royals were going nowhere, it was time to clear the decks and play the young guys. Might as well see if any of them can hang.

@JayHawkFanToo

Key sentences from the article that @Kcmatt7 posted:

The company also knows its customers. Two-thirds are younger than 35, and it’s an ethnically diverse consumer base, according to NPD Group.

That demographic tends to view Kaepernick more favorably than the older, less diverse population.

There were a lot of people that said NFL teams were making a business decision by freezing out the kneeling players. Nike is doing the same thing on the opposite side.

Additionally, there's this article ↗ with the following quote:

There is reason to believe that Kaepernick, despite not playing, will move merchandise. During the second quarter of 2017, his officially licensed jersey was the 39th-best selling in the league. As an unsigned free agent, he was the only player in the top 50 of those rankings not signed to a team.

I think Nike looked at their demographic and realized that younger people are largely more in support of Kaepernick, while older people are more decidedly against. Now obviously, that paints with a pretty broad brush, because there are lots of young people that do not support Kaepernick, and there are lots of older people that do support him. But when you look at the general population, older people are the ones that will be more upset about this, and they are less likely to be the target demographic of an athletic apparel company.

I doubt it hurts Nike much long term. Their stock price fell with this ad coming out, but will probably recover if their sales stay strong (likely since they are the official apparel for most NCAA schools and many high schools. For most, these are multi-year agreements, so they cannot simply drop Nike due to this ad campaign. That means that even if these schools decide to change later on, that effect may not take place for a few years. I doubt any high schools or colleges are burning all of their team uniforms since they would just have to turn around and purchase them from Nike for this week's games.

Beaty made the classic mistake of starting his least mobile QB behind a questionable O-line. I don't know that a more mobile guy could have done much more, but starting an immobile guy gave KU no chance on that front. Beaty is done. I have defended him on this site for the better part of two years, saying he needed more time, but time is up. He is done after this season.

I am actually rooting against impeachment proceedings (right now, at least). Any attempt to impeach the president would be seen as a purely political act at this point. Impeachment should not be pursued unless it is blatantly clear to the vast majority of the country (not just Democrats, but a majority of independents and at least a solid plurality of Republicans) that the president has engaged in illegal activity (not counting perjury).

I would support continuing the investigations because the threat of interference is a very real one, and tracking down those involved, whether it leads to the president or not, is of utmost importance to the nation. This is where I struggle with the Republican position that if the investigation does not lead to Trump, it should be shut down. The investigation has shown some level of interference. Whether that leads to Trump or not, that is a huge deal that should allow the investigation to continue to its complete conclusion.