Day 2,386, Quasi-Quarantine: The Scooters Finally Get On The Fucking Board In Week FOUR

Well ... the Scooters aren't going defeated this year.

We overcome a mind-numbing start to put up a whopping 170 points this week, the second-highest total in the league. Everybody contributed -- even (to a high degree of frustration) almost everybody on my bench.

Early on in the 1 p.m. games, D'Andre Swift had two touchdowns overturned in three plays. The first was a clear score and there is no way the second should have been overturned, so you can imagine that the nerves were hitting hard at that point. For good measure, Swift would go on to fumble and be benched.

I benched both Rhamondre Stevenson and Tucker Kraft late, and they both scored touchdowns (although, to be fair, Kraft also dropped one and I have Brock Bowers as well at tight end). Dak Prescott had a massive passing day, but Dallas had three short rushing scores and George Pickens somehow only had three targets. When Kenneth Gainwell scored a TD off the bench, "fuck everything" was featuring prominently in my game notes.

But big weeks from Joe Burrow, Emanuel Wilson, Tee Higgins, and Will Reichard followed, and I ended up winning by a cool 50 points.

The next order of business is to explore a fairly sizeable trade that could reset the roster at 1-3. Stay tuned.

Way to be, Scooters.

Day 2,385, Quasi-Quarantine: Meticulous Research Of "The Guns Of August" Gives Me A WWI Education

“The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled nine by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history’s clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.”

Barbara W. Tuchman's painstakingly assembled account of the first month of World War I is an absorbing read despite its hefty weight, both physically and emotionally. The author does a tremendous job of weaving a narrative amid horrific circumstances without shying away from questioning the character of certain leaders (Sir John French, in particular, suffers a withering depiction).

“They were twelve days in which world history wavered between two courses and the Germans came so close to victory that they reached out and touched it between the Aisne and the Marne.”

“No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard and fast and specific decision.”

The character sketches are done carefully, though there are some unintentionally funny physical descriptions to keep you entertained if you're so inclined. Since "The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I" runs to well over 600 pages, you are likely to be so inclined.

“Erect and good-looking in a disciplined way, with straightforward eyes and a sensible mustache …” 

“A trim, well-set-up officer of sixty-one with a direct glance and energetic mustache turned up at the corners …”

If there are any quibbles, it is that the assassination of Franz Ferdinand as an inciting factor was given scant attention. A reader might also benefit from a glossary of the main characters, as it was difficult to keep all the leaders and military personnel straight.

“The impetus of existing plans is always stronger than the impulse to change.”

“If there has to be a choice between injustice and disorder, said Goethe, the German prefers injustice.”

Tuchman also carefully renders the reality that war during that era was largely about trying to find the enemy before miscommunication destroys any advantages you might have, knowingly or unknowingly. The result is an account worthy of the Pulitzer Price (awarded in 1963), as well a sad reminder of the brutal mistakes we continue to make despite repeated lessons.

“When every autumn people said it could not last through the winter, and when every spring there was still no end in sight, only the hope that out of it all some good would accrue to mankind kept men and nations fighting.”

Day 2,380, Quasi-Quarantine: Week 3 Brings A New Kind Of Loss

Much like the NC State Wolfpack, the Scooters seem intent on finding new and creative ways to lose.

In this instance, we scored the fourth-most points in the league (128.1) ... only to lose to the week's top scorer (143.25).

In another in a litany of bad omens, the start-of-the week vibes were unchanged, as the Thursday night game saw Green Bay's Tucker Kraft drop three straight targets at one point, including literally on back-to-back plays. Compounding matters, my opponent had Packers QB Jordan Love, who was left in to accrue garbage points by throwing checkdowns despite being down three touchdowns and getting hit on every play.

I didn't have an opportunity to watch most of the games since I was actually at the Colts-Texans game in Indy, so that was frankly kind of a relief.

Just like last year, I'm firmly in the lead for points against thus far this season, which is kind of unreal. But I'll keep hammering the waiver wire and hoping for the vibes to normalize.

Go Scooters.

Limerick Friday #654: NC State Shit Jumps Its Own Shark -- Day 2,374

Doeren and Bailey

Ranging from mediocre to fail-y

They make $8 million a year

Which is a little too much I fear

For embarrassing State on the daily

The Mets fell apart

State is a collective fart

The Dolphins are a punchline

The Scooters stepped on a landmine

Why do I do this to my heart?

Uncanny and sublime

Full of an eerie grime

A lost treasure from M. Night

Is certain to give you a fright

Where has "Servant" been all this time?

Choke jobs and strife

Just twist in the knife

A perpetual national joke

But when your clear the smoke

What's left is just that Pack life

A trip out Midwest way

May be what we need today

To cheer on the Colts

And forget all the dolts

Until Tuesday at least, I'd say

Last time ...

Day 2,371, Quasi-Quarantine: The Scooters -- Like The Mets, Dolphins, And Wolfpack -- Find The Basement

After a mind-numbing Week 1, I had little confidence that the Scooters would get any sort of cosmic repayment. However, I thought my team matched up well against my Week 2 opponent.

Until:

• The top tight end in the league (Brock Bowers) was ruled out for a second week at the last minute
• Four of my players fumbled in like a half-hour period during the 1 p.m. games, including one (D'Andre Swift) as he was going in for a touchdown
• My flex receiver (Alec Pierce) got hurt in the first quarter of the primetime game
• My quarterbacks (Dak Prescott and Joe Burrow) had strong games that randomly featured them not throwing to their No. 2 targets (George Pickens and Tee Higgins)
• My kicker tried one field goal. And missed

At the same time as injuries and underperformance abound, I'm in a trade-averse league that features little to no communication between owners. So if the Scooters are to figure out a way out of this, it's going to take a lot of waiver-wire work and guys playing to their custom.

The only way out is up.

Go Scooters.

Day 2,365, Quasi-Quarantine: A Whimsical Beach Puzzle For A Stuttering Beach Trip

 

It was a stranger OBX visit this summer, with some melancholy, a new member of the party, and a different part of the beach to explore.

While parts of the trip had a hard time getting off the ground, the old standby was a puzzle to work on, and this colorful collection of shapes, flowers, and symbols added an air of whimsy to the festivities.

8.1 out of 10, would build on the beachfront again

Day 2,364, Quasi-Quarantine: Another Year, Another Fantasy Luck Death March For The Scooters

(AI prompt: Create an image that accurately depicts the frustration of repeatedly losing at fantasy football when you're consistently predicted to win)

The Scooters had bounced back from a really weird draft with a couple of strong preseason claims and a trade that could end up being notable.

Scooters get Kenneth Gainwell, RB, TB

Other team gets Khalil Shakir, WR, BUF, and Kayshon Boutte, WR, HOU

I was trading from a position of extreme strength to get a third running back who could start at a flex position in a pinch. That was the case in Week 1, when Brock Bowers got hurt (wheeeee!) and Alec Pierce was put on a pitch count of 25-30 plays.

When I headed into the evening matchup (Cowboys-Giants), I was in a great spot, trailing by around 20 points with both Dak Prescott and George Pickens playing. ESPN told me I had a 75% chance to win.

Except I'd seen this movie before.

And when I say "before," I mean four or five times a season for around a quarter-century of fantasy football. So I put my chances to win somewhere around 8%.

Of course, that's just what happened, as Pickens racked up an entire 4.3 points, Prescott fell short as well, and I somehow managed to lose by four points.

Oh, fantasy football season is so incredibly on.

Onward, Scooters.

Day 2,360, Quasi-Quarantine: Vietnam Vet Navigates Assimilation In The Wyoming Wilds In "Walk Me To The Distance"

 

“He was a murderer, and the major well of guilt in this was that he felt no remorse. He laughed softly to himself and shook his head. The most frightening element of it all was that, even with the grotesque image of the retarded man bound and dangling, the action was somehow beautiful.”

This Western-coded novel follows a Vietnam War veteran who tries to assimilate back to everyday life, settling in Wyoming after feeling ostracized in his home state of Georgia. The action is seen through Kevin's occasionally unreliable perspective, and some of the bizarre behavior and decision-making we witness passively could potentially be related to PTSD (we didn't have a name for this when the novel was written more than 40 years ago, which also somewhat explains much of the problematic language).

“He wondered if a man actively seeking to surrender could be captured.”

Kevin ends up living on a ranch with Sixbury, an elderly widow who cares for a son with intellectual disabilities named Patrick. As Kevin tries to navigate interpersonal dynamics, an abandoned child enters the equation, leading to a series of heart-breaking and traumatic events, some of which really sneak up on the reader.

“The doors were open, and there under the moonlight, David saw him. Patrick was fucking a sheep.”

With something of a fever-dream quality, sparse prose, and concepts of frontier justice, "Walk Me to the Distance" evokes Cormac McCarthy. While the work is indicative of a young novelist finding his footing (it's Percival Everett's second novel and a precursor to classics like "James" and "The Trees"), this short blazer of a book asks compelling questions about the meaning of family, sexuality, the assimilation of grief, and the the difference between society and individuality.

“As he drove home, he found himself oddly relaxed. It was an empty feeling, but not at all uncomfortable. He didn’t feel lost, though he couldn’t say just where he was. He didn’t feel stranded and he didn’t feel helpless. He didn’t feel anything and that was all right.”

Limerick Friday #653: Another Year, Another National-Stage Humiliation -- Day 2,354

When State rains, it's pourin'

The signs we all kept ignorin'

Creativity and preparation we lack

Such is the life of the Pack

Especially under Snorin' Doeren

TCU fell apart at the seams

Fulfilling the N&O's Belicheat dreams

Michael Lombardi's office cleared?

Steve Belicheat has disappeared?

Ignore all that while the media creams

A party of ignorant bitches

Full of ass-kissing pitches

To an 80-year-old senile predator

Who shits his pants on the regular

This is the cult of bigotry and temporary riches

$180 million in dead cap money

The outlook ain't sunny

The 'Fins can barely field a squad

And the talent? Good god

If it wasn't so sad, it would be kinda funny

A fraud at quarterback

Missing a rushing attack

Receivers just can't get open

And instead of tacklin', we're hopin'

Meet this year's Wolfpack

Last time ...

Day 2,352, Quasi-Quarantine: Sprawling "Atonement" Documents Complicated Love Story Amid Backdrop Of False Accusations And World War II

“The problem these fifty-nine years has been this: how can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God?”

Initially set in pastoral England in the 1930s, "Atonement" does a stellar job of blending timelines and backdrops. The action moves to France in World War II and eventually to 1999 London as the characters embrace challenges, emotions, and obstacles.

McEwan is a master at navigating an unreliable narrator and documenting the horrors of war, elegantly interspersing poignant interpersonal moments along the way. He places a stolen moment in the midst of generational and global conflict, studying its ripple effects and ramifications over decades.

“As long as he did not think of the edge, he would not go near it, and would not be tempted. He forced himself to remember the dullest things he knew–bootblack, an application form, a wet towel on his bedroom floor.”

“ … Beauty she had discovered, occupied a narrow band. Ugliness, on the other hand, had infinite variation.”

The author deftly moves between the timelines, avoiding a number of opportunities that could have disrupted the narrative.

If the introduction of the C-word jars the reader to attention early on, the book really finds its stride in part two, as we're thrust into the middle of a war, replete with heartbreaking and horrific scenes. The final section, "London 1999," beautifully completes the tale.

“His business was to survive, though he had forgotten why.”

The result is a 21st-century epic, as "Atonement" thrives in the complexities of human nature and finds hope in the bleakest circumstances.

“‘Do you love me?’

“She hesitated. ‘Yes.’ No other reply was possible. Besides, for that moment, she did. He was a lovely boy who was a long way from his family and he was about to die.”

Day 2,350, Quasi-Quarantine: Shuttle Puzzle Division Of Labor Leaves Me Adrift In Outer Space

 

The 500-piece History of Space Travel puzzle featured space suits, launch vehicles, space craft, and even the space station -- representing every space suit and vessel launched into space since 1961.

While I dug this puzzle in concept, it was another experience where my partner did entirely too much of the work. Another bummer was that it was missing a piece, which bothered the completionist in me.

6.8 out of 10, would build by myself again

Day 2,345, Quasi-Quarantine: The Snipers Were Out In Full Force Along The Scooters' Draft Freeway

 

So we've all had that fantasy football experience where it feels like the person picking before you in the draft takes the player you were targeting seemingly every time during the course of the selection process. Most of the time, you look back and realize that it happened way less than it felt like.

And other times, you look back and realize you weren't exaggerating at all and it happened around a dozen times. 

Yeah, so that was this year for me.

I got sniped so many times in this draft that I was literally angry for no reason I was able to coherently articulate. ESPN sending its unasked-for draft grade moments after the conclusion didn't help -- especially since ESPN doesn't understand how superflex drafts work (arguably, neither do I).

There were eight instances where the player I wanted as picked directly or two picks before my spot that were particularly damaging to my overall efforts:

• Ja'Marr Chase (1st round)
• Derrick Henry (3rd)
• David Montgomery (6th)
• Kenneth Gainwell and J.K. Dobbins (ninth)
• Jordan Mason (11th)
• Chris Godwin (13th)
• Alvin Kamara (14th)

What really got me steaming was the back-to-back of Godwin and Kamara, as Godwin was someone who fell that I was excited about and I had a plan to immediately stash Kamara on IR and fill his roster spot directly following the draft.

Other examples that didn't upset me quite as much:

• Amon-Ra St. Brown (2nd)
• Nico Collins (4th)
• Emeka Egbuka (5th)
• Woody Marks (12th)
• Keaton Mitchell (15th)

I feel like I pivoted really well after my strategy got torpedoed early on, but the draft-day results followed on the heels of a highly frustrating season that saw me win the winner's consolation ladder, end up in fifth place, and wrap up the season 10-7 after back-to-back wins over my least-favorite owner.

I really liked my roster in the final weeks of the season and finished on a heater, but the combo of injuries and shite luck -- I allowed the second-most fantasy points in the league -- proved too much to overcome.

Now I'm left to hope that a testing draft isn't an omen that the upcoming season will go down a similar path as last year's.

Go Scooters.

Day 2,344, Quasi-Quarantine: Silicon Valley Vet Shares How To Navigate Aggressive Tech Landscape In "Build"

“The ultimate job of marketing is to find the very best way to tell the true story of your product.”

A comprehensive look at the confluence of ideas, people, and corporate politics, "Build" does a nice job of using concrete examples. Tony Fadell includes useful diagrams and anecdotes, never shying away from hard truths (a chapter on assholes is particularly insightful).

“As a manager, you should be focused on making sure the team is producing the best possible product. The outcome is your business. How the team reaches that outcome is the team’s business.”

Some of the concepts feel a little dated and tend to lose sight of work-life balance at times as he documents starting, building, and losing companies. Fadell also tends to focus on more, more, more, making portions of the book feel pretty finance bro-coded.

“To do great things, to really learn, you can’t shout suggestions from the rooftop then move on while someone else does the work. You have to get your hands dirty. You have to care about every step, lovingly craft every detail. You have to be there when it falls apart so you can put it back together.

“You have to actually do the job. You have to love the job.”

Overall, however, this is a fascinating and instructive read. At a seminal moment for the technology industry, "Build" serves best as a catalog of the questions we should be asking ourselves, one another, and our customers.

“What you're building never matters as much as who you’re building it with.”

Limerick Friday #652: A Confusing And Stuttering Draft Marks The Return Of Fantasy Football -- Day 2,340

My QBs are the best

At tight end I'm blessed

My receivers are deep

Running backs make me weep

But I can figure out the rest

On rock bottom they alit

Before they remembered how to hit

After a trade-deadline purge

The Mets started to surge

Now they're winning for a bit

"Silo" is in its third season

Still addictive beyond reason

But juggling timelines

And different lifetimes

Has the pace kinda wheezin'

After years of dooming

Another long season looming

Thanks to decades of fail

We're in dead-cap jail

Better times ahead, I'm assuming

A bizarre fantasy draft

My roster got the shaft

Like six times I got sniped

Cursingly, I griped

But at the end I shrugged and laughed

Last time ...

Day 2,337, Quasi-Quarantine: Wet Leg Rocks KEXP In Their Very Distinctive Way

Wet Leg was probably my band of the year for 2025 after following up their self-titled debut in 2022 with "Moisturizer."

Led by pyrotechnic lead singer Rhian Teasdale, this band has a unique sound, a piquant presence, and a scintillating catalog of bangers. Be sure to check them out if you haven't yet.

Day 2,336, Quasi-Quarantine: "The Keeper" Serves As Perfunctory End To Trilogy Of Ex-Pat Ex-Cop In Ireland

 

“She looks like she popped out of Instagram by mistake and someone should put her back in before she gets smudged.”

In the finale of the Cal Hooper trilogy, the former Chicago cop finds himself embroiled yet again in an unlikely crime in rural Ireland. 

As part of a rather on-the-nose farmers-vs.-townies encounter, he helps unravel the mystery surrounding the death of a young women torn between her fiance and the village she loves.

While most of French's plots require some suspension of disbelief (see my review of "The Searcher"), this one felt even more difficult to entertain than most. The narrative wanders and the characters feel a little too one-dimensional, leading to a novel that ends up feeling like the conclusion of a trilogy that was proposed and wrapped up all in one motion.

“She says, ‘C’n Kate come for dinner as well?’

“Cal is hit by a sudden sense of wonder. ‘Sure,’ he says. ‘She like tacos?’”

Day 2,331, Quasi-Quarantine: Greek Bacchanal, Mysterious Professor, And Insular Clique Drive Uneven "The Secret History"

“I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.”

Elitism and accountability clash at a small liberal arts college in New England, as a group of impressionable students gravitate to an iconoclastic professor in Donna Tartt's first novel. The narrator, Richard, ends up there from California almost without agency, falling under the spell of his classmates and their teacher.

“After class, I wandered downstairs in a dream, my head spinning, but acutely, achingly conscious that I was alive and young on a beautiful day; the sky a deep deep painful blue, wind scattering the red and yellow leaves in a whirlwind of confetti.”

"The Secret History" often feels like a fever dream, with interiority being a challenge for the novel. Richard is often bullied, but he is also comes off as a bit of a fraud, which detracts from his reliability as a narrator.

“It was one of the reasons I loved him: for that flattering light in which he saw me, for the person I was when I was with him, for what it was he allowed me to be.”

The intense connections made between the characters can feel rushed and misunderstood. The dominant female character, Camilla, is granted little in the way of voice or autonomy, leaving her feelings about the events of the story unexamined.

As the action escalates out of control, a reader might wonder why Richard didn't just leave, especially as his place within the group feels unsecure and unnecessary. 

“He had never seen a gunshot wound. He kept asking what it felt like? dull or sharp? an ache or burn? My head was spinning and naturally I could give him no kind of coherent answer but I remember thinking dimly that it was sort of like the first time I got drunk, or slept with a girl; not quite what one expected, really, but once it happened one realized it couldn’t be any other way.”

As an unabashed fan of "The Goldfinch" -- the Scooties award winner in 2021 -- I was expecting a bit more from this work, but acknowledge that it may simply feature the growing pains of a new novelist. "The Secret History" is certainly absorbing, but some may be left with a sense of incompleteness and a wish that Tartt had spent a little more time exploring the interpersonal dynamics.

“Religious slurs, temper tantrums, insults, coercion, debt: all petty things, really, irritants–too minor, it would seem, to move five reasonable people to murder. But, if I dare say it, it wasn’t until I had helped to kill a man that I realized how elusive and complex an act a murder can actually be, and not necessarily attributable to one dramatic motive.”

Day 2,329, Quasi-Quarantine: Remembering San Fran Along The Outer Banks

 

A beautiful new tradition we've started is an anniversary-week getaway to Duck for some restorative quiet time.

During this year's visit, we tackled a 500-piece Puzzlefolk puzzle. The subject was San Francisco, to commemorate the recent spring-break visit to the amazing city.

The puzzle featured a stellar design and unique art, and we actually ended up starting and finishing it in a single evening. I would have preferred drawing it out a little more for prolonged enjoyment, but my partner was incredibly motivated.

8.6, would jigsaw overlooking the Atlantic again

Day 2,325, Quasi-Quarantine: Confusing Confluence Of Characters And Plots Mark Pynchon's "Shadow Ticket"

 

“The city had a long history of suicide, attracting pilgrims from all over the world seeking a Lourdes not of hope but of despair, assuming that suicide in Budapest, like love in Paris or greed in New York, would be somehow more authentic.”

A dizzying cast of characters and plots marks this late-career offering from Thomas Pynchon. "Shadow Ticket" is a hard-boiled noir detective novel that follows Hicks McTaggart as he spans the 1930s globe.

Much of the work feels tongue in cheek, as McTaggart tackles Fascist goons, the mob, and cheese syndicates amid the Depression and the looming specter of war. Pynchon nails the dialogue and the rapid-fire pacing, amping up the entertainment value.

“‘MPD says they’re on the case, some think it’s the Outfit, some say the Nazi Youth.’

‘Two different kinds of trouble, ain’t it, one you end up dead, the other dead and in hell.’”

However, "Shadow Ticket" feels like it's trying too hard at times, making for a dense, confusing read. Shifts in perspective, geography, and timelines can leave a reader searching for safe ground, but the myriad characters make it difficult to find it.

The result is a whirlwind of concepts and what-ifs, alongside an appreciation for the genre and the author that doesn't quite match the final product.

“ … While in the back at any moment might be standing in wait some hopeful kid, his own instrument bouncing back highlights, his face still in shadows he’s never felt at home in, as if, when the spot finds him at last, as he steps into the full light, he’ll turn out to be somebody we already think we know …”

Day 2,322, Quasi-Quarantine: Miami Targets Big-School Flyers On Busy Third And Final Day Of Draft

Following busy first and second days in Pittsburgh, the 'Fins picked a whopping seven players on the third day of a marathon draft.

Miami chose two fourth-round linebackers in Texas's Trey Moore (6-1, 243, No. 130 overall) and Pittsburgh's Kyle Louis (5-11, 220, No. 138 overall) and three fifth-rounders in Texas safety Michael Taaffe (5-11, 190, No. 158 overall), Missouri wide receiver Kevin Coleman (5-10, 179, No. 177 overall), and Mississippi State tight end Seydou Traore (6-3, 233, No. 180 overall). In the sixth and seventh rounds, the Dolphins selected Texas guard D.J. Campbell (6-3, 313, No. 200 overall) and Iowa edge Max Llewellyn (6-5, 258, No. 238 overall), respectively.

The pluses: Moore is a versatile 'backer, with some demonstrated ability to both rush the passer and play the run. He's athletic (4.54 seconds in the 40-yard dash) with short-area quickness, relying on a constant motor and understanding of leverage. 

Louis is a decisive playmaker with skills to play at safety or strong-side 'backer. Strong athleticism (4.53 seconds in the 40-yard dash, nearly 40-inch vertical) and body control match well with his natural instincts, allowing him to find the ball and punish the opposition. He earned first-team All-American honors as a junior, racked up six picks and 10 sacks in his final two seasons, is a film junkie, and served as captain. Notably, analyst Dane Brugler had him rated the seventh-best linebacker and No. 75 overall player in the entire draft, giving the Dolphins tremendous value out of the pick.

Taaffe was a former walk-on and three-year starter at a premier program, earning All-SEC honors on the strength of his seven career interceptions. He is known for being a hard hitter with good anticipation, instincts, and straight-line speed (4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash), adding blitz skills as his career progressed.

Coleman has quick feet, steady hands (2.9% drop rate), great after-the-catch running ability, and a natural feel for changing route speeds. He was tabbed as the No. 25 wideout and No. 184 player in the draft by Brugler, so he was picked in an appropriate spot. His work ethic, Senior Bowl participation, and production (140 catches over the last two seasons) made him attractive to the 'Fins.

A former goalie in soccer, Traore has lateral quickness, strength (25 reps on the bench), and agility (40-inch vertical, 4.61 seconds in the 40-yard dash), making him a plus blocker in space. He's tough at the catch point (just three drops in his final two seasons, with 69 receptions), a solid red-zone threat (10 career touchdowns across Arkansas State and Mississippi State), and committed to continuous improvement.

Another three-year starter at Texas, Campbell is a former five-star recruit who earned All-SEC accolades in a consistent senior campaign. Displaying good leg drive and long arms, he's powerful in the run game, solid on second-level blocks, and uses a good first step to absorb bull rushes. He's also dependable, starting 43 straight games in college.

Brugler considered Llewellyn a fourth-rounder as the No. 18 edge and No. 130 overall player in the draft, making him a tremendous value pick in the final round. The Iowa product is considered a relentless, high-effort rusher, using a great get-off, ability to convert speed to power, and refined pass-rush moves to rack up 45 pressures as a senior. Llewellyn has solid size and athleticism (4.81 seconds in the 40-yard dash), posting a dozen sacks, nine batted passes, and three forced fumbles in the past two seasons. The honorable-mention All-Big Ten choice stood out in the Senior Bowl as well.

The minuses: Moore is considered a bit of a 'tweener who doesn't possess a dominant trait, meaning that his spot was pretty rich, considering Brugler had him rated the No. 25 edge and No. 188 overall player in the draft -- nearly 60 spots lower than the 'Fins drafted him. Due to issues in space, a lack of counter moves, short arms, and mediocre explosiveness, he lost playing time in his final season with the Longhorns.

No matter where Miami uses him, it will be difficult to hide Louis's lack of size. There were times when he was overpowered and overwhelmed in college, struggling to get off of blocks in the run game. He can over-pursue when chasing the ball and was less productive as a senior, partially due to injury.

Brugler rated Taaffe as the No. 13 safety and No. 170 overall player in the draft, making him a slight overpay where he was chosen. The analyst cited "underwhelming physical traits" (short arms and a lack of strength) and a tendency to "get trampled in the open field" -- suboptimal traits for a free safety. Taaffe is considered a liability in man coverage due to his over-aggression and a tendency to hold when plays are extended.

Coleman lacks ideal size and speed (clocked at 4.49 seconds in the 40-yard dash at the combine), has a limited route tree, does not stretch the field, and hasn't demonstrated much ability in the red zone. He played at four schools (Colorado, Louisville, Mississippi State, and Missouri), has a tendency to short-arm balls over the middle, and seems locked in at a slot position he may not be ideal for. 

Traore was chosen more than 100 spots before Brugler had him rated (No. 294 overall as the No. 27 tight end in the draft), and he'll be 24 years old by the time the season starts -- which may not align with the perception that he's a developmental project. He struggles blocking in the run game, partially due to his size and partially due to the fact that he's relatively new to the game -- with just six years of experience in 11-man football. 

Campbell can struggle with stamina and balance in space, shows shaky technique, spends too much time on the ground, and doesn't have the agility to recover or stand out on pulling plays. Brugler had him rated as the No. 21 guard and No. 248 overall player in the draft, leading some to consider him a slight reach.

Llewellyn only started for one season, and struggled against the run and playing with leverage in college. Scouts described him as stiff and predictable at times, with too many "almost" plays and a relative lack of experience for a 24-year-old rookie.

The best-case scenario: New coach Jeff Hafley shows his creativity as a defensive coordinator by using Moore and Louis in hybrid ways, while minimizing the deficiencies of Taaffe and Llewellyn, maximizing their motors, and developing them into special-teams stalwarts. Coleman finds a role as a punt returner with some affinity in the slot to boost a depleted receiving corps, Traore carves out a role on special teams and as a supplementary blocking tight end, and Campbell shows enough to find a home as a depth guard on the roster.

The worst-case scenario: Moore and Louis can't escape their status as 'tweeners, Taaffe turns out to be a better story than an NFL fit, and Coleman can't overcome the lack of polish in his game to stick. Traore loses out in a numbers game as an over-aged project and Campbell proves to be missing the versatility you like to see in fringe offensive linemen (99.99% of his starts in college game at right guard). Llewellyn is determined to have reached his ceiling and doesn't demonstrate the consistency needed to join the defensive line rotation. 

The bottom line: Miami targeted Power 4 players at the end of the draft, looking for proven, isolated skills against top competition. My two favorite choices were easily Louis and Llewellyn, and I think both have an opportunity to see significant time defensively based on depth-chart holes. 

You can't throw a rock without finding a need on this roster, but the fact that the Dolphins didn't double up at cornerback and invested such little draft capital in a pure edge is surprising at the least. Of course, this rebuild is going to take more than a single draft cycle, but it's fair to question some of the positional value prioritized by the braintrust within this draft. 

Limerick Friday #651: The Soccer Manages To Overcome The Most Blatant Of Favoritism -- Day 2,319

The competition was heady

The excitement was steady

Despite FIFA's incessant corruption

And every water-break disruption

I miss the World Cup already

Despite toil and strife

Some signs of life

Won a series from the hated Braves

Can the Mets make playoff waves?

Not if the injured list says rife

"Idiocracy" looks normal in compare

To this admin's depravity laid bare

The world's laughingstock

Nothing can be seen as a shock

When these bitches show how little they care

Another year, another infraction

Lombardi getting in on the Cheaters action

A laughingstock is Chapel Bill

The Holes want to die on that hill

More ammo for the sell-your-soul faction

Training camp has begun

Another low-expectations one

For the struggling 'Fins

The rebuilds outnumber the wins

But still ready for that football fun

Last time ...

Day 2,318, Quasi-Quarantine: The Bells Toll For The Irreplaceable Glen Hansard

 

"That's another day over

Go to sleep now, my son

It's a full-blown solid gold

Miracle you've come

"And your mother's a beauty

Your dad's a fortunate man

And he'll be back to hold you

Just as soon as he can"

Like many lovers of Ireland and music and Irish music, I was gutted yesterday when news of the passing of Glen Hansard reached me.

So many of us fell in love with Glen and Marketa Irglova in the stunning, raw movie "Once," and I'll never forget watching the duo perform as Swell Season at Maymandi Music Hall in Raleigh on the heels of that film. The complicated relationship between the two was explored in a heart-wrenching movie, aptly called "Swell Season."

The two would go on to perform together in a strictly professional relationship, with Glen's rough approach blending beautifully with Marketa's grace. We would go on to see Glen perform five other times, including in 2008, 2010, and 2023. 

Every person who was touched by Glen's music has a different story that describes that impression. I will always remember his covers of Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic" and Pixies' "Cactus." I will always remember his audience participation, including allowing a fan to sing a verse on stage at the North Carolina Museum of Art. I will always remember seeing him last fall at the Durham Performing Arts Center and his rendition of "Parting Glass," which has taken on an even more poignant meaning today.

I will always remember his description of the origin story of "Factory Street Bells," which he wrote as part of the process of explaining to his toddler son why his father need to leave him and go on tour. I'll certainly never be able to hear that song again without crying.

Glen had a way of making you feel like you'd joined an impromptu jam at an intimate gathering of friends or stumbled across his appearance at a trad session at a pub in Doolin. 

He was a storyteller, a bard, a troubadour in the true Irish fashion. He meant a lot to me and the best part of me.

I'll miss him dearly.

Ar dheis De' go raibh a anam

Day 2,315, Quasi-Quarantine: Corruption And Ineptitude Still Manage To Shock In "The Cadaver King And The Country Dentist"

 

“‘The Mississippi system was run by the triumvirate for years,’ says one long-serving former coroner. ‘Imagine that. A pathologist, a small-town dentist, and a funeral director … The state provided an audience of adoring idiots.’”

In "The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist," Radley Balko and Tucker Carrington have painstakingly researched and compiled a searing indictment of the entire criminal justice system of the state of Mississippi and beyond. The idea that Steven Hayne, Michael West, and Forrest Allgood were never imprisoned -- or worse -- for their actions, is an absolute travesty. The fact that two of the three are already dead somehow isn't enough.

The reality that racism, politics, and ignorance are running amok in Mississippi won't surprise anyone with the ability to read. The sheer lack of repercussions might, despite our better instincts.

“Coroners were incompetent. State law at the time required just two qualifications for the job: candidates had to be registered to vote and ‘must never have denied the existence of a Supreme being.’”

While focusing on two specific cases of wrongful incarceration, the book unveils an entire system predicated on targeting those unable to defend themselves and the many individuals who both turned their backs on them and actively lied to end their lives as free persons.

Make no mistake: this is an infuriating read, perhaps made even more so by the fact that the work is a slow burn, with the feel of a textbook in many areas. However, the act of reading feels more essential now than ever, as the concepts of truth and accountability are constantly under siege.

“But I ain’t mad at any of them anymore. The system’s gonna do what the system’s gonna do.”

~Kennedy Brewer

Day 2,311, Quasi-Quarantine: Watching A Predictable Mets Loss While Going Back To Cali

Earlier this year, we spent our spring break visiting California. As part of our journeys, we ended up at Oracle Park to watch our Mets lose 7-2. We saw the only contest of the four-game series that New York lost, which is sort of par for the course for our fandom.

Checking another ballpark off the list was tremendous, as in recent years I've seen the Mets play the Red Sox at Fenway and the Giants and Rockies square off at Coors Field, in addition to catching a game at Citi Field. Oracle Park was beautiful and well situated, though the late-game arrival of the seagulls was straight-up Hitchcockian.

Seeing David Peterson get shelled and the Mets mostly flounder around the stadium was strong foreshadowing for a disastrous season. A few months later, Peterson would be relegated to the bullpen and then traded, while New York would be posting one of the worst records in the majors.

On the more notable side, I did have a $50 crab standwich -- the "Crazy Crab'z" -- and my son did eat a baseball helmets full of nachos.

Those were certainly the highlights of our entire Mets experience for 2026.