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I don't think any of you will regret going - a great country.
I went to the 2002 world cup and enjoyed every minute.

Carlos Hyde to the Browns.
Hard to evaluate Hyde - very highly rated out of college and although he looked good at times and played behind some awful o-lines he also tended to rack up a lot of his yardage in 'garbage time' (I know there was a lot of that in SF the past few years!).

All things considered, Cousins has played his cards very well. With a fully guaranteed contract and two franchise tags banked he'll have made almost $130 million by the time his next contract negotiations come around (at age 32!).

[But in a 50/50 pool, the chances of randomly picking 9/3 in favour of one is miniscule]

Was chatting to the brother in-law who's a solicitor and he was saying by now the jury will have already made their mind up and the arguments at the end wont make a big difference.. for him, having 9 lads on the jury is crazy and they might be aquitted on that..

I think there's more than a reasonable doubt where their guilt is involved, so who knows

The gender bias on the jury seems extraordinary, although clearly doesnt guarantee getting off as there's definitely more than a few lads on here who would convict based on what they heard (and one who'd convict before he heard anything!).

David, do you have an explanation as to why it's not 50/50 or at least 5/7 ?
Do you have to be in the workforce to get called? Maybe stay-at-home parents would be out of the net given they need to be at home for their children

Juries are picked randomly by the court clerk. The defence and prosecution can challenge with or without cause.  Everyone is expected to do jury service apart from members of the security forces, those within the legal profession and people with certain criminal convictions I think

But in a 50/50 pool, the chances of randomly picking 9/3 in favour of one is miniscule.
So something must change the dynamics.
Someone said earlier in the thread that the "challenge with or without cause" is US tv stuff and not real and that you can only challenge if there's a direct link to the case or someone is clearly biased

Actually it isn't. The probability of getting a 9:3 split, or one more extreme, is 14.6%. In other words approximately 1 in 7 juries drawn from a population in which there are equal numbers of men and women will have a 9:3, or 10:2 or 11:1 or 12:0 split in one direction or the other.

I think it is probably more accurate to say Jacksonville rode their defense to the championship game. Fournette had a good season though arguably 2 later round picks (Kamara and Hunt) had better seasons. I don't think Fournette was worth the 4th overall pick.

Having so much draft capital and needs at nearly every position does give the Browns the option of going with the 'best player available' approach though. I just think the upgrade an elite RB gives you over a serviceable back is not as great or as transformative as as the upgrade you get with other positions - QB being the obvious one, but also edge rusher, left tackle, inside rusher, CB and even WR. The running back position is relatively less valuable than each of these positions in the NFL imo.

May be some evaluators think Barkley is a Walter Payton or Barry Sanders level talent, in which case he might go 1st overall. I suspect they'll either take a QB first or trade out of their with someone looking a QB.

The time Fournette ate up rested the defense. Continual 3 and outs on offence will destroy even the best defense in history.

It's no coincidence that most of that defence was in place in 2016 but it wasn't until Fournette got the running game going and upped their time of possession that things really clicked on defense. Kamara and Hunt would have been destroyed by Fournette's workload last season. Very different types of players. It's also a hell of a lot easier to run when you've Drew Brees and Mark Ingram around you..

The jags were 18th in plays per drive last season. Up from 20th in plays per drive the season before. Not much evidence of the offense taking the weight of the defense with the addition of Fournette there.
Hunt had more carries than Fournette and gained a whole yard per carry more than him. He also had more receptions.

Fournette is a good player and contributed to the Jags success this year no doubt. Its a bit silly though to imply that he turned their defense into the league leader.

I think it is probably more accurate to say Jacksonville rode their defense to the championship game. Fournette had a good season though arguably 2 later round picks (Kamara and Hunt) had better seasons. I don't think Fournette was worth the 4th overall pick.

Having so much draft capital and needs at nearly every position does give the Browns the option of going with the 'best player available' approach though. I just think the upgrade an elite RB gives you over a serviceable back is not as great or as transformative as as the upgrade you get with other positions - QB being the obvious one, but also edge rusher, left tackle, inside rusher, CB and even WR. The running back position is relatively less valuable than each of these positions in the NFL imo.

May be some evaluators think Barkley is a Walter Payton or Barry Sanders level talent, in which case he might go 1st overall. I suspect they'll either take a QB first or trade out of their with someone looking a QB.

http://amp.si.com/college-football/2017/11/16/shaquem-griffin-hand-ucf-nfl-draft

Pretty cool and inspiring story about Seahawks rookie CB Shaquill Griffin's brother, Shaquem. Hand his left hand amputated as a kid but was DPOY in the AAC last year and could well be in his way to the NFL

Lighting up the combine and a cert to get drafted. Great story.

Absolutely amazing. Fair play to the lad.....some story. 4.38 speed at that size. Mental.

Saquon Barkley had some combine too. Outrageous athlete. I wonder are Cleveland still feeling burnt by the Trent Richardson experience or do they take this guy.

I haven't seen Saquon Barkley play so this isn't a well informed opinion but i'd be amazed if the Browns (or anyone else for that matter) took a RB first overall. Serviceable running backs are two a penny in the later rounds of the draft. I think the Browns have passed on one too many QBs in recent years to not take a QB with the first pick. Unless of course they land Cousins in which case they might trade down.

I think it's quite interesting that Syferus is being rounded on here when there are a lot of posters here who have clearly made up their minds in the opposite direction based on nothing more than "rumour, wild speculation and innuendo", as the previous poster puts it.

Certainly the rumour and innuendo so far has been pretty much one way traffic against the complainant.

I haven't made up my mind and won't pass judgment on either party. However flawed the judicial system is,  its the best way to determine innocence or guilt.
How can Syferis pre-determine who is the innocent party based on media reports. To criticise other posters is to criticise himself.
If you study his post on any subject their is a constant theme of using it to project an image of superiority and condescension through belittling the average view. I find his writing quite delusional and completely devoid of any class or balance.
If he pulled the plug on this board you won't find too many expressing thoughts of sorrow and disappointment.
One the worst posters on the board.

Unfortunately Sfy has made this thread about him rather than the issue at hand. And you can be sure that is there is a guilty verdict, he will see this as victory and will point to other posters who had stated they would rather wait to see the rest of the evidence before making a decision as being wrong. He will play it out, trying to reinforce his superiority despite still being completely incorrect to make a decision based on one day's evidence.

Unfortunately he pollutes too many threads now.

I'm a little reluctant to take this thread off-topic more than it already has, but as it is...

...I have been messing about on the interwebs since around 1999 when I was first exposed to it as a naive, wild-eyed teen and ever since then I've participated on quite a lot of forums, message boards, chatrooms, newsgroups etc. right up to this day. And in my experience I don't think I've ever came across a poster/member/individual of any forum etc. that I have been on, or even in the off-line world, that displays a more blatant, stunning example of the Dunning-Kruger effect than the poster on this board who goes under the handle of Syferus. It is f*cking painful to read most of his/her posts, even though I have him/her on ignore they are inevitably quoted by others in response.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131125-why-the-stupid-say-theyre-smart

And back on-topic, the trial has only really just begun, I'll wait until all evidence has been presented before I even being to start forming an opinion.

As Charles Bukowski put it "The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence."
This thread epitomises that.

Big decision gone to Philadelphia there.

Yeah, I thought it would be overturned.

Eagles outcoaching the Pats in the first half. Moving the ball with ease. What adjustments can the Pats make in the second half?

Bortles vs Foles superbowl is a real possibility. How mad is that.

This is the Jags offense we're talking about. There are no good options down 7 with 2:20 on the clock but only about 1 in 10 onside kicks are recovered. I'll take my chances with Blake Bortles.

Onside kick was a mistake. Playing for a three and out from the Jags offense was the higher percentage play and would have given them the ball back with 2 minutes left.

Horrible play calling from the Falcons inside the red zone there

Yep, Atlanta outcoached in this game

On the Browns, as bad as their record has been the last 2 years I still don't think they were any worse than the Niners pre the Garropolo trade or the Rams prior to hiring McVay. A decent QB and good coaching can go a long way in the NFL.