Dr. IDP Jene Bramel, Anoushka Shankar, Shark Appreciating Diver, RSPWP3, and RSP Post-Draft 

What is Reads Listens Views?

If you’re new to the Rookie Scouting Portfolio blog, welcome.  I post links on Fridays to content I’m saving for later consumption or pieces that I found compelling. You may not like everything listed here, but you’re bound to like something.

Listens/Views

Norah Jones’ sister can burn. No lie.

Download the 2014 Rookie Scouting Portfolio + Post-Draft Update!

Friday’s are also my chance to thank you for reading my work, encourage you to follow the RSP blog, and download the Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication.

The 2014 Rookie Scouting Portfolio Post-Draft Add-On is ready for download.  If you’re in a dynasty league, the combination of the 2014 RSP and the RSP Post-Draft will have you prepared for this year and beyond. Want details? Need details? I have ’em right here:

• 84 pages
• How to use the RSP and RSP-Post Draft together
• Overrated/Underrated
• Good/Bad post-draft fits
• UDFAs to watch
• Long-term dynasty waiver wire gems
• Strategic overview of 2014 rookie drafts
• Tiered Value Chart Cheat Sheet across all positions
• Post-Draft rankings analysis and commentary–including notes about impending contracts years of competition on the depth charts
• Average Draft Position (ADP) Data of 19 dynasty drafts
• RSP Ranking-to-ADP Value Data
• Raw Data Worksheets to continue calculating additional ADP data for future drafts

Hell, take a video tour of the 2013 post-draft to see what I mean:

Seriously, this analysis is worth the price of the 2014 RSP package alone, but you get this as a part of your purchase with the 2014 RSP. Remember 10 percent of each sale is donated to Darkness to Light to prevent sexual abuse in communities across the United States. While that alone should get you to download the RSP package, do it because you will be blown away with the detail and insight of the analysis and content. It’s why the RSP has grown so much in the past nine years.

Best yet, 10 percent of each RSP sale is donated to Darkness to Light, a non-profit devoted to preventing and addressing sexual abuse through community training in schools, religious groups, and a variety of civic groups across the U.S.

Download the 2014 RSP and RSP Post-Draft here

In Case You Missed It/Coming Soon

• The Third Annual RSP Writers’ Project – Each participating writer plays the role of GM and responds to a hypothetical scenario modeled after real life NFL events.
• The One Trade Advice Article That You Need to Read + Trade Value Chart – Need to figure out values for trading players, here’s a good way to begin.
• Bears RB Ka’Deem Carey: Substance Over Flash
• Upside Down Draft Strategy – Gut Check No.293 offers an introduction and analysis of the draft strategy that three high-stakes champs have used. BTW-Why you should subscribe to FBGs.
• Studying Big/Small Wide Receivers – This is a joint project I’m working on with Chase Stuart.

Reads/Views (Football)

• Incorporating IDP Concepts – I’m a fan of IDP leagues. Most of the leagues I’m in are IDP–and against the author of this fine article, Jene Bramel.
• Can Pro Football Focus Stats Be Blindly Trusted? – Not to pick on PFF, because this is true of many stats-based outlets. I’ll be addressing the topic of stats-based analysis soon.
• Jene Bramel’s Take on David Wilson’s Injury Update – Detailed, balanced work from my friend and colleague. Excellent read.
• Note how patient Revis is with his feet.
• Basic Auction Draft Nomination Tips From Jeff Pasquino
• Note how Hawkins tells a story with many of these routes, setting up the payoff. The only downside? Story-telling can take time that QBs sometimes don’t have in real games.

Views

The shark appreciates the dude for freeing him from torture (shut up amateur marine biologists–sometimes common sense prevails).

 Reads (Life In General)

• Seven Reasons America Will Fail on Climate Change – “We’re fucked,” says Ezra Klein. And I find it sadly refreshing to hear.
• Photos: Tianamen Protestors from 25 Years Ago – And we may never find out who stood in front of those tanks.
• No, Legal Pot Hasn’t Turned Colorado Into a Crime-Ridden Wasteland – Why the New York Times piece had the wrong tone to match its facts.
• Grilled Cheese for Grownups– If you like feasting while you read about the world going to hell in a hand basket, or while you have the munchies after displaying proof that pot isn’t the reason for the world’s decline.
• The Nimbus –A Modern Hippie ebus. What our kids will be driving while surveying the climate wasteland with their kids as they eat pot-infused grilled cheese “Lunchables” from Oscar Meyer.
• The Smutty Metaphor Queen of Lawrence, Kansas – I haven’t read yet, but I’m looking forward to it. Maybe one day our kids will be driving to her literary museum at her home in the Nimbus.
• The Case for American History – Ta-Nehisi Coates’ follow-up and debate about housing discrimination.
• Inside the Battle for Fair Housing– Black people didn’t create the ghetto. The government and private enterprise conspired to create it by cheating black people.

Listens

Here’s the thing about music, especially music like this: Close your eyes and ignore the video of the dated hair, clothes, and facilities and listen. In fact, it’s essentially good advice to end this post: Get past the superficial, the desire to appear cool or be right. Just listen.