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All takes considered: The Ebronometer

Yes, he actually caught it. For real.

By Andrew Kato
Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

All Takes Considered aims to bring Pride of Detroit readers an eclectic mix of hot-n-ready takes on cuisine, the arts, linkbait, life, and of course our very own SOL.

The Eric Ebron Watch: Elite or Bust?

In case you missed the ridonkulous comments section in Kent's Mythbusters article about Eric Ebron, one thing that seemed to gain favor with the peanut gallery was a status tracker on Ebron's performance. Following in the footsteps of PFT Commenter, who sought to solve the mystery of whether Joe Flacco was elite or not, we now present our own gauge on Eric Ebron.

Wars over Ebron appear to have two general camps that never convince members of either side to change their minds:

  • Ebron is a bust because he has not been an immediate impact player "worthy of the tenth overall spot" (whatever that means) in the NFL Draft.
  • It doesn't matter where Ebron was drafted: the guy improved each year and produced "fine for a receiving option on the same team as Calvin Johnson and Golden Tate" (whatever that means).

A side issue is the Lions-Ebron version of Godwin's Law: as the duration of a discussion over whether Ebron's play has been elite enough to justify drafting him with a top ten pick increases, the probability that someone argues Detroit should have instead picked Aaron Donald approaches one. I don't know what to call our twisted version, but surely someone will come up with a good name for it.

This is true despite the fact that a large share of the fanbase prior to the draft favored selecting Ebron over Donald in a mock draft, and also approved when the Lions in fact selected Ebron over Donald in the first round. It should be noted that a substantial minority opinion emerged immediately, gaining steam as it became apparent Donald was on the way to becoming Defensive Rookie of the Year.

Here at All Takes Considered, we don't want to live in the nostalgia of holding the tenth pick in the 2014 draft OR the crack pipe future hope of a possible hall of famer that may or may not happen. We live in the NOW, and evaluate on the cold hard truthiness of our own opinons on the facts.

For our inaugural baseline rating on the Ebronometer, take it away Kent:

Among teams' No. 4 targets, Ebron ranked eighth in targets, fourth in receptions, fifth in yards, and second in touchdowns. As far as fourth options in a passing offense go, Ebron ranked among the best.

2015 Year End Grade: Decent 4th Option

PODrick Award received With Arms Wide Open

Your favorite Michigan State Washington franchise quarterback felt pumped up on Thursday:

Per CBSsports.com, the twitter reaction was swift, predictable, and brutal. Even the Washington Post got in on the action. Fox Sports had a more generous take on the band's renaissance among NFL players.

Then there was this.

Presented without comment, a nugget of joy from the head writer for the website of the local Washington DC CBS sports talk radio station:

From the full article in the tweet:

Creed is good. So it’s understandable how listening to Creed’s best songs could lead to a day that is good.

Since some people do not enjoy good music, it’s probably best Cousins carefully worded his tweet about today’s good workout.

That take was good. We're going to recognize it with an honor that is also good. Thus we name Chris Lingebach as a good first recipient of the All Takes Considered POD award for righteous internet commentary.

Burn Unit Alert: Who won the NFC North?

An error by the Worldwide Leader in tweeting out Bill Barnwell's NFC North offseason grades article referred to the Packers as the 2015 NFC North division champions. Per Michael Rand at the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

ESPN asserted that, "The Green Bay Packers are defending NFC North champs. The Minnesota Vikings’ offseason could change that." As of the publication of this post, it was still live.

Vikings fans on Facebook were all over ESPN, tossing around words like "idiots" and "disrespectful."

Finally, the Vikings stepped in:

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