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return

Why Dez Bryant Will Return To NFL Dominance In 2017

by Loknath Das April 5, 2024

written by Loknath Das

Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of watching Dez Bryant practice you can tell that football is extremely important to him. Everyone knows that Dez is an extremely passionate player, but few mention the type of leader he truly is.

Dez has never done anything in his life halfway, it’s full speed no matter the circumstance. He leads in a way very similar to the Cowboys’ Hall of Fame receiver, Michael Irvin. When you look at this team with the camaraderie they built last season, the commitment they’ve all made to team football, it’s got Dez’s imprint all over it. He’s led the charge, creating an incredible bond with his teammates and he’s on the verge of something even more special.

It’s no secret that Dez Bryant hasn’t been his dominant self over the past two seasons. After signing his “Cowboy For Life” extension, he broke his foot in week one of 2015. Though he returned after six weeks, he just didn’t have the same effectiveness, only occasionally looking like his old self. In 2016, he had to miss three games with a hairline fracture in his knee. About a month ago, our own Joseph.Hatz wrote about how Dez Bryant’s demise has been exaggerated:

“The NFL certainly stands for “Not For Long”, so it’s understandable why many seem to have forgotten the type of talent that Bryant is and it explains why some have even suggested that he may not be in Dallas for much longer. There is no ignoring the injuries sustained over the last two years and of course you can’t continue to absorb $15+ million cap hits on a player if they’re injured every season, but Bryant deserves much more benefit of the doubt than to suggest that he should be a cap cut in the near future.”

Just to add to Joseph’s point, there are reasons to believe that Dez Bryant is not only back to being himself but should return to NFL dominance in 2017.

The chemistry between a receiver and quarterback is not built overnight. Before Dak Prescotttook over for Tony Romo, he was passing to the guys trying to make the team. Dak and Dez barely had any time together before it was GO-time. Let’s focus on the way Dez Bryant ended last season because it’s not always about how you start, it’s how you finish.

After returning in week eight, Bryant wasted no time in getting back on track. In a 29-23 overtime victory over the Eagles, Bryant averaged 28.3 yards per catch, had four receptions for 113 yards and a touchdown. In the final 10 games, Bryant scored seven of his eight touchdowns. He had dominating performances against the Steelers, Ravens, and Lions. Speaking of that Detroit game, Bryant scored twice but also threw his first career touchdown pass to Jason Witten in that 42-21 rout of the Lions.

In only one postseason performance, he was PFF’s second-highest rated postseason receiver with a rating at 156.3. Of course, it was against the Packers, who were 31^st in pass defense. Still, nine receptions for 132 yards and two scores is a big time performance. If you’re one to criticize Dez for beating up on a weak defense, let’s just remind you that Odell Beckham Jr.only had four receptions for 28 yards a week prior against that same defense.

PFF also gave Dez Bryant an 84.8 grade which was 11^th among 115 eligible receivers. We’re not saying that PFF is the perfect method but they did have another interesting showing of how Dez compares to his contemporaries:

For all you fantasy football lovers out there, Mike Tagliere penned a column over at Fantasy Pros about Bryant and how he’s not done by a long shot:

“The transition to Dak Prescott turned out to be tougher than most expected, as Bryant and Prescott connected on just 16 of their first 41 targets in their first five games, or 39 percent.

If you ignore their first five games together, removing the Week 17 game where both Bryant and Prescott played one series, here’s what their final eight games have totaled (playoffs included): 66 targets, 43 receptions, 646 yards, and eight touchdowns.

That’s a 65.2 percent completion rate, a far cry from the 39 percent over their first five games. It’s also important to note that his targets per game didn’t increase over this time, just his efficiency.”

Mike believes that Dez Bryant may not be as valuable to fantasy owners as he was in the past but he’s not giving up on the All-Pro:

“If you’re worried about Bryant, it has nothing to do with his recent performance, because he was arguably better than any wide receiver over the final eight weeks.”

As Dak and Dez have more time together, their rapport is going to grow stronger. Bryant averaged 15.9 yards per catch last season, that’s about a full yard more than his previous career high. Bryant also replaced Julio Jones in the Pro Bowl.

Another interesting side note: Do you know who was PFF’s third-highest wide receiver based on passer rating when thrown to? It’s not Dez Bryant, it was Terrance Williams (124.6). That just tells you the amount of respect that is paid to a guy like Bryant as his mere presence makes the offense better.

Guys like Josh Norman can talk about Bryant and say that he’s “just a guy” but they’d be very wrong. In fact, I know we’re giving PFF a lot of love, but Sam Monson wrote seven months ago about why Bryant won against Norman on Turkey Day though his stats read only four receptions, 72 yards:

“Of the three catches Norman did allow to Bryant, two of them moved the chains and the other picked up nine of the necessary 10 yards on first down.
It may not have been a great night for Bryant and the stat sheet might look like Norman got the better of the matchup between the two, but throw on the tape and you find a very different result. Bryant was too much for Norman to handle this time, and deserved the win even if he didn’t get the stats.”

He may not eclipse his amazing numbers of 2014 but this is still every bit of the All-Pro he always has been. Whether it’s game day, on the practice field, in the weight room, or an interview: Dez Bryant is special. The way he finished off his 2016 season shows you that there is plenty of gas left in this tank. This is the guy that is second in the league in touchdowns (67) since he was drafted in 2010.

This may be a new youthful Cowboys’ regime but it’s one that Dez was instrumental in creating. Bryant doesn’t need any critical comments to get him hyped for 2017. Though he’s going face some of the league’s best cornerbacks, Dez is going to be Dez and there is no better description than the man’s own words to leave you on:

“The way that I feel now, I’m not dealing with really anything. I feel damn good. I know once I’m 100 [percent], I’m something hard to — I was about to say some bad words — but I’m hard to deal with. That confidence is just steady expanding. I’ll tell you this: I’ve never been [more] ready for training camp. I’m excited. I can’t wait for training camp. I’m ready to lead. I’m ready to get back, and I’m ready for the season to start. I’m praying every day. I just want me, this whole team to be injury-free just because we got something special. The sky can be the limit for us.”

[“Source-bloggingtheboys”]

April 5, 2024 0 comment

Education

Grammar school plans ‘not a return to past’

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Pupils in class

The government will take a “pragmatic” look at new grammar schools but will not be “going back to the past”, the education secretary has told MPs.

Justine Greening said she wanted to offer parents choice but children would not be split into “winners and losers”.

She was answering an urgent question after a document proposing new grammars was photographed outside No 10.

Labour said the government was showing a “dangerous misunderstanding” of issues facing schools in England.

Meanwhile, BBC Newsnight is reporting that a new green paper is expected to be presented on Friday and will propose opening new grammar schools and allowing further selection by faith.

BBC Newsnight’s policy editor Chris Cook said the most contentious suggestion in the consultation paper was likely to be that the government should pass legislation to permit new grammar schools. This would be required to overrule the 1998 Education Act, which barred the opening of further grammar schools in England.

To help overcome opposition in the Commons and the Lords, where the government does not have a majority, the paper is expected to propose that the schools should dedicate a quota of places to children from poorer backgrounds, Chris Cook said. Grammar schools may also be required to act as academy sponsors to other schools, he added.

Universities could also be asked to sponsor academies as a condition of being allowed to raise their fees. A similar condition may also be applied to private schools, Chris Cook said.

Earlier, answering an urgent question in the Commons, the education secretary said she recognised the debate over grammar schools was “emotive”, saying government plans would be set out “in due course”.

“There will be no return to the simplistic binary choice of the past where schools split children into winners and losers, successes and failures,” she promised.

Selection can “play a role” in the education system, she said, and while grammar schools can provide a “stretching, outstanding education”, they are only part of a “very broad-based school system”.

The forthcoming policy was “absolutely not about going back to the past”, she said.

Labour warned against creating more grammar schools, with shadow education secretary Angela Rayner saying such a policy would do nothing to address teaching staff shortages or “super-size” classes.

The debate over grammar schools was sparked after a document outlining proposals to open new ones was snapped by a photographer outside 10 Downing Street on Tuesday.

On Wednesday evening Prime Minister Theresa May told Conservative MPs she wanted “an element of selection” in the education system, but that new grammar schools would not be forced on areas that did not want them.

Addressing the 1922 committee of backbench MPs, the PM said “selection by house price” already existed within the state school system, with wealthier parents able to ensure a place for their children at high-performing schools by buying homes in the catchment area.

The government intends to publish its plans for school reform in the near future – according to the Daily Telegraph, the PM will publish a green paper and deliver a speech setting out her plans.

Grammar schools are state secondaries whose pupils are selected by examination at age 10 to 11.

What are grammar schools?

There are currently about 163 grammar schools – out of 3,000 state secondaries – in England, and a further 69 in Northern Ireland.

Under a law created by the Labour government in 1998, no new grammar schools are allowed to open in England. Education policy is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Supporters of grammar schools say that children from poor backgrounds are helped to make the most of their potential because entry to such schools is on the basis of raw ability.

But many argue that, in fact, the vast majority of those doing well in entrance tests are children whose parents have paid for them to be privately tutored outside school.

Analysis

Norman Smith, assistant political editor

Grammar schools remain a highly emotive political issue – but will form only one part of a much bigger package of school reform, that could include allowing free schools to introduce academic selection.

In an effort to overcome concern – including in her own party – that grammars are socially divisive, Mrs May will suggest they should only be set up where there is parental demand and priority would be given to less affluent areas.

Ministers also want the entry exams to be less susceptible to coaching and there may be different entry requirements for poorer pupils, and grammar schools would be expected to have close ties with local primary schools and to demonstrate they were socially inclusive and benefitted the local community.

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, whose constituency of Sevenoaks, Kent, got approval for the first new “grammar school” – technically described as an annexe to an existing one – for five decades last year, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the government would “widen choice” but this would not mean children who failed entry exam going to “sink schools”.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, chief inspector of schools watchdog Ofsted, this week said the idea that poor children would benefit from a return of grammar schools was “tosh” and “nonsense”.

Former Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg told Today the government did not have a mandate to expand grammar schools, accusing it of “foisting their own evidence-free prejudices upon us”.

The government’s social mobility tsar, Alan Milburn, warned that a return to grammars could be “a social mobility disaster”, telling The Guardian: “This is not selection educationally, it is selection socially.”

The Conservative Party manifesto for 2015 promised to “allow all good schools to expand, whether they are maintained schools, academies, faith schools or grammar schools”.

Teaching unions attacked any expansion of grammar schools.

The National Union of Teachers described it as a “regressive move”, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said it would be a “massive distraction” and the NASUWT said government policies had already increased “covert selection, often targeted at pupils from materially deprived backgrounds”.

The Association of School and College Leaders, which represents secondary heads, said increased selection was “education policy by nostalgia” that would not help social mobility.

[Source:- BBC]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

French children return to school amid high security

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

President Francois Hollande visited a school in Orleans to mark reforms to the curriculum (1 Sept 2016)

Twelve million French children have gone back to school with new security measures in place because of recent jihadist attacks.

Pupils will be taught to hide, escape and help each other and there will be three security drills a year including simulated attacks.

Security is also being beefed up at the entrance to school buildings.

The new measures coincide with major education reforms which have come in despite widespread protests.

France has been under a state of emergency since the coordinated militant Islamist attacks on Paris in November 2015 which claimed the lives of 130 people.

Further jihadist attacks saw 86 people murdered on the seafront at Nice and a priest killed in a church in Rouen.

President Francois Hollande wrote on Facebook that it was an important day for teachers and pupils, and that the circumstances “justify the security measures that have been taken”.

The tightened measures require local education officials to have crisis cells and emergency phone lists, schools to have regular patrols and secure entrances, and for pupils to be prepared for an attack.

Game of silence

Schools introduced greater security after the 13 November attacks, but, with the introduction of three compulsory drills every year, the biggest question has been how to prepare very small children for a crisis without traumatising them.

Among the suggestions for teachers are a series of games to help children learn to hide quietly, including:

Playing a game known as “le roi du silence”
Hiding in boxes without being scared of the dark
Playing statues and changing position at the teacher’s signal
Running quickly back into school from the playground

Teenagers at French schools will be given greater tasks which include learning how to save lives.

One head teacher told French TV that his school had already stopped parents from gathering inside the building along with other measures, but it was impossible to have a police officer posted at every school.

Alongside the security measures, France is seeing big changes to its curriculum. Some of the biggest reforms are for 11-15 year-olds in colleges:

Greater independence for teachers
More interdisciplinary lessons that combine subjects such as health, green issues and ancient culture
Learning a second modern language will start at age 11-12
Latin and Greek will not be dropped, as planned, but will be replaced by an introduction to ancient languages. [Source:- BBC]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Education

Labour promises return of student maintenance grants

by Rajdeep April 4, 2024

written by Rajdeep

Student exams

Labour says it would restore grants to help young people in England stay in further and higher education.

This would mean a return for education maintenance allowances (EMA) scrapped by the coalition government in 2010.

It would also mean reversing the decision to turn maintenance grants for poorer university students into repayable loans.

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said it showed a commitment to “investing in our young people”.

But a Conservative spokesman said that the current student finance system had seen record numbers in post-16 education and training.

Labour says it would pay for the support for 1.25 million poorer students by increasing corporation tax by up to 1.5%.

It is proposing that the EMAs, a flagship policy of the previous Labour government, should be reinstated.

They were means-tested payments of between £10 and £30 per week intended to encourage 16- to 18-year-olds to stay in sixth forms and further education colleges.

The policy had been scrapped by the coalition government, which described it as a poorly targeted use of education funding – but Labour says research has shown that it had been cost-effective.

Labour also wants to overturn the decision by the current government to end maintenance grants for students from poorer families and replace them with loans.

The former Chancellor George Osborne, announcing the scrapping of maintenance grants, said that the current cost of £1.57bn per year would have doubled to £3bn in the next decade.

Mr Osborne said there was a “basic unfairness in asking taxpayers to fund grants for people who are likely to earn a lot more than them”.

But Ms Rayner said: “It is only by investing in education that we can ensure that all of our young people, whatever their background, are able to succeed in whatever they aspire to.

“When we can help improve the education of over a million young people with a small increase in corporation tax, it is an investment we would be foolish not to make.”

In an article co-written with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Ms Rayner says that investing in education is vital to improving productivity and competing in technology-based industries.

Mr Corbyn and Ms Rayner say that it is “disgraceful that the Conservative government abolished student grants that levelled the playing field for young people from low and middle income backgrounds”.

“Opportunity taken from them is a loss to us all, leaving Britain worse off,” they say.

“As two politicians who never went to university, we have nevertheless benefited from those that did – we do so every time we visit our GP or dentist, when our children go to school or when we buy the latest gadget.

“Education is a collective good that benefits all of us.”

But a Conservative party spokesman said: “Without a proper explanation of how all Labour’s education proposals could be funded in full, they amount to little more than warm words.

“Yet again Labour are proving themselves too incompetent and chaotic to build a country that works for everyone.

“We have reformed the financial support for 16-18 year olds who are most in need, in contrast to the costly and poorly-targeted Education Maintenance Allowance.

“This approach has helped tackle the real barriers to participation, with record numbers in education or training post-16.

“Our planned changes to maintenance for those in higher education will also increase support for the poorest students while making sure student funding remains sustainable.”

The National Union of Teachers said: “Family financial circumstances should not dictate access to education. The abolition of the EMA meant that many young people had to give up their education or were pushed into choices they did not want to make.”

[Source:- BBC]

April 4, 2024 0 comment