Beltre surpasses Schmidt at 3B, Florio puts shade on Dan Quinn

Adrian Beltre retires, greater than Mike Schmidt

“He was the greatest third baseman of all time.  If you look at the WAR, which wasn’t even around when he came into the league – the Dodgers signed him when he was fifteen – there’s no third baseman who’s even close.  And when you look at the other statistics and add all those defensive qualities – he got better at the end than he was in the beginning.”

Woody Paige, ESPN’s Around the Horn, disagreeing with those advocating Mike Schmidt as best all-time third baseman

Easy for Brees

“It’s fun to find different ways to win.  It’s fun when you come out and the defense gets four turnovers and four undrafted guys catch touchdowns.”

Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints QB, after 14-point victory over Atlanta

Falcons need an offensive mastermind as head coach

“If you’re Arthur Blank saying ‘I need a young mastermind to come in and fix my offense,’ and if I get another Kyle Shanahan, whoever it may be, and it works, somebody is going to hire my new offensive coordinator to be a head coach.  And I’ll be right back where I was.’  Arthur Blank needs to consider finding that young mastermind and just making him the head coach, because then no one is going to pluck him away.”

Mike Florio, NBCS Pro Football Talk

NFL is changing form

“The three biggest games this year: New Orleans and the Rams, 80 points; the Chiefs and the Patriots, 83 points;  the Rams and the Chiefs, a thousand points.  The NFL is getting what it wished for: Let’s juice up the offense to make fantasy football so much more exciting.  . . . From now on it’s Big Twelve football.”

Peter King, Pro Football Talk

“Scoring 50 points in a game doesn’t guarantee you a win anymore.  The NFL is now arena football, and everybody’s happy.  The defense that I played, that Lawrence Taylor played, that Dick Butkus played, it’s over.  And everybody’s happy.”

Ray Lewis, Hall of Fame linebacker, on Showtime’s Inside the NFL

Chiefs’ O-line didn’t match up to Rams

“What was Kansas City doing leaving Cam Erving one on one against Aaron Donald?  Cam Erving has been on three teams in his short career.  So Donald gets a strip sack and a fumble.  How surprising is it that a career journeyman couldn’t block the best player in football?”

Chris Simms, Pro Football Talk