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The NFL average for running backs on the active roster is 3.6. Cleveland was the only teams to carry less than 3. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BB0RlET2BU3TiotTmk6hMWl-36d06VAaSLUsr4jS_hM/pubhtml

Good lord. Dude is a missile

Wrist/hand surgery stories came out around/after those issues if I recall so should keep an eye on it. Either way he has the speed etc to make the defense put a guy on him, just dunno if he's gonna get thrown that many balls if he doesn't convince the OC/QB he's gonna come down with it

I think the jumping was a confidence thing. Once he dropped a couple he was jumping to the ball to try body catch them

Here's the article, obviously about Arizona, but has a lot that speaks to who T-Mac is as a player and person https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/40918248/arizona-noah-fifita-aiming-big-12-championship-2024

https://x.com/justinm_nfl/status/1916355909313233403?s=46&t=xeIgh_-Vr2aKxBkBJdfnKA

Was a crazy day today for me with the Wrexham game starting just into the 4th Round and then them clinching promotion for the 3rd straight year. So between all that celebrating today and just trying to follow the rest of our draft, I purposefully stayed out of this thread all day to give it a good read through later, lol Here's some responses to some of the things said today, sorry, it's a bit lengthy, but I've gone like 24 hours without getting to talk T-Mac, I was having withdrawals, hahaha. All of this The new staff was not good this past year, to the point that the fan base were calling for heads to roll just a few weeks into the season, it was pretty ugly on the Arizona boards. The offensive play calling was pretty atrocious as well, and as mentioned here, Fifita took a massive step back this year and was constantly missing T-Mac when he got open and thus the bad/late throws were also causing some of the contested catches he had to make. Plus like you said, the entire offense was just to throw to T-Mac no matter what the coverage because we had no other receiving weapons. Teams were constantly double teaming him directly off the snap and it was very rare for there to not be a safety already over the top on him before every snap too. In a way, I'm actually surprised he put up the stats that he did, everything was stacked against him and he still put up 1,300+ yards. I'm actually not sure it has been mentioned, as it was something I never brought up this past year in talking about him on purpose, I didn't want it to sound like I was making any excuses for him, and I don't remember seeing others talk about it as I might have then jumped in too. He missed all of fall camp and only started practicing days before the season opener and at least publicly, it wasn't certain he'd even play the first game, which of course he then went out and put up 300 yards lol. He also tweaked his ankle at one point about 5-6 weeks into the season. Came out for a play or two to get checked, then came back in and kept playing but was a step or two slow the rest of the game but seemed mostly fine the rest of the year. In fact, for a few weeks after that, there was a vocal portion of the fan base that were hoping he'd just shut it down for the season because how bad the offense was and felt he was hurting his draft stock and risking injury at the same time. But as everyone also knew, he wasn't going to quit on his teammates, in particular his QB in their last year together (will get to that later) I do think the original injury and lack of fall camp did keep him a half step slower than the year before at times, but it didn't stop him from still being an All American. This is also another reason T-Mac is a great fit with Bryce, once they get their chemistry down, the two are going to thrive on off script plays. T-Mac and Arizona's QB had played together since the 8th grade and were best friends, they basically shared a brain on the football field and it showed. It's given him so much experience working off script, while finding and sitting in the holes in coverage to give his QB a big target as they scramble. Yep, smart, swagger, but also a GREAT teammate. When Arizona's coaches left after 2023 season, the assumption was that T-Mac, Fifita, and our top LB (who all went to the same HS together, and with Mason Graham too) were going to follow them to Washington. In fact, T-Mac was a QB until 8th grade and switched to WR only because of Fifita, he's thrown a TD pass for us too, so he can be used in gadget plays. The day after we hired the new coach, he invited any players to come and talk football in his office, T-Mac and Fifita organized a large group and they talked with him for 2 hours. When it was done, all the players left but T-Mac and Fifita stayed back and basically told the coach they were staying and were going to keep the team together as much as they could and they did, we only lost a few players (too bad the new coaches sucked lol). Both of them also then turned down some NIL money and told them to use it to give to other players on the team to help keep as much of it together. There's a good ESPN article about this a while back, maybe I'll try to find it. But THIS is the type of kid you want to build around, he's the full package and it's why I never missed a chance to let you guys know he was always the player we should have been targeting.

No, literally call up any of our AHL defenseman to replace him. Obviously it's too late now, but he should have been phased out of our lineup much earlier in the season and been turned into the 7th defenseman. I could care less about his iron Man streak - I care about winning. This isn't a one bad game sample size - he's been awful most of the year and the only reason why his stats aren't much worse is because he has arguably the best defensive defenseman in the NHL as his d partner to constantly bail him out.

I feel like with guys at Tepper's level of ego, even getting them to take an imaginary backseat is an accomplishment.

I will hold my thoughts until we see how much up Dan and Daves ass he was in the draft confidential if they do one this year. His vibe feels like more hands off this go round but they haven't really given anything substantial media wise to decipher yet.

Maybe he's betting on himself to play better and earn a better payday

Yea I didn't like the jumping for no reason stuff

Maybe the surgery stuff. Also needs to work on his timing on jump balls, even when wide open he was jumping to body catch stuff. Hopefully he was just compensating for injury or something. Will be interesting to see who other teams determine to put their CB1 on with this WR lineup

We have Theilen that's good enough. I think he will be mostly in a mentor role this season

Seeing they didn’t draft any o lineman kinda had to

4.53

I mean, I am repulsed by it, but Canales does turn it around pretty quick. I always put myself in other peoples shoes, and I feel like, do they even know/care about who the linebacker coach is right now? But it will probably mean something to them down the road when they establish that relationship and reflect back on the night, so I tolerate it. I am just thankful he has been less involved as far as we can tell lately, and it seems to be paying off with our PFF A+ grade for this draft.

If Moore is cut, we need to bring in another vet to replace him. Right now our top 7 in the WR room is Rookie, Rookie, UDFA Rookie, 2nd Year, 2nd Year, Moore, and Thielen. Not that I think Moore the player is someone we can't lose necessarily, but you need more than just Thielen in that WR room who has been in the league for more than a season to be able to help guide all the young guys. It's why I was hoping to sign a vet as that shifty slot WR instead of taking Horn Jr, but I don't hate the tape I see on the kid and he has some potential and grit to his game, so I'm not upset at taking him.

Damn. I haven’t seen DC in one video yet bc of it.

I mind. Because it’s one thing to suck and suck with humility and a willingness to learn. It’s another to suck and think you have it all figured out while you act like an asshole. From throwing drinks on fans, to the hires, to the fires, to the “basement dwellers” comment about his own fanbase for calling him out on his idiocy. His face pisses me off. His voice pisses me off. But I agree with you Montsta… I’ve never been more apathetic or indifferent when it comes to our team for the reasons you mentioned. I accepted long ago we were an incarnation of the Browns. Hope it turns around and we find our footing under this regime… But Tepper just irks me…

XL had good hands in college, I think he figures it out this season

Nice hands too, already better than XL at that lol.

They might have similar ranking but most likely not the same because of team fit and other factors

Yea he's the owner I just accept that hes going to be there and talking to the picks...it's also like 5 seconds usually

PFF had Swinson above both Scourton and Princely and he was available at both picks. There were also several running backs they ranked ahead of Etienne that we didn't take. So I don't think it's that simple.