SmokinwithWilly

A lot of people have been slobbing all over this last draft but I hate the way that Fitterer/Morgan have built this offense since drafting Bryce. Anyone with eyes knew our IOL was crap but we didn't invest there and instead took project receivers and an injured RB. If you want a lesson in how build for your QB wrong, IMO, this was it. Draft him, protect him, THEN get him weapons. Its pretty much a rule, draft interior linemen, pay tackles. We're paying everyone. We had the opportunity to draft a center instead of Brooks, or perhaps instead of trading up for XL, trade back and take 2 guards/center. We could have paid Lewis and still drafted 2, but Hunt at 100m was just an overpay. And it's not like the guys many of us were begging us to draft were long shots. They're solid starters from day 1. Injuries happen. That's why all your starters can't be high value players. You need rookie contracts mixed in to be able to absorb those inevitable losses on the line. An offensive line playing an entire season together is an abnormality. Factor into that also paying Moton 44m this offseason with a huge signing bonus when we didnt need to do right now to do him a "solid". Now we have to sign Icky and possibly Bryce and it's a mess with more money tied up in the offense, inevitable cuts and dead cap coming. That's not even factoring in shifting Corbett to C last year after major injury to start at a position he's never played for an NFL season. It's all stuff that was foreseeable and pretty easily avoided. The $$ and picks we've spent trying to surround Bryce outside of Tmac (Mitchell and Horn are TBD) have been used inefficiently IMO. Smarter drafting and FA with the line could have let us get more reliable weapons than XL and Sanders in FA. It might not be popular opinion, but I'll take a Bersin with hands that can get 6-8 85% of the time vs a big play XL with greasy fingers. The part about hitting guys in stride was more about placement, which Bryce has struggled with. Obviously not every route is run to be hit in stride, but they do need to have the ball placed well to give the receivers a chance to do something after the catch. I just used Hill as an example because he's the biggest YAC threat I could think of over the past 5 years. Receivers can feast on dink and dunk if it's schemed right. But to make it work, that vertical threat has to be there, if not the deep pass then the high speed routes that can spring someone for the huge YAC to keep the safeties from cheating into that 20 yard box all game. I hope DC and Bryce can keep up what they did in the last game and it isnt just an Atlanta thing. But no matter what, I really want to see some better long term strategy coming from the FO.

The team has done a lot to make Bryce look good. You list the receivers but let's not forget the most expensive offensive line in the league that's also got its LT on a rookie contract. Are the receivers all pro or pro bowl caliber? With the exception of Tmac possibly making the pro bowl depending on the rest of his season, no. But that doesn't have anything to do with hitting guys in stride Sunday which is something he hasn't really been able to do all season. 250YAC is crazy. It's why guys like Tyreek have always been so deadly at near full speed when it hits their hands. I think if Bryce can do that with much more consistency, and we have the occasional real deep ball or 30 or more to keep safeties honest, Bryce could turn the corner and so could some of the receivers.

This list is terrible.

I think a large part of it falls too on the sheer volume of injuries to receivers and TEs. I can't remember a year when so many players have gone down to injury. It's been a numbers battle since week 6 it seems like.

Better question. Can you consistently make the playoffs while paying him 45m a year for the next 5 years?

Grasping at what straws? Yesterday Bryce got credit for the comeback but how much of that was really Bryce? If we're being honest, he threw a 5 yard pass that Tremble took and obliterated the Atlanta defense with, followed up by handoffs to Dowdle to set up the game winning field goal. Was that Bryce willing the team to victory making play after play, or was he the QB that threw the pass to another player who made an amazing effort that put the team in position to win? I hate the term GWD because it's rarely a QB actually putting the whole offense on his back and leading a team down the field with pinpoint pass after pass. So let's be realistic and give Young his credit where it's due. In how many of those games where he had a GWD, do you feel he was playing well enough the entire game that you would feel 100% confident he could lead the team from the 20 80 yards down field in under 2 minutes to score a touchdown? Yesterday might be the only one I could say that about. That's not being a hater. That's just what I've seen watching him play.

Elite speed matters but you have to have hands too. Ted Ginn was the perfect example of this for the Panthers. Elite route running was always AT's game and he was as fast as an angry turtle but damn he could get open and his hands were glue. TMac can move, but like all receivers, he does best when you can get it on his hands in stride.

He'd have to do a hell of a lot more to be in that conversation. This was a great game, no doubt, but there's been a lot more I'd rather forget than remember.

I can't throw away his rookie season. He played it. It'd be like throwing away Stroud's because he was a rookie. He's learning the game, but so much has been spent on him to even get him to the point he's at now. Not everything can be blamed on receivers or the FO. At some point, Bryce has to make the plays and he hasn't done that on a consistent basis. It also doesn't appear he's worked on his footwork much if at all on his own and that's still a glaring issue that has nothing to do with anyone else. It's also easy to say that guys aren't getting YAC but it's just as easy to say Bryce hasn't been putting the ball in place to do so as well. Defenses have been playing that 20 yard box daring us to go over the top. Yesterday we did, and they finally got burned. Opened up the underneath stuff because they couldnt cheat up. The contract thing is a huge problem because at some point you have to give the defense something. It's not fair to keep pouring everything into the offense and expect the defense to get by on scraps. Bryce has to be able to elevate those around him. For the money he's going to cost, that's what his value is going to have to be. Finally seeing this game this late into year 3 is troubling. We should have seen it year one or early year 2. As a fan, I still say we need another legit vet QB to compete and a drafted QB, one that fits what we want to do, but it doesnt have to be a high pick. We need to improve our QB room, with our without Bryce.

Bryce has proven he can have a game here and there. He hasn't proven he can have any type of consistency whatsoever. The people you're calling clueless keep saying the same thing. Bryce needs to play consistently for an entire season. That's it. Bryce had a great game today. He's also played some of the worst games I've ever seen this year. You can be a football fan and recognize in what is realistically a contract year we need consistent play at a higher level to determine if Bryce is worth 45m a year. It's pretty simple really.

There was no way they were letting him have a losing Super Bowl record. 1-3 was never in the cards.

I'm fine taking a QB in the draft this year, but no reaching. Take him where he's valued. 2nd, 3rd, late 1st maybe if we trade down into that area and like someone in that range. Whoever, just make sure they have the traits of a QB and for gods sake, dont draft them based on how they can break down a play over a dinner salad.

It's like getting rid of Bryce to get an inch taller version of Bryce.

I dont think Lance is or isn't the solution, but we're never going to find one if we don't even kick some tires. Try him out. If he sucks, let him walk. It really is that simple.

I just meant allow legitimate competition in camp. If there's going to be no legitimate competition, don't even bother wasting his time or anyone else's.

Trey Lance or Jack Plummer? Seriously. Is this even a question? If he has a legitimate chance at the starting job, bring him in and let him throw. If it's Bryce's with no one else having even a chance baring another "high ankle sprain", let him go somewhere else.

Because drafting cost future assets. We were still paying off those debts this year.

Im not absolving him of anything. He's a willing participant because he took the job. Im just saying Tepper is making the decisions surrounding Bryce and has been for 3 years. I also believe it's why he's GM. Any other legitimate candidate told him to F off.

He's made it clear he walks through the building making his opinion well known, which is to say, do what I say or your job may very well be on the line. I think he exerts his influence where and when he wants. Bryce was his draft choice and he is not going to admit he's wrong until there is no other option. Basically, when the entire town is in ashes he will start screaming fire.

Because it's the only thing that makes any sense at all. Any GM, even a terrible one could see Dalton was washed last year, so he's signed to a 2 year deal this offseason. Plummer wasn't practice squad worthy week 1 last year, then we bring him back this year. No trade action at all near the deadline. For some reason Bryce is being protected beyond all logic. The only thing that makes any sense at all is there is a directive coming from the top and the very top is David Tepper.

Canales getting out coached by the Huddle.

Bryce plays very different when all is already lost. Arizona game, down by 3 scores, it doesnt matter whay he does. When it did matter on that last drive. We saw what happened. He poo the bed. Last season, we're already out of the playoffs, it doesn't matter what he does because the overall result is already decided. It's easy to play backyard ball like the game doesnt matter when the game really doesnt matter.

I think Bryce is here because of Morgan and Tepper. Morgan took the job under the condition that Bryce was the guy. If than was the genius that he's been made out to be after this offseason, then nothing with Bryce, Dalton and Plummer makes any sense unless it was being directed from elsewhere. Tepper has also made it known publicly that he was throught the building giving his opinion vocally even though he's backed out of day to day operations, which is another way of saying, listen to what I'm saying or else. Dalton was washed after last year. In no world did it make any sense to give him a 1 year contract, much less a 2 year. And Plummer, he was so bad last year he didn't belong anywhere near a football field again but we brought him back one more time. Then we bring in Hooker and White and let the trade deadline go by with QB play that is not only abysmal, but that actually below backup level in many statistical categories. The only logical conclusion I can draw is Bryce was protected this season from any competition at all and Dalton was kept to be backup because he could never be a threat based on last year's play, which was confirmed by this year's play. Everything that has been done from the trade, drafting Bryce, Mingo, Brooks, Sanders, Lewis, Corbitt, Hunt, Moton extension, Mitchell, Etienne, XL, TMac, all of it, has been to reinforce, double, triple, quadruple down on a guy who's first year performance, if judged in a vacuum, would have gotten him cut from most NFL squads based on mechanics alone. Frank saw it and it's why he was fired. He didn't want him and didn't even try to build a game plan around him. Canales can't build a game plan around him. Defenses stack 8 or 9 in the box and dare him to throw and Sunday is what we got. This is Tepper's ego in full force. It's the only true explanation for what we've seen the past 3 years. This is a man who refuses to admit he was wrong.

He hasn't looked good thats for damn sure, then he does things that make you wonder if he could be. He strikes me as the kind of guy that needs to enjoy the game to even have potential and I dont see how you can do that with Bryce as your quarterback.

True. But ive also worked with people that ruin every bit of enjoyment at a job because they suck so bad at what they do.