SmokinwithWilly

KB was always an anomaly to me and hard to judge. He never looked the same after his knee injury and his mom's passing. Grief does strange things to people. I know some people who've bounced right back and I've known some that it just tore apart and it changed their personality and life perspective. He was admittedly in a dark place after that and it just kept going downhill. I always thought that grief may have played a bigger role than we think, or it may not have. That's just one of those I shake my head and say man, I just don't know.

I never understood how they made the trade without having a target as they stated. You know you're drafting a QB but you don't know who. If you don't know one of those is worth the 1st pick yet, how do you move up to draft any of them? What if none of them are worth the pick after the pre draft process? Then you've put yourself in a position that you can't really get away from. Just because you need a QB doesn't mean you should take one of the options available.

Half the board was worried about injury history and rightly so. He's a top corner when healthy but paying a top tier contract for a guy that had missed half his pro career was and still is a large risk. We paid on potential, which is largely what the Panthers have done and it's bitten us in the ass quite frequently. I think the contract should have been less because he hasn't shown durability, but that's irrelevant now. He balls out the next 4 years, the contract is worth it. He gets injured and is out half the games, it wasn't. Time will tell the true value of the contract.

But if you're planning to make a move for a QB in the future, and we were, those picks would have been huge trade capital. Now ask yourself how much better situation would we have been in if we had been able to exchange the Rams 1sts instead of our own and DJ Moore? Would we still have ended up with the number 1 overall? Possibly. Would we have kept Darnold since he was showing improvement and see if he improved, then had 4 1sts in 2 years to get our QB. Its possible. We could have also used those 4 1sts to build around Bryce and our defense. We could have done a lot. It wasn't just about Burns. It was admitting we weren't just a single piece away. Burns gave us 3 high value pieces to build from in trade value if played correctly. For a GM with any vision for the future, that's a grand slam and you're signing that trade before they can reconsider.

Trading Burns for what was offered was the correct move. Two 1sts and a 2nd was a haul for a non QB. Granted Fittershits isn't who you want doing the drafting. We lost all leverage when we didn't trade him. Burns was never a game wrecker or ever took over a game like a Watts, Bosa or Parsons. It was poorly played by the FO all around.

He's probably going to want at least 40

But can he play DE on the PS.

For me, they don't need to beat anyone. I need to see growth in DC and Bryce if he's going to be hanging around. DC's offensive play calls leave me scratching my head a lot and his situational awareness leaves a lot to be desired. I know, he's in year 2, but I'm tired of watching us do things that don't work just because it's his comfort zone. For Bryce, he needs to show he's the franchise week in and out, whether or not he's got a 200 yard back. We don't need a game manager. We need the guy that can throw the team on his shoulder when we've got 30 yards rushing down by 3 scores and not from turnovers.

If your goal is the playoffs and ultimately a SB ring, fug your ego. Do what is best for the team as a whole. Eventually Rico will have an off game or 2 and Chuba will get the bulk. It's just the way it goes.

I think it's fair to say the arm issue is directly related to the footwork. It's like throwing a punch. If you dont step into it, there's not going to be much behind it and youre not going to control where it goes as well. I remember harping on Icky and his footwork as a rookie and was told repeatedly that coaches are only allowed to do so much and he had to get help outside of the team for his coaching with that. Probably the same with Bryce. Don't know if he's getting help with issues, but if he is, it's not taking. I also remember watching a special on Kobe working on his fade away and this was a couple years before his retirement. He never held the basketball, but he did the drill 2k times in a row trying to perfect it. The great ones constantly work on their craft.

Zavala will be put in at LG and beat his personal best of 14 QB pressures given up vs Seattle. In all seriousness though, Dalton is good for 1, maybe 2 games. We're 4-3 with a chance to make a playoff push. If Bryce is as good as many believe he is, now he's out and injured. If it's a significant injury and he misses an extended period of time, Dalton has already shown he isnt up to the task. Just bad off season planning re-signing a guy that wasnt able to do it for you last year.

Ready to sign him to a 5 year 220m contract with 160m guaranteed with those numbers at the end of the season?

But DC is the QB whisperer. Send a conditional 7th, a dozen cases of apple pie brandy, and a Hooker.

Lamb, Pickens and Ferguson is a match up nightmare.

Pretty sure he was getting sacked and pressured a ridiculous amount too.

I didnt say they haven't shown any. But for instance, today, DC, instead of riding the hot hand with Rico when Rico is obviously having the better game, insists on splitting carries with Chuba. That's a situational awareness issue that looked like it was getting better the last 2 weeks as DC was doing what working and sticking with it. This week, he reverted back to being stubborn and trying to force the issue. His clock management and time out usage are baffling at times. As for Bryce, he isn't consistent at all. His mechanics are still crap under pressure. The fumbling issue is still huge. Bryce looks more often like a rookie than not. I haven't seen a 2 or 3 game span that makes me say to myself, damn, now that's a number 1 pick. To me, those things are not the signs of growth that I would expect to see in year 2 and 3 respectively. Our defense is improving as is Evero. Our ST has improved. There is growth there. I acknowledge that. There's been growth. But the 2 key places, HC and QB, I don't think there's been a whole lot.

I get what he's saying. Winning is fine, but if you're not improving, you're going to stay where you are, which for us is 4-7 wins, year after year. Losing, but showing improvement week to week, will eventually result in better play on a more consistent basis and then the wins will come with more frequency. Net result is consistent winning teams and playoffs. Short term vs long term.

What about this guy?

Happy about winning. Not happy about making the same bone headed mistakes over and over. It's ok to be both.

This is why, even if you thought Bryce was so bad he made Fields look like Tom Brady, you have to have to look for a real backup during the offseason. We're 4-3 and its possible we could make a run for a wild card. Now Bryce is hurt and we have the husk of Andy Dalton to carry this team? C'mon Dan.

Sometimes a guy is just feeling it, which Rico definitely has the past 2 weeks. It's not personal. It's about winning. Do what's best for the team to win. If that means Rico averaging near 5 yards a carry gets the bulk over Chuba's 2 YPC, so be it, because the long game is playoff hunt. Do what's necessary to win and make it easier on yourself doing it.

Calling out bad decisions isn't crying. Justin Fields is the worst QB in the NFL, backed up by Taylor who is about 1/2 a step better and we barely escaped with a win, mainly because DC refused to just run Rico, who was clearly the better back today. We could have put our foot on their throats and made a statement but we didn't. This piss poor play calling and clock management is going to get our asses pounded into the ground if he doesnt wake up now that we're going into the meat of our schedule.

Need to trade for Jameis and let Andy go at some point. He's frigging terrible.

No we don't. We want competence. How in the hell do you split carries for a guy that's put up 500 yards of offense in 2 weeks? And when it's not working, keep doing it! Competence. That's it. Competence.

DC overthinking this. Rico smash. The end.