grimesgoat

Calm down. You're not leading a revolution. You're blowing off steam and whining on a message board. We don't know if Christiansen will be a stud LT after a season or two. We don't know if the rookie guards will be keepers. We don't know if Paradis will get hurt this year or not. We don't know if Elflein and Irving will be better in our zone blocking scheme. We don't know if Darnold will meet his initial draft expectations. We don't know if Moton is worth 5 years, $100 million. We don't know any of these things. It will be years before we find out. Why get so worked up and panicky?

I pied you for hanging in as long as you did.

Not trying to be argumentative. How is leadership evident? How does one know who the leaders are? Fans are not in the locker room. Fans aren't in the huddle. I heard Olsen used to have to translate the plays in the huddle. Does this make him a leader? Luke would position the defense. Does this make him the leader? Are these guys leaders because they are captains? Because they yell the most? They've been around the longest? They have an inspirational story? How does one "establish himself" to be a leader? Again - not trying to argue. The team has many alphas. Captains will be chosen. I'm not gonna lose sleep over this one.

I agree he is probably overpaid. But there are ways of getting around that, or at least lessening the blow. Next year his cap hit is 18m including 11m in salary. Convert the 11m to 2m in salary and a bonus of 9m with an extra dummy year. Now his cap hit is around 12m. Not too bad. The next year, do it again. Cap hit is 22m or so including 12m in salary. Convert 10m salary to bonus with 2m in salary. Now the cap hit is 17m. High but again manageable. He's 29 years old and in his absolute peak. Yes your now carrying 8m in dead money for a dummy year but who cares - we just won our first Superb Owl.

Someone made the comment that Shaq was supposed to be TD but was average at best. Lots of people consider Shaq a disappointment, but I'm not so sure. Its sometimes useful to compare players at similar points in time to see who might have the better career, but in this case its a little tricky for two reasons: 1. TD was hurt and missed much of his 5th year, and practically all of his 6th year while Shaq has been healthy through his first 6 years 2. TD shared tackling counts with Beason early in his career whereas Shaq had to deal with two tackling machines - TD and Keuchly. He may have started most games but he would be pulled often in passing situations so his numbers are somewhat deflated by sharing the field with these two. He actually played less than 50% of defensive snaps his first 3 years. Having said all that, here are the 6-year comparisons... Starts Tks Avg. Sack FF+INT TFL QB hits TD 54 392 7.3 11 11 36 23 Shaq 76 470 6.2 9.5 5 35 22 Shaqs avg. Tackles has actually creeped up to 7.6 per start over the last 3 years as TD and then Luke exited. Otherwise the sack, TFL, and QB hits are remarkably similar through 6 years. Again - remember while Shaq was starting, he was not playing every down. Shaq played less than 50% of defensive snaps his first 3 years. I don't have similar stats for TD, but I would wager he wasn't coming off the field very often in favor of Na'il Diggs. It remains to be seen whether Shaq can be as good as Davis, but he is just getting started. Davis didn't make his first pro-bowl until age 32. Shaq is 26.

I doubt 31 other teams are watching our practice to see how hard Ian Thomas jogs around the track.

Since you asked... I'm optimistic and patient. We will win 8-9 games but be in every game. Darnold will improve as the season goes on and will be extended at a fair price. Horn, Christensen, Tremble, and 1 of our new guards will be starting by the end of the season. Burns and Reddick will both have double digit sacks. CMC will have 2000 all-purpose yards, 15 TDs., and will be Fantasy MVP. 2022 we improve to 10-11 wins and make the playoffs. 2023 and beyond we will be like the steelers - perennial contenders winning 11-13 games every year. 2024 we make post-Darnold plans and draft our Mahomes. He sits for a year. 2025 conference championship game. 2026 we win the Superb owl. Book it.

Just went back and looked at the stats. I understand why Ron didn't do anything different. We came in 17-1. During the game, our offense was moving the ball (21 first downs to denver's 11, 315 yds to denver's 194) and our defense was lights out. We gave up a 61 yard punt return that led to 3 pts, turned the ball over 4 times, had 100+ yards in penalties (vs. denver's 51 yds), missed a chippy 44 yard FG, and had multiple ref bad calls / no calls. Despite all that, we were only down 6 with the ball on our own 28 with 4.5 minutes left. Our superman MVP needed just 1 more TD drive and we're champs. Didn't work out obviously. Point is, we were the better team and had a fantastic opportunity to win at the end despite all of the blunders (self imposed and not). Other than helping Remmers out a little by some TE chipping, I really don't see what would have made a big difference in the end. We were right there - just needed 1 drive. I will not speak of this business again.

Seems like this has been discussed before. It’s actually much more rare for a top 5 QB to be any good at all his first 3 years, especially since they were probably drafted by a shitty team. The exceptions are Marino, Cam, Peyton, Luck, Mahomes, Brady. There really are not many qbs that stood out as franchise qbs after only 3 years. There is a steep learning curve and guys coming out of college just don’t have enough experience. Years 4-5 of his career will reveal what Sam is.

Any value we can get from a 3rd QB is a bonus. Whether he plays special teams like Webb used to do, or he lines up somewhere on offense to make defenses have to adjust. That will have more value than Grier holding a clipboard in street clothes each week.

I'd go to battle with: Christianson - Elflein - Paradise - Miller - Moton. Let the rookie take his lumps - he'll get better. By the time we are ready for the superb owl in 2 years, he'll be a brick wall.

I'd love to see if Little has improved any after a year in the system and a full offseason to think about his lack of success in 2020. Ultimately I think he'll be our other post June 1 cut: 1m dead in each 2021 and 2022. I'm actually a little surprised they didn't "Boston" him already.

I think Stevens just needs to beat out Ian Thomas. We could save 1.5m in cap by going with Stevens over Thomas. I like Tremble's versatility - being able to play TE/FB/HB etc., but he is going to take a pounding. I'd be excited if he plays all 17 games, but it's not a given. I think we carry 3 TEs (including Stevens) + Tremble. I could see Stevens being the emergency QB/3rd TE/wildcat guy and cutting Grier. I hate to take a dead cap hit on a 3rd string QB, but Grier just doesn't seem to have it (yet).

Ironically, Sanchez went 33-29 for the Jets. A QB with a winning record for the Jets is a rare gem indeed. Not too many around.

I'm trying, but I just can't find that fact all that interesting.

The irony in this thread is epic. Half the huddle thinks we overachieved by winning 5 games and blowing our chance to get the first pick in the draft. The other half thinks we underachieved by only winning 5 games because we hired a flawed QB and a coach in over his head. Conclusion - at least half of you guys are wrong.

I'm optimistic because for the first time that I can remember, they seem to be thinking 2-3 years out instead of just next year. They are conserving cap. Cap is useful when you are ready to make a run. That is still 2 years out. Early draft selections were at positions that traditionally cost quite a bit (CB, WR, LT). The guys they selected might allow guys that are due a huge payday a chance to walk (Jackson, Anderson, Moton) that will save cap and produce high comp picks. Just a totally different approach.

fixed.

LOL - I don't give a rat's ass about the 2 QBs we "passed" on. I was never obsessed with getting a QB. I'll keep up with these bozos about as much as I keep up with the other 250 players we passed on at pick 8.

most of the guys will make less than 1m. They just replace someone else at the bottom of the roster making about the same. Remember only the top 51 count against the cap. Net cost is probably around 2m max.

Drafts like this one and last year pave the way for letting solid players walk in free agency. Our top 3 picks play some of the most expensive positions to fill and all could see significant PT in their rookie year. As a result, I could see Anderson and Jackson having solid years and moving on next year for big contracts - scoring us a couple of 3rd round comp picks while having decent replacements ready. Try to stay young, hungry, and fiscally smart.

I think we got 3 guys that will start this year (Horn Marshall and Christiansen). I think Taylor Nixon and the two guards will eventually start (probably next year). Shi could start next year if we let Anderson walk. Tremble is a starter anytime we run a play with a Fb or h- back. And I don’t want to reignite the whole ‘is a long snapper a starter?’ So I’ll just say Fletcher will be our starting long snapper. That is an efficient draft.

Wait - do you think Tepper spent time breaking down film on Darnold and Fields? To me, that's the only way to decide. The rest is all bullshit.

There have definitely been qbs picked high that did not work out - Vince Young, Jamarcus Russell, David Carr, etc. But so many highly drafted guys started out like Darnold and ended up being studs. Have a little hope.

My understanding is that Tepper wanted Fields for marketing reasons. To me, that's the wrong reason to want a particular QB.