AU-panther

you shouldn't wait until you are desperate to make a "true investment"

Sound logic ^ Any other positions are easier to find later in the draft or free agency. Even if you want to give out a monster contract there is no guarntee there is a quality QB or LT available most years in free agency.

Agree A lot of the people that want us to go OT in the draft are the same people who want us to get rid of Sam, but I think if we go OT in the draft that means there is a good chance, they plan on going with Sam next year.

Sacks are a QB stat as much as a o-line stat. PFF will often assign the sack to the QB.

I do wonder though, if ultimately he would be better at guard. Our LT procuction has been so bad historically we thrilled with average or above average, but could he be elite at guard? Short term he is helping us more by improving the LT positions but if we draft a LT (especially in the 1st) would the overall line be better with him at guard?

according to the quick recap that PFF does NFL Week 17 Game Recap: New Orleans Saints 18, Carolina Panthers 10 | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF He gave up the most pressures on the line. This fan base is so use to awful at the LT position they are happy with below average.

Because QBs are washed up at 29 like RBs?

I’ve never said you draft one regardless, just this idea that you build the oline first and a great QB prospect will be waiting on you in the future is dangerous. It’s a lot easier to build a decent Oline than finding an elite QB, if you like a guy you better roll the dice. I'm not sure I would roll pick #6 dice on one of these QBs, but I am it convinced trams will have late first round grades on all of them. Maybe they should

And then in 2024 we can draft a QB and he will take 2 years to develop so we might be competitive by 2026

The number of players started is irrelevant in regards to which position is more important. A QB is exponentially more important than any single position on the field and it’s not even close. Doesn’t matter if they have a lower chance to succeed, they aren’t even money bets.

I agree that at some point we should have spent a first round pick on a olineman, namely when we had a franchise QB, Cam. Now that we don’t have a franchise QB it’s the second most important position.

Only if you are wrong

Same can be said about QBs, you have to spend high draft capital and donor organically. That’s the problem, we need the two hardest positions to fix. People just keep acting like it’s easy to find the QB later. How many franchise QBs in the league? How many years do some of them play? 10-15? So in the last 15 years how many truly elite QBs have there been? But you are magically going to have one waiting on you when you finally decide the rest of the team is ready.

Finding the QB is the hard part. I'm not saying spending the 6th pick on a QB is definitely what I would do but this idea that any single OL spot will help the team as much as a QB is ludicrous.

Then we have the same problem. We need to find a QB.

Were the browns bad because they had a bad LT or bad QB?

I agree that a team might evaluate this QB class and feel like none have a good enough chance to be great to warrant a pick, but the Browns are a terrible example. They weren't bad because they kept drafting QBs, they were bad because they were bad at drafting QBs. They had one of the best LTs of all time and it did them no good.

Burrow is playing like one of the best QBs in the league this year so far, I would happily take that "class" of starter. Fans get caught up in this idea of "floor" and "ceiling", Tom Brady could be in the draft and half this fan base would say his "ceiling" is too low. All things being equal everybody wants the bigger arm or better mobility but there is another aspect of "ceiling" that is hard to define. What does that QB do on 3rd and long when his first read is covered, does he automatically know where his second read is going to come open? It's so hard to quantify a QB's thinking process, hence the reason QB evaluation is so difficult. Personally, I feel better about Pickett and Howell, Corrall and Willis make me more nervous. Also, I would feel better about trading down and drafting one. That extra pick would help mitigate the risk somewhat. For example, I might take Howell and a 2nd over Pickett at 8. Having that 2nd would really be good right now, you could stay put and take a LT and then try and package the 2nd to move back into the back half of the first round if you were determined to take a QB.

I don't expect a GM to be correct all of the time but it would be a bit naive to think all of the bad decisions were only attributed to Rhule.

If you have a quality QB a prospective coach could care less about the OL when deciding to take the job. but if you have great OL and no QB you might get turned down. Most coaches probably feel confident they can fix an Oline. Either with draft picks and/or FA dollars. You can't say the same about QBs, there is some luck in getting a franchise QB.

What if Darnold isn't the QB? Maybe we sign some midlevel FA QB. Here again no guarantees you will be drafting in the top 10. But we can do what KC did, trade up next year. So spend one pick on an OL this year and multiple picks on a QB next? Is that much better than spending one pick on a QB this year and multiple picks on OL next year? Speaking of KC, everyone likes to reference them but in reality, that was a terrible QB class also. Trubisky was the first QB off the board, think about that. He might not even be the top QB in this class. If anything what KC did with Mahomes would be more like us falling in love with someone like Howell, not waiting for a loading class with some can't miss prospect. As far as LT go, I do agree though they are dang near impossible to find in free agency, but that doesn't mean that you can't improve the OL without spending a first round pick. Unfortunately for us, our two biggest needs, QB and LT, are the positions that like you said are best found "organically" by spending high draft picks on. QB just happens to be exponentially more important. I'm not opposed to drafting an OT, in reality I'm often on the OT bandwagon but you have to at least do your due diligence on the QBs. This idea that you can just wait until next year and find one is dangerous.

If a coach turns us down it going to be because we don't have a QB, not because of the OL.

People need to stop thinking in terms of ranking, teams look at grades. I don't care if the next available OT is the 2nd or 5th one, does he have a similar grade as the center. Once you factor positional value and need you might even take the OT if he has a slightly lower grade. Think of grades on a 100 point scale. If OT3 is a 90 and Center1 is a 90 I take the OT. If OT3 is a 90 and Center1 is a 92 I might still take the OT, because of need and positional value. If OT3 is a 84 and Center1 is a 92 Im taking the center or trying to trade down because that is a huge reach.

depending on how far you trade back you might still get one of the top 3 OTs.

like what? There is no way to guarantee you are going to be in position to draft a better QB prospect in 2023 as 2022. It might be more likely but not 100%.