backINblack28

as a day 1 PSL owner (thanks to my dad and uncle, I was 9 at the first game in ericcson) -- but i've been around for the entire history....this is what i'll say.  I may go to less games than normal this year and quit on some earlier and I certainly would not blame anyone for not attending or watching at this point.  

For me, personally, remembering the 2015 NFC Championship game, one of the clearest most vivid memories I have is not having to make a peep. I just looked. I looked around, and thought of the fact that normally on Sundays at 1pm over the years I'm trying to get people up, get people loud, get people excited.  And that day, all I had to do was shut the eff up and look around, and it was loud and raucous and shaking.  And I thought of all those moments, walking out of the stadium with head down in shame when our teams were bad/bandwagon away fans were carrying chants out of there.  It's those times I thought back to, and those times that made me truly realize and not take for granted the good. The good tastes much, much sweeter when you're able to remember days like yesterday.  

At the same time, we're approaching a level of apathy I wasn't sure I was capable of in the sense that even in down years I would wear gear, I would talk trash, I would have pride, etc.  At this point I have no desire to defend anything, and no amount of trash talk would be worse than what we see our team do on the field at this point.

These things are cyclical.  Objectively, as an NFL GM, you're currently trying to succeed against the Mahomes juggernaut and the teams like Dallas who are paying 2 dudes 400m who will continuously fall short---that's not a great place to be either. If we're gonna be bad, be this bad. At least that will continue to inspire change, even if it's just Tepper looking in the mirror once ever.   The cardinals did one of the craziest things ever drafting a QB in the first round with a new coach and then one year later they punted on both and re-drafted a QB. At the time I thought it was the most insane, self-indicting 'we're idiots' move a franchise could do.  Yet here they are, having flipped the script.  I hope to hell we can flip something at some point and at least get some lighting towards the end of the tunnel. Stay sane out there, folks.

my dad and I will be there--team performance hasn't really affected our attendance considering it's just our reunion / father son time.  the difference is, for the first time in my life, i'm betting against my team in person -- and enough to pay for my season tickets (and then some. a lot of some)

22 hours ago, ForJimmy said:

Yeah Bryce is going to have to learn to recognize that and hit the hot route or check down pretty quick in those circumstances.  I get what you are saying though.  I thought you were giving the OL a hard time, they actually looked decent to me.  

I agree, they did their job other than not really being tested/having much of an opportunity to run block. It's not always going to be their fault if the sacks pile up if we're not adjusting to blitz or getting rid of the ball or able to sustain run game--my main point was just if we struggled against the Saints to the tune of 3 sacks from a CB, Mack and Bosa will feast, cause even without an extra man they will test any OL, and they're not matching up against the big money guards we paid.

Feels like to me the west to east coast trip matters less for a well coached team. Even though Harbaugh is in his first year, I think his team's game travels. They play hard nosed and we are extremely susceptible to that right now.  Their running game will travel, and I just don't see a world where our offense operates cohesively enough to keep up.  The Saints were mid at everything last year and brought back effectively the exact same lineup and blew us off the planet.  People might want to say the Chargers roster is bad--but they struggled in pass protection and in the passing game and still ran away from the Raiders--who have a better offense than us right now.  I'm just not seeing a path to where we stay in this game. Even when our offensive line holds up, we tend to give up one backbreaking strip sack etc that breaks the game open even for ball control teams.  Anything negative that happens to us including being down 7 I think we're showing that we're entirely incapable of recovering from.  I'll believe in positivity when I see any signs of it.  For now, I'm taking the spread.

On 9/9/2024 at 4:10 PM, ForJimmy said:

Did we have trouble with the Saints pass rush? Our OL did a good job and graded well. There were a few instances where they sent more rushers than we had blockers and we either had no check down or Young missed reading it. 

Yeah, I mean I wasn't specifically saying that the OL did--the offense did.  3 sacks for a CB / not being able to pick up extra rushers is to have trouble, even if individual blockers are doing their job.  My main point there is if we give up 3 sacks to a Saints CB, we will have our hands full with Mack/Bosa etc

7 minutes ago, Matthias said:

The sad thing is it never works out.  I've been on that trend for years, and those I select never show up the way I need them to.  Shoot, I had Olave, Taysom Hill, and Alvin Kamara this week, but only Kamara showed up.

I'm a pretty positive fan. I even thought Bryce deserved this year to have a roster around him/was not sold on him being a bust. We're not betting on a player with Chargers -5.5, we're betting on their team plane not to crash traveling across the US.  That hasn't happened in the US since 2009.

I'm good with it. The Chargers struggled with pass protection and in the passing game and still beat the Raiders 22-10 and pressured Minshew all game. We're worse than the Raiders and we had trouble with the Saints pass rush which isn't as good as the Chargers.  They'll have no issue running or throwing against us, as if us scoring or moving the ball was even a remote threat.

the chargers are -5.5 right now. we may be sad fans but we can double our net worth

16 hours ago, Johnstonny said:

7 years is patient enough I'd say.

right so proving my point by tying XL's success before he plays one real game to 7 years of evaluating someone who isn't XL

35 minutes ago, NorthTryon said:

Well, I expected some relax, its not that serious posts. First some players bloom later. Look at James Harrison and Cameron Wake. Secondly, did you see the QB room the guy's first few years at SC? Furthermore, I get the drafting negativity as the Rhule/Fitterer years left this team so devoid of talent it was scary. People aren't willing to even give Morgan a shot, much like John Lynch who was a broadcaster before becoming the architect of the San Francisco juggernaut. The guy knows football players, he just has the stink of Fitterer on him. Lastly, you saying my post is identical to Mingo and TMJ is exactly my point. There weren't a bunch of people basically alluding to them as busts after preseason last year or TMJ's rookie year. That is lame to do so after training camp and three preseason games, two of which the guy didn't even play. 

bust vibes before week one is outright insane, i agree with you there, and it screams not being around the game long--Steve Smith caught 10 passes his rookie year. this board/fanbase is not currently in the business of caring about rationality or patience

20 minutes ago, ForJimmy said:

The problem is we didn't have enough starters healthy early on.  Our LG is just getting healthy, Hunt was in and out of joint practice, XL was injured, and Johnson is injured.  It would be our QB behind an incomplete OL without his first round WR and he best WR.  Tremble was also banged up along with out backup tackle and backup QB (imagine if Dalton's injury lingered and Bryce gets hurt.  You want Plummer in the regular season?).  I think this is why he didn't play them early.  He kept saying we see how they are looking health wise before he made a decision.  So he could trot out half an offense or try to make some play through mild injuries that could turn more severe.  

Now if you are wanting reps vs starters that is tough to find.  The Pats played their starters for 1 series and the Jets didn't play them at all.  So that would have been one brief series of a offense missing key pieces going against a Pats defense in week 1. 

Again there are 100s of different factors that go into this, which is why there isn't one specific way to do it. 

This all makes sense and I don't disagree with any of it, it's just frustrating that a 2 win team is essentially fronting that we can't use all the reps we can get (esp given new system, new staff, and OL/roster turnover). I have seen enough freak preseason/training camp injuries to know that health is paramount, but I do think young QBs getting reps is important no matter the situation.  I say that to also say I'm not sure how much any rep last year helped Bryce considering we couldn't run for 3 yards, run block, pass block, run a route, catch a ball, or put all of those things together for more than like 15 plays in an entire season so I digress 

Jeremy Shockey was pretty good Cam's rookie year/probably helped Greg in a lot of ways become what he became to the franchise

On 8/16/2024 at 8:55 PM, MillionDollarCam said:

So we added Ream and Pep Biel. Not great but decent transfer window. Should get us to the playoffs.

the game on 8/24 is a massive one with a team we're looking up at in the standings. Great time to go for anyone with any remote interest.  It's time to make a big push, and this is a big one to kick it off.  Hopeful that Ream has plenty left in the tank (and Privett being available to spell him/keep him fresh and learn from him is awesome), and it's sick to have a contributing US MNT player on our roster.

As far as Biel--if he had been the first name we heard we probably would have been fine with it. Instead we spend entire transfer windows lauding fans with what ifs that never materialize. It's exhausting.  But I trust Dean and I hope we can gel and have a nice stretch run here. Hosting a playoff MLS game would be an amazing atmosphere.

18 hours ago, Anybodyhome said:

Laine went to the Habs for a former 3rd round pick in D-man Jordan Harris and a 2026 2nd round pick. Columbus retains no salary.

Harris signed a 2-year extension in February for $1.4M AAV.

In other words, Columbus unloaded Laine for peanuts .

 

to a non contending team who can afford to find out if there's anything there. and as you said previously--it seems pretty likely that his next stop goes exactly how his last few have

retread selfish me first dudes dont tend to do well in Brindamour's system where you have to defend first

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/40733879/usmnt-tim-ream-move-charlotte-final-stages

apparently this is very close to official.  Topbin says he expects a departure.  I'm not sure it will be on defense. I think maybe Brecht because of salary.  Sounds like we are still looking for a 10.

2 hours ago, Anybodyhome said:

To be honest, the only person to make any inference that he didn't want to be here was his dad. Martin has never said he didn't want to be here, nor has he mentioned anywhere else he wanted to play.

If his arbitration award is a 1-year deal, I expect Carolina will trade him at the TDL, depending on the season results. If he gets a 2-year deal, he may end up staying for a bit.

I, for one, don't have a problem giving him a shot playing 2C with Kuz on the wing. Keep Jarvy on the Aho line. I think Kuznetsov is a bigger scoring threat on the wing.

I don't disagree with any of this. At the same time, I think he plays at odds with our system and you can see that sometimes it works out and is flashy (and therefore lends making it easier to say why don't we grant him a bigger role and/or more freedom) but sometimes, it lends to the exact things Rod tries to prevent (bad giveaways/odd man breaks/unnecessary turnovers).

Necas is still very young in the sense that he still has improvement in him even in the facets of his game he's best at.  I worry though here because it seems like he is putting us in a really tough place with negotiations which both lessens his value on open market and lessens his trade value.  The early rumors of not wanting to sign here don't really match up with him just turning down a possible extension with several other playoff teams.  If he doesn't know what he wants and can't be decisive about it then it gives no sides any leverage including teams trying to make calls about him.  Guentz may have strung us along and screwed us, but at least it's done and over with. 

I just want this to end so we know exactly where we stand. I don't love including him in an Ehlers trade, but if we're losing him anyway it would make sense. Just hard to feel like at this point any side is going to get the best of any deal cause it rarely improves for all parties as time goes on.

Just now, MillionDollarCam said:

It looks like next year is going to be the year that a lot of young guys get a chance.

in itself i didn't/don't have an issue with this. And our main point has always been that we didn't want to be one of the go for it all teams at the deadline because we have a window that has term with Slavin/Aho/Svech/Jarvy. 

however. keeping martinook above market value and not combining the youth influx with things like changing things at goalie and or signing a big name as a guentz replacement just feels like so far we're kind of sitting this out, and i really dont like the idea of taking a large step backwards from pre deadline roster last year. i understand we've given this a run with the same guys and it hasn't worked and changing some things there. but we also know exactly what our glaring issues are. so to not get better at those while also getting worse/losing big time names in other areas is pretty disheartening thus far. Hope there's more to come.

10 minutes ago, t96 said:

It's a little more than I'd have liked to pay and 1 year longer than I'd have liked but this post is ridiculous. He was put on waivers before the 2022 season, nearly 2 years ago, not "months ago." Since clearing waivers he has put up 27 goals and 66 points in the bottom 6, while providing great D, PKing and physicality. And 16 points in 26 playoff games. I absolutely can't stand when Rod plays him on the top line but Martinook is an extremely valuable 3rd liner. I have no problem with this move.

he turns 32 in a month. the reason we are letting TT, Skjei type guys go is because we're betting on youth to fill instead of overpaying guys who are probably not going to get better/faster etc at this point. Martinook has been on the top of his game, yes. But that's exactly what the complete ceiling looks like, and he's getting older and was never the fastest/most skilled guy regardless. We outbid ourselves.

35 minutes ago, TheCandyMan said:

Friedman also reported Jordan Martinook is returning to the Carolina Hurricanes on a three-year contract with a $3.05 million AAV.

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-free-agency-live-blog

 

I like Martinook, but this is an objective overpay for a dude who cleared waivers months ago

https://x.com/Canes/status/1803081577003438591

Think this was the right move. He was always the guy driving the analytics--hopefully he has learned the other parts of the trade under Waddell. It's worth seeing rather than losing him for sure.  Let's get some dudes locked down!

I have both so I wouldnt need to trade, but I have 2 seats in 253 row 15, and I know my seat neighbors so 4 total available for some matches all that can be had at face value with no fees etc

4 hours ago, carpanfan96 said:

Even if he takes a slight discount, you’re still talking about 9-10AAV. I’m not sure they offer it tbh. 

idk. if they brought him here with the hope of re-signing him they knew it would take 8 at bare minumum. i'd go 8.5 with term easy. we can save some money letting skjei/pesce walk, trading necas and or kk. it's all about what Jake wants. if it's me in the twilight of my career i'm taking 8.5 over 10 to stay on a team this close and that seems like where his priorities are which makes a difference. I'm just hopeful

47 minutes ago, carpanfan96 said:

Yeah because latest projections are for his contract to be 7x10.5AAV. 
 

Necas is projected at 7x7.5AAV. 
 

don’t think Carolina pays either that kind of money. 

Guentz has said great things about being here and caring about winning over money.  I think it's possible we can get both him and Jarvis on a slight discount

Fred had a terrible elimination game, but if our PK/PP was anything less than absolutely dog poo in games 1-3, game 6 would have been our closeout game based on his play. so....yeah.  While I think this year Kotchetkov needs to get the majority of games and if things aren't going well we need to jump at trade deadline---it's easiest to blame Fred because of a couple mistakes directly in the elimination game that never should have been

Agyemang had a 'oh that's why he should be just young fresh legs off the bench game' last night. Feels like we should have had five goals. He definitely should have drawn a penalty (after we were down 3-0) but he has got to start simplifying things/burying the easy ones. Please go spend money in the transfer window. We got a great coach..that much is obvious. Please do not handcuff him. We said we were gonna party and spend. St Louis City says they're a budget team who isn't going to spend the lights out. Right now, we're spending less than them.  Go. Spend. Money. On. Real. DPs.