Khyber53

NIL money has changed the college game, particularly at the QB level. There's a character development aspect that isn't happening anymore and not just in leadership, but in the idea that you have to pay the dues, earn your spot and overcome. And then we ask these half-baked products to come out on opening week in their first year (or second or third even) and take the world by storm. They didn't have to back up Brett Favre or Joe Montana or anyone for that matter. The only one I can think of that had to ride the pine before taking the reins was Love in Green Bay and once he took over for Rodgers he showed maturity and an understanding of not just the game but his place within it. I know, I know, old fart yelling at the clouds. Yadda yadda.

The proverbial no, not that Josh Allen, the other Josh Allen, right? The guy who posted 0 tackles/ 0 assisted tackles, no sacks, no forced fumbles, no INTs for the game, right? I know he's supposed to play end but he was a non factor.

As much as I want to gnash my teeth and say that he's not going to make it, there's some wisdom in your observations. There was less to really blame on Bryce than we want to. He wasn't great, but he wasn't the reason we lost that game. Our o-line wasn't working well. Corbett couldn't make the snaps and was ass as a blocker. Our back-up LT wasn't prepared for the ferocious (really???) Jacksonville pass rush. We weren't getting much push from the line in the running game, once again lacking at center and LT. Our receivers could NOT get open to save themselves. And when they did make a catch, it was tackle and down. But our offense really didn't lose that game. Our defense did. Our defense may suck worse than it did last season and it's glaringly obvious that it has been poorly coached, poorly built and poorly used once it is out on the field. And Bryce, well, he doesn't play defense. But then again, not sure many of our players can.

Game one is a bit early for the "on pace" thing. Jacksonville would be "on pace" for 3400 yards of rushing this season...

Oh, I agree. Josh and Lamar are both the next evolutionary step in QBs from the line of players like Cam. They have that something extra. And honestly, they are still prototypes of what is yet to come. This game evolves.

He was the 8th player taken in the draft and the first true WR taken off the board. I saw what he did in the pre-season (camp doesn't count or we'd thing Bryce was great) and it was nothing really. Pretty much what we got from everyone. Right now, he's meh. He can certainly prove me wrong. Kelvin Benjamin was lighting it up once upon a time. So did Keary Colbert. Meh until proven otherwise. No matter how strong his Bro vibe is, his game has been uninspiring so far. Light it up man, that's what we picked you to do. One handed no-catches and no YAC isn't going to impress anyone.

I've seen enough rookie receivers to get a feeling how they'll do, whether it's Bryce, Cam, Jake or Claussen throwing to them. And I can tell hype from hero. T-Mac seems to be Meh at the moment. I hope he proves me wrong. XL... yeah, that guy ain't making the grade right now.

Where does all the love for Tet come from? He's been okay so far. Of course, that stands out when the rest of the team is this bad, but really. He's not breaking any records around here, rookie or otherwise at this point.

And honestly, Burns was all hype and little production. Folks loved him because of the Spider-man celebration. He was lousy in run containment and only could generate pressure in one-on-one situations with bottom half of league level OTs. Ask the Giants how good he is... they'll only tell you the truth if they aren't trying to trade him.

Cam was the prototype. He was what a long line of mobile QBs evolved into, from Fran Tarkenton to Cunningham to Vick to Cam and then to Josh and Lamar. Those two guys are the pinnacle of the mobile QB position now. Smart, fast, big and they've got not just laser cannons for arms, but have incredible processing ability matched with leadership skills. What do Josh and Lamar have that's better than Cam's? They can work the team aspect better on the field, whereas Cam had it in his nature (and nurture) to put the entire game on his shoulders and will it to happen.

Folks really got pissed when I said Tepper would only hire coaches that didn't intimidate him. I still stand by my initial assessment. And look where that has gotten us.

Time to jettison both of them. If you think Bryce was the only person we fielded yesterday who wasn't coached up or capable of being on a professional football field, then you are missing something. Outside of Chuba Hubbard and Jaycee Horn, no one looked like they had done their homework, knew their assignments or had even shown up for training camp. That's on the entire coaching staff along with the poor play calling and clock management issues. We have poorly chosen and recruited players, then we poorly coach them up and poorly motivate them. We do pay them fairly well, but that, it is beginning to seem more and more likely, is because well, we have to. Not sure if I can sit through another season of this crap. It would take something miraculous.

Best of luck to you and better days in real life ahead, man.

One problem I've had with T-Mac since we chose him is that he has this "cooler than you" vibe. And it's something he works at creating. And that might be part of those one-hand grab attempts. Always trying for the catch that ends up on the poster, yanno? And that leads to, well, drops. In the end zone. Be a professional, catch the ball, make the touchdown.

These are the same guys they showed themselves to be in the pre-season. We look like the kid who never does his homework being called to come up to the chalkboard and explain a math equation. Good job coach.

We seem to have drafted two WRs for specific traits: Catch radius and the ability to go up for a contested ball in the endzone. We somehow missed out on things like route running, situational awareness and speed. XL and T-Mac (do they really deserve nicknames based on output yet?) aren't very good at the route tree yet, they don't seem to know to break the play for opportunities when PeeWee gets pressured and the two of them can be timed using Calendars when they are on the field. It used to be our fastest receiver was an aging white dude who was a UDFA castoff from Minnesota. We replaced him with basically the same white dude, just younger, cast off from the Raiders. Yeah, XL sucks, but the process that chose him and chose a partial clone of him again the next round might be the bigger problem.

It's shameful.

Small and slow are apparently two of our scouting goals. Everyone on the team is one or the other -- a few standouts are both. Most undersized LBs ever, slowest DEs, tiniest QB, slowest WRs... Really, I think this team could be whipped by 53 Todd Sauerbrun clones, especially if he was still taking the testosterone supplements. And yeah, Evero... is Tepper punishing him or just us?

Tepper's fault is not knowing enough to hire or retain people who know football. But you have to lay the blame on the hucksters that have talked him into hiring these coaches. This team looks completely unprepared, just as they did in the pre-season. You practice how you play. There's no hunger in this team. There's no bully. There's no mean. There are no balls. fug these soft ass coaches.

Time to blow the whole thing up. I know it's just the first game but when the milk smells spoiled, you don't have to drink a couple of glasses to make sure before throwing out the jug.

It is appropriate that we wore white shirts and white pants for this game, because that defense was a bunch of marshmallows. Little pressure, most of the tackling done by the DBs. Got pushed around by a meh team. We keep waiting for that defense to get better. And waiting. And waiting.

This is not a professional football team from ownership on down to trainers. Half of the teams will lose in the first week. Roughly a quarter of the league will be 0-2 at the end of next week. And we may still be looking for a win by November at this rate. At least we got a TD.

It's still early. And apparently will be for a while today.

Well, in 2003 we had Rodney Peete and had just snagged some Cajun dude who'd spent time on and off New Orleans' bench and practice squad, had played a bit in Europe. Moose was being considered kind of a guy that hadn't lived up to being a WR1 and Smitty was interesting but hadn't really evolved yet. And then there was Ricky Proehl, an aging, not-so-fast white guy with good hands. Our RB corps was a rookie out of UCLA with a lot of question marks and an aging guy who'd just been jettisoned by the Deadskins. Our o-line was suspect and our offensive play caller was a former head coach of the Falcons. Of course, we had this monster of a player at DE named Julius Peppers. The league had gotten a glimpse of him the year before but they had no idea. No idea at all what they were running into. In 2015 we lost Kelvin Benjamin in the pre-season to injury and we were ready to hang it up right then and there. It would take 15 regular season games and one really pissed off Falcons team before someone would hang a loss on us. So, maybe, just maybe, we can find a spark of magic this season, the conditions seem eerily familiar. Sure would be nice.