Khyber53

I think we will see three RBs: CMC, Chuba and Bonnafon. We won't run a FB on the roster, using Tremble in the role as needed. We'll stash the UDFA rookie on the practice squad along with whichever FB has the best grasp of the passing scheme.

You may very well be right about that. But we could see a third or fourth year back-up being brought on. It would not be anyone who is a threat to Darnold. Is there a Temple or Baylor QB Rhule coached floating around out there somewhere?

Yep, very true. And we won four other games, too. Woop woop woop. Look, I agree it was time for Ron to go from here, it had run its course and the team had run down. He went to a team that had been equally run down, maybe even worse and pushed them forward into the playoffs for their first time in quite a while, all while cycling through QBs and battling cancer, while basically taking his old coaching staff from here to assist him. Got to give the man some props for the accomplishment. Here, well, we're doing a total rebuild and it's something that needed to be done. We aren't the team we were in January 2015 and holding onto that idea had pretty much worn out the franchise. Rhule is building something here, it's just taking some time. In the end, it will hopefully be worth it. But I had warned back when we were all clamoring for Ron to be fired, that it was very, very likely he'd return to prominence and competitiveness before we did. And he did. The guy gets a lot of hatred on this board as ex-coaches do for about every team's fanbase, but these hot takes that he's a trash coach just don't hold water after even the quickest of inspections.

Yeah, I know, we all know. But there he was, in the playoffs while we were sitting at home.

Quotes like this rarely age well. I sure hope we outperform the WTFs this year, but I wouldn't bet against the guy making something happen at this stop on his tenure. He made the playoffs (I know, in the NFCLeast) while we were effectively out of the hunt by midseason. Maybe we can crow a bit more effectively at the end of the coming season. Right now, we're the chumps.

My only argument might be PJ Walker. Just didn't see him lock down QB2 or even QB3. I think they'll release him and stick with Ramsey or pick up one of the journeymen backup QBs that are always milling about during training camp waiting for some team to give them a call.

Jake to Moose in the Super Bowl, beautiful bomb, Moose breaking away and then the camera cuts back to Jake telling a Patriot "I got ya on that one you motherfugger." And second place goes to Steve Smith's catch and collision and collision and collision and collision and touchdown run. He broke six tackles, outran another and shot down the field for a TD. At the time I swore he had hit all 11 Texans and was looking for another defender to shake.

Another great OP. And follow-up from @Basbear, too. We've gone from fretting over the O-line to actually debating pros and cons of numerous players who can/will make an impact. How that line goes will be how our season goes and we are at the changing of the guard part of the rebuild. It's pretty exciting. The game is won in the trenches and we're looking so much more ready for war.

The guy, for a multi-year starter and fixture on the line isn't demanding that big of a paycheck. Starting quality tackle for less than $9 million and they are willing to release him while having to pay guarantees? If this doesn't make you pause a bit while kicking the tires, then you aren't paying enough attention. @XClown1986 is probably onto something here. There's some kind of lingering injury or problem that hasn't come out in public yet. Might be best to pass on this and let someone else take a crack at it.

Great post! It's definitely a wrinkle that gives me some optimism about the immediate future and explains a bit about the immediate past. That line's gotta gel fast and get smart fast to make it work. I can only guess that Rhule has his guys now, or at least ones that fit the mold. If it works as planned, it could be a thing of beauty.

This 100%. Doesn't mean that the guys we got won't go out there and have the best seasons of their careers, though. And with the right coaching and schemes they all just might. But from the outside looking in we're just a bunch of JAGs in Carolina blue.

Send him to the Colts or Chargers. The farther away from us and our conference there better. Let someone else try and cover him.

Not sure, but I am betting most all of that money is spoken for.

Pretty much all clickbait is speculation. It holds no water right now and it's all based on us not making any big splashes in free agency or the draft. We did what we did and it doesn't impress anyone at this stage in the game enough to actually say we're better than we were. Hopefully when we get out on the field, we'll see that some really smart moves were made. But right now, from the outside looking in, we have more JAGs than the Jags. Of course, we did in August of 2003, too.

You're right. We shouldn't pay attention to the number of guys we picked up with serious history of injuries. There's not a bit of worry in picking up Sam Darnold after three years stuck in the Jets penitentiary. Nothing to see there, move along citizen.

It's all speculation at this time of the season, but honestly, considering last year's performance and our free agency efforts, were we expecting better?

And yes, that has been on my mind. It has been one of my biggest worries about Rhule. Does he realize that even though he was an organizational rehab specialist as a college head coach, he doesn't have to make everything in his NFL job a rehab effort as well? From the walking wounded pick ups in free agency, to taking a swing at a historically bad-performing QB, to passing on draft picks to get more players from deeper in the draft... it just makes me wonder if he even realizes that he has better options out there available to him? On the flip side, if Rhule hits on one or two of these rehab attempts, he'll look like the football whisperer. But looking at this crew, those are some big ifs.

He's wearing a Panthers jersey now, so good luck to him. Hope he lives up to the potential. Not a lot of info on him out there, but there isn't a whole lot of talent between him and being in the QB room during the regular season. Put simply, it's not like the other guys behind Darnold have a lot going for them, and maybe not even much at the QB1 position if he can't be rejuvenated.

Also, we have to look at who are serious contenders to take over Moton's spot at RT. Moton is going to expect top dollar in the marketplace and he may very well get it. I don't see us mortgaging the farm for a RT if we couldn't put more than a 3rd round draft pick into play for a very, very needed LT. Also, I wouldn't be so sure that Trent Scott won't be the starting LT at the beginning of the season. Erving has the pedigree but Scott performed remarkably well for us when called on... better than Okung or anyone else we've had there for a while. We've invested a bit in Erving, but if he looks too banged up to hold down the spot, there might be an injury settlement and a release. If he lives up to his old first round drafting, then we have a bargain there and Scott might have to take over for Moton next season.

I hope they all pan out. I do.

It is just soooo frikkin' hard to become a good head coach in the NFL. It's nearly impossible to get the job, nearly impossible to keep the job, and rare do they not become hated by their team's fanbase. Good luck to him, it's a rough ride for even the best of them.

Brad Hoover, Jordan Carstens, Nick Goings, JJ Jansen, Tutankamen Reyes, Al Wallace, Will Witherspoon. Edit to add: Keary Colbert. One season he lit up the charts as a receiver, the second was okay, then an injury that just killed his game from then on out. Got slammed bad by the fanbase, but didn't deserve it.

The missing word there is "quality" depth. We really don't know about these guys and soooo many of our free agent pick ups have quite a few injury bugs that could be issues. Right now, our biggest hope for a star in the making really relies on Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold. A guy the NY Jets might possibly have ruined. This season will depend on his resurgence to get onto the winning side of records. If not, then it is roll the dice at QB again. On defense, well, it's not about star power (we really have no stars that are known widely beyond our fanbase -- Brian Burns is wowed over here, but who?'ed over elsewhere), but about actually being able to slow down an opponent. There were games we weren't even a speed bump to opponents because we played so timidly. We really only had one outstanding defensive game and that was against the Lions... just like every other team that played them. Gosh, I have hope for this team, but right now we have a bunch of no-name starters and walking wounded vets. Maybe the coach can make something great of this, but at times I'm expecting this training camp to be like the training sequence of The Dirty Dozen. Maybe they will build something out of these misfits and make it happen. Hope so, would be a great story for the ages.

Exactly! I'm optimistic, but I realize that is just my nature. If I sit and actually think about last season, the team needs I thought were important, offseason pickups, the way the draft played out for us and the schedule of games ahead of us... then I have to say this is going to be very much a "prove it" year for the coaching and management staff, not to mention the players. Still, I have hope it will work out. But there's nothing on paper right now that shows it definitely will be better.

I'm going to be holding my breath a bit when it comes to saying we had a killer draft class. Our first year GM and Second-year Former College HC passed on some talents in the first round and then spent the whole draft trading back and back and back. It may work, it might work a bit, it might go down as the headscratchingest draft in recent memory or it could be an epic bust that we're cussing for years. We just honestly don't know. All of these guys are rookies coming out of the draft -- how they perform in the NFL is admittedly a crap shoot. We have no past history of draft picks for Fitterer to really see the trend. We have a HC trying to build a team his way, but he only turned out a 5-11 record last season while the guy he replaced took over a demonstrably worse team and rode it to the playoffs while battling cancer. Not saying there were bad choices throughout, but honestly, they are going to need to prove something pretty quickly to change my skepticism.