kungfoodude

Which really makes Cleveland's run at QB's so amazingly futile. It even defied the statistics at being as bad as it was.

Well, if the reports are true about the Baker deal, it appears Rhule may have lost that personnel power. Or at least it could be diminished. So is Fitterer as likely to take a short term view? We will see. I think it will come down to what I said above. Who has the most power? Fitterer strikes me as a wheeling and dealing kind of guy but is he going to push for a single season like that? Seems less likely than Rhule, who is fighting for his job.

Yeah but you may as well throw out the long term POV at this point. We have idiots running the show so the long term is bad to medicore, most likely. Just think about it from a one season, fan perspective. Wouldn't you rather just see a Baker/Corral battle than watching Darnold/Corral? I know I would. And when Baker is good, he is pretty fun to watch. That's what matters at this point. Watchable football.

Even if it fails, it was a MUCH better gamble than Teddy or Darnold at their price tags. If you are gonna gamble, make it THAT kind of gamble. Not a cap or draft pick nuking deal.

Yeah, we shouldn't freak out about this. If this was the story post-TC, there would be a big problem. I agree. This is probably a non-story.

I am gonna give benefit of the doubt to coaches that absolutely don't deserve it but I have to assume this is largely BS and they are just prepping BC to go at LT in case Ikey gets injured. After all they did also say he was taking a bunch of reps at C too. I think maybe this is much ado about nothing.

I mean....maybe I am the dumb one to think differently. Those moves should literally be fireable offenses. I still believe that Ekwonu is a day 1 LT starter. If that doesn't happen......Jesus.

Jesus.....we are about to fug this up too?

This is also backed up by the fact we were reportedly considering taking Howell even after we had selected Corral. I actually don't dislike the strategy. But, while Seattle eventually ended up with Wilson, Cleveland also did this for the better part of 20 years with little success. So, we could get Wilson or we could get a parade of bad QB's over the next decade plus.

With Tampa, all they really have to do is wait for him to hit free agency if they had any real interest. Why pay so much for a guy that you will have to re-sign and you can probably get for nickels on a "prove it" deal?

Yeah, I wondered if that was just pure BS, though. You can't expect him to get up and gut his guys this early in the offseason. That's a mid-season Rhule move.

Very interesting indeed. I honestly would have guessed the reverse scenario. IMO, if this move does happen and Rhule is anti-Baker(which we also don't 100% know is true) it is the first concrete indication that Rhule has lost final personnel decision power. That would be a huge shift.

Are they having outdoor activities in 100+ heat? Seems a little unwise.

I know one thing that I have been concerned about pretty steadily is the youth of our team and building such a bad culture. I hope we aren't bringing up a bunch of "core" guys that have no clue how to win because they rarely ever do it. I think it's probably easier with a veteran team for most of them to compartmentalize that kind of stuff because they have the experience as NFL professionals. But a lot of these core guys really only know losing. I do wonder about that long term. Will we eventually get someone in here that can instill winning culture?

Do we have a quote on that? I was very curious about how that broke down.

Pretty much my thoughts, as long as we don't trade anything more than a 5th rounder for him. I am fully aware of the anti-Baker contingent and why they don't want him. At this point, I don't care about the future of the position nor do I care about the future cap implications since we have an idiot running the show. As a fan, I just want something interesting. At least Baker Mayfield starting would genuinely be something interesting to see again. Honestly, minus that and maybe seeing if we landed a franchise LT.....there is absolutely ZERO interesting things about our current roster. It's all been seen before and in disastrous fashion. I just want to watch something to make me have passing interest.

I think the difference will be who is beating the war drums for Mayfield. Sam was a Snow/Rhule thing, so I imagine that was why we blew our load so early. Seems like when Rhule fixated on a move, we make it quickly. Which, he is the GM, so I suppose it should work like that.

I think just losing is bad for the locket room. I don't doubt that many of the players in that locker room are well aware that Sam Darnold is incapable of being an NFL QB but I am not sure how quickly I would jump to "locker room killer." It's possible that is the case but perhaps the locker room morale isn't nearly as bad as the fan morale.

Yeah, no doubt. I am just curious if people think that was a fluke thing or we will start getting antsy again this season.

Eh....talks don't mean a deal is imminent. This sounds like a battle of who blinks first on their offer.

No but it does fit the mold of flailing about with roster moves to try and salvage something.

This was a big thing last season as we attempted to bolster the defense after a couple of injuries early in the year. Apparently we fully believed this was going to be a playoff run. Will this happen this year? Will it be dependent on early season results?

Not sure how much lower we can go without being subterranean.

As someone who was beating the drum for getting rid of Teddy and was not a believer in him when we signed him.......I immediately regretted getting rid of him when we traded for Darnold. What I will NEVER forget is the people last offseason that tried to convince themselves that Darnold was a better move than Stafford(yes this did really happen in the Huddle).

I don't think Cam is gonna bite on it this time.