kungfoodude

Yeah, I mean I don't think anyone here actually expects him to be much more than roster fodder. He'll be a Huddle JAG infatuation for a couple of seasons and then will be out of the league. Still, probably more useful that Will Grier given that he can play special teams.

Don't do it CMC. Your jersey is on my buy list this offseason.

I have RG deficiency.....is Joe Brady a ginger???? I can't tell.

Completely absurd. This guy must have lost a fantasy football game because of DJ.

I don't think it matter if PJ, Will or Stevens or the 2nd or 3rd stringers. If they see significant time, we're gonna be just as fuged. The only thing that will change is the position we are getting fuged in.

If Darnold doesn't pan out, that is easily the worst assembly of QB's in the NFL currently.

Nah, there was a clear drop off from Okung to Scott. We can hate on Okung all we want but he was the best LT we have had since Gross. Scott did pretty well for what he was. I do think there is a good chance he wins that job if the new guys aren't an upgrade. He wasn't great but he held his own enough. Not a guy I would want as a long term starter but I could see him as a long term depth guy for certain.

I have no stats to back this up but I have to believe that is one of the highest injury rates in football is on the OL.

The only time I have ever seen an intentional on field tanking was the Eagles this past season. And we saw how that went. Lost the locker room and lost his job. Coaches and players almost always want to win.

Well our 2nd and 3rd string QB's wouldn't be likely to make many NFL rosters.

Good article. I like the thought process on wanting versatility, especially as the league transitions to an 18 game schedule(all but an inevitability IMO). Injuries and having quality depth are going to get more magnified the more games are added. That was actually why I was shocked they didn't take Slater at 8. I definitely don't see any long term answers at LT on our roster currently but hopefully we won't be in the kind of shape we were last season when Okung went down. That goes with the OL as a whole. Those injuries along the OL really started to hurt a lot the deeper into the depth chart we had to go. I don't think our starting OL will be appreciably better this season but at least we won't have that cliff like drop off we had last when the bench guys started to play. That was rough.

I think(and hope) he would adjust what he does to help make Darnold as successful as possible. That's becoming more the case that teams try to tailor their offenses to suit their young QB's. I think in the scenario that we have to completely change our offense to hide/protect Darnold, he probably isn't starting for us anymore.

I was genuinely surprised we were even remotely competitive last season. So, we are way ahead of what I thought the schedule was going to be. I hope we see that next step this season. If Rhule's pattern follows him from the college ranks, we should be around .500 this season and then in 2022 we make the big jump to being an elite team. I know a lot have jumped on the Darnold bandwagon but I honestly expect that position will lose us a lot of games this season. I'll be pumped to be wrong(after all, I did say drafting Cam would be a mistake) but I just don't see the track record of success from trying to rehabilitate a bust player historically. Nor do I really see the raw material that makes me believe he is capable of improving enough for it to matter for the future of our franchise. I'm definitely ready to see our Training Camp start though. I am tired of all the theoretical discussions and I'd like to start hearing about how all these new offseason acquisitions are progressing. This is one of the worst parts of the offseason as a fan, that lull between the draft and Training camp.

Well there isn't that much of a risk of busts in this class primarily because we didn't use our higher round draft picks. Once you trade down past the 3rd round, I kind of think that "bust" word doesn't so much apply. I would imagine at least a quarter of our picks will likely not be on our roster in 3 seasons, because the odds of hitting on that many lower round picks are astronomical. I hope Christensen works out. He is a guy that probably has to end up being at least an average level starter on our team for a few years or he will get that bust tag. Definitely would not have been a guy I would have drafted personally but the coaches have a vision for what they are looking for, so I hope he fits that and is successful for us. I am curious to see if we keep this "quantity over quality" mentality about drafting or that was just their thoughts on this draft class. I can see the appeal of the logic behind it, so I will be curious to see if it works out in the long term.

Yeah, that was honestly one of the biggest issues with our team in general. That was why I said we were the least talented roster I could recall before last season. It wasn't so much that we didn't have talented starters but I had never seen such a sorry lot of depth guys as we had. That is what I really hope to get out of all these guys in this class. If we can shore up the depth on the roster alone, it will allow us to finally fix the OL in the next couple of offseasons and perhaps start looking for some upper end upgrades on our weaker spots. It's definitely something not enough of our fans had an appreciation for. That's why all those injuries had such a huge impact last year.

Well we are likely to keep two of them, so I don't think he needs to exactly perform at a super high level. I would imagine we will be churning at TE next offseason, as well.

Well we don't exactly have a lot of competition for him.

I'll maintain that Steve Beuerlein was the second best QB in franchise history(behind Cam). Delhomme is closely behind but Steve was my guy.

He is a UDFA, so if he is just another Tyler Larson, I am okay with that too. Any UDFA that can hang on for quality depth for more than a 2-3 seasons is a win. Anything more than that is an absolute home run.

They also went into the playoffs on a hellacious slump. Injuries piled up in the second half of the season and that destroyed the chemistry they had early in the year.

That was just flat out embarrassing by the Hornets.

Agreed. I didn't particularly like all the trading down because I felt like we passed up on long term starting caliber OL in the 2nd and 3rd rounds for a bunch of "cross our fingers and hope this works" dart board throws. I get the logic behind it but it isn't what I prefer. Of course I disagreed with the first round pick because I value QB and LT over CB, although I believe now that Horn is going to be an elite player too. Overall, I am optimistic that we finally addressed some of our issues with depth on the roster. Perhaps next draft/offseason we can address some of the holes that we have in the starting lineup.

IT WAS EXACTLY WHEN I MEANT IT TO BE! Oh.....the projection....right.....okay.

Also going to go on record as saying I actually really like PFR's AV stat.

100% agree. I get the homer instinct to jump on board and believe it was the greatest draft in history. I completely understand where that comes from. However, we have little data on the coaching staff and even less on the new FO. Having a healthy sense of skepticism is probably the best way to look at it. Let's just wait and see what it becomes. No overt judgment on it either way. Let it pan out.