kungfoodude

I will never understand how we have a portion of our fanbase to hate Cam but also a portion that loves Sam Darnold. There is no better logic test on the planet than that. If you fail it, football is not for you.

He is developing better there than he would in the NFL. Let that continue and in a year or two, maybe he is ready

And boy did we not understand how good we had it too. Man, if I only knew then.

Well, the thought was also that he would be broken instantly by his preseason detractors when actually the most physically impressive of all of the drfay prospects was the one who got so thoroughly broken in his rookie season. Bryce certainly proved to be more durable than most anticipated but.....that's not a long term success strategy. Doesn't matter how tough you are, those hits take a toll. He needs to learn to play smarter and avoid contact like a lot of the smaller NFL QB's do.

Yeah and maybe it was more the hits than the wear and tear, I guess we will never really know. I personally don't think it helped being such an arm thrower most of his career.

The thing is, he was pitched as a lower risk, lower ceiling QB that was basically ready to play out of the gate. Turns out, the higher risk, higher ceiling guy in Stroud was the actual ready to play QB from that draft. I realize that there is no reasonable scenario where we make that trade and sit Bryce Young but the reality is, he would have benefited perhaps the most from largely being a 2nd or 3rd string QB for 2-3 seasons to work on all his flaws and get adjusted to the NFL level. I can't say he'd be an elite QB at the end of that, but I don't think he would be trending bust as rapidly as he currently is.

And quite a bit of that was him never really tightening up his throwing mechanics until his arm was already shot. He said he bought too much into that Superman mentality on his podcast. I think that was another element of that. His arm was so fuging strong that he just never really thought he needed to focus on tightening up that aspect of his game, IMO. Well, literally not until his arm had already been destroyed.

Yes but he had previous shoulder issues. That was the very large nail in that coffin. Sadly, I am not sure Cam's arm is much stronger than Bryce. We remember him in New England and his return here. The decline was really far. Given how recent his league MVP and SB appearance was to his career ending(effectively) injury, he will go down as one of the biggest "what could have been" stories of this era. Very, very sad.

I mean, Cam had the arm strength to make those throws without his feet set but it also was one of the factors that led to his arm getting destroyed over time. No QB needs to be making those off platform throws or without their feet being set often, because they are lower percentage throws(usually) and they are more difficult on your body overall. Bryce's physical limitations weren't a complete unknown. He is a moderately below average NFL arm even if his feet are set and he has time. That's not what will solely keep him from being successful. It definitely is a career limiting factor, however.

Agreed. It's about trying to salvage what we can of the last 3 or so drafts. If we can scrape more than two or three solid starters out of that bunch, it's a fuging start. And we gotta start somewhere.

Yeah, I hope you are right too. Would love nothing more than to be wrong. I think if you look at the past decade or so of drafting and free agency, the Texans have done significantly better. Doesn't mean they are significantly better as a franchise necessarily but they are definitely way ahead of where we are in 2024.

If he wants an elite contract, well.....bye. There is no reason for us to break the bank and possibly have to deconstruct the roster that has led to our success. This is going to be an incredibly nerve wracking offseason with a new GM and a LOT of important decisions to make. I believe in the overall idea we have though. Continue to bet on and invest in young players and prospects. We have had a lot more Jarvis's, Aho's, etc and a lot less KK's.

That's going to account for about a baker's dozen nationwide. He isn't bringing Taylor Swift numbers nor, sadly, are those shows bringing many female viewers in general. Substantially less than regular games will. I am not pining for any sort of publicity that isn't from the field, good or bad. Tepper has definitely cured me of any of those notions.

I think we are very far away from that, unfortunately. I also think our roster is far worse than most realize. It's largely unproven or underperforming young players or veteran journeymen. Our core is the smallest it has been in probably 15 or more years. The truth is, our talent pool has been shrinking rapidly since Ron left. This is the result of Gettleman's poor drafting in his latter years, Hurney's poor overall drafting and then the absolutely disasterous Rhule/Fitterer era. All the while, the deep talent pool we had was either retiring or leaving. I mean, what drafted talent do we have that would even start on a third of the NFL teams? Just basically Brown and Moton. Horn really doesn't count because, well....he is never healthy enough to start anyway. That's fuging terrible. If not the worst in the NFL, very close to it.

@Stumpy Why do we not have a "Jarvis is my Co-Pilot" meme?

That's assuming 2-3 years of HR draft after HR draft. That's not really a realistic goal for us, IMO. Possible but not realistic.

We are probably at least 6-8 years away from being able to have a solid core again, probably more. It's going to take 5-6 better than average drafts and more good offseasons than not. Right now our core is almost non-existent. It's basically Derrick Brown and Moton. The latter of which will likely never see the new core unless he opts to play into his late 30's. I don't think our fans realize how long it is likely to be before we are able to rebuild a quality roster and do it for long term success.

You know, I don't think I even want to see behind the scenes. Show me on the field. No amount of intrigue behind the scenes is going to matter to me. Not to mention, we aren't going to be interesting to a national audience. We have no star players that any casual fan would even know. If you asked most casual NFL fans, they probably couldn't name anyone but Bryce.

Okay, so you had no point?

Yeah and he isn't the first or the last mega talented guy to not have the mental makeup to be an elite player.

Then why even mention him doing well in practice? What purpose did it serve? If you weren't alluding to that, what were you alluding to in relation to the Bryce/Darnold comment?

Yeah, that's my point. That literally means nothing. His literal MO is melting down when it matters and the bullets are real. He has proven that at three different franchises so far. Do you really expect that to change suddenly?

I mean, given where he was from and his age, I'd be a little shocked if JR wasn't at least somewhat racist. That said, he wasn't Marge Schott. It seems like a lot of the players had an affinity towards him so he clearly wasn't a monster. The creepy old man stuff? That is super believeable. He is from a time where that was more accepted and also a powerful and rich person. That isn't hard to believe at all. Now, I will always wonder why he ended up in the crosshairs of the NFL. Something seemed fishy about that, especially when guys like Snyder lasted so long.

I mean.....you don't get into the HOF in the offseason. Darnold has zero NFL future as anything other than a backup QB or ultra low tier starter. He has conclusively proven that. It's not even a question.

I will say once you have been in newer arenas and stadiums with their way better bathroom set-ups, it is such a massive improvement. It clears up a lot of insane lines just waiting around to piss. I have taken to not drinking at all at older stadiums just so I don't have to deal with planning when to take a piss and what part of the game I am gonna be forced to miss because of it. It's so nice to be in a new arena/stadium with way better bathroom accessibility that doesn't force you to literally miss the game. Not to mention I will actually spend money on booze there then.