kungfoodude

Players chase money but winning players also chase opportunity. It's the reason players like Matt Stafford didn't chose us or the Jags or any of the rest of the bad franchises in the NFL. I don't see much in the way of immediate help in the draft, hence why I would rather pursue a competent veteran QB. If we just start the process of getting the OL fixed and then let our strengths(defense, running game) carry us in 2022, perhaps we can attract a top tier QB talent or go for broke in the 2023 draft to get The Guy. We will see what happens.

Yep. I would love to have kept Heineke or Cam or have signed Tyrod Taylor or Trubisky or traded for Minshew or gotten any number of other veterans that could help us just be at least average at the position. I think we are having a completely different discussion about this season had that been the case, poo OL or not.

I agree. This is a team that could have won immediately. All we had to do was take the OL seriously and not assemble the worst QB unit in the NFL. That was it.

The only real measure you can use is statistical to compare our history. The "on paper" measure is harder to agree on. Too subjective. We are a top 10 passing defense(probably top 5 after the stats update for this week). But we have been a top 5 passing defense before in our history.

Statistically, not yet.

I don't know that even I would roll with Sam in 2022 even thinking rebuild. I am very sure they will not, because Tepper seems impatient and Rhule is gonna be feeling the heat. They have all bought in on the "win now" mentality. I would start Sam again simply because you risk flatly losing the team and losing talent that just wants out of here. It's hard to keep competitive people around on a losing franchise. That is at least part of what keeps bad franchises bad for a long time.

He is either getting released or getting moved or gonna be a backup. If you bring him back as a starter, you are just asking to be fired. He will not improve and he will cost you games. I agree on the focusing on winning. It's a very strange thing to say but they sort of got caught up in the moment and forgot this was a rebuilding effort. The sad part is that we aren't that terribly far away from being a good team. They just need to stick with the ORIGINAL plan and build effectively. Fix the OL and get a real NFL QB.

Eh....I tend to think that Dillard might just be a bust. Not sure I would send a talented player for him. Perhaps some minor draft capital.

What? Taylor is a rookie. He has a three year cheap deal. We'd be nuts to trade him.

Agreed and he might develop further if he gets a lot more reps and experience with various teams. Backup could work out for him. Or he could just simply not have it at all and be out of the league in 2-3 years.

I think he cares about winning, he just doesn't know how to accomplish it is the issue. I think the staff knows they can't bring him back as a starter. That is essentially signing their own pink slips.

Yeah, I completely disagree and I don't think Tepper cares about that at all. He cares about winning because he knows that is what puts asses in seats, not gimmick home players.

Yeah, I am really concerned about that outcome as well. We don't have the luxury of being able to miss on our 1st round pick, because almost all of our picks are Day 3 picks. If we don't see "The Guy" at QB in this class, get the best OL available. Fix a problem that you can, not create a new problem by wasting draft capital on a reach at QB. fug me, we've basically done that in free agency two years in a row, let's not have Version 3.0 of that.

I don't think Tepper cares at all about the home state thing. That was a JR trait. Not to mention, Howell isn't going to bring many new fans to the fanbase, if any at all. I agree on Fields, though. If he somehow turns it on over the last half of the season, Tepper is going to get "aggressively involved" in the 2022 QB decision, IMO. For better or worse.

This basically nails the bulk of the issue. Key mistakes basically put us in an untenable situation this season. The extremely poor decisions at QB and OL have basically crippled our offense. Add in some predictable and ill-advised offensive playcalling, some questionable preparation and questionable in game coaching as a whole and you end up where we are currently. But, on the positive side, the personnel issues are far fewer than we had in 2020. Even as bad as this seems now, we aren't THAT far away from being a contending/competitive team.

Oof. If we go on in on Howell, it will all just end in tears again, IMO. Howell has some talent but he is a big project with a lot of flaws that need to be coached out. Not anything near a day one starter, IMO. I don't like much of this 2022 QB draft class, which makes the future at QB seem so much more bleak for us. IMO, it will be journeyman QB in 2022. Just because that will be all that is reasonably available and overdrafting a QB is a path to the ultimate failure. The real fun is going to be how involved Tepper becomes in forcing a QB on the team.

Yeah, I am trending that way too. He just seems so lost on the field for most of the game and then there will be a handful of plays that make you scratch your head and say, "Why the fug can't he just do that all the time?" That really screams NFL backup and not starting QB. Honestly, it probably would help him to be holding a clipboard for a few years. He might eventually become a halfway decent backup QB if he has the time to learn and develop without any of the actual pressure to play regularly.

It's going to take a tremendous defensive effort to best New England and luckily we have a rookie QB we are facing. Think about all the talking heads and analysts that keep saying how predictable we are on offense. Boy if that isn't tailor made for Belichick to roast us.

He'd be a starting QB here because of how terrible our situation currently is. But, hypothetically, going into 2022 with Cam as a starter wouldn't be much different than 2020 or 2021 was. It's again just not addressing the issue. But, it would be a HELL of a lot more fun to watch than what we are currently watching at QB.

That is some of the problem but Darnold historically and this year has also struggled even more with a clean pocket. TBH, that is the most damning thing about him and it was something that was highlighted by a lot of us when we traded for him initially. It's easy to lay his struggles in the lap of a bad OL but he has proven time and time again that he struggles even more when he does have time to throw from a clean pocket. Hence why so many(here, in the sports media, players, etc) have said his biggest struggle is just seeing the field. The WR's......I will see what happens when we have a new QB. I suspect the drops will decrease but we need them to DRAMATICALLY decrease. It will be something to look at in 2022 for sure.

Christensen we will just have to see. He was a mixed bag in his first start. I am definitely down on him in general just simply because it was this FO/Staff that selected him and their track record with OL is atrocious. Marshall wasn't splashing much but he was making some minor contributions. I think he could definitely stick around as a quality depth piece with the chance to maybe even move up if he improves. Tremble I like but he is a work in progress. The hope is he continues to develop and becomes a valued starter for us. Hubbard and Smith might end up as backups for us, it just depends on how their career arc is. Brown I am out on. If he can't get past these bums, he just isn't it. Plus, he was a 6th rounder anyway. So few of them pan out. We need to make meaningful investments in the OL(1st, 2nd, 3rd round draft picks) and get some EFFECTIVE veterans there, as well. Then we also have to eventually figure out QB. You are only going to go so far in the NFL without a competent NFL starter. We currently have zero on the roster.

I am not the person that made that statement and I didn't read into it what you did, for that matter. Sam was below average passing the ball in the Falcons game, although he was good at hurting them with his legs. Below average was an improvement over his past few starters, which were absolutely terrible. Listen, I get that hope springs eternal and I get that the offensive struggles are definitely not ALL Sam's fault.....but boy a LOT of the offensive struggles are certainly his fault. He just simply isn't the guy for the multitude of reasons that have been discussed ad nauseum. He just is what he is. We need to stop getting hung up on trying to defend him and focus on what that offense did well Sunday, which was rush the ball. That can possibly save our season. Sam Darnold can't.

Yeah, the absurd amount of drops and the fact that it is just about everyone is what makes me less inclined to put ALL the blame on the guys dropping the ball. Don't get me wrong....you gotta make those catches, but the fact that it is just about EVERYONE??? Something is clearly up. Obviously a chunk of that is Darnold's poor pass placement and poor timing, but it seems to go beyond that, as well. I believe we will see CMC at a 90+% usage rate once he returns. Partially because he is a big boost in pass protection(something almost all of our RB's struggle with but him) and no coach we have had can resist using him consistently, for better or for worse. Part of what helped Sam not fug that game up for us was getting those third and manageable situations by having an effective running game. Like you said, we had success going heavy and not just trying to be cute offensively in these medium to short yardage scenarios. I think that going run heavy helped Brady out a lot too.

Yeah, this fairly inevitable. Especially when you saw the "investments" in a struggling offense from 2020 of Sam Darnold, Cam Erving, Pat Elflein, Brady Christensen, Deonte Brown, Terrace Marshall, Shi Smith, Chuba Hubbard and Tommy Tremble. I mean....there are definitely some potential pieces for the future there but not a single name on that list has made a meaningful upgrade to our offense this season. In most cases, it was lateral or a downgrade. That isn't the path to success on that side of the ball. So, for all their success defensively, what have they really added to the offense in two offseasons? Basically just Robby Anderson, right? Because Moton, CMC and DJ Moore were already here.