kungfoodude

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.

I would expect 6-8 guys to be on the roster in 3 seasons. I would expect 2-4 guys to be starters in 3 seasons. If we get 3-4 starters(for 2+ seasons) out of this class, it was a success, IMO.

Yeah, that is for sure. For instance, Greg Little is not a JAG. That dude does not belong in the NFL.

Speaking of JAGs.....

Yeah, all these leagues want to get that for free. The problem was that over time college athletics became massive, multibillion dollar industries in their own right. So, why care about developing for what the NFL is doing when you need to win at your level. That's why college has forced the NFL to change the way it does things. In the MLB and NHL, you weed out a lot of guys that wouldn't cut it by the minor league process. In the NBA and NFL, they go straight into the league. At least the NBA is starting to remedy that. I think eventually you will see the same in the NFL, although it may not be for 15-20 years.

Agreed. Anyone who starts for a long time isn't a JAG. A JAG will bounce around the league or are fixtures as backups on a team or special teams before they are out of the league. Quite a few of the guys mentioned are not JAGS at all.

That is what happens when you use college as your minor league.

There are a lot of people here who don't really understand what a JAG is.

Al Wallace is a GREAT pick.

Man that sucks. Cooper was a ferocious gunner.

That's interesting. I would have thought it would have been more than that.

Well, he also grew up around it. That sort of normalizes it.