mav1234

For a decade people had been saying Reid just couldn't win a Superbowl. Then Mahomes came along... LG is right here... Mahomes is a great player, period. Now, you could certainly say that his ridiculous stats are a product of his greatness *and* the greatness around him on the offensive side of the ball. But that is not the same thing as questioning if Mahomes would even be good without Kelce.

Maybe. Hard to know for sure. But he was also injured, so.

Eh... If he plays mistake free he'd be a good backup imo. And maybe that gets us the division and playoffs... Then, My feeling is that if he falls flat in the playoffs, where he will NEED to do more than just lean on our rushing, it'll be clear to everyone he isn't the answer

The whole point of my post was the hypothetical that we win out And make the playoffs. Obviously if we don't it's different.

The ONLY interim coach I know of to lead a team to the playoffs in recent memory was the Raiders coach last year, but that was a team with a winning record and a stacked roster expected to make the playoffs. The situation was nothing like this at all IMO.

What interim coach has taken over a 1-5 team and gone to the playoffs?

Tepper is insane if he doesn't retain Wilks if the dudes gets this team into the playoffs (unless we stumble backwards by everyone losing out or something shitty). I don't *want* Wilks but you really have to admit that if he wins the last two and brings the playoffs back to Charlotte you gotta keep him. The only time a coach is fired after the playoffs is if constant expectations have been a Superbowl. We are miles away from that expectation.

I mean. Sam's a 25 year old veteran. He had a good game. But boy has he had a bad career. Doesn't mean he can't turn it around, but odds aren't in his favor. But, recent success suggests backup level. Cool. Maybe more? Sure. Maybe less? Also possible. And anyway no I didn't want Pickett in the first and while I wish him well and have seen him make some great throws, one of the big knocks on him was actually his age.

if this team keeps playing like they are, I suspect there won't be a new coach... edit: but I'm hoping Wilks / Fitterer will be smart enough to draft a QB anyway.

last season at least made some sense since he was averaging like 40 throws a game and 300 yards passing thru the first 3 or 4 games, and you could make the argument he was free of his old terrible coaching. He looks like he's becoming a perfectly fine backup but good god as fans we need to stop settling for perfectly fine backups as our starter.

We have a couple more weeks, and I think a lot will be determined then. If we get BadSam back after these next four, he'll be relegated to backup someplace. But if he plays a good game manager style, who knows. The way I see our QB room next year is: 1) A veteran presence. Could be Sam. Ideally the bridge and future backup. 2) A rookie we draft - maybe in the first or 2nd depending on who is available. 3) Corral, who will have a shot but realistically has a long road to climb. Gives us flexibility to go into next season with a QB that (assume he does this) has won his last few games, while still having options behind him if he ... well, is what he probably is.

I'm not sure on these two - keep in mind, Sam was coming off an injury. Not even sure he was off IR by the Rams game but he would have had huge rust. A lot of his success yesterday was owed to him being brought along slowly. It does look like McAdoo knows how to handle a young QB.

Cam yelling "I'm back"

Thats not training wheels, that's this offense. When we needed points to put the game away in the 3rd he did throw it deep.

What were today's training wheels? Agree we didn't ask him to look when the field at all when he first came back but legit not sure what those training wheels are now. He's just in a QB friendly offense atm. It's fair to say he isn't being asked to carry the team yet but that's different than training wheels (limited playbook, limiting reads to half the field, etc)

Yup. I think we go 3-3 in the first 6 games of the season even with Wilks and Baker, so the 2 game swap to win column would put us at 8-7 now. But 10-5? I don't see it personally.

sure but that isn't what happened with Wilks as coach... Reality is we are .500 with him...

Wilks is coaching at a .500 clip. Sam was injured to start the season remember all, so he'd be stuck with Baker as well. I don't think this is a 10-5 team right now with him; maybe a 9-6 though I think 8-7 is the most likely.

You're right about our offense in general, but this game is actually the first time I think we saw the QB position executed as Wilks would want - although it is not as important as the physical run game, it becomes important to blow the top off defenses etc.

Probably his best game as a pro, or at least since his rookie year. He looked very different this game, both taking good scrambles but also finding deep targets. It is possible McAdoo is developing him, but he's ALWAYS been streaky. Even compared to his good games last year, he was much better this game, but remember that didn't last last year either. he'll need to be able to do this when our rushing game doesn't spot him 7.

If you put any faith in ESPN's QBR, this was one of Darnold's best performances of his career, with a 85.7, to go along with a 121.4 QB rating (his 2nd highest of his career). I don't think it is fair to say that he was carried entirely by our rushing attack - his passing game was a pretty big participant early in the game in generating the lead. On our second TD drive, he used both his arms and his legs to make the difference there - hard to really claim he was just being carried... Third TD drive started with huge gash plays from the passing game. He worked the clock beautifully to end the half... of course, Hubbard's massive run was a big reason we could get a FG there. But the TD that put the game out of reach in the 3rd was all DJ and Sam. Even compared to his good performances last year, he did a better job stretching the field this game. But its just one game... Need to see him keep that up.

I think that's partly the change in philosophy though.

Its also hard to make the comparison within the confines of the different offenses - I do think Goff played well, they just got so far behind so early...

I dunno man, Sam actually stepped up in the 2nd half and made the plays when we needed to in order to keep the Lions out of reach. I don't think he is some long term answer but he had a fine game today and I think it's okay to credit him for that. Regarding Goff, definitely he played better.

It isn't like Goff imploded or something, either. We just outmuscled them.