KSpan

Rushing TD literally right at Burns's edge.

That god awful return decision gonna get bailed out by that horsecollar tackle. Edit: Nope. Hilarious.

Was always a bad pick vs. Slater. Bummer how it's gone for him so far.

One game with amidst a contract negotiation... gonna need a little more before declaring him ascended. Seen this movie before.

Horn hurt already? Lolz.

It's also possible that Burns has been operating in good faith and the front office isn't holding up their side of some deal. That's total hypothetical on my part and I don't think it's the case but just a possibility showing hoe we have no idea why this is playing out as it is.

Was really obvious the Rams were going to be down for a couple of years. No, no one guessed it would be Kupp being injured, but that's just part of the 'how'.

I might care more again when it's on the field. But for now, I'm just friends with the team and it's squarely on Tepper's decision-making since taking over. Sucked all the life out for half a decade now and have to earn it back again.

It's not my job to figure all of this out, but it's obvious that having more draft picks and salary cap room with a quality young receiver for your rookie QB is better than not having any of those things. To your second point, DJ is one season older than Burns, so keeping him and letting Burns go would be a wash. Having Burns here is not going to attract anyone - that is overblown. Players have their motivations, but playing along with your thinking it would be pretty attractive to have a bounty of picks and cap. And you say you're open, but there was a deal last year for 2 1sts and what ended up being basically a 1st. If that deal isn't/wasn't good enough for someone then they aren't actually open to trading in a realistic sense.

Having 2 other high draft picks, assuming 1 is used on a rusher as you say, and an extra $30MM in cap prompts the question of where weapons for the offense are coming from? Seems obvious. The better question is where they are going to come from now if that cap room is gone and with no high draft picks. Hell, even trading Burns to Chicago instead of DJ and maybe keeping one of those 1st and/or 2nd rounders would have made more sense then the timeline we're currently travelling.

After declining that windfall last year such a scenario would just be... hilarious. Sad, but hilarious.

Pep absolutely should be first ballot. Smitty, as others have mentioned, should have been as well. Luke... I love Luke, but I'm on the fence about his HoF status. If he would have hung on a couple more years and continued to play like that then it's a no-brainer, but as of right now it's a close call.

The front office, maybe even including Tepper, misjudging where the team was at and the work required to turn things around with a new staff, new schemes, new QB, new skill position players, etc, does not mean it's not a rebuid or restart. It pretty clearly is. To your original question no, you don't always trade players that need to be paid, but in some situations it makes sense to do so. This was one of them and they blew it, a bounty of picks to grow with a shiny new rookie QB and a ton of cap room for a guy that is driving to be paid more than his on-field contribution to date. MAybe he earns it and grows into a more complete player. Only time will tell. The flip argument here is that a team doesn't always have to hang on to every one of their good players - that can be a path to cap purgatory. See Deangelo and Stewart, Olsen, TD, etc.

The atmosphere in KC is pretty energetic but the Canadian wildfire smoke has been crazy these past days and it's rather hazy. Not really here nor there as it shouldn't have much impact on the game, but will be curious if it shows up on camera.

I like Burns - he is a very, very good pass rusher. Carolina could sink (and has sunk) crazy money into way worse players, and it's still possible that Burns takes an even bigger leap. However, that was a crazy trade package they turned down and I definitely don't understand the contract management strategy.

It really doesn't matter now since Burns has all the leverage and Carolian already showed their hand. They screwed themselves and/or Burns played his strengthened hand when they declined the trade and didn't get a contract done. And IMO they didn't really overpay for CJ, or at least not much. He was a more complete player than Burns and was still a high-quality pass rusher for the first 3+ years of the contract, with that Patriot leg-whip seeming to be a turning point. That's my issue - they are going to overpay Burns for being a less complete player and screwed the pooch by not getting it done sooner if the intent all along was to keep him. Again though, it is what it is at this point. Burns is here, he's going to eat a ton of salary cap, and I hope he shows up like he hasn't done before by becoming a more complete player, actually making big plays at opportune/big times, or both. I'm also not sure why you're expecting so many more sacks since he'll still be playing the 4-3 end role most of the time in the nickel/dime packages unless they go primarily with a 3-3-5, which I doubt based on the DL roster. Hope that's the case though.

I don't know how to be any clearer on this situational difference. When CJ was re-signed, it was after the season and his contract was done. He was entirely free and clear, zero more games to play under a Carolina contract and could have signed with anyone. They had already franchise-tagged Ryan Kalil, so that wasn't an option with CJ. He had also just really emerged in 2010 so it was a risk, but it explained why they didn't offer him big money in-season like they're now negotiating with Burns. Burns is under contract for this current season. He has 17 more games to play for Carolina under the current contract. His contract is not fulfilled until this coming February. He has also been on the re-signing radar for years, unlike CJ, and they are just now dealing with it.

Yes, he does - Burns has this year. CJ had played out all 4 seasons of his full rookie contract and was headed for free agency when he was re-signed. That is a vital difference.

To be clear, you're saying Tepper has done a great job? You have to be kidding. Maybe this was the start of a turnaround but dude has been abysmal deicison after utter failure after stupid mistake ever since he got here.

Burns is not set to be an FA, he has another year on his contract - CJ's contract had expired and he was going to a free agent with strong family/personal ties to Georgia, wit the Falcons known to be actively targeting himactively pursuing him. He was also one of, if not the, premiere pass rusher in that FA class. I'm not arguing that Burns shouldn't be re-signed and agree with your position overall, but they already screwed up by not getting it done last year and compounded it by turning down that windfall trade before getting the deal done, driving the price at least somewhat up. Only thing to do now is wait and see how it all shakes out.

'Best' is relative and discussing observations is not 'hate'. At this point 'hater' is just a dumb, overused term. CJ was a different situation since he was set to be an FA and Atlanta was desperate for a pass-rusher. The stars (and crappy Hurney structuring) aligned for that CJ contract but while he was a tier below Burns in pass rush effectiveness, he was a more complete player overall because he was stout in the run game. There were far worse contracts out there.

That ship has sailed. If they didn't trade him for the Rams deal last year, it isn't happening this year.

Except unless they're running a 3-3-5 nickel or something like that, which seems unlikely, majority of the time he'll be playing the same sub-package end position he's been in his whole career.

It's about more than just sacks and tackles though - total impact comes into play. When was the last time that Burns made a citical play at a critical time? A recent example from Bosa: "Bosa registered pressures on three straight dropbacks inside the 49ers' own five-yard line, capped off with this sack of Andy Dalton on 4th & goal that effectively iced this game for the 49ers and secured their only shutout of the season. Bosa uses a scissor swipe to beat the left tackle and win the edge, bringing down Dalton and any hopes the Saints had of pulling off a miraculous comeback in this game" https://www.ninersnation.com/2023/1/10/23547791/49ers-bosa-2022-sacks I just don't recall seeing Burns make splash plays at game-turning moments.

Amen. It's about the potential to spread or even amplify/multiply the value of a single player. It's not the right move for every situation but it is a very reasonable one for a lot of situatiions.