Sgt Schultz

I am not on the Darnold train, even as a backup. He would have to absolutely prove he has conquered being a turnover machine. I don't think he can do that in the remaining time.

This sums it up. First, if your boss says you have five years to turn things around, he expects to see noticeable progress by about halfway through, if not sooner, and a path to get to that goal by year five. Rhule showed none. Zero, zilch, nada. In fact, he regressed and then looked completely lost at what was going on. That is the real world, whether it is the NFL or managing a project. In short, by the midway point, you have to be able to "get there from here." Second, he was right, he should have taken a different job. That job is NOWHERE in the NFL. It is not at Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Auburn, Clemson, or any other big stage that has big expectations. No place where the players under his "leadership" are skeptics and in demand elsewhere. Third, he is a BS artist. He moves from place to place, speaking in buzzwords, always insisting "the process" is working, even when it is clearly not. The Webb Telescope could not detect progress in what he did here. When somebody talks about "relationships" in a results-oriented business, you know they do not have the requisite knowledge to actually do the job. Like any snake oil salesman, when people start having expectations or catching on, the wagon moves on to the next town in the cover of night. Finally, culture. Oh, culture. When you are dealing with college-aged kids, particularly in places where football is not second only to God or the once-proud program is a shambles, culture is important. They have to believe. But, in a place expecting results (which is any professional sport), culture follows wins. The Pats had little culture when Hoodie took over. Hoodie's first job was to start winning. And with the winning came a culture that supported the expectation of winning. The 70's Steelers, 80's 49ers, 90's Cowboys all developed a culture after they started winning. Not beforehand. Telling professional athletes "if you just do this, we will win" becomes a lot easier sell when the guy saying those words has actually proven them. Then the cherry on top: He sloughs off the decisions to not pick a QB in the draft by saying he was not the GM. Then he wants to take credit for a better roster when it is ready to win. Those two things are mutually exclusive. It is like being pregnant, he either was "the man" in selecting the players or he wasn't. It isn't "kinda." My opinion of him gets worse every time he opens his mouth.

Marty, is that you?

Before we can attain "eternal mediocrity," don't we first have to achieve mediocrity? The last time we met or exceeded that was 2017. Our record in 2018 looks like mediocrity, but we lost 7 out of our last 8 and our centerpiece QB in the process, so the record was pretending by season's end. It's been a while since we could claim mediocrity.

I'd vote for that, if we can find a way to wedge Hooker in there with them. Add Corral into the mix and we could wind up like the proverbial blind squirrel.

That would be called an investment in the Panthers' future.

It may actually be two-thirds of the league. There are some pretty bad teams, even in the middle third or so of the league. It seems parity has given way to the least common denominator. The number of impressive teams is, well, unimpressive.

Well, I wouldn't overdo it. Had those four plays gone our way, The Process would still be here and we would not be having this conversation. That may also be true of the two play scenario. Sometimes the cure for the disease initially hurts as bad as the disease.

It is quite possible. While Denver's options with Wilson look awful, it looks like a picture of "fiscal responsibility" compared to the Browns if Watson does not take them to the promised land. Denver has the added concern of Wilson's age and the possibility that he may just not have it anymore, but that aside, if Watson is not the second coming, the Browns are up against it for several years. His dead cap could just about exceed the salary cap.

The irony of Seattle needing to look at QBs and owning Denver's first round pick, while Denver still needs to look at QBs despite trading a small farm to the Seahawks and committing three Brink's trucks to Wilson is a lesson in "don't let this happen to you." Wilson's dead cap looks like the national debt through 2024 and is still pretty steep in 2025. His contract is in that no-man's-land where he costs a fortune to keep and almost as much or more through then. They are locked into him for a while.

Let's not forget that just because a team is not looking to draft a QB, they often trade with those who are for a haul. As of this morning, the teams ahead of us that are likely sniffing at QBs are Houston, Detroit (Rams pick), and Seattle (Broncos pick). That leaves Chicago who does not have another pick until late int he second round (Steelers own their 2nd round pick, they own the Ravens 2nd rounder). Da Bears have a lot of needs outside of QB.

I think this is a good assessment of our remaining opponents. The only team that can halfway be called on the rise is Detroit, pending how the Steelers follow up last night. That is not to say we will win the games that appear in reach. The game plan we are likely to see against us is to try and stop the run and force us to beat them in the air. Teams that are able to execute that will have a decent chance. Before the season, I was concerned about both Seattle and Pittsburgh because they were not good on paper, but I thought their coaches would figure things out by the time we played them. That is possible with Pittsburgh, but Seattle seems to be doing the direct opposite I think the reason is exactly what was stated above.

One way to keep him from turning the ball over is to handcuff him. The guy has a career TD:Int ratio of just over 1:1 (55:52 as of yesterday). Handcuff him, gag him, blindfold him, hell, put him in a straight jacket if needed.

It isn't working? Do more of it and harder!

Yessir. Our defense gave up two FGs in that game. The two TDs Denver scored were 1) while they were on the sidelines watching the offense give up points, and 2) brought in to defend a 4-yard field. The other FG was off a botched punt coverage. No amount of additional defensive talent was going to win that game. They throttled the Denver offense. Now address the tackle mismatch or counter the Von Miller onslaught and give it a pause and perhaps the outcome is different.

Whodathunk a thread wondering what happens if a team with 4 out of its first 12 games wins it's remaining 5 would generate this much entertainment?

If we win out.......trees will tap dance. While I think all of our remaining games are individually winnable, I also think the task of winning all of them is beyond us. At this point, we have not even won consecutive games this year. We need to win two in a row first, then three, so we get to four in a row. Once we get there, the idea of waking up with a 13-inch penis has me intrigued.

Ah, my eff-up. My wife will be happy to know I was wrong on this board, too. But, my sentiment about Mr. Darnold remains.

He has a fair distance to go to prove he is even a serviceable backup. What most teams want most out of a backup is somebody that can come in, run a limited version of the offense efficiently, and NOT lose the game by turning the ball over. People are drooling all over themselves because a guy with a four-year track record of turning the ball over didn't turn the ball over on November 27, 2022.

This level of imagination could be Dr. Phil stuff.

That is somewhere between a tradition and a religion on the Huddle.

The roster looks very different depending on whether our HC is about the sixth coming of Don Coryell or the third or fourth of Marty Schottenheimer. Right now, I am just hoping it is not the second coming of The Process.

The fact that we have an active thread saying Darnold is the best QB on this team, it is serious, and it is likely true is very sobering.

They are desperate, and I don't say that because they bought into The Process. They went from a powerhouse program consistently in the yearly discussion of national championship contenders to an also-ran in the also-ran division of the Big10. I don't think Rhule can get them back into the annual championship discussion, but he probably can keep them in the mix at the top of the Big10 west, even when USC and UCLA join......assuming the conference keeps divisions. But I don't see anything in his record that says he is going to suddenly dethrone Ohio State, Michigan, or even Penn State as the conference kings. That level of success will brighten the mood in Lincoln, but I doubt they stay there without challenging and sometimes successfully hunting bigger game. We don't know that Rhule can't eventually do that, only that he never has. Good luck to Nebraska. My guess is they are going to be grumbling again somewhere around 4-6 years from now. As far as his remaining staff leaving, they have 4-6 years of job security in Lincoln and if he does make them relevant again, more after that somewhere.

Keep in mind, some of the most hideous specialty uniforms in the league is because the league started to go down the path with Nike of "Oregonizing" the NFL. That trend seems to be waning, as most of the uniform redesigns are teams going back to previous designs. And the color rush stuff should have been nixed before it got off the drawing board. I'm a St. Louis Blues fan, and they once had these They never wore them. They were to be worn at least once, and when the coach at the time walked into the locker room and saw them hanging in the lockers, he told the equipment manager to replace them with their normal dark sweaters at once. That should have been the fate of most of the color rush clown outfits in the league.