Sgt Schultz

I saw that report out of the Dallas camp on Grier, too. Grier stunk here, but in fairness to him, he was drafted because he had potential to develop behind Cam. Bad timing, as the guy who wanted him was gone after his first year, because of the way that year went there was next to zero development (seats were too hot), and the staff that came in behind him had no interest. Who knows, maybe he becomes a solid #2 over time. But it wasn't going to happen here once Turner left. The possibility that he could develop into a serviceable backup places him ahead of Walker. Walker's only chance is to latch onto a team willing to run the wishbone.

We do have some cases on this board. I was not a fan of trading for Mayfield, but at what we gave the Browns to get him and the amount of his contract we are paying, it is hard to argue. Bad movie, but a classic line none the less.

Why is it I have this sinking feeling he will be on here screaming when Mayfield spikes the ball after a first down to stop the clock on some drive late in a half? "ThaT wAS A hORribLE tHRoW!!!"

Turnover ratio has stood the test of time far back as I can remember. Every now and then a team will win a big game where they blew the turnover ratio, but overall, that is the exception. One can argue that the Hail Mary interception at the end of a half does not impact anything other than the stat, but the rest usually hurt one way or another. I hate to bring this up, but if the turnover numbers from a certain Superb Owl we would like to forget were changed from 2-4 to even 2-2, the outcome would have likely been different.

My bet is what is in the barrels is really Log Cabin. Darnold for two barrels of high fructose corn syrup, and we pay his salary plus the shipping on the syrup.

Like most numbers, the devil is in the details that are often not captured without digging deeper. As you said, if a team is tied or down by 1 or 2 and the defense forces a turnover or the special teams sets up the offense on the opponent 30, the offense either runs (literally) 3 plays or runs the clock down to :04 and the kicker seals the deal, that is a GWD. It probably shouldn't be, because all the offense did was not turn the ball over, but it is. If the same thing happens and the offense gets the ball on the opponents 45 and needs simply a first down and to not turn the ball over, that is a GWD equal to Joe Montana starting on his own 8 with 3:20 left in SB 23, down by 3, and completing a TD pass with :34 left to win the game. GWD is a good starting point, but blindly taking the numbers as gospel does not exactly tell the whole story. They are not all created equal.

I've had to caution people about trying to compare anything the Cleveland Browns do with the QB position using any sort of logic or coherent rationale. Had Tom Brady been drafted by the Cleveland Browns, he'd probably be celebrating 20 years as an insurance agent by now. The Browns are not alone, but they are in the class that defies reason.

Me either. It is not like JPP or equivalent is going to be the guy that, at the end of the year we say "wow, he sure pushed us over the top!" This team has to prove it can crawl before it walks, let alone runs. I'm not in favor of guys who are far enough down their career that they might get us to crawl or even walk, but then won't be around for a shot at running. It would be different if we were a borderline playoff team last year and acquired some guys who had us realistically believing 11-12 wins was in the cards, and another vet could elevate that a game or two more. That is not where we are at.

Great job. Very good information and observations.

The short answer is yes, it can happen. The longer answer is that there are a lot of IFs that have to work out in our favor for it to have a chance. Among them: IF we have “even year Mayfield” in 2022 and he has recovered from his injuries, IF CMC stays healthy, even if his workload is reduced, IF the OL is played in their positions of strength and gels to become average or better, IF the DL is able to not be a mere object to be pushed aside or run past, IF the offense takes care of the ball and does not put the defense in situations that can't help but result in points, especially often enough that they inevitably result in a lot of points, IF our third year talent recovers from the overall sophomore slump of last year (and is put into positions to succeed by the coaching staff), IF the front 7 can cause some sense of urgency in opposing QBs, IF the WRs put up decent numbers as a group (partially a function of the QB), IF the TEs become something more than decoration, IF the secondary and LBs create some turnover and avoids giving up huge plays in critical situations, IF Rhule either transforms into an NFL HC or stays out of the way of the NFL coaches, IF the NFL coaches can step up their game, IF the coaches collectively do not look like deer in the headlights when things get tough, taking the team with them, IF the defense, in general, can develop an identity, IF the offense can sustain a few drives and answer an opponents’ drives by staying on the field, IF the special teams can, at a minimum, avoid being a liability. It is a list that can apply to any team, but some of those IFs are of higher concern for us given last year. I think are margin for the number of those things that have to work out in our favor is higher than most. It does not take a lot to make the playoffs anymore, especially in a division where two of our opponents are either in complete rebuild mode or melting down slowly, and the third rests on the continued good health of a 45-year-old QB. But, we have our own demons to exorcise.

I agree, but in Rhule's eyes, he has to have Darnold prove why he should still have his scholoarship......oh, wait, we don't have those in the NFL?!?

I agree, I don't think it is possible to top that debacle. If you were going to hire or dig up the greatest football and organizational minds in history and task them to create a debacle that simply could not be outdone, with all their genius they could not approach Urban Meyer.

If the history of this team has taught us nothing else, this is the lesson that should stick out.

I am still thinking of calling 9-1-1 if my chest pains don't subside. I never thought I would see the day when us potentially trading a solid LT would be seriously mentioned. I am stunned.

Yes and no. Part of the problem is there have been some epic bad coaching hires. When you hire Urban Meyer or Greg Schiano, the odds are almost certain that they are going to lower the average NFL coaching tenure. I'm not a fan of creating a coaching carousel every 2 years (or less), but some of these guys would have caused me to pull the trigger very quickly had I been dense enough to hire them in the first place. For example, if I had been the owner of the Denver Broncos at the time, Josh McDaniels might have been moved out of his office by security before he ever coached his first game. A lot of extremely short-tenures have been completely predictable (as in the phrase "what did we think was going to happen?" applies) and self-inflicted. Rhule is on a completely different level as some of those guys. He may be clueless, but nobody is questioning whether his membership card in the human race is a forgery.

Our division looks like a real cluster f*#k. Atlanta is awful, and they set the stage for that a few years ago. The wheels look like they have come off in New Orleans, once Payton stepped aside. We have been locked in a struggle to push toward mediocrity. I'm not sure I have ever seen three teams in the same division that look like they had a competition to determine who could design and implement the most dysfunction. Maybe it's just me, but we aren't the "winner" of that competition, and I don't think we are second, either.

Drafting a guy in the top 10 that is a "natural" LT on a team that desperately needs a LT, and then acting like he has to earn that spot speaks volumes to me. It tells me our belief in our own evaluation process of who we are drafting or signing to fill positions sucks. Can a presumed starter fall out of the starting lineup during training camp and preseason? Sure, it happens all the time and a is healthy part of a team moving forward. Players regress, they fail to recover from injuries, they lose a step, they can't make the adjustment to the pros, while other players seemingly materialize out of nowhere. THAT is the competition. "Everybody is competing for their job" is just this year's mantra. Next year it will be something different. The goal of training camp is to get players ready for the games that count. If you have no idea who your starters are before you start, you either have the luxury of an extremely talented roster (the likes of which has never been seen in the NFL), you are clueless, or you are a BS artist.

A year ago I was behind Rhule. I was not a fan of the Darnold deal or the way Teddy's exile unfolded, but I don't need to agree with everything they do. The proof is in the results. I was not "over the moon" when we started out 3-0 because I realized this was not a 12-5 team. I was hoping we would be in the chase for 8 or 9 wins. I hoped for competitiveness, win or lose, because we saw more of that in 2020 than we expected. Then the bottom fell out. Losing is one thing, but looking lost about what is happening and clueless about what to do about it lost me. His response was wide-eyed chanting that the process was working despite all evidence to the contrary, and "ommmm, trust the process, ommmm." The world is full of BS artists, and right now, he is on my list for that. He can get off that list, but more chanting and doing the same things expecting different results is not the path to do that. He doesn't need to win 12 games this year, but he needs to prove he knows how to win games in the NFL.

Winning consistently if the bar is for me to become a fan. Not sure I can become a fan of an owner, but okay. I'll stop equating Rhule with Moe, Larry, and Curley rolled into one if he demonstrates he is a competent NFL HC. He looked completely lost last year. I need to see some improvement and results and not hear BS that would make an infomercial spokesman proud. Right now, to me, he is a college HC cashing NFL paychecks.

Part of the problem with the most recent stupid we have demonstrated is that we don't really know where it came from. I can theorize the $20M/year for 3 years of Teddy was a Hurney move (it was consistent with his philosophy that if we pay somebody like they are really good, they will be really good). So Rhule and Brady come in, decide Teddy is the best available option, and tell Hurney to go sign Teddy. How were they to know they needed to add "but don't do anything stupid money-wise?" One would not think they would have to be that specific with an NFL GM about the duties of an NFL GM. Where the filet mignon trade price and decision to exercise the contract option of Darnold came about is anybody's guess. I don't think it is as simple as Rhule having contractual control over the roster (which may or may not even be enforced anymore), but beyond that it is anybody's guess. Once Hurney and his contract valuation prowess was out of the room, it generally takes a committee to be that stupid. FWIW, the Cleveland Browns are in no position to laugh at us, at least out loud. We did manage to turn their Watson obsession into an opportunity and then we took advantage of it. Mayfield may not work out, but at the overall price it is hard to argue it is not worth the effort.

So, our search for a starting QB is pretty good because one team grabbed a guy that we exiled and we then basically paid to play for them, one spent a 7th rounder and $850k in salary in the bargain basement, and two that are entering a scorched earth level rebuild sold their QB assets in the process? Is that the barometer you want to use? The Mayfield deal is probably the most solid QB move we have made since drafting Cam (perhaps the only solid QB move we have made since drafting Cam, when cost of acquisition and salary are considered). We hope trading up to the late third for Corral will be included in that, but it is too soon to pass that judgement. Had the Darnold deal looked more like the Mayfield deal, this place would probably be less surly on the subject of QB exploits. But comparing spending a 2nd and then some, then giving the guy a raise to $18.5M, or spending $20M a year on a bridge QB (and then we burned the bridge) to any of these situation is certainly creative.

Yeah, singling out DJ for the fact that we have not done a good job of finishing drives over the last 3 or 4 years is rather myopic. Even under Ron's last year or two, we had trouble on 3rd and 4th and short, probably because our OL was not capable of holding its own. Brady did not exactly show any prowess in calling plays to get people open in the end zone, either. It was more like we did the same things and expected magic despite the fact the field was compressed.

We remember Teddy's demise differently. Teddy was shipped out publicly after he had the audacity to criticize the coaching staff's performance on things like getting plays called in a timely manner, particularly in the red zone. His complaints were largely correct, too, but once he leveled them, he had to be vanquished, even if that meant screwing ourselves further in the process. It always looked and smelled like they were playing CYA over the criticisms at the expense of the original plan. Teddy was not the answer, but we knew he may not be going in and spent a lot of money and resources to arguably not move the needle while sacrificing the original plan. At this point, I think the question for Darnold is whether he stays or PJ stays. I think your last paragraph is probably the most likely scenario: the opening QB depth chart is Mayfield, Darnold, and Corral (in that order) and that may change as the year progresses. Not saying I agree with that or not, just what I think the most likely result will be.

The coaching piece/schemes/game planning is where I suspect the problem lies, and started suspecting that after the Dallas game last year. The players are a bit of an unknown, unfortunately. I THINK we have the talent, and that talent was simply not put in the best position to shine. Last year did not prove our young talent is what we thought it was. If anything, it cast doubt. We should have more "givens" and fewer "question marks" right now. The alternative is we collectively stagnated/regressed in a number of areas. That is possible, too, given the youth of our talent. If this is the case, this year is critical for that talent to either step up or be pushed out. Like you, my strong suspicion is the problem lies in our game planning/schemes. We have some new faces that can lend some NFL experience to this, now we need to see if it works.

That really was the start of the slide for the DL. I'm not sure Rivera decided to run the 3-4 or felt like he had to because he had no answers and the owner liked the 3-4, but regardless, it was half-hearted with miserable results and effects that linger to this day. As Mr Scot mentioned, the current regime seems focused on speed. Problem is, in the NFL your OL and DL need to be able to control territory. That involves strength and brute force more than speed. Speed becomes more of an asset the farther away you get from the trenches. Speed upfront, without brawn, generally gets a defense run over. This is a big year for Brown. He needs to assert himself, which will be easier to do if he is not the only DL the opposing OL has to worry about trying to assert himself.