Sgt Schultz

It comes down to the 4th quarter. Was anybody thinking that when it was 21-3?

I dunno. But everything we have read indicates that is the final pecking order here. Even assuming the emphasis is strong on consensus decisions among Fitts, Rhule, and whoever else, ultimately somebody has to have the final say. I am yet to read anything that says that final authority is not Rhule, and we were told he had that prior to Fitts coming here. Back when the alternative was Hurney, it was more palatable. Laurel and Hardy were more palatable than Hurney. I guess the answer may be that whether the GM final decision making authority or not, he is paid like he does. If you want to be a GM bad enough......

From everything we've been told (and that is not 100% proof of anything) Rhule is in charge of who is on the roster. I'm not endorsing that structure, nor am I saying it is even a remotely good idea for Rhule or any other coach, especially one with no NFL experience (see Chip Kelly in Philly), but it is what we have consistently read. If that is true, Darnold was his decision. Fitt may have agreed with it, but we'll never know. Maybe Fitt can be criticized for what it cost us in the trade, but even then, we don't know who had the final call. You'd like to think the GM would be able to tell the coach the guy he wants costs too much, but that may not be the case here. At that point, the relationship with Bridgewater was in the toilet and they weren't going to toll with Walker and Grier. As for whose decision it was to pick up the year five option, I have no idea. I'd have to assume from the above that Rhule at least had a major say in it, if not the final word.

The bar is looking pretty low right now.

The way it looks right now, the NFCS could be what the NFCE was in 2020. It sounds like the Bucs are on the verge of a mass exodus. The Saints have a number of problems, along with a coaching situation that may have turned over....or it may be temporary. The Falcons have some fundamental problems, and if you look at their results this year, it showed. Things will change some before September, but right now 8-9 could ring the bell in this division. 7-10 could even do it. I'm not sure who is worst. A lot depends on who jumps off the train in Tampa.

FWIW, an article I read earlier, which was from cbs sports, said those closest to him were expecting him to make an announcement this coming week. The thinking being he respects the game too much to overshadow the games tomorrow or make the announcement during Super Bowl week. Waiting until the dust has settled from the Super Bowl would put the Bucs in a lurch, assuming his decision is to hang them up. Those same people expect he will retire, but nobody has said he has finalized that decision.

You had to mention Slater. It is 11:15am here, and thanks to you I need a drink. If I remember, some of the pre-draft analysis even said he was versatile.

Deonte at center might look like Jabba the Hut over the ball. The other problem, given his size, is how mobile is he when he is not lined up in front of the NT? He has to back up and react, which would be quite a feat for somebody that big. The focus on versatility may play well in mid-level to and smaller college ball. It is a great quality for the backups, especially on the OL, DBs, and LBs. But I would prefer my starters be exceptional or very reliable in their positions. It's funny, though, for all the talk about versatility, we didn't have anybody whose versatility include place kicking. Maybe everybody's leg to body length ratio was too short?

For me, I don't mind taking a "natural" guard and seeing if he can also play center. The blocking schemes for the IOL are extremely similar, especially when the center is lining up in front of a NT. Asking a "natural" tackle to do that is more of a stretch. Not impossible, but more to learn, IMO. Of course, since everybody knows BC's arms aren't long enough to be a tackle.......at least in Rhule's mind.

I agree with SCO96 that the most frustrating thing for me about our coaching staff is not another 5-win season, it is not pretty much all of our second-year players having a "sophomore slump" at the same time (which does concern me), it is the fact that we know almost nothing more about people like BC now than we did when the season started. Now combine those last two frustrations. It became obvious our OL stunk and was not going to gel. At that point, evaluating players like BC to see exactly what we have becomes rather important. Do I expect him to be Art Shell, either out of the chute or in 3 years? No, but if he is a decent LT or can become one, he is better than anything we have had since 2015 when Oher handled that position pretty well. Oher looks like Art Shell compared to what we have seen since. Right now, we have too small of a sample size on BC to know. Nor do we have any indication he was coached to be a LT after his first season, so we don't know if he can become one. This also points out another rabbit hole we have gone down. Everybody gave a standing ovation to the move toward analytics. Data-driven decisions rest on a few assumptions. The first is the data you are looking at tells enough of the picture to see a trend (is it complete or are there other factors that need to be factored in)? The second is are the exceptions to the conclusions are rare enough to not be a major factor (most decent tackles have arms longer than some size, but enough have arms shorter than that making it impossible to know if there is causation)? Third is that the data, which occurred rather naturally (nobody was relying on it or playing to it, it just happened indicating a trend) holds up when people rely on it enough to increase its frequency, especially under circumstances it would not happen naturally (going for 2 more often vs. only in the 4th quarter is an example). Using analytics is in decisions is one thing, relying on them absolutely is another. If BC could fill the LT slot as a medium or long term solution is still not known. As a result, we are still in the market for a LT despite the fact we may have one, ,or not. But we do know BC is versatile! BC is not the only example. Which may be why our 2020 draft class almost entirely had a "sophomore slump."

I've always been a believer that one play does not cost a team a game. You can always look at the game and find a string of "missed opportunities," mistakes, and points left on the field by both teams. Then there are coaching mistakes or being a little to clever and outsmarting themselves. The biggest factor in the tying semi-drive was that KC had all their time outs. That is extremely rare in those types of situations. The odd thing was the Bills acted like they were defending the sidelines on the last two plays leading to the FG when the sidelines didn't matter.

A good old screw-up in communications explains what has been bothering me since it happened. That said, the clock doesn't start until somebody touches it after it has been kicked. The Chiefs were probably told to down it as soon as they touched it, so he would have still had 13 seconds. Now where that would have been is another question. It almost always happens inside the 25, so it would have at least added a few more yards to the equation. But, you never know if whoever gathers it in (assuming it was a Chief) disregards what has been drilled into him and starts running with it, starting the clock. Seems like calling a squib kick and not making sure the kicker got the message is about like calling an end around and not tell the end.

If we are going to be honest with him, the pitch is that we know he is tired of disappointing losses in the playoffs. We have the fix for that.

There are also a lot of first and second round QBs no longer in the league, and not before they aged out. This line of thought is a minefield.

Hey, if you don't have anything to back up your position, you either make it up or you post something completely unrelated. Huddle rules, I think.

Why would this be any different than any other topic? This is the Huddle, remember? Let's not get delusional with our expectations.

Missed opportunities???

You may be right. The list of coordinators who were good to exceptional, but could stunk in the head coaching job is not small. Now add something that is a rarity for us right now: he has actual NFL coaching experience. Now if we can get someone in the OL coach spot with a little bit of that thing called NFL experience, maybe we won't look quite as lost, both on Sundays and when selecting who plays and where on the OL on Sundays.

I've sitting here thinking he is the same guy who could not generate enough offense to give the Falcons flailing defense a breather at any point while they were blowing a 28-3 lead in a Super Bowl. And then, with about 4:00 to go and after a big play that put them on the Pats 22 with a first down, only need 3 to potentially seal the game despite having the 25 lead cut to 8, not being able to put a point on the board, even get a shot at making it a 2-score game, run off any clock, or even cause the Pats to drain their time outs. I think the guy is brilliant, but brilliant coaches often outsmart themselves....especially on offense. And not for nothing, he was 6-10 in his first year in San Fran. His second year they were 4-12. If he did that here, the Huddle would be besides itself wanting him run out of town. If Rhule is reading this....his third year was 13-3 and a Super Bowl berth.

Geez, my best to you both, Scot.

It could be that the worst thing that happened was there was hope after last year. The defense looked like it was starting to come together, the WR corps looked good even with the potential (and eventual) loss of Samuel, and while we only posted 5 wins, we were expecting 0-4 and we looked prepared to increase that total this year. Especially with our primary offensive weapon out for most of that 5-11 season. Our draft picks and their progress was part of that. That led to people talking about a run at a playoff spot this year. Instead, the 2020 draft choices collectively did not seem to take the next step (I won't get into why), the 2021 draft choices mostly didn't play, our WRs regressed in production (maybe on them, maybe on the QB, maybe both), we did not address the OL issues early (and the vets we brought in did very little), we essentially traded transition QBs and went from a conservative, ball protection guy to a gunslinger sort who has PTSD from the Jets, and then we added to it with our OL woes. We left 2021 with more question marks than we entered it with. And that is probably my main disappointment right now, and my main concern about Rhule. I have serious doubts that his philosophy/program translates to the NFL. Maybe my main concern is that his emphasis on "versatility" makes him deaf to the fact that the NFL is largely comprised of extremely good specialists. A great LT is a great LT. He does not need to be a good RG, TE, K, or anything else at the expense of his mastering of his real position. If the RT can play decently at LT in a pinch, great. If you have OGs that can snap when the primary C is out, great. But, when it comes to the NFL, I would rather have 8 of my 22 starters that are in the top tier of their positions, than 22 who can come out of the huddle in line up in any position.

True, all of it. Did Rhule want to be the HC of the Panthers? Yes. It was a shot at proving himself at the NFL level. We are not talking about a guy coaching Bama, Ohio State, Michigan, or some other pinnacle in college football that a coach would really have to weigh whether they want to give up "all this" to risk going to the next level. This was "his shot." We have seen other college coaches with bigger names and resumes than Rhule get to the NFL and flame out. At some point, it is almost like they give up and go through the motions. It happened to Spurrier, Saban, Petrino, Holtz, etc and it happened pretty quickly. It happened to Chip Kelly, it just took longer due to some initial success. It happened to Meyer almost on day one, it seems. There is no set of proven characteristics for whether or not a college coach will make it in the NFL. It is almost completely random. The only place I differ with Khyber is I don't think we will know in a couple of weeks. I think Rhule is here for 2022, at least the first 10-12 games, barring some complete meltdown. I honestly hope Kyber is right. Unlike most of this board, I don't think Tepper is an idiot. I also don't think he is some oracle who knows what the right answer to these situations is. I do think he is more patient and deliberate than most of this board seems to understand.

If he can play as the backup kicker, that is three of the four and a half.

My feeling about Cousins is pretty much the same as my feeling about Garappolo in that thread. If we had $0 to maybe $5M invested in Darnold, if our OL was not a sieve and could keep a QB upright, and if our coaching staff was able to develop game plans around his strengths and avoiding his weaknesses, it would be worth considering as a transition QB. Add to that he would have to be a reasonable cost, both in salary and it what we would give up to get him. But, we have about $20M invested in Darnold for 2022, our OL is a sieve until further notice, and our offensive coaching staff is up in the air right now. Here is the problem with getting either of those guys as a transition. We set that up with Bridgewater, then shot ourselves in both feet by getting into a public pi$$ing contest with him to the point we had to send him elsewhere. That meant we took what was a 2-3 year plan and torpedoed it in one. In fairness, most of this board gave the team a standing ovation for that. Then we basically went back to square one with Darnold. The jury is still out on his ability to do that, but they were not smiling at us as they left the court room. And, our OL got Darnold killed back there. So, transitions are rather useless because 1) we don't stick to the plan, and 2) our OL as it stands now requires us to have a roster of QBs about the size of a MLB bullpen staff. None of this is a knock on Cousins. I don't know that anybody would have done more than he did in Minnesota. He's not exciting, but he is not a fiasco waiting to happen, either. Put him at the helm of a decent team, and he will help yield decent - good results. We would not be putting him at the helm of a decent team, especially on offense, especially behind our OL.

Truth is, I would have doubts the DBs on the play even noticed the whistle. The guys chasing Burrow, yes, but the DBs not so much, especially with the ball in the air.