Stingray3030

Bottom 5 teams still have Pro Bowl players to match up against. You absolutely still see progress. You really need to disappear and drop this. Doubling down is insane.

This is such a stupid take - why does this even still have a thread? How are you supposed to get better as a team? As a franchise? Deliberately lose games but run the plays in a way so you still look like you COULD have done it at a high level if you wanted to? THEN when you have 3-4 years worth of 2-win seasons and secretly successful drafts that look like complete failures with guys missing Pro Bowls, bonuses, endorsements - your franchise losing millions of dollars in revenue due to sucking, you suddenly FLIP ON THE WINNING SWITCH and give everyone a James Doakes moment? You cannot see progress if you play to fail - period. You cannot build a culture by losing - period. You cannot keep your job by losing - period. You cannot attract talent by losing - period. Are we done here yet?

Brooks is likely to be very limited the rest of the year. I don't think we will see enough from him to judge his long term value. Plus we still need a 2nd RB regardless - the 2025 FA class is gonna be slim pickins compared to last year.

I think you also have to take into account that we have no clue about Brooks yet, so 4-yrs covers us if he is a bust without giving us an issue in 2 years to fix. Plus that will mean he will need a new deal again as soon as Brooks needs one, so if Brooks is a stud you don't have a lingering expensive contract for Chuba. All around seems sensible to me

Chuba was still on a rookie deal so he was only making a little over $1M a year

Y'all need some perspective - the man signed an $8.3M a year deal. That makes him the 9th highest paid RB in the league. Is he not the 9th best RB in the league who isn't on a rookie deal? By all means please give me the list of who is paid less that is better and NOT on a rookie deal? I'll give you Derrick Henry and Aaron Jones (who will be higher this offseason and is only lower due to injury history). In 2 years Chuba will be the 15th highest paid. Plus 15th is only $1.5M less. What exactly do you think we are gonna do to change this roster significantly with $1.5M a year? That only buys us like 2 games from an Offensive Lineman... This is a solid contract for a 25-yr old RB doing what he is doing. And for those saying "why did we draft a RB in the 2nd round and do this?" We are building the next 4-6 years - not making a 1-yr run to the SB. Short-sighted leadership is what got us into this situation. This guarantees us a solid starting RB for the next 4 years in this system at a mid-range price. With literally 15-20 upgrades needed to be competitive we have 1 less to worry about overpaying for at an significant amount.

Very much what I read - no one wanted him bad enough to pay much. They didn't see him as much of an impact.

Report I read said the deal we got was easily the best offer available because teams knew he wanted out and had no intention to resign. We had 0 leverage for a guy looking for a contract at 28/29 as a #2 WR. Mingo might not ever be good but younger, cheaper, no attitude issues, no contract. Makes sense

It makes perfect sense - we would draft him #1 overall. He is not worth the #1 overall pick. Therefore we would be overpaying. Pretty clear.

Funny how you answered your own question.

Sadly I think we might overpay for it though - like we usually do.

Shaq has been a good leader but not an amazing LB - this has been a significant weakness since Luke and TD left other than Luvu. That is why we have been one of the worst teams vs the run the last 3-4 years. But edge is currently a bigger need IMO. Both are a huge concern.

We have no pass rushers - no linemen, no LB's, no secondary - none. Why blitz with ineffective people and leave ineffective people behind trying to cover? You will just get burned by slants and runs even more so than we already do. We are so bad at run defense we can't afford to miss by blitzing.

The answer is always "it depends on the contracts" - good news is RB's aren't super expensive and Sanders will be cut next year regardless, so Chuba is probably gonna be a resign. MJ has been decent and shouldn't be too expensive. Diontae might want too much money but he has clearly been worth the resign if he has reasonable expectations. I much more worried about what we do for LB's, DE's, T's, and C next year.

Agreed - Wonnum @ $6M could be outstanding. People crying about Jewell but the man is the 47th highest paid LB....experience in the system and leadership at only $6M? I'll take it. Nijman should be a good one also for depth and Jordan Fuller is solid. I really don't understand any Morgan hate at this point. This BS about Frazier over Brooks is only because Brooks hasn't played yet. If he comes in and looks like a top 10 RB like most people expect there won't be any reasonable complaints.

I think you are being extremely critical considering you have seen only 2 games - we are talking about long term here not assuming these guys will be the same in 2 years as they are now. By that assessment you would have been wrong about hundreds of guys who took more than 2 games (101 snaps) to become high end. My point wasn't as much a comment specifically about these guys - it was to answer the question about what we should do in 8 months at the next draft when these guys have a full season under them. You sound like you think they have all hit their ceiling or close to it - seems overzealous.

By high end guys I mean high end draft picks - starters with potential. I don't think it is at all ridiculous to think the 3 possibly 4 guys I mentioned qualify for that. XL is already starting, Brooks was the top RB in the draft and considered by most to be starter caliber, so if one of the other 2 start regularly we are good. "High end" in this context I meant to say we don't need to worry about them as a priority in the draft because we are safe there - since the thread was asking what we do in the next draft. The 91 is my bad - I had just yesterday looked at the standings and flipped our total with the Saints first 2 games. That is what I get for going from memory.

Let's assume Dan and Dave are who we thought they were - the QB cultivator and the tough GM who was held back by Fitts. If that is true then the 2024 draft will yield 2-3 high end guys, probably XL, Brooks, and Wallace or JT. Maybe Dave tried to save face for Bryce and let him collapse on field to justify what he already knew - this guy ain't it. If that is true then we will win 3-4 games this year and probably pick 3-6. As it stands now there is not a top 5 pick caliber QB out there according to most analysts - if we take one there we are overpaying. So I would probably take the best available or trade down to a comfortable spot for one of the possible 1st RD QB's like Ward, Beck, "other who rises". Our defense cannot be overlooked as being atrocious right now too. We have given up 91 points in 2 games - even if half that is due to poor offense and Bryce we are one of the worst in the league.

At this point I am worried about the rest of the young guys and their development. Mingo, Brooks, XL, Sanders, Hubbard all need a solid QB to see what we have in them and grow around whoever we have at QB. Plummer had 3 preseason games and showed barely anything against 3rd stringers until game 3 - I say go with Dalton to develop the rest of the offense. I have been one of the consistent drum bangers of "we don't know if Bryce is bad yet until we fix the rest". Welp - the O-line has done a MUCH better job through 2 games and Bryce has looked absolutely atrocious. I will buy some of the play calling has been poor, especially yesterday, but you can now see that Bryce has vision issues, poor footwork, poor pocket presence, holds the ball too long, and can't throw well on the run. Those are clearly displayed now - I wouldn't give him more than 2 more games to show it is fixed and I would pull him to develop in practice.

No doubt

Not sure you know what statistics are.

ALWAYS depends on what is offered and who is available - but definitely a maybe. At least right now the 2nd rounder we got from the Rams looks like a great pickup since they have lost both their Pro Bowl WR's temporarily. And the 2025 crop of QB's ain't lookin too great...certainly not a clear cut top 5 pick at the moment. Trade down for a monster haul, bridge with someone else, 2026-2029 we stockpile and dominate the 2030's! Such a sad story considering it is 2024......

See - a fair assessment - I don't agree with it at this point, but I don't get upset.

Gotta love when I make it extremely clear that I am generalizing Fans and including myself in the group I am saying has unrealistic expectations - yet you snowflakes find a way to take it personal. Corbett is a very possible deficiency, so is Ickey, so is 30-yr old Moton if he declines. We also possibly don't have a top 25 TE, top 20 WR, top 60 2nd WR, or TOP 15 RB. We have a 1st time HC and 1st time OC installing a brand new offense. These are all significant risks that will have heavy influence on the play and results of the QB. Everyone's opinion on that is different - I tend to look at the years and terabytes of data that prove statistical significance. But again I included myself in the category of FANS - so I am not a professional - just an armchair analyst - I don't claim to be an expert. Some of yall need to go pop a Xanax...it is just football.

One thing these threads always over analyze is - how bad does he need to move on? We are mostly fans, not analysts or coaches or scouts. So our expectations are Top 10 QB or BUST! I understand that BY was the #1 pick, so expectations are higher. But whether you move on or not for anyone who ACTUALLY knows football well is different. If he is in the Top 20 in year 2 with CLEAR deficiencies around him we will absolutely not be moving on - potential will still be too high, cost too good, and replacements too few. The right decision is still to keep him. As fans we wanna win it all every year, but that is ridiculous to accomplish in 1-2 drafts. Keeping him may actually help get a better QB in 2-3 years instead of reaching next year and missing out on someone like JJ Watt or Von Miller.