Stingray3030

But hey all this aside - the formula is easy: Step 1 - hire a young, relatively inexpensive coach who grows into the next Belichik very quickly - DONE Step 2 - Sign 6-7 free agents under 25 years old who everyone else undervalues so they don't cost very much Step 3 - Hit an absolute homerun on every pick in the 2024 draft - something we we rarely get right even once in a single drat See guys.....nothing to worry about....only 3 steps and we are there.

Spotrac says we are at $32M - the number I heard was closer to $28.5M - and we are ranked 11th in the league, so we aren't that bad off in those terms. Also according to Spotrac we can clear an additional $20M if we restructure the 7 available putting us around $50M. Cutting Thomas is $2.2M, cutting Donte is almost $6M. If we do just the restructures we would still have around $29M - but keep in mind we also have the resign or replace Luvu, Franklin, Henderson, Gross-Matos, Haynes, Grugier-Hill, Chinn, Shenault, ISM - AND rookies which won't be too bad since we have no 1st rd pick. But yeah this is gonna take a few years boys.

I believe we would most likely trade down a few spots to a team that wanted Caleb Williams. Ideally trade 1 spot at a time to maximize our draft stock...trade to 2...then 3. Stop at 3 to ensure we got Harrison and enjoy the extra 4-5 picks we gained. If Tepper was involved we would likely trade down to 12th for a third round pick and Jerry Jeudy....but let's not give us all nightmares....

Yeah I would say DJ was our only other true #1 since Smitty - and you can BOLD, underline, and italicize that "trash QB play" part.

Can someone help me understand - what exactly do many of you mean when you say Tee Higgins hasn't shown you he can be a #1 receiver yet? His rookie year he was 28th in the league in yardage...next 2 years he was 17th and 20th even while missing 3 total games and being the 2nd option on his team. If that isn't the production of a #1 caliber guy what is? He was literally more productive than half the teams' #1 guy the last 2 seasons before he was injured in 2023.

That is completely reasonable for a full rebuild - it happens all the time and is the standard for this scenario. We are much further away from the Playoffs than a few linemen and pass catchers. We are installing yet another completely new offense and possibly defense. At the moment we are thin at TE, OLine, WR, DLine, CB, EDGE, and possibly RB. There is not enough high caliber talent available nor do we have the draft capitol or cap to afford fixing it all. We have to hit at least 3 starters in this draft and we don't even have a 1st rounder. I literally watched 2 analysts today who said we are 2025 before we really know about Bryce. You can't just fix the offense and ignore the defense, so what you said won't be likely possible. I never said we won't know anything - I said he won't be top 10 because we cannot afford to fix enough around him in 1 season given our situation. He will be markedly better - but he won't be a top 10 most likely

He will be better this year, but won't be a top 10 guy most likely - we can't make enough moves in 1 season with our capitol give a fair test right away. 2025 will be the true test...similar to how Chicago has given Fields 3 years to prove he is worth anything - which he hasn't.

Great response - I appreciate the viewpoint. This is the tough part of statistics - you state results and then we both have different views of what is the major influence of those results. I wish it was easier to prove. But I firmly believe alot of Bryce's issues were caused by one of the worst OLines ever, a ridiculously horrible coaching situation, a complete lack of talent around him, and a rookie season. I say that to say I believe fixing those would make a huge leap forward for him and then we would truly know what we have...I just put alot more weight into those factors causing bad play instead of him being the cause. I'm not saying we didn't see alot of bad footwork, bad decisions on fooled coverages, less than top tier arm strength, and holding the ball too much...it was still painful to watch.

At least tag an actual data driven article - this is an opinion piece. There aren't even reference for the vague statistical references it does have. You could spend a little more time on your random Google search

Alot of truth there - but the positives are there too if you are objective in my opinion. Here are a few: - We only had 2 wins - and in both he straight up LEAD us to victory with great plays. Both his feet and arm - His INT % was only 1.9% - tied for 14th with the worst WR separation in the league and losing literally every game. Only 3 picks his last 9 games. - Everyone is scared of his size/health - he was sacked 62 times, 2nd most in the league by ALOT, and only missed 1 game All of that is above average for a rookie QB - we could focus on that more.

Typical response from a clown with no facts

OK - ya'll need to stop using your eyes and assuming the statistics align if you are gonna say stuff like this...worst ever? He wasn't even the worst this season...among 2023 rookies here are his actual ranks: Int % - 3rd Comp % - 3rd Yd/gm - 5th QBR - 4th Rating - 4th He was consistently above guys like Levis, O'Connell, Browning in many of these categories with WAY worse talent around him.....yet he still wasn't overall the worst rookie QB this year. Insane to say something like "one of the statistically worst ever". Wasn't great at all....but far from worst or even bad.

Hey man - money is Tepper's job to figure out. We're the fans - our job is to have all the answers...

Sadly the OLine FA pool is not great this year and the best ones are in their 30's already.

Spotrac also lets you make changes and shows you how it affects the cap - so a couple of points to help the conversations: First - Derrick Brown is still under contract, so his $11.6M is included in the $31M - an extension will not affect that unless they renegotiate this year as a part of the new deal, which is unlikely. If we restructure the 7 guys who have the option we can save an additional $20M - Moton is $6.5M of that. Cutting Ian Thomas can save us another $2.2M which I would ove to see if we can't trade him for a late rounder. If we cut or trade keep in mind it has negative impacts on the salary cap - for this year and future. We have $3.9M against us in 2024 because of Justin Houston....a guy we just released so he could go somewhere else and we got penalized. CMC cost us huge last year even though we traded him. So we have to be careful with the cap on cuts and trades. For me I would love to see us work on trades for Marshall, Sanders, Thomas, Burns, Jackson Biggest resignees we have are Burns, Luvu, Franklin, Henderson, Grugier-Hill, Gross-Matos, Smith-Marsette, Shenault

Our cap next year sits at $30M - if we restructure some deals we can get to $50M. We also need to deal with some free agents like Luvu, Burns, Franklin...but we should have some decent cash to spend. The one bright side of having no 1st round pick is the contract savings too.

Zero chance of this happening but I like it

I would absolutely consider moving Ikey and/or Bozeman to Guard. Ikey was fine blocking inside and got absolutely destroyed on the edge in pass defense.

Agreed - but will Tepper listen to anyone regardless? Seems like he won't

I agree completely - but removing them all, hiring all new, and still failing shows the problem is HIM. And often that is why "B" players do this....cause they want to be able to blame someone else and aren't capable of making the right decisions that aren't selfish.

He looked very slow - don't think he is fully healthy yet

At the time of the drafts and our free agent deals I was onboard with most everything we have done with Fitt - didn't like losing CMC and DJ but I understood and thought we got a fair deal. But seeing the results and complete failure of so many free agents we picked up, and our high percentage of misses in the draft Fitterer has to be accountable. We are almost as bad at drafting as the Hornets. At some point we have to draft actual Pro Bowl talent....like anywhere....

For sure - even just recently people are like "but Burrow....but Herbert....but Hurts...Tua...Trevor". Burrow had Higgins, Mixon, and Boyd...then got Chase. Hurts was not good rookie year then got Devonta, AJ Brown, Goedert. Herbert had Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, and Ekeler. They all had Pro Bowl help or were given it soon after they got there. Bryce doesn't have a single Pro Bowler on this offense - or even a significant starter to depend on. When your best option is old, slow Thielen.....