SameDamnThing

He abused the sled at the combine like he was stocking shelves at Walmart. It was just so casual you’d think the thing had wheels until the rest of the guys could barely move it on their first push. Some smart team will take him low in the 1st and let him maul in the run game. This guy could match up with edge rushers. Put him eligible in the red zone and have him peel off the line. Just an insane athlete.

This is no smokescreen. I think they were sincere about wanting the fans at the draft party to know who was on the way so they wouldn’t have a mixed reaction to it. I think it’s also a nice little get back at Houston for how they played it with Watson. Texans will say Stroud was their guy at 1 and they should, but bell to bell this year it was Young.

There’s also a lot of rollouts and playaction that interrupts reading the defense due to having your back to the LOS on snap and necessitates a lot of maneuverability to navigate the blitz situation quickly enough to start making second and third level reads. Snaps from shotgun are exactly what you mentioned but there’s a lot under center unless you tear those plays out of the book. There’s generally a correlation between use of RPO and QB mobility. They have to arrive at that mesh point somehow and we’re talking about a game that measures release time of QBs down to milliseconds, so it goes without saying that they have to account for clean footwork and quickness. It’s not exclusive to mobile quarterbacks, but I think success rate is influenced by variables that favor that skill set. As an aside, both QBs we should be considering are only negligible in difference in this respect. Both have the required mobility to evade the blitz.

Why should it not be a surprise? He’s opted for Matt Ryan and Philip Rivers the past two seasons. Doesn’t scream RPO to me. He seems to value efficiency and arm more than legs.

If he ends up playing some 3-4 end he will probably win a lot against tackles with his strength. Having inside pressure from blitzing ILBs should get him some 1 on 1 plays if he sets out wide. I don’t know if they plan to play him there. I generally dislike paying big money for defensive tackles. There is such a high floor on what you can get from rotational guys in special packages. This organization has a long history of bad DT contracts. Sean Gilbert to Kris Jenkins to Kawaan Short who all made their money in their early 20s. Brown is a little different in role so his money shouldn’t get out of control most likely. Very solid player. Not an all pro type dude, but keeps two blocks on him. No center in football can hold him one on one for a whole game.

Batted passes happen to guys with big arms and protracted windups no matter what height. Baker was one of the hardest throwers in his draft class and people forget Cam had the same problem at nearly 6’6”. If the ball comes out on a rope buzzing the linemen all it takes is a defender to get his hands up. It shouldn’t be a significant issue for either option in the draft this year. The much more valid concern is size to durability and size to obstructed field vision.

Heartbroken, truly. But that number is shorthand for your effectiveness as an edge. I don’t make the rules. Burns is also good in run situations but he’s not Luke or something. Regardless, the meat of the post was after that glib comment so whatever floats your boat.

Silly. I know pass rushing is highly valued but dude it’s only 10-15 plays per season. I know hurries, qb hits, etc. count but sacks are the money number. I said at the time we refused the draft picks for him that we would regret it not because he wasn’t worthy of a huge extension, but because when we let the league know what we turned down for him his agent faxed us a blank check and said don’t stop until you run out of space to write. They married him in Vegas that day.

Teams are always looking for potential. Can you make a bad program mediocre? Can you make a mediocre team good for a year or two? If you can, you are football’s next rising head coaching star. It always cracks me up a little when people talk about someone “turning a program around,” with players they inherited. I think Rhule has a good line of BS that got him some recruits and about $70 million from Tepper, but for a coach that never coached a program better than Baylor, we were entirely out of pocket to give him the keys. The length and cost of the commitment was too much from Day 1. You’re not negotiating with Sean Payton. Allowing him to be HC, GM, and head scout enough to allow his wife to make draft picks was a recipe for disaster right away and we didn’t want to believe it. Its not like he was bad in those other areas but still a great game day coach, it was the opposite. He was overwhelmed by the stage and regularly played to steal wins instead of win decisively. Stopping what’s working to burn clock the entire second half and 3 and out a full quarter off the clock only to need a drive to win the game when your hot hands have gone cold. It was embarrassing and a total lack of faith that his team saw for what it was. On top of that, he would lament his situation and take no blame for the loss like his players didn’t follow the recipe. Never once questioned the recipe. Temple and Baylor. Those two powerhouse programs are all the evidence we have that he was worth a damn. Temple from the Big East moved to the AACF for lack of competitive consistency into a league full of perineal losers and Baylor who for all but fits and starts have been in the bottom half of the Big 12 for decades sans Chad Pennington and RG3. We got what we deserved and Nebraska will get the same. Only now he has $70 million reasons to think he’s Vince Lombardi. Miss me with how that turns out for them.

I’ll say this about Hurst. He’s never really gotten a full season to do his thing in an offense that uses the TE. Those years in Baltimore were a wash because he couldn’t even get targets. Honestly, few could because of how strange Lamar made it. He got some good run with Atlanta that was probably closest to who he really is as a player without splitting time. He still only started 9 games that year and played even less the next season. His career was in life support before the Bengals. Even there it was a somewhat bad spot because despite getting starts, he was still way down the pecking order because they had to feed Chase, Higgins, and Boyd. He did enough to show he’s still a player. 77% of his targets were caught and that’s eye popping. He’s got a young body for 29, but a lot of guys at this position bloom late for not finding the right opportunity. I think he’s good for 600 yards and 5 touchdowns and any talk of overpayment will be gone. I think we signed him less because we were scared of paying the top end guys, but because those guys weren’t our preference. We went out and got the one we wanted. Same with Vonn Bell and Shy Tuttle. Adam Thelein was also made a quick priority. This team has direction for the first time. They’re not just out there shopping for the best names for the least money.

I would like to, but Ian Thomas for another year precludes us from it. The TE classes should be strong from now on as it has become a glamour position honestly. Any pass catchers now make bank. I think the franchise tag is more for TE than RB these days. I’m just happy we got Hurst and if he stays healthy I think he’s going to have a career year as our primary passing down TE.

Targets correlate to production. No matter what at this point if he stays healthy he will get the targets. All you have to do is grab about 60% of them and you’ll be a number one. But of course you have to give the QB a reason to target you. With his limited separation speed he will need to work on his route tree obsessively. I have hopes he can do it.

You don't find 6'4" guys that run like Chark come available too often at 26. Guy ran like a 4.34 coming out. One of my favorite things about him is how he tracks the deep throw. He can go off course to where the throw is going and get under it if he has time to adjust. Not the greatest hands guy in the world. Has only pulled in 55.8% of his targets for his career. Terrace Marshall hauled in about 60% of his targets which is a good amount so it might be Chark and Marshall as the speed option and the hands option. Draft a 3rd WR who can grow into the starter role and see what happens. Shi Smith as the 4th WR. It could work.

This is nonsense trying to frame it like we've had garbage WR. Brandon LaFell, Devin Funchess, and Kelvin Benjamin were all productive in fits and starts. They weren't 1,000 yard guys, but they were what they were. Any group that has Steve Smith has a HOF WR among them. Any group that has DJ Moore has a really solid number one. Curtis Samuel was a decent contributor. WR is one of the most storied positions on this team. We have had the good fortune to see perhaps 2 of the Top 50 of all time in Moose and Smith. Moore will have good numbers when all is said and done. Plus, the years we had CMC and he was getting lots of catches, he was practically a WR as well. Ted Ginn had some strong years for us, too. Jerricho Cotchery produced well for where he was on the depth chart. It's just that hardly anyone remembers their productivity because it didn't last ten years. Funchess, KB, and LaFell all had good rookie contracts here and got paid more than they should have on the market.

how anyone can hate this signing is beyond me. dude has almost 40k yards in the league. 3x pro bowl selection. 66% pass completion percentage last year. 244 career TD passes. this is THE guy that you bring in to spot start for a rookie QB while he finds his sea legs if he's not ready to go right away. the best insurance policy in the league among guys who don't expect to start.

crazy the TE market hasn't started moving yet. not sure what to make of it, but we need to be in on it.

The thing about the combine is that the level of pressure there simulates a pressurized NFL environment because the whole show isn't about showing how great you are. During a pro day, the team is going to do the best they can to show the routes you throw best and with WR talent you already know and a very scripted set of circumstances designed in favor of one specific person. Going to the combine and throwing to whoever and being forced to throw routes you don't prefer against other QB vying for your position is a stressful experience and one that NFL teams like to see how the talent responds. It sets everyone at equally uncomfortable and shows who can still bring it.

That is a pretty transparent methodology in my opinion. Teams know these guys can put on 10-15 lbs. of bad weight by eating poorly for a month if they don't intend to run drills. I still don't think Young plays at anything over 200 lbs. and probably more like 195. He probably stuffed himself with fishing weights like those guys did in the walleye tournament.

I feel like Young is sneaky sliding to 4th. The rumblings at the combine were not good. First, he knew he was going to come in short. That's no surprise to him or anyone close to him. With that knowledge, the emphasis goes heavily to your throwing session and 40 to make up the difference. He declined to participate in either while the rest of his competition did at least throw and throw impressively. It seems to give the energy that he thought he was locked in at 1st overall or was afraid of testing and hurting his stock which are both bad news. This isn't a generational talent like Trevor Lawrence or Andrew Luck, this is a guy in a dead heat for the 1st pick and he treated the combine like a meet and greet. It sat wrong with a lot of teams. Some of these kids continue to get bad advice from agents.

I think by the time it comes to pick, all industry secrets about our selection will be gone. It will be hard for the Texans to justify the pick unless they're that much more in love with one over the other. The Texans have the easiest pick in the draft as it stands and would really have to be decisive in one over the other to give up any assets at all. If we were willing to talk on it at all, they would control the price because what we would be telling them is we're taking the guy you want less and want to try to extort a pick out of your presumed preference. It's a weird chess game.

I think a lot of this trade down talk is aimed at Indy feeling the pressure to get their guy at QB, while we're talking ourselves into Levis who is likely someone Reich would feel comfortable taking on for his offense. They want to see if they can get Indy to freak out and offer 35 for the jump down to 4. If they do, we can probably really shore up our all purpose HB and WR positions while adding Levis and recouping some of the cost of moving up. I don't think anyone jumps to 3 for Levis, but maybe they do for AR. If it goes Young/Stroud in some form at 1 and 2, that 3 pick might look good for AR and if it doesn't then he starts sliding a bit. If 3rd pick goes Anderson Jr. or another non-QB, we've got AR and Levis there at 4th because we put our biggest road block to having them both available in front of us by moving Indy around. If our group is certain the 3rd pick is not going to change hands, they have their pick of Levis and AR. If they don't, they still get Levis at 4th with all probability. The fact people have said 3rd overall is a tough spot to move up and would cost nearly as much as 1st makes me believe they're locked on someone, so if you want a Top QB in this draft, all options run through us.

Boy, this is really starting to read like Carson Wentz to the Panthers isn't it unless Jacob Eason has backup QB on lockdown.

He played 14 games last year. he has played 27 of a possible 33 games in his career so far. I don't see the issue there. The reason I said 800 is because he only caught 28 balls last season but had an unsustainable 17.5 yards per catch. if he doubles his catch total to 56 at a more reasonable 13-14 yards per catch, he's around 800 yards. the thing with Terrace is that he's not going to run himself open, so he's very QB dependent. he will reliably catch the ball when he's open, but the route has to beat their scheme more than Terrace can beat his man.

Jakobi Meyers, Terrace Marshall, Shi Smith, and the 39th pick. The place we need the biggest upgrade is at TE and out of the backfield. TE especially. Rookie QBs love to use the middle of the field with those big bodied catch radius guys. Don't sleep on Terrace. 800 yards incoming for him.

terrace marshall is also due to take a step forward. if we sign one veteran and draft at 39 we should have a decent 3 man rotation. we need to sign a TE as well.