tukafan21

But that's the point, if the locker room feels that way, then you're going to upset them by still keeping Bryce around and playing him over the Top 10 pick, as opposed to bringing in a vet to start until the rookie is ready. Again, it goes one of 3 ways... 1. Bryce plays well enough to earn an extension 2. Bryce still sucks and we draft his replacement who starts Week 1 with a new QB as his backup 3. Bryce still sucks, we draft his replacement in the 1st, but they start the season backing up a new vet QB who was brought in to be his mentor. With an OUTSIDE chance at a 4th option where Bryce plays well enough to convince the team to let him play out the 5th year option and then make a decision. Which I can't see it happening, but there is still a non zero chance of that happening I guess. The only way we draft a QB next year and still have Bryce on the roster, is if we're taking someone in the middle rounds hoping to develop them as a long term backup to Bryce.

But it's not about not upsetting a player under contract, it's about not causing a rift in the locker room. The players love Bryce, whether as a person or a player doesn't matter. You can't spend a Top 10 pick on a QB and then still start your #1 overall pick in the last year of their contract. That act alone will cause a massive locker room rift/distraction that would be unavoidable. Some players will question why you "wasted" a Top 10 pick on a QB you're not going to start instead of someone who can help right away. While others will question why we are keeping Bryce around for the season when it's clear he's not the future guy at that point. It would just make for a bad start to the rookie's career while causing locker room distractions. Again, I'd bet this has never happened in this league before with any 1st round QB, let alone the #1 overall pick, and there is a reason for it, which is that it would be epically stupid to do. And I used the Vikings as the example as they're the closest I can think of, because again, there isn't a direct comparison as nobody has ever done it because it's that dumb of an idea (no offense lol).

I get that you're taking the pragmatic approach here, and on the surface it makes sense, especially because yes, that's exactly what the Vikings should have done. But again, the factor you're leaving out is that we drafted Bryce #1 overall, that's what changes everything in the scenario. You just can't take a QB #1 overall, have him not play well the first 4 years, draft his replacement, and then still keep him as the starting QB for that 5th season. Beyond all the problems it could cause if Bryce plays well, it also just creates an awkward locker room situation that you wouldn't want to throw that rookie into as well as what it does to the rest of the team. I'm not going to try and research it, but I'd be SHOCKED if there is a single instance of this happening in NFL history with a QB that was drafted in the 1st round alone, let alone 1st overall, as no team is dumb enough to do that.

No, even if you want to sit him, you do it with a new vet brought in, not your former #1 overall pick who you just drafted his replacement and then ask him to mentor him for the season before letting him go. And then what happens if Bryce has a breakthrough season? It's what just happened with the Vikings, a QB had a breakthrough season and then let him walk because of the new Top 10 pick and it's already looking terrible. Doing it with a player you also just took #1 overall makes it 100 times worse. I'd bet my life savings that if we take a QB in the Top 10 next year, there isn't a chance in hell that Bryce is on the roster for Day 1 of TC, and likely gone long before that day anyways.

If we take a 1st round QB next year, there is a 0% chance that Bryce is even on the roster for Day 1 of TC. You can't take a QB that high while keeping the team's former #1 overall pick still on the roster, it just would create a terrible situation all around

And yet, last year, Stroud still had a higher completion %, threw for 30 more yards, 3 less INTs, and 4 less TDs but did all that in 2 less games (kinda 3 as he got hurt early in a game and then missed 2 weeks). So if he was god awful more times than not... what was Bryce?

Uh... Bryce Young extension? This shouldn't even be remotely on the table right now. Hell, the Texans haven't even engaged Stroud in an extension discussion yet and he's played miles better than Bryce has during their careers so far. I swear, he's going to show the bare minimum of improvement this year, the front office is going to say it's showing he's still getting better, and going to sign him to a stupidly large extension that is only going to set us back another 5+ years when he never even approaches being an above average QB and we have to replace him a few more years down the line. And to people who say, "well $33 million would be a bargain in today's market".... Who cares if it's a bargain if the player isn't good enough to make you a contending team? I'd rather over pay for an elite QB than get a below average starter on a bargain. All getting the 25th best QB in the league at a bargain cost will do is mean you're losing while saving money on your QB.

Well, seeing as we play the Lions at home this year, pretty sure that rumor isn't true.

Not sure what you're trying to say, are you trying to imply that I don't care if people cheat on their significant others? I'm just saying this has been an ongoing story for what, a month or so now? Most celebrity/athlete cheating stories die off in the media within a few days or a week at most. Why is this one, involving a coach and a reporter that 95% of the sports fandom world doesn't even know who she is, have such legs to keep it going for this long? And yes, I know part of that is because new things keep popping up, but they only keep doing that and becoming somewhat viral because people seem to care... and that's my point, why is anyone actually caring about these two? It's like this is going on longer than the Coldplay thing, which sure, that was two complete nobodies, but at least it was funny and spawned all sorts of memes that kept it going on. But even that still felt like it died off quicker than this one, which provides none of the "fun" aspect of that story.

Is it though? Yes, those teams have two of the bigger fan bases out there, but SNF, MNF, etc viewership numbers aren't driven by fans of those teams as much as they're driven by general NFL fans tuning in because it's a good matchup.

This whole thing is sooooooooo dumb, why any of this is an ongoing news story is ridiculous. There are only 2 people who should actually care about this, his wife and her husband. Affairs happen, not that I'm saying it's okay to cheat, but at worst, the only "bad thing" that could be coming around from this affair is that information was passed between them, the same type of info that any coach and journalist who are friends may share with each other to help the other out. The Patriots shouldn't care as long as it doesn't affect his focus on the team. And those saying that he's lost the locker room and their respect over the "lying" have to be fooling themselves. Half the players in that locker room are more than likely actively or previously have cheated on their significant other. So it's not like they're looking at him saying, "what a liar and terrible person, I can't trust him as my coach anymore"

Seriously?!?! First SNF game of the year and it's two teams that didn't make the playoffs last year? I thought they always made that Week 1 SNF game a banger with two great teams from the previous season. EDIT: Just looked, last year was Bills-Ravens, previous season was Lions-Rams, Giants-Cowboys ironically before that (but both coming off the playoffs). From what I can tell, this will be the first time since 2020 that SNF's week 1 game isn't 2 teams from the playoffs the year before, and the Cowboys were in that one too, against the Rams who also didn't make it the year before.

Pretty sure that a QB contract payday is all the competition any QB in this league needs, I don't think a competent backup is going to make them play any harder when the current situation wouldn't warrant the contract extension yet anyways. Your opening point in this post is also the problem, "Bryce has shown signs of improving", but that's still all he's shown, and he's only showing that because of just how bad he was to start his career. If he played like last season from the beginning and never improved one bit, then I actually think more fans would be ready to move on from him, which is what's weird. It's like going from one of the biggest draft busts of all time into the 25th best QB in the league over 3 years means he deserves a long term $40+ million a year contract extension. Improvement shouldn't be the goal when the result of said improvement is still bottom of the league levels.

Same here, and I've been one of the biggest anti Bryce people on here. Now, even then, I won't want us to make him a Top 5 paid QB, I'd like to see it still be a deal in that 10-15 range of highest paid QB's and/or have it just be a 2 or 3 year deal. But if he puts up a season like that, he'll have earned the extension and right to be our QB moving forward. I don't think he'll have a season like that as I don't think he's good enough, but as I've said every year for the last 3 years and now the 4th straight year... Even though I don't think he's that good or can do that, I desperately want to be proven wrong, because Bryce turning into the player the team thought they were getting him after that trade, is still our fastest path to contention than needing to replace QB again.

I said this ALL last season and will say it again this year. Our record means diddly squat this year, I don't care if we have 0 wins or 17 wins, I only care about one thing and one thing only. Bryce proves without a shadow of a doubt that he IS or ISN'T our long term solution at QB. It's the only thing that matters for the same reason it sucks that this is the same thing as last year. This needs to be determined, and if they can't determine it, then it's still telling the team the answer, just not the one they want to hear. As right now we're in the ultimate QB purgatory, a position that dooms franchises for years. Just look at a team like the Cardinals, who extended a better QB and it still screwed them over and haven't had a contending team in a long time. People get too caught up on wins and losses when evaluating players, particularly QBs. When people look at the final record and use that as a reason to want to extend a QB or not is just a fools errand. If we had lost 2-3 more games last year because we didn't make a last second FG, I genuinely wonder if we would have just moved on from Bryce this offseason (like we should have been doing anyways IMHO).