tukafan21

Oh my god, she hugged him, so obvious that the Teppers forced Fitterer/Reich to take him after that, how could I be so blind. Shocking that the owners of the team wants to meet the potential #1 overall draft pick that you want to build your franchise around. Said it the other day, the Teppers only involvement in the draft pick (after the trade was made) was approving of who Reich and Fitterer wanted to take, and I don't think they'd have said no to either of Bryce or Stroud if the football guys wanted them.

I do think we made the wrong pick (please prove me wrong Bryce, I so badly and sincerely want to be wrong). I don't think it was Tepper As I said in another thread, Tepper is 99% the reason for the trade, but once the trade was made, the pick itself was 99% Reich and Fitterer. There is no proof anywhere that Tepper has been sticking his nose in specific football decisions. Directing the team to figure out the QB position, sure, but I don't think for one second he's ever had any impact on which players we target and go after, he leaves that up to the football people.

Again, people are conflating "spreading the ball around" with "calling plays for Hurst" There are only a VERY small group of TEs in the NFL where teams regularly call plays that are meant to target the TE on the first read, without counting, I'm guessing there are only 5 or 6 TE's in the league right now that have teams who regularly call plays to specifically target their TE throughout the game (and "regularly" means 5+ play calls a game that the TE is the first and main read on the play). That doesn't count teams like the Patriots whose offense is somewhat built around regular TE targets (and even then, they regularly rotate which of their TE's is the #1 target on the play) and it doesn't count the small handful of plays that every team calls in games where their TE has a specific matchup advantage over the defense. "spreading the ball around" is on the QB, not the coaches calling plays (again, not counting taking advantage of specific matchups on a game-by-game or even play-by-play basis). Hurst isn't a good enough TE to warrant more than 2 or 3 specific play calls meant to go to him a game, and even that might be more than he's worth, and that is no knock on him, it's just the way the game is played and that he's not an elite TE in today's NFL. Yes, spread the ball around to all our pass catchers, Hurst included. But no, do not start calling more specific plays for Hurst, he's not THAT guy and it would just be horrible play calling to purposefully be trying to target him as the first read any more than he already is. Hurst is NOT Greg Olsen, he's not a guy we're going to gameplan around getting the ball to and scheme open. He's a nice solid TE who will get his targets from the QB working through his progressions and finding him when open, and that's perfectly fine.

No, the OP is not talking about spreading the ball around, he's talking about the coaches drawing up specific plays for Hurst to be the first and main target, which I'd be very strongly against. You're talking about the QB, whether it Bryce or Dalton, spreading around their targets to include Hurst some more, which I'm fine with. Hurst is an average TE and there is nothing wrong with that. Send him out on routes and sure, give him 5 or so targets a game through the QB working their progressions and finding him when open and it's the best read. But Hurst is NOT the type of player that you purposefully call specific plays for where they're the #1 option unless there is some serious mis-match with the opponents not good at covering the TE position, which is what the OP was calling for. There is a significant difference between the two and it's not just semantics, I'm fully on board with what you're saying, but not the OP. You're acting like I'm saying we should ignore Hurst or keep him on the bench, but I'm not, I'm just saying he should never be the first read or have a play called to purposefully try and get him the ball over one of our WRs outside of specific matchup situations. Sure, maybe a play or two a game because the defense is ignoring him, dial up a play call for Hurst. But outside of that, he's not a good enough player to make him the first or second read when we have Thielen, Chark, Mingo on the field, and I could even make the argument that Laviska should also take priority over him due to him being so much better at making plays happen once he has the ball in his hands than Hurst does.

Those aren't even close to the same thing, a RB who is mainly used as a runner is only involved when they directly call runs for him, while a TE can be on the field for lots of snaps, have lots of routes run, but not be involved because the QB decides to keep throwing to other players. Yes, every play of course has multiple reads, but in this offense, unless they directly call a play that makes him the first read, the most he's ever going to be is the 3rd read on any given play as Thielen and Chark will almost always be the first 2 (assuming progression patterns on a certain call don't dictate something else of course). I don't think it's semantics when talking about getting an at best 3rd read (and honestly maybe 4th or 5th on a given play behind Mingo/TMJ/Sanders) involved in the offense as you say. The coaches can get him involved by calling specific plays for him while the QB can get him involved by checking down to him more often, two very different things and not at all semantics with how they're talked about. Again, the OP was talking about purposefully getting him involved more and throwing to him, which I again say doesn't make much sense unless matchups dictate it because Thielen will always be a better option on similar routes/needs. I have no issue with the QB's using him more, but I wouldn't suggest the coaches running specific plays for him at the expense of plays run for Thielen who is pretty clearly our best pass catcher in my eyes.

I have no issue to him being involved, but I was responding to the original post asking why plays aren't called FOR him, and having Thielen who does similar things but better is the reason why.

My point isn't that we shouldn't be running those plays, but if we're going to run them, they're better off being ran with Thielen as the first read instead of Hurst. Hurts is a solid player, but he's not a difference maker that you're regularly drawing up plays for, not when you have a better version of what he does best in Thielen already on the squad. Not saying you don't play Hurst, it's just why more plays aren't called for him.

Because he's... Hayden Hurst?!?! Solid TE, but he's not a player that you are specifically calling plays to get the ball for. Particularly not when we also have Thielen who plays a similar role of the short to intermediate routes, check downs, over the middle stuff, but is better at it than Hurst.

Oh I absolutely picked up a new football team to root for over the past year Wrexham Association Football Club that is! I’m all in on Wrexham

TMJ to the Jets for Mecole Hardman Lets be real, TMJ seems like a bust and we need speed at WR, while the Jets apparently have zero interest in playing him. It would be a fresh start for TMJ while adding desperately needed speed for us

Stats can be misleading this early in the season. They played two of the best passing offenses in the league the first two weeks, hard to judge them on their passing stats solely on that.

Wow I kinda hate you for making me laugh so many times in what must have been an emotional and tough post to write. You kept sneaking in the comedy after touching moments and it almost made me feel bad to laugh, haha. Took me a minute to get past the “literal poo eating grin” My sincerest best wishes to your wife’s battle and to your whole family… Keep Pounding!!

100% If we played today in the first two games, we'd be sitting at 2-1 right now. Seattle is one of the best teams in the NFC, that stadium is the toughest place in the league to play, and we did it in the road with a QB who has been taking backup snaps since mini camp. I'm upset we lost like everyone else, but today was a MASSIVE improvement over the first two weeks. And look, I don't mean to pile on Bryce, but honestly, Dalton was the difference. He just looked like an NFL QB out there in the way he played, moved, threw the ball, all of it. Bryce still looks like a scared little kid out there, and I don't just mean his size.

Really? We hung with one of the best teams in the NFC, in the rain, on the road, in the most hostile stadium in the league. I'm not happy with the loss, there are still lots of things that need to be improved upon, clearly. But to not think we looked better today than in the first 2 weeks is just being angry to be angry. We looked god awful in the first 2 weeks, that was a clear improvement over those games (albeit still a step back from last year, but that's beyond the point).

We just better not hand over the #1 pick, sure #2 would be bad, but if we give over the #1 pick and in 20 years, Caleb Williams is a HOFer and Bryce is a bust, it would go down as the worst trade in NFL history. Other trades obviously have been bad and not worked out, but if that scenario played out, there'd be nothing else that could ever top it. That's really my biggest fear on the season, it's not one that I expect to play out, but it's certainly possible, especially if we keep getting killed by injuries.

He might not be wrong, it was the worst kept secret that the Texans wanted Bryce and would have taken him #1. If Stroud ends up a stud with Bryce a bust, that win that got Love fired will end up being what saved the franchise.

We very well may start 0-6 (although the Vikings at home is a winnable game) but as long as the team doesn't lose the fight in them because of it, there are a lot of winnable games after that. I'm obviously not saying we'll win all of them, but I think we'll have every chance to win any of these games.... Tampa x2, Atlanta, Saints, this division is still going to be average at best on the season, all games we'll be in. Texans, Colts, Bears all are bottom 10 teams at best and will be winnable games, and the Titans certainly don't look like world beaters either. That's 8 games I think we'll have a chance to win and we need to win 5 of them, any worse and this season will be an abject failure once that pick goes to the Bears. If we can go 5-3 in those games with Bryce as the QB, then I'll probably be able to halfway accept this season. Bryce's development and the pick we hand over to the Bears will be how I judge this season, please just don't be Top 5 (not that Top 10 will feel much better, but at this point I feel like that much is a given).

lol Ben Johnson turned us down last offseason, do you think us getting worse and not having our own draft pick is going to make us more attractive to him?

I'm kinda surprised to see everyone losing it right now, especially given how down on the team I was after last week. But I think this game was a huge step forward for us compared to how bad we looked in the first two games. If we didn't look so bad the first two games, I don't think people would be all that upset right now. Seattle in the rain is about the hardest place to play in this league and sure, not everything was great, but we still put up 27 points on them and our defense kept them in check for most of the game. It's not surprising that a playoff team from last year with a HOF coach was able to wear us down and figure out how to put up points in the second half, this was always an expected loss coming into the season. The false start penalties are absolutely frustrating, but in that environment and the way many of them happened, it was clear that it was communication problems and not just bad mental errors, they'll work on it and I'm not concerned moving forward. The most concerning thing to me was how much better the offense looked with Dalton in there than Bryce, especially with him losing Mingo as well. He just looked "NFL competent" out there, something Bryce didn't and scares me moving forward with him, but that's not the point of this thread. The other thing that has me worried is health though, our guys are dropping like flies out there, not good.

Assuming Caleb Williams keeps playing like he has been, it’s going to be very interesting to see what NFL teams do in the final month of the season if they’re in contention for the top pick.

He seemed like the obvious choice to me, his biggest negative was that past OSU QBs hadn’t been successful, what a terrible reason to pass him up to take a high school sized kid.

I actually think we might have a decent passing game. Seattle isn’t good against the pass to begin with and then they are having injury issues too, could be without their top corner and both safeties.

1% And that 1% was solely Fitterer and Reich asking if he was good with the pick and him saying yes. I think he is 99% responsible for forcing the issue and making them trade up to draft a QB, but I think at that point, he stepped aside and let the football people do their thing and make the choice. The guy just wants to win and he's not Snyder, he knows he doesn't know as much as these guys on the football side, I really do think he's letting them make all the football decisions.

Is this a serious question? If you're a real fan, you watch every game that you're able to, no question about it, regardless of your feelings about the team at that moment.

This year? Short answer: no Long answer: lol no