Bear Hands

Lots of chatter without hitting this dead on - McVay runs stretch zone concepts. We are not running stretch zone, we are throwing out a lot of basic inside split zone concepts that set up mesh and simple triangle reads..Reich has loved this his entire career. it’s boring as sh*t and uninspiring. Also loves those thick receivers that don’t gain great separation, grabbed another in Mingo. Then has maybe 1 go-to gadget guy (Campbell, Royal, etc). Then combine that with slowly progressing crossing routes and badly timed screens. This is not a McVay mold, not even close. That would require stretching defenses horizontally and vertically — heavy misdirects, pre-snap motioning, none of that is happening. Sure, Brown may have had heavy input in the room to build this out, but this is Reich’s offense. It’s pretty glaring. This is Reich 101. Truth is Bozeman is having an absolutely awful season next to guards who have no business playing (until Corbett returned). One of the biggest issues. He’s also no longer calling out protections, Bryce is trying to do that more. And he’s not ready for what he’s trying to do presnap. Add that up with having a crap HC who is implementing an archaic 2010s scheme, bad WRs, and a poorly performing rookie QB, and you get this..

If you're a hot commodity, let's say Ben Johnson, Shane Waldron, Frank Smith next year, I imagine Tepper is the one thing that will give pause. On one end, it will be a juicy contract, on the other, it's an involved owner. It's not a comfortable situation that any guy will just accept. If Tepper wants to approach this in a fresh way and find a way out of this mess, he absolutely needs to take a step back, hire executives to run football opps and have them build a team for him. Just relax, spend money on the execs in the NFLs pipeline that can be a Roseman type to run the ship.

I'd add the GB shootout for the playoffs in 99. But yep, pretty much this.

Let us not forget one of our top-3 MNF games ever against NE with the clutch drive to beat Brady in the final minute. Oh and the 10 point 4th qt comeback in Seattle against the LOB

If we lose, we've got Dallas and will be staring at 1-9 heading into a Levis clash. Oh boy that could be a juicy affair.

Honestly, the worst outcome is us barely scraping a win in a low scoring affair versus Tyson Bagent. That puts another seed into this idea we could make something out of a Fitt/Reich setup. This needs to either be a resounding, "we're not as bad as you think" win, or I think a low scoring win is just as bad as a loss. It'll probably be some 16-10 type BS.

I'm willing to say the coaching and supporting cast plays a significant role, but he's shown next to nothing to prove he can at least run the safer offenses, let alone, push the pall downfield. When you typically have seen the low YPA, the 'bail screen in the flat', safe mode guys produce what seem like nice stats TD-TO ratio wise. Yet Bryce has 8 TDs to 11 TOs. It is super troubling and it's crazy how he backfloated two screens, one a high throw straight to the freaking defender. If you're sub 5'10 (He's clearly in the low 5'9 range), at best an average arm, and can't outrun DTs, you're straight up vulnerable. These were slip screen plays that the offenses that tailor to his stature will include and he's straight up not cutting the mustard on the most basic. Is he being ruined or is he just not cut for the big leagues? From what I've seen in games at this level, I'm not seeing anything we're necessarily ruining...

The 5.6 YPA is one of the most alarming things. David Carr's rookie year was 5.8. Christian Ponder's worst a 6.1. Mike Glennon 6.3. Mark Sanchez's worst was 6.4. He's tracking for 2nd lowest in NFL history just above Derek Carr at 5.5 in 2014.

What’s worse than the strange additional leash given to Bryce compared to Cam (by many in the media) is the defense of him that somehow turns around to criticizing the fanbase. We want an entertaining and high performing product. We’re losing to bad teams and convincingly.

Thursday could be a knockout punch for something to happen. A loss to a Eferblus/Bagent Bears squad would be such an embarrassment. A problem I see-- let's say we completely fall apart...2-16 Reich and Fitt are gone, Bryce goes into Year 2 in a brutal fashion, and will be learning a new system, new offense. How on earth do we climb out of this? What type of leeway can we give the kid? Will they have screwed up the timing so bad, that even if he looks average, it will be best to just move on in 2025? Feels like the disaster that is this season under a GM in his 3rd year and an old coach in his 1st is just all sorts of wonky for the future.

Yeah that's true. Crazy to think early 00s to 10s is another era ago, but I think we're at that point ha.

Add Juju Brents and Tuli Tu to that as well

The YPA going up so much also had to do with the system change. But what was unlocked in him was not some common thing you can unlock in any draft pick. Brees had placement, touch, and an uncanny ability to stay on the field even when they weren't really moving the ball. Got 1st down after first down until they could crack a defense. What I'm seeing rookie to rookie is comparable YPA and stat wise, and they have similar sizes, but it's pretty different. Bryce doesn't press into 1 on 1 coverage with over the shoulder throws like Brees did. When there wasn't anything there, Brees tried to figure out the layering and deeper placements. Really drove when things weren't even there and it wasn't always pretty. But that's how he learned.

The other thing to note re:drafting -- there really can not be the usual "wait a few more years for the picks to work out" retort. The year where they said he had more say with Rhule, we traded up, TWICE. And both of those guys are off the team completely after 1 season (Corral and Brandon Smith). Corral is basically out of the NFL. I'm going to repeat this ad nauseam, but we used 5 picks in the 2022 draft to take 3 guys ALREADY off the team. Last years draft, 5 picks, completely gone, poof. Ekwonu is struggling mightily, Mays and Barno, I mean, they're going to be depth here or elsewhere at best. I agree, that he has a certain eye, seems like a cool, professional, knowledgeable guy, knows who he is and how he operates, but he's made so many poor moves. There's no justifying how bad it's been. What we turned CMC's trade package into is just sad. Compounding 2021's disaster of a draft, 2022, and now this year's with Bryce, Mingo, and long shots in DJ and Zavala, that's three in a row with virtually nothing. 2021 set it off for me not taking Slater. I could be sold the idea of us not taking Parsons, Surtain, Devonta, & Darrisaw pre-hindsight, but not Slater. So many wanted him right alongside Sewell. This year, the lack of speed on offense was a glaring problem. There was Achane, Mims, Dell, Spears, Downs, Reed, Douglas, Scott, plenty to offer and we pressed elsewhere keeping a blind eye to such a critical component to success. Gave up more picks during the draft for DJJ. Could've easily landed some excitement on offense. It's just all crap. Giving up so much for projects who amount to nothing.

Refresher of Brees' in SD -- just know that these are highlights, not lowlights.

Losing, consistently, perpetually, & for the foreseeable future.

Panthers can't. They just can't.

It's also mostly the same crew who saw us barely win a few and trade for Gilmore at 3-2. I remember them even talking playoffs after that trade in the presser lol. Fitt is done. It's all a matter of blowing the entire thing up from scouting department to long term ST guys at this point.

I mean, we saw it with Cam people. And if you say, well Cam was unique, generational, well is a #1 overall you trade the farm for not supposed to be just that? It seemed like we just wanted to be able to choose and not get who fell to us in an average class. and he looks super pedestrian. If you can’t tell by his play, line or not right now, I don’t know what to tell you. Our only win was scoring 15 points against another rookie coach and QB.

You can look good and capable enough to show flashes with this personnel. “good” being relative to this franchise

That's the thing ding ding ding. Everyone saw first hand, a #1 overall player who elevated a bad OL and bad WR group. We landed the #1 pick that year for being terrible in 2010. This year, we traded up claiming we weren't that bad to get a guy to take us far. It is amazing what territory we're walking into..have to call a spade a spade right now. Anyone honest with themselves should recognize what we are seeing is nowhere near 1st round caliber, let alone, #1 overall.

He makes around 2 nice lead-the-receiver throws per game. We have well past the point where we can point to those as some grand indicator of potential. The throws don't have proper velocity, his footwork is jittery, his accuracy is regressing. Line or not, you've got to show something more. We traded soooo much for you dude. Pressure or no, this is it. It's looking and feeling like we've got a guy here until we don't. The whole essence of the game and feel of things is much more in the Pickett/Trubisky/Locker realm than some promising talent that's losing games. I'm just not seeing anything. Can't outrun DTs, can't throw deep accurately, can't hold onto the ball (4 strips), now countless misreads for pick 6s this year. 8 total TDs to 11 TOs Averaging low 100s passing yards per game. We've seen first hand talent can supersede playcalling and offensive talent in Cam. It is simply not happening folks.

There's no way around it. Worst game off Bryce's short career so far. Gave Indy 14 points, 8 TDs to 11 TOs (7 INTs) on the year.

He took off a few stretches of snaps between getting abused in run D. Had a splashy TFL after he sat for around 4-5 snaps on a drive.

Burns down.