Bear Hands

I saw a lot of recent comments and figured it was news, nah, it's a debate about the 2024 QB class lol.

I am hoping this is the case. Exhausted with even thinking about it & trying to block out a random debate about Drake Maye in a coaching thread. Pretty much a wait and see right now.

Pollard was the true x-factor for the offense this year. He hit the home runs, kept the engine running. Showed Dak, Elliott, Lamb & Shultz are not top tier talent to work with. It's a real shame about Pollard because he's an awesome talent. Wish he was on a different team haha

Spencer Brown got smacked around for BUF yesterday. Deservingly so after his head knock to Christian Wilkins last week. The Bengals didn't pour on the sacks but they consistently disrupted the pocket and contained Allen. Hubbard, Hill, & Reader had phenomenal games and the Bills lost in the trenches, both sides of the ball. Buffalo just wasn't prepared. Bad game plan, bad OL performance on the right side.

I think Lance is getting a bit too much flack, as he looked standard bad, not out of his league bad, but it is interesting to see what happened to the picks San Fran used to move up for him. Their original pick 12 changed hands a few times, but ultimately, DAL got it and took: Micah Parsons (all-pro) R1 22 - Cole Strange (starter) R3 22 - Matt Corral (lol) R1 23 - Pick 30 2023 TBD Note: Dolphins essentially flipped the Micah Parson pick for Tyreek Hill. Shows how much teams covet the QB position at the end of the day, even the squads that are seemingly good every year. SF gave up a lot for both Lance and CMC and are somehow still rocking with Shanahan. Goes back to landing the right coach first and foremost and just getting him the guy he thinks can run his offense.

This is pretty wild. I know we've got a good situation on the OL, FINALLY, but I thought the 2021 draft is proving to be pretty great on the line. I'm missing some but the highlights/notable starters: (2 obvious ones) Sewell & Slater were the studs at the top. Both proving to be excellent players, but if you look at the rest, just damn: Pick 23 - Christian Darrisaw: Quality starting LT for the Vikes. Was a boom/bust type from VT that really seems to have turned out nicely Pick 37 - Landon Dickerson: High end starting LG for the NFC favorite Eagles Pick 39 - Panthers traded down (Starting G Teven Jenkins is the pick for CHI, often injured but VERY good when he plays) Pick 42 - Liam Eichenberg - Playoff Starting LG. Had an injury mid-year but has definitely had more ups than downs Pick 45 - Walker Little - Starting LT Jacksonville. Was a similar prospect to Darrisaw with many people iffy on him, but he turned it up late season Pick 46 - Jackson Carman - Has proven to be a very effective lineman. Had some growing pains--Bengals had him at G but looks way more capable at LT after last night's performance. He was GREAT. Pick 48 - Aaron Banks - Quality starting guard for the Niners. Has played really well his first few seasons with minimal hiccups. Pick 62 - Josh Myers - Starting Center for GB, has been pretty good Pick 63 - Creed Humphrey - Monster starting center for KC. Going to be a cog there for a WHILE Pick 70 - Brady Christensen - Our own starting LG that is capable of being a strong backup LT Pick 93 - Spencer Brown - Starting RT for Buffalo. Has been good but did have a rough one in the snow Pick 114 - Drew Dalman - Starting C for ATL. Has had pretty positive reviews for the Falcons. Started almost right out the gate. Pick 128 - Dan Moore - Starting LT for PIT. But has been rough and panned by fans. Although he seemed to turn a corner late in the year with some good games. Pick 142 - Royce Newman - Packers starting RG who's faired pretty well. Had some rough games but earned his spot Pick 226 - Trey Smith - Starting guard KC, and one of the better ones in the league

Yessir. They also hired a great staff and a coach that was barely mentioned in his hiring cycle. Philly fans had a big collective “who the f is this guy” phase with Nick. And it turned out quite well. Rossman built a balanced roster, both lines had some pieces like Lane and Cox but were rounded out, took chances on WRs & TEs early (Smith, Dallas), made big moves when it made sense I.E AJ Brown, Slay, Ciao Wentz & Ertz. So active trading, weren’t afraid to move around in the draft, commit to a guy like Hurts and develop him, built a bomb defense (Davis is going to have a great career), FA splashes like Reddick. Just all around top down balanced, active build, good coaching, relentless at getting the pieces to make it work.

I hope our interview with Shane was a good one, and we interviewed Manuel & Fangio with consideration of hiring him. I just don’t see SS in AZ, I have to imagine they want experience like maybe Quinn (+Bevell as OC) per reports, maybe Payton in DEN, HOU gets Gannon. And would Indy really want to try a guy that was mentored by the guy they just fired? We’re honestly in a good spot if Steichen is the guy Dave wants.

Oh thought there were reports they were all in NY and flew back after the unfortunate MLS situation. Could be wrong. My accuracy here doesn’t matter much anyways ha

Meh, pistachio, tomato, piccolo

I believe Dave, Scott, and Dan were in NYC for in-persons so in a way they were

Happy fishing

I have no idea, not being that serious.

Yes. That’s why I said it’d be great to grab offensive weapons in the draft. Go BOWA strategy if we land a guy like Steichen. Smith 1st rounder, AJ Brown-2nd rounder, Goedert 2nd rounder. Just having fun tonight thinking about random scenarios.

Still want a QB high though hehe

Damn… Shane, come to Charlotte my dude! What they’ve done with AJ, Smith, & Goedert makes me wanna get Quinten and Kincaid to join DJ. With that offense, he could make a McKee or freaking Clayton Tune look the part.

I’m liking what Steichen is cooking

Hey now let me keep dreaming

Yeaaaahh. I think he’s tough as hell but that’s a broken ankle. Substantial sprain at the best. Yikes

Maybe he got over the yips. First game is the one that may be a blowout, but never know, Jags could surprise. 3 of the 4 games look to be good ones.

After the Super Bowl in 09', he made it the conference championship 1 time (2018) 1 conf champ appearance in 11 years with Brees in his prime.

What's proven? That Brees and Payton work well together? Sure. How does Payton do with a new guy? And in a changing NFL landscape? There's still some pretty major risk, add in giving up big draft capital.

Sometimes a coach & QB just click and it's impossible to duplicate it for either side. Curious to who Peyton thinks could be his next partner in the current QB landscape. It's pretty icky. For some reason, could see him having an interest in Derek Carr though. He seems like a guy that could really do well in his system. Here's a wild scenario: HOU gets Payton, HOU trades (Using Pick 12) and gets their 2nd Carr, they're able to use Pick 2 on Anderson or Carter. 1-Bears-Anderson 2-HOU-Carter We suddenly have a much better chance at a top QB...

It's hard to really know since Brees was never out for enough time during Payton's entire HC career to really see if this is true. Could've just been a really good HC-QB marriage where neither could have really done what they accomplished together on their own. Takes two to tango.

If we pass on a QB, Quinten and Addison, that better be a DROY candidate, All-Pro level talent, hopefully on the DL given the importance and investment we already have in our secondary. This CB group in this draft seems like a very crowded, really solid, but no clear cut top guy. Would absolutely hate to tilt the balance of our positional investments. I would much prefer Q Johnson in this scenario. We have some major investments already. Horn, Woods, & Jackson. Not factoring in that Chinn will need a new contract soon, we invested our 3rd rounder last year in CJ. That's 29 million annual between contracted guys in 24' in our secondary alone. Just seems like a move that gets us nowhere both short term and long term.