Bear Hands

That's one of the most sober and honest breakdowns I've seen of Bryce. That guys is being as real as can be. No sugar coating, no tepidness to critique, blunt and straight to the point.

It doesn't look like he will. As someone else mentioned, what he does allows him (or he thinks it helps) to maximize field vision. It doesn't seem he trust himself to read during his drops if he went conventional. At his size, he's trying to survey as much as he can with his back-skip/hop before that weird hitch and turn once he's good and dropped back. Kyler and Russ for example are very deliberate and quick, good footwork mostly, with higher release points. And honestly, they both have 1-1.5" on him height wise. And Bryce plays small, lower release point, he will just throw quick on his backfoot rather than step up into the pocket and take a lick. In the process, he loses so much potential torque. It's 101 stuff but it's like all media has an agreement to not acknowledge it. He usually had the extra second at Bama to readjust into comfortable position. They called it him being this lose street-style "Point Guard", winning out-of-structure, but you still need proper damn mechanics! I don't get the collective analytic community ignoring this for so long. It's some of the worst footwork you'll ever see, and it doesn't look like he cares to fix it. It's year 3. Taking out arm strength, I felt like once I really saw the difference in him vs. contemporaries like Kyler/Russ mechanics wise, his problems were so obvious. And he's just comfortable doing his thing, doesn't want to go out of that comfort zone, and it doesn't translate. At the end of the day, I think he's simply below the physical threshold. His size just doesn't work at this level with his arm strength and lack of frame for being a runner. You hate to say it, because people love to see this type of kid beat the norm, but I think we're simply below the threshold.

Mateer does interest the heck out of me. Live arm, a solid A-power, dual threat, risk taker, experienced with presnap work, good mechanics. Has a side arm thing but nothing egregious or different than Ward, PM, etc. Outside of Sellers, he's the other with that level of high reward. And good news - the entire class is 6'-1" and above

Honestly, 2020 and 2021 were the years we sat on our asses like idiots. First being 2020. Love may have been the one we missed out on with a trade down or a trade up from our 2nd pick. And Hurts was a totally viable 2nd rounder to take a flier on after going DB. Love in particular was one of those top guys pre-college season, but he had a lot of TOs his last year and some iffy decision making pegged him back by scouts. If we hired a staff with a decent plan and vision (instead of Rhule and whatever he wanted to do) willing to groom him behind a vet, that may have been the money bet. 2021, it was Fields. We could've tried him on for size, even if it didn't work, it would have put us in position to draft a QB in 2024. It all sucks. We chased.

Our scouts better be taking a good hard look at the college landscape after the opener. I hate this whole thing about giving the nice guy grace -- he has sucked, and it's just the reality of the situation. Yes, it sucks because he's a nice guy with good spirit, but it is what it is.

Can we just ask really nicely for Kevin O'Connell?

Haha One thing I know is that I'm not one to complain in retrospect much, only when it's super damn obvious. That draft was soooo damn obvious. So f*cking clear what we needed to do. And it was hard to stomach for a lot of us. I was not a Legette fan, just had to accept it and hope he was aight. It was just like Mingo. A guy most consensus had late 2nd/early 3rd at best. If anything, Legette was a bigger reach than Mingo. And we all felt it for some time after that draft. It didn't feel good. If anyone goes back, I was a Frazier, Sainristil, Pearsall, and Kneeland fan. Could've gone BPA at so many critical spots rather than a cheerleading "fun" local interview. I'll never forget an Athletic Pod with Brugler breaking down Legette. He mentioned how he had spoke with a lot of teams and most of the league had him highest, a 3rd rounder. There was one or two teams that had him much higher than others. Voila.

It’s weird some are just acknowledging his footwork like a new thing. The lateral skip, hop and turn/hitch is and has always been his thing. I think he’s trying to correct it but hasn’t and has a weird muscle memory thing going on.

there was a honeypot of talent at the end of first/top of 2nd and we took at 3rd round talent at best in a trade up lol Ladd, Frazier, Sainristil, DeJean, there was a lot

I have a feeling we were going up to get a QB (Stroud or AR) if we didn't get Bryce. So we'd be trading up with AZ. So I don't think we would've turned around and grabbed Caleb that quickly. We could've been on the 2024 QB timeline if we just took Fields instead of Horn.

Starting Center and starting ILB injured, QB looks like a tall version of Bryce.

Thielen drop - Aikman "It appears he was on the Panthers for too long"

He clears left to give himself a clean look. And Sanders is breaking to the left in stride, should easily be able to place it well. Toss it, lead JT to only where he can grab it, it's a 13 yard throw. But then he suddenly stops, plants in a terribly awkward position, with his body parallel to the LOS, feet are facing in opposite directions angled outward. It's egregious for a QB at a D2 level. start this at 7 m 15 s and put it on .50 playback speed:

Canales. Dan was already in house before and is an extension of the prior outfit. He kept a lot of Fits staff. Canales hasn’t inspired a ton of confidence but I think there’s some grace to give. It’s year 2. I think a shorter leash third year would be tough, but stomachable.

Solid is stretching it. Rozeboom frustrated the hell out of Rams fans. Not as bad as Reeder, but close. LB was a known issue going into this week and it showed in a huge way. And Wallace was a high ceiling but super raw LB prospect. Moehrig's slipups were surprising. But yeah, Evero's playcalling and personnel deployment is super annoying. He likes playing light in the box which is nonsense given who we brought into our front-7.

We traded our WR1 and what became 1.01 in a loaded QB draft for him. That being attached to his career makes it so much worse than it should feel.

I've given Canales some runway. Still will for about half the season to thoroughly judge, but the way he calls the run game is infuriating and vanilla. I don't think he wants or is trying to have a diverse running attack. Dan Morgan though...the 2025 draft looks promising but the 2024 draft returns look like a disaster. 1.01 - Caleb Williams/None (traded it for Bryce the year prior) Late 1st - traded up for XL (lol) Over - Keon, Ladd, DeJean 2nd - Traded around and took Brooks who was injured over Sainristil, Frazier, Kneeland, Rosengarten 3rd - Trevin - I'm finally willing to express some major concern but Rozeboom blows and doesn't help him At that point you don't need to look at the rest lol

I think we should go for the next 5’8 180 kid. Damn our history with the 6’5 250 one lol

I think Kyle Orton may still hold the trophy for worst long-ish term starter of all time but he definitely rivals him.

I think it was something like the lowest true YPA and EPA with a clean pocket.

That’s what my more practical side tells me. But if Tepper feels extra embarrassed, then who knows

Sure sounds good

If his job is on the line, I think you can only really give a performance like today 3-4 weeks max in year 3 for a 1.01.

Going hard doesn't always mean going well lol. He's still starting and had a really nice 2024.

We don't. Kirskey & NcNeil are still here. Have been for a bit. Some from Hurney finally left but others linger.