Bear Hands

Re-signing Donte Jackson is an overlooked one that had a trickle effect with positional allocation. So that’s mine. Could’ve pulled back Reddick or invested sooner on offense.

This week just continues to be hell-a interesting

Ben J and this guy will be hyped but Shane Waldron is one to not discount up in Seattle. First things first, we have at least 8-10 more games to go with our current Frank

Dillon is nearing the end of his "show me something" period in GB

Dorian Williams is going to blossom methinks—they’re in decent shape although Milano is a huge loss. They got a really good LB from Tulane. Him and Spears were the two that were responsible for beating Caleb and USC in last years bowl game. And Pratt. Love me some Michael Pratt

You can’t change anything mentioned in the premise of the OP. So the question becomes if can he handle the ride that is the Carolina Panthers? That pressure will only mount the more we lose

That is a reasonable time frame. He may have a rocky road ahead, but I'm unsure what we're working with. We need to see a greater sample size. If this continues, I imagine people will be itching to draft mid-round insurance, like Cameron Ward for example, but gotta see what unfolds with the kid who we took to be the franchise.

It would be one thing to be patient about new guys, but half of his 2022 draft class is already off the team. That is a very bad sign. And two of those picks took 4 picks to get. That's right, 8 picks used to wind up with only 3 guys currently on the roster in less than 2 seasons. And the two trade ups (Corral and Smith) are the ones that were cut. That's just wild to have that much focus to trade up for a specific guy and he flat out doesn't make it more than 1 full season rostered. Fitterer seems to be a knowledgeable guy, pretty even keel, knows who he is and how he likes to operate, but he's just not picking the right guys or making the right moves.

Yep. There's a modern chess match going on every year with schemes, heck, teams are already pulling from Miami's playbook this season, and it's not even like we're a step or two behind, we're not even understanding the moves they make or are at the table. We're still learning how to play, going against the computer online with the "hints" turned on. Dan Campbell & Ben Johnson absolutely worked this team.

Checks out as well because we love to act about a decade behind the times. Never at the forefront outside of lucking into Cam and Luke at their positions. Reich, Legion of Boom, Basic Zone concepts, no eye for talent (drafts have been awful), in an evolving era where even the Seahawks knew to leave all of that in the dust at a certain point and keep finding guys all over the place. Now they have one of the brightest minds at OC these days with an entirely rebuilt team on O and D. Brooks, Love, Witherspoon, Woolen, Tre Brown, all legit building blocks. Kenny Walker, Charbonnet, Metcalf, Lockett, Smith-N. Brand new revamped OL with young dudes that have played well. And here we are...

Yep. Not to mention they drafted Goff at the tail end of Fisher when that organization needed a larger reboot. Snead wanted Goff, Fisher wanted Wentz or a FA. Fisher buried Goff and didn't play him, fans thought he was a bust after being thrown in at the end of the season in a bad situation. But thing was, he was advertised as a prototype, just not as NFL ready as others so it wasn't lost a new coach could help him. And behold...Fisher gets fired, Snead finds a compadre in McVay who comes in and suddenly Goff looks like a pro. 28 TDs, 7 INTs his soph season, in the SB within 2 years. You're going nowhere without the right GM & coach.

The timing of the ownership switch was brutal. Tepper’s initial pause and wanting to sort the financials year one had a big effect. Hurney and Rivera both leaving should have been decisive and rather swiftly after 2018 showed us everything we needed to know about them. Tepper should have cleared house after, I mean the end of Cam was clear and he should’ve added a executive for personnel decisions. Not this whole feel it out scenario that Tepper toyed with. The following offseason was bad in my view with Tepper keeping Ron, Hurney, drafting Burns, Little and Grier. Cam was shot and everyone knew it and that was a putrid draft (not to mention every since then as well) That should’ve been the reset after 2018.. go into 2019 with a new coach, a meh FA QB like Tyrod or Foles, likely get a bad record, land Burrow/Tua/Herbert in the next draft. We lied to ourselves about Cam, had this brief moment with Allen riding CMC to 4 in a row and then fell apart. Should’ve rebuilt around CMC right then and there.

The 33rd Team had an article during our coaching search and Reich was legit dead last in their preference for us from guys interviewed. Fans all wanted the Steichen/BJ type, heck, I think we could've gotten excited about Kellen Moore, Dorsey or Mayo. Reich just didn't seem right. The people he brought together and respect he has was reassuring, but if you can't put a good product on the field, then you're not doing it right.

Did I say he was?

And let's face it, you can't coddle a kid you take #1 and trade the barn for. Didn't happen to Trevor, Burrow, Kyler, Baker, Winston, Newton, Luck, Stafford, the list goes on. Goff is the only guy at #1 who didn't have the same deal but he was on the bench to begin the year behind Keenum for the Fisher's 7-9-athon staff. Word was Fisher didn't really want him, wanted Wentz or a vet. Many felt they traded up and reached for a guy that wasn't pro ready, the opposite of what we apparently picked Young for. (By the way, the 15 to #1 comp seems like peanuts to what we gave up, but that was like2015). So, they eventually bring in McVay, the team looks completely different the next season, they were in the SB by his third season under a rockstar coach and rebuilt squad. The other example is J Russell/Oakland who I don't think we want to be comparing our situation to as he was a monumental bust and they ended up moving the team lol. We cannot do this to Young and hope we stumble into a Rams situation.

I think Brown and Evero are/could be strong coaches. Reich seems to be lost a bit in his early/mid-2010s framework of building a team.

Could be the "too many cooks" situation that The Athletic posed before the season started. Brown and Reich may just not be a good duo together. Shawn Jefferson may not be as good of a coach as he was a player. Thing is, Brown is so hyped up in league circles (per reports around his hiring), that you should likely lean in his direction rather than a guy retiring in 2-4 years. I see them on the sidelines and it just doesn't seem like they're really working out together. It's like they're trying their best to accomodate one another but clearly want to do 2 different things.

Even though we're bad and think he's not worth a ton anymore, he still holds A LOT of value. The market dictates, not our dejection with the team, and pass rushers are the most coveted dudes after QB. 42 sacks by age 25, went from bad to just below-average against the run. People can act all deflated here but I do think he's worth a first and then some. We're just probably not getting close to (2) firsts. Rams got lucky-- our trade didn't happen and they landed 2 super promising rookies in Byron Young and Kobie Turner. It's gotta be a team with a shot but not convincing anyone yet, and of course a clear need. Baltimore is the one I could see. Oweh is unimpressive and injured, they had to sign Clowney who's been average. They've got plenty future picks in tact and tradeable talent. 2024 1st and Patrick Queen (contract year, they declined his 5th yr). Something like that could be juicy.

If we start Dalton to help us beat Steichen/AR's Colts and Ryans/Stroud's Texans, then they might as well just throw in the hat on Bryce. That would look really bad on the org's part, from the fans' perspective, and from the media. Losses all around. Let Bryce take his bumps like a man and grow. If we shut him down, it's too soon, you'll de-acclimate him, and you take him out at a low. That's just not smart.

It's gotta be Fitterer. Some maddening perspective: Returns on 2022's draft are already definitive losses - Corral (was worth 2 picks/trade up), Smith (2 picks/trade up), Barnes. We wasted 5 picks on three guys that are already off the team. Ekwonu is very concerning this season. Barno and Mays are all remaining, and let's be real, they aren't rising into long term starters. The previous draft had 11 picks with only 1-2 working out (relatively speaking). This is how you become the worst. Horrible draft after horrible draft. We're the team team's are excited to see pick or trade up because we're taking guys that aren't high on other boards.

Only this franchise would end up picking the one bust from the best team in CFB history.

I think Fitt potentially midseason to see how Dan Morgan managing the counting department goes. Frank is hard to know until this IND, HOU, CHI stretch of games. I think he could legit be a rare one and done if we end up 4-13 or worse. I wouldn’t call Tepper overreactive if we did that. This could get near Hackett level embarrassing.

1. Recruit Ben Johnson back to his home state. His offense was a thing of beauty today. 2. Say goodbye to Fitt, see what Dan Morgan is made of 3. Draft an offensive playmaker as high as we can without mortgaging anymore high draft picks. I.E. Troy Franklin. I would be okay trading a late rounder to trade up to like 27-29.

I am growing to dislike everything about how we built this offense more and more, especially when we originally had one first and twos seconds in a great draft and DJ Moore still in the building. But moving on, can’t change it, but Fitt is looking to be on the rocks. Big time. Young wise—We’ve passed the point where we should waste time trying to find the good throws in a loss. He’s just not living up to the bill so far. You shouldn’t have to be rewatching highlights as a fan to try and find hope with a few good throws… for a guy we traded to #1 to get and gave up all of that. You should be making that trade for a truly coveted once in 3-5 year type talent. We mortgaged so much and in doing so, put so much pressure on him and now that it’s not looking good. It’s a sinking ship. The staff is failing him but he’s doing the team absolutely no favors. Bad bad situation. This could get ugly for Bryce by year’s end (at the current trajectory) This stretch after Miami could be very telling when we play teams (not just the rookie QBs), but teams that were perceived to be in the rebuild cellar with us to start the year. He’s consistently making mistakes. Not rookie mistakes, just mistakes that you can’t make. Reich’s planning has been awful, Fitt has way too many draft picks not shaking out.

A first and a proven starter that’s still relatively young. If we’re going to dish out another guy to help rebuild (again), we need to start acquiring known-assets and not just bunched picks that we keep missing on.