Bear Hands

I knew it wouldn't be long but not THAT quickly after I posted haha. If Tremble and Taylor are on the outs, man, the early 2020s picks will be sparce. Nice job Rhule.

Keith Taylor and STO are still around..but maybe not for long.

Not interested or surprised but notable (a few really liked him here): Chargers release rookie Max Duggan

I've always loved Haynes. He was a monster in college and has only had a positive trajectory here. Only problem is that him and Burns on the field together really only works on passing downs. Early downs, it's tricker--which is why we reached for DJJ and brought in Houston to help set the edge. Honestly, I think Houston and Haynes working in the rotation down dependent, opposite Burns could be fine-to-great. Not to mention, Luvu will also have more wide-9 looks in our penny fronts in an on-ball role. We're going deploy 5-1-5 Penny, 4-2-5 Nickel, 3-3-5 Nickel, and 3-4-4 and I just don't see YGM capitalizing here. Elsewhere on D, Chinn fits beautifully in N in the penny and nickel looks. Shaq is consistently our off-ball ILB in the 5-1. Luvu can float around which is huge. YGM started every game last season, and I'll need to look it up, but TAFS did a dive into us the other week and mentioned how he was ranked something like 87 of 88 eligible pass rushers for win rate. It's not looking good. He had some wins in preseason but he consistently takes bad angles and can't wrap up a play after he's got the clear to do so.

He had one of the worst pressure success rates in the league last year. He has a far way to go if he’ll be here much longer

Jalen Mayfield turned out to be a certified bust in ATL. Pick 68 in 2021. High for an interior lineman. Remember him being fairly touted but he was not good.

We'll see, more cuts to be made throughout the league.

Yeah I have had high hopes for Mays and Brady. Mays seems to have hit a bit of a wall. Re: the OP, Zavala doing well will help everyone. He looks comfortable and he has experience with Ekwonu which is big. Once Corbett comes back, we could be in a lot better shape than people have been thinking. Icky is going through what seem like some mental errors here and there, but his skills are otherwise awesome. I can see a roller coaster of perception happening on our OL this season. Guys like Mays, Jordan, & McCray have all looked just downright bad in preseason, but focusing on our starters---they could still easily come around and perform at an end-of-22' level. Bozeman & Moton are dogs. I still have confidence in Icky. It's Brady and Chandler who are the two with shoes to fill.

Might as well keep expectations tempered. Then we can all be surprised if we pull a win out of the gate.

Well you see blank is feisty and like 5'9. Totally the next Smitty.

Evero runs 5-1/Penny Fronts. Since the front 3 are flanked by a consistent EDGE and a counterpart rotation, it allows for multiple disguises the more versatile the edge and NB are. Chinn is going to be operating in box near Shaq and Luvu will be moving around off and on ball. It’s pretty cool with our personnel but it’s not a plain 3-4 system by any means. He’s not a mirror of Fangio either. Evero has his own wrinkles with gap assignments. I’m in the boat of not that worried here. Solid example (against us):

Regarding the Saints...my boy Haener, I mean, it's preseason but his feel for the game is shining through. He started off with jitters in game one but ever since his INT has been fire. I really hate that he wound up there.

It is my biggest gripe from the draft as well. I’ve since let it go but man, I was excited about a lot of RBs in the past draft class. Spears, Johnson, McBride, Abanikanda, Chase Brown. It was a fun and super deep class. Can’t sweat the past but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bum me out.

Some potential waiver pickups: Patrick Taylor, Lew Nichols, and Tyler Goodson are all battling behind Jones and Dillon in GB. Not household names but could be viable. They’ve shown well. Josh Kelly could be on the bubble in LAC. My only bitterness from the draft is we didn’t get Tyjai Spears. He’s looking really good. Just like when he led Tulane to beat Caleb/USC rgh

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/panthers-chuba-hubbard-suffers-ankle-injury-friday/ Sanders status dependent, this could put us in a pickle for week 1. We'll wait and see with Chuba, but an ankle injury for an RB no matter the severeness isn't ideal. I really like Blackshear but Brown seems pedestrian. Just doesn't do it for me. You can find RBs a bit easier than other spots so I expect we'll be taking a fine look at Blackshear/Brown/Peoples this week. Keep an eye on some other team competition. Notable: Carter or Abanikanda could be looking on the outside for NYJ with Cook coming in.

Imagine we'll get exam results today/tomorrow for him.

A report came out through Coach Reich today. He said Hubbard is dealing with an ankle problem. Unsure exactly the extent. Could be minor but a RB's ankles aren't a good one to even deal with on the minor side.

I'm usually not overly critical at one or two particular guys but both Eric Rowe and Spencer Brown bring very little to the squad. And it's not like Brown is a particularly awesome pass blocking RB either. They seem a notch slower than everyone on the field on their respective sides. Given Hubbard's ankle injury, I think we need to start monitoring other team's RB cuts come next week. Blackshear looks great but it would serve us well to look for a viable guy that has strengths as a pass blocker.

No one likes a fan judge. That’s pointless and wastes everyone’s time. Don’t qualify who is a “fan” and who is not. That’s when the poo comes. Everyone coming online, consistently to a teams’s forum is obviously invested. — anyways… Our partial 1st team offense has had what, like, 4 total drives? The defense was missing 3 of its most important starters in the front 7 so of course they got gashed. Not to mention we still have another preseason game to work some kinks out. Jeeeeezus people.

Appreciate the focused player chat and just not general "we suck" meme-ish stuff. They were definitely testing the interior OL's run blocking and it seemed Zavala held his own. He didn't push but he was pretty resilient and didn't get blown back much at all. Seemed to win more than he lost. Mingo seems like he could be getting a lot more snaps than expected early on. He looked very comfortable.

Yes, the rando that just threw 2 of the most dud INT passes directly into the Giants hands.

Luton with some zip

Funny thing I was thinking is that he reminds me a better run blocking version of Khalil Herbert..and what do you know, they were teammates. Can pass catch and seems to have bulked up and improved at blocking. He plays a lot quicker and with better burst than he tested in 2020. I'd just love to find a toolsy guy in the mold of Pollard/Herbert/etc. I think that type of dude is critical these days. Sanders doesn't have top end burst, Hubbard is just slow, and Brown is just not worth having. Would love to just keep Sanders, Blackshear, and maybe peruse other team's cuts for a smash mouth type. If no ones pops up of interest, just retain Hubbard one more year.

I know it's a worse defense but Blackshear has so much more value than Brown. We need more home run hitters and he just has such good quickness.

We are also clearly looking to see what type of percentages can be deployed in a RB committee if Miles misses time. Blackshear really seems to have a quick first step. He gets to the line of scrimmage quicker than Chubba (slowest) and Brown.