strato

Parity in the league is out of whack. I think there are a lot more bad teams than there used to be. They play each other and the games are close. They play upper echelon and the difference shows up on the scoreboard in the form of blowouts on occasion. As to the OP we have to try and play those better teams close and sometimes we can. It means making a it low scoring game. Basically if you want more points the QB has to play better. Some weeks he doesn’t play very well.

Just want to add that this is invaluable experience they are getting. It often takes more than one try. Whether or not they succeed this time, they will have it to draw from next time. So it is a positive however it turns out this one time.

What you credit him for were good plays. I refer you to the thoughts of another QB out there being tasked with that situation. Were they plays only he could make because of a unique skill set or ability, compared to another QB? Is it possible someone else of marginal NFL skill level might have made those completions? This is the thing. You might reply that his intangibles come into play, his clutchness for example. I am saying it is fair to wonder if maybe another QB converts on third down and we don’t need a 4th down conversion. Or another guy makes the same throws and the train keeps rolling. Stuff like that. Where do you draw those lines? And if you don’t get a clear answer of Bryce could do that and another guy similar in skill set or maybe with a better arm could not, then do you pay him huge multiples of millions?

I never even thought about the Cowboys until you said that. Hmm. We own those fugers in the playoffs maybe we need to keep those at least for them.

Sure do. And defense was king. We always had top defenses.

I think those silver helmets look great. The logo is fairly primitive looking but I understand why it is used. The dayglo type blue top/bottom, I think looks like a cartoon. IOW not good. White on white is a classic look, no issue. Black on black I can take but prefer black pants with a blue top. Or white pants with the blue top. That is about as much fashion content as I am comfortable posting. Maybe go to E or Bravo for this stuff.

You are a fair point argument guy, but I disagree that Bryce got us out of that Miami hole. You know who Rico Dowdle is, right? Just a small quibble. IMO when I look at him and see his output in a typical game I imagine what he did that a replacement level guy wouldn’t or couldn’t have done. And I have trouble seeing much difference. So assuming they can’t replace him with someone’s backup, not everybody’s but there are guys sitting, assuming they can’t replace him for probably less money would potentially be an erroneous assumption. But based more on his relationship with the team and the guys making the decisions, the question of will they? I tend to see them sticking with him. I never wanted him at all. But after all the misery of the Bryce era so far, I don’t have a problem with waiting until the season is complete to decide. Bring it on, I can take it. So I am not ranting that he needs to go, although I have certainly done that and can’t say he has changed my mind to this point. He still could. We’ll see.

Okay.

Yes it seems logical and sensible, until you remember the same egotistical multi billionaire that brought him to us is making the decisions. I am going to remain wary.

You can have a point, yet at the same time we know that with Tepper, that possibility does exist. Scary.

Technically. What you figure the chances of that are? We may be the toughest team left on their schedule lol.

Yeah. Especially when you consider that in November, even sub .500 teams still aren’t out of it, but we have been.

I don’t know about that. He had 130 yards in the first half. And I am giving him 4 quarters. It is okay to give him some credit when he doesn’t totally suck. now, is that who he is? History says no. History says he is mostly bad, and unable to sustain a higher level of play when he manages to achieve it.

I would say in a sense he is better because he has extended his good outings to 60 minutes a couple of times. It was a half, or even a quarter most other times. But at the same time he looks like he did in 2023 so much of the time still that it is hard to say he is better from that perspective.

I’ve never believed in him, to be clear. Was against the trade up on principle and once it was done and a two horse race it was CJ for me. No real competition in my mind. But I wanted nothing to do with that strategy to begin with. I really feel the need for us to be shown one way or the other this year, on what Bryce is or can be. His floor is way too low. His level of play is way too inconsistent and predominantly (taking the entire schedule and results into account) is not acceptable. Just sitting here watching the world go by hoping he gives us some clarity because I am really not enjoying the state of existence we have been mired in. I just really don’t want to consider life with paying him 50 damn million dollars to beat Atlanta and a couple of other bottom feeders.

This whole thing just illustrates how wildly inconsistent he has been, and highlights the need for some kind of relative certainty as to what his future is likely to look like.

If you win the division you probably have your Bryce answer built in. So no argument with that. You could not win it and still get a positive answer, or a negative one. In the big picture that is the most important thing to me. Talking about a bunch of years not just this one.

Talking about ‘should be’ you have to give Green Bay that game. Yes we should have handled the Saints. I won’t say Arizona because any more in this league the first two weeks are a total crap shoot and not a great indicator of your team’s future. The shortened preseason has most teams playing catch up the first couple of weeks. IMO. I guess trading the Saints for GB puts us right where we are. which is better than we probably expected.

Also, your big post was about the QB pipeline being broken. Which is the context of my reply. It is broken. I was using Bryce as an example of it, relative to us. But the general idea of it being broken is bigger than just him. Now would people have taken a QB if they knew it would take him 5 years to develop? I might have have but lower in the draft and not had him thrown into the fire. But honestly I would have looked for a more suitable sized guy with better tools, and yeah that is Bryce specific.

Okay. I didn’t say it was Bryce specific. But he is in that group and our issue. CJ, oddly, did not have that issue. Hmm. Again. Also you don’t sift through the rejects and pick one that couldn’t learn to play from under center. Unless you are stupid. I mean that would be a reason they would be rejects. But not all of them are that limited.

Yeah they obviously do. I wonder if the extra day helps us make that trip a little less taxing. We have been so routined into 1pm EST that an extra 8 hours before kickoff is a wild card too.

It is better to pick through the rejects that have at least been trained to take a snap from under center. People acted like Bryce’s first year was everyone else, and fail to consider that if he were able to operate efficiently from under center that you get the benefit of play action and a running game. Which we proved the previous season we could operate pretty well using that. But no he couldn’t do that. So the adage that a young QB’s best friend is a good running game couldn’t be true for us. Off the table. He still doesn’t do play action very well.

And it probably won’t be either. It all goes to the QB question and our future, long term, for me. Over whether we get the honor of being Cinderella one and done.

I think in light of the timing of that OL upgrade I must overlook it. It wasn’t like the situation allowed a better planned upgrade that would involve developing players, at least according to ownership’s priority on making Bryce work NOW. They didn’t have time to build it the right way, and you have to overpay to get top guys on a 2-15 team. It wasn’t ideal, no. The Moton thing I look at in a vacuum. Apart from the interior guys. I have a vague notion of a ridiculous cap situation leading to the ridiculous extension. Got my speed throttled on the phone here and over the cap.com didn’t want to load so I didn’t look it up. Bit after watching Nijman in some games last year I would not (have) felt good at all about no Moton. This is all resulting from the urgency or impatience or whatever you call it around removing the excuses for Bryce. You would hope that with a more settled situation there the building and maintaining of the roster could be addressed using a less extreme approach.

I agree it is more about the OL. If you happen to have a world beater with a great OL then that’s better obviously but you don’t need to have that. Capable and durable guys that can get to the second level with good blocking can be plenty.