strato

Okay he played the nice guy hands off patriarchal owner. Best kind to have. The trick in a business like that is you can’t get too attached. He looks pretty attached. I don’t think the real bottom line has changed, he is sold on Bryce. We are probably screwed unless Bryce can morph into really good Bryce every week.

I see it as we need to get two OTs of starter quality. But not necessarily this year. We can spread it out over ‘26 and ‘27. I don’t want to have to do that, but I don’t see a way around it.

I have been saying buy out his RFA year. I don’t want to worry about some team doing a poison pill contract. Which would only happen if he balls out. You hedge your bet. Give him a nice raise for 2026 and lock him in with a bump for 2027. Incentivize both years. See where you are then.

It is a bad situation from the outside looking in. He is a true optimist, apparently. But there is stuff we don’t know, and they are loaded with draft picks for two years. They have 2 1sts and 2 2nds this year and 3(!) 1sts next year. Plus their second. They made some trades and got a lot of picks back. They probably can’t, but if they can distract Woody Johnson from messing with things so much? Imagine what you could do in two years with 9 hi value picks.

Yeah man. It was ominous. I don’t how to find all the interviews from different platforms but Cam really bothered me that week, as I remember it. He was way past confident, in my eyes. I thought he had the attitude that the game was just a formality, it was like in his mind he was already picking out what hat he would wear to DisneyWorld. I was cringing at it, it is not what you want to see from a guy not named Joe Namath leading up to the biggest game he had ever played in. At least that’s how I remember it. Bright lights big city, they lost focus. We had the better team hands down, and Denver just plain smacked us in the mouth. Having Thomas Davis trying to play with that arm the size of a football wasn’t helping either.

See I am not necessarily trying to defend it as much as to understand what led to it. I accept that people new in jobs will make mistakes. Maybe FA was better, I’d need to go and look at that. It was kind of a panic situation where they had to figure it out quick. They did the OL in FA for whatever reason. Not my favorite approach at all but I understand why they did it.

Why does analyzing the motivations and thought process of a failed draft, and coming up with a viewpoint that is different from yours, or anyone’s, have to equal shoe shining? There is a box and it is okay to venture outside of it. Not a shoebox lol. A thinking outside the box And the box in this case is a prejudice against Fitterer and his subordinates. For one thing. Also an attitude that it was business as usual for the 2024 draft, and it really wasn’t some damned all hands on deck Chinese fire drill trying to cover Tepper’s butt. Fail at your peril. It is hard for me to understand that being an unrealistic scenario. And yeah I want Morgan to succeed but it isn’t a blank check. Let him do something like trade the 2027 1st round pick for a lightweight edge rusher… see what you hear out of me about that.

He fits in Carolina, go get him. Exactly what we value in a QB.

I found a place that said 3rd round. I stopped there. That might be more realistic than getting a 1st or 2nd round player for ILB. And He is a little small.

It certainly was much better, and what you cite was part of it too. But they were not thinking long term. They were thinking we have to make this happen now, or we might not be here.

Seriously you guys need to wake up and accept some basic stuff about the 2024 draft. We had new GM and new HC that were given a mandate. Maximum emphasis must be placed on propping the disaster that was Bryce Young coming off that rookie season. You know, the one got a mostly new coaching staff brought in. They were not really looking to trust a rookie C to make those calls and at the same time desperately wanted a pass catching RB to bail his scrawny ass out of trouble, with his little outlet throws. His specialty. Brooks was supposed to be ready for camp. However it worked out, wasn’t what had they in mind. It ended up worst case. Oops. But that’s what they had in mind.

Confusing. But, bring on those comp picks, let’s hire another AA DC.

Fwiw I just hit my link and it went to 2026 - but with different graphics than your link. Cue that Wayne’s World deal where they make their own sound effects.

People remind us of that all the time. By year two we probably had a better OL, in sum, than Cam did most years. We have good running backs. It isn’t all a tale of completely dysfunctional woe, with Bryce having no help. Every Bryce person seemingly, loves to tout the big time throws and all their stats, okay. That PFF page on him says 4 games of 16 regular season games with at or above a 100 passer rating, qbr, whatever it was. 11 games with under 200 yards passing including one with 40 yards net. Seahawks. They have him ranked 23d of 45 that they ranked. Putting our team’s QB 23rd out of 32 teams. In what people claim as his best season. That is officially number 1 alright, of the bottom third in the league. And they pick up the year option. He may do great next year. Or he may sit right where he has been mostly sitting - mid to low 20s. I understand we are committed to seeing him under center yet another make or break season. Thought we just went through one. Weill be doing that over. Mulligan. My question, f he is no better than 20th next year… do we have to do this again? in 2027?

To follow up, can’t edit. https://www.pff.com/nfl/players/bryce-young/123943 His PFF page. He is listed at overall grade 70.5. 26th of 43 that were graded and ranked. A little lower than I would have guessed (which was 22nd, 23rd).

He actually ranked 19th? Higher than I thought. Maybe two more years and a couple more 1st round skill players he makes it all the way to 15 or so.

Even Cam. Just hoping Bryce is the next one. I’ll take my chances. It isn’t about what he does at that point it will be about what we do. Same as with Sam, Baker, Cam…. If we do well, it doesn’t matter what they do.

Thanks. Too late to edit mine. This is weird. I took it right off the page where that stuff was. The weirder part is the page looks totally different graphic wise using your link.

Shorten the list to two (or three) QBs and it does that job.

On offense, yes I agree that we are missing good QB play. He has not shown he can throw us out of being made one dimensional, against good defenses. The ones that can clamp our run game down. He has had a few legit decent games and a couple three really good games. Problem is, he started 17 games.

The draftek site has us drafting Connor Lew Auburn at #51. Which according to their rankings makes it a 10 spot reach. He is their top rated C. https://www.drafttek.com/2026-NFL-Mock-Draft/2026-NFL-Mock-Draft-Round-2.asp I don’t know how to rate draft sites. That one is easy to navigate

Back to XL, I am not there to know how dense he is when it comes to coaching and the lessons offered and how long it takes for him to absorb that. I suspect he needs more time for that stuff. Than the next guy. And whether it would help or not I think he would have a better chance with more attention than I think he gets. You wanna say he should hire his own coach? I wouldn’t disagree with that at all. Because he needs more coaching.

I don’t know. I don’t feel like they should play hardball with him unless they don’t want to pay him later. He could get alienated given what he just did in the playoffs. If I were him I would think I had proven my worth. Course I don’t know and am not trying to say I am right and you are wrong. Just my perception of things.

I look at it like a quarter of the season is lower quality football. The veteran teams will likely fare better because they have a lot of experience together to fall back on. A team like us with a bunch of new people, it hurts us.

I estimate a two year deal with them buying his RFA year. And his agent not wanting to lock him in for longer.