Scott Fitterer - the athletic

[CRA]

2 minutes ago, Seltzer said:

Could you imagine showing your face around the league after the disastrous trades he's made?

The NFL is brutal... I'm sure Fitty gets clowned relentlessly behind the scenes of other organizations...

Mr. "In on every trade" lol. I'm sure the NFL makes sure of that at this point.  No bigger sucker. 

[Seltzer]

3 minutes ago, CRA said:

I think in Burns' entire career you could argue he was our best defensive player just once in his career in reality....and that ain't been recent.   Not sure why folks keep repeating that at this point.   Burns just has tenure over others.   That's helping play into the narrative he is the best.   When was the last time he was actually the best? 

 

I think it would be hard to replace Burns, but this season hasn't done as much for his cause as I'm sure he would have hoped either.

And other than last year, you're right about him not being the best.  Reddick was better in 2021, but both Brown & Luvu have had better seasons than Burns this year.

Burns gets double-teamed a lot, but no more than Brown who has actually proven himself to be the kind of guy you break the bank for.  And if we're being honest, does Luvu's versatility not make him just as valuable if not more than Burns?

None of us have a crystal ball, but NFL GM's are held accountable to the decisions they make.  And Fitty's have in retrospect been almost completely wrong, including not trading Burns at his peak and now bungling the contract situation... man, the evidence is just more & more damning against Fitty.

[Seltzer]

5 minutes ago, CRA said:

Mr. "In on every trade" lol. I'm sure the NFL makes sure of that at this point.  No bigger sucker. 

We really bought that one from Fitty, too.  I know I did.

Yep, biggest sucker in the league.

I never thought 5 years ago I could ever miss Marty Hurney, but here we are...

[Shocker]

He traded a young Hall of Famer and didn’t even get back a first rounder…he has to go 

Edited December 20, 2023 by Shocker

[CRA]

8 minutes ago, Seltzer said:

I think it would be hard to replace Burns, but this season hasn't done as much for his cause as I'm sure he would have hoped either.

And other than last year, you're right about him not being the best.  Reddick was better in 2021, but both Brown & Luvu have had better seasons than Burns this year.

Burns gets double-teamed a lot, but no more than Brown who has actually proven himself to be the kind of guy you break the bank for.  And if we're being honest, does Luvu's versatility not make him just as valuable if not more than Burns?

None of us have a crystal ball, but NFL GM's are held accountable to the decisions they make.  And Fitty's have in retrospect been almost completely wrong, including not trading Burns at his peak and now bungling the contract situation... man, the evidence is just more & more damning against Fitty.

I don't think it is that hard to replace him.  With a horrific coach and outlook.....we easily went out and signed a better pass rusher than him and a better DB than anyone on the roster.  It's hard to find a Miles Garrett type edge player that can do it.  That's not Burns.  In reality, there are lot of dudes that can rush the passer. 

[mrcompletely11]

1 minute ago, Shocker said:

He traded a young Hall of Famer and didn’t even get back a first rounder…he has to go 

You have defended him endlessly for not trading Burns.   Still feel that way?

[Seltzer]

1 minute ago, Shocker said:

He traded Hall of Famer and didn’t even get back a first rounder…he has to go 

I mean, trading CMC for nothing basically and trading up for the #1 pick and still ending up with the worst record in the league...

Fitty will never, ever be able to wash these awful trades/stains off his resume.

2 All-Time Blunders... and to do both in consecutive years... I mean, has there every been a 2-year stretch this bad as a GM... and this doesn't even count all his disasters...

 

[CRA]

3 minutes ago, Seltzer said:

I think it would be hard to replace Burns, but this season hasn't done as much for his cause as I'm sure he would have hoped either.

And other than last year, you're right about him not being the best.  Reddick was better in 2021, but both Brown & Luvu have had better seasons than Burns this year.

Burns gets double-teamed a lot, but no more than Brown who has actually proven himself to be the kind of guy you break the bank for.  And if we're being honest, does Luvu's versatility not make him just as valuable if not more than Burns?

None of us have a crystal ball, but NFL GM's are held accountable to the decisions they make.  And Fitty's have in retrospect been almost completely wrong, including not trading Burns at his peak and now bungling the contract situation... man, the evidence is just more & more damning against Fitty.

I don't think Burns was actually the best defender last year.  He just had sacks.   His liability factor counters a lot of that.  I think Luvu and Brown actually jumped him last year.  It's just carrying over this year. 

I think 2020 is the only season he was actually the best defender.  Which wasn't a good defense. 

[Seltzer]

3 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

You have defended him endlessly for not trading Burns.   Still feel that way?

I'll speak for myself... I will personally admit I thought keeping Burns last year was the right move, but I was wildly gaslit about where this roster stood.  I think we all were.

I thought we had the roster capable of trading up for a QB and making the playoffs, and keeping the only current guy on the roster who had shown he could get double-digit sacks seemed like the best course at the time.

I still think Burns is someone I would like on the team.  He is by far our best pass rusher IMO.  I think Fitty has massively bungled this entire Burns situation, but I do ultimately understand the concern about breaking the bank.  Still, we're a better team in 2024 if he's on the roster.

But, yes, unequivocally, given a crystal ball, those 2 1st rounders would be really nice for this team as it currently sits.  It certainly seems like it would have been the better long-term move.

In some ways like Bryce Young, though, I think the ink is dry.  Unless we still get blown away by a trade proposal pre-draft (which I doubt), the best move for next year is to resign him (for hopefully something reasonable to both sides).

[CRA]

2 minutes ago, Seltzer said:

Still, we're a better team in 2024 if he's on the roster.

That's still going to be dependent on what his cost is though most likely.  If you overpay a largely one dimensional player too much....it impacts what you can do with your defensive roster as a whole.  Which is the Burns "problem". 

I still think Fitterer setup a scenario where Brian Burns walks out the door and we get nothing.  

[raleigh-panther]

This guy thought his roster was a ‘qb’ away from NFC south champs this year 

that alone should be reason to replace him 

As far as Bryce, he wanted another Russell and convinced the owner of such 

show him the door…Morgan as well.  Franchise needs a fresh start 

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, Seltzer said:

Good & accurate assessment. 

Fitty is the biggest current issue on the team.  There is no logic that could support bringing him back after his cascade of failures, the biggest (and should be unequivocal grounds for termination) was misjudging the roster so incredibly badly to trade up to #1.  And this was just the topping on the cake of bad decisions with draft capital.

That being said, we'll probably never know behind the scenes how much Tepper is pulling the strings.  The fact the Fitty is even still here is a bad sign IMO b/c it seems like Fitty has traded job security for being a yes man to the owner who really wants to run the show.

All we can hope is the Fitty is gone come Jan 8th, and that Tepper hires a legit GM and stays out of the way.

The best case scenario is that Fitts is the architect of this disaster and that Tepper has been snowed by him this whole time. That seems like a huge reach but we can still hope.

[PNW_PantherMan]

On the Burns thing, I just think investing heavily on defense makes no sense for this team.  Until you have the QB problem solved, it’s not going to get you anywhere.  I think it makes more sense to allocate resources to the offensive side.  We need to see how Bryce plays with a better supporting cast.  And if he’s not the guy, we need a better supporting cast for any future QB as well.

Spending money on defense makes sense for teams that have a window to win.

[WhoKnows]

20 minutes ago, Seltzer said:

I'll speak for myself... I will personally admit I thought keeping Burns last year was the right move, but I was wildly gaslit about where this roster stood.  I think we all were.

I thought we had the roster capable of trading up for a QB and making the playoffs, and keeping the only current guy on the roster who had shown he could get double-digit sacks seemed like the best course at the time.

I still think Burns is someone I would like on the team.  He is by far our best pass rusher IMO.  I think Fitty has massively bungled this entire Burns situation, but I do ultimately understand the concern about breaking the bank.  Still, we're a better team in 2024 if he's on the roster.

But, yes, unequivocally, given a crystal ball, those 2 1st rounders would be really nice for this team as it currently sits.  It certainly seems like it would have been the better long-term move.

In some ways like Bryce Young, though, I think the ink is dry.  Unless we still get blown away by a trade proposal pre-draft (which I doubt), the best move for next year is to resign him (for hopefully something reasonable to both sides).

A lot of people were wrong on that. I was wrong on Young because I never realized he didn’t have an NFL arm. I thought height might be an issue but I just wanted a rookie QB/rebuild so bad that I trusted we had QB expertise in Reich and McCown and Caldwell to pick the right one or at least raise the red flags to stop a bad decision.

What I wasn’t wrong on was that Fitterer should have been gone with Rhule and that we should have gone full rebuild last year. I wanted full rebuild and no Teddy in 2020, but last year should have been it. We didn’t get enough for CMC but I was OK with it as it would have been 2025/2026 before we were truly competing. Same with DJ, get pick 15 from GB, don’t throw him in on the trade up. Get two firsts and a 2nd for Burns and tank the poo out of the rest of the season. Trade Gilmore, trade anyone not young enough to get a top 3 pick without trade up.

Even if we fuged up with Bryce, had we gone full rebuild we’d have had pick 15 and 36 already on the roster from this past draft (might have even had La Porta earlier instead of Mingo) and we’d have pick #1 and the Rams’ first and pick 33 in 2024. In 2025, we’d have two more 1sts and our 2nd. We would have been able to get by the mistake of taking Young without much issue.