stratocatter

If you have your D, you have your OL, your QB, then a RB of the highest echelon would be a great target that high in the draft. I would almost argue a TE that is elite would be better than RB but I'l concede that. If RB means that much to you, go for it. Otherwise, tend to the rest first.

The spoiled rich kid owner wanted a cool offensive doll because all the other rich kids have one. That’s it.

Respect to coach Wilks. And love for what he gave me this year. A reason to watch. Listening Tepper? I am not shading Reich he is a good coach I believe. But if only they’d have won one more.

@mr completely A Head Coach doesn’t do much coaching.

……snip…. I think Steve Wilks has through the roof potential as boss of a football team. IMO his leadership is the best ever in Panthers history (such as it is). He was just outstanding. I am okay with Reich, was always open to him. He is one of the few they could get with bona fides in training quarterbacks, he has been a head coach. Checks the boxes. But keeping Wilks as DC is something that would be fraught with potential division, that could undermine a HC. I think both guys are mature enough and smart enough to not let that be a thing between them, but it is a hot potato waiting to happen. Besides, I really think Wilks is a better HC than a DC, just eyeball and memory.

OP there are different types of 6-6. Going 6-6 with an underachieving roster is different than pulling a team out of an accelerating nose dive, pretty much against anyone’s expectations. That wasn’t mediocrity. It was closer to great. Could he do as impressive of a job if the talent was better, tne bar was higher, etc. And he had his staff and got to stand on his own foundation from the beginning? Can’t say without seeing it. I don’t expect him to be hired but people are really undervaluing the job he did.

He is a force of leadership, pair him with a poachable OC hope Fitterer is good without Rhule, and go to work. About the only argument against Wilks that many can come up with, is “they will poach a good OC”. Let’s look at that a little closer. That means you accomplished something with that guy. Something impressive enough that people want him to be their guy. Okay someone steals him. What you have then when you are interviewing/looking is “our last OC was poached, wanna be next?”. You found the first one you can find another.

I think people see glimpses in their team owner, at times, of the same guy that would buy his former boss’ house and tear it down. Like, I don’t even know why someone would do a thing like that. What is the thought process that takes you to that place?

I think Olsen is tearing it up. He’ll probably improve technically, get slicker and more polished, but he is fresh and hitting it hard. His game within the game stuff is the best thing going now. The route explanations and how things set up strategy or play design are better than I remember seeing for a while. I hope he doesn’t become irritating once the freshness wears off. I am almost there with Romo. He was fresh at first by a lot, now it’s meh.

If you guys don’t think bounty pools and the like, big hit pools, whatever you want to call them, if you don’t think everyone was doing it you are not a reasonable thinking person. And I will not much value your judgement because you are not looking at things realistically They got Caught doing it. Twice. The objection I’d have is they were busted, told to quit, but did not. Caught, warned, caught. That’s why he got the business end of the stick. Thats where I have to seriously call his judgement into question.

That would be a good get. Will need pieces. And pieces of the cap once you find them. It still has to work that way and I think they were paying Brees so much at one point that it hamstrung them elsewhere. Predicting what he would do this time is beyond my expertise though. My main reaction is anchored a bit less in Payton and more in Tepper and the big splash throw money. I will say maybe he does think Payton is the best out there available. That is defendable, he well might be.

Tepper had 5 years to get things straight but did what he did. Two years of picking out his shovel and two more years of solid digging. The night watchman is eventually given the keys, and using working man’s tools steps up and stabilizes things somewhat. As soon as he gets a shower and a good night’s rest Tepper is looking around for a shiny new shovel. This time it will be one of those high dollar Historic ReIssue shovels (they get you most of the way there, most owners say). Is Brees here? It was him not Payton. And remember all those great defenses Payton put together? Me neither. You are gonna need both and you are going to empty the cupboard or at least a couple of shelves worth before you start cooking that meal. This is the epitome of retread. Maybe Dennis Allen can come on board as DC.

My 1st cuz is a long time Ravens season ticket holder. I will ask him about it but I can say right now I do not want to pay the huge ridiculous money to one player. Especially if that player is a QB that relies on his own running ability to win.

I totally ignored your point, yes. It is not a good point and should be ignored. Or maybe the valid sensible point is in there somewhere but you are missing it. Here, I will help you. Wilks did not assemble the roster. In fact he was said to have criticized it -to Snow- as being too light to win in the NFL. I am pretty sure I read that here. But you decide that if Wilks and not Snow is to blame, that it will be the key piece of evidence of Wilks not being qualified that seals the deal, ends the argument, mic drop. And you are going to bring it in here and be seen as one of the smart crowd. Is that close? You’ll show those Wilkstards . If I have it right, the takeaway from people blaming Wilks for the D falling off is: Wilks head coached a D that Snow and Rhule constructed and it is Wilks’ fault they were poor at run stopping and poor at holding the edge, and the secondary (his specialty) fuged up assignments constantly, and and and. Because Wilks is conservative D coach and we want a McVey clone? Can’t get a McVey if Wilks is in the way so let’s take him down? How I feel about it? I am not worshipping Wilks as the only solution. Or a sure fire solution because nothing is. I definitely have a high opinion of him as a man of integrity and no BS. And a bona fide NFL guy. But he blitzed more than I wanted when running the D in 17 I guess it was. There were issues this year with the game management and a couple of the game plans. I haven’t seen what he would do about OC and the direction of the offense and team in general. So not ending the search without seeing what is out there To the conservative defense objections, they’re not hiring him for DC in the first place. We are hiring him (possibly) as HC to lead, to identify and retain. Players and coaches. To place coaching talent in the right job. To captain the ship. This is stuff he has shown he can do reasonably well I think. There are undoubtedly people who could beat him out on merit, x and o chops and there always will be. Most of them have not done the job they will come seeking. Most look great, on paper. And we know just from how things work in this world that some of them will be good, they can make the jump. Most, probably, will be failures because they can’t use their x and o skill for solving every problem and that is all they have at this point in their careers, Last thing about this coaching vacancy: when I have been faced with losing a key contributor in my job, I learned to look at it as an opportunity to improve rather than a hole to try and fill (and a tough hole at that). I want to turn it from a setback into an opportunity. So I am definitely not opposed to shooting for the moon. That still means, known quantities with known qualities. Not extrapolating untried promise to a hopeful conclusion, but expanding in the ‘known for a fact to be good’ direction. Whether that is Wilks or another ‘known’, that is what I think we need. Tepper just does not need to follow one speculative blunder with a second. He can check a lot of boxes with a Wilks hire for maybe a three year rollover type contract dependent on results.

That is all that this place is too you know. Opinions stated as fact. Never been a Fowler fan fwiw.

People keep saying that. I heard he, prior to becoming interim coach, criticized the D that Snow built as being too light to win in the NFL. Looking at it I agree.

They are just playing hardball, turning down that Rams offer. Teams are gonna know you can’t lowball Fitterer and the Tep.

Draft and sign away, get WRs in here and let them compete. Absolutely. We do need more talent there. But I don’t think a stat based argument is even very relevant talking about a WR on this team. Unless maybe you can find a stat that ties into bottom rung QB play. In some context.. the numbers in a game where the player accounts for 40% of team’s receptions, around 50% of a QBs passing yards, etc etc, should be weighted somehow to reflect his production in those circumstances. I mean, getting on a guy because he didn’t get opportunities is a big component to what is happening here. Hard to express my boredom with stat arguments in many cases. An example is people use stats to tout the pass defense of a team that can’t stop the run, and rank them high based on the numbers. This is the routine. Who is gonna pass against them when you can run all day (besides. Mike Martz or somebody) Don’t those numbers give a false impression? People don’t throw because they don’t have to, and the yardage totals might be used to support the position that they Can’t throw (you know, because of that great pass defense).

Doesn’t matter to me that they don’t think he would be in. Those HOF voters don’t know because they watched a couple of times a year. He was pretty much as good as you could ever hope for.

And the restructures around tagging him were very costly as well not just in money but you could be cutting or keeping guys solely based on money. Big double whammy. I always thought JR was all over those decisions and told Marty to make it work financially.

With Horn, when guy misses almost his entire first season it puts him behind t(e eight ball pretty bad for a while in terms of statistics like that. A broken bone in the hand happens, it isn’t isnt major in itself. The question of is he injury prone vs black cat prone should stay open a little while longer.

Achilles is a rough one. Lots are just not the same. And yes we missed him. Pretty much knew we were going to have a very leaky vessel back there on defense. And we were going to need to get pressure to protect them. Fail. Hope DJ gets his full recovery and back to competing.

As far as what Wilkes would do about his staff, and what his ideal team and its style of play looks like, we really don’t know. He has been cooking the meal with what was in the fridge, which is stocked with fresh produce that is not ripe yet, or is past the sell by date. If Wilkes hadn’t happened I’d be all over Ryans, probably. The youth, the experience, I really haven’t checked his resume past his playing days, but those would be obvious concerns to resolve.

I think you gotta give that guy 12 more months before visiting if he is or isn’t something. Since he started… How many QBs? Two too many. OC? He got one year and had to learn a new offense. And the traditional thinking for a long time is that WRs have to develop. 3rd year was about when it starts to gel for them. If it is going to.

There was a pick play that was called earlier on their DB and again later, same thing but it wasn’t called and helped TB. It wasn’t a full on block like the first time the db hid it a little better but it had the same result of springing the receiver for a nice gain and should have been called. But no it wasn’t blatantly crooked officiating and it didn’t cost us the game.