SmokinwithWilly

The only thing that will bug me really is if Muma turns out to be a good LB and CJ flops. That was our pick and Muma is a player I was pretty interested in and had him slated to go mid to late 2nd.

I cleaned up my diet a couple of years ago going ketovore and organic. On the occasions I do eat processed food, I get sick fairly quickly. It's amazing how that stuff tastes so bad now, like chewing on plastic.

Definitely sad to see a young man pass in the prime of his life. It is interesting though how many young people are passing from so many different things. I read a study result yesterday showing how many chemicals are present in young men's stuff. It definitely makes you consider how much crap gets put in our bodies from a wide variety of sources. We're poisoning ourselves and don't even know what long term and short term effects from something as simple as a ear of corn or a nonstick pan might be.

He was in Jax under Meyer. That situation was just awful. Not saying he gets a pass, but he gets a little grace. Rhule isn't the guy I trust to turn careers around, but maybe CJ really needed to get out of that cess pool in Jax.

Box of Krispy Kreme originals.

While there is some comparison between Watson and Snyder, Kraft, and Jones, there weren't 26 allegations. Single instance of getting a happy ending is quite different than what Watson is alleged to have done. I'm not defending the owners by any stretch, it's just IF the allegations are true, that would make Watson a serial predator and there's nothing similar to compare that too. If the NFL does nothing, it's going to piss off a large amount of female fans and a lot of male ones too. Cleveland really fugged themselves with this situation, and it only makes me wonder even more what the hell Tepper was thinking pursuing him so vigorously. Anyone with any common sense knew there was no way this was over.

I'm not saying Icky's a bust. But there are things that happened last year that didn't make sense. Rhule said publicly he evaluated an all pro LT as a guard. Same thing he said about BC. He was more concerned about arm length than ability to play the position. Anyone who watched him play inside could tell he was not a guard or center. He didn't have the power to play there. Irving and Elfein were always huge WTF signings. Neither had a history of being healthy or very good, but we went after them on day 1 in FA because they fit the versatile lineman role. Just because you're a FA doesn't mean you should be starting. Normally those 2 would have been week 2 or 3 of FA moves for some team. I realize BC didn't play against elite talent in preseason but he actually looked better than Irving. His form was better and more fluid. His feet were quicker. He just looked better. Then we get into the whole part of trying to teach him to play 4 different positions as a rookie. Rhule loves guys to be able to play all over the line. Sometimes you just need to let them play where they are best. No one who looked out our OL last year game 1 thought, man this is a good line. Nothing we did on our offensive line made sense last year. Armchair GM, we would have Slater over Horn and BC would be doing what he does somewhere else.

Rhule had him trying to play 4 positions on the line. He's not an interior lineman yet if ever. He was manhandled with power right up the middle. He was our best looking LT in preseason. He should have played LT game 1. We all knew it. We were all saying it. It's not like his ability at LT was some magical revelation in the last 3 games. Rhule just ignored what was blatantly obvious to armchair coaches from the Huddle.

If, and it's a big IF, BC plays well at LT, icky starts at LG, and we don't have to start Elfien, Irving or even have Jordan on the team, I'll consider that a win. I think Icky is the future at LT, but I'm not opposed to letting him come on slowly as a LG to get used to the size and speed of the NFL.

Probably didn't want anymore hospital balls tossed his way.

Does it make what I said more or less true? He hid his situation from coaches and it cost the team when he went out for the season. MVP 3 years earlier or not, it's still the same thing.

Cam did the same thing with his foot injury, but was given a pass by a lot of people because he was a competitor. It's what these guys do. I still don't want baker unless it's a straight up trade for Darnold and a box of Krispy Kreme originals.

I think we'll see a couple tweeked hammies.

I'm pretty sure if Darnold is still starting week 5, I'll trade my good bourbon for some cheap stuff just to make games watchable.

I've tried to evaluate how he's done based on the moves themselves and how they fit with Rhule's philosophy. The FA moves have been the greatest weakness not including this year, because we haven't played a game. Elfein and Irving both seemed to be the "versatile" linemen Matt is so enamored with. RA was an overpay. I'm not a fan of big contracts to 1 year wonders. Guys like BC, Tremble, and TMJ are hard to judge because they weren't used correctly IMO. I cant critique too hard on last year's draft except taking a LS over Smith. That was a boneheaded pick. He cant make Rhule play the best guys in the best position or draw up an offense more complicated than pop warner. Its his job to find the pieces and he's done that fairly well besides the Darnold debacle but we don't really know who drove that bus off a cliff. I will say we paid too much in picks and the 5th year, I get why, but it backfired. Right now, I give him a B-. Room for improvement but better than average I think.

When Houston refused any behavior stipulations in the trade negotiations, I figured there had to be more coming. This trade screamed buyer beware.

Guess it depends on how you look at it. With the Watson news, we can be happy it wasn't us.

Mahomes to Car for Darnold and a 7th

Cleveland definitely screwed the pooch with this situation. Baker won't play for the Browns this year and Watson may not either depending.

BC gets brought up because in preseason he looked better than Erving. He did not look good as a guard. He kept getting rolled over by power rushers. When he finally went back out on the outside, he again looked better than Erving did. BC was played, but not where he should have been from the very beginning. I don't know if Brown would have done well starting. Compared to what we trotted out there, I think at some point he should have gotten a shot. Out interior line was getting destroyed. Saying oh well, sacks happen is not an acceptable attitude when you're QB is under pressure before he can even get 3 steps into his drop back. It's not like our line was playing well. Once we were out of it, it makes the most sense to play the rookies to see what they have going into the off season. We went into this draft not knowing if either BC or Brown could really play. We don't know what TMJ can really do either. I know the goal is to win games, but once the games don't matter anymore, at least for playoffs, you need to look at the future.

Yeah. It seems a little sad that with all of the talent in graphic arts we have a logo that looks like it came from my sister's 1985 sticker album.

This is why I wasn't opposed to trading Burns in this years draft as we saw other teams do. He's very good, but not elite, yet. In the end, I just hope we don't overpay. In future drafts though, I expect to see a lot more players coming up on contracts being traded to keep cap numbers down.

We need to bring back our old friend Alejandro Lustra. He may have been an insufferable PITA, but he made things more entertaining than Fire Rhule every day.

It very well could be. But if Rhule walks into that locker room and says we're losing this season so get over it, he's going to lose the locker room day 1. These guys don't play to lose. They're all going to try and improve their situation. I don't necessarily want Baker, Jimmy G or Sam, but we're going to have one of them. Baker is probably the best chance to win out of the 3. So the move makes sense from a trying to win perspective, even if we as fans don't really like it.

You do the same thing you would do if Sam won 6-8. You proceed through the offseason and try to get better and move on from Rhule and Darnold/Baker. 6-8 wins won't save his job or land a big flashy contract. You can't bank on getting a top pick for a QB in next year's draft.