grimesgoat

I see the Efflein Pile-on continues.

We are still building guys.  Brown and Christensen are our future LG and LT.  Next year Efflein will move to center and we will draft a long-term center in the late first (after we trade back for an extra 3rd).  This new center will be starting by mid-year, and Efflein will be what he was always meant to be - a versatile backup and spot-starter.

By 2023, we should have enough young depth to jettison him with little pain.  

Patience my young Padawans.

13 hours ago, stbugs said:

Who knows. We drafted a LS over Trey Smith who had a fantastic RAS score at 321 pounds (not blown off the blocks like Elf). KC got a heckuva steal. Still love the draft before this gaffe but I still can’t comprehend how we were so confident in Erving, Elflein, Paradis and Miller that we only needed BC and Brown, especially when we knew Brown might not even been ready to be active. We best be going OL heavy next year, no excuses.

popped in to read about stbugs undying love for trey smith.  was not disappointed.

1 hour ago, JABANOG said:

Nobody on that list is a vocal leader or somebody I would look at like hey lets play EXACTLY like him! We have no leaders and its concerning might as well slap the C on Rhule's chest 

So what is the all-time largest pile of poop ever gathered in one thread?

1 minute ago, OldhamA said:

Does Trey Smith know you're in love with him?

That's some funny poo there.

1 hour ago, jayboogieman said:

People have been saying this for years and yet the position keeps on trucking.

What you did there...I see it.

3/6 22 yards.

He will just miss on a 45-yarder.

There will be intense debate on whether he or the receiver was at fault.

The Huddle will Huddle.

One of these...?

22 minutes ago, frankw said:

Folks were homers about things during the Hurney and Gettleman days too quelling dissention and criticism is nothing new. But if things don't go our way as expected the same people will be crying foul in the fall and act like they never saw it coming

Calm down.  You're not leading a revolution.  You're blowing off steam and whining on a message board.

We don't know if Christiansen will be a stud LT after a season or two.  We don't know if the rookie guards will be keepers.  We don't know if Paradis will get hurt this year or not.  We don't know if Elflein and Irving will be better in our zone blocking scheme.  We don't know if Darnold will meet his initial draft expectations.  We don't know if Moton is worth 5 years, $100 million. 

We don't know any of these things.  It will be years before we find out.  Why get so worked up and panicky?

13 hours ago, iamhubby1 said:

 

I'm done.

I pied you for hanging in as long as you did.

2 hours ago, Raleigh PF said:

It's cute you cut-n-paste one comment from the post and ignore the message of the post.

Leadership was evident with Cam, Olsen, Luke and TD - you didn't have to go looking for it. Show me how CMC is exhibiting obvious leadership with this team. He's a great player, no doubt, but he hasn't established himself as a team leader, yet. Neither has anyone else on the offensive side of the ball. It's part of the reason the team lost a lot of close games last year.

Not trying to be argumentative.  How is leadership evident?  How does one know who the leaders are?  Fans are not in the locker room.  Fans aren't in the huddle.  I heard Olsen used to have to translate the plays in the huddle.  Does this make him a leader?  Luke would position the defense.  Does this make him the leader?  Are these guys leaders because they are captains?  Because they yell the most?  They've been around the longest?  They have an inspirational story?  How does one "establish himself" to be a leader?

Again - not trying to argue.  The team has many alphas.  Captains will be chosen.  I'm not gonna lose sleep over this one.

12 hours ago, iamhubby1 said:

 

I already admitted he is over-paid. If you can look past that, the kid can play. I can't convince you otherwise, and I know that. All I am saying is, the kid is better than most folks give him credit for. It's not his fault he is over-paid.

 

Also, his contract for this year is about what he deserves. So he isn't over-paid yet. But if they can't do something about his future money. Then yeah, he will be over-paid.

I agree he is probably overpaid.  But there are ways of getting around that, or at least lessening the blow.

Next year his cap hit is 18m including 11m in salary.  Convert the 11m to 2m in salary and a bonus of 9m with an extra dummy year.  Now his cap hit is around 12m.  Not too bad.

The next year, do it again.  Cap hit is 22m or so including 12m in salary.  Convert 10m salary to bonus with 2m in salary.  Now the cap hit is 17m.  High but again manageable.  He's 29 years old and in his absolute peak.  

Yes your now carrying 8m in dead money for a dummy year but who cares - we just won our first Superb Owl.

Someone made the comment that Shaq was supposed to be TD but was average at best.  Lots of people consider Shaq a disappointment, but I'm not so sure.

Its sometimes useful to compare players at similar points in time to see who might have the better career, but in this case its a little tricky for two reasons:

1. TD was hurt and missed much of his 5th year, and practically all of his 6th year while Shaq has been healthy through his first 6 years

2. TD shared tackling counts with Beason early in his career whereas Shaq had to deal with two tackling machines - TD and Keuchly.  He may have started most games but he would be pulled often in passing situations so his numbers are somewhat deflated by sharing the field with these two.  He actually played less than 50% of defensive snaps his first 3 years.

Having said all that, here are the 6-year comparisons...

Shaqs avg. Tackles has actually creeped up to 7.6 per start over the last 3 years as TD and then Luke exited.  Otherwise the sack, TFL, and QB hits are remarkably similar through 6 years.  Again - remember while Shaq was starting, he was not playing every down.  Shaq played less than 50% of defensive snaps his first 3 years.  I don't have similar stats for TD, but I would wager he wasn't coming off the field very often in favor of Na'il Diggs.

It remains to be seen whether Shaq can be as good as Davis, but he is just getting started.  Davis didn't make his first pro-bowl until age 32.  Shaq is 26.

41 minutes ago, PootieNunu said:

So what there are 31 other teams in the league. His spot here is probably gone, but he could try to show some sort of effort if he wants to get picked up by someone else. 

I guess he is ok with being out of the league and is happy with the money he has made already.

I doubt 31 other teams are watching our practice to see how hard Ian Thomas jogs around the track.

Since you asked...

I'm optimistic and patient.

• We will win 8-9 games but be in every game.
• Darnold will improve as the season goes on and will be extended at a fair price.
• Horn, Christensen, Tremble, and 1 of our new guards will be starting by the end of the season.
• Burns and Reddick will both have double digit sacks.
• CMC will have 2000 all-purpose yards, 15 TDs., and will be Fantasy MVP.

2022 we improve to 10-11 wins and make the playoffs.

2023 and beyond we will be like the steelers - perennial contenders winning 11-13 games every year.

2024 we make post-Darnold plans and draft our Mahomes.  He sits for a year.

2025 conference championship game.

2026 we win the Superb owl.

Book it.

Just went back and looked at the stats. I understand why Ron didn't do anything different.  We came in 17-1.  During the game, our offense was moving the ball (21 first downs to denver's 11, 315 yds to denver's 194) and our defense was lights out.

We gave up a 61 yard punt return that led to 3 pts, turned the ball over 4 times, had 100+ yards in penalties (vs. denver's 51 yds), missed a chippy 44 yard FG, and had multiple ref bad calls / no calls.

Despite all that, we were only down 6 with the ball on our own 28 with 4.5 minutes left.  Our superman MVP needed just 1 more TD drive and we're champs.  Didn't work out obviously.  

Point is, we were the better team and had a fantastic opportunity to win at the end despite all of the blunders (self imposed and not).  Other than helping Remmers out a little by some TE chipping, I really don't see what would have made a big difference in the end.  We were right there - just needed 1 drive.

I will not speak of this business again.

2 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Name another guy who has played as poorly as Darnold through three years who got bounced from his original team and went onto become a successful starting QB. I don't think you're going to find "a lot". People keep clinging to Tannehill while ignoring that he was FAR better in Miami than Darnold ever was in NY.

Seems like this has been discussed before. It’s actually much more rare for a top 5 QB to be any good at all his first 3 years, especially since they were probably drafted by a shitty team. The exceptions are Marino, Cam, Peyton, Luck, Mahomes, Brady. There really are not many qbs that stood out as franchise qbs after only 3 years. There is a steep learning curve and guys coming out of college just don’t have enough experience. Years 4-5 of his career will reveal what Sam is.

Any value we can get from a 3rd QB is a bonus.  Whether he plays special teams like Webb used to do, or he lines up somewhere on offense to make defenses have to adjust.  That will have more value than Grier holding a clipboard in street clothes each week.

I'd go to battle with:

Christianson - Elflein - Paradise - Miller - Moton. 

Let the rookie take his lumps - he'll get better.  By the time we are ready for the superb owl in 2 years, he'll be a brick wall.

I'd love to see if Little has improved any after a year in the system and a full offseason to think about his lack of success in 2020.  Ultimately I think he'll be our other post June 1 cut: 1m dead in each 2021 and 2022.

I'm actually a little surprised they didn't "Boston" him already.

I think Stevens just needs to beat out Ian Thomas.  We could save 1.5m in cap by going with Stevens over Thomas.

I like Tremble's versatility - being able to play TE/FB/HB etc., but he is going to take a pounding.  I'd be excited if he plays all 17 games, but it's not a given. 

I think we carry 3 TEs (including Stevens) + Tremble.  I could see Stevens being the emergency QB/3rd TE/wildcat guy and cutting Grier.  I hate to take a dead cap hit on a 3rd string QB, but Grier just doesn't seem to have it (yet).

18 hours ago, ForJimmy said:

If Mark Sanchez is towards the top of that list it isn’t a very good list. 

Ironically, Sanchez went 33-29 for the Jets.  A QB with a winning record for the Jets is a rare gem indeed.  Not too many around.

4 hours ago, frankw said:

Interesting fact. He will be 33 when the season begins. The same age as Jared Allen when Carolina acquired him.

I'm trying, but I just can't find that fact all that interesting.

The irony in this thread is epic.

Half the huddle thinks we overachieved by winning 5 games and blowing our chance to get the first pick in the draft.  The other half thinks we underachieved by only winning 5 games because we hired a flawed QB and a coach in over his head.

Conclusion - at least half of you guys are wrong.

I'm optimistic because for the first time that I can remember, they seem to be thinking 2-3 years out instead of just next year.

• They are conserving cap.  Cap is useful when you are ready to make a run.  That is still 2 years out.
• Early draft selections were at positions that traditionally cost quite a bit (CB, WR, LT).
• The guys they selected might allow guys that are due a huge payday a chance to walk (Jackson, Anderson, Moton) that will save cap and produce high comp picks.

Just a totally different approach.

37 minutes ago, rayzor said:

moving from "eenie meenie miney moe" to chess. i love it.

fixed.