Mr. Scot

Just for fun, a reminder of something David Tepper said about why he liked Matt Rhule... "He dresses like (bleep) and sweats all over himself. He dresses like me, so I have to love the guy." I don't think he's commented on Scott Fitterer's fashion sense yet

I'm speaking more hypothetically.

That's kind of the thing. Aggressive pursuit of players is great until they're aggressively pursuing a player you think is garbage.

Yeah, that's a bullsh-t take from Chris Simms. Stafford had other destinations he liked better, but he would have come here.

We now know that the Panthers aggressively went after Matt Stafford, and just about landed him. By all accounts, if not for the Rams upping their offer, Stafford might be on his way to being a Panther right now. That tells me that when Scott Fitterer talked about this team being aggressive as far as talent acquisition in the future, he wasn't kidding. Quick Note: That doesn't mean we're getting Desean Watson and that's not what this is about. What it is about is that offseasons are probably gonna look a lot different than they used to. How people feel about that is likely to depend a lot on whether the players they're aggressively pursuing are players you like or not. Responses to the news about Stafford have already shown that. So I'm kind of wondering what people's way too early feelings are about where we're headed at this point, specifically how they feel about the directions Fitterer and Rhule are likely to take us in.

Not really talking about the cap hit to us. Just comparing their contracts.

We only have Paradis under contract, though. And even with Bridgewater having a quick release, the other guys not named Taylor Moton weren't all that great anyway. Given what both our head coach and our new GM have said, I'm really hoping we make some strides on that front this year.

I'd say we're at least a quarterback and an offensive line away from that, and potentially more.

The Texans aren't even listening to offers so you'd be wise not to hold your breath.

If I read right, Stafford's contract wasn't going to cost a whole lot more than Bridgewater's.

Reports coming out seem to indicate that the Rams really wanted to move on from Goff by just about any means necessary. McVay still believes his offense is superior but apparently didn't think Goff would be able to maximize what it could do.

I'm pretty sure Fitterer was the guy negotiating this deal. Lions brass was actually in Mobile and so was Fitterer. Rhule would have been occupied with coaching and has said he doesn't want to do the leg work on this stuff anyway. Fitterer probably talk to him about it but that's it.

Gotcha.

I get that. Simms is full of sh-t on this one though.

He's a first found pick who's looked so bad that he's now third string behind an undrafted free agent. Why would we want him?

Reliable sources have confirmed that we did offer the number eight pick, and more. I'm guessing this particular Twitter just mixed up which team had what pick.

The Lions were reportedly willing to try and accommodate him but they weren't going to take a lesser deal to do it. Stafford didn't really have any leverage to force them to do anything they didn't want. The Rams stepping up their offer really helped everything fall into place.

You can read the full story of the negotiations in the link. It says Stafford preferred the Rams but didn't decline or nix going to Carolina. Peter King and others have also confirmed that Stafford had a preference (King saying he was "more keen" on the Rams than the Panthers and others) but nobody's said anything about him not wanting to come here. PFT isn't always wrong but they're not the best source. Breer is a far superior source for anything behind the scenes.

It's PFT. Albert Breer has a whole lot more detailed report of what went on behind the scenes. He confirmed that Stafford to Carolina was about to happen until the Rams beefed up their offer.

I think that's a reach. He preferred the Rams or 49ers, but that doesn't mean he "didn't want to come here". He was willing to go anywhere except New England.

McClain and Breer have way better sources than Florio does. Both say the Texans are likely gonna take this to the mat. Funny thing is that McClain is actually arguing they should trade him. But at the same time, he acknowledges that they're "adamant" it's not going to happen. Breer actually thinks some other NFL owners might privately encourage McNair not to give in because of the precedent it would set.

Valid. Having that franchise guy doesn't solve everything if you don't build around him.

No argument. He was good. Just better at making noise than making plays.

Not sure why people are talking about an agenda behind this tweet. There isn't one. Breer was just mentioning a thing that happened. You don't necessarily need to approach everything somebody puts out there with "Well, what are you trying to say?"

Not sure if you'd call it a lie, but Florio did turn out to be way off on this one.