Mr. Scot

Well remember, you didn't actually have to be good at your job to work for Jerry Richardson. You just had to be loyal. Tepper actually does seem to want his people to be competent. I just wish it hadn't taken him three years to understand that Marty wasn't.

Call Marty?

I've seen a lot of people say they could try Little at guard, but I just don't see it working. Last year, he frequently looked lost. If somebody wasn't running right at him, he had no idea what to do. I'm not sure Little trying to learn a new position, one that sometimes requires more complicated thinking than just "step back and block the pass rusher", is something that's going to work out.

Lower than Jones and Lance? Ouch

Are you including people on this board in that comment?

I'd guess he's just speculating but yeah, that seems very possible.

Fields? (assuming the 49ers don't take him)

Ledbetter has them taking Fields.

From Albert Breer (link) From Taylor Hemness (@taylorhemness): Who trades with Atlanta at No. 4? Taylor, I’m starting to think the Falcons are settling in on the idea of staying at No. 4. I’ve heard the asking price to go up there is high, and that tells me that Atlanta really values what will be able available at the pick. And if I had to guess, I’d say the Falcons are weighing the totality of taking a quarterback fourth—along with which quarterbacks would be worth taking at No. 4—against just sticking and taking a rare tight end prospect in Kyle Pitts. To me, that decision is really about timelines. Taking Pitts, for GM Terry Fontenot, means doubling down on the existing core—and, contrary to popular opinion, doing that wouldn’t be that illogical. They’d be injecting Pitts into an offense with Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and a line with three former first-round picks on it. The defense still needs work, of course, in building around Grady Jarrett and Deion Jones. But with some development from existing young guys like A.J. Terrell and a good draft, they could get competitive there, too. I think it’s enough for Arthur Smith to have his team contending for the playoffs in Year 1. The Falcons won’t win a championship but could take a step and build momentum going into 2022 and just put off the QB question for another couple of years. Ryan is still only 35, which isn’t exactly ancient for a quarterback these days. Conversely, if the Falcons take a quarterback, they’d probably be looking at turning the page on the current core in time. There’d be $40.525 million in dead money to manage for moving Ryan after 2021. And by next March, when the 2022 league year starts, Jones will be 33 and tackle Jake Matthews will be 30, and those two would have more than $30 million in dead money between them if Atlanta decided to make calls on their futures at that point. So they’d necessarily be looking at, potentially, a two-year teardown as they plan around the new guy. Put it together, and the convenient thing here would be to stay the course behind Ryan & Co. But, of course, this is a very QB-rich year, and so if there’s a guy the Falcons view as truly special at the position … it would be pretty tough to pass on that. And D Orlando Ledbetter... Atlanta getting Sewell would suck ass.

Again, here in your second paragraph you're framing your opinion as fact. I'm telling you what's been reported. Could the story change? Sure, but it also might not.

And again, that's your opinion. But you're using your opinion as a basis for saying what the team thinks when the reality is you have no idea. We know we talked about trading up to number three and balked at that, so no, it's not a given that we talked about trading to number two. And it was actually reported a while back that absolutely nobody made the Jets an offer for the number two pick because nobody believed they were willing to trade down. As it turns out, they were right.

I've heard a lot of professionals talk on the topic, and one of the most common lines is "How often do you really need to be able to throw a 60 yard pass?" Heck, even Rhule said he wants quarterbacks to have "enough arm strength to make all the throws". That's not exactly looking for a rocket launcher. I know some folks think the best option is to take a super athletic guy and try to coach him. The reality though is that fails as often as not. I'm always going to look at what a guy's got in his head first, because exercising a guy's body is a lot easier than trying to make them smarter.

So now if the story doesn't fit your narrative, they must be lying? Seriously, dude If you look back at posts I made prior to the thread, you'll see I wasn't on board with trading for Darnold. I was willing to accept it if it happened though, and it did, so I have. And yes, I'm hopeful it works because that's what's best for us. I don't know if it will. Neither do you, but you're emotional about it regardless. As to why I'm hopeful, among other things... - They did their homework - They're professionals - They're not Marty I know some people here will be ready to burn everything down and throw away anything with the Panthers logo on it if the team doesn't take the guy they want in the draft. I'm a little too old for that and I've seen that scenario happen way too many times, so if it happens again I'll do what I always do and hope it works out. If it doesn't, then that becomes the next discussion.

And some guys throw a laser when they shouldn't.

We didn't ask the Jets about number two. In fact, nobody did. I've read the stories about how the conversations actually went. From your responses, it doesn't sound like you have. I'd suggest you should.

Edge rushers from Florida State frequently don't work out either, but we took one. They think it's likely enough to give it a shot. And no, it's not a last resort. They chose this. It not being what you or I would have done doesn't necessarily doom it to failure.

"Unless they're idiots, they must also know he's a long shot", i.e. "If they don't agree with my take on him, they must be idiots."

Not even close. I'm answering your suggestion that you absolutely know how things are going to play out with the truth that neither of us does. Also pointing out that your belief the team views Darnold a certain way has very little basis in fact.

Arm strength isn't Teddy's biggest issue. Lack of testicular fortitude is

It's not a huge investment, but it's not exactly a small investment either. What people seem unable to wrap their heads around is that the team's braintrust chose this path. It wasn't forced on them and nobody came out of it thinking "well, I guess we didn't have any other options". I'm amazed at how many people really don't seem to get that the team doesn't necessarily look at their players the same way the fans do.

I expect the team to look at all options, just like they did when they chose Darnold.

I've mentioned before that the whole "this must be what the team thinks of him because it's what I think of him" line of thinking is a fallacy. You're indulging in that pretty heavily here.

You may not realize this, but the draft doesn't actually allow you to pick two players at once. When the time comes the team is going to have to prioritize one player over another (all others, in fact).

Fans go nuts for a guy that can throw the ball 60 yards, but arm strength is the most overrated quality there is. It's not about being able to throw it a mile or throw it so hard you break somebody's fingers. It's about being able to throw it to a particular spot and make it catchable.

We're definitely not "one player away" which is a big reason why I think it's silly to bring in yet another quarterback rather than addressing other needs.