Mr. Scot

I really want to hope that the Corbett-Center experiment is over.

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yeah, if you can find a GOAT level QB willing to play at a discount because his supermodel wife is bringing in even more that's a sweet deal... and because he craves success due to being completely looked over in the draft and forever wants to prove everyone wrong due to that. The problem is that has proven so far to be a one of one situation.

Even with Brady factored in, The Patriots still built good teams. At least up till Belichick started screwing it up. 

I'd add though that the "superstar" formula, while it mostly centers around quarterbacks, isn't strictly limited to them. Best nkn-QB example is probably the Barry Sanders Lions.

They never had (or never spent) the money It would have taken to build the kind of OL that would have made Sanders even more productive than he already was.

2 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

I think by the end of this season we really need to have a good idea. I suppose the picking up of the 5th year option seems relatively inevitable unless he falls off a cliff in terms of performance. 

I suspect this decision on his future will still be unanswered during his 5th year.

No argument 

1 minute ago, kungfoodude said:

Bridgewater does seem like a good upper end Bryce comp. But....ultimately that IS a career backup player. Not sure if that would have been different had that terrible injury not happened but we dealt with some similar issues while Teddy was here that we are dealing with in Bryce. 

That may end up being his ceiling.

Still unsettled for me...

3 hours ago, BIGH2001 said:

I think he meant “poster boy” for all intensive purposes.

This is wrecking havoc

Just now, PNW_PantherMan said:

It's not difficult to see how Caleb's eccentric personality could rub teammates the wrong way.

Not difficult at all.

Newton was eccentric too, but he was a lot better quarterback than Williams.

15 hours ago, fieryprophet said:

I'm going to be real, the reason that vote ended up so lop-sided by the end was directly due to my programming. So there's nothing tongue in cheek about it. Also I left PFF after the Collinsworth acquisition (didn't want to move to Cincy) but have stayed involved in analytics via backdoor channels, but I can absolutely say that the experience was eye-opening, not because those guys are unquestionable football savants and that I became one by proxy, but because the amount of information that becomes available outside of what the typical fan has access to is revelatory and also really drives home how much context is still being missed even with all of that information. You don't discover that you know everything, you discover how much you still can't know no matter how hard you try, hence my point about the NFL not being able to figure out what makes a QB good. There's a lot of AI work going into that now and even that only seems to further confuse things vs. actually enlighten the problem.

In the professional realm teams don't really talk about quarterbacks as A strictly being better than B, but how A can potentially perform better than B given a specific context of C. Of course those contexts may be wider for A than B, but there's also contexts where B can outshine A, even with lesser talent surrounding them. So what good teams strive to do is ultimately define a process of how they want their entire team to operate under schematically, find players that fit that scheme, and hopefully find a guy whose skillset will be maximized running that scheme with those players. Where bad teams fall of the wagon is constantly shifting those schemes and chasing bad fits or fads vs. sticking with a core identity and developing it.

Learning how much you don't know is a good step.

It's kind of similar with coaches, personnel people, executives, etc. We all want the guy who ran a successful team to be part of our organization. He was a winner there, so it's guaranteed he'll also be a winner here...

Right?

Then we get him, and he stinks.

What the heck? That can't be right

Bottom Line: a professional football organization is a machine that has about a kajilloon moving parts, and for all of them to work together successfully and harmoniously can sometimes be borderline miraculous.

It's real people, the same kind that work at your job.

And people complicate everything.

I was not a fan of Cole Spencer, but team brass seemed to believe in him. Hell, they promoted him.

And then this year, they parted ways with him

Brandt Tilis? Unknown.

Regardless, I've been hoping for us to bring in a true leader in that department. Hope it happens soon.

2 hours ago, Shotgun said:

On a scale of Clausen to Newton, I would rate Young as a solid Teddy B.

Someone to whom a lot of us owe an apology. He was right about Matt Rhule.

PS: Love the "Clausen to Newton" scale

8 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

This qualifies as analysis??? This is what impressed you??

Okay, not that last one

I meant the last two paragraphs of actual analysis but I should have been more clear about that. 

Still uncertain...

Can he play in the NFL? Yes, he can.

Can he win games? Yes, he can.

Do you have to build the right team around him? Of course you do, same as you do any other quarterback.

(the idea that's somehow a weakness is silly)

At the very least this qualifies him to be a quality backup.

But is he a long term franchise quarterback?

I'm not fully confident enough to say that yet, but he's at least trending upward.

And I'll take that for now...

2 minutes ago, therealmjl said:

he’s making a joke about the idea of it pleasing him

 how is that odd?

It comes off as maybe a joke, but maybe not.

Might mean nothing, but it's not easy to say that for certain given all the other chatter.

8 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

It's not analysis. There was no attempt to analyze anything or even convey new information at all.

Disagree. I thought it was good, especially the last two paragraphs.

So what about Bryce?

I started off as a major doubter, but came around to believing in him by the end of last season.

Then this season started, and oy...

Buuuut now things are picking up again, so...

I'm waiting to see how the rest of the season plays out at this point, but even the doubter in me has to admit things are looking up.

The one firm conclusion I have come to this season isn't so much about Young, but Canales. From what I've seen over the past two years, I think his offseason preparation program sucks. The team comes into the season looking shoddy and unprepared...

But then things pick up a few weeks in

Maybe what he needs is a more experienced (and successful) past head coach on staff or consulting who can help him build a more effective offseason program combination of camp, OTAs, etc so we can leave the slow starts behind.

Here's hoping...

As to the topic, I've complained before about "superstar" mentality, i.e. the notion that you can win championships with one superstar player surrounded by a group of mediocre fill ins.

It just doesn't work.

The Manning-Brady rivalry was something of a showcase for that. The Colts general approach focused everything on Manning. The Patriots? Oh, they also had a superstar quarterback but they built a complete team, especially on the defensive side.

This sort of thing is why I've argued many times that "system quarterback" should be to considered a description, not an insult.

I know everybody loves the "MVP" athletic types, and they're fun to watch, but that's not necessarily the true path to consistent winning and championship glory.

On 10/15/2025 at 9:16 AM, Panthera onca said:

Look at me! I'm the smartest guy in the room! Everyone else here are idiots!

It's a good analysis, though

On 10/14/2025 at 6:46 PM, Chaos said:

Mays is our Center, end of discussion.

I'm good with that.

Not sure that's how it plays out, though

Basically, gunslinger mentality.

Most gunslinger types are at least a little more athletically gifted than Young though. They tend to be "big arm" types or strong running QBs.

So what we're ultimately talking about here is a gunslinger brain in a system quarterback body.

Kinda odd...

2 hours ago, PNW_PantherMan said:

Not sure that I want my backup being that fragile.  It's like having a spare tire with a hole in it.

Better than a fragile starter, though 

4 hours ago, MHS831 said:

Moose Muhammad, part deux

I could see it

4 hours ago, BlazeCarolina said:

Well, we started with thinking we had AT, Tmac, XL, Coker, and Renfrow as our guys.

Thielen got traded.  XL has been a disappointment.  Coker got hurt.  Renfrow has been pretty invisible.

I still think we are better than usual.  Just saying we took a hit in perception from the casual fan.

I wouldn't call Renfrow "invisible". He's made some plays that we badly needed, like just this past weekend

People have suggested he's playing a role similar to what Ricky Proehl gave us way back when.

12 minutes ago, shaqattaq said:

Seriously!!! WTF was that?!?

Dowdle said he called for that.

Was an awful idea, but in fairness, it didn't come from Legette.

Recent events notwithstanding, I still haven't come around to being an Evero fan.

If a head coach with solid DC credentials gets fired this offseason, I want the team to pounce.