Khyber53

Rico got an opportunity here and he really made the most of it. For a few weeks there he was rightfully the talk of the league. There's a very good chance he is going to get a nice, not great, contract out there from some team. And don't be surprised if Johnathon Brooks can't answer the bell and Rico is still out there, that we don't offer a modest two year contract to Rico. He's a really good guy, great team guy and when he's on, he's a force to be reckoned with.

Young man, be the change you wish to see. Want more effective pass rushing? Then become an unstoppable force. Work on your technique, work on your strength, study your opponents, excel at practice and practice longer and harder than your opponents and teammates do. Otherwise, don't complain from the bench.

We're beating the teams we have no right beating and losing to the teams we should beat. For a team on the mend, that is a much better situation than it looks like. We have the potential, where we're failing is on the basics. Another offseason working on that and a summer camp reinforcing it will help a lot. Filling in some holes in free agency and the draft will be massive, too. It's something different around here. We aren't in free fall anymore. We're building something.

I'm not looking at any of those as a good choice. Willis is a pass and Jones will probably get a contract offer in Indy (and should). Now, work out a trade for Mac Jones and I might be intrigued. The two best QB factories right now are SF and LARams. Grab someone from their benches and you get a quality guy from a prior high draft that might be reaching their potential. Everything else is a crap shoot at best.

A team should always be putting at least one or two draft picks in at tackle and guard each season. Those guys just don't last nearly long enough and those that do get very, very expensive. In our situation, we need a little more time to see what the Icky injury works itself out to. Njiman performed really well out there and if this injury lingers into the next season, then he might do well enough there to hold the line for the team. Or we could draft early if there is a stud LOT in the draft when our spot comes along. Honestly, we may be looking at replacing both LT and RT this season at this point. Moton is getting long in the tooth and while he deserves a shot to go for a playoff run with this team, I don't know whether we will really see him come back next season yet. It's still so darned early in all of this to say.

Actually, that depth on the line... I was impressed how they showed up after Icky went down AND Hunt had to come out of the game for a while. We may have a pretty decent line for next season, whether Moton decides to play another year or not. Cade Mays at Center helps a lot.

If in June you said we'd have hosted a home playoff game and had four lead changes in the final quarter of that game vs the mighty Rams, but just lost by 3 in the end... I'd have thought you were smoking crack. The guys did better than any of us expected this season. They've set the bar high for themselves next season. I ain't mad. And Bryce played like he deserved to be there. Still not sure why we didn't keep pushing those slant routes at the end there with the success we'd been having with them and three timeouts in our pocket. Oh well, coach and company have grown a lot this year, and they've got some more to grow on.

Bad weather, big rain. Brings it down to luck and the running games. Slugfest in the trenches. That gives us our best chance.

Not gonna lie, I'd be all for it. MM was leading the pack in new coaching ideas and I think it was injuries that derailed everything for him, not his coaching. That and there had developed a few bad lockerroom guys.

2003 was just magical. The Cardiac Cats were something else and it was the ultimate underdog story again and again and again throughout that season. There was no give up in those guys. I still can't stand Belichick and Brady and you can't convince me that they hadn't been cheating and stealing our signals before that game. 2015 was just a steamroller year, but as it wore on and our celebrations each game got more raucous and unsportsmanlike, I just knew Karma was hovering around, waiting to strike. We came into that game like we had already been crowned as champs, acting like fools, wearing masks in interviews and sadly, got just embarrassed by a decent, not great, team headed by Peyton Manning on his last legs. Karma is a b!tch.

100 percent the key to the game, just like last time. Edit to add: Oh yeah, and playing outdoors on a wet field, possibly in heavy rain conditions. Sometimes your only chance is to drag the other guy down into the mud and grapple him.

Can't argue with you there.

Maybe getting a big receiver out there that can be seen over the o-line might change that a bit...

I really, really agree with this. Why do you have a big, athletic guy with reach competing with the sidelines when he could do a better job in the center of the field or running the opposite seam to the TE?

Harbaugh will end up in Miami. While they have a decent foundation for the team, they are in a newly resetting division that will feature pushover Jets twice a season. And then the biggest unspoken factor... tax benefits from living in Florida. There's no state income tax there. Tennessee is the same, but they've got a massive amount of work for a rebuild.

Good to see merit winning out here. Maybe XL roars back or finds him a place in the third WR spot. He's got some serious competition for it though with Horn, Jr. and Tremayne. And you can't tell me that David Moore doesn't know how to fight and compete for a roster spot. Work, man. Woulda been easier for him out of the gate rather than here at the end of the season.

Yep.

This 100 percent. Think of the Packers during the Brett Favre era as well. They kept drafting guys to sit behind him and learn from their system and Brett, too. What they did was they created not just qualified backups, but a farm system where they traded well trained QBs that smart GMs traded for as starters rather than risking it all on a high draft pick. I hope Bryce wins out this season because I'll never go against whatever brings wins to our team. Even if he does, though, there should be a QB in the wings, learning and ready to roll out at a moment's notice, whether for our team or someone else's.

Panthers 24 Rams 21 Fitz with the last second magic kick. And I think this is going to be a defense heavy game for us. Turnovers will be the deciding factor once again, giving us short fields to work from.

Those linemen won't be getting shorter.

Sorry, did not see it when I posted it. Mods please remove.

Let's just hope the Rams believe that and game plan accordingly. We caught them looking past us before, could we have it happen again? Sure would be something!

Either way, I think we can agree that barring some miraculous transformation in the playoffs, it's time to move on. Can he be an NFL QB at even back up level? Probably. Maybe. Possibly. Can he be the franchise QB that sets the tone for a decade here? No. (Once again, barring that miracle.) No hate to the young fellow, but it's just not what it needs to be.

Here's the thing, you may very well be right that both coach and QB suck here. And that's maddening. They are so tied together now that who knows for certain. And there's a good shot that these two just are incapable of getting the best out of each other, but they can limp along hitting on a couple of high spots just enough to make it muddy on evaluating. Or one could suck and the other could thrive untethered to the other guy. Hell if I know. Just reminds me of that scene from O, Brother where art Thou? Where they clamber into the moving box car, except for the last one and their leg chains just keep dragging them back out one by one... thwap, yoink, thwap. And Bryce, yeah, he has composure. Too much composure. He needs some fire. Cool is good but you need fire to win games. We have developed grit as a team since Canales came aboard, but we just lack spark. The cat needs to roar. Edit to add: Bryce reminds me a lot of Joey Harrington from back in the day. Had the pedigree and college credentials, smart, smart guy. Great piano player even. Got him on the field and he just couldn't get that traction to make him competitive, even with one of the greatest receivers of all time out there with him. Ice water in his veins, but no fire in his heart.

The stats speak volumes but about what, though? And that's the difficulty. That first season, he's both a rookie and under a different HC and offensive coordinator. Second and third years, you've got changes in personnel on the o-line (generally an upgrade), the emergence of a running game and receivers out of the backfield, and the additions of Coker and T-Mac. The story is still out on TE if there have been any improvements. Any of those could be excuses or explanations for Bryce's performance or lack thereof. What it can't quantify, however, is how play calling has made a difference. Without going over the All-22 views on every play AND knowing what the playcall was with main target, secondary receiver and check down, we have no way of knowing what was expected and how he did within it. I do know that our offensive concepts have shown a relative inability to scheme players open on a regular basis and we seem to semi-regularly have two receivers in the same space, whether by design or bad coaching, which makes the job easier for the defense. I do know this, Bryce doesn't seem to show the killer instinct to will a play into happening on a regular basis. He's shown a few places where he does have ice water in his veins, but it has generally been when the game is on the line and our backs are to the wall, but there's still a chance. He seems to thrive in those situations. Sadly, good QBs can operate like that starting in the first quarter and carry it through. What he doesn't have, though, is either Cam's ability to just grab a play up as it breaks down, throw the team on his back and exert his will on the opposing team. He also doesn't have the leadership ability that Jake showed back in the day where he'd fire up everyone around him until they'd all run through a brick wall together when needed. Bryce seems to live in a very unsatisfying area in between and one without emotion or fire. And as to coaching, I have no idea on Dave Canales. He's building something here, the team as a whole is getting better and we are developing some of our own players into bright spots or stars even. And that's important, but a team lives or dies by the QB/HC situation if they are on their way up. And our play calling seems lackluster. I think he needs to relinquish play calling duties and instead manage the game, all phases and coach the players on the sidelines as needed. Wearing two hats at this early stage in his career isn't working as well as he'd like it. TL;DR version: Sucks to say it, but can't fully judge Bryce while under current HC, can't fully judge HC while he's handcuffed to Bryce. (And the Andy Dalton experiment this season sure didn't add any useful data.)