Khyber53

I'm with you on that one brother. Pretty similar here. My buddies from college and I still play each week together on a conference call. Sheesh, we've been gaming as a group since 1988. Man, I feel old.

Sheesh. I need to find me a good group to sit around the table with and roll dice. Anyone in Greensboro?

Seemed like everything was going great for her up until then. I guess we never can know how things are offscreen, or how much stress there is from that much success. She certainly seemed to be an original character.

Latest video I wrote is out. While I try to write with no bias, I have to say I am not 100% sure that the right guy was convicted. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for the work in putting this together! Excellent read.

Yep. Blaming Bryce for everything right now is like saying that one peanut is what makes the whole turd stink.

I'm going to agree with the original premise of the thread, at least to some degree. Our defense was historically bad last season. And, from the looks of the first week, it's no better and possibly worse. We just allowed Jacksonville to get 200 yards on the ground on us. Rushing yards... frikking rushing yards. Even with a good QB, it would be hard to give up that much, not to mention 32 points a game, and come out with even close to a winning record. Bryce is struggling, failing, but he's not the only problem. We haven't had a decent defense since Tepper pretty much dictated that we move to a 3-4. It hasn't worked and Eviro can't seem to coach on top of that.

Rather than his physical stats, I was kinda alluding to the fact that Kyler hasn't lived up to the hype either. Although, he has had some modest success for short stints. The thing is, both teams could have probably had the same success rates with third round picks as QBs over first rounders. Yanno?

Yeah, I've been torn up all week about this. And I'm going to be honest, you and I don't know poo about what is going on with the team. Are they losing the locker room? Not seeing anything from the players about that, just seeing it on forums like this. Are they concerned? Yeah, I'd think that would be a reasonable assumption. Are they rallying around Bryce? Yeah, that I'm seeing from the stuff we see of the players. Is some of it a bit drummed up, quite possibly. Is some of it genuine care and belief in their teammate, yeah most definitely. What is Morgan going to do? Hell, that was just week 1. And week one is often a liar. Once in a while it tells the truth (and that sure was an ugly one to tell last Sunday). Most often, it's just what it is. Half the teams that played in week one lost. Straight down the middle. Sometimes it was a close game, sometimes it was a blowout. We got punched in the face, had our lunch money stolen and Jacksonville kissed our girlfriend. Me, I saw a team that wasn't up to speed yet. We were playing like this was the fourth pre-season game like we used to have. We're going to learn a lot about Bryce, this team, our coaching and team management after this week's game. It's against the Cardinals, a team that has always been one of those benchmarks for it. Beat them and good things happen (remember that killer game Julius Peppers had against them), lose and it often starts the fast slide to the bottom again (sadly, that playoff game with Jake...). Right now, the Cardinals have their Bryce Young, except their guy still has a better PR department. They have a meh-ish defense. They have a star WR that is underperforming and was possibly over-drafted. They don't have many stars to speak of and dwell around 3rd-4th place in their division on a regular basis. In other words, they are pretty much on par with us. And they are a forgotten team as well, playing games in obscurity. So, yeah, we're going to learn the tale of the season this weekend. And honestly, if we lose like we just did or worse, and I was Dan Morgan, I'd be working on polishing up that resume`.

NIL money has changed the college game, particularly at the QB level. There's a character development aspect that isn't happening anymore and not just in leadership, but in the idea that you have to pay the dues, earn your spot and overcome. And then we ask these half-baked products to come out on opening week in their first year (or second or third even) and take the world by storm. They didn't have to back up Brett Favre or Joe Montana or anyone for that matter. The only one I can think of that had to ride the pine before taking the reins was Love in Green Bay and once he took over for Rodgers he showed maturity and an understanding of not just the game but his place within it. I know, I know, old fart yelling at the clouds. Yadda yadda.

The proverbial no, not that Josh Allen, the other Josh Allen, right? The guy who posted 0 tackles/ 0 assisted tackles, no sacks, no forced fumbles, no INTs for the game, right? I know he's supposed to play end but he was a non factor.

As much as I want to gnash my teeth and say that he's not going to make it, there's some wisdom in your observations. There was less to really blame on Bryce than we want to. He wasn't great, but he wasn't the reason we lost that game. Our o-line wasn't working well. Corbett couldn't make the snaps and was ass as a blocker. Our back-up LT wasn't prepared for the ferocious (really???) Jacksonville pass rush. We weren't getting much push from the line in the running game, once again lacking at center and LT. Our receivers could NOT get open to save themselves. And when they did make a catch, it was tackle and down. But our offense really didn't lose that game. Our defense did. Our defense may suck worse than it did last season and it's glaringly obvious that it has been poorly coached, poorly built and poorly used once it is out on the field. And Bryce, well, he doesn't play defense. But then again, not sure many of our players can.

Game one is a bit early for the "on pace" thing. Jacksonville would be "on pace" for 3400 yards of rushing this season...

Oh, I agree. Josh and Lamar are both the next evolutionary step in QBs from the line of players like Cam. They have that something extra. And honestly, they are still prototypes of what is yet to come. This game evolves.

He was the 8th player taken in the draft and the first true WR taken off the board. I saw what he did in the pre-season (camp doesn't count or we'd thing Bryce was great) and it was nothing really. Pretty much what we got from everyone. Right now, he's meh. He can certainly prove me wrong. Kelvin Benjamin was lighting it up once upon a time. So did Keary Colbert. Meh until proven otherwise. No matter how strong his Bro vibe is, his game has been uninspiring so far. Light it up man, that's what we picked you to do. One handed no-catches and no YAC isn't going to impress anyone.

I've seen enough rookie receivers to get a feeling how they'll do, whether it's Bryce, Cam, Jake or Claussen throwing to them. And I can tell hype from hero. T-Mac seems to be Meh at the moment. I hope he proves me wrong. XL... yeah, that guy ain't making the grade right now.

Where does all the love for Tet come from? He's been okay so far. Of course, that stands out when the rest of the team is this bad, but really. He's not breaking any records around here, rookie or otherwise at this point.

And honestly, Burns was all hype and little production. Folks loved him because of the Spider-man celebration. He was lousy in run containment and only could generate pressure in one-on-one situations with bottom half of league level OTs. Ask the Giants how good he is... they'll only tell you the truth if they aren't trying to trade him.

Cam was the prototype. He was what a long line of mobile QBs evolved into, from Fran Tarkenton to Cunningham to Vick to Cam and then to Josh and Lamar. Those two guys are the pinnacle of the mobile QB position now. Smart, fast, big and they've got not just laser cannons for arms, but have incredible processing ability matched with leadership skills. What do Josh and Lamar have that's better than Cam's? They can work the team aspect better on the field, whereas Cam had it in his nature (and nurture) to put the entire game on his shoulders and will it to happen.

Folks really got pissed when I said Tepper would only hire coaches that didn't intimidate him. I still stand by my initial assessment. And look where that has gotten us.

Time to jettison both of them. If you think Bryce was the only person we fielded yesterday who wasn't coached up or capable of being on a professional football field, then you are missing something. Outside of Chuba Hubbard and Jaycee Horn, no one looked like they had done their homework, knew their assignments or had even shown up for training camp. That's on the entire coaching staff along with the poor play calling and clock management issues. We have poorly chosen and recruited players, then we poorly coach them up and poorly motivate them. We do pay them fairly well, but that, it is beginning to seem more and more likely, is because well, we have to. Not sure if I can sit through another season of this crap. It would take something miraculous.

Best of luck to you and better days in real life ahead, man.

One problem I've had with T-Mac since we chose him is that he has this "cooler than you" vibe. And it's something he works at creating. And that might be part of those one-hand grab attempts. Always trying for the catch that ends up on the poster, yanno? And that leads to, well, drops. In the end zone. Be a professional, catch the ball, make the touchdown.

These are the same guys they showed themselves to be in the pre-season. We look like the kid who never does his homework being called to come up to the chalkboard and explain a math equation. Good job coach.

We seem to have drafted two WRs for specific traits: Catch radius and the ability to go up for a contested ball in the endzone. We somehow missed out on things like route running, situational awareness and speed. XL and T-Mac (do they really deserve nicknames based on output yet?) aren't very good at the route tree yet, they don't seem to know to break the play for opportunities when PeeWee gets pressured and the two of them can be timed using Calendars when they are on the field. It used to be our fastest receiver was an aging white dude who was a UDFA castoff from Minnesota. We replaced him with basically the same white dude, just younger, cast off from the Raiders. Yeah, XL sucks, but the process that chose him and chose a partial clone of him again the next round might be the bigger problem.