Khyber53

It doesn't take much to replace butterfingers Robby. He's a WR2 here, he's camp fodder elsewhere.

Just jettison Robby.

Let's take Brady and work him at LG. Let Icky learn the pro job at the position he was picked for. Apparently, Brady was picked for guard as much as anything. If those two can solidify that left side and be competitive there, then we've got our line set for the coming years. And more than anything, I hope we've found out center finally and that he earns a good four to five year contract with us that we'll all be happy about. If you have a line good enough to give one of our QBs some room to work and some muscle for CMC and Chuba to run behind, then we're ready to roll. All our defense needs to do at that point is slow down the opponents. It worked for the Colts throughout Peyton Manning's time there, same for most of the Patriots teams. If we have to win our games 41-38 week after week, it sure would be a lot of fun.

Now if they can all look that good come December and January, we'll be in business.

Rich people... sheesh. Am I right?

Well, we've just got to prove them wrong somehow. Rhule has backed himself into this corner, can he fight his way out? If so, he'll rightly deserve the praise and adulation he'll get -- I'll be first in line to say I've been wrong. If he can't, well, that's kind of what we are all expecting to happen anyway. But as I said when Rivera was canned, the answer we will get might well be worse than the problem we are losing.

I hope we have a few guys on their end of the season version of this list.

If you knew who this guy was, raise your hand.

Sounds like he drew the short straw and had to come up with a new way to bash Baker. Dude is our QB now. Arm strength certainly hasn't been his problem. I think coaching and team karma has been his problem. I hope it works out here and he just makes everyone sit up and take notice. I want to see him earn back all of that incentive money and really make a point of his opportunity here. And I want him to start it off against Cleveland in week one.

Cam had that kind of passion and it left him on the sidelines brooding with a towel over his head at times. When he channeled and controlled it, though, he had a historic season and took us to the pinnacle of the sport. It's a maturation thing and it happens when a hero finds out that they are mortal. I think Cam found it in that truck wreck. Maybe Baker found it in the Deshaun Watson/Cleveland train wreck. I hope he finds that maturity and strength that Cam did. It could be quite magical to see that again.

Well, there we go! And something to look forward to!

Does anyone know if Matt Ioannidis is good against the run? Sorry, I just haven't got much of a look at him before. If so, that'd be great.

This was probably the nicest anyone's going to write about us before the first of the year -- thanks Bucky, we appreciate it. Still, I'm not optimistic and I'm tired of being that way. I just something to believe in with this team.

On second listen, either it hasn't aged well, or maybe I haven't. Still, worth a spin.

Check out The Ambient Collection by The Art of Noise. Old, old album, but it was really good back in its day.

Doing your own demo, if you aren't a skilled carpenter, can suddenly become frikkin' expensive.

Sometimes the most powerful blessings are the things you didn't get. Whew~~

I want to be wrong about this season. I want Tepper to have been right to keep Rhule on board. I want us to find out that it really did take three years to build something great here. I want to find out that we have a complete and balanced team that can compete and win against anyone on any given Sunday (or Saturday, Monday or even Thursday). But I'm afraid I'm not wrong. I said when everyone wanted Rivera fired that we very well could be in for worse than we were jettisoning and I think we've proven to have been that. Not boosting Rivera, just saying that the ownership here was unwise in their decision making and apparently oblivious to the good advice around them. (And we can only blame Hurney for so much, Tepper makes the decisions, writes the checks and guides the ship.) Let 'em surprise me. I'm tired of not being surprised.

Sad to hear of anyone passing away at such a young age. Rest in peace and I hope for strength for the family who is certainly mourning this life lost.

Does he have a lot left to give, though? That's a rough job. If he could make it a year, he'd give us a bit of strength in the center of the line, but more importantly he could help train up some of the younger and softer talent we have there. We need a lunch pail, do the unsung work kind of guy on the line right now and in the future. He wouldn't be that guy, but could he help make the next one? And that's a question I can't really answer. Star made the linemen around him look better because of the heavy lifting he did. But did he ever get someone else able and willing to do that work alongside of him? In a world of leading men actors, where can you find a dedicated character actor to really make it work? I'm not sure those guys can be taught, just born.

Ask me after that first preseason game against the Commandoskins. There's a lot of Hey!s with this team right now and that's good, but there are a lot of Hmmmm?s as well, and those could be bad.

It wasn't a shining endorsement, but being the 14th best football team in the league would be a huge improvement for us. We weren't just a QB away, though, and he doesn't touch on the other problems. We did address some of them, particularly committing to our O-line in a big way, but that defense looks spotty in the front 7 something fierce. And if we don't move Jeremy Chinn back to LB, then we're going to get run over again and again.

Channel that inner walk on... every QB on the roster should be digging down to find that guy. If one of them isn't willing to fight for the job, then that guy isn't going to fight to win on the field with this team. We need a QB with spark. Hopefully one of them will find it. I hope Baker plays lights out. I hope Sam finds what he was missing a thrives. Heck, I hope PJ Walker finds Green Lantern's ring and somehow becomes a decent NFL QB. But in all honesty, there's still a chance with any of those guys that by mid-season we may be starting Matt Corrall. Those guys are all second (or third) chancers in an unforgiving league where the opponents are actively teeing off on your faults and blind spots, where old injuries are targeted, where your coaches are on the hot seat. Tough, tough situation. Whoever finds their inner Delhomme can win in this situation with this particular team.

Winner winner chicken dinner.

There were games where I don't think the guys on the sidelines could bear to watch the game at all. Sometimes that was echoed in the coaching box. And us at home...