Khyber53

First, as an organization and a fanbase, we have to quit chasing the next Cam Newton. Really. He was the unicorn and he was lightning in a bottle. I love Cam, but we put so much energy into developing him, exalting him and turning him into our entire game plan that we really killed the team over the long haul. And yes, 2015 was magical and it came to a tragic end with Superman broken to the point where he'd never be the same again. Hiring a coach purely to recapture that magic, or worse, to manufacture that magic isn't going to work. We need to hire a coach based on his ability to build a professional football team, a whole team. One who understands that the QB may well be the last piece of the puzzle placed on the table. And that piece has to not just fit but also tie together/strengthen the whole thing. KC was already a solid team when they drafted Mahomes. Seattle had laid the groundwork before they took a mid-rounds flier on Wilson. Buffalo was tough and gritty before Allen. Heck, you can even say the Patriot way and mindset was already in place before Brady emerged out of nowhere. Good coaches do that, and all of those teams have excellent coaches and the staff to build and maintain foundations. Can Dorsey do it? I don't know, he's just getting his first shots at the coordinator level. While that's a much better resume than our current doofus, it's still not a proven track record either. Maybe he's the guy, maybe he's not. But we get some time to see what he can do based on Tepper's lack of guts. If the guys around Allen keep playing like they have been, then maybe Dorsey does have the chops. We'll certainly be able to take a peek behind the scenes due to our Buffalo connections.

I guess we could go back to Dan Morgan trying to concuss rookie running backs during training camp.

Can't argue with it much, it's probably the best thing we can do while waiting out the end of Rhule's overtime period.

I wish I could say the train wreck was over and this season will just be the remnants playing out the damage already done. I can't, though. They will somehow grab another QB, climb onto another train and look for another chance to derail the franchise. And trading away our first next season, or for multiple years, is definitely in their wheelhouse.

Some of the most important blessings we receive are the prayers that weren't answered. We're better off not being in the running for Watson. Let's move on.

When your praise for a draft class includes Dennis Daley, then it's a bad draft. Hurney hit on the first pick and whiffed on the rest. Kinda typical of him. His only saving grace as a draft evaluator is that he generally did well to great with that first pick. From there it gets iffy to tragic. I do think the problem went beyond Hurney and into the depths of our entire scouting department. And that worries me, because we seem to be just as iffy now.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

If you can't select or groom a QB, then you aren't going to make it as an NFL coach. Guess who can't do that? This must be what it's like to find out a couple of your family members have decided to start doing something stupid (running up debt, using meth, buying timeshares, investing in crypto). You know it's going to turn out badly for them, but there's nothing you can do but watch their descent and destruction, just hoping that someday they'll listen to you and get some real help.

Let's face it, things are so chaotic here and the underside of the organization is churning so bad that no one can predict what will happen here, except to say it will go badly. This is going to be a long, slogging year.

Oh fug no.

Minshew has a bit of a Delhomme vibe and while that could be a lot of fun, let's be real about what we need to do. We need to trot Darnold back out there behind an improved offensive line. Chances are we're still going to suck, but we will have paid for the right to do so and we can get what we have spent on bad QBing behind us. Rhule said this was the guy and then made sure he got that second year with the contract extension because the cost was too good to pass up on. Sometimes, when you buy a box full of crap, you've just got to work your way through it. If it costs Rhule his job (and it should have done so already) then so be it. Any QB we pick up, except for a late rounds draftee, will just saddle this team with long term costs and more short term losses. Really, we need to take the keys away from the drunk before he gets back in the car. Since we've declined to drive his ass home, we're just going to have to sit here until he either sobers up or daylight comes and he can find his own way home.

Sure, let's just keep trading away our future picks and salary space for QBs who are going to fail here. A dog will go back and lick up its own barf if you don't stop it. So it is here with Rhule and Co. They just keep getting pricier ones with even less potential.

Take Linderbaum at 6th. Don't get all tricky and trade back, you'll miss out on him. Teams are struggling to get offensive linemen of ability and this year everyone is going shopping for them. Grab Linderbaum at 6 and start building. He has the brains and experience to do the job and a pro-team weight room will take care of the rest. There's usually only one really good center in each draft. We've passed on them too many times. We need to grab the guy and not look back.

This 1000%. How do you really evaluate this situation? How do you set contracts for the next coach beyond 2022?

I'd have rather had him here as HC than Rhule. I actually think Flores was bringing the Dolphins along quite well.

Why let Rhule trade away a WR that can lead the league if he just has a QB and a coach? Just pray that the jackass Rhule doesn't get trade happy before the season or we'll be hamstrung for the next half decade.

In the end, the NFL really doesn't care if an owner can competently build a winning team. They care about can the team continue to bring in money and not bankrupt itself in the process. Winning doesn't even figure in as organizations like the Lions have shown for decades and the Bengals until this year. They want butts in seats (whether in the stadium or at home on couches in front of the TV), they want jersey and other merch sales, they want the broadcast revenue to roll in and no stoppages in the seasons. It's just business. So, honestly, if you end up with Tepper being terrible at this, there's nothing you can do short of somehow create a scandal. And as we are seeing with Snyder in Washington, a scandal won't even force a sale if the owner doesn't want to go.

And that is the $140 million question...

Um, the cupboard is kind of bare here when it comes to draft picks to trade away, thanks to our coaching and managerial brilliance. We got Sam Darnold for our work. That leaves trading away our handful of good players, potentially to trade for bums again. How about we wait this season out and see Rhule to the door before we get all fancy in our efforts?

I'm betting either Rodgers or Wilson will end up there, if either actually keep doing the "release me" deals again. Both could drop in, play a couple of years and bow out for the next generation with plenty of money and legacies intact. Arians could also make a push for Watson, which I'd rather see than us do so. Then there's apparently Murray, but he's going to need to prove he isn't another AB in the making. Talk about imploding, whew.

We also had some incredible role players who made the difference and punched above their weight classes. That was an amazing year, too. And we can't downplay the importance of Jake Delhomme, once again.

Henning's biggest asset, and something none of our other OCs have had, was the ability to get punched in the mouth, get back up and come back swinging differently. He could and would change the entire game plan based on what was happening on the field. Doing that takes a certain mentality to accomplish and it is why that 2003 season produced the Cardiac Cats and comeback after comeback. He was self aware more than self reverent. His successors have been too tied to their own brilliances to make changes in game, and some of them refused to change even over the course of a season -- something other teams feasted on time and time again. They told everyone to trust the process, they knew what they were doing. We need a Dan Henning-type again.

On that d-line we also had Al Wallace, Jordan Carstens and Kemp Rasmussen. As rotational players they were excellent, also, pound for pound, some of the physically strongest players we ever fielded. Whoever was running the strength and conditioning program back then was phenomenal (and potentially assisted by an ethically challenged physician and pharmacy back then, but let's not go there).

I'd feel good getting a fifth, sixth or even seventh for him if they'll take the whole contract, too. Honestly, I'd trade him for a case of out of date Gatorade and a box of towels for the locker room.