Khyber53

There's a metric f-ton of truth to this. An injury to Darnold in pre-season (happened with Cam, remember) would leave the Darnold question unanswered for who knows how long. And even if he did come back mid-season there'd be a built in excuse if he didn't live up to expectations. Right now, there's no reason really to not trot Walker and Grier out behind our evolving/revolving O-line until things are solidified (for better or worse). Let Sam get the practices in, but let someone else wear the target as we build that line. I'm worried very little that Darnold will flop because he got no snaps in the pre-season. I am worried that an injury could leave the future of this team hanging for yet another year. Give the guy a chance to fly or flop on opening day, not in a sloppy, pointless preseason game.

There won't be another Luke Kuechly for a generation. Butkus, Singletary, Kuechly. Legends all.

I agree with everything else in your post except this. All coaches play favorites to some degree. Rhule has flexed his Temple and Baylor preferences already and rightly so (dance with the ones that brung ya so to say). And he doesn't have enough time in coaching for us to really see any tendencies, except that even after lackluster results last season he stuck by his OC, DC and SC. And there were troubling games where he kept sending in Teddy Bridgewater even after it was obvious Teddy wasn't getting it done. This year will tell us a lot, hopefully it will be good news. Right?

Because if it does, then we'd have had a catastrophic season.

Yep. Right now, we're judging these moves by Fitterer on paper and Rhule was given a pass for such a crazy situation to fall into as a first year head coach. We've got nothing but hopes at the moment.

Hate to hear it for the young man. Hopefully he can rehabilitate it after surgery and use the time to do the film work and study that could seriously improve his game. Sometimes it takes a couple of years for a corner to really make the change to the pros. Maybe there's a silver lining to this for him. Either way, I hope he heals well and can keep his spirits up.

The answer might be on the roster. Might be. But yeah, Perryman might need to sit this one out.

Oh gosh, yes. Soooo many. Pickles. Everyone that got passed over that year so that Vinnie Testaverde could come off of the couch to play. Randy Fasani. Dameyune Craig. There have been some real stinkers out there.

Or an injury settlement. Haven't heard if there has been an update to the severity of the injury, but would we really put him on IR this early? Do we have nearly unlimited spots/times like last year?

And dangit, but every now and then those folks are right.

Honestly, if Darnold falls flat out there, I don't think it's going to matter who they put in next at QB. We're going to be looking at a long season, an early early draft pick and probably the loss of a coach or two or three. I know, I know, I know... long contract yada yada yada, Tepper believes, yada, yada, yada. Rhule, Brady and Snow are geniuses, yada yada yada. It just takes time to build, yada yada yada. None of that matters. Last year we sucked. The year before we sucked. A third year in a row of suckage and the crowd will start calling for blood. I want Rhule to succeed. I want it to happen this year. I want us to not just be competitive but to contend. We've got some great talents on this team, some guys who could be legendary. But we need the Rhule Revolution to kick it into gear or we'll start seeing the Chip Kelly comparisons come along.

His insight and honesty was great. His delivery needs some work, he's speaking and responding at about 3/4 of the speed he needs to be at. There were long, drawn out pauses and while his chill is okay in a slow moving pre-season game, he'd be hard pressed to keep tempo. Getting the names wrong, not a problem in the preseason, it's just going to happen.

I think pretty much any team that loses one of its starting tackles is looking for a short season at this point. Good tackles are rare, great tackles are just about unheard of. I don't think any head coach feels good about tackle depth on their team. Giants who can dance, throw around 300 lb. men and take a beating for 60 minutes with no rest just don't grow on trees. Just ask Vince McMahon and the WWE.

This 100 percent.

I had a family thing to go to and so I tried to record the game. On NFL Network. Ended up getting the Browns versus the Jags which was the equivalent of two mules fighting over a turnip. Did manage to catch the second half and came away thinking that was a lackluster bunch of guys we fielded. But realized that we are talking third stringers at best, a few practice squad players and a bunch of guys who will go home and have to decide if they want to keep pursuing their pro football dreams or find different life paths. Roughly 90 guys were fielded by the Panthers going into that game and before the season starts, only 53 of them will have a job. It's the hard math and the end of the road for a lot of young men's dreams. We just need to remember, for at least a short while, those guys were OUR guys, Panthers if just for a couple of weeks. Good luck to them!

Then boy oh boy will those three false start penalties in a row get some butts kicked on Monday.

I've got a first cousin who has been in a south Florida hospital bed for over a week now, edging back and forth from the brink of ICU. He 'd delayed vaccinating, but had finally gotten the first shot a week and a half before catching the Delta variant, just a couple of days before his scheduled second shot. His texts describe a harrowing experience where he can barely breathe enough to cough and has to be on both the nasal delivery oxygen and a full oxygen mask as well. The guy is 53 and had been relatively healthy throughout his life, non-smoker, non-drinker. He developed pneumonia as well and now we're just praying he gets better. Hope you and yours make it through this Jeremy!

Exactly! I harped on it all last season and we'd better be more aggressive this year. Every game looked like Snow was playing a turned-based strategy game while the opposing offenses were doing real-time games. Yes, Whitehead sucked epically out there, but every play there were people out of position or without clearcut assignments. Darnold could lob 50 TDs this year, but if the concepts on defense don't improve mightily, then we will struggle to win five again. Played like a bunch of old ladies last year. <SMH>

I was saying we shoulda snagged the 'bama kid starting back in January or so. I'm hoping that Darnold was the better choice, but I still think Jones is the one who will go the furthest of this crop of first round QBs.

Rookies, pre-season, playing toughest position in all of sports. You've got to give them a bit of time. They might still be bad, but at least give them a chance to grow.

Well, sh!t. Another idiot taking up bench space and talking his way outta the league. I guess that if these guys could live up to their hype, they wouldn't have been free agents. <smh>

Eh, I took a swing at defending the guy. Little's play certainly didn't help me out.

I might be crazy, but I think by the end of the first quarter of the season (take a game or so ... the danged math no longer works out) our linebacking group will be better than good. Shaq won't be trying to cover for that turd in cleats Whitehead. Carter will show what he's got and I think we may see Perryman resurgent. Or Jeremy Chinn playing more in LB positions. I've got a good feeling about that very undersung group.

Perhaps, but I think Little had the skills and the resume. What he had not had tested was concussion resistance from getting a Deacon Jones-esque helmet slap. It's like the Jeff Otah thing. At the time it was solid team-building. In hindsight, injuries cost us draft capital and a person who could have been great. But, that's the game and how it rolls.

Had Greg Little been adequate, the Washington 'Balls would have been still looking for a new coach. That's how big of a deal that choice was. Changed the trajectories of not just games but careers. And it all started with a slap upside Little's helmet in a preseason game.