Khyber53

He came here and did everything he could for us. And we need to remember and respect that. He's suffered from injuries for the past two seasons and like most linemen he was carrying some from before as well. Not sure if this is the end of the road for him or not, but good luck to him and his family. Now, well, we've got a lot of work to do along that offensive line of ours. Just like every year.

Get the smartest players at ILB, S and C. They can have immediate and lasting impacts, plus they can elevate the play of those around them, moving the powerful pieces around the chessboard more effectively.

Great info overall. This part, though, I had missed this guy. Could we go with another smaller, smarter LB? I mean, we had the best one of all time once before... Could lightning strike twice? Sure would be nice. Could we grab ILB in the second and third rounds? We really, really could use some strength and smarts there.

I think you've nailed what we need right here. Rodriguez and Thieneman would be my choices, Thieneman in the first and Rodriguez in the second. Let everyone else eat up their picks on the crop of WRs and linemen. Then make a push in free agency for the top center.

Draft picks are better for cap management and production always outperforms athleticism over time.

Respect the guy but that cast is too large for a one game a week deal.

I think Rodriguez will play out to be the Luke Kuechly of this draft. If we could get him in house and have Luke there to tutor him a bit more...

Draft Rodriquez in the second, grab the best OT or Edge in the first. There's a lot out there in free agency right now, but we need to maybe be investing in C and perhaps another OT, perhaps our own guys that are headed that way if we can get a decent discount for them.

Sure, works for me. Good luck to him.

Good luck to him. He'll always be part of our history. And who knows but possibly our future again, too. He always seems willing to come and consult when needed.

This ^ 100 percent. I think a head coach should be managing the game, not calling the plays. And yes, Canales has worked something impressive with what he inherited from the two (and interim) coaches before him. This place was a total mess with a broken culture. Like I said before, something is being built here. We don't even have all of the drywall up, much less a coat of paint and carpeting down yet. Let the man finish what he started.

Sheesh. If Bryce had won the Super Bowl, y'all woulda been like "He didn't win by enough. He missed that pass in the third quarter." fug it. We went to the playoffs, no matter how we got there and played a helluva game where we came up just a bit short of advancing. It's been a long time since we even made it to the post season for anything. But hey, keep punching yourself in the nuts because you think that's what you need to do.

After last season, it was the same question. And the answer most people came to was "If he doesn't make the playoffs, he's gone." He made the playoffs. No matter how it was done, we made it to the playoffs. He's safe. He's going to have a chance to keep working this out, even if next season isn't a playoff one. I think we'll do better next year than we did this season. There's something being built here.

Congrats!

I'm going to take the outlier here and say we post our first 10 win season in a loooong time. I think we are ahead of the curve in rebuild vs the rest of our division and I think we're seeing something grow culture wise. There's finally some grit in this team. My biggest concern right now is at our OT positions. I'm going to be honest here, I think Icky gets more credit than he has earned. He was the best on our team at LT but I'm not sure he'd crack the top half of the league in LTs, maybe not even the top 2/3rds. And on the right side, as much as I appreciate Moton for who he has been over the tough years for us, he's getting long in the tooth. There just isn't much tread left on those tires. I'm also not worrying about the Rico Dowdle loss because something tells me, he might be back here once he's tested the market. Our CBs and Safeties are better than advertised with a bit more depth than I think any of us predicted. QB... sheesh, I wish I knew what to say. A lot of bumpy road, a few smooth spots, a couple of great highlight reel moments, but more questions than answers. Oh, and I am hoping that XL gets it together and lives up to his potential. They always say it's year 3 for receivers and well, here we go big guy. Make something happen.

Plenty of good teams made it to Super Bowls and some even won with meh QBs. Takes solid defense, good offensive planning and play calling and a helluva lot of magic. And I think the great QB elevating a team thing is overplayed too much. History just doesn't bear it out. Sure, it can lift a moderately good team like Mahomes did with the Chiefs, or Hurts did with the Eagles. And one can argue about Brady and the Pats (or even Bucs) but if you look at those Patriot and Buccaneer teams... there was something very solid in place already. Heck, the whole idea that a single player can make or break an NFL team is vastly overplayed. The Cowboys have had a roster full of "star" players for decades now and have gotten bupkus in return. The Raiders have chased everything they could and have floundered mightily. The Giants have had star after star and nothing. It's just hard to sell posters of a team. Give the marketing people a star though...

Honestly, he's worth keeping and he's a known quantity, possibly one on the upswing. And isn't he capable of swinging to either tackle position? Given that, I'd make him a good but moderate offer. We may need him at either spot as a starter during the season, and probably at LT for the start. That's not going to be easier to fill than making use of the guy already on our roster who knows and has played alongside the other linemen. And his performance in games here was passable or better. Do we still draft someone for Tackle? Oh yeah. Always be building the line.

The guy is still recovering from a major, major injury. He's a locker room cancer. He's over 30. He sometimes requires the team ownership to intervene with local police over stupid poo. He's going to cost $20 million a year of salary cap with diminishing returns. Let's just let this one limp on by.

Can't disagree with him much. Really need that Defense QB at MLB this season. If there is one when we pick.

I've got nothing else to say really than: Ayup. Here we are again. Again. All we can really hope for is progress. If we improve as much again, it'll be good. If we don't, it'll be foretold.

I don't disagree with you and didn't in my original post. I said that at this moment, before the draft, before any kind of free agency and with literally no one on that bench beside him, Bryce is the starting QB. Doesn't matter earned, owed, promised or pinky-sworn. Right now, it's his job. But, going back to the original statement that you'd replied to, yeah, it gets old to hear the same takes even in light of new information. Stephen Wright used to have a joke about how he drove across the country but only had one cassette tape to listen to the whole way, but he couldn't remember what it was. We're kind of at this stage.

Dude, you're like a playlist with only one band on it.

Oh I have no doubt that Stafford is better. He's also one of the most experienced QBs in the league, has great protection, is taller, has a whole crew of top notch receivers and has a very aggressive play calling program that makes good use of tight ends and play action. Bryce, really doesn't have any of that at this time. But here's the deal... whether you, I or any of the other "experts" on this board think it should be otherwise, Bryce will be heading into our 2026 season as the starting QB for the team. We could sit back and just cry about it and gnash our teeth or just hope that Canales and crew know what they're doing and that they see something in practices and meeting rooms that we don't have access to that makes this the direction they are heading. That being said, right now, I think an even more pressing matter is who are we going to sit on the bench behind Bryce. His size, and a whole new slew of questions about our O-line, makes injury a possibility and there's always the what if he sputters out? Dalton, thanks for coming here but... I think it's time to hang up the cleats.

Why, you have to ask, would PFF skew the stats in such a way to get Bryce at the top of a list. Honestly, they didn't. That's just how the stats shook out. Probably because Bryce took fewer deep pass opportunities than most other starting QBs, but on the rare opportunities he took, he did quite well. And that fits in with what an unbiased eye might see out of Bryce and Canales right now... Developing starter QB, developing offensive identity. Which is probably what we have. You and I don't know the calls on each play. We can't see what Bryce sees (or can't see) from the pocket. But a group that watches and grades every play for basically every player looked down at their stat calculations and went: "Would you look at that? Who would have thunk it?" Just because it doesn't fit into our own narrative doesn't make it false.

I get ya. Really, I'm a best player available guy when it comes to picking where we are. And that is really what probably contributes to a lot of good teams being built for the long run, rather than those who find themselves regularly picking near the top of the draft. We've had our share of high picks...