Khyber53

Let's make it happen.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again... when your star player is a wide receiver, you've got problems. When it's a receiver with a reputation for being difficult to work with, it's even worse. Couldn't have happened to a better team. I'm still bitter about 2003.

If one of these guys with guaranteed money doesn't make the team and then goes to another team, does the guarantee still hold? Do we pay part of their salary at another team? Or does it work the opposite way and tell them hey, we paid your salary for the season, you can't go elsewhere and keep that guarantee? If so, doesn't that create basically a second practice squad of reserves to call up from?

So looking forward to this season.

I think that most NFL centers have run into that exact situation at some point in their careers, going back to high school. No one really wants to play center starting out.

I hope there's a good competition for starting center this season. Since we have a young QB who is still very much developing, this is a massively important role to get set in stone here. Good luck to Cade!

Yeah, this has been a need for some time now.

If we were going to change the culture, we needed just that kind of guy. Good thing we got him. Stars are great, but cement builds empires.

Go look at a larger window for each team. Losing leaves a major, major lingering stink. And Kansas City had a massively large losing streak between Len Dawson and Alex Smith. We're talking decades. Losing franchises often have issues that are sooo much deeper than just the draft that it would take a miracle pick like Peyton Manning or Elway or (I hate saying this) Brady to pull them out of their muck and mire they were lodged in. "Tanking" often just gives bad management, team building and coaching a pass for a season, maybe two. Just look to the Jaguars or Cardinals for examples. I'd say the Browns, but they built their own selves one of the most remarkable karma loops in NFL history with the Watson trade after a decade of tanking.

They did lose it to another great team, though. I think he's a good to really QB and he handles the system they give him very, very well. When he has his weapons on the field, the team is one of the best in the league. Without them, well, they still outperformed us. I think we'll see him and them in the playoffs regularly over the next five years, maybe another run for the trophy. If so, money well spent. If not, they're no worse off than say Dallas or Atlanta, Cleveland or New York (take your pick).

Because losing sticks to a franchise, it gets hard to shake it off. High draft picks don't always provide the soap that gets rid of the stinks. Win, win some more, win most of them, then win the big one. That's how good franchises progress.

Whew, you sure spent a lot of time explaining how a QB that you don't care much for sucks. You're into this way, way more than me. But I do have to say you've got a lot of teams listed there as not wanting him whose QBs have a fair amount of hype but a small amount of accomplishments.

We'll just have to see.

Hmm. I think he'll live up to it. Last year, about half of his team was on IR it seems, at one time or another. Year before, Super Bowl appearance. Year before that, playoff run after being third on the depth chart and being pressed into service. Is he one of the greatest in the game right now? Nope. No chance of that. Is he in the top 10 going into next season? Pretty good chance of that. Would 20 or more teams in this league love to have the guy as their starting QB. Most likely so. He's a good QB who can implement his coach's game plan to a T and has both the confidence of and confidence in his teammates. That'll take you a long way in this league if you've got the right cast around you, and he does.

I think they already have it right. A few years back, they added in an additional wild card spot and that opened the landscape quite a bit. Keep it how it is now, make it so that divisions still matter. Or come up with a secondary league and start relegations for continually losing franchises.

Let's face it, that last Super Bowl season, none of us saw it coming. Most had us at 7 wins. Heck, the first Super Bowl season, they had us for less probably. It's about time for another surprise run.

I'm thinking a 10 win season with four straight to open up with. Sweeps of the Falcons and Saints, split with the Bucs. And we'll all be amazed at what Canales has put together.

Acually, Shoeless Joe and Black Sox did tank, just for someone's betting purposes. Playing to lose, whatever the reason for it, is unethical.

On NFL tanking, I've been saying this for years: There's too much at stake from management to coaching to players for tanking to happen. And if a team were actually caught doing it, like an actual conspiracy, then we're talking Shoeless Joe levels of condemnation. Excuse me, what's that? They've now forgiven Shoeless Joe? What about Charlie Hustle? Him, too? Hmmm. We're living in a post-ethics world aren't we? $400 million jet from the Qatari royal family? I guess this is the new norm.

You make some very good points, I concede.

Gerald "Let me jump on the pile for a stat boost" McCoy.

See, I have a different view of it. I think that just the opposite is very true, and often proven on our very own team. Look at the impact that CMC had when he was here. Look at how bring in two top rate IOL to play guard last season made a huge difference in finally getting a stable front for Bryce to live behind. It took a while for it to bear fruit, but those last games were just relevatory. And off ball linebackers like Luke Kuechly, not just running a defense but dictating the game when he's on the field, truly remarkable what a difference that makes. Personally, he had as much or maybe even more to do with that Super Bowl appearance as Cam did. What I see in the NFL is teams trying hard to cover up for a lack of good linebackers by stacking the D-line. But it gives them a crust defense, one that is hard and crunchy on the outside but a feast within. Linebackers shouldn't just rule the middle of the field, but should be directing traffic and working as enforcers. But hey, whatever. "Devalued" positions often come back to bite you in the ass when they are neglected. Ask anyone who has had to clean up the mess left behind by a former college coach who took over a pro team and brought their college recruiting mindset in. Yanno, like Matt Rhule did.

Oh, I wasn't glossing over anything. You just can't polish a turd, so why even try? (And let's talk about what might be the real problem with our entire defense... and that guy isn't even on the field -- Evero.)

They keep saying things like "the position is devalued". They say the same things about running backs, strangely enough. Then our like of linebackers give opposing running backs the most historically bad defense to run against in league history. It sucks when people who don't understand football tell you how football is played in the modern age.