Khyber53

You're most likely right, but I just needed to feel a little bit of hope today.

No idea how this is going to turn out today. On paper, we should get killed. In reality, LA has major problems with their offensive line, we have a guy who knows every one of their weaknesses and a lot of their playbook and has extensive practice experience against Donald and co. We may also have completely different play calling on both the offense and defense. We might surprise some folks. Or we might get steamrollered. Either way, it's game 1 without Rhule and that's a step in the right direction. I hope Wilks has a great showing today.

They made major strides. I'm still wondering if we're at our best situation at Center, but it does seem to be working. There's nothing like watching the Bears and Commanders just kill each others' QBs last night to make you thankful for what we've now got. I'm really curious to see how Walker and Darnold can play behind this line. Sadly, I think Mayfield is broken and it's not the blocking (by our o-line at least) that seems to be the source of his problems.

We dodged a bullet on Fields. He's not developing well in Chicago, he'd have done even worse here. You really need a proved OC and QB coach on hand BEFORE you even evaluate draftable QBs. Or even try to pick up a veteran, I guess. We haven't had those guys in quite some time.

So, the long-tenured long snapper that was almost replaced and an offensive lineman that has not panned out at all were the ones willing to speak about Rhule positively. Okay, let's shut the book and quit reading it. Put it on the shelf and move on.

I think we are going to see a whole new tone to the team when they take the field. And that is what we desperately need. There was no grit under Rhule, there were just platitudes. If Wilks can change the tone and timbre of this team, then he can turn this thing around and make something of it. I'm not going to go out and say we've got a winning season just waiting for us. We may not even make five wins this year, not that we were going to anyway before. But I want us to at least fight for those games and show that we can punch above our weight class. And I want to see us win against someone scoring more than 17 points. Hurricane Rhule has passed, a big wet blanket on the entire team history. Now it's time for the recovery efforts and the rebuilding. It's time to start pounding again.

There's an awful lot to unpack in this statement and I'm going to be really curious to see what happens. Good point!

Ricci is being played like he is because, I think, McAdoo wants a FB and Rhule said we don't do fullbacks around here anymore. So, they took the guy who could kinda be a FB and made him into that hybrid. Honestly, though, unless it is an automobile or a mule, hybrids are pointless and non-(re)productive. Ricci was probably our best TE, if that's how we chose to use him. He can block and he can catch. He seems to know the game and doesn't shy away from contact in the least. Tremble has potential. Thomas has shown his and it wasn't impressive. None of the above are Greg Olsens, not even close.

Jerry wanted to sell. He wanted the money and wanted his family out of the business, for whatever reasons. He cried all the way to the bank.

Stafford's back wouldn't have lasted a season behind the line we had. The situation he ended up in was the best for Stafford, obviously, but here he'd have ended up like Birdgewater, Darnold and Mayfield, in my opinion. And the dude deserved better than that after what he'd endured in Detroit for all those years. Karma took care of Stafford.

That last bit there, that's some masterful writing and insight.

Wilks really has an opportunity here and I hope he really is given a full opportunity. The more I've learned about him, the more I like him. Originally, I didn't want to see him as HC, but I've come around to think the opposite. I think you won't find a coach more committed to this team, the city and states it represents and the Keep Pounding mantra. I think he can give this team back its identity of being a scrappy, hardnosed team. I hope he can turn this around. I think he has a lot of the pieces he needs in place, but not all of them. QB is a big, big hurdle for us and he has to work with what we have in the building, because I'm not aware of an alternative out there waiting for a trade. If Wilks can somehow get five wins out of the schedule remaining, getting us to our best record in three years, then I think we'll know he should stay. Considering our first five games, doing this would be a miracle. Here's to hoping he can do it.

And his pro-QB record is...

Just because we've been screwed over badly does not mean we should go out looking for Hookers.

And that has been my problem, too. Baker has not been himself. I don't know if it's the prior injury or if his confidence was crushed during the whole DeShaun Watson ordeal (and really, what QB's confidence would come through all that crap intact?) or if we have such horrible coaching at the QB, OC and HC level that he never had a chance. I mean, there's no way anyone, even his detractors would have thought he'd be this bad. He's got a better line in front of him than we fielded last year (not just on paper, but on turf in truth). He's got two excellent receivers who can move the ball (DJ and CMC), some receivers he is familiar with and Robby Anderson who is good for one long sprint and catch per game. We don't have a TE for crap, but we didn't last season either. The guy has been demonstrably worse than Darnold was, and that's saying something that shouldn't make any sense whatsoever. What gives?

Trading away CMC doesn't make sense. Now letting Robby go, however, does. Robby is like what, our third biggest cap hit next season and he's like the what, fifth best receiver on the team? CMC is our best running back, our second best receiver, third best blocker and will consistently give you a big play in every freaking game if you just give him the ball. Hell, the guy might be the best QB on the team, we just haven't tried him there yet. Robby will give you two receptions, four dropped balls and an unintelligible tweet each week. Send him to Greed Bay.

He may well have found three halfway decent QBs here, four or five maybe. He just couldn't let them be who they could be. See, there's only room at the top for one guy and he didn't have the strength of character to let any of the be that guy. Can't develop a QB if you don't want to give that player some control. And that's why Cam was shown the door. Twice.

We get rid of our biggest problem and now it's time to sell of everything of worth??? Are you guys fuging crazy? This team is a coach and a QB away from being really competitive. We are poised to get both of those. Why do you want to set us back five years by having a fuging fire sale now?

I've said it before, but here we go again... You guys act like we can tank this season. Like we have a choice or something. There's a damn good chance we lose out from here. That's not tanking, it's getting our asses kicked.

We have to look at his competition for worst. Mayfield's body of work right now is about as bad as I've seen QB work in Carolina since Pickles or Weinke. But maybe the bad play from Mayfield is on Rhule. But so might the same excuse be there for Darnold. Let's face it, we aren't going to war next season with either of them leading the squad. Maybe one holds a clipboard here, maybe neither. But I say give Darnold a spin. Right now it can't hurt us any worse than we already are. If he's good, then heck we get a win to celebrate for once. If he stinks the joint up, then our draft pick will be higher. Win-win -- ish.

Hell, I believed Teddy back then and he was proven righht. Is Teddy a great QB? Nah, he's a helluva back-up, though. Could he have been a decent QB here? He almost was, but they made him wear boxing gloves. Teddy at least knew what he was doing and what should have been done. Coaching didn't and wouldn't back then.

It seems that to succeed at the college level, you have to build a culture that recruits for you, and with the better players you attract you can build a winner. There's just that much difference between the top and bottom players. If you hit the sweet spot at each level of the conferences, you can get some wins and make your mark. In the NFL, it's completely different since there are rules for parity throughout the system. Here, you've got to win first and the culture develops organically from there. Even when it comes to free agent recruitment, money and opportunity matter more than marketing does. I think that's where all of this points to: grabbing college coaches is just grabbing the wrong tool for the wrong job. We've just been treated to a case in point. Let's not do that again.

Some guys never really leave college. They're always a problem later on in the real world.

Sometimes you don't realize how toxic a relationship is until you get a bit of distance from it.