Khyber53

There's always good value at the #8 pick spot. We've had it three times in our history and gotten Tim Biakabutuka (short career, though), Jordan Gross and CMC. Other #8 picks of note include guys like Ryan Tannehill, Ronnie Lott, DeAngelo Hall and Willie Roaf.

That being said, there are numerous wiffs at that pick as well. Let's face it, there are some teams that are constantly picking at eighth and above. Those teams often have generationally bad (sometimes near century-long bad) organizations replete with some of the worst scouting departments you can imagine.

I trust Rhule to request the player he needs to fit his plans (which might not exactly jibe with the Huddle's plan). I also like the possibility that new team management might be reinvigorating our scouting department (which needs more wins on picks in the second through seventh rounds).

9 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

"Coachin' 'em up" doesn't work at certain positions though. You can coach up and hide subpar talent within the scheme at certain spots, but QB isn't one of them.

I think you can and have to coach up QBs. Good coaching is refining skills to get the best performance out  of an athlete in an effort to reach their maximum potential. Game planning, on the other hand, is used at all times to hide weaknesses on your side and exploit the other's.

The right coach can certainly take an unfinished product QB, bring him into the NFL and forge out a great player. You can see it in action right now in KC, Buffalo and Cleveland. Even Mahomes had to sit behind Alex Smith for a year -- and Mahomes has been very open about how much Smith, Reid and Bienemy elevated his abilities. 

Where there is some major truth in your statement is just how hard it is to do that with a QB in the NFL today and not many coaches either can do it or have the luxury to do it. Rivera really couldn't do it, Gruden couldn't do it, the other Gruden couldn't do it, so many coaches have died on the vine because they couldn't provide the fine tuning and refinement that a college prospect may need.  

I still think the Panthers are being catfished by Watson. 

Just now, LinvilleGorge said:

In '21, Jared Goff has a $37M cap hit. Matt Ryan has a $41M cap hit. Carson Wentz has a $35M cap hit. I don't think you're in tune with what good QBs make in today's NFL.

And all three have questionable relationships with their team's futures right now...

Thanks for explaining that. I had it differently in my mind and it does change some of my thinking. 

I stand corrected. The rules of the salary cap are byzantine and incredibly malleable.

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

I can't remember how many times so many of us said we should have just fuging kept Cam. He had one fuging year left on a CHEAPER DEAL. 

It was dumb then and it looks way, way, waaaaaaaaaaay dumber now.

Because Cam owned the locker room, even if he couldn't play anymore. A new coach can't come in and have a player running the place. Even on a good team like the Packers, a diva can create massive resistance. On a losing team, like we were/are that rift is massive.

Cam had to go, much like Smitty had to go to give Cam the leadership mantle.  

41 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

If you could get that off your books and onto some other idiots, wouldn't you?

43 minutes ago, t96 said:

Come on... That Alex Smith type hit has happened like twice in NFL history. Every player has this risk, do you think the Chiefs shouldn't have paid Mahomes because he could be "out of the game and you are still on the hook for him?" If we had 1st overall should we pass up Lawrence and trade down because "one hit could take him out of the game?" That's ridiculous. Going by that logic we should have try to have zero star players and try to build a team of 22 average or slightly above average players with good depth. That won't win you a SB. Don't even try to compare Matt fuging Kalil to an MVP caliber franchise QB who is 25 years old.

 

I prefer we try to get a rookie QB rather than pay a ton for Watson, but rarely does an opportunity come along to acquire an elite franchise QB this easily and many franchises wait decades for it (as we know all too well). If the team finds a deal they like and trades for Watson, I'm confident it'll be an outstanding move.

Those hits happen all the time. Teddy. Alex. Brady. Theisman. Cam. Luke. Delhomme. Really, in this game that's how most great players end their careers or end up as a shell of themselves. And then you're on the hook for those contracts. 

If we get Watson, I'll cheer him on. Not a problem. But there will always be the question if we'll be paying too much for him up and until that contract is over. There will also be the question of how bad that contract is going to hamstring the entire team over time.

Just let him get as many players in the draft and UDFA each season as possible and let him build.

What he wants to build here doesn't come in a bottle and you can't buy it. So let's quit talking about doing that. Let the man do his work.

If you hated the Matt Kalil signing, you're really going to regret this one AND the draft trade implications.

You mortgage your future drafts AND salary cap to get one player who is just one Alex Smith-type hit away from being out of the game ... and you are still on the hook for him. 

Fellas, if you just sit back and wait, Watson will start yelling louder about the trade, more teams will walk away with it and maybe Texas will be willing to trade straight up for Teddy just to get out from under the $82 million cap hit in 2022-2023 followed by another $37 million the next season. And there's no get out clause until 2025.

That contract makes a Hurney contract look like a genius did it. The Texans were hamstringed by a bad coach that needed that QB and he (as GM) literally sold the team out to keep him. And then he got fired.

Learning to move on from your own mistakes is something we all have to learn. Moving on from OTHER people's mistakes is vitally important! Just walk away from this train wreck. 

13 hours ago, frash.exe said:

while agreeing with most of what you said, how do you say the game isn’t rigged when these brokerages are literally prohibiting regular joes from buying GME on their apps... but they’re still able to sell it? if you can sell it, there has to be a buyer, but if you can’t buy it on robinhood, or any brokerage that apparently uses apex clearing, then there is some behind-the-scenes horse poo happening, bc somebody out there is not happy their hedge fund lost billions bc a bunch of internet trolls got wise to their bullshit, and has a lot of strings to pull at their disposal to put a clamp on the losses.

idk how long the chain of ball squeezing goes, but a small group of ppl in this world are squirreling away all the wealth to control for themselves and have been manipulating the markets with hedge funds and shorts for decades, whilst not producing or returning anything of value to the world. and i don’t think they’re centralized like a round table of villains with slicked back hair and eye patches, but their wealth addiction is bleeding the rest of our society dry. GME, a struggling corporation but still incorporated nonetheless, is like a hapless rag doll to these machines.

I agree totally with what you said. I wasn't completely aware of the Robinhood shutdown's impact and the ramifications behind it. Thanks for educating me!

3 hours ago, Mr. Scot said:

"The thing you see about Mac right off the bat, he’s a gamer. He’s got a great presence about him. He loves the moment, loves the competition. So there’s not much doubt that he has that quarterback swagger that you can feel when you’re on the field."

- Rhule talking about Mac Jones (The Athletic)

I've been calling Mac Jones for a while here. I still think he's the real prize out of this crop. Just not sure if he'll make it to the second round or if we'll trade back in the first and make a run at him then.

Edit to clarify: Not to trade back INTO the first to get him, but to trade back from 8 to like 15 in hopes he's still on the board. Get our guy and pick up some extra capital.

2 minutes ago, onmyown said:

Each to their own. I never understood people going to Myrtle. Dirty as hell, ugly beach as hell, rednecks galore, trashy.

 

K-Mart by the Sea.

Honestly, he's hoping that Rodgers does talk his way out of Title Town and that job opening pops up.

2 hours ago, KSpan said:

This is definitely a trip to the stock casino. At the moment though we're winning big and the house isn't happy about it.

The house always wins in the end. Vegas wasn't built on winners.

In all honesty, though, this is a good thing. A group of minor, wee minor, players got involved together to push the game in their favor and the big money players never saw it coming and didn't understand it when it did. Here's why it is good: Our system isn't rigged.

That's right, our system isn't rigged. It does, however, have a byzantine set of rules, opportunities and pitfalls that have come to be exploited by those who have the money to fund massive research not just in companies and investment vehicles, but to research the underlying math, laws and game theory (heck even chaos theory) to get every edge possible. They then have the funding at hand to make massive investments where their profits are just pennies per unit, but create ongoing profits. Those moves and manipulations use billions to make millions every day creating virtual money machines.

Moves like the Gamestop/AMC one can put a quake in the market. Nothing as financially devastating as the mortgage meltdown (and yeah, those big funds were the movers behind that), but something to make them take stock (no pun intended).

Shake 'em up. Run a couple of the bad ones into the ground. It's sometimes important to harpoon a whale or two.

No. Please no.

Stocks outside of buy and hold is just a big monetary game of hot potato. Sooner or later the music stops and you get burned. 

Maybe this is really a good thing to happen to the market.

16 hours ago, Paa Langfart said:

from what little online research I have done the kf94 and the kn95 masks are made in S Korea and China.  They really do not put a crimp in the ability of health care workers to get the N 95's.  The CDC also has info on their website about which masks they have tested andetc.  

 

International Assessment Results | NPPTL | NIOSH | CDC

I don't go hardly anywhere myself.  I do not go into stores unless absolutely necessary - I order everything online and groceries I get by online order - pick up in the parking lot.  But this past week I had to take a vehicle in for a long overdue oil change and pick up some supplies at the local Tractor Supply in the parking lot.  Friggin dumb asses going into the TS store maskless, store employees bringing my goods out maskless.  Then I had to go into the auto shop to pay for my vehicle - sign on the door said masks required, I go inside and of course the employees are NOT wearing masks.  Finally the guys at the liquor store are basically shoulder to shoulder out in the parking lot yucking it up with random customers ( everyone maskless of course ), then the abc employees pull up a useless gaiter mask when they re-enter the store I have to go inside in order to pay.   With the new more contagious strains I think it is time to up my protection level where I can.

We are our own worst enemies here in the US. 

5 hours ago, ericr0319 said:

Is 3 first rounders too much for Watson? Building through the draft is key because you keep high salaries off the books. 

 

Some fool will pay it, or close. Let's not be that fool.

11 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

I could live with that.

Don't think I've got a whole lot of company on that front though.

We often don't. 

12 minutes ago, Mage said:

Stafford is far closer to Carson Palmer when he was traded away from the Raiders than he is Cam Newton.

I don't want the Panthers to trade for Stafford unless the compensation was relatively low.  But make no mistake about it.  Stafford can still play this game.  Palmer played well until he was 38.  Anything can happen, obviously, but Stafford could certainly play until that age.  He'll always have one of the strongest arms in the game.  And he's always been mobile enough to move in the pocket.

LIS.  I don't really desire him in a trade.  But I'd be hype as hell for this offense if we got him.

And Palmer won what again? Carson Palmer is kind of like Dan Fouts or Philip Rivers... so much praise for him and his prowess, just a lack of wins and post season experience. Of course, there's Stafford fitting that mold.

He seems like a great guy and if he ends up here, I'll cheer for him, but I just honestly don't see the major upside and trajectory changing guy in him that others do.

Sticking with cloth, but staying out of the line of fire for the most part. Save the supply of the strong stuff for the frontline folks.

Bienemey has the shortest off-season of any HC candidate this year, last year and is near the shortest off-season for the year before. He runs the most innovative offensive system in the league and between he and Reid they work up multiple new crazy plays for each game.

The guy is prepping for his second Super Bowl in a row and considering the results so far, I'd think that planning for that was a bigger weight on his mind than prepping for an interview. 

Someone is going to see through that and snag him. Probably a team with a head coach retiring rather than a firing. Some team is going to start or continue a dynasty with Eric.

In teaching, there's this point after the school year ends that a portion of teachers get put into a big pool and moved on to different schools. Some want to go, some need to go, some need to be out of teaching, some are just headache employees. 

The reassignment of the teachers is called "The Dance of the Lemons" and some schools/principals get lucky and find a new gem. The rest are just hoping for someone who will do their job and show up. The rest just sit there are watch as the bottom end of the spectrum just gets dumped on them. But every one of those teachers will enter the dance with shining recommendations from their past principal as those prior employers want desperately for someone to snag them so they don't bounce back home.

I think this year's QB free agency is definitely a Dance of the Lemons episode. Perhaps we ought to stick with our picks and sit this one out.

3 hours ago, rippadonn said:

This is exactly how Cam should have been treated. This year would have been the swan song, heavy hearts many thanks, farewell, live thee well. Draft a new young QB. No fuss, no disrespect. Honor. Grace.

You know, honestly, I am beginning to see a worrisome parallel here. Two teams and two players trying to move along at a time when there's a change of coaching and leadership. And while Cam had been out and injured for almost the entire year, Stafford was reeling from three different injuries in 2020, even though he never missed an entire game.

I'm beginning to feel that maybe there's something bad under the hood when it comes to Mr. Stafford on the used car lot that is the NFL offseason. And a lot like Cam, he could have some injuries that would spell the end of his career there if he can't find someone to take him on.

I'm getting lots of "Buyer Beware" vibes on the whole thing. 

And no, we didn't need Cam's last ride to be here. Seeing how bad off he was in New England, he really should have hung it up and remained better in people's minds. That old line of "there's nothing sadder than a hero who doesn't know when it is time to hang it up" seems to apply.

I love Cam, but this game is hard on players and almost no one gets to ride the train for as long as they want to. Ask Luke.