mav1234

I agree, tho some of that is my faith in our young weapons. I really wish we'd feature Coker like we tried to with Legette last week. I think he's something special. Limited snaps makes it hard to judge but his stats are pretty ridiculous for what little usage he's had (his yards per target is top ten in the league)

The source of that was posted just a few posts before yours. See https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-qb-index-week-18-2024-nfl-season

We're pretty much on the same page on the offense. And I think we'd have similar overall opinions, just slightly different takes. Hopefully we do get some depth and another decent receiving target, without once again sacrificing resources that are sorely needed by the defense. I just think we're more likely to find a better RB option in the draft and D options in FA, along with heavily investing in D in the draft. We do need some veteran presence basically, we're in a rough spot there.

I don't think this is fair to Coker or Sanders re: not being trusted. And YAC is not just about the receivers, but scheme and QB play. Young's balls are slow to arrive which makes YAC difficult on longer passes unless coverage is broken, as safeties/DBs in zone can close quickly. And our depth of target is much deeper than the Patriots by scheme. Their top WR yardage wise's average depth of target is 5.8 yards; Thielen's is 11.3... Coker and Legette are both 12+. The Patriots main receiver with a depth of target behind 10 yards has basically as many YAC as Legette and a similarish YAC/R (2.1 vs 3.3). Their other guy, a rotational player, has a YAC/R of 1.1; so deeper throws, less YAC. Our screen game blows, which limits YAC opportunities there, and is more about imo coaching and play calling as our line is talented and our receivers are decent blockers. Despite this, Sanders, Coker have more YAC/R than any of the main TEs/WRs on the Patriots. We have to find ways to get them involved. Long story short: imo a lot of the YAC stuff is not on the WRs, but we have some talent there and need to get those guys more involved.

Hahaha man. There are a lot of backups below him on that list, but this comment about Drake Maye's loss of 3 places is hilarious: "Maye led one quality scoring drive, which ended in a touchdown pass to Demario Douglas, but the Patriots can burn the rest of this tape -- and that's not Maye's fault." I'm glad we finally have a QB the media is fawning over haha

Given we know FA is more costly than the draft, why do you suggest going offense in FA vs defense? We need starters and later round picks (imo after the 2nd/3rd) are unlikely to be starters, but are good depth - which is our need for RBs. I'm not suggesting our first or second or something go to a RB, but I'd rather we invest in D on decent, known players (aka FA, tho avoiding some of the expensive edge players) than use 4th round picks hoping for a starter.

Ehhh the Purdy comparison isn't great... Bryce is more athletic, and Purdy is substantially more accurate than Bryce Young. Young has the second highest percentage of bad throws (23.1%) and 6th lowest percent of on target throws (71.7%). Purdy is 12th lowest in bad throws (14.1%), and 23rd for on target throws (78.4%). He's between Herbert, Goff, and Carr in bad throw %. Young and Purdy have both had receivers with a decent number of drops (4.6% and 4.3%) this year too.

The Patriots do not have better receivers... Hunter Henry is a decent player but Thielen is significantly better than anyone on that roster. Coker is probably their #1 haha. They even have their own version of XL's drops, but that guy is in his 2nd year which is arguably more concerning. Also bullshit on not trying to make a big play. Thielen plays his heart out, makes one hand grabs left and right... Sanders had a crazy scary injury from going all out.. Coker is a promising UDFA that yes, has made some mistakes, but works really hard. Edit: Coker is a half yard per game behind Hunter in production and Thielen is 20 yards ahead of him. Nobody on the Patriots is within ~10 yards of Hunter. Legette has more TDs than any receiving option they have...

Why not spend that 2mil in FA on defensive depth...?

So... Sign a player drafted... Rather than drafting someone?

After OSU lost to Michigan I wondered if they were overrated, too - turns out the B1G or whatever is just good.

I always knew I sucked at judging college sports teams strengths but if this ND game holds I'm just done even pretending to guess how games are going to turn out.

RB is a position where you're expected to have more than one player taking snaps. QB is not.

At least it isn't a blow out...

Thielen last year and this year would have been the best or 2nd best WR on the team most of those years. Cam and Thielen would have done very well together imo, similar to how Cam and Olsen had that chemistry. Overall those Panthers teams were SO much more talented in skill positions. But imo this OL is leagues better than the vast majority of years.

Cam did not have good weapons consistently, but he had a few reliable players early on. Many of those dudes you mentioned are absolutely worse than Thielen and I'd take Legette over LaFell honestly.... Anyway, Bryce needs someone other than Thielen, but all these offense comparisons always leave out the OL... Where imo this team is much stronger than virtually any time when Cam was QB.

Cut a rookie on IR? That doesn't make much sense. He showed brief flashes, why move on now?

Overall I agree but Chuba will probably be outside the top 10 at his position by the end of the offseason, and his contract is not unreasonable and I think he played himself into it. We do need to go get another back in the draft quite probably. We can't count on JB ever coming back, really, and if he does and excels, we'd be in a good position anyway.

Good points. The Lions went from averaging about ~19 points given up per game midway thru the year to more than 30 over the last 4 games. Some of that is the offenses they've faced (Bills, 49ers with Purdy, Green Bay), but still, the injuries are very clearly impacting their D... They have like 15 players from their D on IR, and now they're playing a buncha JAGs and below - just like us. I'd say Evero's D has come up on some big possessions when games have been close. Where the D has been blown out, it is usually because the offense has really, really sputtered. Until that final drive of the game, they'd held the Chiefs decently well. They contained TB the first time and PHI the week after; we win both those games if not for offensive miscues. Overall I think Evero's defense this year wasn't as bad as the stats will indicate, but it ultimately may be bad enough to cost him his job... We'll see.

Or at very least you need to be always prepping backups because injuries happen, and very few rushing offenses these days are just one back. Even on PHI and BAL, where the QB is really the #2 rushing threat, there is still a RB averaging ~4-5 ypc as a change of pace option.

Not to mention, we have one of the better OLs and RBs (well when he's healthy) in the game. I don't think our supporting cast is as bad as some make it out to be. Receiving in specific is weak, but for most of the year, so was the QB throwing them the ball...

I think that's true, and it's fine to point out how he's made some critical plays. But overall imo he's still not quite putting together the consistent high level play within and between games a lot of us want to see out of a QB (he's had stretches, which is promising). That's why the need to subset Bryce's games to ever smaller subsets (the last 2 games in this conversation) to prove how good he is / his place in the league becomes silly I think.

Wow.

Looks like OSU's offense came to play, damn.

What do you think it has to do with, if not AT?