Jay Roosevelt

Zero reason Ransom shouldn't be starting, but I fully expect them to trot out Nick Scott.

They shouldn't. Coker is a legit #2 WR and should get those targets.

A considerable turn for the worst? Seriously? How do you figure? He played very well and only missed one game due to his knee. And he likely would have played that one had we still been in the playoff hunt. I'm sorry, but you're reaching here.

You do know that most NFL players have to manage chronic wear-and-tear-related injuries once they get into their late 20s, right? This isn't unusual. There's a difference between long-term management and dealing with a major injury. Do you think they'd have paid him this much if they hadn't had the knee thoroughly examined and were comfortable with what they found? Honestly?

Yeah, I think you are. In terms of how professional athletes think about these things another contract and years of play are basically the same thing. And I'm not saying it's not a concern; just that I don't think we decide to extend him without thoroughly examining his knee and having confidence it wouldn't be a major issue for the life of the contract.

Oh, I gotcha. I mean, for once we appear to actually have some viable depth on the OL. So I'm not going to freak out too much over that.

And yet he played and played well. I'm reasonably positive they're comfortable with his knee situation if they decided to extend him. I can understand if we signed him for 5-6 years, but it's a 2-year extension. We have plenty of things on this team to be legitimately worried about; Taylor Moton is not one of them.

I don't see any reason to think he doesn't have 2 more good years left. I think the knee issue has been overblown. My only question is why we didn't do this in February or March. We could have used the extra cap space to sign more help on defense.

The only reason I'd be open to this is because I feel like Hunter Renfrow can play the same role that Thielen has the last couple years. But I certainly wouldn't ship him off for a late round pick or anything. He's far more valuable to us than that.

Oh, from a betting POV so would I. That's where the value would be. But from a real world on-field POV, I think 7 wins is only slightly more likely than 9.

What's wrong with Damien Lewis? He played pretty well last year.

I'll say 6/10. I don't know that we learned a whole lot about this team during preseason that we didn't already know. We didn't play the starters enough to really get a feel for what to expect. We had one good drive against the Browns, one 3-and-out and two 3-and-outs against the Texans. That's an extremely small sample size across 3 games regardless of performance. My camp/preseason takeaways: Jalen Coker might be the best WR on this team and is certainly no worse than #2. Nic Scourton is going to be a good player for us. Possibly very good. Bobby Brown was our best free agent addition. Jack Plummer isn't an NFL QB. Not even a practice squad guy. Having anyone other than Canales and Evero call plays was a really stupid and pointless idea. Our depth is largely non-existent, especially on defense. The three areas we actually DO have depth are on the OL, in the WR corp. and at RB. I can't fathom why Dan Morgan didn't do more to upgrade ILB during the offseason. We better hope Lathan Ransom steps up at FS because if he doesn't we have a massive hole. For all the hype surrounding Sanders/Evans, Tommy Tremble is still the best TE on the roster. I'm only slightly less enthusiastic going into the regular season than I was a month ago. I think our starters on offense are solid and we should be pretty good there unless Bryce totally regresses. On defense, we're probably bottom 3rd in the league if 100% healthy and significantly worse than that if injuries become an issue. We badly need at least two of our rookies to become high-level players early (ideally one of the pass rushers + Ransom) and at least 2 of our free agent additions (ideally Moehrig + Bobby Brown) to be significant upgrades over last year. Call me pessimistically optimistic

This. Plummer is hot garbage.

The reality will likely be somewhere in between. I don't expect we'll blow the doors off the NFL this year, but I don't think we'll be trash either. I see 7-9 wins.

I mean, for a late round pick it's fine but he's not very good. I don't know what he'd really bring to the table, TBH. If Evero didn't really have a spot for Jeremy Chinn (who I maintain has always been massively overrated by the Huddle) I don't see why he'd have a spot for Duggar.

I think it's more a lack of leadership than anything. Canales isn't a motivator; that was never the type of coach he was going to be. But when that's the case, you need a handful of those personalities on the team that can motivate the others. Not sure I see that many of those guys right now.

What happened to Sanders? It's like that injury against KC knocked him into a prolonged slump. Just hasn't been the same player since then.

I'd love to have Hendrickson, but a guy at his age isn't worth giving up what they appear to be asking. A 2nd-3rd round pick at least makes sense. Anything more is too much. If he was 5-6 years younger, sure. But at 31 and demanding a huge contract? Pass.

I had a collapsed lung after surgery a couple years ago. It's no fun, but he shouldn't miss a ton of time. The biggest thing might be getting his conditioning back once he's cleared to play.

I'm willing to give Evero some leeway given the lack of talent he has to work with. But I do tend to agree that the 4-3 would be preferable to his 3-4 scheme.

The only cool XL story I want to hear is about him catching the football and producing on the field.

The Colts might be debatable, but the Giants? Have you seen that roster? It's easily worse than ours.

Trying to shoehorn XL into a starting role when Coker is clearly our best option as WR2 is only going to end badly for XL. The best way forward is to let him develop at his own pace and play a specific role in the offense - deep threat, for example - rather than putting him in as the starter over clearly superior players. Right now XL is at BEST our 4th best WR, likely our 5th best (behind TMac, Coker, Thielen and Renfrow) and may even be end up being behind Jimmy Horn by season's end. Not Dan Morgan's best work, that pick. But trying to force it will only make things worse.

No way do we have the 32nd ranked roster. Not in a league where the Saints, Colts and Giants exist.

This. There just aren't any realistic options we can add at this point. Best we can hope for is for Trevin Wallace has a breakout year. And even then we're likely going to have to add another starter in the offseason.