ForJimmy

I think at the end of the year we saw Bryce getting comfortable in DC's offense and his weapons were getting open at a decent rate. Suddenly his deep ball looks decent. His rookie year appeared to have ruined some of his confidence and with that went mechanics and decision making. I personally feel like the no deep ball talk was put to rest as he was literally completing deep passes. PFF ranked him as one of the better deep ball passers in the later half of the season. Again this shows me that the scheme and the weapons play a major factor in the deep ball. To be clear, I'm not saying he has a cannon or that he will be our franchise QB. I'm simply saying he has all the tools to succeed in this offense. It's more like a no excuses and I expect a certain level of production from our offense. If that doesn't happen then we will have some big decisions to make this offseason.

I can see where you are coming from, but the real good QBs are more cerebral. They just go through progressions based on the plays called. Sure some will force the deep pass when they probably shouldn't and the great WRs will bail them out. To me if a QB is good they are going through the reads and if the deep shot makes the most since with a safety gambling in the box then you take it, if they are leaving the check down wide open, then you take it. Mahomes for example is labeled a deep shot QB, but she loves the check downs. He has mastered taking what the defense gives him. A lot of the highlight plays are when they are needing a comeback and he is forced to throw these deeper passes. It also depends on the offense they are in West Coast QBs aren't going to force deep passes as much by design.

If the other starter is Scott, he should not feel good about it....

The Stroud pill is still a bitter one to swallow. I'd be lying if I don't think in the back of my mind what Stroud could be doing with these weapons we are acquiring. I know it would look totally different because we could have a different staff and draft positioning if he was our QB, but still...

I believe that deep passes fall under the WR more than the QB. Most QBs can loft it 30-40 yards (even the ones with lesser arms). Sure you have the Allen, and Mahomes with absolute cannons, but they show it off more with off balance passes than they do throwing 50-60 yard bombs. Tua is the classic example who magically got a deep ball once Hill and Waddle got paired together. You mentioning Brees really hitting another level with a big bodied WR who can go up and get jump balls helps confirm my belief. I feel like Canales has a similar belief since he drafted big bodied WRs in back to back drafts. His offense likes to run and chunk the ball and the best way to get better at "chunking" the ball is to have some big outside WRs that can go up and get it. DK in Seattle, Evans in Tampa were both staples in his offense.

I think part of it is the pedigree too. Playing for Georgia or Alabama is going to raise your draft position a bit as well.

Let’s be honest. He would be on IR if he was a Panther.

Ladd's other two years were 500 total scrimmage yards one with 3 TDs and one with 6. This issue he had was battling some injuries which again is another risk with his size playing at the next level. People want to pretend like Ladd was a sure thing to dunk on XL, but there was a reason Ladd fell to the 2nd round.

Ladd only had one year of good college production (2022).

That’s nice to name her after your father.

I was referring to his PFF grade of 32.8

At least he has tape of playing well in the later half of last season.

Preseason week 1, a new defense, limited snaps so I can understand being a little shaky. We just absolutely need him to be a contributor this year.

Wharton’s was pretty bad and we paid a premium for him. He has to play better.

Player performances would definitely be a good thing to look at. Special teams also lets us know our depth is bad but we all already knew that. I don’t think anyone is expecting us to be great this year. The hope is they can build on how they finished last year and get some more wins.

Someone has done a pretty in depth analysis on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/s/cLRbUjn68k Spoiler alert, there is no correlation between preseason performance and regular season performances. From the Rams going 0-3 and winning the Super Bowl to the Browns and Lions going winless after going 4-0. Fans want to bring up a correlation specifically with our team and ignore how it has none on the whole NFL. You are looking at different staffs and rosters over the years as well so any correlation would just be a coincidence. From the Reddit post “In conclusion, the preseason is many things. A battle for roster spots, a reprieve for NFL fans starving for games, a chance to see your team’s draft picks in action. But one thing it is definitely not is a crystal ball for the future of a team at large. Enjoy the preseason for what it is, but take it with a grain of salt, especially if your team doesn’t give its main QB any preseason snaps. The only fair conclusion might be that if your stating QB plays in the preseason and you have a double-digit point deficit, that may not be a good sign for postseason hopes. This may be statistical noise however, as we’ve only had one year of a three-week preseason, and thus a small sample size to draw from.”

Sucks that it won’t count as a record because it’s not an actual regular season game. Guy has a leg on him for sure.

Yes the whole conversation is becoming cyclical. Let’s do it again next year.

Preseason has become too different of an animal to compare it to the old 4 game schedule. It’s no longer starters vs starters and depth vs depth based on when the games are played. We clearly have things we need to clean up, special teams comes to mind but we didn’t even have DC calling plays. I want to see our offense get some Reid with XL, and TMac out there together and we need better LB and safety play.

CamWhoaCam is so happy right now

It would be good for the league if he is.

Yeah it makes sense because our depth is pretty bad still. Hopefully some young guys can step up in preseason and earn a spot.

Look it will be either good, bad, or mediocre for sure.

My prediction is Sanders won’t do much against our starters but will look good against our lack of depth. The media will highlight his plays vs our 3rd stringers.

Our WR room should look much better and spending back to back 1st round picks on them with one being in the top 10. It's nice to have some potential young stars on offense again.