BrianS

I disagree here. Mingo has been showing slow progress over the year. Receivers can tend to take time to mature into the NFL. Mingo has been playing like a rookie. That's ok. The problem is our staff were needing him to be an impact rookie this year, and he's not. We should be using him as a slot matchup nightmare, and we're still trying to make him an X or Y. Our receiver problem this year is largely self inflicted. We needed more speed and we didn't do enough to bring that in. Sure, we brought in Chark who was supposed to take the top off for us . . . but he's got a history of injuries - surprise! - he's been injured most of the year. We brought in Damiere Byrd . . . and released him. We had Shi Smith . . . and waived him. I mean . . . that's just about as self inflicted as you can get. I'm not saying Byrd or Shi would have solved the problem, but it couldn't hurt to have that kind of speed on the field. Certainly moreso than what we have now.

It's a problem that may not have a solution. The staff seem absolutely terrified of putting BY under center for snaps. That's one of those things that really needs to be looked at. Having him in the gun or pistol for every play makes us entirely too predictable. It's clear we aren't going to run him, so the read option that made Cam such a terror isn't going to happen. He needs to take snaps under center so we can open up some power running game that we currently don't have. Then you get to our pass game. It's a mess. Our personnel on the perimeter are not good, but our staff isn't helping. How many times have we run something like a mesh concept to create stress on a defense? I didn't see us run a single one last night. We keep putting all our perimeter players on an island, telling them to win and then we act surprised when they don't. What about our personnel groupings? We employ some ludicrous number of TE's . . . but how many 2 TE sets have we run? Not enough. 2 TE sets are great for a power running scheme, and we have the roster for it, but we don't utilize it? I don't understand. All last night I kept thinking to myself: How much better would our offense look if CMC were in the backfield and DJ Moore on the perimeter? Yes, we would have moved Burns to Chicago . . . so what? Maybe we don't have Mingo. Again, so what? Our front office created an impossible situation. We have a guy who MIGHT be a good QB (or might not) - but we don't have the scheme or weapons to find out nor do we have the draft capital to fix it.

I think you neatly summed up everything wrong with Tepper's stewardship. You can't have a non-football person making football decisions like that. You hire a real grown up, experienced leader to run the team - and you definitely don't hire your wife who has absolutely no experience. You've got to ditch Fitts now - regardless of whether it's his fault or not. I fully concede it may not be, given the Rhule era and Tepper being in charge. I don't know if Fitts is at fault, but it's very clearly a roster devoid of the requisite talent. I think you have to chase Samir Sulieman out as well. Our guy who is supposed to keep our cap in control continues to kick the can down the road and limit our options in the future. Tepper is a huge part of the problem. But it will be years before it's fixed, because we've already mortgaged our future. That assuming Tepper can hire people to run the Panthers and then just get out of the way. I'm not sure he can.

That's not what I said, at all. What I said, exactly, was "Here are the top 25 catchers this year. Draft round has little to do with success, except that the first round is better at every position". If you want to talk about flawed, your way certainly seems more flawed to me. Looking at draft success over five years eliminates a massive chunk of successful NFL receivers from your view. Good receivers have 10 year careers. Good receivers can also be TE's. It's universally true that the more you limit the pool of data, the less likely your statistics are representative. The larger the pool, the more likely your statistics are representative. I suppose that I could have looked at the all time most successful list and pulled data from that. What would that look like? I don't know, I'm not interested.

I don't think it's got anything to do with the team. This was her first "real" job - no idea how she was even qualified for it given her work history. Nevertheless, she was hired and after a year and a half on the job realized the the time required to be a writer for an NFL team was more than she wanted in her life. She said as much in the tweet. Nothing wrong with that from her, nor does it reflect on the team except to say that perhaps they should hire someone with a bit more experience in the field who understands the commitment required.

I'm not as convinced we need a first round pick to find a good ball catcher. Here are the top 25 receivers (TE's included) by yardage this year, and the round they were drafted in: Yes, there are 11 first rounders in there, but if you look at highly successful NFL players at ANY position, you'll see something like that. First round picks generally succeed at a higher rate than other rounds. What is incontrovertibly true is that we must draft better in the first four rounds. At all positions. Our first four rounds need to be wins, every year.

Scheme is a flea on the back of the monster. Bryce's problems are coming from weak mechanics, especially waist down. This is not a problem he showed in college. Anyone can go out and find his film from this year. Do so. Watch him from the waist down. Any game this season. What I see is a guy who is moving very slowly and tentatively. He is NEVER set with a good base to throw from. When he gets to the top of his drop, he starts to look very twitchy. These are deadly problems to a guy who doesn't have a great arm. Now, conversely, go watch the film below. Watch his feet. Purposeful, concise, solid. He OFTEN throws with an excellent base and subsequently is able to make the most of his arm. Several solid downfield throws. Particularly watch the velocity of the ball when he sets with good base. The only thing we don't know is WHY his mechanics have devolved to this point. Is he thinking too much? Possibly. Is he having trouble seeing downfield? Possibly. Does he have trust issues with his line? Possibly. The most likely situation is that it's combination of all three. I can safely and surely say that until these mechanical problems are fixed, he will never be a consistently good NFL QB. Scheme won't matter. Good NFL QB's have consistent, repeatable, solid mechanics in the pocket. Even the "creators" like Mahomes plays with a good base from the pocket. ESPECIALLY guys like Tua who don't have the biggest arm. Watch his footwork and base. Nice solid base, allows him to make the most of his arm. When Tua comes up short on downfield passes, it's nearly always his base that lets him down.

I could make a very good argument that Dalton could win games with our scheme this year. The more I watch the tape, the more concerned I am about BY.

If Bryce were throwing these interceptions on 18 yard patterns where he just hadn't learned how quickly NFL DB's close, no one would be complaining a bit. That's what NFL rookie QB's have to do. They have to learn the speed of the game. Our rookie isn't trying to make those plays. Forget about the separation argument. There is 9 inches difference between our receivers average separation and the NFL average. Throw the ball. His two pick six interceptions this week were throws within 3 yards of the LOS. Terrible. We want to blame the line, and there is some blame there. But some of that blame MUST fall on Bryce as well. Watch his footwork as he drops. He's is very, very lazy - slow - dropping back. Yes, his eyes are downfield, and that's great, but he takes FOREVER to set his feet to throw. What he sees isn't important if he isn't ready to throw it. Windows open and close very quickly. As a QB with an "average" arm footwork is even MORE important for BY. He's got to get set in order to maximize what arm he has.

Actually, bringing up Burrow brings up a great point. In Burrow's first two seasons, he was sacked on 7.3 and 8.9 percent of his dropbacks. Were people making excuses for Burrow because of his OL? No, that's silly. People WERE saying that if the Bengals don't get him some linemen he won't survive. But his performances were . . . well, Joe Burrow. Bryce is currently being sacked at a rate of 9.4 percent of his dropbacks. It's honestly not that different from what Burrow had when he came into the league. Look at Desmond Ridder if you want a comparison. He's being sacked at a rate of 9.4 percent of his dropbacks - just like Bryce. What's his status now? Oh, right. Benched in favor of former Panther Taylor Heinicke. Interestingly, with Heinicke at QB, the same line that was giving up sacks at a rate of 9.4 percent is now giving up sacks at a rate of 3.5 percent. What's the difference? Likely that Heinicke just processes faster than Ridder and gets the ball out. Can someone remind me again what Bryce's greatest strength was supposed to be? Bryce is our guy. He's got at least another year. I want him to succeed. But the reality is that it doesn't currently look good. Hopefully, instead of making excuses someone on Mint Street is making a plan.

The comparison is a little unfair . . . to TB5. TB's rookie year BY's year so far Somehow, TB5 had more yards per attempt, air yards per attempt and yards per completion his rookie year. Bryce has another year, so we'll see how it goes, but it's not promising so far.

Good QB's make the easy plays. Great QB's make the easy plays look easy; then they make tough plays happen. Young may be a good NFL QB in a couple years. Stroud is really good, right now. In a couple years, he may be GREAT.

Fun fact: Mike Wahle and James Campen were teammates in Green Bay.

Believe it or not, he has taken offensive snaps.

One play in one game doesn't change the arm strength argument. Just like one game doesn't suddenly make Young a franchise QB. It's a start. We're all happy to see it. Similarly, one game doesn't suddenly make us playoff contenders. We're happy to see the win, but there is a long, long road between where we are and becoming a consistent contender. Enjoy the win, and hope that we build from there. This is the way.

Ok, PFF has no freaking clue. Their stats don't even line up with . . . anything. (I'm not calling out the OP here - just PFF who remain crazy) Love to know how they measure that. His completion percentage is 63.2%, which is good for 23rd in the league. His on target percentage is 73% - good for 23rd among QB's with at least 50 attempts. His bad throw percentage is 20.9%, good for 31st (again, QB's with at least 50 attempts). He is 33rd in drops - he's only had three passes dropped all year. Keep seeing this dragged around, and it's just an excuse. I worked it out a week or so ago. Our receivers on average have 9 inches less separation than the overall NFL average. It's not ideal, but it's just not that far off. Of course you'd like to see your receivers running Travis Kelce open, but that's ALSO not anywhere near the NFL average. There is a bit of a point here, however, there's more to the story. 100% agree, Sanders has been eleventy kinds of awful this year. The real story however is that our defense isn't keeping the games close enough for a run game to really take root. We are next to last in points surrendered per game. It's very hard to run the ball when you are down multiple scores. I really despise superficial reporting. I wish someone would take the time to do real analysis. C'est la vie.

Unlike Bosa WHO IS the guy you build your line around. Thanks for making my point.

No one wants to hear about what Bryce did in college. All that does is earn you a shot in the NFL. THAT'S ALL. Bryce has his shot. Wins and losses this year? I don't care. What I want to see is some promise. I haven't given up. But he isn't making plays. He's just managing games - kinda. In this way he's miles ahead of guys like Trey Lance and Zach Wilson. But we need more. Even if it's just flashes. We need to see him do SOME things that look like a first overall draft pick - things other QB's don't do. Show me SPECIAL, not something I can go to 10+ other games and see.

Burns isn't Bosa and shouldn't be asking for that kind of money. Here, this is a quick table comparing the two. The line labeled Bosa (ex) is extrapolating the numbers Bosa should have when he catches up in snaps to Burns. Burns has most of a season on Bosa due to Bosa's injury in 2020 costing him nearly the entire year. Their tackle numbers look really similar, but in terms of Pressure, TFL's, Sacks . . . . Bosa is just a much, much better player. It's what people on the Huddle here keep trying to say. Yes, Burns plays and does things, but Bosa impacts games. All of the impact stats are HEAVILY in his favor. Burns doesn't make the plays that alter the games. Burns is REALLY GOOD. I'm not arguing that. I'm simply pointing out that he isn't in the same stratosphere as Bosa, and shouldn't be looking for that kind of money. It seems that the smartest thing we could have done last spring is included Burns in the deal with Chicago. We'd have still had a good WR in DJ, we wouldn't have his dead cap and we wouldn't have the headache of Burns right now.

We focus so much on Bryce and the offense because of what we gave up and who our coach is, that we sometimes lose sight of the big picture. Bryce deserves some criticism, he also deserves some time to figure it out. So far it doesn't look good, but he's here for at least this season and next, so we must continue to hope he figures it out. HOWEVER. Here is the piece we keep missing: We are one of the worst teams in the league at preventing points. We have a rookie QB who is going to make mistakes and generally be less effective - witness Andy Dalton. In that case, we need our defense to REALLY stand up and be accounted for. And ours is doing just the opposite. Some of that we should have expected. The coaches and team say all the right things about having the personnel they need to implement a 3-4. But the truth is when you switch systems like that, you're going to have problems until you get guys who are adept at playing that system. Oh, and let's not for get this: Three defensive starters on IR, as well as a couple rotational pieces. That's a big deal.

No, he's not. That's part of his problem. Young is a "playmaker", off schedule, out of structure point guard. Go back and look at all the draft profiles. What's happening now is that he's no longer athletic enough to create consistently. He's having to become more accustomed to throwing with anticipation and he's not there yet. In the NFL, you have to make the defense scared of your ability to play from the pocket. No one is scared of Bryce Young playing from the pocket. Stats bear this out; Young is one of the least blitzed QB's in the league - as a rookie! Hopefully he puts it together. His best chance to become "that guy" is to start beating teams from the pocket. That brings more blitzes. Then - hopefully - his chances to become that guy he was in college will show back up.

Irrelevant. What other teams value him as would be far more important in this equation. However, as I said in the other thread, we aren't trading him. Our depth is terrible and you can't tell your team six games in that you're giving up on the season.

I would trade Burns if there were two picks. A 1st this year and a 3rd next year or a 2nd this year and a 1st next year. Perhaps I'd trade Burns for a 1st and a player. After the season, I non-exclusive tag him. Let him go find a contract. If Burns is really "that guy", then someone should be willing to give him a contract and I get my two 1st rounders. If they don't, I tag him and keep tagging him until / unless he suddenly comes to his senses and realizes he's Mike Rucker and not Joey Bosa.

Let him stay where he is this year. He won't make a difference for us this year, and he won't be playing on his current contract next year anyway. His salary goes from 16 million this year to 35 million next year. No way the Raiders swallow that. They save 36 million on their cap next year by designating him post 6/1. Only QB's are worth that money - even as good as he is.

Our biggest hope next season is the dead cap that goes away. We have 55 million in dead cap that should go away unless sheer stupidity strikes and we start cutting / trading expensive assets again. Between that 55 million in dead cap, and another 29 million on IR, 35% of our cap this year is spent on players who aren't playing for us. That's too much to be competitive when the difference between winning and losing is so small. I'm actually a little surprised Sumir Sulieman hasn't been thrown under the bus yet. He's supposed to be our cap expert and frankly our cap has been a nightmare for years now. We keep looking at it during the season thinking "Oh, it's gonna look great next offseason" and yet we get to every offseason and it's still a mess.