BrianS

No, in fact, this is the opposite of what people said last offseason. Last offseason we were saying there hasn't been such a promising group of QB's in a long, long time.

Not sure Minshew is the guy we should be chasing, but I also don't think it's fair to classify the guy as a "reject" either. His first two years in Jacksonville he was the only QB to win a game there. They tried other QB's, but Minshew was the only one who won. His stats looked fine as well. I definitely would take Minshew over Love. Love has flop written all over him.

Bear in mind, Ioannidis was a DE in Washington the two years he put up his best numbers. We may move him around based on down / distance.

No, I think that may actually be the point. We don't know that Rhule still has full control. There are signs here that he may not. FA thus far looks different than what it has the last couple years. It would be nice if someone would clarify that, but I won't hold my breath.

Average plus a sprinkle of luck and you have a winning season. Right now that sounds amazing.

If the roster is not made for the playoffs, Matt Rhule has to own that. He had complete roster control up until now. He has no excuses. There is a huge difference between being a legit playoff contender and being a Super Bowl team. The difference: a franchise QB. We can get to the playoffs without one. We can win a lot of games without one. We can become a perennial winner without one. I could stand a few straight winning seasons around here even if it becomes obvious we aren't getting to the big dance. Doing all of those things will make this place a much more attractive destination for players. They'll want to play in a place where they can win. Where the weather isn't crap. Where the media isn't constantly on them. Charlotte has a lot of advantages baked in. What we don't have is a good team. It will be obvious when we need to swing for the fences on a franchise QB. Chiefs and Rams figured it out. We can too. But first we need to be a good team, year in, year out. And if a franchise QB falls in our laps, all the better.

I would like to see what they do with Rhule out of the picture. With Rhule still in the building it's very difficult to tell who is responsible. Ideally, I'd like that team to have heavy involvement in bringing in the next coach.

No, this is smart. The older a player is, the shorter contract you should be giving them. Ioannidis isn't "old" by any means, but not young. He'll be 28 when the season starts. The guy is betting on himself here. He missed most of 2020, and only started six games last year despite playing in 16. His "big" years were playing as a DE, and Rivera has him at DT. It's different than Reddick in that (we hope) there aren't a bunch of void years that kick it down the road.

The NBA is a very, very different game. One player can easily make a much bigger impact there.

There is no way the Iggles are giving up Minshew for a reasonable price. They clearly don't have much faith in Hurts, and Minshew is a cheap backup. I wouldn't be at all shocked if Minshew has nearly as many snaps as Hurts this next season.

Just another example of an NFL trend: we'd rather accept lower odds high ceiling / low floor guy than bring in a guy with a lower ceiling / higher floor. It's one of the reasons the NFL is having the QB crisis that it is. We've started looking at Kirk Cousins, David Carr, etc as stat padders, failures, not good enough. It's the wrong way to look at it. Consistent, winning franchises don't necessarily need Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Patrick Mahomes to compete. A lot of this has to do with playing in the Tom Brady era. A lot of teams got stopped short by Brady. Not just in the Super Bowl, but in the playoffs. Since 2001, there have only been seven seasons where Brady didn't knock at least one team - if not more - out. Overall, Brady has knocked 30 teams out. Never before has a QB so dramatically affected the outcome of the league for such a long period of time. This is what teams are trying to fight. They need someone who can beat the GOAT if called upon. QB play overall has suffered because teams are trying to hit home runs instead of getting on base.

Would YOU want to play the Browns with Watson at QB? Baker got them to 11-5 year before last and won a playoff game.

That's not QUITE true. Rhule doesn't like veterans . . . except HIS veterans. Nothing else could explain the OLine situation as it relates to Brown and Christiansen this year.

I'd go one step further and say that no player on a team can take up more than "some agreed percentage" of the cap. Something between 10 and 15 seems like a place to start. I don't think this is likely to happen until someone really starts to do the math and figure it out. Getting back to the OP, I think it would probably be better to look at not just winning the SB, but getting to the SB. It's been a bad playing field since Brady has been in the league. Have higher priced QB's made it to the SB and lost? Because the Brady era will end - eventually. And he definitely took less through the prime of his career than his place in the QB rankings might indicate he should have.

He has the versatility that Rhule loves. Sounds like it's a done deal! bleh.

I'd be interested in how many other NFL coaches "liked" this. That would probably give us some indication of whether we should be appalled or apathetic.

That would be the end for me. Bring Watson. Fine. But letting the players choose the coach is far too far. If that was our choice Riverboat should still be here, because by all reports the players absolutely love him.

Campen will make the line better. No doubt. Would still be a shock if they were "good". The big issue is we got through last year without giving adequate time to two draft picks. We still aren't sure what their ceiling is. Maybe they already hit their ceiling and Campen won't help. Maybe they have room to get better. This proposal says we go into the year with two unknowns and a FA. We just can't know anything there. I think we'll look better offensively this year with actual NFL coaches on that side of the ball. Though it's becoming questionable whether Brady was really the issue.

This is exactly my concern. Watson is a great QB, not even debatable. But there is no way we give up talent plus draft picks for him and still find a way to support him.

I mean, I get it if the reports about a blowup between Dak and Amari are true. Dak may or may not be "the guy". But there are WAY more good WR's than good QB's. There is no way Cooper comes out on top. None. Terrell Owens was far more dominant in his time. Didn't support his QB. Gone. Released. No compensation at all. I don't think this hurts the overall WR market. It's just an example of players not understanding that one of the things you can't do is turn on your QB.

Draft class with current picks is estimated at about 6.5 million. Could go up or down depending on what we do with those picks. Most likely down.

To me, Campen is a no lose situation. Seems pretty obvious that the players will be largely the same ones who ended last year. We might get some help, but don't expect it to be a lot. If he comes in and turns the line around, there is no one else to steal his thunder. It will be VERY clear that he did it. His reputation improves. If he comes in and there is no change, you can't blame him. The entire team is a mess, the line moreso than the rest. One of the best OLine coaches in the league couldn't fix it. That's an indictment of Rhule and the front office. We can't lose with this guy.

This appears to be correct. Each charge is considered individually. If any charge met the legal requirements, it can be pursued individually. The fact that no criminal charges were pursued say a lot. The fact that it took the grand jury only a day to decide this for all charges says a lot. I'm not a fan of Watson's moral choices at all. But there was no evidence that met the legal requirements to suggest he is a criminal. This is to me the important thing we all should take from this. He's not a criminal. You can still dislike Watson for whatever reason you like. But I'd remind everyone here to look back on their own life and remember that most of us have made questionable moral choices in the past. Being rich only exacerbates the situation. If I was rich at that age, I daresay I'd have made some really stupid moral choices. I won't cast stones at him for that. I'll hope that he learns from it.

No, those are solid reasons why Cam will not be part of our team next year. Your only "reason" is because of an existing relationship. Mine involve thinking critically about the team and situation.

This will not happen. We already have 18 million on the books for a backup QB. You don't get to add 35 more for Deshaun and still sign Cam. That would be a truly masterful way to completely throw the team in the toilet. We paid Cam what, $6 million for half a season last year? Would he suddenly take four million for a full season with NO CHANCE to play? Come on man, have you followed Cam? He wants to play. With Deshaun here he would offer us literally nothing. Not to mention our other needs! Our OLine was historically awful. Taking on Watson's contract effectively means we have ZERO cap remaining. Oh, and we just gave up our chance to fix it this year in the draft. We need a franchise QB. I'm just not sure the asking price is one we can pay while getting the best out of our team. Burns is surely gone. Reddick is gone. Gilmore. Jackson. DJ's extension would be that much harder. We could easily win a few more games next year with Watson - but we wouldn't be a better team. We'd waste the best years of our franchise QB's career trying to build a team around him. Getting your hands on a franchise QB in this fashion won't get you to the SB.