BrianS

Not sure we should be surprised the Panthers met with Pickett. I would hope the Panthers would meet with every first round QB prospect.

If that's really his strategy then either they had some serious dirt on Fields or Fitts ain't callin' the shots. Incidentally, I agree. If you find a QB you believe in, you draft him if he's there. Doesn't matter where you are in the draft.

Stop. Just stop. Campen is a good hire. Sam is not going to be good. Honestly, I'm more worried that the line improvement will be enough to get us seven wins, make someone think "maybe next year Sam and Matt will get it together". * Barf * Stop the madness.

I can't think of a team with a worse QB room than ours. I really can't. In terms of drafting a QB this year, I'm for it . . . except that there is no one here for him to learn from. Darnold? PJ? These are the guys we want to see helping a rookie learn? Yikes. As far as Jimmy G goes, there is no way we can get him with sacrificing our future completely. SF is in the drivers seat. JG's contract next year is NOT guaranteed. They can cut him and his 24 million dollars with only 1.4 million in dead cap to show for it. Sam's contract is fully guaranteed. We all know that the only way we bring in an NFL starting QB of any stripe is by making Sam part of the deal. That 18 million has to go. I don't see how you trade 24 million non-guaranteed for 18 million guaranteed with some sort of make weight coming from our side.

Bringing in Colbert as the Czar of Football Operations would be ideal. Not fussed about what title we actually put on it. But allow him to be the final say on the structure and composition of that side of the house. Make Fitterer the CLEAR GM. He owns the roster. Make Rhule the coach. He coaches the players and creates the "identity" of the team. The President of Football Operations should hire and fire both independently. Do we have a problem with the roster? Low talent level? Cap a mess? Bye Fitts. Do we have a problem with coaching? Failure to execute? Below talent performance? Poor atmosphere? Bye Rhule. In my mind, that's the way it should work. It seems to make sense. I'm sure it's not that way now.

The real problem with making any assertion in either direction is the lack of clarity. Numerous sources say that Rhule is the decision maker on roster. If those sources are correct, then none of this can fall on Fitt. If you want to blame Fitt for poor decision making, then it needs to be clearly and definitively stated by someone in the building that he has final decision on roster. I think it's clear Fitt has influence, we certainly have never seen a draft like the last one. But I don't have any confidence right now on who I should blame or applaud. That problem falls squarely on Tepper. He needs to state clearly and for the record where responsibilities fall. Then we can place the plaudits and blame where the should be.

All I got out of it was . . . coaching may have been lacking, and there is something there that may develop. I mean, yea, exactly.

Super Bowl 16 re-match. No young Montana to end the Bengals dreams this time. Is Collinsworth calling the SB? That would be all kinds of epic.

That's exactly how I read it. That said, losing him wouldn't kill us. We'd get a compensatory for it if he went on to a GM job with another team.

The problem with Howell, or Pickett, or Corral isn't the player. It's our own draft position. Where we are picking this year is a place where you'd normally expect to get a CLEAR franchise guy. All of these guys have little question marks. But where we pick is not their problem. I think that it's highly likely that whomever we pick at 6 is going to be viewed as a reach by some, and they may not be wrong. The draft this year isn't always great in those places where we would ideally like it to be. I think we are going to regret not taking a QB last year. But this year, we need to fix the offense. It will be criminal if we don't. Free agency will tell us a lot about what we're thinking.

Linderbaum? Devin Lloyd? I mean, I get it. I don't want to take a C or LB at 6 either, but if we can't trade back ffs, not another CB. Let's be real here, Brooks has Pickett going three picks later. If Pickett is value at 9, and given how bad we need a QB, he should be the pick at 6 too. Not saying Pickett is or is not value at 9, but Brooks thinks he is. Brooks even has Corral going at 11. Again, if Corral is good at 11, he's probably good at 6 as well if we can't go backwards. I hate when "analysts" who get paid big money just don't make sense.

Do any of these "analysts" even look at the rosters of the teams before they do this kind of stuff? There is no planet upon which we can justify taking a corner in the top 10 for two straight years.

The sooner we all accept that next season is going to be a train wreck of epic proportions the better off we'll all be. The last thing I want is for this staff to bring in a bunch of guys who end up slowing down the process for whomever we bring in when Rhule is finally fired.

I mean, in perfect honesty, if I had to choose between the Chargers and the Panthers I'd pick the Chargers too. Hands down. That team has the right trajectory.

Mahomes is great, there can be no question. However, can you think of a better situation for a talented, young QB to fall into? A head coach who is arguably the greatest offensive mind of his generation. A veteran QB who entered the league with high expectations (Alex Smith) to draw upon and sit behind to watch. It was the absolute best possible situation for him to fall into and allow his natural talent to grow. Mahomes is the John Elway of his generation, but with better early support and success.

I don't know. I think Tepper needs to ask some real NFL people what they think of Fitts. I don't like a situation where Rhule had anything to do with who was hired as GM. If the consensus among NFL decision makers is that Fitts is a good GM, great, keep him. But you must make him the real GM. Give him the power to hire and fire the coach and set the roster. Then get out of his way and let him run the team.

As a HC, McAdoo has a better record than our HC. Let that sink in a minute.

I don't disagree with the idea that both teams should get a chance to have the ball. I support it. However, I don't think it makes a difference to the Bills. The Bills get the ball, and predictably, Allen takes them down to score. Tie game. Mahomes wins it on the second possession. Though I suspect that if it were both teams getting the ball, McDermott goes for two when they score, knowing his defense hasn't stopped Mahomes all game.

Is he calling plays? Oh, right, still King Andy. If he's such a talent, as Reid keeps trying to tell people, why doesn't he get to call the plays? Do you really believe in him Andy? Hand him the keys. You've clearly got a Ferrari there, if he can't succeed with that cast why should anyone believe he can?

Getting to the SB over the past 20 years is not really as good an indicator as we would hope. The fact is that the last 20 years have been dominated by one player: Tom Brady. How different would the league have been if Brady didn't make it? Even when Brady isn't getting to the dance, there have only been four seasons since 2000 where Brady didn't win at least one game in the playoffs. How many teams / QB's did Brady knock out that otherwise might have gone on? It's crazy to think about.

Ok, so optimism. Got it. When Rhule fails next season: 1. Tepper must accept he is not the smartest guy in the room. Not even close. Hire a GM you trust to build your team, starting with the coach. Let your football guy (the GM) tell you who the hire should be. Challenge him, of course, but let him choose and hold him responsible. Prior to which, Tepper needs to ask trusted NFL sources their opinion on Fitts. 2. Tepper must accept that rebuilds don't take seven years . . . or five years . . . or even three years in the NFL today. Yes, after seven years of success you can say you've changed the culture to one of winning, but you don't need to change the culture first. In fact, you can't. Change the success, and culture will follow. 3. Tepper must accept that there is value in NFL experience. Seeking outsiders at times can be helpful, but tempering those outsiders with NFL experience is critical. These are the best things that can come out of keeping Matt Rhule another year. It's certainly optimistic to think that they will all happen, but these are the things that I can see as positives. In 2023.

Baker Mayfield is definitely better than people give him credit for. But seriously, Cleveland would have to be 10 kinds of stupid to get rid of him. Consider: Prior to Baker, the last QB to have a winning season in Cleveland was . . . Derek Anderson (2007). Prior to Baker, the last QB to lead the Browns to the playoffs was . . . Tim Couch (2002). The Browns are nearly the Jets over the last 20 years. And Baker has looked pretty good there. If he gets out of Cleveland, onto a truly GOOD team, he'll be seen in a very different light.

Jimmy G is TB5 with a SLIGHTLY better arm. In a really good offense, JG can look good managing games. Just don't ask him to win them.

Anyone who still believes a QB requires an excellent OLine to succeed needs to go watch the Bengals play. Burrow was absolutely under siege all day, heck all season. Dude is a baller. I was a Burrow doubter, looked like a one season wonder. I was wrong. Something obviously just "clicked" for him that last year in college.

I mean, surely he hasn't looked at our roster, right?