BrianS

Lance definitely has struggled with throws to his right. Not just at his pro day, but it shows up on film as well. In nearly every case, it comes back to his inconsistent lower body mechanics. When he gets his feet correct, he can throw to the right. When his feet don't agree with his arm, or when he's lazy with his feet, he tends to sail it to the right. A QB coach could probably tell us why that doesn't happen nearly as often when throwing left, but I can't spot it. His mechanics are inconsistent no matter where he's throwing, but it seems to be that the results of that are far more obvious throwing to the right. It's all a question of whether those mechanics can be cleaned up. It's not that he doesn't know how to do it right, because at times he shows really nice feet. It's just . . . inconsistent. A really good QB coach may be able to fix that. I suspect that, at best, he's got an "ok" QB coach at NDSU. In fact, they don't have a dedicated QB coach. They've got one guy who is "Associate HC / Passing Game Coordinator / QB's" coach. The talent is there, no doubt. If his issues can be fixed, if he can put it together above the shoulders, the guy could be the best QB in the draft. Answering those "if's" is the challenge. Those if's really scare me at #8.

He looked good for a guy who didn't really have a 2020 season. It improved my opinion of him somewhat, but consistency is still a concern.

I get it. I don't think we're going to be able to retain Samuel, someone WILL overpay him. I think we can probably replace him with someone like Elijah Moore or Kadarius Toney in the draft.

We think similarly, but not exactly the same. I value "win fast" in a slot receiver way more than "win deep". I want to see quick and consistent separation from the slot, you like that too, but want to add in deep threat where I want to see high catch rates. Interesting. Appreciate the insight.

He seems way more Damiere Byrd than Steve Smith to me.

That really makes me think the Patriots are looking QB in the draft. Is there a more Bellichek QB than Mac Jones?

Not sure I agree there. I think you're correct that CMC will never be that "deep threat" that Curtis was, I'm just thinking "Do we care?" You've got both DJ and Robby who are deep threats already, I think what you really need is that route runner who can win quickly in short to medium areas. I feel like that has CMC written all over it. I think Curtis was successful last season for a couple reasons. First, his catch rate was literally eye popping. Everything that came his way, he caught. Whether that's sustainable or not isn't important to the concept in this discussion. Secondly, Curtis was constantly drawing the opponents third or fourth corner depending on how they dealt with Robby and DJ. Curious how you're seeing it.

There is no excuse for Teddy being the starter next year. Too many other options exist. I am not a huge Kellen Mond fan, but seriously, the tools are there. His inconsistencies are largely tied to his sometimes ropey footwork. Dude has some legit arm talent. I see a lot of similar traits (and comparitive results) to Josh Allen. Obviously not in the first round. I would be a lot more excited to watch Mond than TB5, I must say.

Regardless of where anyone ranks Deshaun Watson, I think it's super clear that EVERYONE sees him as a Top 10 in the league type QB. You can win a Super Bowl with ANY of those guys. Nothing is official until it's official, and the price is definitely gonna be scary, but Deshaun would make our offense incredibly productive.

The only way we can get Trubisky is if we simultaneously dump Teddy. You cannot have both of them here. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if he got $8 million. He's in a weird spot because of the contract Brissett got. His numbers are in that area, but Brissett got a ridiculous contract. Is he Mariotta? That's $8 million worth probably. If we're trading $8 million for $20 million, I think I'm ok with that. Worst case scenario at $8 million he doesn't work out and the cost isn't crippling us. He does work out, we still have plenty of cap.

Passing the torch. TD to JC.

Will we ever learn? Our history with injured, re-tread tackles is . . . pretty bad. Okung, Kalil, Oher . . . I may be forgetting someone forgettable here . . .

Thank you to both of them. Let's hope it doesn't take 10 years to get them in the RoH.

This is something I keep trying to explain to the Jones fans. He didn't actually show very many NFL traits. He was the beneficiary of a completely loaded Alabama roster. He in fact lost the only game he played in decided by less than two scores. I do not count the Florida game this year since it was two scores until the garbage time TD. I would argue that you could put any of the top 10 college QB's in the draft on that Alabama team and come up with the exact same or better results.

Not sure if I agree with this. Seems more like Hurney was kinda the last to go, and a lot of the FO turned over between the time Tepper took over and Hurney being let go.

From the perspective of the contracts, for those players it's as if 2020 never happened. They didn't get paid, the contract terms extend one year and no accrual of years occurs for the players.

There's a lot of truth there. Watson is an outstanding QB who can elevate those around him. But he can't do it alone. There doesn't exist a QB who can. Cam Newton came as close as anyone I've ever seen to doing it, but ultimately he couldn't do it. I don't think you can win a SB with TB5 / Alex Smith / etc in this day and age. I do think you can win one with Tannehill . . . and maybe Trubisky if his career goes to the same cadence as Tannehill. I'd rather have a guy with an NFL proven 64% completion rate, 25-13 record and 2:1 TD to INT ratio over a guy coming out of college unless that guy coming out was Andrew Luck / Trevor Lawrence / Peyton Manning level.

And likewise, Trubisky could be Tannehill because of CMC . . . as I said, I see a LOT of similarities there.

And that would be the smart thing to say. It's already obvious to the entire league that we are in the market, the less we give away, the better.

As much as I love CMC - and I really think he's a HoF waiting to happen - what you're saying here really is the smart play. You get what is likely the best seven years of the career without a lot of year over year risk. The only reason I don't have a huge problem with the contract is that I suspect CMC can become a third down specialist late in his career if the knocks start to add up. I do agree that we'd be paying a lot for a specialist like that, but maybe that's what it took to get him to stay. Who knows. CMC is definitely a very tough call.

"Meihem in ce klasrum" eh? I like it.

Shaq is definitely a problem. He's an average to good LB being paid good to excellent money. I'm not sure how we designated our current crop of cuts, but if we still have a post June 1 slot, we could really cut some cap there. I don't think we do that however. We just sit tight, bite our lip and pay it this year. Prior to 2022, we will be in a much better position both for overall cap and to cut Shaq.

FWIW, our positional spending at QB is actually middle of the pack. 14th to be exact. It may not be as difficult to unload Bridgewater as we thought.

This is the thing with Jones. He's shown accuracy. He's shown touch. So has TB5. Jones has not shown an NFL arm. I agree, we don't necessarily need a Cam / Russell / Lamar Jackson / Kyler Murray / Patrick Mahomes type athlete to succeed in our offense. But we DO need an NFL arm. Someone to push the ball deep, fast and wide when it's called for. That doesn't appear to be Jones. My recollection of Herbert was the questions were all from the neck up.

Said it in another thread, I'll say it here. I think Trubisky is the next Tannehill. Those two have eerily similar career trajectories. People wrote them off because of their situation, instead of coldly assessing the facts. Trubisky is 25-13 since his rookie year. He's a 64% passer (higher since his rookie year). He throws twice as many TD's as INT's. Big arm. Get him a good QB coach, and I bet he shows up as the real deal. There's a player in there.