BrianS

Actually, Bridgewater is dealing with similar OLine issues. They've each played nine games and TB5 has been sacked four more times on fewer pass attempts than Sam.

FWIW - Burfict was fine $25k for the incidents with Olsen and Cam. Don't expect any sort of suspension for Jones.

This bit here (after I fixed it) I agree with. However - we have no evidence to suggest that he is capable of calling the right plays. We have no evidence to suggest he is able to work around shortcomings in his team. All we know is that he can create plays, and with excellent players those plays bring success at the college level.

Two offseasons ago we were worried about the wrong coordinator. We were worried Phil Snow wasn't up to the NFL standard. My, my how times change. Turns out, Snow is actually a pretty darn good coordinator and Brady is trending toward the next Adam Gase. Even if Rhule and Snow get fired, I'll follow Phil Snow just to see his defenses play.

Serious A: David Carr had a worse OLine. I know, hard to believe, but that line his rookie year allowed nearly 5 sacks per game on only two thirds of the drop backs that we've given Darnold.

It's actually not a fact. The dude threw 1 TD and 2 INT's in his only start ever. That's very Darnold of him. His games off the bench have been far, far worse.

While I agree to an extent, one thing required of an OC is the ability to assess his team honestly and do what they do best - not necessarily what he does best. It could be that Brady told them this was the likely outcome before the season started, we would never have been privy to that. If he did say something behind closed doors of that nature, well, we could simply be seeing the result. I'm not a Brady fan at this point, by any means. However, I don't know what I don't know. My suspicion is that Brady isn't ready. I believe he parleyed one season of absolute excellence into an NFL OC position.

As frustrating as Teddy was to watch, it definitely wasn't all his fault. It's also not all Darnold's fault either. I think Joe Brady is in over his head. He's just not ready to be an NFL coordinator yet. What he did with LSU was trememdous. But he didn't call the plays. And that LSU team was most definitely stacked. Justin Jefferson and Ja'Marr Chase against college competition is just UNFAIR. We've definitely made poor decisions at QB. But it wasn't all them either. We just aren't right on that side of the ball, despite having perhaps the best set of skill position players we've ever had.

I'm not sold on Rhule, but I'm not ready to kick him to the curb just yet. The rest of the season will tell us something about him, that's for sure. However, I would be kinda sad to see Phil Snow leave. That dude has really proven me wrong. He's a good DC. His defense is keeping us in the games when our offense just can't stop killing us.

As well there should be. There is equal blame to share among the personnel and coaching sides of the house.

See, this is what we lost sight of, myself included. You never, ever, EVER pass on drafting a franchise QB. Don't get me wrong, Jaycee Horn is a fantastic player. Likely a 10+ year starter. Between Jaycee and Chinn, our back end looks solid. But if that staff believed Fields was a franchise guy, there is no position more important. Seems like they didn't, time will prove them right or wrong. However, I still maintain that the biggest mistake we made this offseason was not having a legit, veteran backup.

The more I look at what is going down this year, both here and in Denver, the more it starts to look like Teddy may not have been all of the problem. We kept putting it on him that we didn't get it done in the 4th quarter, didn't get it done in the red zone. I was in that campl Not saying there weren't some things on him, but . . . TB5 is trending to finish the season in Denver with over 4000 yards passing, 28 TD's, 10 INT's, 70% completions. While those aren't Brady / Mahommes / Rodgers numbers, those are numbers you can win with given how our defense has played. SB numbers? I dunno. But they get you into a winning mentality. We could use a little of that around here.

This is how I feel about Darnold. However, failing to bring in a veteran backup is the unforgivable part. Yes, the upside was "What if he works out?". What we didn't account for was "Ok, what if he doesn't?" PJ does not count as a "What if he doesn't" plan. I also understand the attraction of Henderson. I liked him coming out. But man, we really need someone in our pro personnel department with a background in psychology. Even I can see the guy is done. I don't know what did him in, but he is clearly not focused on football, regardless of what he may pay lip service to. Both situations are front office failures.

Additionally, not pursuing a Jacoby Brissett / Mitch Trubisky / etc level veteran QB in FA was a crime. These are the type guys who signed in the 5-7 million per year range. Wouldn't have broken the bank by any means. I've said in other places, it's fine if you want to develop PJ, great. Put him on the practice squad. Same would have applied to Grier. But don't go into a season with your only two choices being a developmental prospect and Sam Darnold.

At least he's only on a one year deal there. GM was smart enough to know this was a possibility.

Jones isn't special, but he's very competent. I said before the draft there isn't a more Belichick QB in the draft than Mac Jones. I thought he would go there, and he did, and he's doing very well. We've all seen his physical ceiling. This is all you'll ever get from Jones physically. Mac Jones will make or break himself as a "franchise" guy based on his growth from the shoulders up. If he becomes a great student of the game, he'll likely play 15 years as a starter.

I don't think you can fairly rate a coach on credibility from the outside. If your coach is always tell the unvarnished truth to the outside your team will be at a competitive disadvantage. It's honestly refreshing to see that Rhule understands this. Rivera was too busy trying to obfuscate to say anything interesting. At least with Rhule, you hear interesting things, even if you can't believe any of them. What we don't know is what he says to his players behind the doors. Could be he's completely honest with them.

I like him as a quality backup, spot starter at a very affordable rate. If someone wants to pay him starting money best of luck to him.

I love your positivity, but sir, I don't think there is a QB in this league who would willingly come here to play behind this line. It really is on course to be historically awful. If the line was just average, it would be a very different story.

Cam was a unicorn, and comparing him to every other franchise QB is not relevant. As a free agent RB, why would you come play with Cam when you know he's going to be taking carries that you otherwise might get on any other team? That said, we did manage to bring in Tolbert. As a free agent receiver, why would you come play with Cam when the guy is a sub 60% passer and has Greg Olsen as his primary safety blanket? That said, we did manage to bring in Cotchery (who caught it) and Ginn (who had his best professional years here). Our interior OLine was generally really good in that era with Kalil / Turner / Norwell. We managed to bring in Michael Oher who barring injuries was our best LT since Gross. While it was a mistake, we also brought in Matt Kalil. Had he worked out, he would have been huge. Who, specifically, would you have wanted that we didn't get? Bear in mind, these were also the years of perpetual cap hell. Regardless of the fact it was self inflicted, it was still a fact of our situation.

When talking about being an attractive FA destination it comes down to your QB. Do you have a guy? If you clearly have that guy, you're an attractive destination. For QB's, in the rare instance that a franchise guy hits FA, the question is how does your offense look. Do you have a decent line, good receivers? I can understand why a QB might not "want" to come right now looking at our line.

I hear what he's saying, and in certain cases he is correct, but other things are also pretty clear cut. For example, our OLine sucks. It doesn't take a player or former player to see that. It doesn't take much more than someone who watches semi regularly to see it. Now, if he's saying there is more to the dropsies epidemic that has plagued our WR's, he may be correct. Because from the outside, it looks to me like our WR's are having terrible season on that front. The other thing he's missing here is that one of the great things about the NFL is that the games spark conversation. It's one of the things that's great about the NFL format as opposed to something like baseball where each game means almost nothing in and of itself.

I actually hope PJ starts. Rhule needs to see without a doubt that PJ is not an NFL QB. This staff needs to see that it's not OK to go into a season without a real backup. If you want to develop someone, make that developmental guy your THIRD QB. Not your first or second.

I don't disagree that Irving's effort left a lot to be desired. But there are other problems there. Play design being one of them. Paradis is being asked to get way downfield to the second level to seal a LB. He was never getting there. It was too far. It wasn't really clear who he was intended to block. He kept glancing at the DB on that side like that was the guy he was supposed to account for. Eventually he tried to reach that LB, but even if he fired off right away, I'm not sure he would have got there. Irving never looked back inside. Not once. He was looking outside the whole time. If he had looked inside, he certainly would have seen the ILB closing down. Who knows, he might have even tried to block him. He didn't try to get downfield to the safety that was coming up, never looked there either. He just watched Tremble and DJ put a hat on a hat. Not sure what his assignment was supposed to be, but with a hat on a hat outside like that, a veteran player should be looking for a bad guy to block, and Irving never did. If the players executed the play as it was designed, that design was just bad. Having a blocker with no assignment? Having a lineman have to really stretch to get downfield to a LB? Not sure if it was designed poorly or the players executed it poorly, but it was a mess.

You're right, we're not. But that doesn't mean run, run, pass, punt is going to fix our issues. Over reliance on either the run OR the pass is going to make you an easy target for a good defense. An unbalanced offense is simply not sustainable. Our sack numbers aren't problematic over the last four games. Our sack numbers are problematic over the entire season save the first two weeks. Oddly enough, the last two full games CMC has played. This is the part of CMC that a lot of people gloss over. The guy is a complete back. He brings balance to our offense. Yes, 100%, he's a great player. Can't argue that. But what's more important is that with him on the field, you just don't know what the Panthers will do. Run? Pass? Option? That's the real value. Unfortunately, while we have some good backs, none of them are the complete player that CMC is. Our backups make us predictable. And we've seen the results.