BrianS

Sigh. Yes, it does, I was trying to make it easy to read. Only eight teams last year scored fewer points than we did. Conversely, only 11 teams had more red zone opportunities. How many teams with more opportunties, scored fewer points? NONE. How many teams with fewer opportunties, scored more points? EIGHT. But seriously, I don't need stats to tell me our offensive line was below par. I just need to watch us fail over and over to see that we couldn't move people when we needed to. In terms of your stats, you are simply showing raw conversion percentage. What you AREN'T showing is distance to go. Obviously, covering receivers is important. Of course. Were we bad on 3rd down? Yes, of course. Awful. The real question is were we offering too many 3rd and short / medium opportunities? If so, the problem wasn't third down at all. It was first and second where we failed.

That's a lot of words. I can shortcut that a bit. We score TD's 50% of the time we are in the red zone. If that doesn't scream OFFENSIVE LINE I don't know what does.

For me to make the Joe Brady call, I need to know if Joe Brady is sold on Sam Darnold. If I'm trying to read the tea leaves, I'd say the fact that we didn't immediately pick up the 5th year option tells me we aren't sure. From an offensive perspective, if a QB I love falls, we take that guy. If no QB falls, take Slater / Sewell whichever we like or is still on the board. If none of those are available, we should look at what defenders are on the board for the good of the team.

The "plan" could easily be to make the decision after the draft. I don't have a problem with us picking up his fifth year. What I would have a problem with is extending him before we see whether he is a victim of the Jets / Gase or a flop.

I like the move even though I have significant reservations about the player. It means we don't have to give up three first round picks to get someone. If a guy we like falls, great, draft him. If not we can at least get through the draft knowing TB5 won't be under center. I think there were better options out there than Darnold, but I agree with the Panthers in the thought that we couldn't go into the draft with the same three QB's who ended last season.

Catalog: Nightwish Album: Dark Passion Play Song: Ghost Love Score

Really? You think this is ok? Big, fat PASSSSSS. Chiefs got fleeced. They got a guy now who is going to want 15 mil+ per season for at least four years . . . and gave up THREE PICKS THIS YEAR. Very glad we were not in on that. We have Moton. That's enough franchise tackles.

Which brought the Falcons how many Lombardi trophies? How many playoff berths? The Julio Jones years have featured a grand total of four winning seasons. All while they had a CLEAR franchise QB. Which we do not. Instead of focusing on Chase, think of our situation this way: If we had a top 10 QB under center, what would DJ and Robby look like? Bearing in mind, with TB5 at QB, both of them were in the top 15 last year. DJ Moore averaged 18 yards per catch last year . . . EIGHTEEN! Eighty percent of his catches went for first downs! We raved about how clutch Curtis Samuel was last year, and only 50% of his catches were for first downs. DJ was the epitome of clutch. How many times did we see DJ running WIDE ASS OPEN deep last year. It was damn sickening. We don't need to draft an superstar WR, we already have one! WR's don't win games, QB's do. WR's are not the secret sauce, that's your QB. The real question your staff have to answer is: Do we believe our QB is Rodgers, Wilson, Brady, Mahomes, etc. Those guys can put the team on their shoulders and win games for you. As good as Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, Mike Evans and DK Metcalf are they are utterly irrelevant without that franchise guy pulling the trigger. If a guy your staff believes in is there when you are on the clock, you take the QB. It's super simple. There is no such thing as "too many" legit NFL QB's on your roster.

Would you rather just wash out a second round draft pick or perhaps give him an opportunity to earn a roster spot? We have him. He's cheap. If he becomes a starting guard, great. If not, we can walk away and say we gave him every opportunity to make it here. There is no down side to giving him a chance.

It's pretty clear we don't see him as the answer at LT. I wouldn't mind seeing him get a preseason shot at playing guard. While it wouldn't be an ideal outcome for us, if he turns into a serviceable guard at least the pick wasn't a waste.

I agree, arm strength can be overrated . . . however it also cannot be ignored. May I present for your consideration our 2020 QB, Teddy Bridgewater. Teddy can throw a catchable ball to a spot. When you look at advanced stats, Aaron Rodgers showed 7.9 intended air yards per attempt, while Teddy showed 7.1 iaypa. Relatively similar averages. However, does ANYONE doubt that Rodgers is capable of pushing it downfield? Now flip the coin . . . does ANYONE think TB5 is capable of driving a ball downfield? The arm strength is important because it keeps the defense honest. You don't have to be Favre, Elway or Rodgers to get it done . . . or even pre-shoulder apocalypse Cam, but you do need a "good" arm. You have to be able to legitimately threaten the defense deep. Actually, Cam is probably the best example of this. Once defenses realized his arm was gone, he became a completely average QB. He only holds on to that "average" label because he can still run pretty well for a QB. Take away his run game and frankly he's out of the league.

The other side people forget about is that perhaps BOTH of them work out. Then you get your draft capital back plus some ****AND**** you have your franchise guy. We draft Fields. Darnold starts this year and shows the NFL it's the Jets who are broken, not him. He's a real live NFL starting QB. Next year in camp, Fields wins the job. We trade Darnold for a couple firsts and suddenly we look like geniuses. Aren't we due some good karma at some point?

No its not! ANY OUTCOME which sees you walk away from a first round pick and a second round pick with a franchise QB is a HUGE WIN. There is no more important position on the field. Every other pick you make is irrelevant until you have "the guy". How much more obvious can it be? How many non-franchise QB's have won a SB lately? Foles? I mean, sure, the Eagles caught lightning in a bottle and won it with Foles, but I strongly suspect if Foles was forced to play that entire season he would have been found out and abused long before winning a Lombardi. Who else? Flacco? Dude has started 175 games in 11 years and thrown for over 40k yards. The year he won the trophy he threw for 1100 yards, 11 TD and 0 INT's in the postseason. Yes please. You really have to go back to Brad Johnson to find a bona fide "nobody" QB winning a Super Bowl. That's nearly 20 years ago, long before the NFL made the changes that ushered in the era of the QB. We rolled the dice on Darnold. I have zero problems rolling the dice on a second QB if a guy our staff believes in falls. Maybe both of them fail, and then we'll be wondering why we didn't give up everything to go get Wilson/Lawrence/Lance or whoever succeeds. The most important factor in our success as a franchise is finding that guy.

You're thinking about it all wrong. We gave up three picks for Darnold: 2nd, 4th and 6th. That's really not even the equivalent of a 1st round pick. Let's just say it's a high second. We then proceed to pick Fields, assuming he is there at 8. All in, we've spent a high second and a high first for TWO chances at uncovering a franchise QB. Odds say that about 50% of first round QB's "make it". We end up with two, and it didn't even cost us two first round picks. That's a win. No other way to look at it. The only "bad" outcome (in the above scenario) is if both guys fail. That's always a chance with QB's! But you still gotta keep punching your ticket until you get lucky. Every other scenario is a win. Three out of four outcomes are to our favor . . . yea, I'll roll those dice.

I would not be at all surprised to see Shaq cut this year. It looks like his dead cap goes from 18 million to 6 million post June 1. If we want to re-sign him at 5 million a year after that, fine. That's probably where he should have been to begin with. But his 2022 salary is just too much to handle.

Posted this yesterday. Just sayin.

His comments about small school guys definitely was on the money. I'd still rather take those guys a bit farther down in the draft (looking at you Trey Lance) but I take the point. Those guys "potentially" have more room to grow.

Though not surprising given what was on film. I really hope Darnold works out, because DJ should have been close to the top of the league in receiving if he just had a QB to get him a catchable ball. Source: https://pantherswire.usatoday.com/2021/04/19/panthers-d-j-moore-robby-anderson-uncatchable-end-zone-targets/?fbclid=IwAR1yxIKQwvrXBNxX7oREQt-0joq2IqvZYlH9wxbee4Ghe22zmj-SvKUwg5I

You cannot, CAN NOT, pay two tackles. One of them needs to be on a rookie or cheap vet deal. We're paying Moton. Great. Draft a tackle. For the four years (or five if first round) this rookie is on his rookie deal, we are paying Moton. When the rookie comes due, Moton should be ending and we either bring Moton back to finish his career on a friendly deal or we can draft another tackle and let him walk. This isn't hard.

To appease the 49ers? Really? Surely San Francisco Shanahans can't be thinking of taking Lance. Or can they? Hang on to Jimmy G for a year or two until Lance is ready . . .

How is DJ even mentioned in that sentence? Does this person even cover the NFL? I mean, BOTH of our receivers were in the top 15 last year for receiving yardage. Our WR's are legit. And I can't believe I just said that about the Carolina Panthers. It's been way too long, but here we are.

I think we've already met our quote for ex-Jets haven't we?

Let me get this straight. You're saying that a QB with a 20 - 2 record, 67 TD's against 9 INT's, with a 70% completion rate . . . underperformed? What more could he possibly have done?!?!?! Did he have bad games? Sure, he did. Please, find me a QB who hasn't had some bad games. I'll wait. I'd sure love to get us an underperforming QB like that here in Carolina.

This is what people are failing to understand. The fact that we traded for Darnold should be irrelevant to building a successful franchise. If there is a QB who our staff believe is a franchise guy sitting there when we are on the clock, TAKE THE PLAYER. It shouldn't even be a discussion. Darnold could fail (some would argue he has). The guy we draft could fail. Nothing else is relevant until you have that guy, so if the cost of getting that guy is a 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th, FINE. People are going through two, three and four 1st round picks to get a QB already. This is peanuts.

I completely agree. This was always my concern for Cam, which unfortunately came to fruition. It's no different for Darnold, Fields or Lance. To me, the most important part of being a QB in the NFL is being able to throw the ball effectively from the pocket. Everything else is icing. My point above was that if your differentiating factor is athleticism, and you're talking about a Darnold / Lance comparison . . . Darnold doesn't win. Lance is a better athlete. Is Lance a better QB? I dunno. I'm not his biggest fan, but I haven't seen anything from Darnold either. What I can say is that given comparable arm talent, Lance has managed to take care of the ball better at his level. Does that translate to the NFL? Man, if I knew the answer to that I'd be making a LOT of money as a player personnel guy.