Proudiddy

I don't think that's what it was at all. We didn't even exercise his option until after the draft... so they weren't confident in him. What it is starting to appear like, is that Rhule - depending on how Darnold pans out - either doesn't know how to evaluate the QB position, or he doesn't value it. Many here stated over and over again that letting Cam finish out his last year of his contract was preferred over releasing him and signing a mediocre game manager to a 60M contract, and yet, he chose Bridgewater. Depending on that Washington game (after Bridgewater singlehandedly lost enough games on the last drive to knock us out of playoff contention), we likely could've had our pick of Lance or Fields... Again, hoping for the best, but I have never believed in Darnold. He has had some good throws in camp, but again, at best, the reviews have been mixed and indicate inconsistency just as he demonstrated in NY. And if we go through a second season of mediocre QB play, it will be pretty evident that Rhule feels like you can take shortcuts with QB if the rest of the team is well put together - and that just isn't true. Again, I hope Darnold plays well, but I don't believe in him at all.

Or if we hadn't beat Ron's limpdick team in a game where winning only hurt us. Again, I liked Jaycee, but QBs with size, huge arms, who can run 4.4 40s and are intelligent don't come around every year... we haven't seen Darnold yet, but judging from his first three years, despite the obvious dysfunction in NY, and his early mixed reviews in camp so far tell me he likely is what he is and what we thought he was. I hope for the best, but I think it is likely we screwed the pooch, by again messing up at the most important position in football for the second consecutive year. But, we'll see...

I really don't want to regret passing him up bc I liked Jaycee, too... but, QBs who can throw 70 yards and run 4.4 40s don't grow on trees and are rarely available to middling teams even if they did. I also hate making it Darnold vs Fields, but Darnold has a hard road ahead of him.

The things he is doing are translatable, regardless.

Andy Dalton, meet clipboard. Clipboard, Andy Dalton.

Yeah, he's gonna be fine. Looked very poised since he's been in, it was more just ball placement and decisions early on, which could have been nerves... he really looks settled in and comfortable now. Regardless of whether we took him or not (and as I've stated elsewhere that I had both Fields and Horn on my board and was happy with either), I usually become bitter if we passed on a player and they become great... but, I'm pulling for Justin. One of my good friends is a Bears' fan and despite our history of them using us as their farm team (ahem Moose, Peppers, Manning Jr, etc.) and their long history as one of the NFL's flagship franchises, admittedly they have possibly had the worst run when it comes to QBs ever.

Looking good now. Looks like he's settled in.

Oh no, I'm right there with you... it's just frustrating, bc as fans, we like to feel informed and knowledgeable about our team, players, and positions battles... in order to do that, we need to see it for ourselves. Hard to compare and contrast when we have no context from seeing all the players, even if in limited action.

But, in his defense, he's not getting much help from his protection or the playcalling. The placement and decisions on his throws so far have not been good though, either.

NGL, he looks bad right now. I liked him for his physical tools coming out of college, but I liked Trey Lance more. A lot more. Mostly because Fields had the ability to take over games, but he often didn't, and he seems to either run very hot or very cold... he is currently running frigid.

I mean, it's fairly pointless for fans... if they just need it to evaluate the fringe guys and such, they can just do that in joint practices. The majority of the players don't want the preseason games anyway, and now that they've reduced it to 3 games and added a reg season game, and coaches are not even playing starters in a lot of them, what's the point? Just more revenue for the NFL by suckering fans into paying to watch 2nd and 3rd stringers battle it out in XFL-quality football.

After seeing how some of these coaches are handling the preseason now that there is only 3 games, just get rid of it altogether. Let them run joint practices with live reps to get comfortable, and just scrap the whole preseason crap.

Yeah, its meaningless if they don't know how and when to use it (like Teddy last season, especially downfield or in clutch situations)... and that's just his take from that first day, and he has said he isn't a fan of scrambling QBs, so there's that. And supposedly, Fields looked much better the next day. All that being said, my personal take is I think they're gonna regret sticking with Tua. I thought he was incredible pre-injury at Alabama, but ever since then, he doesn't look good at all to me. Looks like he has less arm strength, not a mobile, and he seemed to have a much more pronounced wind up when I watched him last season compared to pre-injury in college. I also didn't think he threw with any noticeable anticipation at all - in fact, it often looked like he would end up getting sacked or hit bc he held the ball too long. But, everyone has their opinions, and Omar seems to believe in him. As far as Fields, I've seen sources say he is absolutely killing it, and I've seen others that say he's not been as impressive as hoped. So, who knows?

FWIW, I had some good exchanges with Omar Kelly, Miami's beat writer, back in the day when I used Twitter more, and I've been following him ever since... they're having joint practices with Chicago and he tweeted this after the first one:

Well, you know how much I love Cam, but tbh, I didnt think even HE could've done what he ended up doing with that roster in 2015, until he did it. That roster was a mess, especially offensively... They legit had Cotchery as our #1 receiver by design, and he still ended up getting outproduced by Ginn lol. So, you know I agree 1000% about, Cam... and that defense, too. I feel this defense has a chance to be special too, but I'm really worried about LB... I feel everything defensively is gonna hinge on that group; the line and secondary are eventually going to be elite, imo. But, on offense, because we don't have a guy like Cam who can just put a whole 10 other people on his back and will them to victory, we definitely need to shore up the line... it's a much more pressing issue with a guy like Sam back there, and it's also important to get some continuity for CMC's sake as well.

While practice means very little in this marathon of a season, what sticks out to me in this comparison to the 2015 season is that that team made several acquisitions as the season went on that got us over the hump and helped us really hit our stride as the season went on (Jared Allen, Remmers, Finnegan)... I feel this team will have to do the exact same thing to make it a successful season, so it's good these practices are really highlighting those areas of need.

If it makes you feel better, those same generalizations have been applied to me for years as a emotional and reactionary poster/fan. Let us find the common ground.

I was referring to the dichotomy over the years, not today.

I dont mean to harp on this... but, I'm going to. I've had a good rapport with Voth and Gantt in the past on Twitter and appreciate them both, but the reporting this TC has been atrocious. We had a full two hour practice in which they could've mentioned that Paradis wasn't out there, but they didn't. All I read was that he made the trip and heard nothing else about him, even as the Colts pounded our OL. Furthermore, The Colts' reporters were all over their stats and personnel. They prolly tweeted more about us than our own guys did... To further my point, their beat guys had the exact stats for both of their QBs, yet all we got during the practice was OL sucked, Darnold looked ok but no details, and DL was good. After practice we finally get numbers (Darnold was 7 for 13), but no context. Some more hours after practice, we find out there was a ton of drops by our receivers, which contributed to our QBs' numbers, and this after hearing nothing but rave reviews about our receivers during the practice... this is getting really frustrating, and I don't understand the reason for it. If they're trying to save juicy tidbits for their in-house productions, that is a horrible strategy versus the immediate information being available to fans.

I've been thinking this as well. It just really irritates me that McD uses Cam like he's effing T3bow.

Agreed. It's just the sense of instability that bothers me and I hope we have less of that the closer we get to the season opener.

I agree with everything, except I have to hedge on the patience. While I know we're young and he's building his program and his culture here, I don't want to lean on that as a crutch from success. He showed enough ability as a talent developer and as a tactician last year that I believe we should make the playoffs this season. I will be disappointed with anything less.

NGL, the announcers and crowd seem to be favoring Mac over Cam, and it seems like McDaniels is too. One thing that really irritated me with McD last season was he seemed to call some old Wing T, Lateral-passes-only offense with Cam in last year, and then started calling pro-style offenses when Stidham and the other guy got in last season... he appears to be doing the same so far this season. Multiple screens and runs on Cam's two drives... seemed to run a ground and pound, run heavy style... then Mac comes in and they ran one time so far and then had him chucking it down field every other play. I don't like the way this is playing out.

Agreed on all points.