Mike2.0

I guess we’ve gone with the he helped turnaround Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield, so he can turnaround Bryce Young after a woeful rookie season. I’m not sure who I wanted to become our next head coach, and to be honest, I’m not sure it will matter unless the owner takes a hands off approach.

If we could land Rodgers without giving up the first overall pick, then I guess there wouldn’t be anything wrong with a short term rental. I mean, we could still draft our quarterback of choice to sit and develop behind Rodgers, and having Rodgers would arguably give us a chance to win our division. That said, I don’t see it happening.

If you include backups, are there 64 better quarterbacks than him? Based off his last few seasons his days as a starting quarterback in this league are arguably over, but as a backup he has more to offer than a lot of the backup quarterbacks in the league. If he’s willing to act as a backup and take that kind of deal, maybe he gets a deal somewhere around the league. However, if Cam still believes he can start and wants that opportunity and to be paid as such, then I can’t see him getting another shot.

Depends if that was pre- or post-combine. The combine might have changed their thinking. It’s also possible that we have traded up so we can have our pick of the quarterbacks after we’ve done further research and due diligence.

I don’t see us trading down, but I guess if another team offers the farm to draft someone specific and we are happy with any of the to four QBs, then maybe we do it. That said, I don’t see that happening.

I think we will draft Stroud or Young with the pick, but if we are swinging for the fences with a raw high upside pick, then I could see us drafting Richardson in the hopes he’s Cam Newton 2.0.

First Leftwich, now Moore. Last year they were getting interviews for head coaching positions, and this year they are unemployed. Doesn’t happen often, and to be honest, I’m struggling to think of examples…

4,700 yards with 25 TDs to 9 INTs on a team that was a shadow of their championship team? I’d say that’s decent production. Put him on a team with one of the best defensive and offensive supporting casts, with a one of the better play callers, and I think they’d get something out of Brady.

Be interesting to see what the 49ers would do with Brady at this stage in his career. It would certainly give them decisions to make on Purdy and Lance.

Perhaps, but he still needs to go out there and give it his best shot. Seems like he can at least grip the ball somewhat based off the clips of him throwing on the sidelines. Even if it’s not 100%.

Purdy needs to toughen up and get on with it. Grit his teeth and play through any pain. You wouldn’t have seen legends like Montana, Elway, Marino (etc) stood on the sideline. They’d have been out there playing. Purdy need to get a grip and play. One game from the Super Bowl and making history.

Carr and Garoppolo will be 32 or turn 32 during the 2023 season. No team is buying them for ten years. They could play into their forties but it’s more likely they will be unquestioned starters into their mid-30s. We could offer them a good contract and make them our starter for the next few seasons (at least). We would have a young quarterback being coached up behind them to be a potential successor, cheaper backup, or potential trade chip. If we are throwing a rookie in there, then obviously we’d be looking for a different kind of veteran quarterback. Perhaps that wasn’t clear in my original post.

It will be interesting to see what direction we go in. Reich has faced quite a bit of adversity as a head coach. His last GM brought him stop gaps and reclamation projects. So will we go for a veteran like Carr or Garoppolo and develop Corral or one of this year’s class behind a veteran starter? Or will we go for a rookie and throw them straight in? As things stand I’m not entirely convinced by this crop of quarterbacks in the draft. I’m not against us drafting one, but I’d probably hedge my bet on a veteran and developing Corral.

Trey Lance would give them an athletic upgrade. When he played a full season in college he rushed for over a thousand yards in addition to his passing. So he’s give them a dual threat that Purdy doesn’t; however, Lance doesn’t read the field anywhere near as well as Purdy does. As a passer, Lance is significantly behind Purdy, and while he betters Purdy athletically and in arm strength, those two factors don’t make him a guaranteed upgrade. The 49ers have reached the conference championship with Purdy. He’s played really well and deserved the chance to start for them. There’s no reason to go back to Lance. Trade him, move on.

Let’s say we had the quarterback - Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence (etc) - then sending two firsts wouldn’t be a huge problem if we believed that Payton would take that QB to the next level and take us towards Super Bowl contention. Obviously losing the chance to add first round talent and giving our rivals that chance hurts, but if the upside is Super Bowl contention it could be a worthwhile short term pain worth enduring. However, we don’t have the quarterback and can’t afford to trade away our firsts because we are still rebuilding. So like you, it’s too much to give up.

Is Sean Payton a significant upgrade over Mike McCarthy or would they basically be making a sideways move? Both coached hall of fame caliber quarterbacks at the Saints and Packers. Both coached in and won 1 Super Bowl and never returned. McCarthy lost three other NFC championship games and Payton lost two NFC championship games. McCarthy got 6 division titles to Payton’s 7 division titles. McCarthy’s record with the Packers was 125-77-2 .618, with a record in the play offs of 10-8 .556. Payton’s record with the Saint’s was 152-89 .631 and 9-8 .529 in the play offs. Seasons with 10+ wins is 8 to McCarthy and 9 to Payton. - - - Their resumes are nearly identical. Some will obviously give Payton’s offense the edge and call McCarthy’s archaic and question some of his play calling, but realistically there isn’t a great deal in it between them to say one is a significant upgrade over the other. It would be a sideways move in many ways.

It wouldn’t surprise me if we went after Gus Bradley to coach the defense if he’s not retained in Indy.

Frank Reich is a good hire. He faced adversity with the QB position after Andrew Luck did the dirty by retiring on the eve of preseason week 1. Their future looked bright before that juncture and after that it was stop gaps and some reclamation projects. Hopefully Reich gets a better deal here by getting a long term QB to work with. As for Wilks, I feel for the guy. He did a good job turning this team around as the interim head coach. However, did the ownership and front office believe he could put together the offensive staff to support and develop our next franchise QB? If they did, they would have hired him. They didn’t. So that suggests to me they felt Reich would be better suited to that role. I see racism has come up again. I don’t think race played a part here. Most interim head coaches don’t get made permanent. The last ones made permanent were Doug Marrone (Jacksonville, took over from Gus Bradley) and Mike Mularkey (Tennessee, took over from Ken Whisenhunt), and aart from one AFC championship game for Marrone, neither had long term success. So was us not hiring Wilks a surprise? Not really. The same probably would have happened for a different interim head coach from the staff.

Is the Titans ceiling tied to their head coach or their quarterback? Ryan Tannehill is a middle of the pack quarterback. There’s only so much you can do with that caliber of quarterback. It’s up to their GM to upgrade their QB position and he decided to draft Malik Willis who, well, looked terrible and got outplayed by Dobbs. Vrabel is a good head coach. He’s not Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan. So he’s not a sexy offensive guru, but he’s a solid head coach like the Ravens coach Harbaugh. We could do worse than hire someone that gives us the same stability and competitiveness. What the GM needs to do is ensure the team has its answer at quarterback. At that point, you can compete for a championship.

How many head coaches faced what Reich did in Indy? After year one they were optimistic because they had Andrew Luck and had made the play offs. What does Luck do? Retire in preseason. Not the off-season when it gives the team a chance to draft, trade for, or sign a replacement quarterback - but retire in the preseason. So in year two he gets stuck with Hoyer and Brissett, good luck winning big with one of those guys as your quarterback. Year three? They sign Rivers and return to the play offs. Once again Reich is kick down low because his quarterback retires. At least Rivers did it in January. So three years into the job he’s had two quarterbacks retire on him. What does his GM decide to do? Trade for a reclamation project in Carson Wentz… when that failed what did their GM decide to do? Trade for another short term fix in Matt Ryan. It honestly bewilders me how their GM has kept his job and Reich has been fired. I don’t recall any other coaches having to deal with five different starting quarterbacks in consecutive seasons. If anyone failed Indy it is their GM by not fixing the QB position, and that’s before his hit and miss drafting and free agency signings are considered. All of that aside, I do agree that we need to stay with the times and not get stuck in the old ways, but at the same time we can’t rule out experience like Reich. He’s a good coach and has done a good job as an OC in the past. I think he’d be a good appointment as OC under Wilks.

Gruden cost the Bucs two first and two second round picks. There’s been talk of what it would cost for teams to get Sean Payton in 2023, some say it could be a similar package or slightly less. What would Sean McVay cost and is it worth it? I suspect the cost would be considerable and potentially it might not be worth it if the TV analyst question mark followed him here. You can’t trade for a guy that might retire after a season to pursue a TV career. For me, look at other options. As good as McVay is, I think he’ll follow the Gruden route to TV.

Agreed, they do kinda grow on trees, but the difficulty can be finding the right one because for every successful offspring, there are plenty of ones that don’t make the grade. Will Kafka be the next top head coach or the next guy to not make the step up? Hard to predict. The advantage he’s got over Matt Nagy, another coach boosted by Mahomes and Reid, is Kafka has helped Daniel Jones. It would certainly be interesting to see if he makes the step up or not.

Caldwell and Reich did have three winning seasons and one losing season with two play off appearances in four full seasons as the head coaches of Detroit and Indianapolis. Caldwell had QB stability with Stafford, while Reich had to deal with QB instability. Reich had a hard time with the Colts. Year one be worked with Andrew Luck and after going 1-1 in the play offs, their future looked fairly bright, then Luck decided to retire in August leaving him with Hoyer/Brissett for year two. In year three they went out and go Philip Rivers, he last one year before calling it a day. Who came next? Carson Wenz, no need to say much more. Then this season they went for Matt Ryan hoping he’d do for them what Rivers did, he didn’t, and it cost Reich his job (not their GM). During all of this QB instability and some questionable drafting, their Gm has held onto his job. I have to give Reich credit for having to deal with this QB situation. Things could have worked out differently for him had Luck continued to play. In his next chance, he needs QB stability.

It’s interesting that the AFC South have two teams that went for head coaches with zero NFL coaching experience. The Texans pulled the plug on the idea, while the Colts went for Jeff Saturday. I wonder if McCown will get another interview this time around?

I can’t say that I am surprised he’s been fired. If David Culley only got one season with a 4-13 record, then Lovie Smith with a 3-13-1 record was always going to be in trouble. Granted it shows no stability or commitment to a head coach, but the NFL isn’t always a patient place. Remember the 49ers did the same post-Harbaugh. Jim Tomsula and Chip Kelly only got one year each in the job before they hired Kyle Shanahan. All the Texans need to do is pick the right person for their head coaching position because their GM won’t survive another one and done head coach, or at least they shouldn’t…