OldhamA

At the moment if you're not Alabama, Ohio St, Clemson (or LSU for one miracle year) you're not winning a National Championship.

At this point the NFL's only hope is someone suplexing Mahomes onto his head and causing a permanent injury. Otherwise, buckle up for another poo eating dynasty.

I mean I was banging the table for us to draft Mahomes. It is what it is.

fug.

They sold out for a Superbowl. I'm v. frustrated that it's worked for them - it looked like it was a pipe dream for most of the year.

You either want an NFL Head Coach job or you don't. There's only 32 of them.

Oh poo I forgot about Indy and NE. Whelp, shelve those dreams of Stafford. He's going to a winning franchise.

Matthew Stafford is a brilliant QB. He's a huge upgrade over what we have and he has 5 years left - easy. I think the broken ribs hit Brees hard this year, not Father Time.

Drew Brees and Tom Brady are in their 40s. Rodgers is in his late 30s. It's a different NFL these days.

Hi, we're the Carolina Panthers and boy are we desperate.

Roche never played with Rousseau - GR opted out of the season. He played opposite Jaelen Phillips, a UCLA transfer, who's being talked about at the end of the 1st round, start of the 2nd round.

I thought it was $2bn? Anyway, by that point Rivera was a 2 time NFL Coach of the Year. He's also walked into another NFL Head Coaching gig after being fired by us. He's clearly well thought of in football circles. If you're a little bit overawed by the football side when you first buy your franchise I can see why you'd listen to your football contacts and retain Rivera. I'd have sacked him 5 minutes after the ink had dried, but that's by the by.

The Texans would be foolish to trade for McCaffrey. If they're forced to trade Watson it's a full rebuild. You don't take on team unfriendly contracts like McCaffrey's. I'd be after Chinn / Brown / Burns / Moore and first round picks.

Fingers crossed it's just Fitterer following up on his "in on every deal" mantra. You don't build a consistent winner by trading away that much Draft capital for one player when your roster is a shambles.

I thought the Rhule press conference was more telling. He said that every GM candidate and every organisation has the philosophy, in theory, of QB / Oline / Dline. It's whether you practice what you preach.

I'm just at the part where Tepper said "Unless you can fix your audio we're done". That was a terrifying tone he took though.

First impression - he's not comfortable with public speaking. This is not a skill that's required for a GM.

A light fixture that's probably worth more than my house.

Tepper: worth $6bn, still sits too close to the camera for a Zoom call in a room with awful acoustics.

Can I have a job in the Front Office, please?

What value does Hurney bring? I'm serious - I've never been able to work out his skill set. It's not cap management, contract negotiations or talent evaluation.

I don't think he's ever been seen as 'the guy', besides by a certain bizarre portion of the fan base. He was signed as a steady QB to tide us over, who was young / talented enough to maybe become a long term answer. Unfortunately for Bridgewater his play dropped off down the stretch, post injury, which obviously frustrated Rhule. I'd be shocked if he sees the third year of that contract.

Dodds and Paton did in the last fortnight.

Reading between the lines this interview confirms what I thought - that a couple of candidates wanted a traditional GM role and were ruled out / ruled themselves out (Dodds/ Paton). Sounds like Fitterer sold Tepper on his experience in working under a similar model - albeit not quite the same (yet). I do wonder if Tepper also brought in a guy that Rhule wasn't familiar with because he didn't want Rhule to get too comfortable - especially in that three-way power structure.

It's not Madden - you have to try to compete. If we'd ran Allen / Grier / Walker out there last year I probably wouldn't have watched.