tukafan21

Ehhhhhh, yes and no Yes, I think people would still have had an issue with Bryce had we been able to make the trade while giving up less assets. I personally never liked him as a prospect because I have eyes and a brain. I never saw any film of him to where I looked at it and said, "now that's an NFL {insert attribute here}" He didn't have the speed, size, arm, strength.... nothing that screamed "he's an NFL player." If we stayed put at 9 and he fell to us, would I have been upset at taking the chance on him there? No, probably not, if a Heisman winner that many "experts" think has a mind that can overcome the rest of his issues falls to #9, sure, he's worth the risk at that point. I think that's why he got rave reviews in training camp, why he looked good at Alabama, and why he's able to look halfway decent in the 4th quarter of these already decided games. When he isn't facing a defense that is actively trying to attack him, he can make some magic happen. But if he has to rely on his speed, strength or arm strength to make plays, he's so far below average that he just can't do it at this level. It's why I never understood the pick, you can coach up players mentally, but you can't coach a player to grow 4 inches and put on 30 lbs of muscle. So in short, yes the trade is part of why people are so upset, but I don't think anyone would be happy with the player himself even if we were able to take him standing pat at #9.

He had 101 yards and 2 TDs in the 4th quarter yesterday after the Lions went into a shell prevent defense. He also had a garbage time TD and yardage in the Saints game as well. Stats never tell the full picture and Bryce's completion percentages (thanks to all the screens) and his yardage/TDs are not indicative of his actual play, but game situation. He's been AWFUL in the first 3 quarters of games so far, just beyond bad.

Huh? I wasn't saying that in the sense of "we needed to keep that 2025 1st to take a WR" My point was imagine if we still had DJ, but didn't have Burns or Brown, and in addition to not having our 2024 1st, we also didn't have our 2025 1st. Burns, 3 Firsts, and a Second would be so much of a worse situation right now than DJ, 2 Firsts and 2 Seconds. Honestly, mainly because it allows us the option in 2025 of either taking a new QB to move on from this mess, or getting a Top 10 pick at WR on a rookie deal to see if Bryce can fix it, and if not, then we use the 2026 1st on a new QB who comes in with an elite WR already on the squad. I hated giving up DJ, but I still think it was better than also losing our 2025 First. Especially if it was Burns in the deal, as he's likely to bring us back another First plus more in a trade. So in a way it would have been like giving up 4 Firsts in the trade, unfathomable.

Also could just be because Stroud has been getting rid of the ball before he can get sacked and/or is doing a better job at scrambling. Bryce keeps doing the Cam move, waits for the rush to get right on him and tries to spin away from the LOS to get outside the pocket to try and make a move. The problem is that Bryce is nowhere near as quick or strong as Cam, so he first can't get around the pass rusher before they get a hand on him (like Cam often could do) and then he's not strong enough to break the tackle (like Cam almost always could). Honestly, how many times has he been sacked this year while literally running away from the LOS? It's been far too many times for only being 4 games into his career.

I think the "average die hard fan" is actually better at a lot of things than actual HC's and GM's They put too much stock on studying the intricacies of film break down and trying to outsmart everyone instead of just reacting to what you're seeing in front of you. No, I'm not suggesting anyone on here would ACTUALLY be a better GM, but with certain things like evaluating Bryce, they put way too much stock into non actual on-field production/ability because they're trying to outsmart everyone else. They wanted to find the things that they could see turning him into a star instead of just seeing the glaringly obvious flaws that will keep him from being able to do that.

Our OL, even with it's struggles, is MILES better than what Houston is throwing out there so far this year. For much of their season so far, they haven't had any of their pre-season expected starters and some of their current starters were the backups of the backups in training camp. Their OL injuries are a literal worst case scenario and he's still balling.

I still think people keep getting the "we should have given Burns or Brown instead of DJ" analysis incorrectly. If I remember right, including Burns instead of either of the other two is what allowed us to give them a 2nd in 2025 instead of another 1st, that if it was either of the other two, we'd have needed to include that extra 1st rounder as well. The Bears knew they needed to get Fields a #1 WR and there wasn't one available in Free Agency and there wasn't any worthy of a Top 10 pick this year, it was their only way to get one. And as bad as it was giving up DJ, I think giving up Burns or Brown while also adding in ANOTHER 1st rounder would have been even worse.

They haven't and I pointed that out on here many times before we made the trade. A big trade up to take a QB has never worked as far as I'm aware, main reason is because if the available QB's were THAT good, the team who finished with the #1 pick would take that QB and trade their current QB instead of trading away the pick, like the Colts did with Luck/Manning. So teams are trading away far too many assets, whether they be picks or players, to take a prospect who wouldn't be the top QB taken in most years. It's a bad recipe that doesn't work out And before anyone points out the Mahomes trade, that is VERY different. First is that they didn't really give up a haul, they only gave up a 3rd and a future first to move up 17 spots in the draft, that's kinda a steal. Then Mahomes was anything but a can't miss prospect who landed with a team that was already contending in the AFC, with an elite coach, WR, and TE already in place while then letting him sit and learn for a year. The closest to it working out would probably be the RG3 trade, which really only failed because their coaches were dumb enough to play him in the playoffs on an already injured knee and it ended up ruining his career when he totally tore it up. So who knows how that would have played out, but when the closest time a trade like this has worked out is when the player won ROY and then fell off a cliff due to injuries, it's not something teams should keep trying to do.

If you're the #1 pick in the NFL draft as a QB, you're expected to be able to deal with the pressure of expectations Period. And if you can't, then you shouldn't have been the #1 pick Period. End of discussion.

Eh, I don't really agree with this, well at least depending on your definition of "playoff contender" If you mean it as "a QB away from being legitimate contenders once you get to the playoffs" then sure, you're right. But I think we were a QB away from contending for a playoff spot after last season. That's exactly when you make the move to go get your QB, as even if you don't make the playoffs in that first season with them, you're still supposed to be right on the edge and then moving forward you become legitimate SB contenders as the QB gains experience. I think our biggest problem (outside of how awful Bryce has been) has been the coaching staff, they took a team right on the edge of being solid and made them significantly worse. We were 7-10 last year and in theory, we brought back the same starter or upgraded the starter at all 22 starting positions outside of WR #1, and even then, we upgraded our WR as a whole compared to last season. Yes, injuries have hurt us, particularly on defense, but when you do all that to a 7-10 team, there is no reason to then be THIS bad, outside of the coaches doing something terribly wrong. Case and point... where in the flying fug has Chinn been? The guy is a legitimate player, he flies all over the field and makes plays, but we only put him out there for 1/3rd of the snaps because this staff can't figure out how to use him properly. I'm not saying the lack of Chinn's usage is the reason we're losing, but it's just one glaring example of how the coaches don't seem to know what they're doing. I hated the trade before the pick, I hated the trade after the pick, and I hate the trade now that we're seeing it play out. But none of that changes my feelings that we were a solid QB away from contending for the NFC South and we bet on the wrong staff and QB to get the job done.

Strongly disagree there He's a non guaranteed $1.4 million next year, I think that is actually very attractive to teams out there who would be interested in seeing if he's just been cursed by this terrible franchise not being able to develop any players the last few years. You get a guy who has shown flashes of ability, on a cheap contract, and out to prove he's better than he's shown to get a new deal. That's why I think he'd be someone the Bengals would be interested in with him having played at LSU with Burrow and Chase. They know they're losing Higgins after this year, trade us Higgins, a 1st, and a 3rd for Burns and TMJ. If anyone is going to unlock him, it's going to be putting him back with Burrow and Chase, then they also get him on the cheap for next year if it works out, if not, they can cut him at no cost. My only fear would be that Higgins would end up refusing to sign an extension here because of Bryce.

There's a couple really weird aspects about this whole thing. First is that if we don't make the trade, we're likely nowhere near the worst team in the league and thus wouldn't have even ended up with the #1 pick in the draft anyways. We'd have still had DJ, whoever we would have taken at 9, someone else in the 2nd, and ended up with like a Jacoby Brissett at QB, that's a better team than what we have right now. The other, is that the trade might end up being so bad that instead of setting us back 5-7 years, it actually might expedite the re-build and get it started sooner. If after year 2 or 3, we're in a position to draft a new QB, which we very well may be, then I think we do and the re-set starts sooner than the usually 4-5 year window that a high first round pick would usually get before the team tries to re-set. And honestly, I'm not seeing anything out of this team that says we won't be picking right back in the Top 5 in 2025 again. There really isn't much at all to be positive about with this team right now, at least not in terms of anything positive for the long term success of this franchise.

If Fields plays well enough the rest of the season to make them re-sign him as opposed to drafting Williams with out #1 pick, while I'm sure taking Harrison would be tempting, not sure they'd be able to turn down whatever is offered to them for #1 with a QB like Williams out there. What they could do is try to swap with whoever has #2 and get what they can out of them and still take Harrison, but not at #1, they'd be able to make what they got from us for Bryce look like peanuts.

They have played well the last couple weeks, it's going to get real interesting as the more we lose, the more Fields will be very much playing for his job and his future. He'll need to look REALLY good the rest of the season for the Bears to justify trading the top pick instead of taking Williams and then trading Fields to another QB needy team. Can't imagine what they'd get in trade for that pick though

Were back-to-back draft picks. Let that sink in........................

So we traded Caleb Williams, DJ Moore, 9th pick, 2024 2nd, and the best asset from the CMC trade for a QB who will need a special kind of OC to see any success in this league. #Winning

DJ is only the 3rd best WR in team history, don't you dare put him over Moose But when you put it like that, maybe he was just a Saints or Falcons plant to run our franchise into the ground.

I said it the other day, I'd try and trade Burns and TMJ to the Bengals for Higgins and a 1st, maybe a second pick in there as well. TMJ played at LSU with Burrow and Chase, and they looked pretty good today still without Higgins and Burrow still isn't even 100% yet. I think they might consider something like that

Just looked, Miami plays at Philly on SNF the following week. Outside chance they could look be looking ahead and instead of blowing us out by 40, only beat us by two touchdowns

Thanks for somehow making my night even more depressing, wow that would have been a hell of an offense

Burns will not play for the Panthers beyond 2023, I'd put it at a 5% chance, at best, and that's only because I don't want to say 0%. That we couldn't get a deal done with him before the season shows how far apart we had to have been with him and on the open market, someone absolutely will, because the entire league has seen the Panthers constantly mis-use stars and then watch them explode with their next team. Yes, we could franchise tag him, but he's not playing a down for us on the tag, not after how this has all gone. The time to trade for him is now because a pass rusher is what a lot of teams think will put them over the top, and the leverage is that multiple teams will want him. We'll get a 1st plus more for him, no doubt in my mind. So it just becomes who does Tepper want making the trade, Fitterer or Morgan, and that's what dictates how much longer Fitterer is around in my opinion

GM is different, I think a lot of qualified candidates would love the chance, even if they know Bryce is terrible as they'll expect a top pick soon to replace him. You also really never see GM's get fired quickly unless they really do something terrible, so you know you have more job security than a HC with a terrible team. Coaches sometimes only get 1 chance at a HC job and you can lose it in one year if you're THAT bad. So taking the risk on a terrible team can be shaky, as if you're so bad you get fired after 1 season, you generally don't get another shot at it. Which is why I think Reich gets 2 years minimum, the schedule does let up after the bye so I'm not expecting us to actually go 0-17, if we do, he might get fired, but that would really be the only way I think. But if there isn't significant improvement in year 2 under Reich, he might not last the full season and then a new coach can replace Bryce with the high draft pick in 2025.

It depends how much Tepper trusts Morgan to try and trade Burns. Because Burns has to go by the deadline at this point, just have to get the picks and can't risk him getting hurt to screw us in an offseason trade. So if he trusts Morgan, it likely will be either tomorrow or Sunday after the Miami game and then Morgan gets to do the trade. If he doesn't, he'll let Fitterer make his final move and then fire him after the trade deadline has passed in case there are other trades that need to be made by then. I'm hoping the former

That's crazy, we just got rolled by the Lions while they were missing some of their best players. How is Miami only a 10.5 point favorite at home and not even the biggest spread of the day? I'm surprised Bills/Giants is a bigger spread than our game and the KC/Denver. Broncos and Panthers are both worse than the Giants and the Bills are coming back from a long London trip

Anyone know what it might be? Have a feeling that we could break that record next week. @Miami, it ain’t gonna be pretty