tukafan21

If the Vikings are legitimately interested in Rodgers, it tells me that the team has real concerns about McCarthy being ready for the start of the season. Re-signing Darnold just doesn't make sense for Darnold, even if he knows McCarthy won't be ready to start the season, as the Vikings wouldn't be signing him to a long term deal, which he can get this year, no reason to take another 1 year deal just to hope he plays well enough again to get it next year. If the Vikings still believe in McCarthy but that he won't be ready for the start of the season, going with someone like Daniel Jones wouldn't really make a ton of sense either, not if they still want to compete for the division. So yea, someone like Rodgers, who likely only has 1 year left anyways and already said he is open to mentoring a young QB, makes a ton of sense.

Love the player, hate him being 29 and coming off another injury. Realistically he has 1-2 years of great play left in him, just doesn't fit with where we are at right now, our best case of getting into contention wouldn't happen until after he's no longer a great WR. If he was even 2 years younger, I'd be all for it, but that age plus injury, just doesn't seem like the right move for us right now.

The contracts have absolutely nothing to do with tickets, merchandise, concessions, etc. This isn't MLB where teams need to make more money to pay the absurd contracts some teams give out, it's a hard cap league that is dictated by the leagues revenue, namely the TV contracts. Increases in costs are from a combined factors of inflation and greed, which yes, it does cause some to lose interest, but it has nothing to do with the ever increasing massive contracts.

Hell no... saying Pickens is a headcase is beyond an understatement, zero interest in bringing those type of players into the franchise right now, we're still working on re-setting the culture and locker room, no place for guys like him, talent aside.

Actually very surprised by this, really figured he'd just end up following Rodgers wherever he went, makes me wonder if this means Rodgers is going to end up retiring and he's already told Adams

Teams can't talk to upcoming Free Agents because of expiring contracts, but they are allowed to talk to, and maybe even already sign, players who are free agents because they got cut by other teams.

And again, as I've said multiple times, the elite of the elite OL, like Thuney, are able to play into their mid to late 30's these days, because even as they get a step slower, they're good enough through all the other facets of their game to make up for it. But you just want to ignore that because of "the odds." He also had another year left on his deal, which if I'm KC, if the best I can get is a 4th rounder 2 years from now, I'm just keeping him for the final year and letting him go in FA the next offseason to then pick up a comp pick that could even end up being a 3rd rounder in that same 2026 draft anyways. And you say he's a 33 year old with a big contract, but he actually had a very reasonable cap hit next year of only $16 million it looks like, which for a player of his caliber, is more than worth it and not something they could replace with comparable game play, the guy was literally a 1st team all pro this past season. If you staunchly believe he's going to fall off a cliff next year, that's different, but this guy was just voted the team MVP by the Chiefs players, on a team with Mahomes, Chris Jones, and Kelce, while having the highest pass block rate of any lineman in the league over the last 2 seasons. There's been nothing about him that says he's about to fall off a cliff, you're saying this is a stroke of genius based on the expected decline of OL in their 30's, something Thuney is more likely than not, to avoid in the manner you're referring to it. As even if he falls off a tiny bit, he's still producing at a level above a $16M cap hit next year.

Again, less about moving on from him and more about what they got in return to move on from him. I have to imagine some team out there in a win now mode would have given up better than a 2026 4th rounder for him if one of their only holes was on the OL. When you combine it with them losing a 1st team all pro at a position they were already weak on this past year, then yea, it's just a really weird trade to me, and nothing close to the master stroke of a move you seem to think it is.

It's not about average age, it's that the true elite linemen these days tend to play at a high level into their late 30's, and he was a 1st team All Pro this past year, while playing out of position for much of it when they mo0ved him to LT, he really should have a good 3-5 years of elite play left in him. For a team that had pass protection issues, I think a future 4th rounder is a pittance in return for a player like that.

I wasn’t asking why KC would trade him, it was more of why they only got a 4th rounder for him (although a team who had issues protecting their QB last year now trading their best OL, contract issue aside, is also a tad odd) An OL of his caliber, even at his age, should still be elite through another contract, I’m just shocked that a future 4th was the best they could get.

I know he needs a new contract and is 32, but a future 4th round pick for an All Pro guard who was just voted team MVP by the team who was just in their 3rd straight SB?!?!?! Make it make sense

Love the idea of going after DK, but with a caveat that may or may not be popular around here. If we trade for DK, we should trade away XL They're basically the same type of player, except DK is really good and XL is really raw. While you could say XL can learn from DK, they still play the same type of game and having them both would be duplication rather than complimentary.

Again though, it's not hiding, it's just what most projected Top 10 picks do these days, they don't do anything at the combine other than interviews and medical stuff and then do their timings and drills at their Pro Day. Plus, if he really does the Big 12 one too, that means he'll still do 2 testings between that and his Pro Day, what difference does it make if he does that vs this Combine and the Pro Day like others do? Let's call it what it is, he's a player our fans know we'll consider and they want his numbers NOW, not a month from now, LOL And here you go, and with Arizona only joining the conference this year and it only being done once before, I also had no idea this was a thing until last night when I saw he wasn't going to be doing the drills today https://big12sports.com/news/2025/2/27/football-big-12-pro-day-returns-to-the-star-in-frisco.aspx

I didn't even know this until yesterday when I heard T-Mac wasn't doing the combine, but apparently the Big 12 started their own combine last year and it was a huge success. And because of it a lot of Big 12 guys skipped the testing at this combine but are planning on doing in in a few weeks at the Big 12's. I'm not sure exactly why, maybe it has to do with the other story about there being a new field in Indy that some players felt hindered them, maybe it's just to give them a few more weeks to work on the drills to improve their times. Shedeur, Hunter, and T-Mac are all supposed to be doing the drills and timing at that from what I've read, guess we'll see if that holds up.

Not sure that's really the case, I think it's more because it gives them extra time to practice it, and for something like the 40, even just an extra few weeks can be enough to shave .03-.04 seconds off your time and go from a 4.52 to a 4.48. As I've said before in why I don't like using 40 times to change opinions of players, unless they also have a track history, starting the 40 needing to come out of a track stance can be very odd for non DL (since that's more or less their starting position in games anyways). Even spending the last 2 months working on it, getting an extra few weeks can still help give you a better time and the Top 10-15 type of picks would rather put up one good time than one good and one questionable.

Yea not sure, but it's like I've always said about him, yes it takes him a few strides to really get up to speed, but once he's moving, he's MORE than fast enough to be an elite WR given his size. The speed he hit at some point during his first 2 years (haven't seen any data from this past season) was I think 20.8 MPH, which would have been I think 8th fastest speed hit in the NFL this past season. I'm still convinced the people who don't think he has the speed/quickness necessary have only watched his short highlight reels that consist of his craziest contested catches. As I've also said, he was 5th in the Big 12 in YAC, he's way better after the catch than you'd expect for a player of his size. It's all a trade off due to his size, you lose the track star immediate speed, but you gain the catch radius that comes with him.

Again, he's not NOT running the 40, he's just not doing it at the combine, which has more or less been standard practice for most Top 10-15 picks over the last decade or so. If he was trying to not run, he wouldn't be doing the drills at the Big 12 combine and/or pro day, he'd say he has a tweaked ankle or something to avoid running a slow time.

You realize he's not hiding from his speed, he's just not doing the events at the combine like a lot (most?) Top 10 picks generally don't do these days. From what I've seen, he's planning on doing the drills at the Big 12 Combine at the end of the month as well as at his Pro Day.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/why-are-players-slipping-at-the-2025-nfl-combine-behind-the-new-turf-field-pellets-at-lucas-oil-stadium/ Whether it's also slowing down some players times isn't for me to say or not, but they do have a new field that in theory should slow players down ever so slightly based on this article, it makes sense.

I don't know how true this is, but I read there were some concerns from some players over the field at the combine. I guess they recently put in a new turf and some players felt like it was slowing them down and was the reason behind some guys deciding not to do the testing and waiting for their Pro Days (or in the case of Big 12 guys, the Big 12 Combine they're putting on in a few weeks)

You guys realize when he talks about what he's looking for at the combine, he's more than likely NOT talking about our 1st pick where it's already a very limited pool of players they're looking at with that pick. It's more about looking at the other 300+ players and finding the guys they want to take a better look at in the middle rounds to fill out the roster with players we hope can become impact players for us.

I totally get it, but drafting players based on athletic ability and trying to project who they may become as they lose a step is a HORRIBLE way to draft players, it's how you end up with the Mingo's of the world Outside of players with pre-existing health concerns, you can't draft based on who they might become in 5-7 years after they get worn down, you draft them for who you think they can become as a player and you hope they can stay healthy. College Nick Foles is always someone I look back on when talking about practice vs games. When he transferred to Arizona, he lost the starting QB spot in camp/practice, and badly so, to the point where it wasn't even close. After a few games of the starter struggling, he got his shot, ran away with the job, set basically every Arizona passing record, was a 3rd round pick, ended up winning a SB and making a ton of money. But even for his 3 years in college, it was a constant discussion point about how he was terrible in practice, even as a Senior when he was years long entrenched as our starter, it was talked about how bad he was in practice for some reason. I realize that's one extreme example, but it's always stuck with me when talking about how some players are just gamers, and when it's a real game, for whatever reason, they just play differently.

And that's totally fair. But every year, you see fans (and analysts, as well as teams) talk about how their opinions change on players coming out of the combine, and it just bothers me. Again, 30 years ago, before HD cameras and before there was dedicated cameras for every player/position on the field to properly and easily view every snap a player had in college, those things made more sense to me to use when evaluating players. When some players you only had the TV and All 22 angles to go on with crappy pre-HD cameras, then yea, you needed more things like the combine to help evaluate them. So I just get a little ruffled when I see people talking about changing opinions based on combine testing results. If someone wants to say, "I finally got around to watching more film on X player and it changed my opinion because of Y or Z" then I'm totally fine with that of course.

My issue with the RAS score is that it's based on these combine tests, which as I've said numerous times, I despise. Even beyond them not wearing pads or doing actual football drills/skills, players don't practice and play in games the same way. Some guys are just gamers, who won't ever test well for whatever reason, but crush it on the field, just as some are the opposite and are workout warriors who look like 1st ballot HOFers Monday thru Saturday but are replacement level players on game day. So losing a step on your 40 yard dash because of injuries doesn't bother me when that player might just be a gamer, who when the lights are on, the adrenaline takes over and they just play at a different speed. Whether it's actual running speed or even just processing speed, it's a thing that some players translate differently to actual games.

It wasn't a specific statement about this draft or anything Morgan has said, it's that this franchise and fan base has fallen in love with high RAS score athletes for the last decade or so and put far too much weight behind pure athletic ability instead of actual football impact.