Bear Hands

Most people that draft wanted Sewell and if not available, Slater was 1B. Fields, Devonta Smith and Parsons definitely had their contingents but plenty wanted to stay away. But not many were targeting DBs until it got leaked a few weeks before the draft that we were locked in on corners (Surtain & Horn) Interesting factoid though is Horn has caught up to Slater and has only played 7 less games than him. It's starting to look like a pick that was fine. It was a tough pill to swallow with his injuries but he seems to be on a good streak right now (knocking on the largest timber I can find)

I don't think there's much to even panic trade for which is the good news. Just from a numbers perspective with Bryce out, we will likely sign someone. Hooker is not good. Like at all. We're looking at probably Heinecke, CJ Beathard, Jake Fromm, etc.

We've got a ton of division games still on the schedule which are always chippy, and its where we could carve out a few more wins. But looking at the others, it's a pretty heavy hitting schedule. Bills and Pack have had some issues recently, but regardless, they're contenders. Bills, BOFA, Oct 26 Packers, at Lambeau Field, Nov 2 49ers, in SF, Nov 24 LA Rams, BOFA, Nov 30 Seahawks, BOFA, Dec 28 Is our expectation losses in all of these? Which one do y'all think we have the best shot against?

Stefan LeFors babay

Ricky Stanzi & Blaine Gabbert

This conversation can be had without Bryce even being involved. He's likely out next week, Dalton has been bad, and Hooker (as fun as his college highlights are), is not NFL quality. We likely need to pick up a FA. Heinecke is available...just saying

Dalton is shot at this point. We need to find a guy if Young is missing time. We're 4-3 and have some momentum. I'll throw out Jarrett Stidham or Tanner McKee.

Brown 2 sacks, Scourton 1.5, Princely 0.5 Good shiit

I was referencing at this point in the season

6 years!!

Honestly, given how the 2020s have been for this franchise, it doesn't matter what it looks like. We have a winning record after 7 games. Hasn't been the case since 2019 lol

Pie

win

If I had to parse it out, there's still a good to bad scale for both the centerpiece QB and complimentary types. The idea isn't that they're all elite, but have the traits so that the teams are built for them, rather than them just being inserted in. Some just don't lift the team enough, others do (Allen/Mahomes/etc.). But it can be a gradual process (not always instant) where maybe they started as complimentary early and grew into a stud the team eventually built around. Centerpiece: Josh Allen Patrick Mahomes Matthew Stafford Lamar Jackson Joe Burrow Justin Herbert Jayden Daniels Drake Maye Dak Prescott CJ Stroud Trevor Lawrence Caleb Williams Jordan Love Kyler Murray (worst of this bunch) Complimentary Brock Purdy Jalen Hurts Dillon Gabriel Tua Unsure So-far: Jaxon Dart Michael Penix JJ McCarthy Bo Nix Cam Ward Vet who was inserted and then sorta built-around: Jared Goff Baker Mayfield Sam Darnold Daniel Jones

Big boy Mays. Fun fact with him - he was a projected 1st round pick in 2021 when people were looking to the 2022 draft. Search and you will find. The Draft Network had him pegged as a top-10 at one point. He had to move around, he had some inconsistencies and it brought him down boards since people weren't viewing him as a LT anymore. Was in a gap heavy scheme at UGA and then zone heavy at TEN. He could be a good one.

He’s had some good moments in spots. I’d want to check back at his games to not speak completely out of my as$ but I have never got the sense he’s been able to execute that type of gunslinger play consistently or enough for me to think he is one. The best “gunslingers” types out there aren’t necessarily always retreating from the pocket on a whim. They’re still going through progressions. They are gritty and stick in it, getting dinged up when they need to and/or being elusive while still looking downfield. Bryce has been on a good trajectory the past two weeks behind a great supporting run game — still doesn’t negate that he needs to work on his pocket work to best effectively navigate the out of structure work at this level. It’s all about the drop backs, the spacing, staying active yet composed, not leaving a play too soon. His best work last week was stepping up into the pocket to find McMillan - that first TD to him was perrrrty.

Speaking generally to this whole thing— I would say taking a play out of structure too soon isn’t always the riskier option with a higher reward. You’re crashing the call and going out of structure when maybe you didn’t need to. Attempting a premature escape does not inherently have a high reward. But yeah, it’s risky ball. Especially when your not outpacing IDLs. Sometimes the higher risk/reward option is staying in a crowded pocket, not letting it break down, stepping up and making the big time throw. Now, if we’re saying it’s impossible to judge, and there’s so many factors, it’s a complicated position to evaluate, sure but then saying something with so much certainty that his biggest weakness is that he’s too aggressive — I don’t, I just don’t see that. Like at all. And nothing has really convinced me otherwise. You can’t just keep going on about how it’s so intricate and difficult to understand but be so certain about this one thing. And all that aside, pocket work, mechanics and footwork have been the flashing red sirens since day 1 more than physical traits (we drafted him knowing he was a historic outlier) - do we just not want to acknowledge it? It’s even been communicated straight from the horses mouth…the coaches and team saying what he needs to work on the most. I appreciate the perspective, but nothing here has convinced me Bryce is somehow this aggressive type. Still open, but I don’t see it

You gotta just keep rolling with what's been working. Hunt and Moton obviously get their spots back when healthy but Corbett? Nah dawg

When Smitty made the crazy PR, I thought we may had a slim shot, but just didn't have the firepower left. Our entire offense was Smitty down the stretch that year.

I'm speaking over the span since he started, isolated on our wins with him as a starter. There were a few games (I.E. Houston, Atl, etc. where we held then to under 15 points). But yes, our defense has been doodie, and they by no means have won us games outright. Not trying to say our defense won us those games. But some of their efforts helped combined with the run game.

Damn I'm losing my memory. I was still thinking 2005 -- that was the NFFC year, but you're right about 04 being injury crippled one. 05 was injury ridden towards the end at RB (which made me think we had more guys out)...but that was Smitty's triple crown year where he was NFL highlight reel to the max. If we were at full strength, we could've gone back to the SB IMO.

Yeah I was just doing the Jake thing because it was asked. Wasn't originally looking to compare Jake to Bryce. I was noting what I did to show the majority of Bryce's wins were largely propelled by a big run game and defensive efforts. There are only a few where he legitimately showed he could will the team down field, regardless of what we were doing on the ground. He's still making progress, not shutting him entirely out (I've been damn close). I think it's something to recognize because I think this type of trait is huge. If we're in an important game, someone goes down and he needs to pass to win. Well, we need to be able to comfortably look to him to do just that. Just haven't seen it yet.

I was thinking the NFCC year where we ran Nick Goings. Moose was out, all RBs, just depleted on offense.

Went back to check to see for context. Open to exploring the validity of my stat throwout-- Looking at Delhomme's core 3-year stretch (03-05): 2005 (our best team that just got crazy injured IMO) he had 5 wins w/200+ 5 as well in 2004 4 in 20023. And 122 in the second half of his Jags debut game. Section 336 represent! So that was 14 overall 200+ yard 1 TD+ game winning performances in his first 3 seasons. Bryce has 2 winning games where he passed for over 200 yards in nearly the same time frame. We have an extra game per season so we're not far off the total games. 7 to go to match. Currently, it's 2 (BY) vs. 14 (JD)

An interesting factoid to add some fuel back in here: In Bryce's 9 wins, he has eclipsed 200 passing yards in only 2 of them. Of those 9 wins, we averaged 156 rushing yards per.