Bear Hands

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.

Nothing against the OP because there's some nice intent and perspective to the post (I suppose)

Patriots are apparently aggressively WR hunting... That is a situation I could totally see happening. They've got (2) 4ths, (2) 6ths and (2) 7ths next year

Totally. I'm less comparing them as players and using him as a reference point. I legitimately think Bryce is capable of being a better NFL QB than Kyler has been. Kyler has no clutch gene and doesn't seem to have a grip on the locker room, or much love for the game. Much different body types/strengths and weaknesses. Crazy to think-- but Kyler is at year 7 as a 1.01...38-48-1 on his career, 0-1 in the playoffs. He's somehow played well enough to keep it going but crazy to think he's barely even touched the playoffs. Hasn't done anything that special for the Cards. That's what you don't want to be stuck in. Cardinals are in softball purgatory with him.

Yep, pretty much this. The velocity gets lost when his mechanics slip into those habits. His shotgun "skip-hop" started fading a bit by year's end. This year, it was a high percent again to start, but last game, he was much more fundamentally in check. He played like that for so long, it's second nature that he's trying to shake out. I personally think he can be better than, let's say Kyler (BY being more clutch, less arm strength & tighter frame) if he can just understand what he needs to do to give himself that leverage in the pocket more.

Strongly disagree with the premise here. Without getting too into it, the biggest gripe for many has always been his footwork and pocket presence. Shallow drops, happy feet, bad awareness - his overall technique is highly unconventional and not beneficial to his size/frame. His upper body gets mad out of sync with his lower, drops back parallel to the LOS, erratic behavior. When you take that to the NFL level, you get swallowed up. And he got shellshocked and started bailing way too soon on plays. Unnecessary throwaways when he should step UP into the pocket and hit. He got away with it in school because sooo much of his work was out of structure or quick hits to Jamo. He was able to not bail early and stick in the pocket this last game. He also was dropping deeper than he usually does to create sight lanes. He can’t really outrun DLs so he needs to create that space via drop to survey properly. When he does these bs skip hops in the gun, he barely drops and is flooded. He needs to stay active with his feet but learn to step into the pocket more. His average arm when he’s not doing this right turns Pennington esque.

I legit contemplated having an "I'm a sassy apathetic fan doing my thang" choice

Danny Jones vs. Bryce Young is the SB no one knew they needed.

I will say, regardless of the fan typologies, having all the fandom, swimming in the misery for this long will make the next SB level squad feel more special than any prior. The mud in the NFL dungeon has hardened like a shell on this franchise. Maybe we'll see a break out and give everyone a different playing field to babble in.

I sorta get it, but I'm keeping this as is. 3rd option is where you sound to be. It can be opened. Don't see enough disparity between the two/would only muddy the poll.

That third is basically a closed but openable situation. 4th, full on closed and locked

I'd love to see it. Have always been a fan; too bad we didn't have our house in order to insert him into a good situation. With a non Rhule hire, could've had Baker, CMC, Moore at minimum in this place and never had the wheels fall off needing to restart and go trade bezerk.

Figured this would be interesting. It's well into year 3 -- Let's see who falls where

Baker?

The question I wonder involves putting the cost behind us. At this point he's here, so does the premium paid even matter anymore? It set expectations no doubt, and they weren't met. He's been bench-worthy bad, but he's come back and looked first average, above-average to maybe great, and then downright bad again. Now we're back on a good trend again. Absolute rollercoaster. So what level of performance deems him a viable option to hold? He's looked absolutely incapable of moving an offense at times, and others like a guy you can "Purdy" with some dimes sprinkled in. So, if he continues on this 2 game trend and shows consistent average to above-average play, we're treading into tricky territory. Such a big investment but he tops out as a top-15/20 QB option. It's Alex Smith KC type vibes. Are we going to be sitting at 7-10 come end of season and feel kind of meh? It's right at that fringe of what is worth it. If he doesn't re-sh*t the bed, we may be best suited to go BPA next draft and see the 2026 progression. And that will be the final make/break year. What I can see if he doesn't fall apart and things look manageable: He may end up being the average precursor to finding the great talent that you can build the team around. How Alex Smith was in KC. They built that with him (not around him) until they eventually got Mahomes. Heck, think back to Trent Green/Warner. So, BY can manage, we may get some success, but if a stud comes along, we bail and roll with the new gun.

Yeah was a bit hyperbolic. Just find it funny yet again, we're talking about who is genuine and virtuous in their opinions on Bryce.

I’m conflicted on locking vs seeing how this continues to spiral… could be entertaining