Bear Hands

I’m gonna go out on a limb to say this bc he doesn’t get enough recognition — Hunt is the best player on our team and one of the most impactful locker room guys in the league.

I think he has been a huge reason for how things have changed. Even if the grades you find online aren’t world beating, he is proving to be worth it from what I’ve gathered and seen. And watching how different Miami looked last season without him helps see this as well.

Really hope he can lead this offense into a well tuned machine for 2025. Paving roads for Chuba, giving Bryce time to hook up with McMillan.

31 minutes ago, CRA said:

I will say, I do like what you did right here.  Independent of whatever yall are debating. 

lol

I love the hype this year, it’s been a while. But those Fox playoff predictions included the Colts and Cowboys clinching - yikes haha

FS is not the most valuable position these days, but it wouldn't hurt to see who could be had if it's an obvious upgrade. 

I just don't want to go for scraps.  Strange the Julian Blackmon was never signed, but there must be a reason.  

If we’re talking right now, there’s no single defensive player. There is no offensive skill position player. And no OL.

It comes down to Mahomes & Allen.

I wouldn’t trust Lamar. 

Oh internet

Here for the lively debate but don’t devolve into “you don’t know the game” stuff.

..with that PSA over, I lean more to the it was a mistake camp myself.  It wasn’t a good move. Many people reference Frazier but it is was a few guys. I thought Sainristil would have been perfect for us.

Although I will say, I don’t mind taking RBs high depending on the talent. It was him being injured and his talent relative to the other RBs in his tier that makes me less than thrilled about it. 

Scourton's interviews are telling to me that it's only a matter of time before he could really put it together.  His limitation tool-wise that I see is in his bend, but at the leaner size, it looks like it wasn't a problem at Purdue.  

He has a good moveset and reads leverages very well (vet level well).  Plays both the speed/quickness (great change of direction) and has a power game with good hand usage.  Moves from what I've seen in my digs:

I'm seeing cross-chop, fake crossers into bull, bull rush, spin (his preferred move of choice), hand shuck.  He's not unrefined by any means.  

If he can do 2 things---I'm feeling confident from seeing his interviews that we have a real dude on our hands:

1) Diversifying his moveset/how it's deployed - Over-reliant on some, but again, he has a growing palette.  And is already great with his hands so things are in-place to coach up.

2) Developing a counter moveset and starting to play the chess game with an OT - He's very good at reading leverage, knowing when to change things up during a play.  But NFL coaching should start to teach him how to really create a plan based on an opponent.  What to throw at a guy first, how to confuse with fakes/counters, etc.  How to play against these tackles as a game progresses.  

Overall, he has some things that give me serious optimism:

Run Defense, speed moves, power moves, he's super young and has the size/length.  When you really spell it all out, I think we should get excited.  Temper expectations from a stat sheet standpoint, but he should be able to go in and make an impact.  

7 minutes ago, WhoKnows said:

No kidding on the play the young guys. We have 0 chance to win it all and maybe a 10-20% chance at a first round playoff exit. Clowney isn’t a difference maker so let the young guys learn how to play in the NFL.

Yeah might as well give the young investments a clear path.  Depending on how things develop, we're setting ourselves up to be in a very solid spot for 2026.  

Per Adam Schefter:

https://x.com/AdamSchefter/status/1920523706624823739

Quote

Panthers placed RB Jonathon Brooks on the physically unable to perform list, meaning he now will be out for the 2025 season.

Expected, but just want to rub it in here.

XL working out really rounds out a complimentary room - McMillan is X, Legette can go slot or flanker — same with Coker. All dependent on what teams bring at us.

The nice thing is McM will warrant the CB1 and have him preoccupied.  So teams with lighter DB rooms will have an issue with Legette. Not to mention Coker will be a perfect valve who proved to have sticky hands. 

We theoretically should be able to carve defenses up pretty methodically. 

Still think adding a speedster to this mix instead of Thielen could round it out to the point where we’re a problem for teams. A Mims/Jamo type would be huge.

Thielen seems like a great presence but he’s nearing a point of only being so helpful on the field. Been a stand up dude here so no problems with him sticking this year, just hope it doesn’t limit Coker. 

PIT’s draft picks next year are looking more than plentiful.

With the OL they’re building (Jones, Frazier, McCormick, Fautanu all promising and very young), DK, & the Kaleb/Jaylen combo, they’ll be in a good spot to put a rookie QB in a sound position come 2026. They may look lost right now, but it will be corrected in short order. There’s a sequence to things there. 

If he pulls this out, he’s gonna get some great opportunities as a promo guy for GI medications. 

17 minutes ago, Navy_football said:

It's been mentioned in this thread, yet many are glossing over it...

This WR group has a ton of potential. TMAC, XL and Coker, and maybe even Horn as the speed guy will get a ton of snaps in this offense. The reality is that they are all really unproven. Hopefully they're ascending, but we don't know if XL and Coker are maxed out based on last season. TMAC and Horn are ROOKIES. So the only "proven vets" are Thielen, Moore and Renfrow. Not exactly top of the league. Biggest issue being a lack of speed to take the top off of defenses. Say what you want about Tedd Ginn but he was probably the most important receiver on the team in 2015.

We’ve seen plenty of late round WRs come and go so I don’t have much stock in Horn. He’s definitely a wait and see/maybe he surprises.

Looks fun, but then you consider the history with Gettis, T Godwin, Pilares, etc. I’m gonna hold my breathe haha

I’m optimistic but I’m setting an expectation that he could revert at times…there could be ruts where he looks pretty bad again. The Reich year and the first two last is hard to unsee.

His play needs to show us this year that we have no questions at QB. If he is looking questionable during/after a 3rd season, then we absolutely should be looking around. I just pray we don’t fall into the dead zone where he looks slightly above average, we still don’t sniff the playoffs but the org will be willing to commit in 2026. 

5 minutes ago, rayzor said:

seems like he wasn't quite himself when he came back from landing on his head. like his confidence wasn't 100%. hoping it is, though. 

we've got a lot of potential here. i really like our TE room right now. RB corps is stacked. WR doesn't look too shabby either. and we are going to see some good things from BY too. 

He was back in a groove for the finale. He had some critical catches in that win and kept drives going. I think he could surprise some this year. Not some monster stat book, but he could have a very respectable year and provide key plays throughout. 

Only 3 guys have given us 20+ TD seasons in the 30+ years this team has existed. 

It would be nice to see again. If his play is progressing and consistent, I think a 20 TD, 10 INT type season just shy of 4k yards would be an expectation to have.

Beyond stats, I just was to see him have us in the wildcard race. Even if we miss out, would be fun to see us fighting for a spot until week 17-18 come around. Would be nice to have meaningful games in Nov-Dec again.

Anyone know if his middle name starts with an "i"? Because then it's pretty obvious lol

I won’t pretend to know his game well but did select him in R4-5 a fair amount in PFF mock drafts haha. Score!

Geez people, it's nicknames.  People naturally shorten names, so it will happen.  Morgan even did it in his presser.  It's not disrespectful, it's just people doing the single syllable shortening.  I personally am just going between McMillan and Tmac, but wgaf about policing how others address him.  

I had a name that could be shortened into an annoying one growing up..I didn't raise a stink even though I hated it.  You can't dictate your own nicknames.     

People will call him what they call him, again wgaf.    I think the current trendy way to put this is "let them", as all the suburban women are saying these days lol.  

39 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I really hope XL comes around, but man I really wanted Ladd McConkey at that spot. But my #2 wish at that spot was Jalynn Polk and he looked completely lost on an NFL field as a rookie so there's that too. LOL 

Yeah I was sold on all the Husky receivers,

Polk didn’t just hit a rookie wall, he was barely able to get to the wall to attempt to make it over lol. Both him and that over the top UCF WR were hyped and fell flat on their faces. 

45 minutes ago, rebelrouser said:

Last year's draft sucked. I get it has just been a year but trading up after six wr's were already taken was stupid as was trading up to take an injured rb.   

Most of our recent drafts had a bad taste for a variety of reasons. This one is at least refreshing from a value and perception standpoint.

-Legette was ~60-80 on many big boards (and reportedly on actual team boards), not to mention passing on Ladd and DeJean for him. And we traded up!

-And then moving back and then trading up again, overpursuing Brooks when we could have landed Sainristil, Frazier, etc. Guys who were obvious fits.

-Prior year, sure we landed Bryce and felt promise, but both Mingo and DJJ felt like major reaches on capital gained from CMC. Just felt like duds even before we saw how they were shaping out. Missed out on great prospects like Tuli, Brents or Byron Young.

This year, we landed guys that just slipped from other teams reaching, tapped into the value stream that still aligned with our needs. We didn’t reach, but we stayed aggressive to pursue fits.

Yeah Scourton is exciting for more than a few reasons. I don’t want to set too high of expectations, but I really can see him getting a lot of snaps from the get go. 

He seems more ready to go than most edge prospects in this class. No injury concerns, no undersized edge setting concerns, he fits a starting role and if he wants it, it’s his to grab and run with.

I see we’re at the stage where everyone is trying to showcase how OG they are lol.