WhoKnows

All 3 of them played in the playoffs. Tua is 38-24. We are 24-60 since Tua’s been in the league. Lol at Luck being a bad pick. I love Cam but Luck has more playoff wins and more pro bowls even with his injuries, missed years and early retirement. How about the Texans trading away their stars for a bunch of firsts and starting Davis Mills for two years to get the #2 pick with no trade up and selecting Stroud? See, if you pick the right QB it can work.

Both Rams 1st rounders would have been Morgan’s picks. Also, if we didn’t have to trade the boat for Young, the 1st overall pick we gave away would have also been Morgan’s pick as Fitterer tied his future to Young and Young’s rookie year with Reich was going to tank Fitterer regardless. There would be no excuse to keep him longer. Also am I in the twilight zone here? Should have sold off all our talent? Are Moore, Burns and CMC still on the roster now? I feel like I would have noticed them last season.

Seriously? A CB who missed all that time on his rookie deal and was also a top 10 pick when the guys picked right before and after have been studs. A RB our GMs tried to replace with FAs and 2nd rounders and two backup level players is one of the best drafts we’ve ever had? I’d argue that the 2011/2012 drafts were better even with just Cam and Luke/Norman. Here’s the drafts I think were better: 2017, maybe 2018, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2012, 2008, 2007, 2001, 2002 (just Pepp) I’m hoping 2025 is way better as well. Honestly, we’ve kind of sucked at drafting overall and that’s the only reason you can even remotely call Horn, Hubbard, Tremble and BC a good draft let alone one of our best ever. Good teams that draft well would laugh at that as a great draft. If you want to look at say the 2023 Lions draft, you’d get 4 stud/above average/average starters not just 3 replaceable starters/backups and a top 10 pick that missed half his games. That’s a draft that helps turn a team into a playoff team. Our record since our 2021 draft is 19-49. A best ever draft doesn’t go 19-49.

It’s not even the players they got. Pick wise, they got a massive haul for us to jump from 9 to 1 when Young was so risky. If we took Stroud, I’d feel a bit differently but that haul for Young was not good for us. The fact that the Bears may not have drafted great is not the point. They could have taken Jayden Daniels and Jalen Carter and we’d be having nightmares over the trade.

Fees nowadays are ridiculous. After purchasing concert tickets for my son’s 18th birthday and paying the rest of our HHI trip with 3 other families, I’m shocked at how much they are. Honestly, it’s grand theft. Some is taxes but in a world where everything is electronic, fees should be cheaper. Electrons don’t cost 10-30% of the event.

Nope, that’s not the disconnect. In 2022, our GM knew he was going QB in the 2023 draft. You are talking about risking fans involvement on a team that’s been basically bottom 3 in the NFL from 2018 to now. There is no risk when you are that bad. We were right to want Fitterer to tank in 2022 and get rid of anyone who could bring us big value and extra cap room for future years when we aren’t winning 2-7 wins a year. We knew we wanted a rookie QB so we didn’t trade assets for picks and get a better draft slot so we ended up only getting a 2nd for Burns and threw in DJ Moore plus an early 2nd instead of a 1st, which basically lost us an early 2nd. The “risk” to our franchise’s losing culture ended up being around 4 1sts of total value. Yep, I refuse to listen to the other perspective that lost us around 4 1sts of value. At least our fan involvement is so high that our stadium isn’t chock full of visiting fans since we’ve won so much since 2022. Again, you won’t change my mind that we should have tanked in 2022 and had another 2-4 Browns/Horns on this team.

It can happen but it’s nothing like the NBA. One player doesn’t make the difference in the NFL that one player can in the NBA. Also, there are just not the same amount of trades and even opportunities. Because the NFL isn’t just one stud away, you don’t get a lot of opportunities like Miami did with Tua or the Jets did with Zach Wilson. Both teams got multiple 1sts for players they traded (Jets had 5 1sts in 2021-2022 and Miami had 5 1sts in 2020-2021) and both got top 5 picks to select a QB. They both made some good and bad picks but Miami turned Tua into multiple playoff appearances even though Tua isn’t elite. Wilson was just so bad that the Jets still sucked. We had our opportunity in 2022 where we would have had 6 1sts and 4 2nds in 2023-2025 and probably had a top 5 pick in 2023 or 2024 for a QB without trading up. Unfortunately, Fitterer didn’t have the foresight to realize a full rebuild was necessary and when a team offers you 2 1sts and a 2nd for a non-QB like Tunsil and Burns, you take it. One thing I wish trades had in the NFL that they have in the NBA is protected picks. A moron like Fitterer could have a top 5 protected pick so his terrible GMing doesn’t accidentally give the Bears the #1 overall pick because the moron Fitterer incorrectly thought we were 1 player away from the playoffs.

Honestly, feels like our home games are much harder. Ignore the division games. Home will be Dallas (I know, but they had our number last year), Buffalo, Miami, Rams and Seahawks. Road is Jax, Jets, Arizona, New England and Green Bay.

Again, the front office isn’t playing. Doug Pederson aside, tanking has nothing to do with players and coaches. The black Sox weren’t tanking, they were point shaving if you will. They got money to lose. Tanking is all about the FO getting better future assets in reward for making their team weaker. Tanking for a draft pick slot or tanking to get a young prospect or tanking to get future picks. Again, no playing to lose but there absolutely aren’t hundreds of examples of trading away talent for future picks and prospects which invariably makes your current team worse thus bettering your draft pick slot (potentially, no guarantees).

Dude, I’m sorry but I don’t get your worries about this magical culture and fan involvement. We’ve sucked balls since 2018 because we actually did what you want to do. Limp along and try to win as many games as possible without actually being good. All that does is cause the same problems you didn’t want to gamble on happening. Well, they did what you wanted and what did we get for it? 7 drafts and Young, Horn and Brown, not exactly a SB winning core. We haven’t won more than 7 games since 2017 and you are worried about risking our culture, etc.? That’s silly. Cam and Luke have been gone for 5+ years now. We finally had a draft in 2025 where we actually had our full allotment of picks. We absolutely screwed up by not going full rebuild. Texans did in the same window and they’ve been to the playoffs multiple times and have a much better team. Any fan issues now in Houston even with the Watson massage debacle? I will separate this statement because I get annoyed at back seat driving type comments. Many of us like minded draft followers and GM and wannabes said that we should have tanked in 2022 and traded every guy where teams offered quality picks. You might not like it, but we were 100% correct. Sure, Fitterer might have pissed them away but the Rams 2024/2025 1sts would have been Morgan’s picks. You also have to rebuild through the draft, period, which is why bad teams try build up picks, not trade them all away or don’t take hauls when available. There’s not one team that rebuilt through FA and was successful. It doesn’t exist because the key guys (Eagles OL/DL, Hurts, Mahomes, Kelce, Chris Jones) on Super Bowl teams (Kuechly, TD, Cam) are drafted. I grew up in CT and I went to Pats games when people handed you stacks of free tickets in the parking lot because no one wanted to go to their games. One QB and a bunch of solid OL/D picks and they were a different franchise. We can only hope that Canales is the right coach and that 2025 is the start of drafting well. If I’m being objective, we’ve still got a ways to go.

I’m not suggesting that tanking is the right thing to do every time. I do think that if you have guys like Burns and Moore that you will trade anyway, then you should think about tanking and getting max value, especially if you want to grab a QB that might go 1st overall. We tried to do both. Trade CMC for picks but don’t take 3 1sts and a 2nd for Burns and Moore. Instead, we won a few games and then threw in Moore on a trade because we didn’t tank and we gave Burns away for a 2nd. Can you honestly say that fully tanking, by trading away all our best guys who weren’t in future plans, in 2022 wouldn’t have made our team better now? We wanted a rookie QB and we didn’t extend the main guy we didn’t want to trade. We were 100% in full tear down and we could have been a playoff team last year if we used the 4 extra 1sts or 3 1sts and 2 2nds (counting picks saved on Young by being pick 3 or 4 not 9) on D. Culture building is funny. It took three coaching changes to seemingly get there. Morgan and Canales weren’t in charge when we “protected” our culture. We still traded Burns and Moore, we just lost 3 first round picks in the process. Also, do you think the Eagles are in a bad place because of their coach clearly tanking a game for a draft pick? Remember that? It was obvious and the coach was fired. The funny thing is that this is something teams do all the time but they add their stars (like Cam in 2016, CMC, Burns, etc.) to IR or rest them in week 16/17. Pederson was just dumb and made it obvious. He could have just sat his starters to start. Anyway, did that incident tank risk their credibility? Did Barkley decide to not sign with them? Seems like their SB win and other SB visit say they are just fine. Winning makes culture, picking the right coach makes culture, trading away guys who are on other teams in a year for top picks and keeping more picks by having a better starting pick to trade up, does not impact culture. If it helps you win, culture will be fine, ask the Eagles.

I don’t know why the tanking concept is not understood. Coaches and players are not involved at all. It’s always the front office. If we had actually traded players like we should have back in 2022, we would have effectively tanked and gotten a better pick than 9 so we lost all the draft picks to get Young. We traded CMC. We should have traded Burns for the haul and taken GB’s offer of a 1st for Moore. We could have easily traded anyone else. We see it in every sport, every year. Trade deadlines where bad teams give up current assets for future assets. Unfortunately, we were stupid and decided we only wanted to trade CMC for peanuts even though we clearly had a plan to go after Young. We were dumb and there is no way you can tell me that we shouldn’t have tanked via trading away Burns, Moore and anyone else. We’d be a much better team right now had we had a fire sale and tanked the 2022 season. Trading away your top players for future draft picks or prospects (baseball) is tanking. Shoeless Joe and the black Sox is not tanking. That’s point shaving/betting on your sport/team. Again, I just don’t get why this concept is so hard to get when MLB, NFL and NBA teams trade players for future assets every single year and usually end up with better draft slots (or at least odds since Hornets never win the lottery).

I easily believe the lottery is rigged. Dallas trades Luka to the Lakers to keep an aging Lakers relevant and surprise, beats the 1.8% odds. San Antonio has to be one of the luckiest stories and of course they got a big man after their history of big men (Robinson and Duncan). Cleveland gets LeBron. Sucks yet again for the Hornets losing ground on the odds to miss out on Flagg and even the easy top 3.

Here in lies the rub that the supporting posters continue to ignore. He wasn’t a 2nd round pick in the 2025 class, especially with an ACL tear. It was a dumb pick for any GM who looks ahead to determine values. C and CB were much better values than an injured RB in 2024. If a RB isn’t even playing much in 2024, you have to compare him to 2025. We’re beating a dead horse but only because the defense of the pick is almost comical at this point. We’ve made a ton of poo picks and moves/non trades while Morgan was GM and the assistant GM. It happens, we don’t have to jump through hoops to act like we just had some really bad luck. The 2025 draft class is unknown so far but damn it felt way better afterwards for the first time in a long time. Embrace the potential and stop stamping guaranteed on the box of poo of the 2018-2024 drafts. We are were we aware because of them and 2025 has to hit so we can get past the 7 win max in 7 year hurdle. Also, “flashed his talent” isn’t 9 carries for 22 yards. His one reception for 18 yards isn’t a flash with 11 other touches for 27 yards. He hasn’t proven anything. We have no idea if he’ll contribute in 2026.

Jalen Carter came into camp out of shape too. That was part of the reason he dropped considering he was thought of as the better defensive player pre-draft activities. It’s not a good sign when you don’t look great but it’s definitely premature.

If you go on the PUP list before the season starts, you are gone for the year. If you start the year on the PUP list then you can get off of it. Kind of semantics, but we are putting him on the PUP list now which is before week 1, that’s why people who come off of it aren’t really on the PUP list until week 1, hence you usually hear right before the season that they are “starting the year” on the PUP list. I think PUP list and IR may basically be the serve the same purpose now because you also sometimes hear that if a player is added to the IR before week 1 that they aren’t eligible to come off the IR list for the entire year. Now, everyone added to IR (post week 1) can come off after 4 (or more) games so the PUP list is meaningless since it’s 6 games and starts at week 1. Anyone added to PUP or IR in the preseason is gone for the year.

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.

Yep. Thats why it never made sense. He was most likely out for most of 2025 and he was an injury risk and the 2025 RB class was loaded and the 2024 RB class was not. All signs pointed to an obvious don’t buy high on a 3 year (2 now) rookie deal when you can buy low with no injury risk on a 4 year rookie deal the next draft.

Yeah, kind of weird since we had Kalil anchoring the OL for so long. I assume they like the Cincy guard and plan to use him as the 3rd C (behind Mays). Maybe Mays just showed more so no point in keeping Rahm.

I was going to mention this since Brooks is officially out for 2025, basically a roster move and he’ll be like an additional draft pick in 2026 barring a shower accident.

I thought the same thing. It was a really weird list. I thought it was going to be top values but it wasn’t. Basically, they are saying we made a bad 1st round pick and our 2nd round pick wasn’t even in the top 100. That doesn’t feel like love. It feels like someone perused the list and saw 4 of our picks in the top 100 and skipped the content for each player.

Completely disagree. Being a contested catch monster like TMac is absolutely athleticism. WRs don’t just magically learn that. You’ll hear about it when people say he’s got great body control and snatches the ball away from defenders. That’s not learned. Same with body catching versus hand catching at 24+. At this point, you are who you are. You can improve a bit but someone like Amon-Ra St. Brown has been on his Jugs machines probably a couple hundred thousand times more than XL has been. You can’t just learn that in an offseason. Oh well, the blind faith in XL is impressive. It’s like I’m talking bad about Steve Smith in his prime.

McConkey played on a different team than Legette did. There was no one else on SC except Legette. Anyway, the point was that people are assuming XL is ultra talented and he’ll improve and I don’t agree. I was pointing out how he did well against mediocre to bad teams and did meh against good teams, so assuming he’ll be a 1000 yarder breakout is premature IMHO. I think Coker, Thielen and TMac will get the bulk of WR snaps. I wanted McConkey for his separation ability, simple as that and he seemingly confirmed what a lot of us in here thought. Also, we’ve been down this road with TMJ and Mingo and people in here predicting 1000 yarder seasons.

His YPR was about 10. He got tons of short passes. Thielen and Coker had much higher YPT and also had much higher catch %s. The numbers don’t reflect what you are asserting. It would be awesome if XL just snapped and was amazing. I just don’t think it will happen because I don’t think he’s going to get as many opportunities or get passes for drops. We’ll see how it goes. I’m not expecting playoffs this year. Too many IFs and a lot of still very young players we are counting on to be good.

I’m not too critical, he was close to 100 targets. I don’t know if drops weren’t an issue but he had one season so it’s hard to extrapolate. He had 7 games of 94+ yards his only big season. He did that against Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Furman, UNC, Florida and Jacksonville St. he had 71 yards or less against Georgia, Tennessee, Clemson, Texas A&M and Missouri. Basically, good games against teams under .500 in the SEC and the meh OOC teams and meh games against the .500 or better in the SEC and Clemson. I wanted McConkey so maybe I am jaded a bit but we have 3 WRs better than him right now on the roster and maybe more if another rookie flashes. I don’t think they will limit him as much as he’s got to step up his game to earn anywhere near the targets he had last year.