WhoKnows

We don’t need yet another can’t separate guy. Personally, I hope we don’t have a crush. That’s Marty (post round 1) and Scott all over again. How about we evaluate all the late first/early 3rd WRs and figure which ones we don’t want and then rank the rest. We’ve done so poorly drafting since 2017, our last actual draft with multiple good starters and 4 players still contributing at a high level 7 years later. C’mon Dan, please get us a good draft that will still look good after this season.

What has Morgan done that different so far? Other than guard prices having gone through the roof for the entire NFL, Fitterer twice signed a couple of FA OL (I’m happier with the current two but we also spent a lot more), Fitterer also went after Jax castoffs, Fitterer got little value for traded vets, and Fitterer filled all the holes before the draft so we could draft BPA. Now, for Morgan, the players he gets are the key. If he drafts well, he’s not Scott immediately but if he doesn’t, we haven’t increased our talent level that much considering some of our losses. I’m still waiting for the draft because that’s truly where Fitterer selected and traded our way to the bottom but I can honestly say that I don’t feel like this offseason has been a 180 from typical.

Man, they did have a playoff game/win recently but the Browns are still firmly the Browns. The Watson trade cemented it and this is just icing on the cake. They still have some good players from all the early 1st round picks they built up but damn they are terribly run.

It’s where we are as well. Burns could have had 12.5 sacks again and I would have still wanted the trade. Look at all the “Morgan has one more move to make and he’s won the offseason” posts in here. We are better at the guard positions. We lost Burns. We added Diontae Johnson. We lost Luvu, YGM and Bell. We get some level of Shaq back and some other guys. We were a couple kicks away from 0-17. Maybe it’s just me but I’m not feeling special this year especially because I don’t feel Young has it anyway. I like some of the moves but I also think we need to hit the draft huge to get back to even 2017 competitiveness. Redoing the 2022 trade moves/not moves would have helped and while I like Brown, I know he’s not winning the SB. Getting 3 above average starters for him would be awesome. Rams 2024 pick is 19. Here’s a smattering of guys picked at 19 or a few picks later the past few years: DJ Moore, JJefferson, Flowers, Addison, Kincaid, McDuffie, Paye, Etienne, Aiyuk, Love, Simmons, Jacobs, Brown, Sweat and a variety of starting OL. Actually seems like a sweet spot for OL and WR looking back at that early 20s pick range.

Geez, I honestly didn’t think he was that old. If he’s really cheap. His stats aren’t impressive at all for playing on a high volume passing team. Reminds me of DJ Chark with the one good year but when you get 113 targets, you should get 1000 yards. As a WR3, sure, but he better be damn cheap otherwise it’s a waste of cap that a rookie WR would be better value. Also, there’s a chance that the rookie becomes a stud. Gallup doesn’t have anywhere near that ceiling.

That 2025 1st looking better. Will the Rams stay improving or will something like this cause the rookies, who had Donald taking the heat for them, fold under more pressure. One Stafford injury like 2022 and Rams back in the top 10 picks.

You got it. There are a lot of potential WR hungry teams (Bills, Baltimore, KC, U.S., etc.) right after 23. Houston has Collins, Dell and Brown in the fold. They think a run could keep their interests dropping. Minnesota is thinking QB jump. Darnold is not the answer and 2025 QBs are thin as heck. Exactly, the Texans see a flat line from 23-42 and get a 2nd in 2025. Seeing how Minnesota will likely be starting a rookie QB, that 2025 second could be a good one. It’s a gamble but the Texans are a good young team and seems like an OK gamble to me.

We’ve been through this before. Same argument for Burns and we all saw how that ended. If someone offers you the Rams’ Burns deal for Brown right now, you take it. If he was on his rookie deal for a few more years, might be different but like Burns, Brown will be expensive. Ponder this, with Brown’s future money we could have signed Wilkins this year and had Wilkins plus two firsts and a 2nd. There are always good FAs who can replace all (Reddick) or at least 80% plus you have a chance to add 3 more starters with the draft picks, especially with Fitterer out of the building. When you’ve sucked for 6 years, one edge rusher or one DL is not going to change your team’s direction. Hitting on a great trade and getting 3-4 above average starters will.

And that’s assuming he succeeds with all that we add just for him.

SMH. You’ve been arguing with me, don’t act like I’m the only one arguing. So what I don’t consider a one time pro-bowler elite. You said he was among the best in his era. Same here, just making a lot of bad trades doesn’t make you a master of trades. The guy I replied to said he turned a 5th into a 3rd. If you guys are going to go to hyperboles that Morgan was among the best in his era and that Fitterer was a master of the deal and turned 5ths into 3rds, I’ll reply and disagree.

I always wondered why we kept him and he had a reputation as a good blocker. I think it’s just like all the other terrible evaluations by Fitterer. How many blocking well highlights get posted in here? I know I’ve seen plenty of whiffs and missed blocks from Thomas in here. Didn’t we draft Tremble because he was such a good blocker that was athletic where we thought we had a chance to get a Kittle. I remember how we talked in the draft thread about Kittle’s blocking before his draft. SMH, so many good evaluations by huddlers compared to our actual drafts from 2018 to 2023. Everyone liked Burns, Brown and Moore. The rest of the picks and trades, ugh.

Luke was ridiculously good. It’s funny that you say he wasn’t the most gifted. I’d say he was the combo of both. He was very athletic and mentally unchallenged. That’s why he is a HOFer.

He made one pro bowl. He was not elite IMHO. You aren’t the very best in your era and not make an all pro team. Lewis was a 12 time pro bowler and 7 time all-pro. Luke made the all-pro team every year of his career. There are lots of guys who have had great SB games. Kong Ealy was our best guy in the last SB. To be elite and best of an era, you’d be considered borderline HOF, i.e. next tier. 1 pro bowl isn’t close to either of those. He was very good and had injury issues but he wasn’t elite in my book.

I agree with you. The leverage was lost the day after we turned down the trade. I always said that I could have accepted the extension but it should have been done at the time of the trade. Hey Burns, this is the extension we are good with and if he balks, you take a crazy valued trade. Turning down the trade and getting fired a year later and still not being able to sign Burns is why Fitterer won’t be a GM again. I was replying to someone who said we had to make the trade that day to afford the two guards. If that was true and we didn’t restructure Moton, which easily could have covered year 1 cap space, then Dan made a bad move.

What? You guys are crazy. Just because he made trades doesn’t mean he was good at them. It’s almost like the Stockholm syndrome in here. Who won the Young trade? Who won the Darnold trade? Who won the CJ Henderson trade? Who won the Burns trade (Rams)? Who won the CMC trade? Please point to where he turned a 5th into a 3rd. All I saw was that we dropped down and when we moved up we usually lost a bit of value.

Sorry, but Fitterer was a horrible GM and I’d put him up for the worst GM ever. What single thing made you think he was a smart football guy? I’d say he has to be the worst talent evaluator ever. Gettleman and Hurney ran circles around him. If he’s trying to make people happy, it’s because he isn’t a smart football guy who can make good decisions.

Lots of first round picks weren’t elite. Sorry, but Morgan never got to Luke’s level. We drafted DeAngelo and Stewart in the 1st and they were good, not elite. I didn’t say he was bad just not elite. We tend to overrate our players. Always have and I think most fans do. I’m ok with the guards but if we took a poo deal on Burns due to cap space, that’s on us. We had plenty (Moton and others) to creat large amounts of cap space. I’d bet that the two guards’ cap hits are low in 2024. I think we flubbed the extension so badly that we were forced to take low draft value. I’m fine with that but I don’t think cap forced us into the trade.

Exactly and unfortunately this team is way worse than the first year after Ron and the year Rhule was fired. When Fitterer got the reigns in 2022 (remember Rhule was forced to hire vet coaches and was already on the hot seat), he decimated our future picks and our talent in a matter of 2 years. Remember that article that said we were the most delusional NFL fans? You can see it every year in here. I’ve been beaten down watching this team for 6 years after enjoying the many playoff years and fun players to watch. Until we see some results like Diontae actually being a 1000 yarder instead of the 1000 yard predicted paper tigers like TMJ who was a fan favorite in here (not me at all, couldn’t separate), I’m just watching and waiting. I still think we are a bottom dweller talent wise so again, let’s see how the draft goes.

Just like turning down the Rams deal, I don’t recall us fleecing anyone. People were just excited because we were making moves. The results of the moves and the value of the moves were terrible and meh. I hope Morgan is way the fug better, but I’m still way on the skeptical side because Morgan was here and lauding him for getting rid of bad Fitterer guys isn’t meaningful. Everyone knows the team’s talent in 2023 was poo. Finally getting that isn’t some amazing thing. Fitterer was so bad it’s comical and Morgan is going to have to blow the doors off to get us there. Sucks for him because we are truly in a bad spot and we may or probably will find after this year that our QB problem is still not solved. If the 2025 QB class is like the 2022 class, it may be in 2026 before we even have a chance at being a decent team and we still have to nail the 2024/2025 drafts. We were a hair away from the first 0-17 team. It really does suck for Morgan because he really does need to be almost perfect or we won’t be competing for 5 more years.

Again, I recall you telling us how good Elflein and/or Erving were when Fitterer signed them. There’s a lot more we need to see and I am still hearing the same stuff like Morgan/Fitterer has filled every hole so we can go BPA and talking up guys who aren’t additions like Tyreke Hill or AJ Brown. We had posts in here about why Teddy was going to go for 4000-30. Also, Morgan was not elite. Luke was elite. John Lynch was elite. Ozzie Newsome was elite. Matt Millen was even a good player who won 4 SBs, which I didn’t know, but only two as a key cog. I’m not saying Morgan will be as bad as Millen but just because you were a good player, it doesn’t mean anything on your eye for talent. So far, I haven’t seen anything from anyone associated with Fitterer’s crew that should be given any benefit of the doubt until we see actual results.

After the first draft, people were lauding Fitterer. I’m waiting a bit to laud Morgan for getting bent over on the Burns trade value after taking so long that we looked desperate to take any offer. I’m slowing my roll until the draft. Two guards and Diontae aren’t making us contenders. The draft (the next 2-3) is the only way we get back to the playoffs.

SMH. Just because Fitterer flopped at drafting rookie WRs doesn’t mean a rookie WR will hinder anything. We should be able to get a quality rookie WR in this strong class that can start day 1. Stroud didn’t seem hindered by a rookie WR. Flowers didn’t hurt Lamar and Addison was solid for Cousins especially with JJ out. We shouldn’t be scared of stuff because our last GM sucked. Still entirely possible we still suck at drafting since we still have the same cogs that were around him. Here’s hoping we learned or that we fired the right guy.

We’ve said the exact same thing for all of Fitterer’s reign and it hasn’t worked out yet. BPA should be the process because we have lots of holes.

It’s happened tons of times before. Also, why do people equate tanking with players and coaches? The GM/FO control a tank. Trading Burns for a 2nd and 5th is basically a tank. If you aren’t rebuilding and trying to win, you fit him into the cap which was easy to do. We turned down a huge package for him a year and a half ago and now we give him away for pennies on the dollar. One more note, lol at “happy with a dismal season.” Have you been around the Panthers after 2017?

A five year deal to me says this guy is a long term option, there after the rebuild. We do need to confirm that Young is or isn’t the guy, so that is a key part of the rebuild. I’m not sold on Young at all but if a miracle happens, that would be a large part of the rebuild. I just don’t like Robinson type deals where we aren’t getting a long term piece of the puzzle.