WhoKnows

He’s right about the cap. We are 19th with cap space in 2025 at about $43M. That is also without a starting QB, WR1 (DJ), LB (Shaq), C (Corbett) and P (Hekker). We also suck and need to get better so we’ll be using the rest of that cap quickly and probably restructure so we’ll start eating into 2026’s cap as well.

Sure, Young hasn’t helped the D, but this is a bad defense that lost their one true stud for the year. If we had a good offense, the Saints would have put up 60+ points and the Chargers closer to 40. They turned off the pressure on our D because the games were over at half. It won’t surprise me if we continue to give up 30 a game with Dalton. It’s not the rest that will save the defense, it’s limiting the number of drives other teams get because in the first halves our opponents have scored on 9 of 12 drives. Our D will only look good if we have sustained 8 minute drives where the opponents get 6 drives a game.

That excuse would be interesting if it was really true. In the first halves, we’ve given up 50 points. In the 2nd halves we’ve given up 23 points. Both the Chargers and the Saints scored TDs on their opening drives, before Young even stepped on the field. The Saints scored on every single possession they had until we finally stopped one drive in the 4th quarter. This D has been run over, regardless of how bad Young played.

And didn’t release or trade them.

We definitely lost some talent (mainly Burns and Luvu) from last year and outside of Diontae, we didn’t replace that talent. With Brown being out for the year, that kind of minimizes the effect of a healthy Horn and Shaq although we don’t know if they’ll play all year. That said, losing Luvu, Brown and Burns is a major reason why we’ve given up 73 points and the other teams did take their feet off the gas because we only scored 13.

That would be a nice bonus since the pick we gave the Bears is looking like #1 and after watching our picks from SF for CMC get worse and worse every week and turn into a throw in pick for Young and DJ Johnson. We’ve been on the losing end of making trades and having the draft picks we gave away become stellar and picks we got get worse.

Not being overly critical. We are likely going to finish with the worst record two years in a row. It should be much easier for rookies to start here than say KC. I agree that 2 games isn’t enough. That’s why I said by the end of the season they need to be locked into starter spots. Look at it this way, Brock Bowers and Malik Nabers have shown enough already that the Raiders/Giants will not be drafting a WR (replacement, could draft a Higgins or Smith WR2) or TE. I wouldn’t say we’ve got a single guy in this year’s draft that has taken a better player in the next draft off the table. They may but not yet and not yet includes all offseason, not just 2 games. I don’t think any of them have hit their ceiling but while many in here don’t want to admit defeat, if a rookie does not earn a starting spot in Carolina and impress us this year, it’s very unlikely they will be a star. Yes, there are Jordan Love’s and Davante Adams’ out there but there are way more busts that didn’t flash year one. Our own Bryce Young is a prime example, as are almost all of our draft picks since the 2020 draft.

XL was 4th in WR snap counts on Sunday. Thielen and DJ are the starters and Mingo had more of the WR3 snaps. Either way, a 1st round WR on this team should be starting, period. Brooks has the potential but he damn well better start as soon as he’s healthy. Sanders got half the snaps with Tremble but he’s not doing much. TEs can take a bit but we need to see some flashes and he should be the entrenched starter by the end of the year considering TEs are a big weakness. Same with Wallace. This D is not a bunch of world beaters. He needs to be flashing and starting by the end of the year to be considered high end. This is one of the worst talent level teams in the NFL, if not the worst. A high end potential draft pick should have no problem starting outside of the OL. That’s why I definitely don’t consider any of them high end yet. Brooks we just don’t know at all so his potential is still as high as his draft slot considering RBs don’t typically go early.

Honestly, one of the stupidest things I’ve read. If you honestly think Young would be doing fine in Houston and Stroud would have just been benched, then you shouldn’t be writing articles about football and you clearly have not watched enough Texan and Panthers games. Also, Young made what, $25M guaranteed? Yeah, I’m sure the entire QB draft class is willing to stand up and dismiss that. SMH, if the QB is good enough, they’ll be good here.

Exactly. I’m laughing on the inside by the amount of QBs listed in here as options. Young is so bad that people are saying Howell or Bagent or Milton or Rush as if they could really help. We have one pro bowl level talent in Brown. Howell and others aren’t taking this team close to the playoffs. At some point we need a real franchise QB. Might not be in 2025, but if we keep drafting the way we have been, including 2024, then we’ll be picking top 10 for a long time. When we draft a WR in the first, he should be starting for this team, period.

Those are some big assumptions. If you think we will get 2-3 high end guys from this draft, I think you are sorely mistaken. I’m assuming high end means above average or top 15 at their position. Our rookies are having a hard time getting snaps and with Brown out right now, our OL might be the only place we have an above average starter. Maybe Horn, but with missed time and honestly, TDs given up so far, I think he’s a bit overrated in here. I think Brooks has that potential, but who knows. I don’t think XL, Sanders and Wallace have that potential. Also, not sure where you got 91 given up. It’s only been 73, which is still awful but not 91. When you realize that Brown, maybe Horn and a couple OL is all that we have in the above average player bucket, we really do need successful drafts, really successful. Getting 19 snaps in week 2 is not that. We need pro bowl potential guys at some point and right now that’s only Brown. That’s pretty sad, especially since he’s out for the year.

I don’t mean to be mean, but using an example of a team that had talent all around an interception machine and they just happened to sign the goat QB? I guess our strategy should be to build up a solid team over the next decade around a bad QB and hope Mahomes wants to leave KC to prove a point.

They both took QBs in the 1st round. They weren’t developing mid round QBs or lol, Cooper Rush. Also, Penix has don’t anything yet. Love is in his 5th year in the league and he’s only 1.5 years older than Penix. Penix <> Love just from the fact that he was 3 years older when drafted. Sitting a 24 year old rookie shouldn’t happen. Sitting a 21 year old rookie can make sense.

Tepper came from years of success with Big Ben. I think he’s the nerd that’s happy to be part of the cool kids but it was Fitterer who thought he could repeat Seattle’s success with Wilson. Fitterer was like 95% wrong with all his decisions and he made some seriously bad calls that have crushed the team for years after he was fired. That’s how bad a GM he was. I look at the point guard thing. Tepper isn’t some super duper college athlete. Thomas Brown started the point guard stuff and Tepper ran with it cause it sounded cool. I don’t think Tepper likes failure and is quick to try and fix it, hence he didn’t block Canales from benching Young. Tepper’s not dumb enough to not see Young is the main problem.

I’d bet you’re wrong. I’m tired of defending Tepper because he hired shitty guys. Who do you really think fell in love with Young? The guy who came from Seattle and saw success with a small QB in Wilson or the minority owner in Pittsburgh who saw success with Bradshaw (big for 1970) and Roethlisberger? Maybe Tepper liked Young as well but damn, the cause of our talent problems is likely the guy who came from success with a small QB and made bad call after bad call and fit the mold of a guy who seemed to go rogue and picked more project type guys.

You got it. I’m not defending Tepper because he kept Marty, hired Rhule, hired Fitterer, kept Fitterer too long, hired Reich and maybe more. He's been terrible but how can you not look at all the bad moves and think the Tepper’s forced Young to be taken. He didn’t stop Canales from benching Young after week 2 when the same people said that Canales was forced to use Young and had no say on who was starting. It’s the sound bites that people hang on to and the need for one single point of failure/boogeyman. Nicole hugs Young becomes Nicole made the call on Young. No one keeps bringing up that Stroud called Nicole Mama Tepp. Tepper regurgitated the point guard analogy in April around the draft but no one mentions that Thomas Brown discussed the point guard analogy with Panthers media in February. Fitterer and Reich say they are in lock step and said both preferred Young before and after their draft prep and Fitterer says he liked Young the best when he was evaluating for the 2022 draft, but somehow Tepper forced the Young call. Objectively, if you want a single point of failure, go with the guy who said he loved Young and wanted him for a couple years. The rest of his 3 years of awful GMing kind of point to the fact that he sucked balls and he came from success with a smaller QB. Tepper came from Pittsburgh where they had big QBs in Bradshaw (6’3” 215 in 1970) and Big Ben.

No kidding. No actual person who’s watched us play would be surprised and “sources” is literally meaningless. We see that every year with the draft where we had “sources” saying we were drafting AR, Stroud, Young and even Levis. These news outlets can basically say anything they want without have true/real sources versus Bob from Boise saying he heard something.

I want the top pick again. I just want the idiots in charge to not pick a midget because our GMs came from Seattle and fell in love with a guy they thought could be Russell Wilson instead of the guy who could make all the throws and played well against top college Ds with tons of day 1/day 2 talent. Look at Indy and Tennessee. I’m not really sure their QBs will amount to much even if I’d rather take a chance with them over Young. Those two teams had no chance at Stroud. We did.

Where they are is a lot better off than us. They could decide to trade up and get a QB to replace Tua if he retires. I’d kill to be in Miami’s situation right now. If they had taken Herbert instead of Tua, things might be interesting and that’s what a top pick does for you. We had our chance in last year’s draft and we screwed it up and it was made far worse because we didn’t really tank in 2022 so we doubled down on bad decisions. Stroud may never win a SB. Does that mean that Houston shouldn’t have traded away Watson for picks? Luck never won a SB, was Indy wrong for tanking with Curtis Painter while Peyton was out for the year? When Brady and Mahomes have won 6 of the last 10 SBs, there aren’t a lot of examples to work with here.

If we can’t ever pick the right guy we might as well stop being fans. You guys are saying that Dalton now has you interested to watch the rest of the season but you don’t care what pick we get because we won’t ever pick the right guy? That makes no sense. I want the best pick we can get because I don’t want the next Stroud going to the Giants because they might be able to pick the right guy. You guys may be happy to have Dalton or other old vets going 5-12 but that’s not what I’m here for. I’m here for our next Cam, 4 out of 5 playoffs and a chance to win a SB.

Dear lord, this is still the most misunderstood topic. Tanking has never been players or coaches. That’s call point shaving. The Dolphins were a marquee example of tanking they traded away their best players in Tunsil, Fitzpatrick and others. They got to multiple playoff years with all the talent they acquired with all the picks and cap space (like trading for Hill and paying him). We had the chance to tank in 2022 and screwed it up royally and we are in the dumpster for it. We should have traded Moore for GB’s 1st (pick 15 or 16), Burns for the Rams 2 1sts and 2nd and anyone else with a pulse. Instead we just traded CMC to get a 2nd, which was thrown into Young deal, and some late poo and had enough talent for Wilks to get us pick 9. The rest is history. Again, tanking happens in all sports. That’s were you trade your assets that won’t really help your middling team for future draft picks. We decided to FAFO buy trading our best assets for poo. 2-15 teams should be tanking not giving up pick 1 in 2024 and pick 33 in 2025 while also trading their best 3 players for 1 2nd.

I’m aware and maybe I like the draft more than most, probably because we’ve been picking top 10 for a while now and we have been getting worse. All the human beings on this team would be fine if we had Stroud instead of Young and if we get a franchise QB in the next two drafts the culture will magically improve. Wins change culture. Ron still lost the team at the end of 2018 and 2019 with our top culture guys still on the team. Maybe it’s just me but watching this team go 3-14 instead of 1-16 doesn’t excite me that much. What excites me is that maybe we get that stud QB we desperately need. Young would sting a shitload less if we didn’t also give up the chance at Williams, Daniels or Maye or picking 9th. Also, not having a chance at Stroud if we didn’t trade up are the things that bother me more.

You guys got your wish but please post when you stop watching again. We might score some more but that just means teams may not take the foot off the gas like we’ve seen so far.

Honestly, as others have said, I’d bet they were on the same page. There’s no one making excuses for Young at this point and I think they both agreed that they need to bench Young and that he’s not the long term answer/let’s move on.

We’ll just have to agree to disagree. The IOL wasn’t a mess in preseason and there was a lot of discussion that Iky was having isolated struggles. I think you are trying to rewrite Iky’s history and blame it on Young. There was a ton of worry in the preseason and there was a ton of talk that he completely regressed and that was all before the revolving door of IOL. I’m glad he’s playing better but he looked terrible last year and it was apparent in his 1 on 1 situations where he just needed to block people and didn’t.