strato

The big money for Icky has to be reclaimed and reallocated. I guess he’ll get his big 5th year option payday which will set him up for life, just the one year. Without looking I am guessing we aren’t that far off from being able to replace the big money guards. We can get out from under Moton if he doesn’t shine in 2026, but it will cost. Basically we can save half of that money in 2027. We can see on Icky, we have until March 2027 to assess that. I think this is bad timing for what we might have wanted to do this offseason for the defense but it may not be that bleak going forward, we have room to adjust.

I don’t know that that is his deal. A guy that amassed the fortune he has, has to be driven.

He certainly is dominant physically. I doubt he is a match for Canales’ preferred play style. But if we took a day 3 flier I promise not to complain if he does nothing. Just keep taking those shots.

I said this in another thread just now but a lot is on the players. Tackling is horrible. They have allowed it. That is on players and the position coaches and Evero. Just adding some talent and tightening that shoddy tackling up should improve things. Plus the guys we drafted this year got a lot of snaps. They’ll have their first offseason as pros and in an NFL strength and conditioning program, I expect every one of them to be better next year.

I don’t disagree but like with my opinion of Bryce what limitations he puts on the offense, and my strong suspicion that the playbook is thinner because of him, and the ripple effect that has overall, I don’t think Evero has been given the tools to make things work much better. Princely’s opinions notwithstanding. Now, this 3rd down poo? Very disappointing. A good bit does fall on the players. The poor tackling is a concern as well, I hate watching that stuff. Position coaches have some responsibility there too. And granted that is his cross to bear in that he put them in place and allowed the lack of attention to those details to exist. But how hard is it it to fuging wrap up? I would fine players for the shoulder tackles. I hate that. Laps, fines, benching, whatever it takes to tighten that up, do it. Before I send him to the trash heap, I want to give it one more draft and FA.

I think he is doing pretty good with using Moehrig in multiple roles. I am fairly patient until my mind is totally made up then I am just stubborn. I do like to cut slack where I think it is warranted. The offensive and defensive cap numbers belie the disparity in assets allocated to Evero compared to the offense. As bad as they were last season, I couldn’t fault anyone. Raising this defense out of poverty was more that a one year job. This was just the first year, so… leeway from me. It hurts not having a tight D but the reality is what it is. He has not been given a first rounder yet. Until this year, no second rounder. They took Burns (which I agreed with basically) but gave him little in return and diverted the booty in picks and cap to the OL basically. They just flat pillaged his pantry and cut off his SNAP. I would feel that way about any DC it just happens to be him. I believe Dan is committed to raising the floor over on that side and expect a few things will be addressed. Losing Icky puts a bit of a damper on how much he can do, but the will is there. IMO.

Might be similar to Fox’s roster when he came here. The bones were there and he whipped them into form. Getting Peppers didn’t hurt but NYG also have a high pick to get some help with. 1-15 when came in, got it to 7-9, then to 11-5. 2 years. But 1-15 to 7-9 tells you that was an underachieving team in 2001.

I should look that up. How much the top Gs make now, who they are… But good lord my reaction is for 100 million he better be. I would expect top 5 for that contract. His deal is two years in so not really cutting edge for the upcoming FA. I am not dogging him, he is a good player and an asset but also I have seen him losing matchups, getting pushed around. In my cheapskate mind no 100 million dollar guard should be having that happen. I guess honestly I feel like we could do better for that money. At the same time 100 mil for any right guard is shocking to me, it is walk on water territory.

My only concrete thought about this is Harbaugh has the track record and rep to withstand dips in success. Like, Caughlin got a lot of leeway from the Maras in some lean years. The people they have put into the job lately were not established and could not get themselves established, I don’t think the same level of security was there for them.

I was never clear to me that Frank put that staff together. One of the problems with that season. In other news… people, don’t forget the fans in Pittsburgh were chanting Fire Tomlin. It wasn’t good. He has his share of pride and the organization was walking a fine line to keep him and have that popping up next year.

Carrying the team with his arm when other stuff isn’t working, hasn’t shown up. Needs to and if it doesn’t I hope the team doesn’t settle.

The game has changed so much that running is an asset and not discouraged any more. It used to be all arm, pocket, you don’t want the backyard stuff. Because those guys are generally not great as pocket passers. So yeah I think ratings should account for it.

As respected as he is, I am not sure a defensive guy can thrive unless he can find himself a QB. Which he has not been able to do for quite a while. So he needs a job that has one in place. Green Bay might have been a good place for him if it had opened. I wonder if Buffalo is tired of McD, if that might not be a good place for him too.

I doubt they cut him or injury settlement or anything, he wil get his IR stint I assume. That 5th year option money is fat too. He won’t walk away broke if he has to retire. And we have the 12 month window if it goes like that. I think best case is we find a talented LOT to replace him, maybe he is good enough after healing to slide over to ROT and we can save on the Moton deal for 2027. Moton is on tap for 28.4 million, and change, for 2027 and he he getting close to the end, I think. Kind of thinking if we do 2026 with him it would be time to move on afterwards. It is high finance. PS between WR, OT and QB salaries you can spend all your money. If you can draft we’ll I would think you can play the musical chairs game with the rookie contracts and not have all three as expensive vets at the same time. Somehow.

Well I never played WR but a ball at my knees is not a gimme for me. So I figured same for them. I am not never wrong. And yeah that Rams TD, throw and catch was pretty perfect. You can’t hardly defend that.

Some? Who does that in FA? Lucky to get one blue chip.

When has Tepper had a press conference the last year? I was wondering if we would make it a year with nothing.

I searched for that. No results. Lots of speculation that he would do that but no confirmation. I did find an article from 3, 4 years ago where he was asked about it and said he would not go over to the “dark side”. His words. I am not saying that it means anything today, just passing that on.

It was only an attempt at a joke. But you are right, it would be a different conversation. I probably would have had no objections to drafting him.

I heard an analyst say his camp may not want long term but more a 2 year deal because the money for this next deal won’t match the market in 2 years. Might not even match the market this year but they don’t have leverage. I haven’t refreshed myself but pretty sure they can buy his RFA season out with a 2 year deal. Then you wouldn’t have to match offers.

This is cold but… I would not be handing Icky that extension now. There is some money to reallocate.

This drop thing… really debatable. Depends on your perspective. That last ball was a tough catch that didn’t get caught. I don’t know that I would call it all on Horn as if it hit him perfectly and he blew it.

I just realized something and couldn’t edit above… post it here. If you use the 2025 playoff teams to project 2026, you have to use 2024 teams to evaluate this year on those same terms. 2024 playoff teams we faced this year were TB (2) Green Bay Rams Bills I think that’s it. We went 3-3 including Saturday. 5 games but only 4 teams. We can call it 5. So, more next year.

Went 2-5. Not including actual playoffs. So 2-6. Rams and Green Bay were the wins. We were tough for teams, most of our games anyway. And we’re such a borderline playoff team. There will be a couple of teams out there that weren’t playoff teams that will hurt us probably. Too early to really say but I don’t like the way we stack up right now in our own division. They are all drafting well ahead of us (those that have picks). Atlanta might be in a little trouble.

I believe you are accurate there. Without knowing for a fact, I think we basically understand what happened.