LinvilleGorge

He's definitely lost a lot of muscle mass. Anyone holding out on that pipedream of him coming back can go ahead and sit that pipe down. Granted, there weren't many who were that delusional.

The Teddy deal included $33M in guarantees. We're talking about a quarter of that. FTR, I'm only interested in doing this if we've essentially given up hope on landing Watson and have put all our eggs in the draft basket. This would be a solid hedge on that bet.

I would. Honestly, if I could get Trubisky in the $8.5M range, I'd do that even if my plan was to be aggressive in the draft. That's a good insurance policy in case the draft doesn't fall our way and also insurance against forcing ourselves to put the rookie on the field from day one if he isn't ready. This would be on par with what the Raiders paid Mariotta last year to push Carr and ultimately be a backup.

This year's UNC team might be the most Jekyll and Hyde team I've ever seen in sports. When they're on, they look REALLY good. But man, when they're off they can't beat anyone. They can score 100 one night and struggle to get to 50 the next. The outside shooting is always sporadic from this team, but they have the rebounding to largely make up for that. It really comes down to turnovers. They have some games where they have waves of unforced turnovers that just kill them and it seems like once the turnovers start, the shooting absolutely falls apart.

Fisher probably isn't playing at all this year coming off of a recently torn Achilles and it's far from a guarantee that he'll ever return to form afterward. That's a MAJOR injury.

Did you see KC's OL in the SB? Running out of healthy OL is why they couldn't compete in that game. I have to think there's no way they're parting with an OL right now who they think can help them moving forward. Pass.

I just don't know what to make of the situation. The first step is the Texans coming to terms with the reality that they're going to have to move him. I'm fairly confident that happens. The next step is the Jets and Dolphins balking due to trade cost and/or opting for other options either via the draft or via their current roster. I don't think the Jets move forward with Darnold. I'm fairly confident in that. I do think there's a decent to maybe even good chance that the Dolphins opt to not punt on Tua quite this quickly. So basically, I see a Watson trade as still a possibility but one that we don't have much control over. We still need three other organizations' decisions to fall into place before we even get a serious seat at the table IMO.

Scouts are people too. Sometimes they get caught up in just repeating platitudes. The ACC is weak... but featured half the playoff teams from last year? Had two top 5 teams? Four top 25 teams? Okay...

Yeah, that's the best reasonable option. The top two are both long shots IMO. I do expect #3 to be on the auction block if the Jets end up trading for Watson (that's honestly my expectation).

I think we'll see at least two new starting OL and two new starters in the secondary next year. Probably at least one on each unit coming via FA.

If you need a QB and you think there's a franchise QB on the board, I wouldn't try to get cute with it. Just draft the guy.

No. My position is that if you've proven that you can field a consistent winner you probably know what you're doing. Hopefully our crew will soon be there.

$6.1M on Shaq plus $5.6M on CMC = $11.7M. Deshaun Watson's cap hit this season if traded would be $10.54M.

Mickey Loomis is 178-126 as an NFL GM. The Panthers are 200-215-1 as a franchise. One gets the benefit of the doubt due to success while the other has a lot to prove.

$6.1 on Shaq?

Rhule and Fitterer playing poker

Doing some sleuthing around, OTC shows Shaq's base salary this season as $10.18M. Sportrac is showing his base salary this season as $990k with a $1.83M restructure bonus over the remaining three years of the contract plus two dummy years on the back end. Assuming this is correct, Shaq's restructure will free up $9.19M this season at the expense of pushing $9.19M down the road. AKA - classic Hurney restructure. Moving on... looks like we just covered Moton's franchise tag. These restructures will clear up roughly $14.5M in cap space and Moton's tag will hit us somewhere between $13.5M and $14M.

Has anyone seen the details on Shaq's restructure. Weird that the specifics of the CMC restructure became available very quickly and still seemingly crickets about the detail on Shaq's.

Anyone mad at Shaq for signing his contract simply isn't very intelligent. Same for Teddy. Both guys proved to be exactly what they had shown to be in the past. Anyone disappointed about their play after they got paid wasn't paying attention to their play before they got paid. The only thing that changed was their pay check and their cap hit.

It's baffling that so many blind homers can't understand this. Shaq is a decent starting LB. The issue is that he's paid to be one of the absolute best LBs in the NFL. He's nowhere close to that level. You don't solve that issue by converting non-guaranteed salary to guaranteed bonus. That's the last thing you want to do with that contract.

The greatest description of Gastonia is that it's the hometown of Fred Durst. That perfectly encapsulates the essence of everything that is Gastonia.

Honestly, I think it's a little bit of both. The fear causes hesitation which leads to the pick. I honestly don't think that a Kirk Cousins is anymore physically talented than Teddy, but the guy plays with guts.

Teddy isn't the answer. Period. Now that that's out of the way, here's how I rank our options: 1. Trade for Deshaun Watson. Yes, it'll take a fortune. But, you're getting a proven MVP caliber 25 year old QB. The problem is that not only would it take a fortune, but the Jets and the Dolphins are both much better positioned to give the Texans a better offer than we can. That's why I honestly think it's a long shot. I think we're gonna try really hard, but I also think that we need both the Jets and the Dolphins to bow out of the race for us to get him. I would mention Russell Wilson here too, but evidently we're not on his list so that's a non-starter. 2. Trade up and draft Zach Wilson. Hell, this might be an even longer shot than trading for Watson. If the Jets stay put at #2 I see little chance they don't draft Wilson. I see very little chance that they actually choose to move forward with Sam Darnold. Now that the long shots are out of the way, let's talk about what I view as the more realistic options continuing the rankings at #3: 3. Target either Justin Fields or Trey Lance and trade up to get him. This would mean jumping up to as high as #3. If we have one ranked considerably higher than the other (which I think is very possible), I don't think we can afford to sit on our hands and hope the draft board falls our way. We're going to have to be aggressive and go get our guy. 4. Sit tight and hope one of Fields and/or Lance falls to #8. This would be extremely risky and I think you only make this play if you're also willing to entertain another QB option in the draft. 5. Sign Mitch Trubisky. He's a free agent so no trade would be necessary. It would be a "prove it" deal so signing him wouldn't necessarily eliminate any of the other draft options already discussed. I would much rather sign Trubisky to a prove it deal than draft Mac Jones at #8. 6. Trade back and hope Mac Jones slips. This would be a good play if we signed Trubisky. I want no part of Jones at #8, but picking Jones would be a lot easier to stomach if it was in a trade down that netted us additional draft assets. 7. Draft Kellen Mond in the 2nd or 3rd. I do not love this. But that's why it's #7 on the list. IMO, we'd basically be drafting next year's #1 pick's backup. Kellen Mond would be our new Jimmy Clausen to deliver our future Cam Newton. I do not agree with Chris Simm's evaluation of Mond. The physical tools are there, I just see way too much inconsistency. 8. Trade for Garner Minshew. The Jags are drafting Trevor Lawrence. Minshew has real value as a backup, but so would a mid-round pick to help them build around Lawrence. Minshew is also still on a dirt cheap rookie contract so this move would have minimal cap implications. Some of y'all might be rolling your eyes at this suggestion, but do understand that we are WELL into the "oh fug, this is NOT going our way" portion of the list. 9 though infinity

I think Rhule and Tepper have already said plenty to let us know that they realize this. I think they're realizing that they've said TOO much about it at this point.

He plays scared because of his physical limitations IMO. When he tries to press, he throws picks.