LinvilleGorge

But we would've been a LOT better. Add a great LT prospect or a great CB or MLB prospect and I honestly don't think it has much of an impact on our final record. Maybe it gets us another W. That's why the far and away #1 focus should be on finding a QB. The issue with the slow burn roster build is that then you gotta pay guys. Roster building is never done because you can't afford to retain everyone. Legit QBs allow you to compete while you churn the rest of the roster.

Exactly. No one has a crystal ball on how these guys are going to turn out, but as prospects? Yeah, this is absolutely a historic class. There are 4 guys in this class who would normally get strong consideration at #1 overall. Lawrence, Fields, and Wilson are all guys who would be in #1 overall conversations in a lot of drafts and if Jared Goff and Alex Smith can go #1 overall, then Mac Jones could too.

Wings under him? He had the best season he's ever had. He's just not a starting caliber NFL QB.

Who knew who Cam Newton was before he won the Heisman and led Auburn to the national championship? Who knew who Joe Burrow was before he did the same? It's not about who you were a year ago, it's about who you are now. The way the draft goes down is going to prove this is a historic QB class. We'll have to see if they prove worthy of that on the field, but they're going to prove worthy on draft day.

The mediocre QB was the difference between 5-11 and competing for a playoff berth last year.

Hate to be the one to break it to you, but we're already there.

It's not about next season. It's about Teddy not being the answer. What does improving to 6-10 or 7-9 do for the future of the team? What y'all are talking about when you go down this path is basically the John Fox/Ron Rivera "play not to lose" philosophy applied to team building.

The problem with this thread's theories is that it overlooks a couple of key things. 1. Teddy wasn't below his career average last year in his first year on the team. He had a career year. That's the best he's ever been. That still wasn't even close to good enough. 2. We sucked in one score games in large part because the offense couldn't get a score in key situations. The D would get a stop, give the ball to the offense in a good situation needing a score for the lead or tie and then Teddy would show that he isn't capable of delivering in those situations. Teddy is a good backup caliber NFL QB. That's just what he is.

Of course he is. If CMC has an MVP candidate caliber season and we field a top 5 defense, we can go to the playoffs with Teddy. The problem is that Teddy will be the reason why we can't do much more than simply qualify for the playoffs, not actually contend for a SB.

If we actually had an offer(s) for Teddy and declined it's a huge red flag. It's a strong indicator that we're very, VERY dumb. Unloading that contract for anything, even a conditional 7th rounder would've been a godsend.

Because they had Sam Howell. Kinda like how the Panthers wouldn't have been a bad team last year with a franchise QB.

Rolling with Teddy again almost certainly puts us right back here again next year - on the heels of a bad season but not quite bad enough to put us in position to land a franchise QB prospect. Improving isn't always "improving". Going 6-10 or 7-9 next year with Teddy is a likely scenario but also a worst case situation. Teddy's gotta go.

My favorite option at this point is sending a mid-rounder to SF for Garappolo. We're not going to tank like we should, so let's continue the MASH unit approach and keep loading up on guys likely to end up on IR early in the season and suck our way into Howell via stupidity.

Lord knows that simply starting games does not equal "success".

The problem with the "keep building the roster" approach is that as you build that roster and the years pass, now you gotta pay those guys and limit your cap space or you gotta let them walk and replace them. It's not like in college where you can stockpile talent like cordwood because there's no draft order or salary cap.

You think we're going to have the best defense in the league and CMC is going to finish in the top 3 in MVP voting? Bold.

Watson was good enough to have plenty of other options prior to the unthinkable. No one else is giving Teddy $17M+.

He has 17,000,000 reasons not to give a fug about all the shade we threw his way.

When did Watson win his MVP? And Watt was already past it once they got Watson up to speed. Cam and and Luke were drafted in back to back years.

Rivera. Rivera led to Hurney.

We had an MVP QB and a DPOY in their primes on the same roster for multiple years and came away with nothing to show for it. My god, how could the WFT be so stupid as to hire that guy after seeing that?

Rhule has to learn that the "coach 'em up" approach isn't a winning roster building approach in the NFL. Hell, truth be told it wasn't for him in college either against actual good teams. His record vs. top 25 teams was absolutely abysmal.

Hence my new profile pic. I hope not, but it's really starting to look like the '21 QB ship has sailed on us. We picked the wrong hand to go all in on.

Aaron Rodgers is a douche. So is Brees. Hell, some would argue Cam. There's a HUGE gap between a run of the mill douche and a serial sexual predator. Watson has to clear these allegations up before I'd consider him.

Yep. IMO, it's Howell Ridder FUG... these guys down here would probably be scrapping to be QB 7 or 8 in this year's draft.