Christensen and Brown "close to contributing"

[BlitzMonster]

1 minute ago, kungfoodude said:

He was not the best by a wide margin. We signed him anyway. Remember that was an initial flurry signing which was why a lot of the NFL pundits scratched their heads at the timing and contract(this goes for Erving too).

I think the Panthers wanted to "solve" the OL problem before the draft to give themselves flexibility to go BPA.  

The only problem is that they deluded themselves into thinking these two signings would actually fix their OL.  It seems pretty clear now that both contracts were a reach.   

Sad thing is most of the NFL scouting community seemed to already know that. 

[AU-panther]

Honestly I think our staff has a bit of a college mentality.

You recruit kids with good traits and you turn them into good football players.

There is a reason we keep going after these high draft pick free agents who have struggled elsewhere.

 

[Jon Snow]

1 minute ago, kungfoodude said:

He was not the best by a wide margin. We signed him anyway. Remember that was an initial flurry signing which was why a lot of the NFL pundits scratched their heads at the timing and contract(this goes for Erving too).

I tend to agree but I would caution you about listening to pundits.  They don't lose their jobs if they are wrong.

But just watching the game you can obviously see the tackles are not our problem.  Eflin is the head scratcher for me unless they just needed a backup center and even then I would have looked somewhere else.  Injury and inexperience has culminated in the lineup you see now.  This upcoming game may be the last time you see the current guard lineup. 

[Jon Snow]

3 minutes ago, stbugs said:

I don’t mind that they jumped early just not sure what caught their eye on Elflein and why we took a LS and even a DT (both may have been available as UDFAs) when there were more potential OL available. We know at least one is starting. I get wanting vets like Erving and a G before the draft because you never know how the draft goes and we had ew and Moton. If the plan was a 3rd and 6th rounder then we should have spent a little more and gotten at least one solid G not Elflein.

I don't think they had a specific oline position targeted other than the LT that was taken at 7.  The rest were arranged by groups regardless of the round projection.  I think I heard  Fitt say his cutoff for true top 10 talent was 11 or 12, I think, but that's another topic.  That's why they kept trading back because the difference after the first 10 or 12 in their mind was miniscule.  Apparently this draft wasn't top heavy in their minds.

Don't shoot the messenger. 

[rayzor]

They'd better be.

[thennek]

I thought they signed Eflin so Sam would have some consistency in running for his life just like he did behind Eflin when with the Jets. 

[Cuttinedge]

 Brady needs to be starting at LG. He can’t be any worse 

[Jon Snow]

20 minutes ago, stbugs said:

I was happy with the draft aside from the LS and the trading down worked. I just think we needed to make at least 1 or 2 more of the 11 picks OL.

The LS will start next season. Forward thinking is never a bad thing. 

The question you should ask yourself is this, is the team as a whole more talented and deeper than the season before? I think you know the answer. 

[RJK]

Anything to get elf off the field. Freeman running behind brown on the goal line

[Tr3ach]

1 hour ago, Panthera onca said:

Film review must have been brutal.

Yea I noticed after the game Rhule commented that the protection was pretty good but then in the Monday afternoon interview (after watching film) he specifically mentioned that they had to protect Darnold better.

[La Pantera]

I would imagine both will be starting at some point this season. I would assume it's the mental part of the game and not the physical part,that's keeping them from starting rn.

[Jon Snow]

1 minute ago, La Pantera said:

I would imagine both will be starting at some point this season. I would assume it's the mental part of the game and not the physical part,that's keeping them from starting rn.

There's a lot more protections to learn and more refinement in technique generally needed at this level for most prospects.  Some pick it up naturally some take a bit of practice.  They've shown us that they can hold their own with their peers during the preseason practices.  It's just a matter of getting over the shock of going up against nfl first stringers, that's what separates the men from the boys.

[kungfoodude]

1 hour ago, Jon Snow said:

I tend to agree but I would caution you about listening to pundits.  They don't lose their jobs if they are wrong.

But just watching the game you can obviously see the tackles are not our problem.  Eflin is the head scratcher for me unless they just needed a backup center and even then I would have looked somewhere else.  Injury and inexperience has culminated in the lineup you see now.  This upcoming game may be the last time you see the current guard lineup. 

I am concerned the biggest issue is that either we just don't consider OL a major priority(yet) or our franchise simply does not evaluate them very well.

There aren't many explanations for why we have made the moves we have made the past two seasons(or the past decade). I guess we'll find out what the story is the next couple of seasons.

[OldhamA]

1 hour ago, BlitzMonster said:

the Jets are probably sending over Brinks trucks full of money right now to replace Mekhi Becton

Maybe they're working out the exchange rate of BitCoin.