Stop Being Insane(remaining season primer)

[kungfoodude]

- There is no logic or reason behind making "win now trades." We aren't a good team. This is how we ended up here. Making several seasons of "OH poo WE HAVE TO GET BETTER" trades and nuking our future.

- We don't have any elite, instant impact rookies. Guys like XL, Brooks, Wallace, Sanders, etc.....these are project players. So just chill on the unrealistic expectations. What we want to see is that from Game 1 to Game 17 they show progress, development and learning. That's what success for those guys looks like. Expect highs and expect lows. It's fine.

- JAG's are elite players either. There is no magic bullet to some of these roster holes(specifically at Edge). Don't get crazy and assume that Barno or Wonnum or whatever PS player are suddenly going to come in and be Hassan Reddick. You might see some flashes and that's great. That is why they are here, to flash occasionally. Not to be the second coming of Julius Peppers.

- We are going to lose a lot of games. That's just the life of a team near the bottom of the league in overall talent.

- Most importantly: ENJOY THE RETURN OF WATCHABLE FOOTBALL. Don't get insane/delusional/manic with expectations of divisional titles, playoff berths, etc. It isn't going to happen in 2024. That doesn’t mean we can't enjoy this coaching staff and the competence they bring. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy being competitive in many more games that we have been recently. It doesn't mean that we can't enjoy the best OL we have had in many, many years. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy the first competent QB play we have seen since Cam got his shoulder nuked.

 

Just enjoy the ride. Enjoy not dreading watching a thumping or horrific football every Sunday. Even if we have to significantly Tepper our expectations, there is a small light at the end of this tunnel. It's that we finally look like a relevant football team for one day a week. It might not be much, but it's a damn sight better than just about anything else we have seen in the Tepper era.

[DeAngelo Beason]

This is exactly correct.  We at least are not the worst team to ever step on the field now.  There's hope.  There's also no reason to be delusional and think we need to flip this team into a playoff contender right now.  Getting some competent QB play has shown that we just might have hired the right guy as HC.  Now give him and Morgan a few years to build this team.

[mrcompletely11]

11 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

- There is no logic or reason behind making "win now trades." We aren't a good team. This is how we ended up here. Making several seasons of "OH poo WE HAVE TO GET BETTER" trades and nuking our future.

- We don't have any elite, instant impact rookies. Guys like XL, Brooks, Wallace, Sanders, etc.....these are project players. So just chill on the unrealistic expectations. What we want to see is that from Game 1 to Game 17 they show progress, development and learning. That's what success for those guys looks like. Expect highs and expect lows. It's fine.

- JAG's are elite players either. There is no magic bullet to some of these roster holes(specifically at Edge). Don't get crazy and assume that Barno or Wonnum or whatever PS player are suddenly going to come in and be Hassan Reddick. You might see some flashes and that's great. That is why they are here, to flash occasionally. Not to be the second coming of Julius Peppers.

- We are going to lose a lot of games. That's just the life of a team near the bottom of the league in overall talent.

- Most importantly: ENJOY THE RETURN OF WATCHABLE FOOTBALL. Don't get insane/delusional/manic with expectations of divisional titles, playoff berths, etc. It isn't going to happen in 2024. That doesn’t mean we can't enjoy this coaching staff and the competence they bring. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy being competitive in many more games that we have been recently. It doesn't mean that we can't enjoy the best OL we have had in many, many years. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy the first competent QB play we have seen since Cam got his shoulder nuked.

 

Just enjoy the ride. Enjoy not dreading watching a thumping or horrific football every Sunday. Even if we have to significantly Tepper our expectations, there is a small light at the end of this tunnel. It's that we finally look like a relevant football team for one day a week. It might not be much, but it's a damn sight better than just about anything else we have seen in the Tepper era.

great post and its where I am at.  Very pleasantly surprised with DC and his offense.  Although he is green as hell his issues should be correctable over time.

I will say Morgan needs to figure out how to get as much draft capital as he possibly can because the amount of holes we have on defense is fuging staggering.  Where those picks come from I havent a clue but we need a bunch of picks. 

I also would be talking to Johnsons agent and try and work out a 2-3 year ext before he gets too expensive.

 

I mean poo we have looked like a nfl franchise the past 2 weeks, its so encouraging.  Just fix the situational play calling, work on the time management, get the jugs machine out and do some basic tackling drills.

[LinvilleGorge]

Yep, we suck. But at least it's a watchable version of suck which is a massive improvement over the Bryce Young era.

[strato]

Yeah we do not need to dig this hole any deeper.

2022/23/24 draft picks 3rd round and higher... it went deeper, but the most impactful is 3rd and higher.

Offense: 

4 1sts,

3 2nds, probably more it is so convoluted

1 3rd

DJ Moore, Brian Burns (his picks and his money savings)

 

Defense

2 3rds

 

[Waldo]

Yes! This is not a playoff team and there are going to be more losses.

It's still better than the last year and guys are getting their chances. So many projects so there will be lows and hopefully some highs. At best they are still picking top 10 and at worst top 3.

Just keep breathing and be thankful they even have a chance to prove something every week.

[kungfoodude]

2 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

great post and its where I am at.  Very pleasantly surprised with DC and his offense.  Although he is green as hell his issues should be correctable over time.

I will say Morgan needs to figure out how to get as much draft capital as he possibly can because the amount of holes we have on defense is fuging staggering.  Where those picks come from I havent a clue but we need a bunch of picks. 

I also would be talking to Johnsons agent and try and work out a 2-3 year ext before he gets too expensive.

 

I mean poo we have looked like a nfl franchise the past 2 weeks, its so encouraging.  Just fix the situational play calling, work on the time management, get the jugs machine out and do some basic tackling drills.

Yep. Get some guys like Johnson and Dalton bought in for the next couple of seasons. Come back, get paid and help us build something. 

Hell, if Johnson leaves, go find another guy(or two) similar. Give him the opportunity to cook and maybe get paid in the offseason. Eventually we will hopefully build ourselves to the point where we keep some of these upper tier rentals. 

Once we get ourselves out of the "must overpay to keep people" range, we might string together some impactful free agent offseasons.

Hell we already did with just Johnson and the OL.

[Captroop]

20 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

- There is no logic or reason behind making "win now trades." We aren't a good team. This is how we ended up here. Making several seasons of "OH poo WE HAVE TO GET BETTER" trades and nuking our future.

 

THIS! And I'll take it a step further. There is no reason for a "win now draft pick." That kind of flawed thinking is how we got in this mess in the first place. We need talented pieces. Multiple. Many, arguably. And they don't all hit. We need enough to hit that as some prove to be misses, we're still adding good building blocks for a complete roster in the future.

That means not taking big swings on flashy players who we think will "complete our roster." Odds are, they won't and it just leaves us with lack of talent and depth elsewhere.

Draft BPA. Draft TALENT. Because odds are, what we think is the "missing piece" now, won't be when we're actually in a position to contend. But you never get hurt by having talented players on your roster regardless of the position.

[Leeroy Jenkins Ph.D.]

Andy Dalton is obviously not the future, but will surely afford us the opportunity to be competitive, evaluate player talent, and evaluate the coaching staff. I am enjoying watching the team each week, win or lose. 

That being said, I am also very interested to see how this team operates knowing that Bryce Young has set us back a number of years. We are likely not going to be competing for the division for, bare minimum, 2 seasons. 

Dan Morgan really needs to be future focused.  Players on the final year of their contracts need to be properly evaluated and either extended or traded off for future draft capital. We need to be getting something positive from these players.  We can't count on compensatory draft picks, because we bring in to many FAs in the off-season. 

[ForJimmy]

DB being out deflated our defense even more than it was. Hopefully some young guys will look serviceable and give us something to build on for when he comes back next year. 

[Bear Hands]

I'll echo that it's at least watchable. I seriously couldn't watch games with Bryce.  I turned our game on this week and didn't migrate to quad box/or another game by the half.  That's huge strides.  

But for real, for a franchise that experienced Matt Moore, Kyle Allen, Rhule's 3-0 start, & a few others flash in the pans, you think we'd be conditioned not to be so reactive, but I think seeing competent football again just got everyone a bit jazzed.

Also - I didn't have much time to check here yesterday -- but XL for example: he had a very up and down game with an awesome 2Q.  Sure as hell want to see more horse riding celebrations this year.  But he is what was advertised and could take some time.  It could be up and down.  Good thing is Canales clearly knows how to integrate his skillset early.  

JT Sanders isn't a bust, he isn't a hit.  He's a work in progress, just like Trevin, just like others.  My only counter is Brooks isn't a project but we'll see what happens.  He's able to start practicing this week so time will tell.  

We've got the Bears, Falcons, Broncos, Giants on our schedule...there's winnable games.  Let's root for wins, hope for some good development with the young guys.  It's all about figuring out who emerges from this season as dudes for the future vs. who are placeholders/replaceable. 

 

 

[jayboogieman]

36 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

We don't have any elite, instant impact rookies. Guys like XL, Brooks, Wallace, Sanders, etc.....these are project players.

Morgan should have drafted better players when he had the chance to instead of drafting RAS dawgs.

[kungfoodude]

2 minutes ago, jayboogieman said:

Morgan should have drafted better players when he had the chance to instead of drafting RAS dawgs.

I really disliked the draft too but it just is what it is. Hopefully we get a couple of hits and then it won't matter about the misses. 

Look at a guy like Hubbard, for instance. He was skewered by this board as being "Rhule's wifes pick" and was a disaster as a rookie and second year player. But, he's now a competent starting caliber RB with much improved hands. He has been a hell of a pick in hindsight.

So maybe Wallace or Sanders end up being those players in 2-3 seasons. 

[PNW_PantherMan]

43 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

- JAG's are elite players either. There is no magic bullet to some of these roster holes(specifically at Edge). Don't get crazy and assume that Barno or Wonnum or whatever PS player are suddenly going to come in and be Hassan Reddick. You might see some flashes and that's great. That is why they are here, to flash occasionally. Not to be the second coming of Julius Peppers.