Words on things I watched, read & heard

[BaconGrundleCandy]

One of the most non PTP players with this stuff, this is a no go for me as another nfl team

I'm cracking up thinking about Vrabel dealing with some of these young guys. I'd bet a decent amount he's already fist fought a player in the locker room. He's ready to go at any time.

 

[Uptown]

 

[captain stone]

Yeah we were battered watching Can't & Kneal all season too...

 

[captain stone]

We already have two OL coaches...We need good coaches at other positions (WR & TE come IMMEDIATELY to mind).

 

[DaBruinz]

We already have two OL coaches...We need good coaches at other positions (WR & TE come IMMEDIATELY to mind).

Newsflash for you. Coaches learn to coach multiple positions. As they are growing. Take a look at some of them backgrounds and you'd realize this.

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

If I could get Burns, Brown & two 1st I'd seriously think about it. 70/30, yes.


What is the best offer NE could put on the table? Realistically.

JC, Gilly, Wynn, 15, 2022 1st & 2nd. Or two 1st? Would you do that? Knowing you now need everything else on offense (OL -Wynn maybe Thuney gone, no WR and secondary takes a huge hit. Would you do it?

 

[patsfanfromoversea]

If I could get Burns, Brown & two 1st I'd seriously think about it. 70/30, yes.


What is the best offer NE could put on the table? Realistically.

JC, Gilly, Wynn, 15, 2022 1st & 2nd. Or two 1st? Would you do that? Knowing you now need everything else on offense (OL -Wynn maybe Thuney gone, no WR and secondary takes a huge hit. Would you do it?

No I would not do that. A QB ist the most important position but he can't throw block and catch at the same time. Even with top Weapons and one of the best QB's the chiefs offense didn't get much done in the SB due to lack of protection mostly and non existing run game. Also you need a defense to win championships, if they can't stop a nosebleed you need to score on almost every drive with your offense. I would rather try to draft your Franchise QB and then take a shot. Don't force it, I would only trade First Round Picks if i see my team as an contending team, cause those picks are for potential difference maker who are cheap for the next 4 years

 

[d312]

If I could get Burns, Brown & two 1st I'd seriously think about it. 70/30, yes.


What is the best offer NE could put on the table? Realistically.

JC, Gilly, Wynn, 15, 2022 1st & 2nd. Or two 1st? Would you do that? Knowing you now need everything else on offense (OL -Wynn maybe Thuney gone, no WR and secondary takes a huge hit. Would you do it?

NO

 

[Scotty]

Whatever is best for the team

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

 

[captain stone]

Is he really a $15-16M player?

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Is he really a $15-16M player?

If someone pays that then he is. I don't think so. $15 - $16M for a half season or less? NUTS!!!

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

Is he really a $15-16M player?

If someone pays that then he is. I don't think so. $15 - $16M for a half season or less? NUTS!!!

He played every game last year, 8 the year before, full season and 5 games.

Most NFL players get hurt and miss time. Rookies, vets, QBs that are statues, QBs that can move. It's simply the nature of the business.

Also he had 16 sacks not too long ago. Peak Watt is still better than more half of what's out there. He's versatile, effective almost anywhere. You never have to worry about him. Great in the locker room. Obviously wants to win.

You absolutely want guys like that, esp at premium position(s).

I mean if we're serious about putting the best possible team out there then why not? 15/16 might be a little high. 12-13 per might be more realistic.

If we keep our secondary together. Get lucky with HT coming back. Add a DL FA/draft, retain Butler or Guy. There's no reason why this defense can't be a decent amount better. With say Watt/Williams or Watt/Harris and draft pick.

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

I'd love too a few of Samuel, Williams, Harris, Reddick & Harris here.

Samuel would give us real flexibility early on if we land him. Chase, Smith or Waddle with Samuel is night & day from what we have now.

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

He played every game last year, 8 the year before, full season and 5 games.

Most NFL players get hurt and miss time. Rookies, vets, QBs that are statues, QBs that can move. It's simply the nature of the business.

Also he had 16 sacks not too long ago. Peak Watt is still better than more half of what's out there. He's versatile, effective almost anywhere. You never have to worry about him. Great in the locker room. Obviously wants to win.

You absolutely want guys like that, esp at premium position(s).

I mean if we're serious about putting the best possible team out there then why not? 15/16 might be a little high. 12-13 per might be more realistic.

If we keep our secondary together. Get lucky with HT coming back. Add a DL FA/draft, retain Butler or Guy. There's no reason why this defense can't be a decent amount better. With say Watt/Williams or Watt/Harris and draft pick.

$10M or $12M, instead of $15M or $16M, means we can have Watt and Guy. 1 player versus 2 which is very different to me.

Defensive ends do commonly fall off a cliff. Watt is 32 this year so he probably has a few "veteran presence" years left in him, the more he is in a rotation the better. Not sure we would attract him with a 7-9 season and no QB, and he is probably chasing $$s, although he will say otherwise.

At $16M would you prefer Matthew Judon and Guy OR JJ Watt?

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

$10M or $12M, instead of $15M or $16M, means we can have Watt and Guy. 1 player versus 2 which is very different to me.

Like you said w/e someone pays his, he's ultimately worth. I might go a little higher than 12 but not much. We're talking 13-13.5. Maybe i value him more? He's a very good all around player you can use anywhere. If you watch he still has plenty left.

Another thing is he might be worth more to different teams. I could see a few teams like GB, Balt, Buffalo, Cleveland looking at him thinking he could really improve what they have going.

Others he might not move the needle that on his own so to speak. Without a good cast around him.

Defensive ends do commonly fall off a cliff. Watt is 32 this year so he probably has a few "veteran presence" years left in him, the more he is in a rotation the better. Not sure we would attract him with a 7-9 season and no QB, and he is probably chasing $$s, although he will say otherwise.

Agree with the last part

At $16M would you prefer Matthew Judon and Guy OR JJ Watt?

How about we both good players and replace the replaceable one

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

Feel like I've heard this before

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

Best five games after that, assuming the 17-game slate:

1. Pittsburgh v Seattle. Last two meetings have ended 39-30 and 28-26, Seattle. Ben (maybe) dueling Russ (maybe) for the last time (maybe) is sumptuous.
2. Baltimore v L.A. Rams. In 2019, the high-flying Ravens put up 45 on the Rams. Matthew Stafford will have something to say about that now.
3. Tampa Bay v Indianapolis. Tom Brady versus the team that chose Philip Rivers over him in 2020.
4. Houston v Carolina. Imagine if Nick Caserio buckles and trades Deshaun Watson to the team that might covet him most, the Panthers.
5. New England v Dallas. If it’s not a good game, at least it’ll get ratings out the wazoo.
   The others: Buffalo-Washington, Miami-Giants, Philadelphia-Jets, Cleveland-Arizona, Cincinnati-San Francisco, Tennessee-New Orleans, Jacksonville-Atlanta, Las Vegas-Chicago, L.A. Chargers-Minnesota, Denver-Detroit.

• A Monday night wild-card game? I think it’s somewhere between 50-50 and very likely. Last year, the NFL wouldn’t consider playing one of six wild-card games on Monday night because it would have conflicted with the Jan. 11 college football national title game. The NFL instead played three wild-card games on Saturday and three Sunday in the 2020 season. This season, college football will play the championship game in Indianapolis on Monday night, Jan. 10, 2022. That leaves Jan. 17 as the football-free Monday night of Wild Card Weekend. So the NFL could play two games on Saturday, three on Sunday, and one on Monday. Screaming, of course, will commence about the Monday night winner playing a short-week game the following Sunday. (And the NFL would ensure that the Monday night winner would not play until Sunday of divisional weekend.) Balderdash. With three wild-card games on Saturday, six teams are sure to play a short-week game. With two wild-card games on Saturday and one on Monday, five teams are assured of a short-week game—four on Saturday and Monday’s winner, which would play the following Sunday. If I’m a coach, I’m happy after playing 17 games in 18 weeks to have an extra day of rest before a playoff game. What’s the argument against it?

Three other things:

• Wilson said he studied every one of Joe Burrow’s games from his 2019 LSU season “three or four times.” Wilson has the same kind of pocket-movement ability as Burrow, staying cool while figuring the best location from which to throw the most accurate ball. “There were so many things he did that I tried to apply to my games,” Wilson said.

• Spatial awareness is huge for an NFL quarterback because of the mayhem around him so often. Beck thinks several years of playing basketball as a kid all over the country—Wilson wanted to earn a basketball scholarship, not football, till his sophomore football season in high school—gave him “almost an innate sixth sense of feeling everything around him, like he’s around the rim on a basketball court.” When he moves in the pocket, it’s not frenetic, but more calculating.

• DoorDash. Crazy. Last year he was in California with Beck on Mother’s Day, and wanted to get his mom a large bouquet of flowers. So he worked a few extra hours that weekend to make the money. And back in Provo, if you saw a fit auburn-haired kid on a moped with some food bags in the last couple of summers, that was Wilson too. Roderick said there was a social-media post last year that said, “I’m pretty sure Zach Wilson just delivered my DoorDash. Is that possible?”

Yes. Yes it was. But his DoorDash days will be over this spring. BYU’s Pro Day is March 26, and he’ll be Zooming with teams in the weeks before the draft. He said he’s done “three or four” already. (Each team can do a maximum of five Zoom meetings with each prospective draftee.) Wilson’s skill-set is ideal for the quick-thinking and quick-throwing West Coast scheme, making the Jets (and new coordinator Mike LaFleur) at number two an intriguing option. Carolina, at eight with offensive coordinator Joe Brady, could be a strong candidate too; the Panthers may upgrade from Teddy Bridgewater, and Brady likes a coach-on-the-field type who can make throws to all parts of the field.

Entering the draft after his true-junior season and only one season (against mediocre competition) of high production is a definite risk. “It was nowhere in my intentions before the season,” he said. “But I always told myself if I had a chance to go in the first round, that’d be an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

Now the question is: Which team at the top of the draft won’t be able to pass up Wilson

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

“Garoppolo is in many ways anachronistic,” Cosell said — and it’s important to note that he does not mean this pejoratively. “He’s not the big strong guy like the Carson Palmers of the world, but in some ways he’s anachronistic because he’s essentially a scheme pocket player. That’s what Garoppolo is: He’s a scheme pocket player. And that’s really not the way people in 2021 think about the quarterback position.”

The current popularity of scrambling and deep heaves, Cosell says, has obscured much of what Garoppolo does well in the context of 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan’s system.

If you’re asking, “who would you rather have for the next eight years, Jimmy Garoppolo or Deshaun Watson?,” I think 100 percent would say Deshaun Watson. But that doesn’t mean that Jimmy Garoppolo’s not a good player.

Garoppolo, for whatever reason, has a bad reputation amongst the people out there. I don’t know why. I mean, we would both agree that he’s not special, but people talk about him like he’s terrible.

Garoppolo is still at only about 1,000 career pass attempts. Given this, do you think he’s in a position to still see significant improvement just through increased experience?

I think he is, particularly in the context of an offense as detailed and nuanced as Kyle’s.

Can you elaborate on that?

Here’s what I’ve been told by offensive coaches: You truly can’t judge and evaluate a quarterback until he’s been in the same offense for four years. Because it takes two years for him to master his own offense and then two more years to master his offense in the context of all the things that defenses do.

What about Garoppolo’s footwork? From a technical standpoint, that seems to be a primary concern. He’s not always set and consistent with his feet when he throws.

I think that’s because he’s a snap thrower. Because he’s been a snap thrower his whole life, very often guys who have that snap delivery don’t set their feet. Especially since he came out of a spread offense in college where a lot of those throws were easy throws and he could make them without having his feet set. So yes, I do think he needs to work on his lower body mechanics and the coordination of his throwing motion with his feet. I think that’s an area that does need improvement.

You should always throw the ball the exact same way unless the defense dictates otherwise. That’s one of the things that makes Tom Brady great: repetitive mechanics. He throws the ball the same way every single time. There’s always a couple of times the defense makes it different, but you should throw the ball the same way as a baseball pitcher.

You can’t just start throwing from different platforms just to say, “wow, that’s cool, he can throw from different platforms.” There’s no reason to throw from different platforms unless it’s truly demanded by the defense.

What was your evaluation of Garoppolo coming out of Eastern Illinois in 2014?

(Reading from his 2014 evaluation of Garoppolo, when he was a second-round pick to the Patriots)

A snap thrower more than a drive thrower, more finesse than power. Delivery was quick and compact. Efficient in short/intermediate pass game. Functional mobility. Had a good sense of progression reading within the context of EIU offense. Very good in shotgun play-action pass game, could tell he was detail-oriented.

At times, threw the deep ball with excellent touch and accuracy. Other times, accuracy was lacking. Inconsistent element to his game. Can his arm strength improve as he matures in the NFL? Something to consider. Not a great thrower but a comfortable thrower. The more I watch, the more I sense Garoppolo had a stronger arm than he showed within the context of his college offense.

Much of EIU featured quick game — Garoppolo efficient in that context. Balanced and compact in his setup and delivery. Good velocity on intermediate throws — that’s the best part of his game. Strengths are light feet, repetitive lower body mechanics (“which he doesn’t show in the NFL, by the way,” Cosell interjected as he read), compact delivery and consistent accuracy. Will need to be tightly managed and controlled early in his NFL career. Needs team around him to play at an NFL-quality level. NFL success will very much be a function of team and circumstances.