BarleyNY

His shoulder isn’t making him leave his gap, take false steps and overrun plays. He’s been horrible this season. Watch some All 22 and focus on him. His biggest issue is that teams keep running counters and cutbacks to his gap and he keeps taking himself out of plays by running with the initial flow.

Yeah. I don’t. And I understand that he is a CB who excels in man coverage and we were moving to a zone, primarily C-3 scheme so we probably didn’t want to pay him to see how he played bail technique. I get it, but I always hate moving on from elite players because they don’t fit a new scheme. It seems to me like great coaches should be able to adapt their scheme to maximize the impact of great players. It was probably just too late to salvage the relationship when McD got here. We were at a point where a franchise tag was our only option and that would’ve likely led to a disgruntled player on and off the field.

3-17 is 15%. (3/20) For me it needs to be beating a true playoff caliber team in reasonable health. For example beating KC without Mahomes wouldn’t count. Then we need to win a playoff game. That’s truly turning the corner IMO.

I think he wanted paid - and to win. I think he was frustrated here because he had to play out his fifth year option with no extension and we weren’t all that competitive as a team. He got both with NE. Until recently that is. Now he’s just getting paid.

He wasn’t traded off of the Bills. We let him leave as a FA.

Agreed. But they’ll need a better effort than we saw yesterday to do it. Cam looks awful, but NE will still be a lot better than the Jets. Hell, everyone will be a lot better than the Jets.

That’s a very fair take IMO. I’m shocked the Jets got away from the run. I really think that was a big mistake.

Mistakes were made

Really this is true. I’m not writing him off at all. I think he’s an accurate QB with real NFL potential as well as a big size/frailty/injury red flag. There’s a possibility that the Phins will have a significantly upgraded QB position with him behind center and I won’t feel better until I know they don’t. Time will tell.

NO is not trading Michael Thomas. They didn’t sell out to make a SB run for one last season to throw it away by trading their best WR - and apparently necessary piece to make that offense special as opposed to pretty ordinary.

Prorated portion of $6.66M salary this season and $8.25M next season. Spotrac

I’m sure Fitz want to play, but on the bright side he still gets $8M for this season and he preserves his health. Not a bad thing at 37. At some point soon I think we will see him make the move to the booth and I would love that.

Yeah. I’ve been harping on this. It’s a bad situation. Per Spotrac $51.7M in the DL this season and $50.4M currently on the books for next. That’s with Murphy coming off the books and doesn’t include Zimmer who is an RFA and would be cheap. It includes getting Star back. I totally agree with you. There should be changes.

Totally agree. And the Phish aren’t pushovers either. They are 3-3 and only one game behind us. They are on their bye, thus the 0% leverage for them this week. And who knows how Tua plays? He was an excellent QB prospect other than the impact of his terrible injury and general injury risk moving forward. If healthy I think he’ll be good. The division isn’t the cake walk it looked like it might have been.

Winning our division would automatically get us one home playoff game. To do that we have to take care of business against teams like the Jest.

Thanks for this. Serious question: 4 minute mark. Can someone explain why that was not Edmunds’ gap responsibility? He’s the only one lined up presnap in the gap the run went to and he vacated it to move toward the fake counter action. In a larger context, Edmunds has certainly done some things well. He scrapes very well and he has made some nice plays. But he has not been consistent in a good way. He gets out of his gap responsibility too often, he overruns plays and he is too slow to react too often. It’s not as though he’s trash, but he’s not close to what you expect from the 16th overall pick in his third year (even a young, raw prospect). He was taken that high to be a difference maker and while he does make some great, splash plays, he’s not doing close to well enough on a play by play basis. His option decision is due this offseason and I can’t see us picking it up. There’s just no way we can justify the kind of long term contract that and his draft position would set up. I see us declining the option and making him play out his last season while hoping the light goes on. If it does, then we keep him with a new contract or tag. If not, then we move on.

After June 1st any released player’s unaccounted for signing bonus gets accounted for in the following year. I looked at OverTheCap and Spotrac and there’s conflicting info. Details will come through in time.

They aren’t clearing any. They still have to pay him for the season since that’s guaranteed. Looks like he’s going to cost us close to $4.5M this season and another $1M next. For four or five games of below average play. That sucks. It’s not a killer for the team by any stretch, but I’ve complained before about Beane overpaying him with that deal. And now it’s a lot worse. Edit: There is a possible exception. That’s if he negotiated his release and gave up some of that remaining guaranteed salary. It’s not likely, but it’s possible.

That’s no excuse. There were definitely replacements brought in - and at high cost of contracts and draft capital. Per Spotrac we have about 1/4 of our cap tied up in the DL alone. Plus a 2019 top 10 pick and this year’s second rounder. They just aren’t performing (with some notable exceptions like Tre). Oh and let’s remember that KC was missing 3 starting OL after Schwartz went down early. Not to mention Watson was out. But the defense is not alone. The offense isn’t performing against good defenses either.

Correlation does not Equal causality. Put the 0/1 tech who’s the best at eating space but can’t penetrate on our DL and the whole defense still sucks. It’s be different if most of the damage to our defense was inside runs, but I don’t see too many A gap runs. Teams are attacking our outside gaps and edges. I’d be nice if there was an easy fix, but it’s not as simple as getting Star back - or finding a good 0/1 tech player. I haven’t rewatched the game but I saw Oliver penetrate the line a lot, but wasn’t run at and wound up chasing the ball carrier to no avail. I suspect he will grade well for it. If so it would be a big turnaround as he hasn’t done much in any other game. Addison was the only other DL that I saw do anything. I’ll know more when the All 22 is up to watch.

Do you know how fumbling away the ball impacts a team’s chances of winning a game?

He’s gonna have to hold onto the ball if he wants designed runs. Just sayin.

Allen needs to take care of the ball if he wants to be allowed to help the team by running it. I think the coaching staff will ease him back into running the ball. He’ll have to earn it by protecting it and himself in limited opportunities. If he does, then he’ll get more designed runs.

Murphy is the 9th highest paid player on the team. We’d have saved $8M by cutting him and probably would’ve spent at least that on a comparable replacement. Addison is getting $10.15M per season by comparison. Honestly I’m wondering how much of our issues are scheme and how much is personnel. For what we are collectively paying this defense we are getting crap in return. $51.2M tied up in the DL this season per Spotrac.

Ok, I get pumping the brakes on the doom and gloom, but let’s not overstate things either. We’ve made the playoffs 2 of the last 3 seasons BUT WE HAVE NOT HAD A REAL CHANCE AT MAKING A SUPER BOWL YET. We lost both playoff games we’ve been in. We got taken to the woodshed in the first one, then lost in OT to a team that KC crushed in the following round. We weren’t close. Now that doesn’t mean that McD and Beane haven’t improved this team vastly. They have. But this team isn’t an elite one yet. The 4-0 record we had as of a couple weeks ago set some lofty expectations because it looked like we might have arrived. Obviously we haven’t yet. What’s really concerning is why. The defense looks bad - and that’s enormously problematic. We have spent large on it and defense is supposed to be McD’s forte. Failure on that front deserves some major explanation by both him and Beane. On offense the WR corps has been great, pass blocking has been great and Allen has been up and down. But the run blocking and the run game in general has been really bad. If we are topping out at being a “bottom rung playoff team” would anyone be happy with that? It’s fair to ask why so many facets of the team are breaking down. It’s also fair to ask what the plan will be once Allen is off his rookie contract and we have $30M or so less to spend.