GunnerBill

The way the NFL is set up with the draft and the salary cap means shooting for great when you have good is really difficult. Once you try and maximise the abilities of what you have which Miami has done the chance to upgrade at Quarterback becomes pretty remote. Miami doesn't have any other choice.

Yea I do too. Ugh.

I never watched Jack Kemp play, obviously, but I think rather than trying to work out his skillset translates (different game, different world) isn't a better question: "where was he ranked relative to his peers when he played?" i.e. was he a top 5 QB of his era? Top 10? Top half of the sport (appreciate a lot of his career was pre-merger)? Then look at how the modern equivalent for that level of QB gets treated by the market today.

Exactly. The market sucks and we all know Tua isn't worth that deal, but you can't shout "stop the world I want to get off." You either pay it or some other team will and you are scrabbling around for a Quarterback with the teams considering starting Garnder Minshew and Sam Darnold.

Agree that stat does seem to be more a combination of receiver and Quarterback on any given play than a pure receiver stat.

https://espnanalytics.com/rtm I don't fully understand what the ratings are based on. But for "Open" he is 136th.

It commented on it so will be findable somewhere in my posts, I'm out and about all day today so won't have time to try and dig out.

It was posted here the other day.

Yea there seems to be a high degree of disagreement among the various metrics sites.

It was on the ESPN thing the other day that had Samuel as only the 136th best separator in the league last year.

Not sure they have had a great defense, but I take your point. And indeed SFs defense may feel better to us because it plays all those crap NFC offenses 12/17 games.

Agree. I can imagine a world where in two years time people are talking about Love as in the elite bracket. His 2nd half of last season was pretty close to elite level Quarterbacking. Not sure we have ever seen that from Tua.

I don't think that is a fair comparison but equally I take the point about the lack of value for Tua at that price.

No I don't think it does come with the job. It is what I call toxic positivity. I can't have those people around me who will look at disaster and try and tell me the sun is shining.

Diggs, yes I disagree. His separation rate the last 8 games did go down. But it was still higher than Samuel.

Rodgers was drafted outside the top 10. There is no more important position in sport than a franchise Quarterback. If you don't have one having everything else is irrelevant. If your guy is 35 or over, has started talking life after football and you get a chance to draft a kid you think can make it you take that chance. Every. Single. Time. And even if you miss it is still the right decision. And how would Pittman or Higgins have stopped the 49ers running all over them at will?

Anyone still want to look back a few years and make the argument they should have given the prima donna a 1st round rookie receiver to not throw to the second he dropped a ball rather than select their Quarterback of the future? Was a silly argument then, even sillier now.

But I am confident they will get them. I don't think this is a plucky overachiever. I think they have very good talent at the premium positions in the modern NFL. Unless Stroud turns into a pumpkin (which I don't expect) the Texans win the South.

And you think he is better than Mitch?

Who?

It is a simple fact that we don't have anyone who is proven beyond #3 type production. I will leave Kincaid aside for a second because I was talking specifically about wide receivers. I am just not as optimistic as you are on either Keon or, to a lesser extent, Shakir who I do think can be very good but you have to be elite to be a difference maker at slot and I am not sure he is that. I think the Bills will have enough to move the ball. But they have objectively on paper one of the worst receiver groups in the league going into the season. It will come down to Josh and Joe to maximise what they have.

I'm not assuming he still runs everything he learned in New Orleans. I am sure he has developed as he has gone. But very few coaches completely abandon the stuff that helps them get their break. He did move Jefferson in to play big slot at LSU as well (was an inspired move). Wouldn't surprise me if they have essentially 4 wide formations where Coleman and Kincaid are in the slot either side with say a Samuel and a MVS outside in the playbook. I am not saying that us all they will run. But it wouldn't surprise me if Keon is trending around a third of his snaps inside by the end of the year. I also happen to think it is where his skillset is best suited.

They are also good at the premium positions. Stroud at QB, Diggs, Collins and Dell at WR, Tunsil at LT, Anderson and Hunter at EDGE, Stingley at CB. When you are good in those spots you win close games more often than not. I think they will win some of the games folks are marking as surefire losses on their schedule get to 10 or 11 wins and that will win a weak AFC South.

He did. And that Sean Payton version of the E-P was more of a spread scheme that has always classically valued size inside and then speed outside. I wouldn't be shocked as a result if Coleman (despite Beane's intention) ends up playing a fair amount of big slot.

Nah it pre-dated the Bengals. The Bengals game was in a period where they were barely speaking. One of the reasons I think you still see ex team mates speak relatively warmly of Stef is from what I was told it was not a split the locker room situation or anything like that. Most of their teammates didn't (and possibly still don't) know what it was that caused the fall out. I was told Dawson Knox knew but a lot of the others were in the dark. They just know somewhere in the middle of that season the relationship went sideways. Most of the coaches didn't know why either. I presume Sean and Brandon did but it wasn't something that was widely known. My suspicion (and I repeat this bit is speculation on my part and not based on anything anyone told me) is that the fallout did not originate on the football field. I think it was something off field that then spilled over onto the field.