Chuck Wagon

I really hope we keep Spikes. Kiko is coming off the injury and Brown is very young, when we ran Pettine's D (basically Rex's D) before we could not stop the run, Spikes would be a key to that. I expect we'll look more like a hybrid D, with Mario being a stand up/hand in the dirt pass rusher. Plugging him in as one of the 3 DL in a real 3-4 seems like a waste of his talent as those guys are typically just block eaters.

That's the line I'd like to see. If we can't land Iupati then Clint Boling from the Bengals is my 1-B target. With our 2nd & 3rd round draft picks I'd like to do what the Colts did when they took Luck or what the Pats did in the Gronk/Hernandez draft: Draft 2 TEs out of: Maxx Williams, Clive Walford, Devin Funchess, Nick O'Leary We haven't had a real TE in a LOOOONG time, with today's NFL 2 good TEs (a big TE and a "move" TE, think Gronk & Hernandez) gives you the ability to go with multiple looks with the same personnel. We could be set up for a long time with Watkins - Woods & the 2 rookie TEs running a base 12 personnel grouping.

That's the way I view it too. Someone will talk themselves into the unknown given his physical tools. I'm a Buckeye fan so I'm biased, but if you were to take someone who understands nfl football but knows nothing about what happened in the college season, gave them last nights tape and told them "One of these QBs if viewed as an easy top 2 pick, the other is viewed as a mid to late round project" which one are they going to pick as the top guy? Right now NFL scouts are faced with that connundrum. If he rips it in his pro day like he's clearly capable and is his down to earth affable self in interviews, he's got the tools to look very good in the pre draft process. Someone will take him in round 2-3 if he performs in a pre draft evaluation up to his capabilities. As soon as guys find a reason to draft you, it immediately shifts to finding reasons not to draft you. Someone will roll the dice on him.

Go ahead and ignore the OSU fans who've known about this guy for 3 years. He beat Barrett out for the backup job to Braxton, but when Braxton was hurt Urban viewed this year as a rebuilding year and decided to let the future of the program (Barrett) get the experience. No one is saying he should be a top 10 pick, but to say he's worse than a 2nd-3rd level talent is simply ignoring all the information available.

I'm a Buckeye fan and I really hope he comes back, but the guy should go pro now. He's older than people realize as he spent a year after high school in prep school and he's a redshirt SO, so in real age terms he's as old as a typical senior. Given his arm talent and measurables, I'd be very surprised if he lasted after the 3rd round and seeing a team (like Denver) take him at the end of round 1 would not shock me at all. He needs to sit for a year or two, but he would be much better served to do that in a NFL enviroment than he would be to lose out to Braxton or JT for the job next year. Oregon was dropping 7-8 all night and he was putting the ball in NFL windows. He's thrown Smith open on deep balls the last 3 games with NFL caliber throws. I'd have no problem with the Bills taking him at #50 (though I'd prefer 3rd round) and sitting behind EJ while adding a vet like Hoyer to push EJ for the job. I hope all 3 come back and the best man wins the job, however I do expect Cardale to go pro, Braxton to be the starter next year then Barrett to have 2 years starting.

I really don't understand the whole "defense is bad, hire a defensive coach" / "offense is bad, hire an offensive coach" line of thinking. I remember Billick being billed as an offensive genius with the Vikings and winning a Super Bowl with perhaps the worst championship offense ever in Baltimore. If you don't have the horses on offense, hiring the smartest offense coach imaginable will likely only get you so far before other teams watch tape and expose you. Same thing with not having the guys on defense. In my mind, it's much more important to hire a coach who knows enough to trust his coordinators to worry about their sides of the ball while he worries about the big picture teamwise. The coach should also be able to understand how to win with your talent. By this measure, we are a perfect fit for Rex as we need to win games the way he already wants to win them. If we would have brought in Gase/Hamilton/Trestman etc I would feel much worse about our odds as I'd be afraid they'd be worried about making us into something we aren't capable of being. As much as I hate Marrone for what he did, at least he was smart enought to know we wouldn't be winning any games trying to sling the ball around like the Saints.

As someone who watches 7 hours of redzone channel every Sunday, A LOT more TDs result from guys sticking out the ball the turnovers are created by it. This isn't high school football, even plays from inside the 1 can be very difficult to sneak/run in and there's no guaranteed tds in the red zone.

I don't have a problem reaching the ball out. I would demand all my guys pull a Barry Sanders and hand the ball off to the ref when scoring, the DeSean Jackson / Utah vs Oregon plays are much more mind numbing.

I'd be mildly surprised if the Browns aren't the Hard Knocks team. Pretty certain they can't say no and their widespread fan base, never having done it and Johnny Football drama makes them a likely ratings darling.

Ugh, I don't really want to hear "Play like a Bill". Right now it's a lot of fun trolling Browns fans with Pettine's "Play like a Brown".

I live in CBus as well. Right now it's the calm before the storm, a lot of nervous energy.

In other Browns dysfunction news, there's a rumor they might try to hire Kubiak and can Pettine.

This. The Falcons have a QB, but outside of Julio and Trufant their roster is a wasteland. I can't really believe the generally accepted consensus has them as much closer to winning than we are.

Both of Tampa (McCoy) and Tennessee's (Casey) best players are DTs......

That's what I was thinking too, but he looked like a guy walking off the field for the last time after the game.

I don't get this type of thinking. The NFL was better when Favre was in it and everyone wanted to push him out the door. Same story for Peyton. The league will be worse off when Peyton does hang it up, he shouldn't be rushed out the door.

He also said he knows there likely isn't a 3rd chance if things go poorly here and is comfortable hitching his star to us. He's the Pegula's first choice and they got him, that's all I care about.

I think the Falcons want McDaniels to continue their Patriots South building.

There's only 1 QB name who "might" be available that would actually blow my mind - Philip Rivers His contract is up after next year when he'll be 34. There's a chance the Chargers may say they've topped out with him and rebuild by trading him for draft picks instead of signing him to a deal they don't want to make or risk losing him for nothing. Rex was my top choice. I think we need to play like his early Jets teams and pound the rock while winning with defense. The last thing I wanted was some offensive "genius" who would try to throw the ball 50 times a game or a first timer who would cause us to take a step back. No one knows the division better than Rex and his players loved playing for him. I think he's a major upgrade over St. Doug and will push us into the playoffs next year.

He was the Pats writer, but he is awful and that's a team espn actually cares about so they brought in Mike Reiss and "reassigned" Rodak. He's a Pats fan, if he hates something we did I usually take it as a good sign.

We need to win with defense and power running. Simply put, Rex is the best available fit for that style. Add in his knowledge of the division and his experience as HC and he's a great choice. Adam Gase, Pep Hamilton or Mike Shanahan isn't going to make us a world class offense. We are much better off with a HC who understands how we need to win than a first time "guru" who'll get run over by Schwartz.

Already said he'll be back at OSU.

We "should" beat - Jets x2, @ Titans, @ Jaguars, @ Deadskins (I'm not typically a "should beat" type of guy, but we are clearly more talent than those teams) I think the Packers and to some extent the Pats games showed we can play with anyone in the league. Remaining games: Dolphins x2, Pats x2, Colts, Texans, Dallas, @ Eagles, Giants, Chiefs, Bengals I'm at a point with this team that I don't look at any of those games as sure losses. If we take care of business in our 5 "should" wins, then we need to go 5-6 against a schedule that isn't exactly daunting to finish 10-6 and likely in the playoffs.

If the organization had the last two years to go off would they have still selected him?

Syracuse was 29th in passing and 17th in offense in Doug's final year there with a QB who was drafted fairly high and a left tackle who went in the 1st round. That doesn't exactly stand out as innovative or cutting edge. Chip Kelly nearly made stars out of Nick Foles and Riley Cooper, no one is confusing them with Andrew Luck and Dez Bryant anytime soon. A good coach is able to work with what he's given, a bad coach throws is hands up and says "the players aren't capable". Mike Singletary famously declared he couldn't win with the same players Jim Harbaugh took to 3 straight NFC title games. Mike Singletary likely isn't getting another head coaching job anytime soon while Harbaugh was hired instantly after things turned south in San Fran. Which one does Marrone sound more like? I refuse to believe running Spiller up the middle or using Sammy as a blocker on a screen for Chris Hogan or Fred Jackson is the best use of a player's talent. St. Doug is inflexible and far from innovative, sitting in the same room while Sean Payton and Drew Brees worked doesn't make someone a genius.