Chuck Wagon

If you look at kicking around the league, Hauschka is a VERY underrated part of our success. The Browns might be 5-0 and the Packers might be 4-1 with a kicker of his caliber.

I agree. I just think Campbell / Hill are nice fits in the current NFL, plus the ceiling of Victir is better than what we have.

Ohio St

Here is my problem with the situation. I'm perfectly fine with the rebuild that needed to occur. I was fine with most every move through the end of last year. McBeane had uniquely positioned us with 6 draft picks in the first 3 rounds of the draft (could have been 7 without the trade for Benjamin, but it is what it is). We had the opportunity to add at least 6 highly thought of young cheap players into this rebuilding process, been terrible this year, likely had our choice of QB at the top of the draft and be sitting pretty able to surround a rookie QB with a lot of talent through FA and potentially 8 day 1 / day 2 draft picks (6 last year, 2nd/3rd this year). Instead we gave up all of that pile of capital to add (best case) the 3rd best QB in this past draft, plus a linebacker (not typically an impact position). That's not a rebuilding move, that's a "we've already got this team built and need to plug in these two spots" move. So while I understand the need to exercise some patience, given all the talent we've lost and the situation currently around Josh, McBeane has to CRUSH this upcoming offseason. That includes luring impact offensive talent in FA, to a place with historical difficulty adding FAs, with a coach staff no one is calling innovative and finding a way to fill the roster with talent in the draft using significantly less capital we possessed last year. I'm skeptical at best they have the ability to pull this off given what we've seen.

Bingo From these comments on here it's clear a lot of posters didn't even listen / read what was actually said. Dilfer's comments were much more of an indictment of the organization than anything having to do with Josh. It's REALLY hard to argue they've put the kid in a position to succeed. He's already making a bigger jump up in competition than Baker / Darnold / Rosen, but to put him out there with what our regime has put him out there with isn't even giving him a chance. Brady or Brees wouldn't even have a chance with our offensive talent / coaching.

No amount of really nice guys who try really hard is going to consistently overcome scheme and talent disadvantages.

Shady + Hughes for Le'veon We do right by Shady sending him home to Pittsburgh. Conner has played OK, but the Steelers could really use another back. Their D needs all the help they can get, Hughes has struggled in the 3-4 in the past but it adds a talented player to the mix for them. We get a younger (26 vs 30) and better player, this move frees up the cap that we can pay Le'Veon above the tag number to buy some goodwill and get him to resign this winter. We have more than enough cap room next winter to overhaul the line and WR corps, having Le'Veon on board can potentially help with a "recruiter" as we work on FAs.

I think the Titans are really good, it's fitting Vrabel is their coach, they remind me of the early Pats teams Vrabel played on before BB/age flushed out guys like Ty Law and Richard Seymour. Add to it they seem to have our number and I don't see this one ending well. Titans 27 - Bills 6

For all the promise Edmunds has shown, we could have stayed put and got Calvin Ridley at 22 and Fred Warner (starting at MLB for the 49ers) at 65. I don't blame a team moving up to get a QB they believe in if they don't have one. But Edmunds is really going to have to be special to justify that move up for a linebacker, the players we could have got with those picks and taking him right in front of Derwin James (looks like Sean Taylor reincarnated) already doesn't look good.

Trade Clay too.

Yep. Gentry, Caroo and Henderson all look interesting. Seems like you could roll those 3 out on Sunday and not miss a beat, if not get better product than what we currently get.

Playing heavy packages isn’t going to work. There’s not a single competent offense in the league that does that. First thing I’d do is see if we could get anything for Benjamin and Clay. Next I’d scour practice squads and preseason film for young WRs who can win vertically. WRs can be found, oline needs to be drafted /FA moves. If Allen survives and we can find the next “Stevie” as an underrated WR then it’s a win imo.

Yep. He said we made him a very nice 3 year offer but he wanted to take a 1 year deal to rehab his value. The teams leading 7 of the 8 divisions all have HCs with offensive backgrounds, not to mention the defending Super Bowl champs. Just saying...

It's mindblowing. The rules have bent to favor a vertical passing game with quick WRs who can operate underneath in space fearlessly. We have a QB who should thrive in a vertical system. Yet we don't have one WR on the roster equipped to take advantage of the current climate.

Seems pretty obvious IMO the Jets promised him the job to get him to opt out then got cold feet when we threatened to file tampering charges.

Largely, I simply don't agree that it's been rules changes that's resulted in the offense explosion. I'm not going to pretend they've hurt it, they've definitely helped. IMO it' s more scheme that's flown up from college football. Everyone's favorite acronym, the RPO, NFL offenses are running spread concepts, putting guys in space and it's putting insane stress on defenses. We've seen glimpses in the past, our K-Gun, "the Greatest Show on Turf", the 2007 Pats. But college football has been like this for several years now and it's really hitting the NFL in full stride. Simply put, it's more efficient football than what some here are longing for in the "good old days".

"I can't understand what's happening to the NFL. Must be all the pansy liberal millennials needing to see points point points to be entertained. All I just want to see is a full back slam into a linebacker, the running back get 3 yards and then punts. Remember punts? Used to be a game changer, a good punt down inside the 5. Now I see this Rams coach line up for 4th down late in the game or the Eagles go for 4th down in the Super Bowl and I DO NOT KNOW WHATS HAPPENING!! Don't give me this mularky about spread offenses, that's not my NFL. If a receiver goes over the middle he needs to go off on a stretcher, that's the NFL I love. They've ruined my game. Now excuse me, but I'm going to flip over to NASCAR to see if there are any good car wrecks."

Philly leaps out from that list. They seem to be in an arms race with the Rams to stack titles while Goff / Wentz are cheap and given Ajayi is going to be a FA and they don't have great options in the backfield anyway, I could see them making an aggressive move for him.

Can't we just move each teams games with Arizona / Oakland / San Fran and get this matchup 4-5 times this year?

Then stop watching. I thought the last two primetime games have been very entertaining. Only place you are going to see I formation with a fullback is on NFL Films. It's got more to do with scheme than making the rules harsher.

I’ve been watching for 20 years. Guys are bigger / stronger / faster than the “glory days” some are longing for. Improvements in scheme and the caliber of athletes have a lot more to do with scoring than rule changes. Taking someone’s head off when they are looking away isn’t “tough football”, it’s assualt.

Please. It’s the proliferation of spread offenses up from the college game. Both teams are great at stretching the field both vertically and horizontally. Football isn’t played in a phone booth anymore, the notion teams can just run out of the I with a fullback is dead. We see terrible oline play first hand. These teams both are great at getting their WRs in space.

Minny signed Aldrik Robinson off the street 10 days ago. What the heck? He’s a more proven vertical threat than anyone on our roster.

NFL cares more about scheduling around Taylor Swift concerts than balancing divisional matchup timing,

My point was his floor is higher than a guy like Trub or Rosen. IMO Allen's floor is a fringe starter but a guy who'll be in the league for years. His ability to make some plays with his legs and hit deep balls at least gives him that. A guy like Rosen or Trub's floor is out of the league in 4 years.