HappyDays

No, it definitely was. The official rule is subjective. It's a penalty if the QB clearly throws the ball to avoid a sack. That's clearly what Mahomes was doing there.

The Chiefs are in the Super Bowl because they have a secondary that can cover an elite set of weapons. That's really it.

Let Purdy throw the ball. The Chiefs are focusing on shutting down the run.

Ball don't lie!

Lmao Mahomes did not see #31 at all, that was an interception all the way. Just ridiculous.

Bizarre route from Aiyuk, like he forgot where he was supposed to go halfway through.

Purdy's passes REALLY hang up there

Pretty obvious who the better team is so far. Just a question of if they're going to screw it up.

Teams beat themselves against the Chiefs. This is a ridiculous series of penalties.

That contain rush is what the 49ers didn't do against Baltimore. That's a good sign that they have the right game plan. Just hold onto the freaking ball...

That's a brutal fumble, he just lost control of the ball. Doesn't look like the Chiefs even tried to punch it out.

I'm against this for several reasons. First, WR was certainly one of the reasons we lost to KC, but the biggest is that our back 7 was abysmal (and our front 4 only slightly less so). Your proposed scenario unequivocally makes our back 7 even worse. Dodson is not a starting MLB. Elam is better than Dane Jackson and should have been on the field over him against KC. Second, our cap situation is in a very dire spot and we can't wriggle out of it by restructuring Diggs' or Miller's contract. This needs to be a year where we draft as many players as possible and start more of them than McDermott is usually comfortable with. I would expect rookies at WR, C, DE, DT, and/or S to get ample playing time. As far as I can tell that's the only way we're going to have a starting caliber roster. I read through your whole discussion and I agree with what you say about depth being less important, but I'm talking about starters. Third, I agree we need more elite players. That is why we need to draft as many players as possible, to give ourselves more chances. Here are the Chiefs' elite players (other than Mahomes) and where they were drafted: Kelce - 63rd Jones - 37th Sneed - 138th Humphrey - 63rd Thuney - 78th (by the Pats) Their two recent foundational drafts happened because they collected picks after trading away an elite player. Also it's possible Bernard will become an elite player next year. I think there's even a slight chance Elam becomes one at some point given his penchant for interceptions. So no I would not actively make critical spots on the roster worse, and reduce our chance of finding multiple elite players this year and next, and take a couple of high-upside players off of our roster, just for one WR no matter how good his prospects are. Instead I would stick to the plan of drafting a WR at pick 28 and taking another one in rounds 2-4. I also don't agree when you say there's no use trying to stop KC in the playoffs. That we just need to beat them in a shootout and there's no other way. This is the biggest myth I see posted on this board all the time. KC has in fact been stopped in the playoffs. Just this year the Ravens defense held them to 17 points with one streak of 6 consecutive drives that ended in punts, and the only reason that defensive effort was wasted was because of a couple goofy turnovers in the red zone. Don't let our defense, and that means players and coaches, off the hook. Certainly our offense could have been better, most notably the WRs. But you know we once had a WR rack up 200 yards and 4 TDs against them and that still wasn't enough to overcome an abysmal defensive showing. So at some point the defense simply needs to show up in the playoffs and we're not going to see that happen if we trade away one of our best defensive players. We're only having this discussion because Beane has yet to find ONE elite player with one of his original draft picks, and McDermott has yet to coach ONE proper defensive showing against a good opponent in the playoffs. So I get that the fanbase is grasping for any conceivable means of overcoming the Chiefs in the playoffs, but the simple reality is that one or both of those men need to do better at their jobs, or else they need to be replaced. That's the only way we're going to get over the hump.

Unfortunately I think 2021 was his opportunity to do that and McDermott still ruined it at the end. Rodgers's playoff run in that Super Bowl year reminded me of Allen's in 2021. He was so on point that nothing could have stopped him. That might be a once in a career kind of playoff run, it was for Rodgers. And it still wasn't enough for us to finally get our one Super Bowl win.

Nah. He needs wide open space in front of him to be successful. He's not shifty at all. All vertical traits, no lateral traits. So he's just a home run threat, and like I said that is a fine skillset for a RB but not one you spend a top 40 pick on. He came into the NFL with a lot of mileage too, over 800 touches in college.

Breece Hall had a bad year. All he does well is run very fast in a straight line. That's a nice skillset to have a few times a season, but to justify his high pick he will need to be much better at navigating tight spaces and working through muck at the LoS. It can't be 2 yards or 50 yards and nothing in between.

It's definitely groupthink and laziness. Has nothing to do with race. If the 49ers had blown out the Ravens in December, Purdy would be the MVP right now which would arguably be an even more ridiculous outcome. Ultimately MVP voters just don't want to make a stir. Look no further than the response to Aaron Schatz's vote to understand why. He is getting blasted all over Twitter. Stephen A Smith criticized him on live TV. Sports media is a circus and no one wants to make themselves the clown. I commend Aaron Schatz for sticking to his process and voting based on what his objective analysis revealed, but unfortunately he is the only MVP voter that followed that process.

This is the new definition of MVP:

I believe it would be possible for Diggs to agree to a contract restructure as part of the trade, and/or Houston to take on some of the cap hit, if all parties were actively working together to make this happen in March. Not that I think it will happen. But there's always a way.

Here's the article for anyone who cares to read it: https://www.ftnfantasy.com/articles/FTN/114021/aaron-schatz-my-2023-all-pro-ballot

Just put him on your ignore list. He once said "I don't care about TDs" as it relates to judging a QB's performance. No point in engaging with someone still learning the basics of the sport.

When asked about trade rumors he said "where there's smoke there's fire." How do you interpret that answer?

The interesting bit here is at the end when she asks him about trade rumors he says (paraphrased) "I hope they're not true but where there's smoke there's fire." Like Diggs himself believes there's a chance his time with the Bills is coming to an end. Add it to the pile of bizarre Diggs comments.

I'll say some of what I've heard, and it has been mentioned by at least one other person on here. Diggs would hold Allen accountable for every perceived mistake. He would get in his face in the locker room, to the point that it got a little uncomfortable for others that were present. At a certain point Allen got fed up with it and wouldn't let Diggs get away with that behavior anymore, which is when their relationship really broke down. You saw this during the Bengals divisional game. Diggs screaming at Allen on the sidelines while Allen intentionally doesn't make eye contact and doesn't engage with him because that was the only way he knew to diffuse the situation. As far as his issues with McDermott, that I am not specifically aware of. My source says people he's talked to about it have been somewhat confused by the whole situation as well, and they speculated that even Diggs himself wouldn't be able to quite pinpoint what he was upset about. Ultimately it appears that he just really really hates losing and lets his emotions get the best of him which causes him to lash out in any and all directions. He's just not an easy person to get along with when facing adversity, which is a problem for a pro sports team that inevitably will face adversity.

Right. The Chiefs won a Super Bowl with their QB not playing at his best. The Bills with their QB playing at his best on two occasions have not made it past the divisional round. Thank you for pointing this out. Wait, sorry. Just to be clear - you're trying to use this as evidence that Mahomes vs Allen is the main difference between their respective teams? Allen has out-played Mahomes in every matchup they've had since 2021. Despite playing with a harder degree of difficulty in each of them.