Maine-iac

What if we play a 4-3 and our LB's are Milano (MLB), Bernard (SLB) and Rapp (WLB)? Could two physical safety sized players equal one LB and one CB? If nothing else we have options and more cap space without Edmunds. It'll be interesting to see if we have "better" or even "good enough". I think McDermott calling the defense will make a difference but we'll see.

Even if we wanted forgo running the ball there wasn't a WR who would have replaced Davis last year at the 2 spot. If we had a Hopkins or OBJ I'm sure they wouldn't think twice about starting them across from Diggs. I'm not entirely sure they brought Harris here to start. Cook just might end up being the starter and Harrris might just be here to keep Allen from being our goal line and short yardage back like he has been. Either way if (IF) we bring in someone more talented than Davis I'll bet they see the field run or no run but so far Davis is still the second best receiver we have. Currently their best option is to get more production from the slot and TE positions draw some of the coverage away from Davis and hope you get more production. I personally think he had a bit of a down year and you could see a better year (within reason) especially in a contract year.

My guess is that if your average depth of target is over 15 yards you probably aren't open on every play. You also aren't making easy routine catches that far down the field either. His role is to keep teams defending deep passes. If we had a decent slot receiver or used our TE or RB like other teams we would see more of the benefits of having Davis and Diggs outside.

We have question marks as to the health of our top 3 safeties. He's young and cheap and if he plays well we resign him and get younger at safety. I would hope he can beat out Marlowe.

Not sure how we'd do that again but sign us up. That would be awesome. Kyle and Dareus were pretty damn good when Schwartz was here.

Sat next to his mother on the plane ride home from Buffalo 2 years ago. Very nice lady. Showed me a bunch of pictures from BC and I guess his sister is a swimmer if I remember right. Her husband got my wife's carry on out from above her. Just very nice people. Wish them all the best in NY.

Just looking at the numbers and unless I missed a guy here or there every single DT (except one) that had 6 or more sacks was a first round pick. We've had as much success with 3rd and 5 rd picks (Phillips or Williams) as we have with first round picks (Oliver and Dareus). It would be awesome if Jordan Phillips stayed healthy and found the fountain of youth and had a big year beside Jones. I like Phillips but I'm not sure I'd pin my hopes on that. I guess the big question is if you draft a DT where (what round)?

To your point we played McDermotts first year with Preston Brown at MLB and made the playoffs. They can play defense without Edmunds.

Seriously maybe it's been said but I haven't seen it yet, Belichik might be the greatest defensive coach ever. Sure Brady was great. That said almost every year the Pats went all the way their defense was tops or close to tops in the league at keeping teams from scoring. The offense was good, sometimes great, but the defense was outstanding and even without Brady they still are in contention and why, because they always play defense. They never beat themselves and they make fewer mistakes than the other team, at least until recently.

Well except for the injured ones. Kind of like we have an expensive franchise QB but if we were playing without him it's a little hard to expect the same results.

How much of that "most expensive and deepest DL" was playing vs the Bengals?

Call me crazy but maybe if we ran the ball a little more the OL would look a little better in pass pro. If the D knows you do nothing but pass they just key in on the snap and race to the QB. We never give them a reason to do anything else. Quessenberry of all people would also love it if we ran the ball more.

Don't get me wrong I'd love to line up and run Harris 15 to 20 times a game and actually develop a real running game. I would have loved to have seen them do that with Singletary and I'd love to see that now. All indications are that they probably could have done it but for whatever reason even when we are up 2 scores in the second half of a game we are still throwing it and running Allen. So I'd love to see us run Harris a lot but it wouldn't surprise me if we see more of Cook and run both of them a little.

Cook was a rookie who fumbled his first carry and was iffy pass blocking at the beginning of the year. By the end of the season they were almost splitting carries. I'm not saying it is happening but it wouldn't surprise me if it did either.

Love this signing now. Also gives you some insight as to why Motor didn't return. I'd like to think he'd still be here all things being equal but Harris signing for so little I can't blame Motor for taking the money and if Beane found Harris at 1.7m first I can't blame him for taking him at that price over bring Singletary back. It all just makes sense and luckily I think it's to our benefit. Harris is a lot of back for that price and for all we know they could plan on starting Cook.

Harris was a back up who signed here to get his 10 carries a game. He's probably most famous for fumbling last yea and costing them a must win game. He has a few inches about 10 pounds and and runs a 4.57 40. He's not fast. It's not like we signed Barkley. Harris should be capable at being a little more physical than Singletary and hopefully does everything else roughly the same because Singletary was pretty good. Anyone who thinks Motor didn't run hard wasn't watching as he put the Dolphins away in the playoffs.

I can't find anything listing Harris as anything other than 213 and Motor is listed at 203. Either way he does bring a little more size.

by 3 times you are you referring to the one season Harris played more than 11 games and had 14 more carries than Singletary?

3 games last year with "thigh injury" couple with a hamstring and a concussion but I didn't check which season that was. He's missed 6 plus games in all but one season near as I can tell. Unless he was a healthy scratch for some games.

Harris will essentially do Motor stuff. I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call him a power back or others saying he's faster than Motor. He has 10 pounds on Motor so he should carry guys a little better but they both run bigger than their size. Neither is a power back. Harris ran a 4.57 at the combine. Yes it's faster than Motor but not much. Seems like they're very similar and that's not actually a bad thing, Motor did a lot of good things here and I feel like Harris could as well. Just hope the money is right.

Love the signing but if it's anything more than 5 or 6 million I retain my right to then no longer love this signing. There are plenty of good backs holding up cardboard signs begging for money on street corners these days.

We don't currently have anyone who was as good a pass blocker or as good at making positive runs when there are no holes. By the end of the season Cook looked like he was finding his stride as a runner but at this point we are definitely hoping he holds up pass blocking. Bringing someone in (FA or rookie) as a bigger back is an idea I like but again we will be hoping they understand the offense well enough to pick up blocking assignments on passing downs because if we run 60 plays a game I'm guessing most games 40 or 50 of those plays will be passing. If we ran the ball more I'd be more inclined to wish we had Motor back. If we actually continue running as much ( or in reality little) as we have I hope they go with Cook but mix in a real screen game and pass routes out of the backfield.

Motor took so many badly blocked plays and turned them into gains or got back to the line of scrimmage when it looked like he was going down 4 yards in the backfield. If McCoy lost a gear but was still as shifty and actually knew when to put his head down and pick up some yards you'd have Motor. He was a great player with a great attitude. Kept Allen upright on many plays. Hoping Cook can do a Kamara (on the field) impersonation this season.

Completely different defenses. We play coverage with light boxes all day. Fletcher played with Spikes and Crowell and had big Pat and Sam Adams in front of him and Vincent and Milloy behind him. Edmunds is being asked to be the worlds largest strong safety yet still be our run stopping MLB. Pretty sure any LB would get exposed in the defense we run including Fletcher.

Can't say I watched a ton of Oregon State games but just from one 2023 game, senior bowl week practice and game, and then scouting combine he looks pretty damn good. Not sure if a 6'7" guy is supposed to look like a half back but he can get open and he can catch. All the scouting reports I've seen say he can block also. Couple videos had guys saying 1st round pick. Not sure I want to spend 27 on any TE. I wish there was lock of an OL player or safety. Guess we'll see where we are after free agency gets going.