Reminding myself that we played this game without 3 of our best players: legit blue-chip players in Armstead & Ramsey and Phillips with the potential to become one in short order.
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AVG obviously stepped in & stepped up really well. And, props to Chubb for how he stepped up. I've been disappointed in his production relative to pay, but last night he was hustling every play and consistently disrupting. On the snaps issue, I think some are Conner and some Tua. Frankly, they just need to get it the F worked out. That's 101, and we have the talent across the roster to
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I only watched the game live, so haven't revisited any of it for a 2nd time. But, it was a bit weird the way it played out and I don't yet know what to make of it on the defensive side. I definitely didn't like seeing us get gashed by their ground game and we were lining up the same DL as last year's crew that was 6th in the league in terms of rushing yards allowed at around 100 YPG. But, I
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Wow - I hadn't heard that. If that's the case, it would put him ahead of everyone not named Aaron Donald. $24.5M/yr is even more than I thought he was asking for and it apparently doesn't meet his asking price.
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I like Christian a lot and think he contributes more than just the stats we see. Infectious energy, leadership...I think he even kicked Josh Allen in the goods at one point, which has got to be worth a couple million clams :-). That said, my guess is that if he were agreeable to a contract in the range of $17-$18M/yr this would be a done deal already. My understanding is that he's seeking mo
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The RW trade was in a different era when there was significantly more balance in terms of passing & running in terms of the game's structure. It was a lot to give up then, but those 2 picks were 2002 #25 (DE-Charles Grant) and 2003 #18 (LB-Calvin Pace), and he gave us 3200 yards and 25 TD during those seasons. But the game was different and the value of the RB position was different then.
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The entire league has devalued the position, and I don't think we're that much smarter than the other 31 teams :-). If you look at the AFC's heavyweights: KC's running back...can't even name him off the top of my head. Cincy? Mixon took a pay cut to stay. Buffalo? I'm not sure I even know who their named starter is. I'm not saying you have to do everything all the heavyweights do...but yo
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Things i liked: - Cam Smith looked athletic and like he "gets" how to play within Fangio's d - the running game - Pili clogging up the middle fairly well Things i didn't: - tackling sucked - I don't care if u are a 3rd-stringer - QB pocket presence - if i were coach, i'd give points for throwing it away if that's the right decision - White's inaccuracy near the goal line
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Football outsiders did an analysis of how injuries impacted teams with some sort of "adjusted games lost" (so not just # of injuries, but how important the position is to the team), and it's not surprising that both KC & Philly were in the top 4. We were #22 (after being #4 in 2021). We all knew that we had so much more talent on the roster in 22 than in 21, but injuries decimated
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Now Boomer Esiason is saying that Cook has a $7M offer from Minnesota but is using the Jets to get a higher offer from us. That feels like more of a Tannenbaum or Ireland kind of thing...here's to hoping he's several years too late for that kind of nonesense.
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True re: Tua and keeping him healthy behind a line like that. Nor did Tannehill, come to think of it. Late in the year when a couple of significant OL injuries had their effect on the lineup, he was injured in the AZ game. So, we had to run out Matt Moore for the PIT playoff game which was a disaster. I was reminded when chatting w/my son about the 70s teams (which I was too young to really
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2016 we had LT Albert (1st round) LG Tunsil (1st round) C Pouncey (1st round) RG Bushrod (4th round, but 2 pro bowls prior to coming to us) RT James (1st round) It was an unsustainable use of 1st round picks (whether made by us or paid by us as a FA who was a someone else's former 1st rounder) on the unit AND they couldn't stay healthy. But when they were for a stretch that season, we
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Agreed - not comfortable at all with the OL, and it's been our most enduring achilles heel, after the aforementioned leadership fiascos, of course.
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Man...8 seasons combined under Cameron, Philbin & Gase. From failing forward fast to having the head coach delegate his leadership to the guy who had to always be the smartest in the room, and shipped out smart, talented players to keep it that way. We've endured a lot of wandering in the desert...may we please be nearing the promised land.
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Barry Sanders was the best one I ever got to watch live consistently. So, it's hard for me to imagine anyone better than him. But, I've heard many (including Barry's own father, for one) that JB was better. May he rest in peace.
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100% agree that OL coach is the primary cause of our OL problems. We saw last year what happened when we inserted a couple of proven elite (Armstead) and legit (Williams) vets on the line. The overall OL play improved pretty significantly. When Armstead went down, it plummeted. I think it's cuz Armstead is so good he didn't really need or benefit from OL coaching. I.e. coaching made no diffe
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Maybe talking about 2 different occurences. I think the one Rg is referencing was the 2021 game that knocked Tua out for a handful of games. Not the 2022 game where Milano shoved Tua and he fell back and hit his head and got up woozy. Either way - OL has to get better at protecting and Tua has to get better at the things that protect himself.
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Regarding "Chosen", I'm more a fan of giving chances to troubled/troublesome players when they're proven elite talent. Think Moss to the Patriots after troubled times in Oakland. I will say that when he was producing 15 YPC and 5-7 TD/yr w/NY, his QB situation was one of the worst in the league. Regarding the OL, they may be thinking that better coaching can squeeze more juice from
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Thanks for making it visible. I do agree about the relative importance of OL coaching. New England had an under-the-radar gem of an OL coach for years who was able to make that unit greater than the sum of its parts. I'd probably take great OL coaching over great individual players on the line. Both is ideal, of course. We've had such poor OL coaching for so many years that we've proba
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Regarding the OL and Jackson & Eich, I can see reason for some cautious optimism for Jackson due to his athleticism and his relatively decent play for some limited stretches. Eichenberg has almost always looked like he's in way over his head physically, technique, etc. No part of his game has ever given me any indication that he could even be a viable part (perhaps still the worst single pa
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Philosophically, strengthening the OL and TE blocking seems like the place to expend resources. Better health on the defensive side and the addition of Ramsey should make our pass D quite a bit better. Our rushing D was probably artificially inflated as offenses chose to pass against our relatively weaker pass D...or were, in some cases, playing from behind and having to try to catch up. A
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I hope you're right, and I really think you are. With Flores we knew the defense would generally be greater than the sum of its parts (though I was often disappointed when it didn't rise to the occasion and pull through when we needed it most). Last year, we saw that Boyer was essentially a guy who knew the Flores/Patriots way...but wasn't really able to add value beyond that individually. No
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On paper, we're fairly stacked on defense. Hoping the luck pendulum swings our way this upcoming season as opposed to how it was last season. Would be nice to have Ramsey, Howard, Holland & Brandon Jones in the backfield...maybe Tindall becomes a real contributor...Ogbah adding his +/-9 sacks along with pressures and tipped passes. Improved secondary play turns some of Phillips' and Chubb'
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Seems he's intent on playing for the Jets. He may be past his prime, but was b2b MVP in 2020 & 2021. I definitely preferred when the options were Flacco or Zach Wilson.
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I think I'd have to go back to about the 2002 roster to find one that had as much starting talent as this one. I think in '02 the elite talent was more experienced and proven...but also older. The OL then was probably better across the board with no real weak spots, but healthy Tua is far better than Fiedler. So relatively recent that for years our best couple players might make the pro bowl
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I think Fangio's defenses have generally been able to effectively employ less talented CBs vs. CBs being the key piece in the defensive scheme under Flores and the NE system. So, in that sense, it's perhaps sort of the right loss at the right time...and certainly helps our cap situation with the post June 1 designation.
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I don't think you can bank on luck...and to some extent, you create your own luck. But, I read somewhere just a couple days ago that the Chiefs & Eagles were #1 & #2 in the league in terms of health (i.e. not losing players to injury). In addition, they both had some pretty significant things go their way besides health. KC had the most rookie-played starts for a SB-winning team,
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That is what gives me by far the most hope. For 20 years, we've had games on our schedule where if we brought our A game and "they" brought their B- game, they'd still likely beat us. Last year was totally different in that regard but we only got to see glimpses cuz we weren't near 100% for so many games.
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100% agreed with subject line. So deserving! Congrats ZT
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I agree that we have the kinds of problems with salary cap for which we would have liked to have seen more and deeper playoff appearances and runs. We definitely are a much more talented team than we have been in years - especially in terms of proven elite talent & legit near-term potential for elite. That said, I have tried to figure out the salary cap maneuverings over the past few year
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