AZ54

Buffalo knew exactly what they were getting in NFL production with that pick, Minnesota did not. So yes there was an additional salary cost for the known commodity but that's how business works.

Quite honestly the fans here on this message board are all way above the TV broadcast crews in game knowledge or at least in how they present the game. There are some exceptions and guys like Romo add context I enjoy, the same goes for Eli and Peyton on MNF. Those guys are always watching the play from the moment the huddle breaks and you can see it in their eyes about 1s into a play they already know what should happen. The internet has definitely changed things and we can scout players somewhat and watch All-22 film post game plus DVRs are everywhere. Slowly networks will realize this and you'll see more of the Romo/Manning style commentary. Hopefully there will be much less of the Captain Obvious Kirk Herbstreit style commentary. "He's 6'5" and here you can see he uses his length to stretch out for the first down. That's really good football."

I thought it was just my eyes but I've always thought he processes things too slowly after the snap. Maybe pre-snap alignment calls are ok? He has the more obvious physical limitations that show up from time to time where he gets blown up or beat to one side very quickly. More often than I see those events, I just see him looking lost on who to block. When I watched Swift's breakdown on Eiselen, it was interesting that he seemed to show good vision on picking up stunts or late blitzes. Interesting because he has far less game experience. Even in spots where he had nobody to block Dieter stayed in his lane and you could see his head on a swivel looking left and right multiple times in one play. When he provided help to the OT or C it was with one arm without giving up his lane. OTOH Mustipher will give up his pass pro lane early on if he has nobody to block and chase someone left or right even if his OGs don't need the help. He literally turns 90 degrees and thus can't do anything to cover his lane. That has given up a few sacks due to some teams taking advantage of that tendency with delayed blitzes right up the middle unabated. Or like this play where he was celebrated for taking a guy down to the ground but Teven was probably thinking where did Mustipher go?

Just a little joking around at Mustipher's expense. He is exactly the kind of player who has a 10 year career, and will be a starter at times for other teams. Lucas Patrick has had the same type of career so far. Always the guy you want to upgrade, always the player you can survive with when he starts.

Maybe Mustipher is the one getting out of position and tripping everyone else, or letting Dline run free and blowup a play?

Yeah, that's not my problem. What we don't know is when Josh McDaniels was hired what was quietly said about the team. Did McDaniels tell them that Carr was not his QB but was he asked if he could try to make it work for 1 season? If that didn't work would the GM and owner then allow him to blowup and rebuild the roster? For a new HC to give up 1yr of his short leash is a challenge. The Bears were in a similar spot and I believe Poles and Eberflus committed to 1 season with Fields but also had the green light to move on in 2023 if they desired. Of course they had no realistic option with no 1st Rd pick and no cap space. Regardless, there is no doubt the QB position comes up in any GM/HC hiring process. In 2022 McDaniels and the GM had options and decided to use their resources to bring in Adams. "See if we can make this work with Carr". They kept their powder dry for 2023 and now have a new slate of options. Dangling Adams as trade bait to move up and get a QB is not out of the question. Per OTC they will of course lose their $43mil cash they paid him last year. People say they wasted the money but in effect they are using it to help buy a draft pick. Is that too much to buy a top pick in the draft and your future starting QB? In the context of what Denver paid last year (draft compensation plus salary for Wilson) it is not. In fact it's a much better deal. https://overthecap.com/player/davante-adams/2992 If the Adams trade is labeled as "post Jun 1st" then LV carries just $7.8mil in dead cap space for each of the next 5 years. Or the length of their rookie QB contract. Their cap savings go from $4 to 6/17/36mil per year over the next 4 seasons, starting in 2023. If that is correct then it is very feasible for them trade him. I'm not confident on this but it appears the Bears would carry Adams with cap hits of: $14.5 mil and then $25mil in 2024. He'd never see the $44mil in 2025 but we'd be free to renegotiate if we wanted, or just cut him and give that $44mil to Mr. Fields. That's the downside because it could just be a 2yr rental on a top 5 WR. If you think you can win the Superbowl in 2024 that would be worth it. On the flip side, having just 2 realistic years on the deal is also why Poles would be asking for that 2nd Rd pick. Adams went there in part to play with his good friend Carr. He is not likely to be happy seeing him benched and the team moving forward with a new QB. At his age, 31 in 2023, that makes a ton of sense and he'll likely want to go to a playoff team. With so much cap space, every agent is likely to want to talk with Poles at the combine. Adams' agent might be part of that long line.

Even if Whitehair is back I still want to see Dieter get more snaps. Of course he could take them at Center which is what I'd really like to see.

For me that's a no-brainer deal. The loss of cap space by taking on that high salary is offset enough by the two draft picks. 9 overall is still high enough that we can add someone like Skoronski or Bresee. I can't figure out who I'd take at 40 if we already had Skoronski because I still have a lot of scouting to do. If Bresee were the pick at 9 then there are plenty of Rd 2 Oline on the board.

We cut Taco Charlton which is neither a surprise nor a disappointment. Eberflus apparently indicated Justin Jones will spend some time at DE this week. That's not a good sign so Jones is definitely a bubble player for next years roster. However, I wonder if they'll bring up DE Sammis Reyes from the practice squad. We're in roster experimentation mode and Reyes is old (27), so it's now or never for him. There could also be a DT on the practice squad they want to get some snaps but again most of those DTs are older players so we pretty much know their ceiling.

I think that was Pace and then after his failed attempt at securing a vet QB he was able to trade up and draft Fields. In the 2022 offseason Wilson was never an option for us although they may have called Poles to ask him if he was interested....back when Seattle was saying publicly they were never going to trade him.

Swifty broke down some film on Dieter against the Bills. It wasn't all good and he learned some lessons within the game, which bodes well for his learning curve. When he gets it right he looks good. It appeared they wanted to split snaps between him and Borom at LG although he got a few at RG when Schofield went out. Dieter finished the game so I'm curious who gets the start this weekend.

I would be. He's not a finished product by any means but his improvement in the passing game is very noticeable.

Replying to myself but the Broncos felt the same way and fired Hackett. https://www.nfl.com/news/broncos-gm-george-paton-we-do-believe-russell-wilson-is-fixable

You were right, Seattle has faded but then two of their division rivals faded faster leaving them still in the playoff mix. Sitting at 7-8 isn't concerning to any serious playoff contender and if the Cards and the Rams had performed anywhere close to expectations we'd be saying Seattle ended up as expected.

He's better than most fans think he is. Keep in mind for much of the year our offense was stagnant (3 and out) and thus limited his opportunities, then on top of that we've been a run-oriented offense all year. He also hasn't had a consistent good WR corps for a defense to focus on.

Seattle might not trade up to get a QB but the threat/risk of them taking one is enough to drive someone else to trade ahead of them.

Don't be so sure about that. He might draft one and let 'em compete and keep the winner. There's precedent for that. It would appear Indy will be all-in for a QB. You have to think Irsay is going to make that job 1 for the organization based on his comment about the recent QB merry-go-round they've had.

I'd be surprised they'd want to get rid of Hopkins but it is possible if they want new start over. Their only realistic option is a trade and we're one of a very few teams who could take on that deal. Hopkins/Claypool/Mooney is a really good WR corps and likely with back ups Harry or Pringle, and Velus, plus maybe a rookie.

Wow that's a seller's market. It's not worth getting into a bidding war on either of them.

I have to think weather was a factor in some of that but that doesn't give Tom Brady an excuse for last night.

KC does have $28mil but they only have 33 players on the roster. So they have to fill in 20 rosters spots with $28mil. There are no obvious player cuts to create a lot of cap space. Maybe DE Clark dead cap $9mil, cap savings $20mil. Chris Jones dead cap $7mil, cap savings $20mil but he's essential to their D and not easily replaced. I don't see how they could possibly re-sign Brown without a massive increase to the salary cap over the forecasted value. I said the same about the Packers and Elgton Jenkins and they gave him a huge deal. That alone makes me think the cap space might be going $20mil higher than what OvertheCap is showing at ~$230mil. Even if that happened KC is still in a difficult spot to fill out their roster. Players like Shuster earned $3mil this year.

After watching Tua today and I agree he doesn’t look good off schedule.

Looking at Orlando Brown's history he started out as a RT in Baltimore. He moved to LT due to Stanley getting injured and then played well. KC traded for him and kept him at LT, with this year being under the franchise tag at $16.6mil. Brown apparently has stated he wants to play LT. However, it's not clear if that is because of the money or personal preference. Poles might consider him an option at RT but he'll likely be paying him LT money. Assuming he is our LT of the future, Poles has Braxton Jones for 3 more years on a sweet deal before he'll have to pay him. From a roster budget planning standpoint if we paid Brown $16-20mil/yr to man the right side we'd easily still be at budget for the OT position overall through 2025. You could also make the assumption that Brown would be the backup LT for us which is a great option to have since finding a backup RT is a bit easier. Other teams have paid RTs big money so there's a precedent. https://overthecap.com/position/right-tackle https://overthecap.com/position/left-tackle

I'm certain you meant Doug Kramer as the OC and that you aren't trying to drag Eric Kramer out of retirement. It's common for us to talk about rookies as gaining strength but I really believe J. Carter is more focused on technique and adapting to NFL offense. It might be splitting hairs but for next year's forecast I'd say strength is typically the easier thing to gain whereas the leap learning the technical side of blocking in this offense is a bit trickier to project. The team thinks enough of him to protect him on the 53 but even with all of our recent injuries he's still riding the bench while Borom started and then Eiselen got 44% of the LG snaps in the last game. That's concerning if we're thinking he's someone we can pencil in as a backup in 2023. Overall I agree this rookie class is promising as the majority of them look like they belong on an NFL field.

Sure seems like they got the wrong HC/OC guy out of GB. Earlier in the year he really screwed up the clock management at the end of a game. I don't remember details but I do remember thinking at the time that you can't possibly be in offensive football that many years and not know those things. By itself that doesn't mean much but it does point to a lack of organization and preparedness. If you can't get the simple things right with your offensive staff how well are you coordinating the practices and other details needed to get an offense on the same page? That combined with the Wilson deal might make you sick to your stomach as a fan. If I'm the owner I'm taking a serious look at my coaching investment because if there's a chance this deal for Wilson could work it has to start happening next season.