Sammy Watkins' Rib

This was it for me. First three weeks were really good. Beat the Colts, lost to the Pats but then bounced back and absolutely crushed the Dolphins on the road. I thought we maybe finally turned a corner. We blew so many opportunities that year. The London debacle with EJ. The blown second half against Kansas City. Not at least splitting against Philly and Washington. We seemed to self implode in those games. Winning just two of those four games would have put us at 10-6.

One dimensional player? Hardly. Maybe it seems that way to you because he plays with a QB that is limited in his field vision and wiliness to throw into tight windows. But even with that limitation I can tell that Sammy has many dimensions to his game.

That's my point. Did we ever get a chance to see Mallet start a game for them? I don't think he we did. Had he, he probably wouldn't have been as bad as he was in Houston.

Raiders are getting better if you haven't noticed. Carr injury cost them the divisional title. So yes, I think it is very likely Chiefs don't advance as far in the playoffs. And if Denver improves on offense, which I think they will, that could make it harder for the Chiefs to even make the playoffs. Also, saying they will not draft higher than 24th is not that big of a leap. They could still make the playoffs and easily draft between 20-24. Basically that is predicting that they are one of the four wild card losers. Seems fair. They could over achieve and advance to a divisional playoff game again or they could get unlucky and miss the playoffs with Denver or Baltimore bouncing back.

I disagree mostly because he was never on anyone's radar. It would be different if Mahomes was considered a top prospect and half the fans wanted him. Think Cleveland passing on both Goff and Wentz last year. If either of those guys become a franchise player than that is something that would be hard to get over. Mahomes, if he becomes a franchise guy, would simply be like us passing on Carr, Wilson or Dak. And, by the time Mahomes develops into a franchise guy, we might have our own franchise QB too. And if that is the case, will anyone here care?

And we need more DBs. We still need another starting caliber safety IMO.

There is some truth to it. When is the last time the Pats had a bad QB in their system? Do they really draft better QBs then everyone else or do they also have a very good system that helps the QBs?

Doesn't that depend on a couple things. Like 1. If Taylor leads us to the playoffs and becomes our franchise QB. or 2. If not, what do we do with our 2 1sts in 2018?

I agree. They over achieved this year and picked 27th. I highly doubt they pick higher than 24 next year. Won't likely be below 16 but I could easily see it anywhere between 17-24.

We need the Bears to finish with a top three pick. They would likely be a willing trade partner for the right price. Maybe the Rams as well but they could also pull the plug early on Goff if he doesn't show any improvement.

It might even be 50/50 that Darnold even comes out. He could pull a Luck and stay. The other guys could flounder. It's not guarantee that the 2018 class will be as great as people think it will be. I do think Darnold will be special but again, he could stay another year. Especially if USC fails to make the playoff and that is something he really wants to accomplish.

And how would we accomplish this? Trading up to #2 giving up a fortune to get Turbitzky? Turbitzky fixes our problems? Staying put and drafting Lattimore fixes our problems? Taking Watson or Mahomes at #10 fixes our problems?

You know that is the complete opposite of what you are supposed to do right? If the separation between the #1 CB and the #5CB is not very much because the talent level is deep at the position then the value is to trade back, still get a really good CB and pick up extra picks.

If that was going to be the pick than I am thrilled even more we traded out. Nothing worst than spinning your wheels again and again.

The key is will they miss the playoffs? Even at 10-6 or 9-7 they could still miss the playoffs depending on where other teams finish. We really need Denver to bounce back and the Raiders to continue to develope. Any pick under 20 to go along with ours would be great.

It's going to be the Jets, Browns and Bills gunning for Darnold next year. Jets and Browns will have top five picks because of a terrible record. Bills will have a chance because they'll have two picks to offer a team picking one or two that already has a QB of the future, say the Bears maybe.

Same here and I love it. I can't stand waiting for 1pm (west coast) kick offs.

From what I can tell, the NFL did something weird with both the Pats and Falcons schedules specifically. Was it just coincidence that these are the two reigning conference champs? Will this be more common for conference champs moving forward? Is it all about trying to keep the Pats and Falcons from clinching their divisions for as long as possible? Both Pats and Falcons play 5 of final 6 inside division. And Falcons even have four straight to end the season inside the division. I've occasionally heard of 4 or 5 or three straight all inside the division to end a season before but never what the Pats and Falcons have this year. I checked out the final six for all the other teams in the NFL and it looked like at most I saw 3 of final 6 games inside the division. In fact it looked like quite a few teams did not have a schedule back loaded with divisional games, many with only 2 in the final six. Jets only have one in final seven for some reason. Of course the Bills, Dolphins, Saints and Bucs have a lot of divisional games to end the season but I think that has more to do with the Pats and Falcons schedules than it does those individual teams.

Everyone should watch the 8:48 mark too. Game against the Bengals. Carl Pickens catches a TD that would never stand in today's game. Thank God for replays today. Only thing I don't miss about 90's football.

I take offense to this.

How far we have fallen in just a couple of seasons from the "cold front".

Good Lord Brady has been around for way too long. That looks like a game broadcast in the 90's with that old CBS score graphic and the old 90's unifroms. And we've gone through two uniform changes since then.

I think it depends on how wide a net you cast for average. I forget who said it, but I think it was Sherman maybe, I know blasphemy to use his name around here. But basically you have like 8 elite QBs, then 4 or 5 guys on the verge of elite. Then a couple dozen guys who are basically interchangeable. There will definitely be some bad starting QBs next year. Guys who are certainly no better than Kaepernick.

It's a waste of my time to argue with someone who doesn't realize Taylor is measurably much better than EJ could ever be in 2015, 2016 or whatever year you want to use. Pointing to one team that EJ lost to in 2015 and then pointing to that same team in 2016 that Taylor barely beat and saying "see Taylor wasn't very good or under achieved" seems flawed at best. Why did the Jags only have three wins? Because they are still a very flawed team. Their defense was better, 6th ranked, but not great. They weren't a Houston or Seattle type defense. And the offense turned the ball over way too many times as was already noted.

Jags defense in 2016 was much better than in 2015. Especially in YPG. YPG 2016 ranked 6th 2015 ranked 24th PPG 2016 ranked 24th 2015 ranked 31st It's been a long time, if ever, since EJ has put up a good game against any team.