Chuck Wagon

To top it off, I was in a BW3s filled with Browns fans. They all cheered while EJ was laying on the ground. As soon as Tuel started throwing it to Browns DBs I told my buddies good evening and left.

Yes, but he got hit right on the knee because the Browns are dirty. How often do you see players launching themselves into QB's knees (or launching themselves into QBs period).

I'm not entirely convinced the NFL actually wants a team in LA just like I'm not convinced the NBA wants to give a team back to Seattle. It's much easier to put pressure on local governments when there's a nice juicy alternative market, though I imagine London or Toronto would step up in the order to take LA's spot.

Living in Ohio, that play still makes my blood boil, especially the way the Browns were talking about "they took our guy out, so we were going to take theirs out" during and after the game. Hoyer gets hurt on a freak play because he doesn't know how to slide properly so the Browns D puts out a hit on EJ, meanwhile no one in the national media cares because it's Browns-Bills. I hate Tashaun Gipson.

I'm not convinced Trent was ever any good. I know the Wilson hit is always brought up as the turning point for him, but he played one of his best games of his career the next week against San Diego. Trent just was what he was, a smart but physically limited player. He was always captain check down, it's just after the Wilson hit he lost any of the slight nerve he did have. I have no idea why EJ didn't play the Pats game, other than Doug likely knew he was going to walk and figured a 9-7 record looks a lot better than 8-8.

I did composite, I do agree they seem way off on a lot. I agree on Williams post June 1st, but this doesn't have an option for that. It's also got Spiller under contract. There's clearly flaws, but again it's just a fun thought exercise tool. I'm a huge fan of the potential of a Glenn-Iupati-Wood-Incognito-Newton line, I don't think it's hyperbole to say that's got the potential to be the best run blocking line in football. I do hear you on Gresham, but outside of QB there's not glaring needs and we've got the cap space if we don't sign a Revis type FA. Mallett could easily be Bradford, Locker, Hoyer or Sanchez, I liked Mallett because the app has him cheaper, he's still youngish and I like the potential of that arm in our weather.

Why build two stadiums? The Jets and Giants effectively share a stadium (and a market) so there's precedence. Just go in with the Rams, build the California version of Jerry World and cut the costs in half. If there's two new stadiums built that would put four major stadiums (Rose Bowl & Colosseum) in the greater LA area, that seems excessive. Rams and Chargers in LA and Raiders in San Antonio seems inevitable, I would feel bad for San Dieagans but their team will be ~2 hours away and it was negative -3 when I got in my car this morning and weather.com says it's 63 in San Diego, they can get over it.

I do agree coaching is a lot of it. Carr's team is devoid of talent, so there's no reason not to tell him to just cut it loose. It's pretty obvious that Marrone's approach with EJ was "our defense is really good, don't screw this up kid", when you are constantly getting that message it wrecks your confidence and you start thinking instead of reading and reacting. I've said it before, but EJ reminds me a lot of Alex Smith early in his career. Smith had heard the message over and over again about "don't screw it up" and he said it wrecked him, nearly pushing him out of the league. Finally he told himself if he kept down his current path his career would be over, so there wasn't anything to lose and he cut it loose. I do think there are major confidence issues with EJ right now, something that was alluded to before the Bears game, where all the players said EJ's speech was incredibly out of character and fired up the whole team. All players want a vocal confident guy at QB because he's the engine for the team. When you've got a leader who is timid and afraid, it will permeate the whole roster. Hopefully Rex and Roman are experienced enough to see that and put him in situations where he can succeed to build himself back up. We all know EJ has all the physical tools to succeed, it's mental at this point.

EJ was a first round pick, which comes with different expectations. We also have a lot more talent than the Raiders, when the cupboard is empty, you look for any bright spots and get excited about them. When you look like a team ready to win, you look at the bad spots and complain about them.

I know there's multiple threads about your dream offseason, but Fanspeak has designed two tools (a FA simulator and a draft simulator) to put your ideas into action. We can argue about the accuracy of the tools, but they still are a fun way to visualize the big picture. http://fanspeak.com/toolbox/ My offseason: Cut - Chris Williams, Keith Rivers & Orton (it makes you cut him) Restructure - Mario Resigned - Hughes & Marcus Easley (Spikes and Searcy fake wanted a lot imo) This put me right about $30 mil in cap space for this offseason. I signed the following: My FA: Iupati Derek Newton Jermaine Gresham Ryan Mallet Devin McCourty (had about $10 mil burning a hole in my pocket after the first 4 signings) CJ Wilson (cheap depth DE, $1 mil for 1 year) My Draft: 2nd - Maxx Williams 3rd - Jay Ajayi 5th - Tony Lippett 5th - Ladarius Gunter (CB, Miami) 6th - Mike Hull (ILB, Penn St) 7th - Max Garcia (C, Florida) I have about $5 mil in cap left over for post June 1 cuts Fully embracing the ground & pound attack, Newton was PFF's 4th rated run blocking tackle and we all know about Iupati. Gresham and Williams gives us two strong TEs and we'll have a real strong group at that position for the first time in ever. Ajayi gives us a big workhorse back and he can fight it out with Brown to be the lead guy, with Fred playing a passing specialist role and Dixon as the short yardage back. Lippett gives us a young big WR to round out the Watkins-Woods group. Mallett was the only QB I brought in, he's still young and has a big arm, I want to fight it out between him and EJ figuring if they are both awful and QB tanks the season, we'll be drafting one high next year. Not taking one in the draft also puts us in a good spot to be attractive to several UDFA QBs. Spikes and Searcy both wanted A LOT, so I figured we'll be ok with Brown & Kiko inside and it wouldn't hurt to spend a 6th on Hull to add depth. As mentioned, I had some money leftover and splurged on McCourty to cover losing Searcy and to stick it to the Pats. QB: EJ & Mallet (plus UDFA) RB: Ajayi, Fred, Dixon, Bryce FB: Gray WR: Watkins, Woods, Lippett, Easley, Goodwin, Hogan TE: Gresham, Williams, Chandler T: Glenn, Newton, Henderson, Kouandjio G: Iupati, Incognito, Urbik, Richardson C: Wood, Garcia DE: Mario, Hughes, Wilson DT: Darius, Meatball, Charles OLB: Bradham, Lawson. Ty Powell, Randall Johnson ILB: Kiko, Preston Brown, Hull CB: Gilmore, Graham, Leodis, Brooks, Robey, Gunther, Cockrell S: McCourty, Aaron Williams, Duke Williams, Rambo, Meeks K: Carpenter P: Schmidt LS: Sanborn A little light on the defensive front 7 depth, but otherwise I'd be pretty happy with this.

Not to go too far off topic, but I don't get the Yeldon love at all. Derrick Henry was clearly better than him and there's at least 6 backs in the draft I'd clearly want over him. At this point, I think the only reason why someone wants Yeldon over Jay Ajayi or Duke Johnson is name recognition.

Alex Smith and Tannehill are better than Dalton. In my mind, Dalton represents the dividing line for QB play. If your guy is better than Dalton, there's a good chance you can make the playoffs and perhaps even win a few rounds. If your QB is worse than Dalton, temper your expectations.

I'm not using a 2nd-3rd round pick on back who wasn't even the best guy on his college team.

Exactly. I think some people have legitimately talked themselves into guys like Brees or Big Ben being available for a future draft pick or into Peyton hitting FA. There's also a pretty vocal amount of people who'll complain about every move but never submit their own potential answer.

No one is saying "Screw finding a franchise QB, let's just muddle along with career backups". We have to make the best out of a bad situation. There's simply too much talent on this team to realistically think we could end up with one of the top 2 picks without purposely trying to make it happen. Any QB who isn't going at the top of the draft is going to have big questions about him causing him to drop. Would you rather go with a guy who understands QB in the NFL and try to get to 10-11 wins or go with a completely unproven later round pick and likely win 5-6 games, falling outside of the QB picks? Personally I've seen enough 6-10/7-9 teams with the Trent Edwards and JP Losmans of the world, why not bring in a seasoned guy to attempt to not screw up what the defense is capable of?

It's gotta be trolling or drugs. No one outside of Percy and his entourage seriously believes he was ever the best WR in the league.

I like the McCown move but only because of timing. It's much easier to bring him on board now, a month before FA starts, then further address the position in open FA and potentially the draft. Basically sign McCown now and tell him he's got a real chance to compete for the job. Then he's under contract and we can talk to the Mallet/Hoyer/Moore/Sanchez/Locker class of FA and tell them they've got a real chance to compete too. That leaves us with 3 guys to hope for competence to emerge. On the flip side, if we just hit FA with EJ it will likely be very difficult to simultaniously negoiate with two FA QBs and we risk not getting any of them.

At no point in time was Percy Harvin the best WR in the National Football League.

Because he was released I believe it's fine. Duron Carter and obviously Incognito already signed. I think the FA rules only apply to guys whose contracts expired at the end of the year, not guys whose teams cut them after the season. Realistically we aren't likely to see anything more than a late round wild card through the draft. McCown at the very least can be an ok backup and should be a good veteran voice in the QB room. If we can sign McCown now before FA starts then we can focus on adding one of Mallet - Hoyer - Matt Moore - Locker - Sanchez - Bradford when FA opens and have 3 guys ready to come in and compete. March 7-10: Clubs are permitted to contact, and enter into contract negotiations with the certified agents of players who will become Unrestricted Free Agents upon the expiration of their 2014 contracts at 4:00 p.m., New York time, on March 10. However, a contract cannot be executed with a new club until 4:00 p.m., New York time, on March 10. - I believe released players like McCown are treated differently.

I thought Niles Paul looked pretty good when spelling Jordan Reed last year and he's still pretty young, though he's a pretty similar type player to Gray. I think Gray can do a lot of the things Hernandez did for the Pats, lining up in the backfield as a H-back or splitting wide. I really think the key to NFL offense is getting as multiple as you can with base personnel. The Pats are a great example, especially when they have a quick 2nd TE and Vereen is healthy. They can be a smash mouth power football team one play and a wide open spread team the next without flipping personnel (and being forced to allow the defense to sub). TEs are key to that type of attack and you really need 2, a big Gronk type and a quicker Hernandez/Tim Wright type.

Because he can't catch.

Not baseball. Lacrosse and soccer.

The prospects are disappearing before they hit college. It's starting in high school, teams are putting their two best athletes in the backfield and having the better passer of the two take the snap. The old 6'4" prototype QB plays DE/TE. Think about how few great QBs actually make it to the NFL. If you lose even 2-3 great QBs to coaches who stick them on the line as a high school freshman it has an impact.

Perfectly said. We're talking about a guy who would ideally touch the ball 400 times and people want no part of the reigning offensive POTY. Who cares what Murray looks like in 3 years, it's not like he'll require a Mario type contract, there's a very good chance he can be signed to a deal that can be dumped in 2-3 years with little harm. Sign him, ride him hard for a year and reassess. Freddie/Bryce/Boobie could be a perfectly fine trio. We could find a good RB in the draft. Or we could sign the reigning offensive player of the year for not much more than the cap room we'd open up by cutting Keith Rivers & Chris Williams. I know what door I'm picking but to each his own. Whaley wanted him bad. Jeremy Hill looks like a beast too. The thing people are failing to grasp is these guys all go 2nd or 3rd round. People look at Alfred Morris and Arian Foster and think they prove studs are sitting in the 7th round every year. It's the same thing as the Brady fallacy when it comes to QBs.

A great QB huh? Where are those just hanging out? We haven't had a competent one in 15 years. Then why is Montee Ball garbage? Why did Maroney suck in New England? Why did Brandon Jackson and James Stark look like garbage for years in Green Bay? There's a reason why the same backs top the rushing charts during their prime years. It's not because Jamal Charles, Adrian Peterson and Arian Foster have great QBs and olines. It's because they are grown men who are bigger/stronger/faster than the 11 guys who know they are getting the ball and still can't stop them. Brown has never shown the willingness to run tough between the tackles. He looks like Tarzan but when the rubber meets the road he tries to race to the corner every time.