BullBuchanan

Shakir is a deep threat and it's also MVS' specialty.

Thought? I still think it's still a bad idea, and always will . I never like paying a guy as a top player hoping he'll turn into one. If I'm going to spend that money, I want a sure thing. Even if he becomes the best RT in the league, I'll still hate the decision. You're the one advocating paying a player 20x what he currently makes. If this team doesn't end up being good enough to win a Super Bowl with the talent currently on roster, you want to cull $20M worth of players and think we'll be in a better position? That's a hard pass from me. We are currently spending 11.9M this year in cap on Douglas Benford Ingram Hamlin Rapp Bishop Lewis Johnson by himself is 8.5M (5th highest on the team) Elam at 3.7M(9th Highest) and Edwards at 2.8M(17th Highest) are currently dead weight that are more than 50% of the cap we're spending on everyone who's currently playing. I think doubling our starting budget on Benford would be bananas. I have complete confidence McD could replace him for less than the money spent on Elam, Edwards and Benford's current deal when the time comes. As it stands, you have him through next season. add 3-4 young DBs tot he roster between now and 2026 and you'll be fine.

I wouldn't. Of all the things that McDermott and Beane do, their best attribute is getting insane value from players in the secondary. We have guys like Benford, Hamlin, Rapp, Lewis, Ingram all playing amazing ball for this club and no one wanted them. I have total faith that they'll be able to get very high level play from late round, UDFA, and cheap FA players on the back end. Let someone else break the bank for a CB and scoop a 3rd round comp pick. Douglas is gonna be 31 next year. If he wants to play for 4 or 5M, great. If not, you let him walk.

Nah, I just realized conversing with you is low value and I have better uses for my time.

He will if he plays another 5 years at the same level. Mahomes could have retired last February and would be a unanimous first ballot.

I like him a lot. Good coach in a tough spot. We've seen coaching legends look like the game has passed them by as soon as they get turbulence at QB. What's going on this year with typically scrubby QBs having significant success (Darnold, Fields, Willis, and maybe Dalton?) is wild. Maybe you get one of those stories a year. Is it all coaching, or are these QBs just getting hot enough? Miami planned on winning last year and just like us they had to part ways with a lot of their core in the offseason. They haven't been able to handle it nearly as well. The season is still young, and if they can pivot, the narrative will change. Against us? Not likely, but enough to be respectable? I wouldn't bet too much against it.

He's been electric. Really glad to see it all come together for him.

I made wings

I have been a McDermott hater since he interviewed. He and his staff are doing a marvelous job this year. Everything is clicking. Our offense has people running routes where they can be hit in stride, and when something works we keep doing it for the first time I can remember in 30 years. We have completely outschemed our last two opponents and made great adjustments against the Cardinals. They look incredibly prepared. Josh Allen is playing the best football of his career and while he certainly deserves a huge amount of the credit, I can't help but notice that one of the biggest reasons for it is because he's actually going through reads and hitting the open man consistently, which he's only done sporadically thus far. He did miss the read to cook for a TD yesterday when they took that offsetting penalty in the redzone, but he was otherwise flawless. To me, when all of your guys are playing to their max level, that's a tip of the cap to the coaches.

I won't shed any tears for him. Dude's a royal a-hole. Terrible disease, but there are people with it much more deserving of my sympathy.

KC looked like ***** most of the year last year too and it didn't matter. This is all just pre-season. Allen looks the best he's ever looked and is playing the best ball in the league right now, but that doesn't make him better than Mahomes. If he does it for the next several years,collects some MVPs, and beats him in January then we can have that discussion.

He's a great player. I praise him all the time.

plenty of players have had elite seasons without being elite QBs (Gannon, Schaub, Bulger, Flacco, Culpepper, Vick, etc). Each of those guys could thow for 5k yards and I wouldn't consider them elite tier QBs.

It's definitely Burrow for me, though Stroud could make a case this year to climb up there for sure. He was so very good last year.

Good idea. Thanks.

Just because I was wrong doesn't make me a pessimist. My underlying thesis is that under this regime, we are not a team designed to win in big moments under tough conditions. In order to make the playoffs last year, we needed to win out after losing to Denver. I figured that would be all but impossible given how poorly prepared the team was. In the weeks that followed they looked downright awful playing against Easton Stick and Bailey Zappe nearly losing both games. I watched them almost throw away the Tampa game, Fall to the NYG level and win a war of attrition, get panted by the Jaguars, etc. I was wrong that they wouldn't make the playoffs. 100% They were still a severely flawed team that wasn't built to win a championship and they didn't. That's why this is all pre-season. We could go 17-0 and I won't be much more excited than if they go 11-6. The only thing that matters to me is, are they a legitimate threat to win a Super Bowl? For me, based on the team personnel, coaching staff, and front office I can't find any way that doesn't involve injuries to opposing teams or massive upsets, in games we aren't a part of, to rationally think the answer is yes so far. That's been my opinion for most of the last 30 years with some exceptions (99,08,20,21). It's not some Eeyore, woe is me opinion. It's based entirely on their decisions and performance.

I will if it is. The expectation is that they should win 11+ games. Sorry if I'm not excited when they beat bad teams in September.

Why would anyone want to be an optimist? The entire concept is based on blind faith that things will magically work out even if you're not doing anything to address it. I'm a realist. When there is cause for me to be excited, I will be.

it's irrelevant. This is all just pre-season.

He's a grown ass man who's already made tens of millions of dollars and it's beaten into players these days just how severe of a problem concussions can be. Tua's playing because he wants to, and that's his decision. No one should be able to get in the way of that if that's what he wants to do. For a lot of players, being in the NFL is the culmination of their entire life's work. There is no after that will provide any semblance of parity to what they are actively experiencing. I earn a solid upper-middle class living, am relatively healthy and if I've had concussions, it been a good 20 years since, but I would trade places with Tua in a heartbeat if I could and I'd keep playing until no team wanted me, there was nothing left to achieve, or until I just couldn't do it anymore. The money wouldn't even be a top 3 reason for doing it. Life isn't that important that you should sacrifice the things that make it worth living in the first place.

It definitely nothing to scoff at, but a lot of those wins came despite McDermott's many blunders and failings as a game day coach. I give him a ton of credit for having a staff in place that can build up players, especially depth players, to the point where I feel we have less of a dropoff than other teams would given our many injuries and we get a tremendous return on late round/UDFA defensive players. That said, I've watched other coaches put a clinic on him more times than I can remember. On some of those occasions we've still won, but in the most important games in KC, we haven't. I also put this team's miserable unpreparedness to play in Cincinnati completely at his feet. That game to me showed that he didn't have the ability to be a true leader, let alone a force multiplier for this team. All that said, I think this week's performance against Miami was one of the best of McD's career. Miami, with Tua or not, was completely out-schemed and out-coached in every facet of the game. If you told me they had a direct line to Miami's headset, I'd 100% believe you because they just completely had their number. I was initially upset at the way the team started the Arizona game, but If I look at the 2nd half as an extension tot he Miami game, I feel much better about it. I still hated the gameplan for the end of the 4th quarter, but I've always thought McD's situational decision making in tight spots was his weakest ability as a coach. Hopefully this year he proves that he's learned from his past mistakes when it really matters.

We fold every time we play the Chiefs or Bengals in the playoffs, so not sure we should be throwing stones regarding "beating good teams"

I disagree on at least 2 of those 3 points. They had the #1 offense in the league last year and a top 10 defense. Their offense is stacked with talent and they stocked up on defense in this year's draft. Another good draft next year to help replenish their big men and secondary and they shouldn't miss a beat, assuming they have a QB. McDaniel also appears to be a good coach. I'd have him in consideration at the back end of my top 10 as of now. They struggle mightily against the Bills, which is obviously a huge problem but it shouldn't condemn their entire operation. It's a mirror version of us and the Brady-era Patriots.

Neither for at least 2-3 years best case. Ben Johnson still doesn't have a HC job.

Stefanski had them int he playoffs 2 of the last 4 seasons and has a winning record. Pretty far cry from the drought Bills.