Success

Well, part of the reason for this thread was to give it a bump next year.

I'm cool w/ this. But I trust Beane on it - if they really like a guy & want to trade up, I won't complain.

Mind you - I am not saying we will or should be SB favorites, or even considered a top 3-4 contender. But losing Diggs changes very little, imo. A lot will depend on who we get in the 1st round this year, and if they can adjust quickly to the pro's. Diggs did nothing for us in the past 2 playoff losses, and his production was way down the entire 2nd half of last season (when we made our run). Just responding to thoughts in the Diggs thread that his trade clearly means a year off, and a rebuild. To me, it means a trade up for a better receiver, and we'll still be contending. I don't see this as some sort of window-closer.

If the pick they got is the one that allows them to trade up further and get one of the top 3 guys in this year's draft - this will turn out to be a fantastic move.

So, for awhile, I was going w/ "Diggs was hurt & we didn't know much about it" as to why his production dropped last year. Now, I've decided to switch to "he got old, and his best days are behind him."

In a previous playoff game against KC & Mahomes, the then mighty Patriots gave up a scoring drive in 16 seconds. It's football. It happens. It's not a desirable outcome, but even the best make mistakes & stuff happens.

Best of luck to Tre.

I kind of want to respond to this - but it actually leaves me speechless. Thank you.

I get the sentiments that we haven't taken a step forward either - and agree. But we didn't need to. We're as good as anyone. Differences are marginal. We need to figure out how to win playoff games. It has more to do w/ strategy & psychology than it does w/ talent.

We had a really good team last season. I thought it was the best heading INTO the season that we've had in the JA era. After the weird Jets debacle, we looked it, too. Injuries hit us hard in a short couple of weeks. We kind of got back on track, but never looked as dominant as we did prior to that. And then injuries hit us again at the end. Playoff success this year will be more about staying healthy than the quality of the team. The latter is there just as much as it was last year.

Can't.

Wow, are those ever purposely negative characterizations. You left out the players we re-signed.

I expected nothing this FA period - we started out $40M+ over cap. Beane has done a great job filling holes & setting us up for another season of being a contender.

Poor return for a player of that caliber, imo.

We'll be as good as anyone in '24. But we've been that for a few years now.

I always love Beane's strategy here. Go into the draft w/ few holes to fill, even w/ depth - and then you can be flexible w/ who you pick, and focus a little more on BPA.

As we know, it would take a king's ransom to trade up to get him. But the upside is that the offense would be completely unstoppable.

Oh, for sure. I'd like to think they could buckle down at home and get the stop in that situation - but they really didn't the entire game.

While I can't stand the Chiefs - I would never wish this on a fanbase. I hope this doesn't happen.

This is kind of where I think analysis of that play goes a little over the top. Just the idea that you can script a more methodical approach to that last couple of minutes, so you use all 3 downs for every first down, and time it more or less perfectly so that you finally break through and get a TD with just a few seconds to spare. Football just isn't like that. Like I said in my previous post on this, once you get deeper into the red zone, D's tighten up. Especially a D as good as KC's. An open Shakir might have been the last good shot we had at a TD, without having to thread the needle or make a much more precise throw. And there are other risks to not taking that opportunity - maybe there is a holding penalty, or tipped ball for an INT, or sack.

The microscopic dissection of that play has gone to absurd levels. I had to tune out the national pundits after this game. Throwing a 25 yard pass to a wide open guy in the endzone on 2nd down is not "hero ball."

Brady was pretty close to that. I remember thinking that watching him at times. A lot of these guys at the top are super-competitive, but Brady was obsessed. There was a chip on his shoulder from being picked in the 6th round that stayed there no matter how many rings he got. I don't see Mahomes or any other athlete that way. There have been a lot of comments that Mahomes works harder, processes better, and is just generally better than Allen, but I don't see any significant gap between the 2. Mahomes has better coaching, and has achieved more as a result.

The coverage wasn't good. Shakir was wide open. And it was 2nd down. I have no doubt that if he went for Diggs & the pass was dropped, everyone would have been criticizing him for not getting the easy TD when he was looking right there.

I'll always disagree w/ the bolded. That play was designed for the shot to Shakir, and he was open. It's not undisciplined or even a mistake to throw to a wide open receiver in the endzone. You may not get that again on that drive. Defenses tighten up once you get into the red zone, and having an easy opportunity for a TD is never a guarantee. Any good or great QB goes for Shakir there.

Not much. If we stood pat right now, we'd be okay heading into the season. Starters I would expect to see from the draft: WR2, Safety, & DT (someone on here said that DT3 is basically a starter in this scheme, which I agree with).