Success

He was great for us - but like others, I'm kind of relieved. This team has come up short repeatedly in the playoffs. Diggs was a no-show the past 2 playoffs losses, and dropped one of the best passes I think I've seen in the postseason. We're heading into '24 w/ essentially a new team. It feels like a very needed clean slate.

Beane is pretty methodical. He's probably been thinking about how he wants to use the pick and what he plans to do in this year's draft from the minute he started considering this trade. I do think he trades up now.

A lot of people are picking the Texans in the AFC already. They didn't play much of a schedule last year. Now, they'll have a 1st place schedule. And Stroud looked great, but we've seen other rookies look good or great and take a step back once DC's figure out strategies to slow them down. Not saying that will happen, and Houston could for sure be a contender. But it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't take a big leap.

You think we'll be one of the 5 worst teams in the NFL? I mean - you know Josh Allen is still our QB, right?

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."