GreggTX

Dareus is not playing at anywhere near his potential, but I'm not sure limited snaps is doing anything more than making him resentful. I'd try the opposite approach. Get in his face and get him excited. I thought Mr. Beane's very public criticism was ill advised. I don't think Marcell's heart will ever be in it again as long as this current staff is in place. Maybe I'm wrong, but with all that missing cap space and potential at stake, you have to keep trying everything you can think of.

I just wanted to point out that pass deflected to Holmes was tipped by Aquib Talib before Zay had a shot at it. I also think benching him now isn't the best idea. He doesn't need a fire under his @?"#%. He needs to relax and just try to have fun. He's putting a lot of pressure on himself. I think his route running is his biggest problem. He's not getting separation. One good game would do wonders for his confidence.

Some ideas: Get away from the zone blocking scheme and see if that helps. We were #1 in rushing behind Shady and this same OL (pretty much) the past 2 years. Go back to what was working. Draft or sign a WR that will force defenses to respect his speed. I suspect opposing S's are cheating a lot. It's killing our run game. I don't know that changing QB would help any. Tyrod has no one to throw to that would even be a starter on most teams and the run game has stalled. Peterman is a rookie. Let's not throw him to the wolves just yet. Replace Eric Wood. He's one of the worst starting C's in the NFL and has been for a while. Draft or sign a new LT and move Glenn to RG. Pray that Dawkins pans out. If we can't trade up and get someone like Darnold (and I'm not sure we should anyways) draft best available and let him compete for the job with Tyrod and Nate.

1. It's still too soon to write off either of our 2nd round picks. 2. Remember that we replaced our GM and the ENTIRE scouting/personnel staff after the draft. I'm already anxious to see how Mr. Beane does on his 1st trip to the plate? At least Whaley gave us T White before he was replaced. I think we'll see a new face there next Summer. 3. Even if Jones comes around, we will draft or sign (as a FA) someone that can keep opposing safeties honest. That's another thing that's hurting the run game.

By fans? Of course some of them do, but I see no reason to believe our coaches care about that. He's a small tick above avg for an NFL starter. I can imagine us drafting a competitor, though and if Peterman is showing good progress in practice, who knows?

1. I agree that WR OL and RB are higher priorities 2. No, our LB's aren't that good. I don't know about Bowman much, but we need a new starter ar SLB and Brown is below avg. Lo is ready to retire and would be better as a 3-4 OLB. 3. Our DL isn't all that great either. Dareus is tragically underachieving, Kyle is a shadow of his former self and Shaq is below avg. 4. No one is going to trade for Dareus unless he agrees to a HUGE pay cut, which he won't. 5. Glenn will be OK when he gets a healthy pair of legs under him. I could see us using a 1st round pick on an OT and moving him inside. Let's not be in a hurry to get rid of him until he's healthy again, at least. Good OL are rare these days. 6. Dareus is playing just below pro bowl level. Not terrible, but he could be as good as any DL in the NFL if he really wanted to be. 7. Let's keep our 2018 draft picks. We need them badly. 8. The strength of our D is at S and CB, but we could still use another really good CB. Who would have thought after cleaning house? 9. Hughes isn't elite, but he's still pretty darn good. He's having his best season to date. 10. They shouldn't have extended Eric Wood. He's been awful as has Mills. I'm giving Dawkins a pass here because he's a rookie. 11. I'm beginning to wonder if we need to scrap this zone blocking scheme. I wish coaches were more flexible instead of insisting on their past systems when they clearly aren't working. Like Rex's D, for example.

He is an average NFL starting DT and will be replaced after this season. I think he'll retire after this one. He doesn't want his career to end as a bench warmer. He will be greatly missed.

Don't kow, but I do know that Mr. Beane is set up for a spectacular draft. To me, the real question is whether or not he and all of our new scouts are going to knock it out of the park or will this be another draft like Buddy Nix's first draft as our new GM. I think we have a solid coaching staff, but that's not enough. Our roster lacks talent at WR, OL, LB and we need help at RB, CB and the DL.

Worst WR corps ever? I guess you aren't old enough to remember those back to back 1-13 seasons, huh? I too am disappointed that Jones isn't doing better, but in his defense, we know he can catch a football because he did it hundreds of times in college. Also, a very high percentage of the passes thrown to him have been far off target. He'll get the opportunity to turn this around, I hope.

Marcell could be one of the top 5 defenders in the NFL. They just need to get into his head. Unfortunately, Kyle just can't play at a high level any more. Lawson has yet to show why he was a 1st round pick. I see some changes coming for our DL next offseason.

Glen has certainly been very good at LT, but this foot injury is clearly limiting his mobility. If there is any chance that he can get back to 100%, he's not going anywhere. There is a league wide shortage of quality OL.

Poor WR quality. Poor pass protection. Oh and the defense is playing much better. We've been 10th and 11th in scoring these past 2 seasons. Maybe we do need a better QB, but it would be nice if he had someone to throw to.

Is it Tyrod's fault that we have no quality receivers on our roster? Clay is OK, but he'll be MIA for weeks and missed most of the last game. Our best WR is also out for several weeks and he's average. Our OL is below average. I'm not saying Tyrod is good enough to carry the team by any stretch of the imagination, but what if he had something to work with? Let's also remember that we've played against excellent defenses in all but 1 of our games so far. We have 6 high picks in the next draft. Whether Tyrod, Nate or some new arrival starts for us in '18, they should be surrounded by better talent next year. That said, it would not surprise me if the new staff went after 'their' QB after the season.

Not really. I'm still in wait and see mode. If we beat the Raiders and Chiefs and notch a win vs the Pats, then I'm sold. I know that's a lot to ask, but I just keep reminding myself that there will be a lot of new faces here next year.

You should have started with "I'm surprised he didn't trade Shady so we would have seen right away that you were only joking. Trade Shady. Now that's funny. I was very surprised that Williams didn't make the roster too, but he even admitted that he didn't have a sense of urgency as a rookie and clearly, McDermott doesn't want any slackers on his team. Maybe he was still lagging a bit.

Cincinnati's OL is even worse than ours with Glenn hobbled by this nagging foot injury. If Shaq can go and Dareus '17 plays like Dareus '15, Daltry could be in for a very long afternoon. I'm predicting another 6 sack performance. Make your best guess.

Let's all overreact, shall we? He's got a bum ankle. He can still play at probowl level when it heals. Besides, we have only 2 good DT's on the roster. Let's get real. After Kyle and Marcel, the other DT's on this roster are terrible! We have enough holes to fill at LB, C, G, WR, CB and OT ( if Dawkins flops) without adding DT to that list. Also, Lorenzo, Richie and Kyle are near retirement age. And then there's the question of QB. Unless Mr. Beane can do magic, I can't see all those holes getting filled even with all our picks in the next draft and no one is going to trade for him. If he is released, we will be wearing that dead money like an anchor around our necks for far too long. We're stuck with Marcell. The good news is that he played lights out before Rex arrived. I expect McDermott will use either the carrot or the stick to try to motivate him. If that doesn't work, we are in trouble. Let's hope it does. I'm not buying the notion that our defense has arrived just yet. We're still only 4 games into the season and our run D hasn't looked very good these past 2 weeks. We still have some tough games ahead too.

Obviously Brown isn't a great player, but i think he's as good a replacement as you could want under the circumstances. I was mildly surprised that he didn't make the opening day roster. He's as good as Holmes, isn't he?

I believe we'll still need an upgrade at QB to win our 1st SB, but Tyrod is playing very welll. I'm leaning a little bit towards wait and see because he has taken his game up a notch and he's doing it with very little talent at WR or on the OL. We have no deep threat either and teams are just loading up to stop Shady's ground game. I care far less about yards than I do about points and even that is an imperfect measure. If you have a lead, for example, you will try to slow the game down and play conservatively rather than piling on the points (usually, if you have a good D). It looks like no QB in college has established himself as a sure bet, so Mr. Beane may decide to keep all those picks and just take best available to sit behind Tyrod while developing and let's not forget about Peterman. We still don't know where his ceiling is. This will be fun to watch. I feel better about this team than I have in a long time. Kudos to the coaching staff on this as well. I'd like to see more TD's vs FG's, but with the D playing so well (especially in the red zone) we can still win enough games to finally get to the playoffs. Let's just hope it lasts.

This is 2 weeks in a row that I've been eating crow. YUM! Heck, I didn't see this team winning more than 5 games and we're almost there already. Kudos to the coaches, Tyrod and Frazier in particular.

Among other positives, I love his tackling. He's been solid stopping RAC yards as well as run support.

I'm more worried about the Raiders.

Passing yards are overrated. Teams are loading up to stop Shady because they think Taylor can't beat them. So far, he's been proving them wrong. I did not expect this, especially with such a weak WR corps and OL. He's doing this largely on his own. Also, his awareness has improved. I think the game has finally slowed down for him. It will be interesting to see what happens on draft day at the QB position. We'll have to see how the last 12 games play out for Tyrod.

McDermott obviously is doing a good job, though let's not undersell our coordinators here. Frazier, in particular, has been excellent. I really think the future is bright with all those high draft picks just ahead of us, but I will not judge Mr. Beane before he has run his first draft. He's done OK, but this next draft will define his reign. I hope he nails it.

It just amazes me that so many people are getting their panties all tied up in knots over this, but the corporate media is happy to fan the flames.