MasterStrategist

I've been one of his biggest supporters since the start, and already said 1 month ago that he was gonna impress - his strength and quickness at top of route will be noticeably improved. Its not jump balls, its the leverage and his athletic ability that will be on better display. I think hes ready to be a big time player for us. Im going 65 catches for 900 yards and 8 TDs, if he can stay healthy all season.

100% agree with the sentiment that no sum of money would be worth it. I was thinking this same thing lol. My emotional hedge would probably be $50k, anything more and my wife might make me sell the bourbon collection lol

And if you want to go back to 2020, we had an elite QB/Wr combo...with Beas and Brown. And again, we should go for elite offense? This defense has never been able to get off the field in key situations, thats been a sad fact. Looking back to 2020 is just dumb. Like these teams are so comparable to now. But at least we had what you want then- and it still didnt work.

Very fair. We haven't seen McD with an elite def unit (healthy) come playoffs- unit or player at an impact position DE, CB). Im more pro McD than anyone else here. I think Beane has made so many great moves/and depth, but ultimately has failed at finding an elite defensive talent. Thats likely Beane+Coach+others making those decisions, so its not all on Brandon. Just think we'd see much different results on defense, if we had a Josh Allen equivalent - like the Chiefs, Eagles, Bengals, 49ers, etc have had to make a deep run.

Why we looking back 7 games? All way back to 2020? Im looking at recent games: 2022-2024. Yeah Cincy could have easily scored 30, if they didnt take the foot off gas and we would've needed 30 against KC. Point being, what did we "need" to score to win based on game. Agree offense underperformed. Sometimes, actually alot of times, I dont think you read other posts. Sorry youre either incacapable of that or just too lazy. I mentioned exactly what you said, both underperformed- it is my opinion, the defense has had no answers for Bengals/Chiefs 2022-2024. There's a reason the investment went there this offseason.

Living in Steeler country, 100% agree with this. Pickens was a headache, so it was pretty clear he was on his way out at some point. But trading for DK and that contract- in the midst of no QB, makes little sense. They should've been stocking picks for 2026. Instead, they've made an attempt to stay in the 9-10 win category while giving away a valuable pick this year and the $s to DK. Juts not seeing the long game for them. Wildcard team at best, they crumbled down the stretch LY when their schedule finally got tough. Unpopular opinion in Pittsburgh, but they should have full rebuild mode and traded Watt while the value is there and continued to load up draft picks. This team is so scared to go all in, at QB in the Draft, after the Pickett miss. They have a very good defense but the Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers of the world isnt gonna catapult them- they also have issues on that OL IMO. An injury to Watt or Minkah, and they're a below .500 team IMO.

When the defense gives up 30+, isnt it common sense that we need to outscore opponent to win? You have some weird twisted logic. Bottom line, we have a good enough offense to win- if Josh plays within himself. Too many missed chances in the '24 Chiefs game, at crucial moments. Not for a lack of playmakers, but not executing and some questionable playcalling at times. OTOH, the defense doesnt have a Josh Allen. So we end up giving up massive points, to a middling Chiefs offense in 2024/2023, and had no answers for Burrow in 2022. Not sure what football game youre watching. Stats are stats, useful as I should know in a profession full of them. But also, the knowledge of football and knowing our team cant do a lick of anything to get off the field on 3rd downs. We take major luck/breaks to keep with elite offenses. Im not counting on the Hardmans of the world to fumble at the 1. Or Mark Andrew's to cough it up and drop a key 2 point play. Our defense has been lucky at many moments. We need more talent on that side, obviously Beane agrees with certai posters here. Beane also missed on several high defensive picks and DL FAs. which got us into this problem. We cant have every position be an all pro. We had the QB/Wr elite combo- how'd that work out? Missed on OL, DL then. Now we have the OL in a good spot and need a very good DL to compete--- this is a Coleman thread after all, hes going to be alot better in Year 2 from what I've seen in. person.

Like I said, you just repeated my exact comments --- both sides underperform. And in big moments, we have ZERO defens8ve players up to the challenge/elite. And yeah, Josh made some mistakes--- his talent gets away with it. That picture shows a player with a torn PCL diving....what if Josh didnt adjust the protection to the left and actually looked playside/with the motion....we are talking a 1st down. Agree, clutch is clutch. Meaning whoever makes the last big play in these close games become the victor.... We're saying the same thing. Key thing is we have 1 elite player on offense and zero on defense, my point is we need to find a difference maker on that side of the ball--- or get alot more from DL and secondary units.

Disagree with this completely, what youre trying to say about offense. But agree with your prior post about "making clutch" plays is key. 2022: defense was a sieve. Offense played horrible, many attribute to Josh night before 2023: defense severely undermanned, again a sieve. Bass chokes on a makeable FG- Josh got greedy and offense choked away a chance at the end 2024: defense was garbage after Benford went down, for 1st half. Defense did enough to win 2nd half, but offense blew multiple chances. If anything, LY was the only season the offense didnt play up to snuff when it would have mattered. The defense has been downright awful the past 3 playoff losses- when we need to consistently put up 30+ to win, thats a DEFENSE issue. But to your recent point about "clutch plays". We saw a couple this past Chiefs game--- Jordan Phillips of all people with a crucial sack, and James Cook with an unbelievable effort to score on 4th and goal, or we likely wouldve been trailing by alot more. Those would've been enough, but defense and offense were equally to blame IMO for 2024 loss- slow starts by both units. Josh made more mistakes in that KC loss, than he did prior 4 games combined. We shouldn't need him to be superman every game though --- how many bad reads/throws did he miss? We had guys open/checkdowns there- Samuel on crossing routes for big gains, but Brady also went to the QB sneak well way too much after KC showed a knack of stopping it. Point being, both sides played bad at times- I'd say offense more worse than their norm. But we cant have our defense give up 30+ to a team that hasn't put up nearly that level of production in recent games. Just shows what the Eagles, with good talent, could actually do defensively. Its called we had a MAJOR talent deficiency on that side of the ball- Rasul, Elam, Hamlin - that was a secondary that played ALOT of snaps and we expect to win with them? Not to mention a DL, whose best 2nd best pass rusher was Von Miller and needed to count on the likes of Jordan Phillips for clutch plays

Both can be true, but its my viewpoint that McD has done more with less. Aj Klein on Kelce was mismatches that Andy Reid, and any other top notch coach could scheme against a depleted LB crew. I've yet to see us have a "super star" on defense, Tre and Von (pre injury even he wasn't a blue chip player anymore). We've had a LOT of very good players, but injuries and lack of a blue chip talent on DL have held us back when it matters most. JMO

Speaking of 2nd halves, this Coach you b-word about happened to give up just 11 points and forced 2 punts to start the 3rd qtr--- this was just this year. This is after Benford went down, and we're already down Rapp and Taron banged up. On top of a DL that has shed Phillips, Von, Jefferson, Smoot, Rasul - and Elam traded for a bag of footballs. This was an average talented defense, at best. 2 boundary CBs who played entire 2nd half, won't be playing much this year. I'd say our defense did what it needed in 2nd half- Benford going down was too much to overcome. Our offense came out flat, and just didnt make the plays we needed down the stretch. There's a reason our offseason was dedicated to finding more talent on defense- people love to hate on McD, when have we had legitimate talented defense? Seems to me, he has covered up a lot of flaws - that tend to get exposed against better QBs. Talent is the ultimate differentiator, I'd say Philly can attest to that

Davis isnt devalued. Davis just isnt Cook. People act like Cooks explosion and vision is just replaceable--- "we would do just fine", as you say. Bottom line, Cook made alot of explosive runs LY and alot of yards after contact - which people tend to ignore and just say the OL is the reason for his production. Look no further than the 4th and goal against KC, Davis isnt making that run- thats a certainty. I'll repeat what I've said all offseason, Cook is our best playmaker not named Josh Allen. I hope Beane finds a way to keep him 3-4 more years- give him $24m gtd. Cook produced behind a very good OL - facts. But he also produced alot of yards/TDs with a vastly improved strength and contact balance, and his sneaky acceleration.

Meh, I thought the Bernard deal was perfect. Pay for upside, otherwise, if he repeats 2023 then that deal is going up. Bernard, and Milano, played behind an average at best DL LY as well. Clearly there's a reason we just used 3 of our top 4 draft picks+signed Oji+Hoecht+Bosa. Put a solid DL in front of Bernard and Milano, watch them create a bunch of splash plays again.

Kincaid wasn't open enough by 5 yards, next time better be 10...need more separation. Josh just isnt that great at deep ball accuracy. Let's just be honest there. He's missed several throws over the years, with a LOT of separation. He's also made some absolute dimes on the run, that only he could do. WR separation isnt the issue though IMO, on deep balls.

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