balfan23

Yes, it is the nightmare scenario for us with the AFCN, but we all were about 95% sure that it was what we were going to get the moment Brown broke the plane. Who to root for? As sickening as it may be ... I guess the answer is NE (although I wouldn't use the term "rooting"). Whether NE wins this or not, they have already achieved the status of the top franchise of the new millennium. Steelers will start to put themselves into that conversation if they win here and they don't need anything new in their trophy case and anything more evidence to show their superiority over us.

I just hate it when a player who struggles with us goes on to look great elsewhere. I'm not sure what the reasons are, but it is never a good look for the coaching staff.

I have to say I cringe a bit when I hear about being 2 inches from being a playoff team, when I think that takes some things for granted (like us doing what we've not been able to do in recent years and that is beat CIN on the road) .... One could state that we were only a couple plays away from being a 6-10 team as well. But I digress ... My main point was that I was of the mind that picks 1 and 2 were almost guaranteed to be OLB/CB. The combinations of these statements about our O line and how our pass rush isn't really far off (which I find amazing), I may not be so surprised if we go with a higher than expected draft selection on the O line.

It is not a demotion when you take a job that is lower than one you were fired from. I am pretty sure he was unemployed, so any job you get from there would be a promotion, wouldn't it? Sure, John said “Greg had other opportunities over the last few days ...", but I've no idea what those opportunities were. If any one of those was an OC position, I'm rather certain he would not be our run game coordinator or whatever title we are going to bestow on him.

Good idea ... except for one tiny detail. Making this move will create a $23M hit to the cap. We'd need to cut everyone currently on our roster who would present a cap savings and then fill out the 53 man roster with minimum wage players. Forget retaining any FAs or bringing anyone of note in. Oh yeah, and lets not forget, we won't have a QB on the roster. So I guess we just go draft any random 4th rounder and that guy will magically look like the 2016 Dak (with absolutely no team around him). That's quite a bullet to bite. Complain and say that Flacco isn't living up to his contract.. You could even demand that we bench him. At least those items may be worthy of debate. But please, stop throwing out this option, because it is not an option. Save this post for the 2018 offseason, if our situation remains the same. Until then, just stop it.

I'm not sure that a 3rd round comp is going to move you very far up in the 1st round. From 15, it might get you to 12, but I'm hard pressed to see it move us more than that. Moving up in the 1st round, especially when moving up spots within the top 15, is normally very expensive. It could happen if there is a player that we grade as a tier 1 player is left on the board at around 12 and is the last in that tier AND there is a perceived major drop off between that player and the players in the next tier AND we have a degree of certainty that this player will be selected by the remaining teams in front of us AND our trade partner has a different evaluation of that player. I think we're open to the concept, but whether that scenario presents itself is probably less than a 50-50 proposition. More than likely, for us to make a significant play in this area, it will cost us our 2nd, which can be tough to swallow.

The comment “we are going to build an offensive line that is best in the league” sounds good, but I'm not exactly sure how they are going to go from where they were this year to being the best in the league. I mean, if everyone stays healthy and we retain Wagner, we are pretty good at best. To be the best or even approach it is going to require expending a lot of our available resources to make that happen. How we can do that and address getting a starter-worthy CB #2 (while also adding depth), replace SSS and improve at OLB/DE to generate something that resembles a pass rush is going to be quite a trick. Of course, the word is that we only need a complementary vet at WR and already have quality pass rushers on the roster (but are young players who have not reached their potential). I have a hard time buying that - especially the latter. I'm interested to know whether this comment is a virtual guarantee that Wagner is a keeper. It also wonder if it signals that we could select O line much higher in the draft that I anticipated. It is just really hard to fathom how we are going to achieve this claim while filling all the other holes. If we got an A grade for last year's off season, we're going to need another if we have any hopes of being a playoff team in 2017.

It probably plays into the decision making process for the league. We make such a big deal out of things now, but remember, the Baltimore Colts were in the old NFL West. Somehow, it was not a topic to discuss what the record was for teams travelling across the country to play a 1 PM game. Virginia has a lot of people, but the majority of them are in NoVa, which is a D.C. suburb and expands for miles. This is Redskins territory. Then there is Richmond and the Tidewater areas - both separated by too great a distance to be combined and each individually not likely big enough to support an NFL franchise. Most people in these 2 areas have always leaned heavily toward the Redskins.

I felt they were at least similar in body type (more so than in style), but I'm surprised to see they list Dixon as 5-10. I thought he was more compact than that. Their weight was about the same but MJD was only 5-7. I was going to continue on ... but then this is turning into a RB discussion in the "Joe Flacco: Tough Talk" thread (like that topic needs more discussion!)

That is so true and is something I overlook far too often. Thanks for that reminder. No doubt - when a block was missed up front they got no help from the RBs

What we don't really have a sense of yet is, whether we'd be selling a rambler or a 3 story mansion. I'm seeing him floating between 14 and 7 in many mocks. I've seen him as high as 5. As we saw with Evans, where early projections had him in striking distance of our pick, but by draft day he was nowhere near us. I think Williams will be in the 5-8 range and that's going to take parting with our 1st, 2nd and half of the rest of our picks. I know it is tempting. When you have as many needs as we have, it is hard to give up the picks ... but on the other hand ... a whole lotta OK players isn't worth one true play maker. I definitely would love to have him.

IMO Allen never looked like anything more than a 3rd down back who could do a little damage if he was able to leak out on a route and catch a pass. At no point did I see him show the kind of drive and power that Dixon has shown. Dixon got better as he got farther past his injury and looked like a viable all-purpose back down the stretch. I'm not saying he's the next MJD - but I think that's a good comparison of what his dream up-side would be (although I'm hard pressed to think he'll be as good a pass catcher as him). I don't know that he'll be more than a committee member, but I think he can rotate with another back (perhaps West, should we retain him) and have an effective backfield - as long as we get the line in order.

I have no problem with him however, the perception that most fans were looking for Harbs, Ozzie or Flacco to be fired is false. What he did NOT address was keeping the likes of Pees & Marty here (though an argument can be made in Marty's case) after that debacle. I like how they talk about expecting more from Flacco (a valid criticism) but ignore the fact that Flacco got the job done in crunch time in Pitt while the defense folded, again, just like they folded in NE giving up 2 14 pt leads. So Flacco performs like he did in 2014 - what good does that do with a Pees' led defense that breaks more often than it bends? Address THAT issue. True the majority of fans that wanted to see coaching changes were not looking for Harbs' head, but would have liked to have seen a change on one or both coordinator spots. Understanding the way Mr. Bisciotti works ... what those fans were really saying is that they would have liked to have seen Harbaugh - not Bisciotti - make the change. Mr. Bisciotti is not meddlesome - he makes decisions at a specific level and doesn't dive below that level in to the details. Despite the opinion of some, he did not demand that Harbaugh fire Cam or Trestman. He leaves all changes relating to coaching staff to John. IMO, this makes sense. If you want to hold the HC responsible in the end, you can't demand he makes changes that he doesn't feel are in the team's best interest and then fire him because things didn't work out. John has been given the rope. Let's see if he uses it to pull the team up or to hang himself. Despite the fact that I was hoping for a DC change myself, I am hoping it is the former.

I'm still trying to remain optimistic about Perriman. Given that he shows flashes of playmaking ability and has yet to have a full season gives me hope. It would be nice if Marty makes up his mind that we'll actually design plays that will target him and work to get him the ball in space rather than just tell him to run around and see if he can get open. We've seen what happens if he has room to run. He's a nightmare for the opposing defense.

I agree that the offense appeared to be generally improving later in the season - but only from the standpoint of being able to move the ball. From game 1 to game 16, the red zone was a nightmare. I hate feeling like, whenever we get a big play on offense, defense or special teams, we are just praying they get it in the end zone or otherwise you're probably going to either be watching us trot Tucker out there - or worse - watch Joe throw another one of his inexplicable red zone picks. His red zone turnovers just seem to be getting worse and in Marty's defense, I'm not sure if there is a human alive who can do anything to correct that. I've resigned to the fact that Flacco is going to make rookie mistakes in his 10th year and beyond. I know I'm talking about perhaps the premiere run game in the league, but I just go into a fit of jealousy watching a team like Dallas get 1st down on the 14 ... run the ball 3 times and are in the end zone. We get the ball on the 1 and we're not sure if 3 run plays will get us in.

I didnt' realize Oher was an LT in his first year.

Harrison gave him a hard time In the first meeting - when he just came back from foot injury. Stanley handled him easily once he came back healthy.

Kid Dynamite. It is crazy how we just watched him trot out there for these 50+ yard kicks and could basically just go take a bathroom break or grab a cold one, while other team's fans are biting their nails as their kicker heads out to kick a PAT.

I don't know ... i"m not going to go down the list of teams and look at who their edge rusher was. He can only block the guy in front of him. Not sure what else you want him to do.

How is he going to do what? I'm totally confused by this post ... did you reply to the wrong post? I'm saying that I wanted to see Pees let go this offseason .... because I'm letting go of something that doesn't appear to be working. If it is a talent issue, then I'm not sure how we can look elite all game and fall apart on the final drive when the team needs us the most - or look good all year and fall apart at the end of the season.

Personally, I don't think he should have this season to prove himself. IMO the defense let us down big time at the end of the season and the late game collapses have been going on pretty much since he's come on board.

OMG people for about the 10th time IT IS CALLED SARCASM! I thought it would be obvious I think I just need to go back and delete my post because people keep responding to it. I've re-posted to the majority of the people freaking out about it to clarify. I've had about 15 posts speaking on my displeasure on keeping Pees. I've said that I am not thrilled about Marty being retained, but it is at least understandable because he didn't even have a full season to prove his worth. Pees has run his course. The late game collapses cannot be dismissed as anything but a failure in coaching.

Just as well, since we aren't going to make a change at DC this year. Maybe Indy will stink it up again and he'll get fired next year. That way he'll be available - in the undesirable event that we fail again and end up cleaning house on the coaching front. Who knows - maybe he'll get another HC post - but if he goes back to the DC ranks, I'd love to have him (and not Rex) back as our DC. The defense when he was DC was spectacular.

Good lord people. I know everyone is in a sour mood as it is really sickening to roll into the post season with the Ravens sitting at home and the Steelers looking to roll forward and face the Pats in the AFCN. Lots to be irritated about and plenty of reasons to vent. A thread about Stanley wouldn't be one of them. IMO one of the truly positive developments this season was Stanley's performance and the fact that it would appear we have a very important position locked up for the next few years. To come out here and to bash him or Ozzie for the selection is absurd.

If we only had an entire O line who was as average as he is, we'd have one of the best O lines in the league.