Maryland

I'm pretty sure he was one of those players who blew-up the combine. I'm almost certain he broke the combine record for the long-jump and had a huge vertical. I think part of the question was whether he'd be a safety or a corner in the pros. He seems to be doing well as a safety.

You can ask whatever question you want at the presser, but without some sodium pentothol (aka "truth serum") to get a straight answer, he's just going to say something like "that's a bad question" and move on, or answer your question obtusely like usual. So I'd ask a ton of questions related to recent drafts, like how high were they on player x, which players were they close to trading up for, which player did they really want who got sniped. And I'd want to know how the interview process goes when they look for a new OC, like how did it go when they hired Trestman--how much input came from Ozzie, Steve, Flacco, etc., or was it mostly his decision. And I'd want to know if he thinks his control in selecting the future OC will be tempered by the Trestman fiasco. Oh, and I'd ask about Flacco, like whether he really is hard to coach, and how much time does he put into studying the game and improving himself. Is he really a "9 to 5" QB as some have suggested?

Agreed. Those sacks by Suggs certainly showed a lot of effort in keeping with the play, but he wasn't getting instant pressure like old times. In watching the Titans/Jags game last night, I was reminded of what a real pass rush looks like. Their pass rush just burst off the line, gave Bortles little time to think, even when there were guys open. It reminded me of the 2014 Ravens when Doom, McPhee, and Sizzle were balling, getting to the QB a second or two after it's snapped. No one on our current team gets instant pressure like that anymore, at least not very often (Jernigan does sometimes). The kind of pressure that masks a bad secondary--we don't have that.

I have to wonder how the search during the upcoming offseason might go differently than last season now that John has failed with one of his hires in Trestman (Trestman was recommended by Jim Harbaugh, and then it seemed to be John's decision to bring him in over someone like Shanahan). Might Ozzie have more say in who our next OC is? Maybe Steve gets involved too, though I suspect not (it was rumored Steve intervened when Harbaugh wanted to make an in-house promotion after Caldwell left, but who really knows). Maybe they have Flacco in on the discussion too, which seems important since if Flacco is not going to respect the person we bring in at OC then it'll just waste everyone's time. In other words, I guess I'm wondering if John might have less say in who becomes our next OC compared to previous seasons, even though John should still have a strong vote on the matter. I guess we should start looking at which failed HCs with a background in coaching offense will be fired at the end of this season to get a sense of who our next candidates will be lol. We might be looking at Bill O'Brien (yuck), Ben McAdoo (too similar to Trestman), Chip Kelly (lol), Mike Mularkey (meh), Jay Gruden (maybe). I could also see a scenario in which Detroit promotes Cooter to HC just to keep him from being poached by someone else (similar to what TB did to keep Dirk Koetter by firing Lovie), in which case Caldwell will be back on the market (yuck).

I don't know... I get that his injuries made him miss practice, but I kind of expect him to have it in his memory how to actually field a punt/kick by now. He's been doing this for 11 years in the NFL + his college years, seems like it should all be muscle memory at this point how to catch a punt.

Ideally, you're only signing a key FA here and there to fill a single roster hole and not building your roster through FA like the Redskins and Dolphins of late. Ideally, this is because you're drafting so well that you don't need to fill your roster with FAs, so you are instead able to allocate most of your cap space to re-signing your own key players and not someone else's. I would rather be in a position where we're drafting so well that we don't need to sign a lot of FAs. Hopefully we get back to excellent drafting, and get away from having to fill roster holes with FAs after guys like Terrance Brooks, Matt Elam, Arthur Brown, and others disappoint.

I'm hoping Harbaugh pulls some kind of trick play and it actually works for once--anything that results in more humiliation for the Steelers. Maybe a surprise onside kick. I fully expect a volley of negs to come my way after advocating one of John's zany trick plays btw, so no worries

Hah! Gotteem.

Byron Jones is actually a pretty big reason why Dallas's secondary is pretty good. And Malcolm Brown seems like a solid interior lineman for the Pats, at least I think he was pretty disruptive his rookie year--haven't paid much attention this year. But you're only looking at 6 players anyway lol.

(not sure where else to ask this and doesn't deserve its own thread) Are we allowed to post (that is, copy/paste) espn insider articles here? Thought about remaking the "mock draft thread, not mine, not yours" thread and posting Kiper's latest big board for those w/o access

I honestly think Pees uses too many vanilla blitzes during non-divisional games just so he doesn't tip his hand before playing the Steelers. He always seems to save his best for the Steelers, perhaps to the detriment of all other non-divisional games.

To "fix" Flacco, I'd like the following to occur over the off-season: Hire a new QB coach. Mornhinweg wasn't getting good results even as the QB coach; it seemed like Flacco actually regressed under him. Hire an OC who will install a "run-first" offense that operates heavily off of play-action passing (run-first in quotes because obviously I don't want a Cam Cameron run-run-pass offense lol, just someone who runs an offense that is committed to the run). If they could hire someone in the same mold as Kubiak or Shanahan, that would make me happy, since our OL is built for a ZBS, which is what they run. Improve the OL. It would be nice if we could upgrade Zuttah, but that may be unlikely. And we're going to need a new LG with Lewis most likely replacing Wagner at RT for 2017.

I was listening to my Eagles friend saying "finally, someone who can catch the ball" in response to the Torrey rumors and just lol'd. The Alshon Jeffrey rumors seem to have more weight behind them though.

Webb definitely used to be a good tackler. In fact, he was very willing to go up and tackle the RB in his prime years as a slot corner, which many attributed to his years as a safety in college. However, it seems like now, when a tackle is there to be made, he's taking poor angles, probably because he's too slow.

So true. Terrance Brooks was really fast, but was late on every play because he lacked football IQ. Such a shame. As for the OP, you're definitely not the only one getting frustrated with Webb's performance. Many of us here have noticed how he's often late to provide help over the top and makes a poor effort to tackle. Given his poor play, there is little doubt in my mind he's cut after the season is over, since 5.5 mil in base salary is waaay too much for a player of his caliber. I just hope Ozzie doesn't succumb to his loyalties and keep him, even if he accepts a pay-cut. He just doesn't seem to be worth a roster spot, though I say this with the opinion that keeping a young player with upside is preferable to keeping a declining veteran--if both are competing for a backup spot, that is, which Webb would be for 2017. Elam might actually improve our safety play, and I don't think it's far-fetched to say that. Though he looked bad his first 2 seasons, we've heard nothing but positives every TC since then. How much worse than Webb could he really be? The big knock on Elam was that he couldn't tackle, but Webb is rarely even in position to make a tackle anyway, so... yeah, I'm ready for Elam. At the very least, we'll get closure regarding whether Elam has a future in the NFL or not.

I feel like this is one of those sensible opinions that inflames fans for some reason. I feel like you can depend on someone like Judon becoming a contributor next season, at least as a DPR, since he's already showing talent, but you can't depend on guys like Perriman or Correa until they show something promising. You're not saying that they'll bust, just that you can't feel comfortable depending on them playing major snaps next year; their spot on the roster shouldn't preclude you from signing or drafting someone at the same position, since their development is uncertain right now.

Honestly, I feel like taking Doom off of PUP turned out to be a huge mistake, since it ultimately kept Ochi off the roster due to a numbers game. Would much rather have a possible future DPR than an old, injured DPR on the last year of his deal. I hope they move on from Doom at the end of this season just to free-up a roster spot at rush-LB for a young prospect, presumably someone we'll draft in 2017. Additionally, I wouldn't let Z-Smith keep me from drafting more rush-LB depth, either; he has shown nothing this year to give me hope that he'll become a good pass-rusher. And I'm not really depending on Correa becoming a good pass-rusher at this point in time, though I think it's still possible he does develop into one.

The only way it would make sense for a player to take a pay cut would be if they are in danger of getting cut. As it stands now, Joe has all of the leverage, and the FO has no reason to cut him right now. A more likely source for a pay cut would be Dumervil or Webb, who are each due a hefty base salary for 2017. This salary could be cut and then potentially earned back through incentives.

I'm also coming to accept that we just haven't been very good. However, I'm not willing to accept that we can't be at least average until I see our starting OL and SS89 out there. If we're still struggling with our starters on offense, then I'll concede that we're just not very good.

So much this. I get that the OL is terrible, but I guess the fear of pressure has him so shell-shocked he's using poor mechanics even when he doesn't have to. Marty Mornhinweg really didn't seem to do a good job with his mechanics, so I hope the next QB coach isn't just him again.

I hope he does decide to start so we can make him regret his decision.

This bye couldn't come soon enough. So many injuries. Really hoping to get our starting OL back for week 9--that's the source of most of our problems on offense. Get better starters in there, get less penalties, less pressures/sacks, better movement in the run game. At the very least, if the starting OL goes out there post-Bye and still struggles, it'll give me closure that this team just isn't very good even at 100%

We're 1 game out of first in our division with 5 divisional games left on the schedule. With how weak our division is this year, we are still very much in this thing. This bye week couldn't come at a better time; with Stanley, Yanda, and SS89 hopefully healthy for week 9, our OL and offense as a whole should be much improved. Our defense probably won't improve a whole lot post-Bye, since we still have no pass rush, but there are some injuries in the secondary, along with Mosley, obviously. Not counting on Suggs or Dumervil to save this defense, tbh. Nevertheless, with Roethlisberger out 4-6 weeks, we're still very much in the race for the AFCN. And players and coaches don't tank, at least not in the NFL. A FO can assemble a non-competitive roster that will lose despite the coaches and players' efforts, but the coaches and players themselves do not lose on purpose.

Unfortunately, because the NFL isn't very specific with their franchise tag values by position, B.Williams would fall into the DT position, which would cost over 13 million. Needless to say, the franchise tag ain't happening.

With Aiken, it sounded like he was frustrated with his role on this team. Can't remember the comment specifically, but it was something along the lines of "Am I disappointed with my role on the team? It is what it is. I have to try harder, etc." If Aiken is frustrated with his role on the team, especially in a contract year, he could leave simply out of spite and go to a team like the Rams who have even less depth at WR. That was my main reasoning. Can't argue that the need at WR on this roster isn't there with SSS leaving. He could be back, I wouldn't rule it out. With Juszczyk, my reasoning is that not all OCs use a FB. Now, granted, Juice is a dynamic kind of FB compared to your throwback run-blocking FBs, which makes him much more useful overall, but fact is not every team even carries a FB (some just use an additional O-lineman or a TE), so Juszczyk may not be considered useful to our next OC. Alternatively, if our next OC really values a run-blocking FB, then they may want to move on from Juice, since he isn't the best from a pure run-blocking perspective. That's why I think it might depend on who our OC is in 2017. I think the only way Doom isn't cut is if he accepts a paycut, which is actually equally likely now that I think about it. However, with a base salary of 6 mil, there is zero chance he stays here with that cap hit, and his foot injury makes him too risky to extend, so he's either taking a pay cut or getting cut. Yes, we need rush-LBs, but right player, right price. I think Zuttah is probably here if he continues his improvement from a dreadful first 3 games of the season, but if we draft a C high, or if Zuttah goes back to struggling, then it becomes a question.