AwesomeAustin

Great post. My opinion: Grigson was fired bc he was a poor talent evaluator and a jerk. His style of GM was probably better suited to keeping Manning than rebuilding a team with a new offense and defense. He should have kept PM and Caldwell and built the team around what he already had. 100% hindsight. Luck didn’t work out bc he didn’t want to play football. He laid everything out on the line exactly how your star player should. Once he started to get banged up, that extremely smart and rich man said no this is not worth it. Every career comes at a cost some don’t think is worth it. Plenty of people change careers for this exact reason. I know several people that excel at retail commission sales but don’t think it’s worth working nights and weekends. Grigson didn’t ruin Luck’s career(you didn’t say this). Luck didn’t want to play football once he was rich and had a family. I respect that but I think he would have retired early regardless of a great team.

I’m probably the minority here but I say neither unless it’s below market value. Both are declining and I believe Gilmore has become injury prone. Honey Badger at 6m a year and other incentives for 3yrs with an out after each season would be ok.

With Ryan at QB, what production do see from the TEs, Dulin and Patmon? I see 1600 yds and 12tds.

A good friend has been a Bengals fan since he was a kid. I follow the Bengals and he follows the Colts so we can talk football. I told him a quarter of the season in they were for real and going to win the division and make a run in the playoffs. He was reluctant bc they have been losing for so long. Didn’t think they would beat the Chiefs again but I had them making the championship game. There was a thread asking people who they wanted to play in the first round and I couldnt believe how many wanted the Bengals. That offense is elite bc Burrow is the real deal....hopefully their OL additions work for them and they can add to that sneaky good defense they the draft.

Best case scenario is we make the playoffs and then Ballard makes a trade for an additional #1 in top half of the round so we are picking twice. Then we both donate. Yeah it’s a technicality but he should have ironed that out before lol.

Sweet...Thank you!! Should be fun even tho I’m taking a losing bet lol.

I don’t get it lol I’m taking the bet even tho I’m going to lose. I like donating to charity bc I will spend the money on guitar gear or UT Vols gear in that obnoxious orange. I don’t need anymore of either lol. Plus it’s fun.

I think we will win 10-11 games And make the playoffs. However, I will take that bet so money is donated to charity. Deal?

Ballard is operating exactly the way I expected while giving me exactly what I wanted. This roster in NFL terms is stacked to be contenders. I felt we needed to bring the team back mostly intact with 1-2 play makers on both sides of the ball. On offense he added Matt Ryan, who I feel will be extremely efficient and do us wonders. Hines should be more effective with Ryan. I count that as two playmakers. Interested to see how MAC also performs with a smart QB like Ryan. On defense he added a very good pass rusher and a coach who will generate more pressure with his scheme. Dayo should be healthy and ready to contribute. Not high on this guy but I’ve been wrong a lot so will wait and see. That’s possibly 2-2.5 playmakers on this side of the ball counting coaching. I also expect 1-2 key contributors to be added via the draft and roster cuts. Add in hopefully a healthy OL and other development from backups, I’m seeing a lot of improvement over last year. 10-15% better wins the division. The pieces are there to do that. Should be a lot of fun to watch and see how it works out!!

I think we are good on offense except for that deep threat spot and depth on the OL and TE. Hopefully between Campbell, Dulin and Patmon, one of them can emerge as a deep threat. I would like to see more variety across the WRs and have them move around some. MPJ could play the X mostly but also play a bully slot role with Strachan at the X. The other guys can change between slot and the Z. I get we don’t have stars but hopefully we can make up for that with solid play and scheme.

Great to see you posting. Maybe I’ve missed it but haven’t seen you comment in awhile. I do think Ryan is closer to Rivers than Wentz. He can throw deeper routes but like you said Reich won’t call them. I’m hoping it’s a good combination of quick passes and 12-15yd chunk plays that can allow our guys to get YAC. I’m really hoping Reich will get his act together this season and start to call better plays in the moment. I doubt it will happen bc he has a long history of being predictable and one dimensional. Hopefully Ryan can be a little more of a mix of Wentz and Rivers so Reich will let him play to his strength. I’m still predicting Reich gets himself fired this year so fingers crossed.

I guess we will see. Jacoby, Rivers and Wentz all improved substantially under Reich and this roster. Obviously I’m speculating but I’m betting Ryan’s strong ability to read a defense will fit this scheme very well. Probably not a lot of deep balls but will be able to work the 10-15yd range that backs the defense off the line and moves the ball down the field. This is a pairing that has a short shelf life so hopefully we can maximize it while getting someone to develop. I hope Wentz does really well with the Commanders. I liked him and think if he can put it all together can be a great QB for a decade. I will be following your teams progress bc I like your QB, love your coach and think you will have the best DE in the league.

I felt like Wentz was fine but also believe Ryan is better. Plus a new EDGE and the hope this new scheme on D will create more pass rush is why I think this team is better than last years.

They are probably basing it on Denver and Indy’s rosters are full of talent. Yes each team still has holes but players will be added and roster filled out. I think a this Matt Ryan led squad beats last years team 70% of the time.

It’s too early to bail on Lance. I could see Lynch setting a price for Jimmy G that he is willing to roll with a guy not ready. Otherwise, Jimmy can come back and give Lance another half to full year to learn and the 49ers stay competitive

Btw, I know this is off topic but I think Lynch priced Jimmy G so high bc he may want to keep him. My hot take is Trey Lance is a possible bust and Jimmy G is the 49ers best chance to win.

Ballard has exceeded my expectations with his adjustments. I know I had been hard on you bc you were a huge Jimmy G supporter. Ballard going out and getting Ryan is something we both agree on as an improvement over both Wentz and Jimmy. I still think we need a playmaking FS and tackle should be addressed in the draft if the value is there. We also need some more depth on the OL. I personally think we are good at WR and TE but will welcome additions via BPA in the draft. Matt Ryan should provide two good years and make us competitive in our division and allow us to draft someone to groom. I don’t think we are SB contenders but if we can make the playoffs we can win games. The key is getting into the playoffs bc it’s hard to win a championship. I just want a legitimate shot to win games and if we don’t that’s ok.

I think Ballard dealt his way through this exceptionally well. Our team is better today than it was at the end of the season. I was a huge supporter of Wentz but will say we are better on offense and defense now. We still haven’t finished free agency and we are not to the draft yet where Ballard is best. Ballard has changed his method bc he has been poor drafting on the DL so he traded for a proven pass rusher. The team still has holes but some of them were addressed with the QB change. I think Ryan will use Hines and our TEs better than Wentz. That will provide a lot in the weapons category. I’m pumped bc we actually have a legitimate shot at winning our division.

Possibly...I also think the FA market as a whole was pretty weak this year. There is a lot of name recognition but there is a reason most of these guys are available. Von Miller for 120m, Christian Kirk 72m, Randy Gregory 70m....I doubt any of these guys see the end of these contracts. Overall, this was the year to stay out of the bidding wars. Still some good players out there but I’m a fan of the 1-2yr contracts Ballard gives out. We should see a slight uptick in signings before the draft but then it will go into the summer as teams wait to see what they have in their rosters

Sounds official

Randy Gregory got 70m and his career high is 6 sacks in a season. No thanks.

That can go both ways. It was his fault he didn’t score after their first possession in the 2nd half. Jimmy G Les offense was blanked in the 1st and 4th quarter. That defense held the SB champions to 20pts. Jimmy G has a passer rating of 74.1 with 962 yards, 4 touchdowns and 6 interceptions in 7 games in the playoffs in his career. That’s 137yds a game. Blaming the defense is a bit of a stretch.