jonjon

It doesn't appear Ryan is retiring, so we are "stuck" with him and that large chunk of lost change. Given we're almost certain to draft a QB with that first pick who won't cost much, it shouldn't hurt us too much, but having that extra money could have gone elsewhere.

Really? How many kickoff returns for TDs has Moss had? Hines was laughably misused here. His contract was a SNAFU, I get that, but I'd rather him over Moss easily. To each their own.

We can find backup RBs all over the place. Hines is showing his skills as a return man that our brilliant coaches didn't take enough advantage of. For that matter if they had a clue how to use him as a RB he would have done better as well.

: facepalm :

Got ya - just FWIW this is nothing like Madden or any other football game. You don't play the games really, it's not an action game at all no real graphics to speak of. It's all about here's your roster, you start out in FA season, who do you cut or keep, then you do the draft, you can make trades etc. All about stuff like exactly like you're talking about in this thread, which reminded me of it...it shows you salary cap numbers, player ratings in various categories (like QB is rated for short/medium/long passing ability, run ability, ability to read Ds, etc).

If you think you might be into something like that I'd give it a try. Yeah let's see how he does the rest of the year.

Good post! Offhand thoughts by me which will change as the season goes on no doubt: - Cut Gilmore - Cut Kelly - Cut Cox (what a stupid signing that was) - Restructure Buckner Cutting Ryan takes a huge dead cap hit and IMO is not necessarily so likely. Haven't read through all the rest, wow, what a great resource of info though, well done. Have you ever played a game called Front Office Football? It's a game that's all about being a GM and cap space management and drafting players. I got big into it for awhile, despite its flaws. Give you a better appreciation for how hard it is.

Yes!

I'm positive we suck.

Taylor only has 10 carries because.......

lol - the rants and scapegoating are in full swing

So does Ryan suck because of a bad OL or does he just suck?

I wonder more why coaches continue to keep trying it when it's clear it isn't working.

PS to those of us clamoring for Taylor to get the ball a lot more...well he did. How'd that work out? Maybe that's not necessarily the answer every time. I'm all for giving him the carries, but if it's not working...

Same. tbh I would have settled for losing if we were competitive. Never expected this! Didn't see the game but sounds like our D really stepped up while our O although clutch in the end, is still weak, and our OL still blows.

He's not his dad. Interesting story line though.

Nice recap, esp the last (#5) paragraph. Summed it up well. This is what's so frustrating...Ballard thinks he has about all the horses he needs and doesn't need more quality FAs. That's delusional. https://www.nfl.com/news/matt-ryan-to-indianapolis-five-biggest-takeaways-from-colts-falcons-trade

Highly unlikely Strong lasts to our 3d round pick.

Exactly. Ballard acts like he's managing a 401K. Again I'm not suggesting he go crazy and put us in cap hell, but he goes too far the other way. God forbid he "overpay" for someone (in his mind), even if it's a huge upgrade and desperately needed. He'd rather stick with guys who have been backups and bit players for a reason. If you're going to do that, why even bother with Ryan? It just doesn't make sense. And there were guys who could have really upgraded us that didn't cost a ton. Schuster is making what $3-4M a year? He would have been a nice addition. etc. Anyway, we will see. A lot of good comments here even though I don't agree with all of them. I wonder if Harrison is still in good shape. ;-)

Where's the fun in that ;-) I never complained about the pass rush or the QB situation. In fact, while I thought it was a highly risky if not flat out dumb move going in, I applauded cutting his losses with Wentz this year and would have been fine taking our lumps this year with Sam E or whoever and aiming for the QB of the future next year. But as I've said before, acquiring Ryan now - a talented but aging QB - shifts us from a potential rebuild to win-now mode. That means surrounding top talent like Ryan and Taylor with as much supporting cast as you can. Ballard doesn't appear to be even trying to do that. He seems convinced he has all the talent he needs on offense, which is laughable. We are IMO as we stand now a borderline wild card-level team, but not SB caliber. We can address some needs in the draft, but drafting 2d-tier (or less) WRs or OL doesn't bode well to get us to the next level.

I doubt we'll get any of those top tier guys, but we can hope. WR crop is deep. If not, maybe one of the top-rated TEs and do a lot of 2 TE sets.

You can't be serious? Ryan has played well despite diddly poo to work with. Their WRs look worse than ours. He's lost Jones, Ridley, all he really has is PItts. Worthless RBs and not exactly an elite OL. I think the Ryan move was great, and lucky for us. But Ballard doesn't appear to be making ANY effort to upgrade in key places like WR, OL, TE (I could go on). Getting Ryan is a "win now" move but he isn't acting like it. He's made some great moves of us while he's been here but also some serious whiffs. I'm seriously questioning if we still should have him as GM.