Smonroe

Thank you for correcting my joke. I'm a better person for it.

I think Cher is available. Swift already has the teenager girls, we’d get the adults (who spend money). It’s a publicists dream! AR, look her up!

Good read, and there’s no argument that we need another playmaker. But if I’m Alec Pierce, I call up AR and say “Whenever you start throwing, I want to be there. I don’t care if you’re throwing ping pong balls or a football ten yards, I want to catch it.”

Is that one of his family's songs?

For his sake, I hope it’s an injury that he can get over. If it’s because he’s out of shape, or his head isn’t in the game, he’s going to cost himself a lot of money. He was awesome at The OSU and his first year with the Commodes. And he was excited to join Bosa again. Very weird. If he can return to form, he’s a force and would be a great pickup.

I saw a couple articles about them benching him, but they all point out the same play. TBH, I didn’t even notice him in the game, which isn’t a good thing. He wasn’t good inSF all year, and it could be he’s not in shape or he has a nagging injury. But if he shows out in the next game, you know all that will be forgiven come FA time. Either way, I don’t see him as a Ballard guy.

Apparently they’re considering benching him for taking plays off. We’ll see if that’s a threat or if they’re serious. I don’t know what happened to him. I don’t remember him being a problem at The Ohio State. And I know he was excited at joining Bosa again. Plus it’s a contract year. Something doesn’t add up. I

It is crazy. The QB is the most protected position in the league. But it's also one of the most vulnerable. I watched the Quarterback series and the amount of punishment they take was evident. That's why AR worries me with his style. I said this over and over - I hope they coach him to play like Mahomes. Run to find lanes to pass, run when it's wide open and slide. But I feel like they're going to use him more like Lamar and Allen, with designed runs. That's okay as long as he gets down quickly. But in the heat of the game, he's going to try to run over an through people. I'm surprised Allen and Lamar made it through the season.

Fair enough. But what about a teams like Atlanta, the Seahawks, or maybe even the Raiders? They're probably going to draft QBs, and they may not be ready to start. Who knows. I think Minshew is better than Ridder, O'Connell, or Lock (assuming Geno is gone). But to answer your question - no, I wouldn't want Minshew to be my starting QB. I'm just pointing out that he may have other opportunities and may not want to re-sign with the Colts, even if they want thim.

You're talking guys at the top of the draft. Love sat in GB (obviously why) but Mahomes also sat in KC for a year. Sometimes teams draft their future franchise QB (like Levis) with the intention of letting them sit. A guy like Nix or McCarthy, maybe even Penix or Pratt, may be drafted in the second or later to be the teams future franchise QB, but knowing they need work. But, all that being said, wouldn't you think that Minshew would want to be somewhere where he has a chance to start, not sit and wait for an injury?

True, but does Gardner want to stay? He may be the guy a team like Washington or even The Bears want to start if they draft their future franchise QB. I'm sure Minshew wants a chance to start or at least play more that (we hope) he gets to play in Indy.

When Free Agency starts, everyone is overpaid. That's the nature of the beast. So yes, I think someone will give him top DE money - low to mid 20s, maybe better. In one way, I admire Ballard for holding his ground and being level headed. But I hope that this year he makes a splash (and I don't mean something like getting the highest paid punter in the league).

I think he'll laugh at 17, but I could be wrong. If it's that low, he'll go fast. I read that guys like TJ and Garrett are in the mid 20s. But they've proven themselves, so it could be different with Chase. It always comes down to the guaranteed money anyway. As I said, I wouldn't worry about overpaying a guy like him, he'll be underpaid by the end of his contract if he shows out.

You need to do the eye test on both of them. I think you'll see that Young was better, especially earlier in the year. I think he has Bosa potential, but I could be too optimistic. I don't worry about the money, $24M isn't going to hurt the team. (And TBH, that may be a low ball) May have to restructure a little after we sign our FAs, but I think there's plenty left.

Also just curious- how many QBs that started the season played all the games? Has to be less than half the league, right?

A great pass rush goes a long way to fixing the secondary. The rookie CBs look pretty good, we have to re-sign Kenny, and we should get Flowers back. You’ll have to tell me what you consider elite. I named three FAs, Young, Allen and Burns. You can throw in Chris Jones too. All will be high priced. IMHO Young will probably be the one who doesn’t re-sign with the team he’s on now. He’s coming into his own and has great potential to get better. Rotate him the the group we have now, that’s a fearsome bunch.

Agreed. And if he doesn’t do it this year, with all the cap space and some prime FAs available, he’ll never do it. I really think we need an edge rusher that teams have to worry about. We have several good guys, not one great one. When we hear names like Young, Allen, Burns, etc. being paid big bucks by other teams, I’ll be depressed.

OMG, you must know what I meant. But if its that important to be technically correct, then you win, okay? Now back to my original statement, if Ballard signs any FA the first day, I’ll still be shocked.

Thats true, due to injuries. But I’d still take him over any of our edge rushers. Wouldnt you?

I didn’t consider him to be a “big time” hire, even though it was a good one IMHO. I mean his entire 4 year contract is about the same or less thansome of the day 1 FAs got for a year, lol.

Yeah, that’s what I was (poorly) trying to say. But as @Superman and others have pointed out, he wasn’t as arrogant as I was making him. I really like him as a person and a GM, I just think he’s been too conservative in the past. It’s okay to take a big swing and miss every now and then. Like maybe throwing money at Chase…

If he signs any free agent (outside of our own) on the first day, I will be shocked. All in all, I think he’s played the FA game mostly right. Even though I get frustrated when I see a player of need get signed and we do nothing. But (and I know I haven’t done a good job expressing this) I thinks this is a “let’s go for it” year, and he may change his spots.

I get what you’re saying and mostly agree. But my point was that Ballard gives off the “I’m the smartest guy in the room” vibe and maybe he’ll listen more to Shane now. You’re correct that none of us really know the interactions going on. But if you watched the video of the draft the year they took Ehlinger, didn’t it seem like Chris made that decision by himself? Like it was a surprise to everyone in the room? Sure looked that way to me.

I’ll admit, the term “generational wealth” is foreign to me. And I do understand why guys don’t want to be tagged. But a smart guy like MPJ could take that tag money and turn it into generational wealth with no problem, if he should have a career ending injury. So, at least if it were me, I also wouldn’t have an issue if they tagged me. But I hope they sign him. The argument that he’s not a true #1 is moot. He’s a chain mover. That makes him a #1 in my book.

Others have already stated pretty much how I feel. I really don’t know how much influence the “typical HC” has on the draft. I would assume no GM drafts in a vacuum. They have to approve the direction the team is going with the HC in the first place. I would hope Ballard would put aside his smartest guy in the room attitude and go with Shane’s needs, position wise. What I keep coming back to was a couple years ago when Ballard went to the board to select Ehlinger. It looked like he surprised everyone in the room. I know 6th round picks are a crapshoot, but why waste it on a guy you know isn’t going to play. My point is that he showed arrogance with that pick. I don’t think Frank urged him to take it.