Riverboat Ron sails on....
this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
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I wouldn’t be surprised if the Patriots part ways with BB (through trade, since I’m not sure they have it in them to fire him after all he’s done there), and bring in Vrabel. He’s a former Patriot after all.
Who’s next?
They won't be gone this year, but the seat's gonna light up under KOC and Kwesi in MN, especially Kwesi. He's completely whiffed on two drafts and if he makes further mistakes in a draft where the Vikings have so many areas of need, that will set us back potentially for a good decade in a division where every other team is on the rise. I will give KOC credit for somehow getting 2 good games out of Josh Dobbs, but trying too hard to fit more mobile QBs into the pocket-passing role Kirk Cousins had, stubbornly sticking to Mattison over Chandler as our feature RB for way too long, and making too many baffling red zone play call decisions regardless of QB are hopefully just growing pains and not a growing trend.
Dobbs was so much fun to watch for those two games.
The media has been telling me that BB is gone for weeks.
I don’t know if I buy it but there does have to be something happening. At minimum, imposing a GM on him is necessary cause this “get the most out of players I found at a yard sale” isn’t working without strong role players and a winning record.
Because he didn't rebuild from the greatest dynasty ever in two seasons?
The offense was terrible, primarily because of the offensive line being a dumpster fire, but the defense is young and stacked. If you invest in the line in the offseason so it isn't actively sabotaging the entire offense, you can absolutely get good enough to win on the back of that defense. The problem started and pretty much ended with the line not giving Mac time to make throws on three step drops.
Yes, not rebuilding at all is a problem. Yes, the defense still has strengths and injuries were largely to blame for their issues but we gotta be aggressive when moving on from the dynasty, trying to find who we can build around instead of bragging about how little money was spent in free agency, a common Belichick comment that was certainly not a directive from Kraft.
Mac could use more time from a line but he’s not a franchise quarterback. We gotta move on from him. You should watch some of the QB school videos on him that emphasize how his fundamentals broke down in games once there was any pressure and just didn’t recover. That’s a huge problem cause no matter how good to line, you’re gonna get pressure.
He has been rebuilding. It takes time and discipline. Every other team, with far lower highs, has bigger dips than the Patriots have had so far on this downswing. The league is built to actively punish success and the team had been borrowing from the future (at a sustainable, not reckless pace) for two decades. You don't rebuild by spending through the roof. You rebuild by cleaning your books, establishing a base (which he has, by focusing on a young, deep defense that stayed very good despite their two best players hitting IR early in the season), and don't start borrowing again until it puts you over the hump.
You can't sustain borrowing. Bill did it longer than anyone else by a large margin, by keeping the numbers manageable, but it's why Brady ended to begin with. Two decades of your players costing more, your draft picks being lower, and continued cost of paying back borrowing added up until building a team could no longer be done. Nobody rebuilds overnight. There are teams that are perceived to do so, but those teams that cleaned house and became "instant contenders" have a several years of top 10 picks for the new guy to build around.
As for Mac, it's entirely possible he's not the guy. But he didn't start to break down until repeatedly getting shredded on three step drops. The first several games of the season, he was playing great football, consistently making the right reads and putting the ball in the right place at the right time on any play he had blocking long enough to complete his drop. Game ending drives weren't ended by Mac making bad decisions or throws. They were ended by a churning, heavily injured receiving room not bringing down his throws. Eventually, after half a season of that and getting killed on short drops before guys could win short routes, he started to press and make more desperate, dangerous plays. It's possible we broke him. But unless you absolutely love the guy at 3, quarterback isn't the priority. You can't develop a QB behind that line. You invest premium assets at line so you can protect someone. Building a team isn't overnight. If you draft a QB without protecting him, you're just going to break that guy too.
I wish you were right that we just have to stink for a few years to somehow justify everything, but that's not how the league works. It's not even how the Patriots have historically worked. We're literally the second lowest spend in the league (https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cash/). Belichick made this a sticking point, leading to Kraft emphasizing it wasn't even from him (https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/robert-kraft-responds-to-bill-belichicks-comments-on-patriots-money-spending-that-will-never-be-the-issue/). We have the draft picks. We're not the Rams, having traded every pick we possibly could've. We just used them to get Cole Strange in the first round in 2022, leading to McVay to laugh at the choice since Strange would've been available for at least another round without risk. 2023 was notably better but still emphasized defensive side of the ball. If it's not money or picks, what do you mean when you say "borrowing from the future"? I don't mean to sound like a prick but it sounds hand-wavy and doesn't really point to any deficiency.
I agree that we need to have a foundation on the team but we need to have that on both sides of the ball. We've got a great defense but no offensive standouts. An O-Line repeatedly swapped around leading to no cohesion. No WR1. Not even really a WR2. Unloaded Jakobi Meyers for Juju at the same rate thinking we'd get an improvement in yards after the catch but didn't. We don't even have players on offense that can "do their job" any longer. Players were running into each other during routes or clearly trying to recover a bad route in the Cowboys game. We've had the resources to rebuild, we just haven't used them.
And Mac is just not gonna be that guy. He has some bright spots but lost the locker room with his O-line refusing to help him back to his feet (which literally every O-line does when their QB is hit) and just repeatedly breaking down his fundamentals every time he played this year. Tossing across the field multiple times in a game is unhinged and really playing with fire. I really do think you'd enjoy those QB School videos on YouTube. They have a lot of great details about the play calling, qb fundamentals, etc.
Cash spending is never, under any circumstance a meaningful metric. "Cash spending" is low because they structured past contracts to use future cap space and are not at the point where it can possibly be intelligent to borrow again.
They absolute have been borrowing future cap space for 2 decades. It's the entire reason they were able to stay at the top of the league. They did it intelligently by primarily borrowing with premier players like Brady, McCourty, etc, but they did it, and the bill is still due. The fact that the draft capital over the past 5-10 years that was invested to build the current roster is much lower because of their success is more of the same.
Anyone telling you a sustained contender was built in less than 5 years is lying to you, and leveraging premium assets that just weren't realized by the previous regime. The 2018 Rams Super Bowl losing team, in addition to the massive borrowing and future draft assets, had Donald (10) Gurley (10), Goff(1), Brockers (14) as top 15 picks they used to put together 2 seasons as a contender in a 5 year stretch. The sustained high capital in the draft is how "instant rebuilds" happen. There is no such thing as an actual instant rebuild resulting in sustained contention.
I agree that spend is make believe but kinda in the other direction since there’s always a way to structure a deal that fits into the cap. Either way, Kraft has said money spend is not an issue so unless you have a reference to the contrary, I can’t take that seriously.
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According to reports, Blank wants him in Atlanta, and, if I know Blank, he’ll do a trade.
I have no idea what coaches are worth but if the Falcons can get him and still get a solid QB I think that makes sense for everyone. As a fan I wouldn't want to give up a top pick but maybe a 3rd?
He's not getting fired though with his resume. They will wait a few days to see if they can trade him and if they can't get anything it'll be a "mutual parting of ways" after a week or two.
"Parting ways" is official now. Definitely not mutual though, since he was offering to give up GM duties to stay on.
If it weren't for the slight resurgence I'd say Eberflus on the Bears. 7-10 still ain't a good record though.
He’s gotta go. 3 historic 4th quarter collapses and anytime we faced a competent team we were outclassed easily. I believe 3-4 of his wins this year came against coaches that have been fired already too
If they dump Fields for a new draft QB, I’d say that the whole front office should probably go 😂
I think the GM should stay, he put them in position to have the number one pick this year with a somewhat decent and young roster.
Traded 1 overall for:
DJ Moore, 9 overall, 61 overall, a 2nd in 2025, ...and 1 overall.
Keep that GM.
And a lot of his other draft picks have been good
Bears keep whiffing on QB. Or maybe it's the coaching hiring that they've whiffed? Or both? Eitherway that's also on the GM. So, I'm kinda 50-50. I agree with a big big asterisk.
I think it’s a combination of player development and organizational ineptitude. They don’t put players in positions to succeed and they don’t develop players. Until recently very few bear draft picks had gotten a second contract. If you can’t develop any position, why would you be able to develop a QB
True. That trade was a masterclass. They probably just gotta get Flus outta there. I’m just being extreme since the Bears have a bundle of positions with greater need than swapping a QB.
So glad 'flus left Indy. Those 4th quarter collapse were epic.
"Guys, let's do something they won't expect. Let's play prevent defense and make sure they can come back to beat us!"
Somehow the bears would play prevent and give up a 30+ yard completion consistently.
Also he would constantly play soft zone coverage giving up easy completions and not rushing enough when what had consistently worked is getting pressure on the QB. It’s infuriating
Oh I agree. He's not the future for them at all. Even some of their wins this year were ugly as hell.
But I think he bought himself a year sadly.
Yeah we barely beat the panthers. I think this is the right time to be ruthless. He’s done well in the locker room but he his simply not good enough, and with the options out there it’s time to move on even if it is unfair to him
B E L I C H I C K
Nothing official yet, but breath status: held
If he goes, they surely won't actually fire him, after all the success he's brought them. At most it'll be a "Time for me to move on" statement from him, I would think.
My guess is "mutually agreed to part ways" if they can't find someone to trade for him in the next week.
Lots of speculation about Titans and Mike Vrabel.
Giants and Don "Wink" Martindale "mutually parted ways" yesterday.
Maybe he'll go to the Bills to really say FU to Daboll.
May as well change it to "Black Everyday Megathread" at this point honestly
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