adam

I am not ripping him, he is a rookie and shouldn't even be playing in this game. HOU lucked out that CLE was on their 9th QB. I am just saying things are really stacked against him for next season all things considered. If he has a similar year like he had this year, I will be impressed. Right now he is an excellent rookie who had a great year on an ascending team.

Interestingly enough, the Texans play the Bears next season as the North Divisions face off against one another. HOU gets to play DET, GB, MIN, CHI, BUF, MIA, DAL, BAL, and KC outside of their division. They will be lucky to win 2 of those games.

? Right now with what we have seen over the past 3 years is Fields has limitations that are not going away. Those make it so that a team can really neuter the offense when they have the personnel to do it. So Fields is always going to be as good as the defense he plays against. It really seems to come down to how good the front 4 are and if the opponents bring A gap pressure. That seems to be his kryptonite. With that knowledge, Fields will always be a Tier 3 starter, finish in the top 15-20 annually with some flirts with the top 12, but a chance to dip into the low 20s. That seems to be who he is. He is an NFL starter, but he is not going to carry a below average team. So with the unique opportunity the Bears have, they have to use it, draft a QB, trade Fields, recoup a pick, draft a stud WR and see what happens.

Both Stroud and Slowik have not looked good in this game. If anything, Stroud will regress next year, and overall the team is not going to make a huge leap like they did this year with 2x top 3 picks and playing the last place schedule. Now they go into 2024 more than likely losing their OC, the league has a ton of tape on Stroud now, they won't benefit from great draft position and they will be playing the first place schedule. Good luck Houston.

Lol nope, I am just saying Stroud is not as good as the media has made him out to be over these last few weeks. Next year will be telling now that all the teams have a year's worth of tape on him. He has not looked good at all, even for a rookie.

Houston's offense has 3 points with what some are calling a top 5 play caller in Slowik. Regardless of the defense, this was a terrible outing in arguably the biggest game of Stroud's life and he literally shit the bed.

Yeah the Bagent pickup was nice, but based on the production of some other players, Getsy screwed the pooch. Hopefully Hightower and Borgonzi will do better.

It is great that the Bears will have both Hightower and Borgonzi coaching there. They will get some great in depth looks at players that other teams won't. Hopefully they helps the draft values. With Hightower as the HC and Borgonzi as the D coordinator, I bet the Bears draft at least one defensive player from the East squad. Here are the rosters: https://shrinebowl.com/rosters/ There seems to be a week of activities: https://shrinebowl.com/news/2024-game-week-schedule/ before the game, so we should get some intel as early as this Thursday/Friday.

or Lamar for that matter. Stroud 11-20, 55%, 131 yds, 6.6 Y/A. Outside of 3 plays has basically done nothing. On the other side, Lamar has 89 passing yards, 5.9 Y/A with a TD and 68 rushing yards and a TD. Neither have impressed me at all. Both look super tight and jumpy.

I think it can only be virtual until after the Divisional Round. https://theathletic.com/5191174/2024/01/10/nfl-coach-interview-rules/

300yd passing games: Penix 25/48 Williams 15/37 Nix 14/61 Daniels 14/55 Maye 12/28 McCarthy 3/40

Multi INT Games: Penix 7 Nix 6 Maye 5 Daniels 3 Williams 2 McCarthy 2

It looks like it depends on the episode: https://www.youtube.com/@BARROOMNETWORK

5 TD games: Williams 10 Nix 7 Daniels 6 Maye 5 Penix 4 McCarthy 0

Using Passing Yards, Passing TDs, INTs, QBR and PFF Grades over the last two seasons, the most consistent QB of the top 6 is Williams. He never had a PFF Grade under 90, QBR under 80, less than 3500 Passing Yards, 30 TDs, and never had more than 5 INTs in a season. Honestly, that is extremely impressive. Right now the order would be Williams, Nix, then Penix for two year production and consistency. The others have more red flags. McCarthy has a ton of red flags.

The only issue is he has done it every year, not just one, and it's also not like it is 3.0X: 3.16 in 2023, 3.24 in 2022 (Heisman year), and holy crap 3.51 in 2021 (OK). So it's not like he had one year where it jumps out. As far as I can tell, Williams is the only QB that I could find with 3+ years with a TTT above 3.0. Mahomes: 2.77, 2.85 Fields: 3.11, 3.18 Last QBs above 3.0 for 2 or more seasons: Tune, Willis, Pickett, Fields, Hurts, Ehlinger, and Jackson Only Ehlinger and Williams had 3 seasons above 3.0 since the stat was recorded. Williams is the only QB to ever throw for 4K yards while having a TTT over 3.2. So he either is a unicorn, or things are going to come crashing down for him in the NFL when you have less than 2.5 to actually throw the ball.

It's really hard to dissect this. I work with hundreds of people, am I friends with all of them? No, best friends with even 10 of them? No. Do I hate anyone? No. This is a kid doing the interview. I am sure there were other players resenting the fact that he won the QB position and never gave it back. I also share in the concerns though. If there is anything that is going to derail him, it's probably drama.

Like I said, as of today, I am taking Williams. As more information comes available, the combine, the E/W and Senior Bowl games, Pro Days, we will be able to complete our assessments. I think the interviews will be able to get into the head side. If there was another red flag, it's Williams' TTT. Very similar to Fields. Maye seems like he is still 1B, then Daniels, Penix, and Nix clumped together in Tier 2, and they seem to be based on what type of QB you want.

Wow you are that high on Maye? Allen is an MVP Candidate, and Herbert is a perennial 4K passer. You really think Maye can do that? If that is the case, sign me up.

Just based on what I know right now, I would go with Caleb Williams. He has the most untrainable traits. From all accounts, looks like a natural thrower of the football. It comes easy to him, and it doesn't look forced or robotic. He has played with some bad O-Line play which he will see a lot of in the NFL. If you are pulling the trigger on a QB, you have to get your guy. There is no way to ensure you can get your guy after #1. So even if it is not Williams, there is no way you can trade down and hope to get whatever QB you really want. The position is too important to risk an extra pick for, then miss out on the guy entirely. For the other QBs, I think Maye is a sort of Mac Jones/Trubisky hybrid, taking the good of those two and making one QB. He has the highest floor of the group, maybe him and Bo Nix. Daniels has the production, but the frame scares me. He reminds me of Teddy Bridgewater. I guess that is a good thing because Teddy has had a solid career, but I don't think anyone would be drafting a young Teddy Bridgewater in any of the first few rounds. Besides Williams, Daniels may have the highest ceiling. If he can add some bulk to his frame without losing too much in terms of speed, he is a really exciting prospect. Penix has looked really good and looks like the most NFL-ready QB, but two things that have always scared me about the transition from college to the NFL is age and the size/speed guys. For age, once you hit 23 and are still in college, you are playing against 18 yr old kids that are 5 years younger than you. If that is the reason you are performing well in college, that is gone in the NFL. The problem is you won't know until it's too late. For the athletic freak guys who have always been bigger or faster than their opponents at every level finally meet their match at the NFL level. Outside of 2-3 guys in the NFL at any given time, you lose that edge, which is what made them look better or perform better than others in college. Shaheen catching TDs over guys a foot shorter than him. Velus running past dudes like they are standing still.

Sometimes I feel like the Progressive commercial, Becoming Your Parents, when talking about Fields: "We all see it, we all see it".

Yes and it has been satisfied.

Fact or Fiction: Bryce Young had more passing yards in his rookie season on a terrible Panthers team than Justin Fields has had in any of his first 3 seasons?

I don't know what to think of bad former players. They reached the mountain top and made it to the NFL, but in Brock's case, he was atrocious. He started 4 games in his entire NFL career, went 0-4, and was out of the league after 8 total game appearances. Again, that's 8 more than me. However, it's hard to sift thru some of this with these guys. Is Huard saying that because that is what was ingrained in him as a player, that above all else, that is more important than skill? I get that players need to be leaders and part of the gig is motivating others, but at the same time, if you are terrible at your job, you will have a hard time leading others. Waldron is a very solid OC, with success as an OC. He would fit right in like he did in SEA with Flus compared to Carroll. The Bears wouldn't have interviewed him if they weren't interested. There is a great chance he is an OC in the NFL this season. Huard will not be. So guys like this, Brady Quinn, Dan Orlovsky, JT O'Sullivan. I appreciate their perspective, but have to understand it comes from being some of the worst doctors in the world. They made it thru med school, are certified, but all they did was malpractice. Would you take their medical advice knowing they were some of the worst in their craft?

I don't watch other teams other than highlights or the playoffs, or for fantasy football purposes. When I have seen Mahomes, he is not perfect at all, and sometimes he has a holy crap, what was he thinking type of pass. However, there really isn't something he does consistently that would be considered "bad". He does bad things, they are just not consistent. From watching Fields again, there is almost always slight delay for delivering the ball. His arm strength makes up for it sometimes, but it just feels like everything is a twitch too slow. I found myself saying "throw it" even when I knew when the throw was coming. Again, this is just my observation, it means nothing in the grand scheme of things.