rudyZ

Can a city rename itself "The Lost Ark"? I'd definitely root for the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Just let him play out his contract and prove he's back healthy, then we can throw free agent money at him. We're still rebuilding. We could use that second rounder.

That's he went to a land of honesty and nobility. Canada. The true north strong and free. From far and wide, Oooooo Caaaanada, we stand on guard for theeeeeee!

Yeah, if I'm a player, I would always ask for a second opinion. It's not only that the team might hide things to their players in order to improve their chances to win. But doctors can miss something too. Your own health is way more important that football, and you can afford getting a second evaluation, so do it.

You can't ask the guy who eats the poutine to bring the poutine.

I feel like an OL getting into the HoF is so much more a team award than most other positions. Joe has a shot if we get a couple more winning seasons and win a Superbowl. If not, it's hard to justify it. He has never dominated or been considered the best in the league at his position. Honestly, I don't think he makes it. And it's not particularly close.

Now imagine this scenario: Mullens and CJ both get injured, Bourne and Goodwin both get injured. Juice Check throws deeeeeep to Sherman for the game-winning TD!!!

You tryin' to steal my job, bruh?!

I'm starting to think Pettis might have several 10+ TD seasons in his career. He just gets open so fast in the redzone, and when we're not in the redzone, if he gets any kind of room to run, he has terrific vision. He now has TDs in three games in a row, right? And that's with us having limited receiving options (i.e. more focus on the options we do have) and a back-up QB. You gotta imagine Jimmy is taking notes and salivating at what we'll be able to do next year. Goodwin isn't a redzone target. Bourne has only shown to be in the preseason, but never in the regular season. Kittle is not a heavy muscle-y TE who will fight for jump balls, his TDs in the redzone have come from throwing underneath and running it in. Is Pettis the only receiving option all year who has caught a ball inside the endzone? He has some length to him, and can turn DBs inside out. So I believe he's our best redzone target right now and in the future.

Great first half! That showed what these guys could possibly do. But why play this uninspired in the second? I mean, when we trail, our second half adjustments are usually a little better. But every time we go into the half with a lead, our adjustments in the second are just terrible. It's like we're not accounting for the other teams adjusting their gameplan... I understand wanting to run the ball more and control the clock, but not at the expense of not moving the chains and giving the ball back every single drive. Just playaction on one of these first downs, just to keep the defense honest, then keep running the ball to wear them down. But I feel like we ran on first and second downs every time in the third quarter, and into the fourth, with very limited efficacy. Mullens makes very good decisions, for the most part, but the accuracy is off. Can't wait to see this offense go with Jimmy hitting receivers in the numbers, instead of below the belt. Kyle can pretend that Nick and CJ are even, but let's be honest, they aren't. It was disappointing that Kittle didn't get to break the record, but he just wasn't open on the few instances we actually threw the ball in the second half. It's one of these adjustments the Broncos made that we didn't counter. DJ Reed, wow. Finally, that's what we expected of him. Hopefully it's signs of what's to come. Spoon played great. Someone mentioned him getting a penalty again, but I'm more than okay with it. It wasn't even a coverage penalty, but a tackling penalty. I didn't even remember tripping penalties existed in football, that surprised me. Come to think of it, it may be the second tripping penalty I've seen this year (yet I didn't remember it at first). Spoon took that penalty for trying to hard and made a stupid move. But at least he wanted to make a play, it was just the wrong way to go about it. Marcell Harris played well! Once we figure out who the starters, he'll be a nice back-up to have. He or Colbert. Who knows. Fun first half! But damn, that second half left a bitter aftertaste. Could we play 4 good quarters of football? Or even just 3?

And don't forget that the Prime Minister of Canada at the time was William Lyon Mackenzie King. Not only did that man shape Canada for decades to come, he also inspired the movie The Lyon King. True story. And don't worry about this lack of turnovers. We're getting 7 turnovers tomorrow. Get back to this post once you see it happening. I'm a genius. You're welcome.

Maybe we have to look at who is available. Don't fire a "meh... he's kinda okay" Saleh before you know who's out there. If Kyle makes phone calls, after staffs are fired after week 17, and he has a guy who he thinks is clearly better than Saleh, then you fire Saleh. If not, you stick with him and try to get better positional coaches. You don't fire the guy just to fire the guy. But you don't close the door on upgrading. It's pretty clear position coaches are going to change. Saleh... we'll see. It might be a case of no better options being available. Plus, he has excuses. Injuries, the loss of Foster, not being provided with players who can rush from the outside. So of course Kyle will support his coaches publicly. He should. He should always give a vote of confidence to his staff and his players. A vote of confidence now is not job security, though. Even if Saleh is eventually fired, Kyle will probably say he was a great coach who helped build the defense, but there was an opportunity to hire someone he feels gives us a better chance to succeed in the future, and he wishes Saleh all the best in his future endeavours.

I saw that Richard Sherman mentioned he would probably until he's 35, with a likely switch to safety at some point. So it made me wonder... what if that switched happened next year? That would require us getting another CB, ideally a pretty good FA (are there going to be any?). But imagine Sherman back there, directing Colbert and keeping him in check. That would be pretty great. Getting an Earl Thomas would be even better, but I feel like Sherman at safety could be pretty interesting. If not next year, maybe in 2020. We use him one more year at CB, we draft a CB, one or both of rookie and Spoon take a step forward, then in 2020, Sherm slides back and the two young guys man the outside spots. Maybe by then, DJ Reed has lived up to the hopes we had for him last offseason. Tartt is either gone or plays a hybrid LB role (I'd rather have him there than Malcolm Smith). Marcell Harris is a back-up, and we'll probably have drafted or signed other players to back up by then. Of course, by then we already have a 12+ sacks edge guy, obviously. Warner is a probowler, and Buck is a defensive player of the year candidate. And on the other side of the ball, Jimmy's contract already looks like a bargain, and the media are discussing Kyle's record breaking contract extension. Not getting carried away....

What does that mean? They're allowed to do that?!

Well, many people were questioning the fit even before the draft, rather than judging the talent. These people are still questioning the fit now, and the first impression on the talent isn't favorable. So it's the double whammy. If he were a good fit, I'd agree that giving him more time is justified. Or if he was flashing his talent substantially, I'd question the fit less. But as things are going, it's the double disappointment that makes me judge him harder than he probably should. This being told, there's no reason to move on from him now. He has the time to improve. He's probably still a solid player who's not going to hurt us on the field (or off the field, which is becoming rather important these days), and might even show for a play or two eventually. So he's a guy who will be in uniform and will get these 3-4 years of fair evaluation, no matter how disappointed we currently are. It would make no sense to cut him, and he doesn't have the trade value that would justify trading him away. He's here whether we like him or not, and I for sure hope he'll find that next gear in his development. Who knows, maybe all he needs in a new coach or two, or a new coordinator, to finally use him properly, and then he'll explode and play like a top 3 pick. Honestly, I don't even require him to play like a top 3 pick, just like a first rounder. Like a guy who we're not constantly hoping to upgrade at his position. And that's what we're doing now, because frankly, he's not playing the right position. We'll get it right eventually. Hopefully.