NFL News & Notes

[skibrett15]

1 hour ago, wgbeethree said:

With Allen at QB their room be fine I think. Samuel and Tupac are fine slot guys. Their TEs are good. Grab a WR early and one late that Allen can do Allen things with and blindly chuck the ball up a few times a game and things shouldn't be too different.

yeah I'm not too worried about the Bills.  They had some big swings and misses but they are still in a fine spot.  Miami though...

and LOL @ the jets being 3rd in their division.

[packfanfb]

Pour one out for @ThatJerkDave. The Niners just signed Patrick Taylor. 

Packers down to a single unsigned FA left - Rudy Ford. 

[skibrett15]

I feel like the Nagler/Ingalls convo and most of you here are missing the fact that because WRs are securing large contracts, it means that they are valuable.

If it were so easy to just draft WRs and have them produce then teams wouldn't be paying WRs like they are.  They aren't RBs.  You can't just plug any WR into your offense and go from fine to good.  They aren't safeties.  They aren't linebackers. They aren't TEs.  They are the 3rd or 4th most important position in the NFL, as decided by the NFL.

 

If you want to make a really really nuanced point that things have gone just a tiny bit overboard and that the market is overshot by 2-3% or something or that teams should only be paying WR1 players instead of WR2 or WR3 types, ok maybe there is something there.  But these broad stroke points that WR is not a premier/premium position in the NFL are 1990s out of date thinking.  Even the best running teams in the NFL like 9ers have invested huge money and draft capital in the WR positions.

[ThatJerkDave]

8 minutes ago, packfanfb said:

Pour one out for @ThatJerkDave. The Niners just signed Patrick Taylor. 

Packers down to a single unsigned FA left - Rudy Ford. 

[vegas492]

50 minutes ago, skibrett15 said:

They stopped throwing him the ball down the field and just threw him little screen passes.

It was pretty well documented change in how they used him and how effectively they used him.  He seriously declined in usage/air yards and production.

But he didn't really lose targets, now did he?  He was still a focal point of the offense.  He just didn't produce.

Was it a screen or a bomb that he dropped that would have won the Chiefs game in the playoffs?

I mean it like this....he's a diva and probably a cancer.  That is okay at WR, even at a hefty price tag, so long as you make that catch that wins the game.  He didn't.  

[spilltray]

I actually think "elite" wr are more of a hindrance than an asset. A more ideal situation is having a bunch of different guys. Rather than feeding one guy, having 4-5 guys who would #2-3 on other rosters.

Love demonstrated this last year, and Rodgers did early in his career. This is a much better option than paying a top end WR and having a bunch of warm bodies around him, young guys who will never really have a chance to develop with the offense focused on one guy.

[Chili]

1 hour ago, packfanfb said:

Pour one out for @ThatJerkDave. The Niners just signed Patrick Taylor. 

Packers down to a single unsigned FA left - Rudy Ford. 

Technically we still haven't re-signed Whelan and Emmanuel Wilson.

[vegas492]

7 minutes ago, spilltray said:

I actually think "elite" wr are more of a hindrance than an asset. A more ideal situation is having a bunch of different guys. Rather than feeding one guy, having 4-5 guys who would #2-3 on other rosters.

Love demonstrated this last year, and Rodgers did early in his career. This is a much better option than paying a top end WR and having a bunch of warm bodies around him, young guys who will never really have a chance to develop with the offense focused on one guy.

I dunno.  Can go either way.

Davante sure wasn't stunted by having Nelson and Cobb on second contracts in front of him.

And when they were done, 'Vante really took off and carried our WR room for years.

I've got zero issue paying WR's who earn it, like our past greats have done.  Also?  You almost always have to keep drafting them year after year to find those next ones.  We had a few years there where we flat out didn't draft many and the ones we did draft didn't develop too much.  It's kind of like a lot of position groups.  Some guys look great on paper and don't develop.  Others don't look great on paper, but then take off while on the field.

If it were all that easy to get get a bunch of #2 and #3's to build the room around, more teams would do it and be successful.  Our room had to be quite the outlier in how it all came together last year.

[spilltray]

4 minutes ago, vegas492 said:

I dunno.  Can go either way.

Davante sure wasn't stunted by having Nelson and Cobb on second contracts in front of him.

And when they were done, 'Vante really took off and carried our WR room for years.

I've got zero issue paying WR's who earn it, like our past greats have done.  Also?  You almost always have to keep drafting them year after year to find those next ones.  We had a few years there where we flat out didn't draft many and the ones we did draft didn't develop too much.  It's kind of like a lot of position groups.  Some guys look great on paper and don't develop.  Others don't look great on paper, but then take off while on the field.

If it were all that easy to get get a bunch of #2 and #3's to build the room around, more teams would do it and be successful.  Our room had to be quite the outlier in how it all came together last year.

I'd argue that neither Nelson or Cobb was that level of WR, and people were ready to run Adams out of town.

[Brit Pack]

Trouble with the WR market is not so much the top end, it's the players ranked around the 20th mark in terms of salary are getting $20m AAV. These dudes are not game changers, they are not even cracking 1000 yards, guys like Zay Jones, Jeudy, Cooks, D.Johnson. So many bad contracts given out at the mid part of the market, that has inflated the market so badly.

That's why are so blessed currently.

[packfanfb]

51 minutes ago, Chili said:

Technically we still haven't re-signed Whelan and Emmanuel Wilson.

Let me rephrase: there's only unsigned FA left who might actually leave. 

[thrILL!]

3 hours ago, packfanfb said:

Packers down to a single unsigned FA left - Rudy Ford. 

Bring back the ballhawk already. 
 

 

[ThatJerkDave]

1 hour ago, packfanfb said:

Let me rephrase: there's only unsigned FA left who might actually leave. 

What happens if an ERFA doesn't want to return? Does it go to some kind of arbitration? Could they hold out? Not that either of these guys are doing that.  I just don't recall it ever happening.  

[skibrett15]

2 hours ago, vegas492 said:

But he didn't really lose targets, now did he?  He was still a focal point of the offense.  He just didn't produce.

Was it a screen or a bomb that he dropped that would have won the Chiefs game in the playoffs?

I mean it like this....he's a diva and probably a cancer.  That is okay at WR, even at a hefty price tag, so long as you make that catch that wins the game.  He didn't.  

His targets were way down in the second half of the year. From over 11/game in the first 8 games, to under 8/game in the last 9.  Not sure where you got your numbers from. His yards/target went way down too.  From over 8 to just over 6.  Huge decline.  All of this is really obvious and not really arguable if you were paying attention.

It's ok to admit you weren't following the path of the bills season and what happened with Diggs and the offense.  Idk why you want to dig your heels in that he was such a big part of the Bills offense.  Anybody who was paying attention to the Bills will tell you that Diggs was being phased out under the new OC Brady.

Diggs was more of an on the field disappointment than some distraction or off the field problem.  He wasn't a difference maker that he used to be.  He wasn't really a problem off the field so much as he stopped being a difference maker on the field, but he was still asking for the ball and assuming he was this stud WR that he used to be.

He wasn't complete dog**** or anything but he got much worse and the offense started running the ball more and it became less of the diggs offense under Ken Dorsey and then the run the ball use the RBs and TEs offense under Joe Brady.

[TheGreatZepp]

Just the youth game is a lot different, the positions that kids want to play while growing up continues to evolve and WR is one of those sexy positions right now. Add in NIL and the transfer portal and there’s no way for a coach to get a kid determined to be a wr to play a different position, they’ll transfer before they ever play defense. Even if they stay at WR they may be hard to coach which might not be realized until they are in the NFL because you know, handle with kid gloves. This will continue to lead to heavy investment in the position as rules favor the offense and the position will remain sexy for young players with a high bust rate. 
 

Eventually the pendulum will swing back as the game continues to evolve, imagine what would happen if the NFL enforced their own rule of lineman lining up within the plane of the center’s belt; what would that do to the appeal of being an edge rusher?