I hope Brad learns from this…

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Asking for a friend…. When a “simple minded poster” suggests that interior OL depth and succession plan, the starting and rotational edge spots, and the WR3- WR depth- WR Succession plan WERE NEGLIGENT… he was berated by a forum of his peers…. WAS HE WRONG?

I’m sure I’ll get grief for this… that’s fine. I love Brad and company. I’ve enjoyed the ride so far and I loved the game yesterday. Facing some injuries was inevitable, and we are about to field a bunch of street level bodies in week 4 of a long season.

—We poured through 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 3rd plus a bunch of cap space for a bandaid and two young talents at CB…

—We spent our abundance of cap space on our own talent (I agreed with this) and a bunch of 1 year place holders… many of which were high risk.

—We still have a bunch of cap space sitting there used as the above concerns are now gaping holes….

Glasgow- aging and playing opposite side of center

Ragnow- he’s played thru some serious injuries, but the degenerative toe and others ailments are bound to catch up… NOW A PEC?

Zietler- starting at RG, and proven commodity, but on just a one year.

  • I would say expecting even 2 of them to be plus starters this year and next year, and remaining mostly healthy would have been super optimistic. The issue is WE HAVE NOTHING BEHIND- and odds were super high we’d need usable depth here.

Davenport- 1 year semi expensive prove it deal… on a guy who hasn’t stayed healthy or produced in 2 plus years? WEIRD HE IS OUT FOR ANOTHER SEASON WITH ONE SACK!

Paschal- there is another thread asking if we can “officially call him a bust?” Until proven otherwise- absolutely!

Houston- the hope in the Den was a flamethrower, but the reality is our coaches just don’t like him AT ALL….

  • basically the Davenport news was inevitable at some point, and thus having only the other two options knowing what we know of Paschal, and what the coaches feel about Houston SEEMS INSANE!

Raymond- nuff said as WR3 or X

Tim Patrick- emergency signing after giving up on DPJ… who we ironically had half a year to see in practice, and chose to have him ride the bench after trading for him… thus admitting we liked Reynolds better, but then we brought DPJ back and let Josh walk.

Allen Robinson/Kennedy- not really sure what to say here either.

The fact that Barnes was one 2nd best LB, but also potentially our 2nd best edge to start the year says a lot about what wasn’t addressed.

Decker
Awosika
Glasgow
Zietler
Sewell

  • that’s not what you want week 4, and that with Sewell and GG somewhat banged up too…

Hutch
Paschal
Houston

  • that’s definitely not what we want behind Hutch

Alim too? We don’t even go there.

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Was he negligent last year, when his plan at WR3 was a guy we picked up on the waiver wire a half-year earlier? And that was with Jamo (at the time) suspended for 6 games.

The fact is DPJ had been better before this year than Reynolds had before last year. So I don’t think he was shortsighted in thinking DPJ would work out fine, just like Reynolds did. The roll of the dice was essentially the same.

Also, say we draft a WR or DE at 28. Everyone on this board would be bitching about how thin we are at CB. You just can’t fix every problem.

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I really, REALLY trust Brad. Meaning that if I had his vantage point I doubt I’d find any of his choices outrageous and would probably agree with many.

And I really LIKE their apparent plan to try to keep the team in the hunt over the next several years rather than risk sabotaging their future chances by going “all in” now. I hate what the Rams did, w/all those rentals.

Bottom line is that I seriously doubt Brad is missing anything that you’re seeing - and seriously doubt you’re seeing, or know, more than a sliver of what he knows that’s relevant to the calculation. I think there are real risks, near-term or longer-term, to any option he pursued. We also don’t actually know what he pursued.

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No offense, but don’t you think Brad realizes the risk when he’s bringing in players with injury histories? You think he doesn’t want a salary cap of $500 million so we can pull a pro bowler off the bench anytime we need to? Injuries are part of the game. And you have to balance risk versus the price tag. I would rather him take shots on players with upside in the middle and later rounds. We’ve seen regimes here that needed a defensive end and lowered their standard to plug in a DE. How has that worked for us over the last 5 decades? We are three years into this rebuild and the roster from top to bottom is as good as we’ve ever seen it. Imagine another couple of years of doing this. Brad has a proven track record of finding talent. We have a Super Bowl contending team after three years of doing what he’s doing. I for one want him to keep doing what he’s doing. Maybe Manu is brought up from the practice squad and thrown into the fire. Perhaps by mid year he is a legitimate starting guard in the league on a team friendly rookie contract.

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Look around the league. Shit happens. Yea we’ve got cap but we also have to sign Hutch and a few others. Guys are gonna have to step up. It’s week 3 and there’s gonna be a whole lot more injuries to deal with.

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Poop Bury GIF by Back to the Future Trilogy

this one’s for you @Martymcfly2017 … :sunglasses:

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Michael J Fox Marty GIF by Back to the Future Trilogy

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You have hindsight. now show us what he should have done. Pony up or shut up.

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I can’t wait to hear about which mid round O line pick in the past 3 years would have transformed this O line.

So many young IOL standouts were just passed over by Holmes. :roll_eyes::hushed:🫨:face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

And… Holmes should have known a warrior like Rags would have a pec injury…

because he is older than he has ever been!!!

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What really sucks is Davenport has played some really good football.

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Yea I feel bad for the guy… He’s not trying to get injured so often…just can’t stay healthy. Might be time to hang up the cleats.

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Don’t use logic please- this is a pile on the OP, and digitally blow Brad thread.

As always great post Boyd :slight_smile:

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Brad made many mistakes a lot more than people realize over the last year and a half.

The Davenport was an easy one to call.

The Manu and bromart were just foolish with that capital when you don’t have the depth at those spots in the first place and they are massive multi year projects.

Brad has done a great job especially in 2021 2022 and the first 4 picks in 2023 drafts.

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Because you’re one of the posters I respect most on this board, I’ll avoid fighting condescension with sarcasm….

If you are referencing Reynolds- wasn’t he signed mid 2021 during the “guy job season?” If so he had 300 plus yards in under half a season as a Lion, and on a 3-13-1 team. He also had plenty of chemistry with Goff dating back to his WR3/4 days in LA…. In 2022 they both traded up for a WR in mid round 1, and signed a former pro bowl vet on a prove deal in Chark-

They let Chark walk going into 2023- and he signed cheap elsewhere, but Jamo suspension was chopped and we stayed healthy. It was still Amon, Reynolds, Raymond and Jamo and we entered the year as darlings to make a run.

In 23’ we let Chark walk, later added DPJ
In 24’ we let Reynolds walk, put DPJ on PS

The difference was after having a double digit lead at the half of the NFCC- we accepted a lesser WR than we started either of the last 2 years imo. Yes we expected a leap from Jamo, but many expected far more in the first 2 years as well.

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Nah. Cut it loose!

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GMs are going to miss. They all do, and Brad hits a LOT- he’s easily one of the best.

Manu, Bro Mart, Hooker, and even Vaki were odd picks in real time, and Paschal felt like a reach to everyone the moment it happened. Injuries, NFL readiness, immediate impact were absolute questions-

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This isn’t Madden where you can have 95+ players at every position. There’s a salary cap. There’s only so many draft picks.
We had depth, and injuries have depleted some it, just like EVERY NFL team has already experienced after three games.
Quit acting like nobody else is in this exact same scenario at multiple positions.
Next man up.

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If it seemed condescending I apologize, it wasn’t meant to be, and it wasn’t in my head.

And you’re right, we added him off the waiver wire in 2021, not 2022 as I remembered. He was here all of 2022.

But my point is, and I still believe it 100%, that relying on DPJ this offseason to step up was no different than relying on Reynolds last year. He was coming off a 479 yards season. DPJ wasn’t, but he had damn near 900 yards in 2022 with Jacoby Brissett. I don’t think it was crazy at all to expect him to do at least as much as Reynolds did.

And I still haven’t heard any good options for what he should have done. The draft was the best option but it didn’t fall our way. Not unless we didn’t trade up for Arnold, and by now we might be having the conversation about how thin we are at CB and how Brad was negligent there. It’s lose-lose.

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No but you also don’t spend high draft capital on massive project players in back to back drafts when you really don’t have great depth at those positions.

You also don’t add a guy that almost everyone excepted would end there season on IR and except him to be a starter. Sorry that was a horrible call by Holmes. Reason I went off when they picked up Davenport.

They also didn’t draft an edge player.

I understand the Manu capital is not tell next year but that capital could be used right now to trade for an edge player. Those 3rd round pick are like gold during the trade deadline.

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Why isn’t spending the necessary amount of money to keep Reynolds a good option?

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