MichiganCardinal

Would help if he could snap the ball within 40 seconds.

Crazy quarter. FOX camera crew seems to be failing spectacularly so far, not that it's easy to anticipate a ball hitting a wire.

49ers onto their 4th string QB Josh Johnson as Purdy gets knocked out with a wrist injury.

Mike Shanahan cost his team 7 points by not challenging a dropped catch.

Neither of them benefits if a team wants him but doesn't want to meet the asking price. They're better off accepting a 2nd Round pick for him than saying no and making him collect his massive paycheck on Fox. The length of time that is passing without new coaches being hired (sans Reich in Carolina) probably says a lot. I would expect DeMeco Ryans, Jonathan Gannon, and Shane Steichen to all be getting second interviews at some point and at least 2/3 to get a job. If any of these teams were going for broke for Payton, the deal would have been done by now.

I'm sad that this wasn't actually Bennett, because there were so many jokes to be made about TCU's defense if it had been. With Bennett's stock tanking, he might be worth a UDFA pickup to let him compete for the backup spot, even on the practice squad.

If the Saints dig their heels in on Payton, they will walk away with nothing and his contract with them will expire after 2024. They aren't going to get two 1sts for him. I'm not sure there is a coach in the league who is worth two 1sts.

They've been in draft season for far longer than we have. It leads to delusions of grandeur and paranoia when exposed for extended periods of time and/or when combined with alcohol. I know from many years of experience.

Truly the next Favre. Might have one good season left in him but will be accompanied by a lot of baggage and mediocrity as well.

I agree with being open to taking Richardson, but I don't think the argument for doing so lies in the backup situation. Really I don't think that plays into the analysis at all. You can find capable backups, likely better than Sudfeld, all over the open market in free agency. Their mistake in that department was believing one of Boyle or Blough could be competent enough to not lose the job in the preseason, and they're lucky that Goff didn't get hurt, because the mistake probably would have burned them. If you're playing a backup in year two or three of a rebuild though, you're likely going to have a bad time anyway. It's not until you turn into the offensive machine that the Patriots of yesteryear were, or the 49ers of today are, that you can plug-and-play a semi-competent QB like Matt Cassel or Brock Purdy and just keep on rolling like nothing changed. If they drafted Richardson, I wouldn't be all that surprised to actually see them still pickup a veteran backup QB on a one-year deal, like Teddy Bridgewater, Gardner Minshew, or Andy Dalton, and have Richardson start the year as QB3, not even dressing for a number of games. It's not worth stunting his development and forcing him to play before he's ready, especially when he's likely not going to perform better than any other backup QB anyway.

CMRivdogs brought up the Eagles above and how they drafted Hurts with Wentz on the roster, depsite Wentz at the time playing well. I think in the same way the Eagles front office (who have turned out to be some of the best in the business) probably knew Wentz was a ticking time bomb, the two individuals who probably have the best gauge on Goff are Brad Holmes and Ray Agnew. Was Goff's performance in the second half of this season a sign of things to come? Or is this the best we will ever get and we need to replace him before we turn into the Commanders? Their answers to those questions are probably what determines whether Richardson is in play at 18 or in the 2nd Round.

I’ll see your Richardson and raise you a Robinson!

I’m getting turned off on the idea of taking a corner at 6 as of late. Obviously it’s a need, but the draft is so deep and you have a scouting team that can find Kerby Joseph in the 3rd round of a draft that wasn’t as deep. You’ve got two second round picks and all of free agency. I would have a list of “if they’re there you take them” guys (Anderson and Carter probably), give a concerted effort to trade down if they aren’t there, especially if a Young/Stroud/Levis is still there, and take the BPA if you can’t spin a trade, largely regardless of position (maybe with some exceptions… maybe not).

Rodgers is a prick.

Wilks did a good job with Carolina, but he also went 3-13 in his only full season as a head coach. I could understand why Carolina would possibly want to go another direction. Reich is 40-33-1 FWIW. Jim Caldwell is the one that grinds my gears. The Lions were right to fire him when they did, and I’ll go to my grave believing that. The fact they replaced him with one of the worst head coaches in NFL history doesn’t change that. He is the epitome of stability though. These franchises in crisis, like the Texans, Broncos, and Cardinals, could be 8-9 by 2024 with Caldwell. And while I think it would take a perfect storm for him to win it all, he’s a much better option than some of these dumpster fire candidates they’ve been hiring, like Urban Meyer and Nathanial Hackett.

Yes but it would need to be a part of the CBA. I doubt a formal ban is coming in the next five years. She’s being proactive at the request of the players.

Credit to Sheila for making the move. Probably not a move that had to be done, but one requested by players/coaching staff. Can’t have been cheap either, not that she’s hurting.

There were a lot of grumblings that athletics alums and donors wanted him out, but he still had the support of the school and the administration (whose priorities are everything but wins). I got the sense that the resignation was on his own, with a lot of writing on the wall. He may have gotten one more year if he hadn’t resigned, but I don’t think it was guaranteed. The program wasn’t about to magically turn around under Shaw in 2023.

In the days of 15,000 person crowds at Stanford Stadium, "up the middle / up the middle / pass / punt!" chants were sometimes the loudest thing heard that day. Great guy. But his offenses are as vanilla as it comes, and he's let the game pass him by.

What's the proper response if I run into Santa Ono at the Ann Arbor Kroger? Take the stereotypical selfie he'll forget about? Question him on when Warde will be fired and make it uncomfortable? Question his chili choices and try to save a life?

I would expect Bresee to clear his medical just fine and then put up good-not-great numbers at the combine, as he seems to have done his senior season. I've read some reports as well that he's gained weight in his senior year. If he blows everyone's socks off in a complete 180 return to form, he will go high day one. If he shows up injured, he will likely be a day three flyer. I expect somewhere in between. I don't think the question will be his health on February 27th, it will what his status will be in weeks one, five, nine, and fourteen of an NFL season, and that's something the combine can't tell you. He has shown the ability to be healthy enough to play, but hasn't shown the ability to stay healthy and at the top of his game. DT can be so fickle. Levi played nearly every one of his games in college, then comes here with a seemingly unknown back injury that puts him into very likely bust territory. I don't think Bresee is Levi 2.0, but he's also probably not someone you can count on for 17+ games. Proceed with immense caution.

Bryan Bresee is a name to keep an eye on in the 2nd round. I know the know-nothing mock above had him at #8, but I've seen him in mocks go as late as the 2nd and even mid-3rd round. He hasn't gone a full season healthy in college, had a great freshman season anyway in 2020, and was on his way to another, but has done nothing but regress since tearing his ACL in 2021 and then having some truly tragic family issues (his 15yo sister died of cancer) at the beginning of this past season. It's understandable why he wouldn't be focused on football, but he's definitely a candidate to see his stock plummet in the lead-up, depending on his measurables and the physical. 2020: 23 tackles and 4 sacks in 11 games 2021: 13 tackles and 1.5 sacks in 4 games 2022: 15 tackles and 3.5 sacks in 10 games Depending on their scouting and belief in coaching him back to what he was, he may be a candidate for the Lions to go get in the 2nd round. Ceiling seems to be as a good to elite defensive tackle, but the floor has bust written all over it.

Spoil sport! What are we supposed to do for the next three months other than rage at nonsensical mocks and then make our own slightly more sensical mocks that still aren't going to happen?

The real shame is not getting to see Maher shank an extra point to end it.

I've heard the interview. I still think it comes down to coaching. That play was never going to work (it was clearly a shift, not a scramble off the field), the players lined up illegally (so even if the Patriots had screwed up it would have been offsetting), and the center and QB were not on the same page. And even despite all of that, Pagano could have called a timeout when it was clearly not going to work. Instead, it lives in infamy.