NoCalMike

I am confident in a W Sunday but I am lukewarm on thinking the offense is going to be a high powered scoring machine coming out of the gate.  Defenses are going to do everything they can to focus on testing Howell's abilities because most defenses will have a hard time matching up with all the skill position players so I think the focus will be on trying to pressure Howell, confuse him with coverages etc etc.....I think the offense will flash with some big plays, but I am not sure it will equal a coming out party of points.

24-10 Commanders.

So is it safe to say that whatever the issue is with Chase Young, it isn't a "stinger?"  I have seen some speculate that it was a concussion which is why they are keeping him away from contact until Week 1.   No way a stinger is keeping the guy from playing a game that is going to take place a good month after.  

I want this defense to have opportunities to play with 4th quarter leads instead of constantly having to keep the game close to give the offense a chance. 

TBH, I am a decently less concerned about the starting O-line than I was a month ago, the issue though is depth.  If any of the starting five go down, I am not sure how they can deal with that, especially with a rookie QB running a new offense that is likely going to be facing a heavy rotation of blitzing early on.  

I feel like if just Chase or Sweat.....just one of the two.....turns into a beast this season, it will make a huge difference.  I kind of feel right now we are experiencing a little bit of deja vu from the Kerrigan/Orakpo era where both were solid but neither spectacular and while Kerrigan went on to have a very solid career, that duo never produced the type of havoc we all expected once they were a duo.

Chase & Sweat have both flashed their abilities at times, but it needs to be more consistent, especially considering both are in contract years.  Chase was not drafted to be good, he was drafted to be special and he is going to have to show something special this season. And on the other side, when Chase is being double (or sometimes even triple) teamed, Sweat has to do more to beat one-on-one match ups. 

That's the reality of the business side of the NFL.  Sometimes you hit on so many draft picks that you simply can't retain them all. 

I think we also have to realize that young QB's all have weaknesses at the beginning of their careers. They all have things to work on and usually aren't finished products their first season. Sam's physical tools are going to produce a lot of big exciting plays this season, but sometimes it's the quick passes against the blitz that are the difference between a drive ending in a FG attempt and a TD.  Those lumps and learning curves are normal for any QB in Howell's position.  I know we all want Howell to immediately  be competing with the other QB's (especially in the NFC East) but Howell will be at an experience disadvantage, not just NFL experience period, but also being in the first year of a new offense on top of the overall inexperience as an NFL QB.

I think that until the O-line can be consistently good in pass protection, a big factor in Sam's success for this season is going to depend on off script plays, and to be honest what he's shown in the preseason gives me some hope about his ability to make plays when plays break down.   I agree about the hot read/blitz issues, but I think that is an aspect of a QB's game that comes over time because throwing that hot read definitely involves trust between players and that is something that has to be developed.  You can see the throws he makes to Dyami, it feels like they already have that trust due to being teammates in college and having put in work together for a good amount of time already.

Howell is likely going to be scrambling around outside the pocket more than we want this season, but what I like about Howell is not just his mobility, but his ability to throw lasers downfield while running.  He's thrown passes to Cole Turner and Dotson while under duress and on the run that are key elements to breaking the back of defenses in the modern era. 

RG3's rookie season likely saved Shanahan's job for another couple of seasons, it'll be interesting if Howell showing out does a similar thing or if the front office views it more as a product of EB and promotes him to HC.

A true franchise QB sort of trumps everything in the NFL even at times the head coach. 

Neither Sweat nor Chase Young should be expected to come away with premier DE contract money if they end up with under 10 sacks this season. There is a reason the middle of the D-line was paid the way they were. Performance. Not potential or upside, but actual performance. I like our DE's but don't at this point love them. I know sacks themselves aren't the end all be all, but the elite DE's still manage to rack up the sacks ON TOP OF all the other stuff they do well.  

The Cardinals are a lesser opponent (especially with Colt McCoy starting) than the Jags were to open up last season.  I am curious what the fan reaction will be if Howell has a similar performance as Wentz did.  Forgetting the rest of Wentz's season, that first game all things considered gave us a glimpse of what an NFL QB could do with these weapons.  Howell's skillset is different than Wentz, more of an early career Russell Wilson to me, but I do expect that Howell's inexperience will get him into ugly stat sheet games during the season, but that doesn't mean he won't still manage to make enough big throws to win some of those games, it just means some of the games might be closer than they needed to be. 

Raven's have the rep of being big physical and tough during practices and probably are used to opponents backing down, but I liked what I saw from our squad today. They weren't having none of that and gave everything right back.  Things seem to be changing for the better with this organization and giving the biz right back to the Ravens every time they acted up is something I appreciate.

Anyone follow Mark Bullock on twitter? He does a lot of good film breakdowns and he is actually saying the O-line didn't perform nearly as bad as a lot of people initially thought.  On the sack play that was actually on Howell. He missed B-Rob on the hot route who was wide open and likely gets good YAC.   The holding penalty on the first drive killed that drive, but overall after watching the film and the breakdown, it changed my opinion on the O-line performance.

I also think we may have something in Chris Rodriguez at RB. I know it's a limited sample size so far, but after I saw his carries Friday I went and watched his college reel and maaaan the guy is big, strong, & fast. He hits the running lanes quick and runs with the intention to annihilate any defender in his way.  He just has that look & feel to his game to where he could end up an absolute steal.  I know Williams has been somewhat reliable in his role, but I want to see Rodriguez get some carries with the first team offense before the preseason is over for sure to figure out if the guy is preseason fool's gold or possibly the real deal. 

Ron brought in Wentz because he probably felt he had the roster to compete right now as opposed to trying to nurse a rookie QB (or rely on a physically limited QB in Heinicke) through trying to manage games, As soon as the O-line started taking injuries, Wentz was basically toast and they felt Howell wasn't ready and.....we know how the rest of the season went.

As far as Howell's performance on in the Browns game. He sort of reminds me of early career Russell Wilson before he developed into a better pocket passer.  Now I think Wilson was probably a bit faster/more athletic when on the run, but Howell looks more advanced as far as reading defense and going through his reads way earlier than Wilson.  

I think where Howell is going to be even more like Wilson is the off script plays.  When he is moving around or running towards sideline, it's often going to be buy time to rifle a pass downfield after WR's find ways to get open.  Yes he will turn upfield and go when he has the wide open space, but it more times than not the mobility is going to be used to freeze defenses and create open receiving options.

They should send Joey Slye out in front of the cameras to take the fall.  "EB yelled at me that I better sharpen up my extra points because those points can be crucial in crunch time"

2 minutes ago, MartinC said:

Rons really bad with media - he either needs to give this some thought or just go the Bill Belichick route and say literally nothing. 

Agreed, sometimes it feels like Ron is the worst of both worlds during pressers.  He seems super vague and non-detailed on the things people care about and then just sort of nonchalantly volunteers nuggets of info for the media to to create stories out of from situations that in all honestly might not actually be that big of a deal.

If the team miss the playoffs this year and that ultimately ends Ron's time here then he will at least have fulfilled what I originally assumed he was here to do, which was to right the ship of the roster overall.  I think the roster today, despite the missing pieces still there, is monumentally better than where it was when Ron got hired.  I wasn't convinced he was the coach to take the team to the promised land, and until I see what this roster does in the playoffs (if they get there) I won't be convinced to change that opinion.

18 minutes ago, srtman04 said:

 

Yeah you never heard things like "throwing darts"  or "perfect deep balls"  when Taylor was here.  You didn't really hear those things with Wentz either.   I think this is going to be a fun year!  

I could be wrong, but from memory, the biggest issue with Wentz during camp last season was his lack of grasp of the offense. Wentz could always chuck the ball, but what we are hearing about Howell as far as being in command, making reads, knowing where and when to throw the ball feels like night & day from last season and Wentz.

Hard not to be hyped about Howell at this point, but then again it's only Day 2 and they aren't even in pads yet, and I assume Howell is mostly showing off the physical attributes we all knew he had anyway.  Eager to see him under center in some games, even if they are preseason games.

I haven't seen/heard anything so far to indicate that the O-line will be good.  Perhaps it won't be as bad as it was last year, but I still fully expect RPO to play a major factor to start out the season while the O-line tries to figure things out. 

It would be such a boon for Harris's tenure as owner to begin if Sam Howell turns out to be franchise QB worthy.  If not, then he will be immediately tasked with something the previous owner couldn't figure out during his time in the front office and the one time he lucked into a late round pick at least appearing to be a potential franchise (mid-tier) QB he poisoned that well almost immediately. 

I just hope that if the O-line shows struggles early, the coaches get pro-active about the situation and start utilizing Howell's mobility to extend plays.  Bootlegs, rollouts, simply shifting him around in the pocket can buy time.  I think some of the hesitancy with having Heinicke do that was it took away any ability of him to throw the ball due to the lack of velocity his throws had to begin with so defenses knew if he was flushed a certain direction it was game over.   Howell on the other hand should be able to make almost any throw while on the move, just got to hope the accuracy doesn't suffer as much.  I don't think we have a good enough O-line for Howell, or any QB on the roster to simply drop back and sit in the pocket.  This season will also give us a good idea of Howell's feel for the pass rush.  Does he bail immediately at any sign of pressure or is he able to deliver throws in situations where he might take some contact but not until after the ball is gone. 

Howell has all the physical tools, but there are certain aspects of the QB position that physical tools alone don't account for.  Too early to tell if Howel has those necessary instincts and factors to play the position at the NFL level, but we should have a pretty good idea about it by the end of this season.

Kenny Pickett may turn out to be a good QB eventually, but the hype on him going into this season is pretty good proof that the organization a young QB is drafted to can grant them a big benefit of the doubt before they've done a whole lot to justify it. 

The same with Daniel Jones.  Media acting like he was so much better last season, but a lot of it had to do with him being asked to use his legs more and not necessarily that he became all that much better of a passer.

DeSantis has got to be hoping the Trump legal trouble starts getting expediated because that is about the only hope he has of gaining the vote from the cultists. 

Yeah we rarely ever use food delivery services.  It just seems like the total added cost isn't worth it for me not to have to drive what is usually an average of  0.5-2 miles to get the food.  Of course the last time we used one, our order was wrong and everyone you call blames someone else for the mess up.  For some folks the convenience is worth the extra money so that is fine, but for me it's not.

As far as tipping goes, I agree the tipping prompts on damn near every single check out kiosk is annoying.  I wouldn't say I get angry about it though, just annoyed and there is definitely some social pressure to leave a tip, but trust me, the first few times you click no, it gets easier and easier after that.