Big Blue Huddle

To me, it's more that every single close call seems to go their way. Yesterday, we saw it with both the Worthy contested catch inside the 5 and the back to back spots on 3rd and 4th down, with the second one being reviewed.

Quote from: uconnjack8 on January 27, 2025, 09:20:01 AMWill never see Barkley as a bad pick.  Many of the picks after were downright awful and regardless of what you drafted at #2 that year, the team was going to stink when you follow that pick with picks like Kadarius Toney and DeAndre Baker. 

The other issue was DGs inability to get a decent coaching staff. 

I mentioned it in my post, but the real issue with the pick was that the Giants made it thinking they still had a contention window with Eli. As talented as Barkley is, the pick was bad. The picks after it didn't help, but you drafted a guy at a position that doesn't tend to last long in the NFL while having almost no offensive line for him to run behind. QBs can do things to make it work with lesser talent, running backs can't.

Quote from: LennG on January 26, 2025, 05:57:10 PMDave Gentleman was right, Saquon Barkley is a generational talent and will be wearing a gold jacket one day. He is what we envisioned when he was drafted #2. In the right environment he would have flourished as he is now doing with the Eagles. He is the real deal.
Problem was we had nothing to support this great talent, nothing to make this future hall of famer
 achieve his potential. For the Giants and Gentleman, we basically wasted that draft pick and never really knew the talent we had until now, when we see how great he really is.
Just too bad we never had the supporting cast to really see how good we could have had it.
Now that he is gone we see how good we could have had it.

But this is also precisely why you don't draft Saquon in that spot. Was never about his talent but the overall value of what he can do. There are only a handful of O-lines that could have truly taken advantage of his talent and the Giants weren't remotely close to one of them. They were always going to waste 2-3 years of his rookie deal trying to put together a competent OL for him to run behind.

The real issue is that Gettelman was brought in specifically because he was one of the few guys that was willing to take a shot at another run with Eli and they ended up moving on from Eli and trading our best player a year later anyway. The pick only looks worse and worse with every event that happened after it.

Feels like there's gonna be some wild differences of opinion on Sanders. Kiper being the high man on both QBs is interesting as well. Also, more of a critique of the calculation but, Membou being 21 based on appearing on one list seems ridiculous. Scouts Inc. has him at 129 and he's not in Brugler's top 50 but gets weighted entirely based on that 21.

Quote from: Doc16LT56 on January 20, 2025, 12:46:43 PMDid you see the plays? Tyrone Tracey wouldn't have scored on either of those plays. It was all Barkley.

It's interesting that a dominant OL is responsible for two long runs but not responsible for 2.7 yards per carry on the other 24 runs.

I'm not saying Tracy would have. I'm saying that in order to get Saquon up to that speed, you have to create those kinds of holes. There aren't many O-lines that can provide that level of blocking on a consistent basis.

Quote from: Philosophers on January 20, 2025, 11:54:03 AMI think that is how all breakaway RBs are — Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, Gale Sayers, etc.  Lots of low yardage carries and a few explosive ones.

And this works if you have the OL that can create the holes to take advantage of that breakaway speed. The Eagles could create those kind of holes a couple of times a game whereas the Giants couldn't consistently do it.

Quote from: Woody on January 19, 2025, 06:08:24 PMAccording to Barkley the way he was handled by Shoen pissed him off so he signed with Eagles ...told him basically go out and see what you are worth to another team and we may or may not match it or give you more.......they had the money to sign him at same price but Barkley went with Eagles and didn't give them a chance to match the offer.


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So signing him just to be a slightly better version of what we ended up with makes sense to you? That Eagles O-line sets such an insanely high floor for that running game. I saw someone put it perfectly that he was a "luxury signing that a luxury team could afford".

Can you teach better ball skills or is it just instinctual?

Quote from: MightyGiants on January 16, 2025, 11:53:27 AMA 5th year option for KT will cost the Giants $16 million (not bad for a pass rusher)



This is unrelated but since I am at Over The Cap looking at costs, the 5th year option for Neal would be $17.4 million

for those who wonder how Neal (picked later costs more)

base salary calculated from the average of the 3rd to 25th highest salaries at their position over the past five seasons.

KT even got a playing time boost in the cost of his 5th year option


https://overthecap.com/fifth-year-option-projections

Neal has to be a pretty easy decline on the 5th year option at this point where I think KT is a very easy execution of the 5th year option. If, and it's a big if, they do finally workout Neal at Guard and it works, I think he can be a guy who re-signs at a cheaper price than the option.

I feel like I've been going crazy with some of the takes on this play. For those of you who don't know the play in question, see the clip below:
https://x.com/BaldyNFL/status/1878985879236305256

This seems like a fairly obvious incomplete forward pass to me and I've seen far too many people trying to come up with ridiculous reasons why this isn't exactly what it was. For all the complaints about the ambiguity in the NFL's catch rule, the definition of what is a forward pass is pretty black and white: Arm going forward with possession + ball going forward = forward pass. So am I going crazy or did the NFL very obviously get this one right and people complaining suddenly want to add a grey area to the rule because something like this "doesn't feel like a pass attempt"?

Quote from: Ed Vette on January 14, 2025, 05:37:46 PMHe's getting paid 7.8 million dollars this year as a failed RT and then a project at Guard.

But why does this matter? Unless he gets cut, he's getting paid that regardless of where he plays. I'd rather he be a good Guard than a failed RT regardless of cost.

Quote from: T200 on January 13, 2025, 09:41:37 AMDallas had a record 13 pro bowlers on that team. The Giants had one. Who was he?

Snee?

Quote from: kingm56 on January 12, 2025, 09:38:44 PMI find it puzzling when people claim Mike Tomlin is dragging a roster of average talent to the playoffs. The Steelers, in fact, boast a wealth of talent across the board. For the 24th consecutive season, Pittsburgh is sending multiple players to the Pro Bowl; in 2023, they had three Pro Bowlers, and this season, they're sending four. That hardly suggests a team lacking skilled playmakers.

Moreover, it's simply inaccurate to say the Steelers lack top-tier offensive weapons. George Pickens Jr. has established himself as a superb wide receiver, Pat Freiermuth is a dependable tight end, and Najee Harris just posted his fourth straight 1,000-yard season. The real centerpiece of the team, however, is the defense, which features multiple All-Pro talents.

Yet, despite their considerable talent, the Steelers have been knocked out in the Wild Card round four years running—a puzzling fact given that their last playoff success came with Ben Roethlisberger under center. Still, no one can deny Pittsburgh's knack for consistently finding and developing quality players through the draft. This long-standing ability to replenish the roster is what keeps them competitive year after year, even if recent postseason results haven't matched the franchise's lofty standards.

Would I want Tomlin coaching the Giants...YES.  However, I don't expect a coaching miracle;; until the Giants find a QB, it won't tangibly make a difference.  Despite multiple Pro Bowl/AP players, Pitt fans are feeling the pain of not having a plus QB to compete with teams that do...

There's talent on the defensive side, but the offensive side is definitely lacking though. Pickens is a good, not great receiver and a bit of a head case. Beyond that, it's basically a solid tight end and running back. What they lack is obviously a QB and being good enough to be a Wild Card team every year without one is pretty much NFL purgatory. They need to do what the Chiefs and Bills did and identify a talent that isn't viewed as a top tier guy, move up for him and mold him into their next franchise QB.

At the end of the day, if the Steelers move on from Tomlin, there's definitely at least one or two teams out there that would be willing to fire their coach and bring him in immediately.

Does this graphic include compensatory picks? I saw earlier the Giants are expected to get some compensation for McKinney.

Quote from: Doc16LT56 on January 06, 2025, 04:18:54 PMIt's an issue of semantics in my opinion. What's the difference  between a high-end backup and a low-end starter? One is worth drafting but the other is not? At the end of the day, you want to invest in a QB who you can run a functional offense with. Whether that means paying someone like Tyrod $12 million or using a 4th round pick on a guy you like, you're going to have to pull the trigger. Otherwise, you end up with the 32nd ranked offense again.

I'd make the argument that neither is worth drafting unless your team is good enough that you can afford the luxury of drafting a guy that you, effectively, are hoping to never have to play. Basically, don't draft QBs unless you think you can win with them at the helm. Realistically, in my view, the backup QB is the most overrated position in sports. If you have to go to your backup and don't see a significant drop in performance, your starter probably sucks.