non-Vikings NFL off season news

[nicksaviking]

3 hours ago, Danchat said:

It's inexcusable that in the time since Big Ben retired, they've taken one legit shot on a QB and that was Kenny Pickett. They should have tried to jump up in the 2024 draft and taken Nix or McCarthy even with as pricey as a trade-up that far would cost them.

Yeah, such a stubborn franchise. They keep doubling down on playing football 'their way' with their idea of ball control and defense. 

Congratulations, you're never a bad team. But you will never be a meaningful contender again until you ditch that old school philosophy. Other teams learned a decade ago that the best ball control offenses don't come from high percentages of run plays, but high percentages of higher percentage pass plays. 

[TheLeviathan]

15 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, such a stubborn franchise. They keep doubling down on playing football 'their way' with their idea of ball control and defense. 

Congratulations, you're never a bad team. But you will never be a meaningful contender again until you ditch that old school philosophy. Other teams learned a decade ago that the best ball control offenses don't come from high percentages of run plays, but high percentages of higher percentage pass plays. 

They're seriously wasting an elite defense too.  Here's the bigger head scratcher than selling out in the draft:

Lamar Jackson was available on the free agent market.  

Why not sign him?

[gunnarthor]

I think the saints have the worst QB room and it's not really close. Both on floor and potential upside. 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45082172/shoulder-injury-forces-saints-qb-derek-carr-retire

[nicksaviking]

15 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

I think the saints have the worst QB room and it's not really close. Both on floor and potential upside. 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45082172/shoulder-injury-forces-saints-qb-derek-carr-retire

That situation has veteran QB written all over it. But Rodgers is t going there over Pittsburgh and Atlanta isn’t trading Cousins in the division.

But a season long tank could be coming too. 

[Parfigliano]

On 5/8/2025 at 10:27 PM, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, such a stubborn franchise. They keep doubling down on playing football 'their way' with their idea of ball control and defense. 

Congratulations, you're never a bad team. But you will never be a meaningful contender again until you ditch that old school philosophy. Other teams learned a decade ago that the best ball control offenses don't come from high percentages of run plays, but high percentages of higher percentage pass plays. 

I hope they triple down on their philosophy.  I can hold a grudge.

[Parfigliano]

18 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

I think the saints have the worst QB room and it's not really close. Both on floor and potential upside. 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45082172/shoulder-injury-forces-saints-qb-derek-carr-retire

Good.  

[TheLeviathan]

11 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

That situation has veteran QB written all over it. But Rodgers is t going there over Pittsburgh and Atlanta isn’t trading Cousins in the division.

But a season long tank could be coming too. 

This feels like a race for the next Manning in the year ahead.  

[Vanimal46]

The Saints were a lock to be a top 5 draft pick before the Carr news IMO. Now I would say they’re a 3 win team at most. 

[nicksaviking]

3 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

This feels like a race for the next Manning in the year ahead.  

Yeah, but remember when Archie Manning told the Chargers not to draft his son because they were a garbage franchise?

It's going to get real awkward when he has to tell his former club the same thing for his grandson's sake.

[Parfigliano]

30 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, but remember when Archie Manning told the Chargers not to draft his son because they were a garbage franchise?

It's going to get real awkward when he has to tell his former club the same thing for his grandson's sake.

And they draft him anyway.  What's he going to do then?  

[nicksaviking]

14 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

And they draft him anyway.  What's he going to do then?  

Demand to be traded to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

[gunnarthor]

11 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, but remember when Archie Manning told the Chargers not to draft his son because they were a garbage franchise?

It's going to get real awkward when he has to tell his former club the same thing for his grandson's sake.

I'll laugh. 

[Vanimal46]

5/$265 million with $180 mill guaranteed the first 4 years for Brock Purdy. Gross. 

[gunnarthor]

20 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

5/$265 million with $180 mill guaranteed the first 4 years for Brock Purdy. Gross. 

That's the market. That puts him in the Goff/Herbert/Tua bucket.

[TheLeviathan]

3 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

That's the market. That puts him in the Goff/Herbert/Tua bucket.

Gross indeed.

[Vanimal46]

3 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

That's the market. That puts him in the Goff/Herbert/Tua bucket.

I’m waiting for the 1 team to realize paying market rate for above average QBs is dumb and they shouldn’t do it. The 49ers with their own offensive guru Kyle Shanahan should have been one of those teams. 

[gunnarthor]

2 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

I’m waiting for the 1 team to realize paying market rate for above average QBs is dumb and they shouldn’t do it. The 49ers with their own offensive guru Kyle Shanahan should have been one of those teams. 

Purdy is 4-2 in the Playoffs, taking his team to the NFC championship and the Superbowl. He got injured early in the NFC championship loss and lost in OT in the Super Bowl loss. He led the league in QB rating in 2023 and even last year, with nearly all of SF's offense injured, he was 7th in rating, ahead of guys like Mahomes and Hurts. He'll be 26 next year. And one of the smartest coaches in the NFL has hitched his wagon to Purdy. That should say pretty much all we need to know about him.

There is this ridiculous notion that there is some sort of "know it when you see it" level for elite QBs. During the 2023 season, people even on TD claimed Hurts wasn't an elite QB. Purdy has shown that he can get SF to the Super Bowl. His contract isn't that onerous - apparently, it's actually closer to 45m/year b/c of the 5th year extension included in his rookie contract.

[Mike Sixel]

If they didn't sign him, do they just punt the next few years, and hope they find a QB in the draft? He's somewhere between good and very good. Occasionally great. I have no idea what a team should do, but I wouldn't want to be Pittsburgh the last few years and the next few.

[Vanimal46]

4 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

If they didn't sign him, do they just punt the next few years, and hope they find a QB in the draft? He's somewhere between good and very good. Occasionally great. I have no idea what a team should do, but I wouldn't want to be Pittsburgh the last few years and the next few.

49ers should have punted this year because the rest of their roster is old and no longer good. If Shanahan is this offensive genius, he could have found someone else to work in his system for peanuts. 

[Danchat]

The 49ers lost a bunch of talent this offseason in anticipation of paying Purdy, and the roster is no longer good enough to go on a deep run. Just look at their defense, how many above average players do they have there... three? I trust Shanahan to work on a replacement, or heck, you trade Purdy (on a $1M salary) to the highest bidder and top what Seattle gave to Darnold (who is a fit for Kyle's system), save around $20M per season or so, and start developing a project behind him. That's just one example.

By no means should they do what the Steelers are, but there's got to be a happy medium. Whiffing on Trey Lance shouldn't keep the 49ers from trying to develop another option.

[TheLeviathan]

1 hour ago, Danchat said:

The 49ers lost a bunch of talent this offseason in anticipation of paying Purdy, and the roster is no longer good enough to go on a deep run. Just look at their defense, how many above average players do they have there... three? I trust Shanahan to work on a replacement, or heck, you trade Purdy (on a $1M salary) to the highest bidder and top what Seattle gave to Darnold (who is a fit for Kyle's system), save around $20M per season or so, and start developing a project behind him. That's just one example.

By no means should they do what the Steelers are, but there's got to be a happy medium. Whiffing on Trey Lance shouldn't keep the 49ers from trying to develop another option.

This.  NFL teams fear starting over at the QB position so they overpay good QBs who will never get them where they want to go.

That roster is older, weaker, and nowhere near as setup to succeed as the one he QB'd early on.  I expect this contract looks bad within a year or two.

[gunnarthor]

2 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

This.  NFL teams fear starting over at the QB position so they overpay good QBs who will never get them where they want to go.

That roster is older, weaker, and nowhere near as setup to succeed as the one he QB'd early on.  I expect this contract looks bad within a year or two.

I don't think what you and Vanimal are saying is that true. Might fit a fan narrative but upon reflection, not that true. They'll very likely be a good team again this year, in fact, they are predicted to have the 4th best record in the NFC (although partly b/c of the 4th place schedule). The 49ers were 13th in pts last year but 4th in yards. They had an surprising amount of turnovers but their offense - despite having McCafferty and Iyuck for only a few games - was still pretty good and could move the ball. The defense completely fell apart which is why they had such a defense-loaded draft including two really big defensive linemen in Williams and Collins early.

As for Purdy, he's already shown he's a pretty good QB in this system and has shown at least as much in the post-season as anyone not named Hurts or Mahomes and he's two years younger than Darnold. I doubt his contract will be a problem for the 49ers at all.

[TheLeviathan]

9 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

I don't think what you and Vanimal are saying is that true. Might fit a fan narrative but upon reflection, not that true. They'll very likely be a good team again this year, in fact, they are predicted to have the 4th best record in the NFC (although partly b/c of the 4th place schedule). The 49ers were 13th in pts last year but 4th in yards. They had an surprising amount of turnovers but their offense - despite having McCafferty and Iyuck for only a few games - was still pretty good and could move the ball. The defense completely fell apart which is why they had such a defense-loaded draft including two really big defensive linemen in Williams and Collins early.

As for Purdy, he's already shown he's a pretty good QB in this system and has shown at least as much in the post-season as anyone not named Hurts or Mahomes and he's two years younger than Darnold. I doubt his contract will be a problem for the 49ers at all.

I see this decision as akin to if the Vikings had shelled out a huge deal to Darnold.  

I guess we'll see how things play out, but McAffery isn't getting younger.  Nor is their offensive line.  Deebo is gone.  The defense is young and unproven.  It's not even close to the team he walked into and looked that good IMO.

[Danchat]

17 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

They had an surprising amount of turnovers but their offense - despite having McCafferty and Iyuck for only a few games - was still pretty good and could move the ball. The defense completely fell apart which is why they had such a defense-loaded draft including two really big defensive linemen in Williams and Collins early.

Their defense was bad and lost multiple starters to free agency, and then they didn't sign a single average or better starter on the open market, then spent their 1st-4th round picks on front seven players... that's a formula to have a bad defense again.

Nick Bosa and Fred Warner are really good, but what else do they have? At edge all they have is the rookie Williams and then a handful of career backups, and they have the most shallow iDL room in the league. 2nd rounder Alfred Collins is a nice nose tackle but the rest of their guys wouldn't crack most teams' 53 man rosters. Their LBs are all question marks, as is their CB room outside of Lenoir. The safeties are underwhelming too. If Bosa gets hurt again, this is probably the worst defense in the league.

[nicksaviking]

On 5/16/2025 at 10:57 PM, gunnarthor said:

Purdy is 4-2 in the Playoffs, taking his team to the NFC championship and the Superbowl. He got injured early in the NFC championship loss and lost in OT in the Super Bowl loss. He led the league in QB rating in 2023 and even last year, with nearly all of SF's offense injured, he was 7th in rating, ahead of guys like Mahomes and Hurts. He'll be 26 next year. And one of the smartest coaches in the NFL has hitched his wagon to Purdy. That should say pretty much all we need to know about him.

There is this ridiculous notion that there is some sort of "know it when you see it" level for elite QBs. During the 2023 season, people even on TD claimed Hurts wasn't an elite QB. Purdy has shown that he can get SF to the Super Bowl. His contract isn't that onerous - apparently, it's actually closer to 45m/year b/c of the 5th year extension included in his rookie contract.

It's not ridiculous, and the 'know it when you see it' stuff is only because people used to struggle to articulate it. But it's obvious. The elite QBs can and will successfully improvise on a regular basis, either with their arm or their legs. Hurts obviously does the second very, very well. 

I'll say this for Purdy, maybe he can or would be a gunslinging, improvisational wizard, but it's clear that Shanahan wants nothing to do with that kind of QB. He wants a pocket-passing statue that will run the play and the prescribed audibles as called. 

It's possible that if Purdy had Andy Reid or Sean McDermott as a HC, he would have the freedom to take the reigns and steer the ship his way when he sees fit, but he doesn't so it's hard to say he's an elite QB.

[nicksaviking]

On 5/17/2025 at 7:04 PM, Danchat said:

By no means should they do what the Steelers are, but there's got to be a happy medium. Whiffing on Trey Lance shouldn't keep the 49ers from trying to develop another option.

This is the issue because I don't know that they actually whiffed on Lance so much as Shanahan won the battle with Lynch and got to ignore him almost completely. Credit to the organization as they sure make it all sound harmonious, but there had to have been some unreported tension with that decision, because Lance is the complete opposite of Shanahan's QB archetype. Next time they do draft a QB, it's almost certainly going to be Shanahan's choice.

[TheLeviathan]

On 5/17/2025 at 12:30 PM, Mike Sixel said:

If they didn't sign him, do they just punt the next few years, and hope they find a QB in the draft? He's somewhere between good and very good. Occasionally great. I have no idea what a team should do, but I wouldn't want to be Pittsburgh the last few years and the next few.

The difference is the Steelers have an elite defense and a few other high-end pieces.

The 49ers roster is not good.  Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, and a bunch of randos.  The offensive line is not good.  (I may be making a vast understatement there)

I think the answer is yes - you dealt Deebo.  You let a bunch of dudes walk in FA.  It was time to punt.  Their offseason was the equivalent of drawing a ten yard penalty on first down, throwing two incompletes, and then running a screen for 10 yards.  It's time to punt.

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

The difference is the Steelers have an elite defense and a few other high-end pieces.

The 49ers roster is not good.  Fred Warner, Nick Bosa, and a bunch of randos.  The offensive line is not good.  (I may be making a vast understatement there)

I think the answer is yes - you dealt Deebo.  You let a bunch of dudes walk in FA.  It was time to punt.  Their offseason was the equivalent of drawing a ten yard penalty on first down, throwing two incompletes, and then running a screen for 10 yards.  It's time to punt.

That's easy to say when it isn't your job on the line.

I'm not sure I disagree, but what if they don't find a QB for years and years, which was my point with the Steelers. Then they are truly screwed. 

[TheLeviathan]

19 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

That's easy to say when it isn't your job on the line.

I'm not sure I disagree, but what if they don't find a QB for years and years, which was my point with the Steelers. Then they are truly screwed. 

That's fair.  I guess I'd just say there isn't much job security in fielding a middling roster, with a middling QB making 50M a year either.

[Mike Sixel]

30 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

That's fair.  I guess I'd just say there isn't much job security in fielding a middling roster, with a middling QB making 50M a year either.

I wouldn't pay him that, but hockey goalie and NFL QB are the rarest of people on the planet apparently..