Danchat

Roden doesn't belong in the conversation with Outman, he should be viewed far higher on the totem pole. You're reminding me of the Adam Thielen trade... unlike Outman at least he was good in 2024.

They had a day less of rest plus their MNF game went to the end of overtime. Daniels rushed back from his elbow injury, and their team also sucks. It is hard to believe they were in the Championship game last year, but their defense is terrible and the offense is completely reliant on Daniels.

For those interested, here's my updated PFF depth chart: Almost every player on defense is having their worst PFF season in years, which is probably related to A) the team trailing most games and being on the field for a long time, B) the older guys are encountering age regression, and C) a few players getting misused (Hargrave is not a NT, Metellus is not a traditional safety, Turner isn't rushing the passer enough). Offensively, JJM is close from going from NEI to Abysmal, and the OL looks good on paper but it's only been healthy enough to play as the intended 5 man group for 2 quarters. The good news is Jackson is having a solid year for a rookie OL as they usually jump in quality in Years 2 or 3, the bad news is that Fries' grades are down at his career low level, and we signed him to a 5 year deal. The OL moves for this offseason will be interesting (a better backup OT feels necessary with Darrisaw's durability problems, Kelly will be cut and a starting center must be found, O'Neill will be very expensive to retain).

In 150 PAs, only 12 games as a Twin. He'll be 26 and has already crushed AAA pitching, he should be given every chance to prove himself. Otherwise why did they trade for him? I'm not high on him as a player, but we're not going to figure out any more about him as a hitter until he gets more chances to hit in the majors. I agree that Mendez likely won't be a factor, perhaps late in the season.

There's a high chance Kreidler will get DFA'd sooner than later with intent of getting him back to play at AAA assuming he clears waivers. They've done this several times in past years with similar players.

I'm aware, it's closer to $40M, but they're going to add a veteran of some level. I'd pay him something in the range of $10M unless he gets bid out of that. We will have that kind of money to spend.

...yeah, I'd take Mariota as a bridge QB over spending a draft pick to get Mac Jones.

I didn't know QB-gami was a thing... there's got to be a whole lot of unique one of those.

I'm 99% sure that is sarcasm.

I put a few units on a custom line of Seattle -13.5. Easy money!

I don't know about that, he played 35 games in the minors and was hitting well at AAA for all of July until they finally called him up the day after the trade-a-thon. Seemed to me like that had more to do with them not trusting him over the likes of Bader and Castro rather than giving him an extended period of recovery time, given the timing of the call up.

Interestingly, JJM's best two games at QB have been the Week 1 Bears game and the Lions game... both happening to be after a very long layoff and a 6 week gap. It's almost as if the more he gets settled into playing KOC's system, the worse he performs. He plays his best when they're in no-huddle mode where there is less time for KOC to talk to him in the mic. JJM's playing like one of the worst QBs of all time, he looks like he's light years away from being a quality starter but I think KOC's complete inability to coach him is a factor. A young player, even a bust of a QB should improve with experience. Is it unreasonable to expect KOC to get him to play at the level of a backup QB even if he doesn't have what it takes to be a starter? They even got him to stop scrambling, which was a big factor in moving the chains in the Lions game. It's the same when Dobbs was QB, KOC got him to stop scrambling and didn't design a single play to take advantage of his running ability and he got worse as he learned the system. And unfortunately he's also fragile, if it is true he was concussed on the scramble play. That'll be his third injury on a run in his career. I'd like to see if Brosmer's any better, but my suspicion is that KOC isn't very good at mentoring young QBs, he needs a vet to run his scheme. He sure as hell isn't going to adjust to his personnel to his players. It'll be just like the last two games of Darnold, most of JJM and Wentz's games - a lot of holding onto the ball, KOC trying to make him throw deep too often, poorly blocked screens, and no slants.

I'm not shocked they tendered Larnach, I think they still plan to trade him. As has been discussed his value isn't that high, but I think there are a few teams out there that would use him as a DH against RHs given his numbers against them, and last I looked there are a lot of teams with worse production than what Larnach did last year in the DH spot. Knowing Falvey, I wouldn't be shocked if he gets flipped for a rehab project a la Outman, or another pedestrian reliever.

Seeing that Jackson has no options and will be tendered, looks like he is the backup catcher. If they can get something close to what he did for Baltimore then that'll pass as a backup catcher... but wow, that strikeout rate. Yikes. They are moving Jackson for a reason. I don't think Eeles will do any damage in the majors, so I'm not concerned with losing him.

He was injured, not benched. Yeah, KOC has been teaching JJM the past two years, has that all been for naught? It reads as if he is a rehab project from the Jets, not a kid who has been learning in a supposedly QB-friendly environment. I have many doubts about KOC being a QB whisperer.

I don't think it is, because 1) they are probably confident Culpepper doesn't get claimed and they'd rather not carry him on the 40 man roster in 2026, and 2) they need to keep some spots "open" for when they sign free agents. Not that I expect them to sign many and not for much money, but I see the likes of Gasper and McCusker as placeholders until a player requiring a 40 man spot is signed.

Yeah, that's what I struggle with understanding... JJM had a fairly decent training camp and does fine in practices - KOC said this past Thursday and Friday he had his best practices of the season. And yeah, that could be a load of crock just for the sake of building confidence, but I don't think he's missing that many passes in practice or else KOC is a fool for having him throw the ball downfield so much. And if it's a "bright lights" / mental problem, well, that's surprising given his college career. Where was his stage fright when he lead a game-winning drive against the best defense in college football in the national championship? We saw that version of him at the end of the game, inexplicably. Give him the rest of the season and see what happens, but if he shows no improvement then you can't start him next year. I expected ups and down, I didn't think he would look like the worst QB in the league and be so off-target. This roster still does have a ton of problems at multiple positions, a lot of regressing players / overpaid ones that aren't contributing. Flores has the defense playing well but I think it's more the scheme than the players, they aren't generating turnovers and every position group has somebody who is severely underperforming. But yeah, they would be winning more games with decent QB play. Don't think they'd be winning anything in the playoffs (again), a lot of people had said bringing back Darnold was the right move but I've watched his last two games, the dude has had 7 turnovers and still melts down when pressured. We aren't going on a playoff run with him. Drafting and developing a QB in the 1st round is still the primary way to find a franchise QB, even if it is very difficult to do. Unfortunately, they might have picked the wrong prospect, though it wouldn't be that shocking for a horrifically bad drafting front office to do. But if KOC is the QB whisperer the media purports him to be, it's on him to fix him. He waited out multiple drafts to take a QB and landed on JJM, it's on him to get him fixed.

Darnold's not having a good game against the Rams... hmmm, where have I heard that one before?

They found their next great return man in Price, too bad the coverage units constantly make penalties on his returns. A new ST coach is needed.

If true, then I like the trade even less - why exchange Varland, who's already young and under team control through 2029/2030, for a single pitching prospect and what is essentially a throw-in? I like Rojas as a pitching prospect, but we know with the rate pitching prospects hit that's really risky moving Varland for one legit prospect. I guess if they really didn't believe in Varland going forward and think that he's not going to last as a high leverage / 7th/8th inning reliever then that's more logical. They had better be right about Rojas.

The Twins liked Roden enough to value him at half of Louie Varland... they had better be right about him.

They've had severely disappointing outcomes in three of the last four years, one playoff appearance in the past five years.

They had the likes of Matt Belisle, Trevor Hildenberger, and Alan Busenitz pitching in the playoffs in 2017. That bullpen had zero chance of holding up in a deep playoff run.

I don't know about Topa, it wouldn't be that crazy if they opted out on a reliever with a 1.43 WHIP and is 35 with durability issues.

I think they protect the obvious 6 and I'd lean towards protecting Klein given the lack of options in the bullpen. For the deep sleepers, I nominate MacLeod as the most likely one to be protected out of that group. Most of the other options are too far away and unlikely to be claimed... and I dunno on Fedko, I don't think he's the type of guy teams use R5 picks on. Not that they don't draft OFs, but his minor league pedigree is overrated. I'm all for giving him a chance, but I think he clears the draft.