Joe Burrow Lamar Jackson (healthy) Baker Mayfield Deshaun Watson Mitchell Trubisky And that's not a knock on Trubisky -- in a proper system, he could be every bit as good as Deshaun has proven himself to be thus far.
Browns: "We want an 'adult' in the room". Also Browns: "We don't want any distractions outside of fooball."
Well, forgetting DW for a moment. With B-more finishing on a six game losing streak, I guess my first question is; how did Lamar Jackson move ahead of Baker in your QB ratings?
I mean, Lamar got hurt on the what... first drive of that second Cleveland game and Huntley almost beat us. Then he didn't play the last four, so it was just the 19-20 loss to Pittsburgh. Tough to pin the slide on him and rather the opposite could be true -- they went on a six game losing streak because Lamar wasn't healthy for those last five. Gotta look at the comprehensive body of work, too. Lamar has been an elite weapon but was drafted to a good team and a stable franchise. Burrow had a single elite season (still young) and took his team to a Super Bowl, so a sizeable impact there. Baker took a complete trash fire of a franchise to a post-season win, again sizeable impact. Watson was drafted to a good team, made it worse, then got back to approximately the same level they were at and then again tanked. I feel like we can all agree Trubisky is at the bottom but he's never really been given a fair opportunity. And yeah, I have to swallow some pride here. I truly do still believe Baker has more potential than any of the AFCN QBs but based on what they've actually accomplished, it's incredibly difficult not to put Lamar at #1 tbh. He's a former league MVP with 105 touchdowns (passing/rushing combined) in four seasons.
Can you please mix in some reality with that pride? Is this the Cody K chronicles? C'mon man, I understand the hate for DW. I really do. The angst is real. He might be a terrible person, but trying to convince everyone that he's a shitty QB is ridiculous.
Browns fans, I'll say this, whereas I don't agree with the pessimism on Watson as a player only, I now fully agree with some that are pissed at the organization. I looked into the contract they gave Watson and I'm baffled. 55M cap hits for four straight years. A fully guaranteed contract. But the fact his first year salary is only 1M so any loss for income fue to suspension is crazy to me, considering his situation. Then they agree to a clause that said the contract can not be voided due to suspension. That part is the most insane to me. Those cap hits can't be avoided for any reason. I don't see how y'all build a competitive team for all of those years. Mahomes' contract will NEVER go above a 46M cap it. It's scheduled to but it never actually will. Watson's contract is just insane
Isn't it possible that his 1st yr salary of $10M isn't to protect his earnings but, rather, to protect the Browns cap space allowing them to keep Mayfield under contract for 2022? At this moment, the Browns have $26.3M in cap space. That includes the $28.9M which is Watson and Mayfield combined.
This isn’t completely accurate. It can’t be voided due to suspension, but there is language in there that protects them if any new off the field issues occur separately from the current issue at hand. Also, those cap hits will be restructured into future earnings to reduce the cap and kick it down the road for as long as they need to. As long as he is healthy and continues to play, this won’t come to a head until his second Browns contract ends. The cap has become somewhat plyable as capologists have exploited contract loopholes. They better hope; A) he is as good as they are betting on B) He is still happy playing for that huge contract once the temperatures drop. He really has no incentive at this point.
Does anyone think it is a coincidence they chose the day after this second court time to introduce DW? Thoughts are finally starting to creep in that maybe most of this is fabricated. It’s obviously still possible you can get two grand jury’s not to indict, but how little evidence is there? Could this be the case of one woman’s experience and explore that experience. Did he hit on her, or did the towel fall off inadvertently and she felt she should be rewarded in some way? Unfortunately we will never know. Did the lawyer take advantage of the fact he gets an exorbitant number of massages per week? I still feel icky about this whole situation, but TWO grand juries at least have me questioning my judgment.
I'm not suggesting he's a bad QB. I think he's a good QB. I just think he's being extremely over-rated at the moment. He's not great. He's not elite. He's not an upgrade over a healthy Baker and he's certainly not better than Burrow or Lamar. I've watched the replays and crunched the numbers. His 2020 season where he put up "elite" numbers, he was playing from behind routinely and many of those pretty stats came in junk time or as the opponent was sitting on a lead. To wit: a full 40% of his touchdown totals (13 of 33) and 30% of his yardage (1,415 of 4,823) came in the fourth quarter where the team still went 4-12 on the season. He threw 13 TDs against 3 INTs in the first half of 2020 games... without the poor overall team performance and the garbage stats in Q4, that's reasonablly 26 and 6 on the year -- still good! But in four seasons that's no more than 26 touchdowns. That's not "elite". That's not even Kirk Cousins (his average 33 TD per season). Tossing the morality aside... I think it's bad business to give up three Pro Bowl players (minimum expectation of a first round pick), the largest guaranteed and non-voidable contract in NFL history, and a current QB with more potential for a QB who's simply good, has already torn an ACL during non-contact practice, quit on his former team, and has sat out over a year (will be 606 days when the 2022 season starts) -- and all that's assuming he doesn't serve a suspension for some or all of the first year here.
This is going to bite them... in 2023, they'll have over $108 million tied up in three players (Watson, Garrett, Cooper) from a projected $218 million cap. That's about 50% and doesn't include a big name who's going to be (1) pricey, and (2) a potential cap casualty trade chip in Denzel Ward. If Ward does re-sign at, say, market-level contract, then they're looking at over 60% of the cap in those four in 2024 during Nick Chubb's contract season. Realistically, it's a two-year window to win a Super Bowl (2023 and 2024) or bust -- unless DW somehow avoids suspension in 2022.
O.J. Simpson was aquitted of criminal charges but found guilty in the civil matter. I'm not a laywer, and I don't play one on TV... but I'm guessing that given how hostile the state of Texas is to women, it's probably insanely difficult to get indictments in these cases when it's realistically a he said, she said (although it's actually a he said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said, she said). He's still got 22 pending civil cases which means more distractions and several of those 22 accuse much more than simply an "accidental graze".
Or they can't find a trade partner for Mayfield and he realizes he can take the time given to him by Watson's suspension to try out for other teams. HE is extremely capable of winning games, even big games, when healthy.
This is where we greatly disagree.. Watson is an elite QB and he's definitely an upgrade for the Browns at the game's most important position. As far as the off field damage control goes, we'll have to wait and see how this plays out. But there is a reason he had nearly half the teams in this league tripping over themselves trying to obtain him in spite of everything. Just like there is a reason we can't give Baker Mayfield away right now. That kinda says it all... We get attached to players we like and Baker did a lot of good for this franchise, so I understand all the reasons to not like the move. Granted that we lost some leverage in moving #6 simply by signing Watson, but if Baker was anywhere near the level QB that Watson is, there would be a dozen teams after him anyway, and clearly that's not the case. GM's don't even consider Baker to be as good as Garopollo, let alone Watson....That's just what it is.
