Las Vegas Raiders Forum

There must be no sacred cows on defense. Everything must be on the table.

The ENTIRE coaching staff must be replaced, to begin with. I don't particularly want to switch to a 4-3, but we need to get the best DC available.

Everything should flow from there. My first suggestion would be to focus on SMART players. We have a lot of talent but zero brains on that side of the ball. I fucking miss guys like C-Wood and Rod Woodson, Bill Romanowski, Eric Allen, Howie Long... SMART fucking players who will make the plays regardless of scheme. I think Ferrell may be one of those guys, and Heath definitely is. Kwiat is as well. Build around cats like that.

I don't know what we're going to do about this injury shit, but it's GOT to go. Maybe we use the carrot approach and dole out bonuses for guys who play a certain % of snaps. We have to think outside the box on this. Jon is either going to have to fire his son or bring in someone additionally to instill some motherfucking TOUGHNESS in this team.

We're drafting #17 overall. I think that puts us in position to possibly trade up and snag either Zach Wilson or Mac Jones. Both these guys are great in their own way.

Zach Wilson
I see a lot of Mahomes in Wilson. He's just a glaring natural passer, can make a pinpoint throw from ANY angle, off his back foot, doesn't matter. I mean, it's like he's out there playing around with a bunch of little kids and just slinging it however the fuck he wants to and dropping it in buckets. He also has a big arm. Not Stafford-like, but as big as Carr's. Difference is, Wilson uses his.

2 knocks on Wilson: 1) His maturity level, he knows he's great and has an "entitled" attitude. May not be very coachable, may not be a very good team player, could become a locker room problem. 2) Played at BYU, not the most dangerous opposition. Having said that, he threw for 425 yds, 3 TDs and 0 INTs against UCF in his bowl game. Kid has ALL the earmarks of a total stud. But I can't shake this feeling that he's the next Marinovich.

Mac Jones
Regarding Mac Jones: I have a prioritized list of attributes an NFL QB MUST have. #1: Intelligence. #2: Accuracy. Jones has both of these things in spades. Greatest strength: He's a fuckin master deep ball thrower, a pinpoint accurate, lay it right in over the shoulder in stride-type downfield guy. By deep ball I mean 40-50 yds, not the 50-60 yds Wilson can throw. And I mean, Zach Wilson is a VERY accurate passer but Jones is Drew Brees-level accurate downfield. When have we ever had that? Short and intermediate he's Gannon-level accurate and can make all the throws. He's a pure pocket passer with a GREAT head on his shoulders, takes advantage of all his weapons and is a great kid by all accounts, an exemplary teammate. And yeah, I'll say it, Jones reminded me a LOT of Joe Burrow this season. It was like watching him all over again.

And he played against NOTHING but SEC teams during the regular season this year due to COVID bullshit. No interconf play. The absolute cream of the crop of defenses. He DOMINATED the best the nation has to offer. UGA, FL, Auburn, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Missouri, then DESTROYED #4 Notre Dame in the semi finals. He's a Heisman finalist and of course he's undefeated this season, with 4000+ yds, 34 TDs and 4 INTs. And still has the NCAA final to go.

Some knocks and potential knocks on Jones: 1) His arm strength is probably around Teddy Bridgewater level. And I have no problem with that at all. 2) He's sort of a one-year wonder, even though he did great backing up Tua last season. 3) The talent around him has been otherworldly. I don't know how many of his offensive players will be drafted but I wouldn't be surprised if EVERY ONE of them that are eligible go in the draft at some point. WR Devonta Smith could win the Heisman, and will certainly be drafted higher than Jones himself. Of course, it was JONES tossing him the rock all season long, so there's that to consider.

Based on the opposition he has faced, the top-shelf coaching he's had, I consider these "red flags" to be negligible. I think Jones has everything it takes to be a great QB in the mold of a young Brady. It's possible he could come out and do for us what Herbert's doing in LA, if Gruden's capable of adapting his offense to work with a rookie.

There you have it. Let a great OC and defensive staff rebuild the D (MUST be a big name, can't go get a pile of dog shit). Trade Carr and trade up to draft our new QB in rd 1. Focus on defense in FA.

Those are my instructions. Make it so.

Looking at draft order, NE picks a couple slots ahead of us, and they're going to need a new QB.

I really don't think Bill wants to start over with a rookie QB. And I think his experience with Cam has totally soured his desire to fuck around with "athletes."

We can trade him Carr + our first rounder and take over his slot to pick Mac Jones or Wilson. That way he not only gets his smart veteran QB with lots of tread left on the tires, but he can also land a strong WR or OL to help him out.

This is a serious win-win. We get our franchise guy and still have our whole fuckin draft to add defense and/or possibly WR depth.

DeadRinger wrote:There must be no sacred cows on defense. Everything must be on the table.

The ENTIRE coaching staff must be replaced, to begin with. I don't particularly want to switch to a 4-3, but we need to get the best DC available.

Everything should flow from there. My first suggestion would be to focus on SMART players. We have a lot of talent but zero brains on that side of the ball. I fucking miss guys like C-Wood and Rod Woodson, Bill Romanowski, Eric Allen, Howie Long... SMART fucking players who will make the plays regardless of scheme. I think Ferrell may be one of those guys, and Heath definitely is. Kwiat is as well. Build around cats like that.

I don't know what we're going to do about this injury shit, but it's GOT to go. Maybe we use the carrot approach and dole out bonuses for guys who play a certain % of snaps. We have to think outside the box on this. Jon is either going to have to fire his son or bring in someone additionally to instill some motherfucking TOUGHNESS in this team.

We're drafting #17 overall. I think that puts us in position to possibly trade up and snag either Zach Wilson or Mac Jones. Both these guys are great in their own way.

Zach Wilson
I see a lot of Mahomes in Wilson. He's just a glaring natural passer, can make a pinpoint throw from ANY angle, off his back foot, doesn't matter. I mean, it's like he's out there playing around with a bunch of little kids and just slinging it however the fuck he wants to and dropping it in buckets. He also has a big arm. Not Stafford-like, but as big as Carr's. Difference is, Wilson uses his.

2 knocks on Wilson: 1) His maturity level, he knows he's great and has an "entitled" attitude. May not be very coachable, may not be a very good team player, could become a locker room problem. 2) Played at BYU, not the most dangerous opposition. Having said that, he threw for 425 yds, 3 TDs and 0 INTs against UCF in his bowl game. Kid has ALL the earmarks of a total stud. But I can't shake this feeling that he's the next Marinovich.

Mac Jones
Regarding Mac Jones: I have a prioritized list of attributes an NFL QB MUST have. #1: Intelligence. #2: Accuracy. Jones has both of these things in spades. Greatest strength: He's a fuckin master deep ball thrower, a pinpoint accurate, lay it right in over the shoulder in stride-type downfield guy. By deep ball I mean 40-50 yds, not the 50-60 yds Wilson can throw. And I mean, Zach Wilson is a VERY accurate passer but Jones is Drew Brees-level accurate downfield. When have we ever had that? Short and intermediate he's Gannon-level accurate and can make all the throws. He's a pure pocket passer with a GREAT head on his shoulders, takes advantage of all his weapons and is a great kid by all accounts, an exemplary teammate. And yeah, I'll say it, Jones reminded me a LOT of Joe Burrow this season. It was like watching him all over again.

And he played against NOTHING but SEC teams during the regular season this year due to COVID bullshit. No interconf play. The absolute cream of the crop of defenses. He DOMINATED the best the nation has to offer. UGA, FL, Auburn, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Missouri, then DESTROYED #4 Notre Dame in the semi finals. He's a Heisman finalist and of course he's undefeated this season, with 4000+ yds, 34 TDs and 4 INTs. And still has the NCAA final to go.

Some knocks and potential knocks on Jones: 1) His arm strength is probably around Teddy Bridgewater level. And I have no problem with that at all. 2) He's sort of a one-year wonder, even though he did great backing up Tua last season. 3) The talent around him has been otherworldly. I don't know how many of his offensive players will be drafted but I wouldn't be surprised if EVERY ONE of them that are eligible go in the draft at some point. WR Devonta Smith could win the Heisman, and will certainly be drafted higher than Jones himself. Of course, it was JONES tossing him the rock all season long, so there's that to consider.

Based on the opposition he has faced, the top-shelf coaching he's had, I consider these "red flags" to be negligible. I think Jones has everything it takes to be a great QB in the mold of a young Brady. It's possible he could come out and do for us what Herbert's doing in LA, if Gruden's capable of adapting his offense to work with a rookie.

There you have it. Let a great OC and defensive staff rebuild the D (MUST be a big name, can't go get a pile of dog shit). Trade Carr and trade up to draft our new QB in rd 1. Focus on defense in FA.

Those are my instructions. Make it so.

I’m watching what Mac Jones is doing to TEN’s defense and wanted to dredge up one of my pre-draft posts about him. I knew this kid was going to light shit up. Wait til next season when he gets comfortable letting the deep shit go. Dude’s a stud.

I think Mac Jones is pretty damn good, but Bill Belicheck and that defense is what's helping that team win. I think if you swapped Carr for the rookie Jones success would follow the Patriots lol. Belicheck is light years ahead of pretty much all 31 other head coaches it's not even funny. The last time we played him he doubled our check down person when Carr was mr check down....who does that? He shut us completely out after the 1st series, and that's was with Ruggs.
Going into next season, I want a head coach with this kind of know how and resolve.

I doubt Bill is going anywhere, so who else is available?

I'll go First.
Mike Tomlin- during thier heyday, Tomlin was considered one of the best head coaches in the entire NFL all while dealing woth AB and company. He usually has his team playing 100% , although big Ben is killing that notion week in and week out right now. I could see Pittsburgh looking in another direction at season end.

Pete Carroll?
Young offensive mind HC?

piratepride wrote:I'll go First.
Mike Tomlin- during thier heyday, Tomlin was considered one of the best head coaches in the entire NFL all while dealing woth AB and company. He usually has his team playing 100% , although big Ben is killing that notion week in and week out right now. I could see Pittsburgh looking in another direction at season end.

Pete Carroll?
Young offensive mind HC?

No on Tomlin.

I'm posting a reply from a Steelers forum about Tomlin. I can't say I disagree.

Tomlin's had 10 years to right the ship after the Super Bowl team finally got too old. I think we know what we have by now, and that is a coach who is adequate but nothing special. Some coaches are tactical geniuses who will out-scheme you, but he doesn't do that. Some are great teachers who get the most out of their players, but he isn't that either. Some are great motivators, and Tomlin talks a lot like one, but it doesn't actually do much. Some are great leaders and organizers, who find great staff and collaborate with them, but that doesn't sound like him either. As the saying goes, "A" people hire other "A" people. "B" people hire "C" and "C-minus" people. And that looks a lot like what we've got going on.

It's very frustrating that the last two-thirds of Ben's career went by without even seriously competing for a championship. Tomlin is near the top of all kinds of leaderboards because he had a running start, but the results over the next decade have been pretty ho-hum. The team's never been BAD, but it's never been that good either. Every team for the last 10 years has had some obvious problem, and it's always, "give him a chance, we're almost there, it'll be fixed soon, we'll get 'em next year," but then next year is not much different, except maybe the obvious problem has shifted somewhere else like a game of whack-a-mole.

Eventually, you can either keep stringing things along "just a couple more years" and holding out hope that things will be great once you finally get those couple problems out of the way, and then you look up and another frustrating decade has passed and you're still just drifting along, kind of like that one ex-girlfriend who was always vaguely dissatisfied about something, and you thought she'd be really great if she ever got over it, but eventually you figured out that's just who she was.

Well, that's who Tomlin is. The Andy Dalton or Tony Romo of head coaches. He's not bad, but he's not going to win you anything that matters. But you can't bring yourself to cut him loose, because there's so much history and you don't have anything better lined up - so just like your ex, you stick it out for another couple years, and another, until finally no one can stand each other anymore, so you flip out and start banging the secretary and spend your savings on a Ford Mustang. That's about where we are right now, or at least we should be.

piratepride wrote:I think Mac Jones is pretty damn good, but Bill Belicheck and that defense is what's helping that team win.

Of course they're helping the team win, but look at how many points they've scored in their last 6 games:

54/27/24/45/25/36

Mac is carrying his weight, as a rookie, taking out the Chargers and Titans on the way.