02-23-2024, 11:58 PM
(02-23-2024, 04:04 PM)Ell Prez Wrote: I think those runs had more to do with having a really good defense. We had elite play from Bates, Chido, reader, Hendrickson. Really good plan from Wilson, Bell, Hubbard.
Last year we had elite play from: Hendrickson. That’s it. And that’s the difference. Build a strong D, give short fields to Burrow + Chase and this team may not score 35 but they’ll win 13 games/year
Agree in the main. But Reader was elite last year when healthy. Battle was close to elite.
There is no way we should count on a rookie to replace Tee. First off, we'd have to spend #18 on him, and that pick should go trenches (Fuaga, Latham, Guyton, Mims, Newton, Murphy) or maybe DB.
Even if Tee plays on the tag, we have $45 mil in functional cap space. Say Reader costs $10, that's $35. You can get darned near two elite guys with that (DT & DB?). Heck, if Tee & DJ come in lower and/or we renegotiate some guys, it could be Tee + Reader + 2 elite guys and then some. Or you could go for just one morexelite guy and spread the rest out.
For me, it is chips in the middle time. Right now.
