Lol at Browns fans wanting to draft a franchise QB. Chill my fiends. These are the glory days. Hold onto your nipples. - comrade static
I think you pick up Baker's 5th year, but we absolutely go hunting for a QB in free agency and via the draft this year. I don't know if I'm ready to say go get a QB in the first round because of our defensive deficiencies.
Yeah, you're unlikely to get a franchise QB where we'll be drafting and the back seven is in tatters.
I turned the game off after halftime so I didn't see it all. I felt like the defense played well enough to keep us in the game but the offense couldn't do a fucking thing and the defense got tired and gave in. I'm so tired of this happening. They did such a good job of forcing Baker to beat them and he was awful. Does Stefanski just not trust him to be able to execute a gameplan needed to beat a team that is that aggressive on defense? Did Stefanski just not have a capable game plan? I'd guess it's a little bit of both.
I don't think he has any trust in Baker as a pure passer throwing downfield(I don't blame him). A large amount of our passing plays start from misdirection and rollouts to try to give Baker easy throws. When teams take that away or slow down our running game we're fucked. Giving up a big lead is basically game over because Baker can't throw downfield without turning the ball over a few times. Pittsburgh was going to kill us today no matter what though so I don't think having a perfect game plan would have mattered.
Pitt was a measuring stick game, and we are way behind the top half of the AFC North (Pitt & Balt). But if we are being realistic, we shouldn't have expected to be in the Top half 6 games into Stefanski's tenure with an abbreviated off-season. We got a little ahead of ourselves thanks to the good start. The good news is that everything is still on the table. By 'everything', I mean a playoff berth...and that is what we are really after. That is an incredibly successful season no matter what the record is. The bad news is that the mistakes Baker is making have nothing to do with a system change. They have nothing to do with a coordinator change. They are terrible decisions that a QB in year 3 should not be making...period. Staring down WR's; being fooled by post-snap coverage; throwing into double and triple coverage., etc... Just dumb mistakes that he is making on a consistent basis. Our offense is being held back by Baker at this point. I'm not advocating that we need a diff QB..yet.. We are stuck with him. However, until we get Chubb back and can get back to pounding the football and taking it out of Baker's hands, we are in going to be in trouble. He is not reliable or capable of going out and winning games with his arm. I hate make that statement, but he has shown us this over and over again...and at some point, when somebody shows you who they are you have to believe them. If you don't, it's shame on you, not them. The good news is that we have 2 winnable games before the bye week and Chubb's hopeful return. In the past, a game like this would definitely beat us twice. I think this staff is different and the culture is changing...this game vs the Bengals will tell us a lot about the reality of that statement as well.
I’m increasingly starting to feel like Baker is A QB and not THE QB. He’s not necessarily going to cost you games, but he’s also not going to win you any. I try to excuse him because he’s had 3 coaches/coordinators in 3 years, but like QCT said, a lot of these mistakes aren’t a result of that. These are rookie mistakes he’s making, and his pocket awareness is getting worse...not better. He’s got all season to get it fixed, but if we’re still at this point at the the end of the season it’s got to be time to start thinking about the future of the position. My biggest concern is that the they’re at the point now where they’re drafting too late to get an elite QB, and any FA QB is a FA for a reason.
If we had an average defense I'd be all in on selling the farm for Lawrence or Fields but we're not even close on defense
I just don’t understand what he was thinking, he’s got plenty of time here. Wait for the Bryant to come across the face of the defender or check off and make the easy pass to the Hooper in the flat.
I dont think Baker saw him honestly, with his size I think it is most likely the case. He also most likely predetermined where he was throwing it. rookie stuff
Regardless of how the rest of the year goes I think we've found the right coach for the team. Which is obviously promising. Andrew Berry is going to have to earn his money this offseason
Didn't want to post this last week when we were all flying high, but this FB Outsiders guy breaks down a few Baker plays from last week and it's ugly
i tend to agree, but I did think Stefanski’s plan was bad yesterday. Shanahan’s game plan last night vs the Rams was perfect, hope Stefanski took notes. i expect he learns from it and is ready for Pittsburgh’s D at home.
Denzel is playing unreal right now. TOo bad Baker is a fucking trash can. I'm almost ready to move on.
This might be were the OU fans get super weird on us like the Bama fans did with Richardson. I hope not.
No. You can't have Kareem get killed too. Put in a quarterback that can complete a pass against the Bengals.
Is there any doubt that Burrow is significantly better than Baker? Quick reads, accurate throws....wild scene.