(09-11-2019, 06:45 PM)jaguarmvp Wrote:

(09-10-2019, 10:08 PM)Bullseye Wrote: 1.  The years of high draft picks weren't all his fault.  He inherited a roster completely devoid of talent, coming off five straight losing seasons, with maybe 2 players drafted from the Gene Smith era who got second deals (one of whom, amazingly, was Alualu).  Considering this, how could there be lots of cap space eaten up?

2.  The overwhelming majority of rosters in the league are incomplete.  The team that just beat us, the Chiefs, were in the AFC championship game last year and were an off sides penalty from reaching the Super Bowl.  They were at the bottom in defense last year and aren't much better now.  The team that was the runner up in the Super bowl last year, the LA Rams, have questions in the offensive line. 

3.  The overpriced and inconsistent defense?!?  You mean the defense that has finished in the top 6 three years running?  When have they been inconsistent?  They've had bad games the past few years against Pittsburgh in the playoffs (they still won, by the way, and made several big plays in that game), the first game against Indy last year-a team with a good to great offensive line and a good to great QB.  Correction, they had a bad first half against them, shut them out in the second half, then proceeded to shut them out completely in the rematch, without the benefit of help from the offense.  They had a collapse against Tennessee on a Thursday night game when Derrick Henry ran all over them.  Dallas beat them pretty bad (a team that many consider to be a Super bowl contender in the NFC with one of the best OLs, RBs, and receivers in football), and KC, who may have one of the best offenses in the last twenty years.  Overpriced?  How?  Three of the highest paid players on that side of the ball are Calais Campbell (defensive player of the year award winner). A.J. Bouye (Pro Bowler), and Marcell Dareus (former pro bowler who restructured his deal.  Two of the team's best defenders, Jalen Ramsey and Yannick Ngakoue, are still on their rookie deals and most consider them underpaid in comparison to others in the league. 

4.  Yes, they could have used a more experienced backup for Foles.  But it isn't as if they have never had experienced backups under Caldwell.  They had Henne for years before going with Kessler last year.

5.  Are you seriously complaining about 5th round picks?  Yes, I know they can turn into good players...like Telvin Smith-a guy (Pro Bowler) that Caldwell drafted.  But given the need, and that they already acquired an extra 6th next year, I think they can manage that part of the draft.

Man sometimes I think you are trolling.

1.  The roster he inherited was not his fault but what he has done with the ammunition is.  The guy has drafted too many failures at the top of the draft in a short amount of time.  Joke Joeckle, Fowler, Borltes,  and the jury is till out on Fournette.  Despite 6 years of building this roster is incomplete in the way that there is not suitable depth behind most positions.  Sure every team has holes but not like the Jaguars.  The depth on this team is razor thin.  We lost our QB week 1 and relying on a 6th round rookie to save the season.  That does not speak volumes?   The cap space is mostly eaten up by free agents  not guys Caldwell drafted. I am not saying he is a complete buffoon.  He has hit on a couple of quality free agents and pretty good later in the draft.   He is not the right guy to rebuild this team if it needs an overhaul.

2.  Again, this roster is thin and most of it is on Dave and Tom.  They decided to pay Bortles after the one year wonder and now the team is paying for it.  That close to 20 million they are eating this year could do wonder to put better depth on this team.

3.  Numbers only say so much. The last couple of years this defense struggles in big games outside of teams not named Pittsburgh.   They get taken too school too often.  This defensive line's sack numbers were way down from 2017.  This same line sacked Mahomes 0 times.  The secondary is bi-polar.   I can remember a handful of games the last 2 years where both Bouye and Ramsey looked like burnt toast just like last week.  Yes this defense is way overpaid.   I also think it's backwards to invest so much money in defense in an offensive driven league.

4. Both are inept.  Thats the point.  This team should be in much better shape right now.

5.  Yes, when wasting draft picks on players that were not good to begin with.  Hyde was mediocre before we traded for him and Dobbs?   Dobb's may not be on the roster when Foles comes back.  Just a waste.

1.  You harp on those early missed, but completely ignore the hits that replaced those misses, often in lower rounds.  Joeckel was a bad pick at the top of a bad draft.  The team subsequently drafted Cam Robinson.  While nobody would mistake him for Art Shell, Cam DID anchor LT in a year we led the league in rushing and set a franchise low for sacks allowed in a season.  Fowler was a miss due to injury and immaturity.  The injury, occurring 30 minutes into his first minicamp practice, could not have been foreseen.  But within a year's time, Caldwell found Fowler's replacement in Ngakoue in the 3rd round.  Ngakoue has been one of the most productive pass rushers in the league since 2016 and made the Pro Bowl.  His selection allowed Caldwell to trade Fowler for the 3rd round pick he spent on Ngakoue.  Yes, Bortles was ultimately a bust, but he had his moments, including arguably the best playoff run by any QB in team history.  You demand draft choice perfection.  Pro football doesn't work that way.

2.  See my response to I AM Yoda in terms of the thin roster, where I discuss developing offensive depth.  As far as defensive depth, I'd say we're pretty deep at DE/Edge rusher and CB. The LB depth was impacted by Telvin Smith's unforeseen retirement and Ryan's injury.

3.  An odd statement on any number of levels.  Over the last couple of years, in big games against teams NOT named Pittsburgh (why not exclude games played on sunny days in the fall viewed by guys named Kevin while you're at it) , the Jaguars had big games against Houston, opening day 2017 where they recorded 10 sacks.  The London game saw the defense hold the Ravens to 7.  Week 10 of that year saw the defense come up big against Phillip Rivers and the chargers, holding them to 17 points.  In what amounted to the division clinching game, the defense held Houston to 7 points.  Though they lost the game, the defense held Tennessee in week 17 to 15 points.  In the team's first playoff game since the 2007 season and the first home playoff game since 1999, the defense held the Bills to 3 points.

Last year, the defense held the Patriots to 20 points, a full TD under their average, and only gave up that much due to some 2nd half turnovers in Jaguars territory.  Even though they lost, they held Tennessee to 9 points, and they gave up only 23 points on defense to KC-which was below their average (more on the Chiefs in a bit), and while at that point in last season, it's questionable whether it counted as a big game, they shut out the then red hot Colts.  But of course, your frothing at the mouth was spawned by the bad games.  Yes, they performed poorly against Dallas, a current favorite in the NFC for the Super Bowl, with one of the best offensive lines, rushing attacks, and WRs in the game.  Your rant is also in large part inspired by last week's loss to the Chiefs.  Yes, the defense looked horrible in the loss, no argument there.  But in looking at the Chiefs, let me present you some more numbers that say more than you think.  Last year's team (virtually identical offensively to this year's) scored 565 points, averaging 35.3 ppg.  For comparison, the 1999 Greatest Show on Turf Rams scored 526 points, the 2007 Patriots scored 589 points, and the 2013 Broncos scored 606.  So last year, the Chiefs ranked among the top 5 scoring offenses all time, and certainly within the last 20 years.  In putting up these numbers, they put up

38 vs the Chargers (ranked 8th in points allowed and 9th scoring)
42 vs the Steelers (6th in yards)
40 vs New England* (7th scoring) 
51 vs. the Rams*
27 vs. Baltimore (2nd, 1st)
28 vs. the Chargers (8th, 9th)

Playoffs
31 vs Indy (11th in yards)
31 in 2nd half vs. New England

* denotes Super Bowl teams

So are all of those teams overhyped, loud mouthed, overpaid defensively?  Maybe I'm just spitballing here-or "trolling" to use your wording-but perhaps maybe Kansas city is just that good and would pose problems for any defense, not just the overpaid, overhyped and indisciplined defense of the Jaguars that finished top 6 three years running?

4.  The same inept backup in Henne is the backup to Mahomes in KC, one of the favorites in the AFC.  Perhaps the KC brass don't know offense.  But who would you have as our backup, and how would you propose to get him?

5.  What are the odds of 5th round picks making the team, much less starting?  If you are going to bellyache this much about two trades borne of injury fueled desperation, why remain so silent when it comes to giving Caldwell credit for T. Smith?  Where is the credit for getting the 5th round pick for Monroe, the 6th round pick for Gabbert, and the 6th round pick next year for trading out of the 7th this year?

---