We also need to improve our depth.

How often does a team get through a season without having multiple players on the OL go down for at least some part of the season? Often there are multiple players down at the same time.

What happens when you have a couple of your blockers go down and the quality of their replacements hold up against a pass rush like a wet paper sack?

How much can Williams do to protect the QB then?

I kinda like our depth on the interior. It's the OT position that I'm worried about. We don't even have competent starters at OT, much less depth. When it comes to the inside, I leave LG and Center as they are. I have Bartch and Cann compete for the RG position with the loser becoming the top backup OG. I re-sign Shatley as the backup Center and I add another interior linemen in the mid to late rounds of the draft to improve the depth. 

If we get Trent Williams to start at LT, we could draft another young OT to compete with Taylor at RT in the first or second day of the draft. The loser would end up backing up RT alongside Will Richardson backing up at LT and I believe we'll be a lot better off. 

If we can't get Williams in free agency then it's imperative that we draft a LT as well as a RT. The LT needs to be drafted very early and the RT needs to be taken no later than round 4 as we'd need serious contenders for those starting spots, since Williams is the only franchise type free agent OT at this time.

I'm not sure this draft will be able to solve our tackle problem. We are picking a little late for premier talent so most likely we will be picking guys in need of development before they can play at a starting level.

This might be a good year to target some young players with potential who happen to be stuck behind an entrenched starter. These would be developmental guys who have already gone through their development so they could be legit starters once given an opportunity.


We bring a few in and let the compete with what we have for the starting jobs. The competition alone forces people to elevate their play so we should get better production from whomever wins the starting spot and it also should end up giving us better depth on our roster.

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I kinda like our depth on the interior. It's the OT position that I'm worried about. We don't even have competent starters at OT, much less depth. When it comes to the inside, I leave LG and Center as they are. I have Bartch and Cann compete for the RG position with the loser becoming the top backup OG. I re-sign Shatley as the backup Center and I add another interior linemen in the mid to late rounds of the draft to improve the depth. 

If we get Trent Williams to start at LT, we could draft another young OT to compete with Taylor at RT in the first or second day of the draft. The loser would end up backing up RT alongside Will Richardson backing up at LT and I believe we'll be a lot better off. 

If we can't get Williams in free agency then it's imperative that we draft a LT as well as a RT. The LT needs to be drafted very early and the RT needs to be taken no later than round 4 as we'd need serious contenders for those starting spots, since Williams is the only franchise type free agent OT at this time.

I'm not sure this draft will be able to solve our tackle problem. We are picking a little late for premier talent so most likely we will be picking guys in need of development before they can play at a starting level.

This might be a good year to target some young players with potential who happen to be stuck behind an entrenched starter. These would be developmental guys who have already gone through their development so they could be legit starters once given an opportunity.


We bring a few in and let the compete with what we have for the starting jobs. The competition alone forces people to elevate their play so we should get better production from whomever wins the starting spot and it also should end up giving us better depth on our roster.

Like who are you talking about?

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In the grand scheme of things it may not matter so much but still

https://twitter.com/FieldYates/status/13...3359575043

This is huge imo especially with having a new hc and gm who may want to move on from players currently on the roster. This allows us to upgrade the roster with players with the skill set that Urban is looking for.  With the exception of the Rams winning in week 17 of the season, every break has gone in our favor.  I am looking forward to a culture of accountability where players know that they have to make plays during games to remain on the team.

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Respect the game.  Play with a sense of urgency. 


1.)  Take care of the ball.  Win the turnover battle.

2.)  It's all about 3rd down.  Win on 3rd down to win the game.

3.) Playmakers make plays.  The only reason that you put your uniform on is to make plays. In order to EARN your paycheck, you must make plays.  

Learn from the great collapse of 2023.  

I kinda like our depth on the interior. It's the OT position that I'm worried about. We don't even have competent starters at OT, much less depth. When it comes to the inside, I leave LG and Center as they are. I have Bartch and Cann compete for the RG position with the loser becoming the top backup OG. I re-sign Shatley as the backup Center and I add another interior linemen in the mid to late rounds of the draft to improve the depth. 

If we get Trent Williams to start at LT, we could draft another young OT to compete with Taylor at RT in the first or second day of the draft. The loser would end up backing up RT alongside Will Richardson backing up at LT and I believe we'll be a lot better off. 

If we can't get Williams in free agency then it's imperative that we draft a LT as well as a RT. The LT needs to be drafted very early and the RT needs to be taken no later than round 4 as we'd need serious contenders for those starting spots, since Williams is the only franchise type free agent OT at this time.

I'm not sure this draft will be able to solve our tackle problem. We are picking a little late for premier talent so most likely we will be picking guys in need of development before they can play at a starting level.

This might be a good year to target some young players with potential who happen to be stuck behind an entrenched starter. These would be developmental guys who have already gone through their development so they could be legit starters once given an opportunity.


We bring a few in and let the compete with what we have for the starting jobs. The competition alone forces people to elevate their play so we should get better production from whomever wins the starting spot and it also should end up giving us better depth on our roster.

This is the best and deepest OT draft I've seen in many years. I have no doubt what so ever, that we will be able to find a good one at pick #25. There is like 6-7 OT prospects who I believe would be clear upgrades over our current starting OT's. We have to take at least one of them. When you wait until round 2, you end up with duds like Robinson and Taylor. It's the second most important position on the team IMO, and it needs immediate attention. We finally have a franchise QB coming in and he must be protected at all cost. The interior is solid, but the corners of the O-Line are like swinging doors. 

I don't believe in drafting developmental players until midway through the 3rd day. On day 1 and day 2 of the draft, I'm looking for guys who can be immediate, effective starters and we have so many needs that there really isn't a priority on any position other than QB and LT. We can just sit back and draft the BAP, because pretty much every starting position on this team is up for grabs.

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I'm not sure this draft will be able to solve our tackle problem. We are picking a little late for premier talent so most likely we will be picking guys in need of development before they can play at a starting level.

This might be a good year to target some young players with potential who happen to be stuck behind an entrenched starter. These would be developmental guys who have already gone through their development so they could be legit starters once given an opportunity.


We bring a few in and let the compete with what we have for the starting jobs. The competition alone forces people to elevate their play so we should get better production from whomever wins the starting spot and it also should end up giving us better depth on our roster.

Like who are you talking about?

I'm not a scout or a coach so I wouldn't have personal knowledge of who these specific individuals may be, but I do know that dozens of players every year go from being a back up on one team to competing for a starting job on another.

Considering our limited options in the draft and FA this year, this might be the best strategy available to try to upgrade our tackles next season.

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Like who are you talking about?

I'm not a scout or a coach so I wouldn't have personal knowledge of who these specific individuals may be, but I do know that dozens of players every year go from being a back up on one team to competing for a starting job on another.

Considering our limited options in the draft and FA this year, this might be the best strategy available to try to upgrade our tackles next season.

What limited options? We have a ton of draft picks and more money to spend in free agency than any other team in the league.

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I am afraid that we have put too much trust in Cann. He has 5 years of bad to very bad and one year of average and we've all just cemented him in as the entrenched starter. I think it could backfire.

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I am afraid that we have put too much trust in Cann. He has 5 years of bad to very bad and one year of average and we've all just cemented him in as the entrenched starter. I think it could backfire.

Not sure who cemented him as the starter.  If it's our pick and the best player on the board is a guard, take him.

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I'm not a scout or a coach so I wouldn't have personal knowledge of who these specific individuals may be, but I do know that dozens of players every year go from being a back up on one team to competing for a starting job on another.

Considering our limited options in the draft and FA this year, this might be the best strategy available to try to upgrade our tackles next season.

What limited options? We have a ton of draft picks and more money to spend in free agency than any other team in the league.

This, I'm not sure he cares about the future of our franchise well being.

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I'm not sure this draft will be able to solve our tackle problem. We are picking a little late for premier talent so most likely we will be picking guys in need of development before they can play at a starting level.

This might be a good year to target some young players with potential who happen to be stuck behind an entrenched starter. These would be developmental guys who have already gone through their development so they could be legit starters once given an opportunity.


We bring a few in and let the compete with what we have for the starting jobs. The competition alone forces people to elevate their play so we should get better production from whomever wins the starting spot and it also should end up giving us better depth on our roster.

This is the best and deepest OT draft I've seen in many years. I have no doubt what so ever, that we will be able to find a good one at pick #25. There is like 6-7 OT prospects who I believe would be clear upgrades over our current starting OT's. We have to take at least one of them. When you wait until round 2, you end up with duds like Robinson and Taylor. It's the second most important position on the team IMO, and it needs immediate attention. We finally have a franchise QB coming in and he must be protected at all cost. The interior is solid, but the corners of the O-Line are like swinging doors. 

I don't believe in drafting developmental players until midway through the 3rd day. On day 1 and day 2 of the draft, I'm looking for guys who can be immediate, effective starters and we have so many needs that there really isn't a priority on any position other than QB and LT. We can just sit back and draft the BAP, because pretty much every starting position on this team is up for grabs.

There isn't a big disparity in talent between the late first and early second round.

And to say someone who has never taken an NFL snap would be an clear upgrade over someone who was a similar level of prospect coming out of college and has multiple years of NFL experience is silly.

The OTs available to us wouldn't have been able to even sniff Joeckel's jock as far as quality of prospect and look how that went.

No one available where we pick would be considered an immediate plug and play guy especially when you consider your number 1 pick, face of the franchise, will be the victim of their rookie mistakes.

You and every GM and fan in the world hopes all their top picks become immediate and effective starters , but I hate to break it to you, there is this thing called reality that says just because you want something to work a certain way doesn't mean it will work that way.

Regardless of how great you think a prospect is, there is no way to predict with a high degree of certainty that they will make a successful transition to the NFL, and with a late 1st or early 2nd rd pick there is no way to predict with any degree of certainty that they will make it.

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I am afraid that we have put too much trust in Cann. He has 5 years of bad to very bad and one year of average and we've all just cemented him in as the entrenched starter. I think it could backfire.

Not sure who cemented him as the starter.  If it's our pick and the best player on the board is a guard, take him.

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What limited options? We have a ton of draft picks and more money to spend in free agency than any other team in the league.

This, I'm not sure he cares about the future of our franchise well being.

He doesn't care about the future says the guy who wants to spend almost 1/4th of our cap space on a 33 year old LT so he can be just 1 of 5 linemen needed to protect our QB and just 1 of 22 starters on this talent deficient team.

Yeah, you are really thinking about the future there.

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I'm not a scout or a coach so I wouldn't have personal knowledge of who these specific individuals may be, but I do know that dozens of players every year go from being a back up on one team to competing for a starting job on another.

Considering our limited options in the draft and FA this year, this might be the best strategy available to try to upgrade our tackles next season.

What limited options? We have a ton of draft picks and more money to spend in free agency than any other team in the league.

We have limited options at OT this year if you had read the original post.

The good FA OTs most likely will never hit the open market and the draft picks we have available will only allow us to pick players who most likely will need time to develop before you can trust them with the job to protect the face of your franchise.

I like the logic that we need a $20 mill all pro tackle on the left side to protect our 1st overall pick QB but we only need the 5th or 6th best rookie prospect on the right to keep him safe.

It's not like a missed block from the RT tackle lead to one of the hits that broke Burrow. Oh, wait.....

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I like the logic that we need a $20 mill all pro tackle on the left side to protect our 1st overall pick QB but we only need the 5th or 6th best rookie prospect on the right to keep him safe.

It's not like a missed block from the RT tackle lead to one of the hits that broke Burrow. Oh, wait.....

This is why I have strongly advocated that we pay Trent and then draft Mayfield or Jenkins at 25 or 33 to replace Taylor.

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I like the logic that we need a $20 mill all pro tackle on the left side to protect our 1st overall pick QB but we only need the 5th or 6th best rookie prospect on the right to keep him safe.

It's not like a missed block from the RT tackle lead to one of the hits that broke Burrow. Oh, wait.....

This is why I have strongly advocated that we pay Trent and then draft Mayfield or Jenkins at 25 or 33 to replace Taylor.

So you are advocating the totally illogical reasoning I just described.

Pay a huge contract for Trent on one side and then bring a late 1st early 2nd rookie to block one of the positions that broke Burrows.

So we will be replacing an early 2nd rd pick veteran with a late first early 2nd rd pick rookie and expecting that rookie to immediately play at a high enough level to consistently protect our new franchise QB against seasoned veteran pros.

Brilliant.

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You know who started at right tackle for the super bowl champs right? Yes I think a high pick at tackle can be an impact player right away.

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I am afraid that we have put too much trust in Cann. He has 5 years of bad to very bad and one year of average and we've all just cemented him in as the entrenched starter. I think it could backfire.

Not really. I'd bring in another interior O-Linemen to compete for the position and I also believe Bartch will be much better as well. To me, that RG position is up in the air.

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This is the best and deepest OT draft I've seen in many years. I have no doubt what so ever, that we will be able to find a good one at pick #25. There is like 6-7 OT prospects who I believe would be clear upgrades over our current starting OT's. We have to take at least one of them. When you wait until round 2, you end up with duds like Robinson and Taylor. It's the second most important position on the team IMO, and it needs immediate attention. We finally have a franchise QB coming in and he must be protected at all cost. The interior is solid, but the corners of the O-Line are like swinging doors. 

I don't believe in drafting developmental players until midway through the 3rd day. On day 1 and day 2 of the draft, I'm looking for guys who can be immediate, effective starters and we have so many needs that there really isn't a priority on any position other than QB and LT. We can just sit back and draft the BAP, because pretty much every starting position on this team is up for grabs.

There isn't a big disparity in talent between the late first and early second round.

And to say someone who has never taken an NFL snap would be an clear upgrade over someone who was a similar level of prospect coming out of college and has multiple years of NFL experience is silly.

The OTs available to us wouldn't have been able to even sniff Joeckel's jock as far as quality of prospect and look how that went.

No one available where we pick would be considered an immediate plug and play guy especially when you consider your number 1 pick, face of the franchise, will be the victim of their rookie mistakes.

You and every GM and fan in the world hopes all their top picks become immediate and effective starters , but I hate to break it to you, there is this thing called reality that says just because you want something to work a certain way doesn't mean it will work that way.

Regardless of how great you think a prospect is, there is no way to predict with a high degree of certainty that they will make a successful transition to the NFL, and with a late 1st or early 2nd rd pick there is no way to predict with any degree of certainty that they will make it.

I don't think they are similar at all. I hated Robinson and Taylor coming out of college. I thought they were need picks and that there were much more talented players at other positions still on the board. I have 6-7 OT's in this coming draft with like first round grades. I didn't even have 3rd round grades on Taylor and Robinson.  

I have no idea what you are trying to say about Joeckel, but I loathed that selection. In fact, I had a bit of a mini meltdown when he was selected. He was among my least favorite players in that draft. He lacked any kind of functional strength to play LT and it showed. 

I know that, the draft is a crapshoot. You just project the best you can and hope it works out. That has no bearing upon how I grade certain players. They might hit and they might miss.

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Not sure who cemented him as the starter.  If it's our pick and the best player on the board is a guard, take him.

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This, I'm not sure he cares about the future of our franchise well being.

He doesn't care about the future says the guy who wants to spend almost 1/4th of our cap space on a 33 year old LT so he can be just 1 of 5 linemen needed to protect our QB and just 1 of 22 starters on this talent deficient team.

Yeah, you are really thinking about the future there.

We have plenty of cap space and picks to upgrade more than one offensive line position. I really don't get your opposition to signing Williams.

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What limited options? We have a ton of draft picks and more money to spend in free agency than any other team in the league.

We have limited options at OT this year if you had read the original post.

The good FA OTs most likely will never hit the open market and the draft picks we have available will only allow us to pick players who most likely will need time to develop before you can trust them with the job to protect the face of your franchise.

I like the logic that we need a $20 mill all pro tackle on the left side to protect our 1st overall pick QB but we only need the 5th or 6th best rookie prospect on the right to keep him safe.

It's not like a missed block from the RT tackle lead to one of the hits that broke Burrow. Oh, wait.....

Dude. Tristan Wirfs was a rookie this year and he graded out as one of the top OT's in the NFL. Not all players need time to develop. O-Linemen are constantly thrown to the wolves as rookies and many fare pretty well. I desperately wanted to draft Wirfs at #9 last year instead of Henderson. A lot of people on this board wanted that as well. There is no reason to think one of the highly ranked OT's in this next draft class can't fare that well in 2021. 

It's called upgrading. You spot the positions of need and you try to improve them. Both current starting OT's for the Jags need immediate upgrading. Most of us on this board don't trust them at all and this is a very, very good OT class for this draft.

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While I agree Robinson isn’t the long term solution at left tackle he is by now means terrible, it’s near on impossible to play well on the offensive line in much of the situations we were in last season down by double digit scores, with 3 below average qbs in the pocket,
You don’t just take a left tackle for the sake of it this year, I know we’re all worried about Trevor getting hurt.
All 3 of our qbs got through the season with out serious injury, we all keep going back to the Bengles, burrow was getting 7/8 huge hits laid on him every game, non of ours were ever taking hits like that.

I know it’s a popular opinion that out line is terrible, and I’m not saying it’s a strength but it’s by no means a huge weakness either, it would be impossible for our rookie rb to have the season he did if they were that bad.

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I like the logic that we need a $20 mill all pro tackle on the left side to protect our 1st overall pick QB but we only need the 5th or 6th best rookie prospect on the right to keep him safe.

It's not like a missed block from the RT tackle lead to one of the hits that broke Burrow. Oh, wait.....

This is why I have strongly advocated that we pay Trent and then draft Mayfield or Jenkins at 25 or 33 to replace Taylor.

You always bring up Jenkins yet he is the same type of tackle you always say you dont like.  Good runblocker with big body with heavy feet that will probably struggle against the speed rushers, early on at least

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We have limited options at OT this year if you had read the original post.

The good FA OTs most likely will never hit the open market and the draft picks we have available will only allow us to pick players who most likely will need time to develop before you can trust them with the job to protect the face of your franchise.

I like the logic that we need a $20 mill all pro tackle on the left side to protect our 1st overall pick QB but we only need the 5th or 6th best rookie prospect on the right to keep him safe.

It's not like a missed block from the RT tackle lead to one of the hits that broke Burrow. Oh, wait.....

Dude. Tristan Wirfs was a rookie this year and he graded out as one of the top OT's in the NFL. Not all players need time to develop. O-Linemen are constantly thrown to the wolves as rookies and many fare pretty well. I desperately wanted to draft Wirfs at #9 last year instead of Henderson. A lot of people on this board wanted that as well. There is no reason to think one of the highly ranked OT's in this next draft class can't fare that well in 2021. 

It's called upgrading. You spot the positions of need and you try to improve them. Both current starting OT's for the Jags need immediate upgrading. Most of us on this board don't trust them at all and this is a very, very good OT class for this draft.

There won't be a rookie tackle there at 25 that is as good as Wirfs or Becton.  Both of those guys would of been a top 10 pick in most drafts

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This is why I have strongly advocated that we pay Trent and then draft Mayfield or Jenkins at 25 or 33 to replace Taylor.

So you are advocating the totally illogical reasoning I just described.

Pay a huge contract for Trent on one side and then bring a late 1st early 2nd rookie to block one of the positions that broke Burrows.

So we will be replacing an early 2nd rd pick veteran with a late first early 2nd rd pick rookie and expecting that rookie to immediately play at a high enough level to consistently protect our new franchise QB against seasoned veteran pros.

Brilliant.

You are beyond belief.  Just because one player was a bust, it doesn't mean that EVERY other player taken in a similar spot will also be a bust.  Just because Byron Leftwich was a #7 overall pick and failed, did that guarantee that Ben Roethlisberger taken at #11 the following year would too?

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