I've been the most consistent here on Baalke. I've been saying it for months now.

Baalke's story won't be written untill after this off-season and how he handles the cap situation he created. He's done a great job getting talent. That's only half the job of a GM. Now he needs to work that talent into a sustainable window of success. He hasn't proven that, yet.

Pederson and his coaches are doing a great job taking the talent and making them play well. But what happens if Baalke starts removing the talent? That's the concern. And this off-season is about to begin with several really good keys to our Offense and Defense that need to either be re-signed or be replaced with something similar or better...

Let's see what happens. But the story of Baalke hasn't been written, yet. But you gotta admit, he did a pretty good job turning this team around. It's just whether or not that is sustainable. He's got his work cut out for him.

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I've been the most consistent here on Baalke.  I've been saying it for months now.

Baalke's story won't be written untill after this off-season and how he handles the cap situation he created.  He's done a great job getting talent.  That's only half the job of a GM.  Now he needs to work that talent into a sustainable window of success.  He hasn't proven that, yet.

Pederson and his coaches are doing a great job taking the talent and making them play well.  But what happens if Baalke starts removing the talent?  That's the concern.  And this off-season is about to begin with several really good keys to our Offense and Defense that need to either be re-signed or be replaced with something similar or better... 

Let's see what happens.  But the story of Baalke hasn't been written, yet.  But you gotta admit, he did a pretty good job turning this team around.  It's just whether or not that is sustainable.  He's got his work cut out for him.

I actually think his job is fairly easy at the moment.

He already has Doug Pederson (who can work wonders with an offense regardless of personnel) and Trevor. You have those two things and your job becomes much much easier.

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IMO, Baalke is deserving of all the criticism he gets. Yes, we improved, but not nearly as much as we should have. Drafting Travon Walker over "Sauce" Gardner or Aiden Hutchinson was completely ridiculous and trading back up into round 1 to take an off the ball linebacker when you already signed a premier free agent at the position and then using a 3rd round pick to take yet another off the ball linebacker still makes absolutely no sense to me. To make matters even worse, he overspent in free agency and now we have to make some costly cuts to be able to keep our best free agent signing (Engram,) who only got a 1 year deal. Meanwhile, a player like Scherff got a huge deal even though he is on the downside of his career is taking up a huge chunk of cap space despite being a disappointment. I am not, nor will I ever be a Baalke fan. I think we'd likely be better off without him.

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I've been the most consistent here on Baalke.  I've been saying it for months now.

Baalke's story won't be written untill after this off-season and how he handles the cap situation he created.  He's done a great job getting talent.  That's only half the job of a GM.  Now he needs to work that talent into a sustainable window of success.  He hasn't proven that, yet.

Pederson and his coaches are doing a great job taking the talent and making them play well.  But what happens if Baalke starts removing the talent?  That's the concern.  And this off-season is about to begin with several really good keys to our Offense and Defense that need to either be re-signed or be replaced with something similar or better... 

Let's see what happens.  But the story of Baalke hasn't been written, yet.  But you gotta admit, he did a pretty good job turning this team around.  It's just whether or not that is sustainable.  He's got his work cut out for him.

I actually think his job is fairly easy at the moment.

He already has Doug Pederson (who can work wonders with an offense regardless of personnel) and Trevor. You have those two things and your job becomes much much easier.

In terms of cap management and restructures, he has some moderate to heavy lifting to do this offseason. 

Personally - I believe the way Baalke was so effusive about all of the collaboration with Pederson and other coaches was his way of saying "don't blame me" for the Walker and ILB picks. He's giving this staff what they want. 

I also think these picks are likely going to work out just fine in the long run, so... *shrug*

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IMO, Baalke is deserving of all the criticism he gets. Yes, we improved, but not nearly as much as we should have. Drafting Travon Walker over "Sauce" Gardner or Aiden Hutchinson was completely ridiculous and trading back up into round 1 to take an off the ball linebacker when you already signed a premier free agent at the position and then using a 3rd round pick to take yet another off the ball linebacker still makes absolutely no sense to me. To make matters even worse, he overspent in free agency and now we have to make some costly cuts to be able to keep our best free agent signing (Engram,) who only got a 1 year deal. Meanwhile, a player like Scherff got a huge deal even though he is on the downside of his career is taking up a huge chunk of cap space despite being a disappointment. I am not, nor will I ever be a Baalke fan. I think we'd likely be better off without him.

We made it to the divisional round in the playoffs. Where do you think we should have been in the first year with the new HC?  There has never been a corner selected 1st overall or even 2nd overall, so that wasnt going to happen. You are the same guy that would of passed up Patrick Willis, Kuechly, Ray Lewis, Urlacher, etc. Him overspending if FA is one of the biggest reasons we made it as far as we did, they were all huge parts to our season run to the playoffs.  Hindsight 20/20 with Scherff being banged up a lot of the year, you are probably the same person that loved the signing and now being that he had a down year act like you disliked it.   If Baalke is the GM when we win the SB you wont be a Baalke fan?  A lot of [BLEEP] in the post lol

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I actually think his job is fairly easy at the moment.

He already has Doug Pederson (who can work wonders with an offense regardless of personnel) and Trevor. You have those two things and your job becomes much much easier.

In terms of cap management and restructures, he has some moderate to heavy lifting to do this offseason. 

Personally - I believe the way Baalke was so effusive about all of the collaboration with Pederson and other coaches was his way of saying "don't blame me" for the Walker and ILB picks. He's giving this staff what they want. 

I also think these picks are likely going to work out just fine in the long run, so... *shrug*

Exactly, this off-season is the one where we figure out if he's worth his paychecks. Last off season, he had some hits and misses so how he approaches this off season will determine if he's going to be around long term.

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I'm condescending. That means I talk down to you.

IMO, Baalke is deserving of all the criticism he gets. Yes, we improved, but not nearly as much as we should have. Drafting Travon Walker over "Sauce" Gardner or Aiden Hutchinson was completely ridiculous and trading back up into round 1 to take an off the ball linebacker when you already signed a premier free agent at the position and then using a 3rd round pick to take yet another off the ball linebacker still makes absolutely no sense to me. To make matters even worse, he overspent in free agency and now we have to make some costly cuts to be able to keep our best free agent signing (Engram,) who only got a 1 year deal. Meanwhile, a player like Scherff got a huge deal even though he is on the downside of his career is taking up a huge chunk of cap space despite being a disappointment. I am not, nor will I ever be a Baalke fan. I think we'd likely be better off without him.

We made it to the divisional round in the playoffs. Where do you think we should have been in the first year with the new HC?  There has never been a corner selected 1st overall or even 2nd overall, so that wasnt going to happen. You are the same guy that would of passed up Patrick Willis, Kuechly, Ray Lewis, Urlacher, etc. Him overspending if FA is one of the biggest reasons we made it as far as we did, they were all huge parts to our season run to the playoffs.  Hindsight 20/20 with Scherff being banged up a lot of the year, you are probably the same person that loved the signing and now being that he had a down year act like you disliked it.   If Baalke is the GM when we win the SB you wont be a Baalke fan?  A lot of [BLEEP] in the post lol

We should have never been in the situation where we had a first year coach. From everything I read, Baalke was in agreement with Khan to bring in Urban Meyer. Meyer should've never been in consideration for the head coaching job, much less have been hired. 

Who cares if a CB was never selected #1. Gardner was far and away the best player in the draft, which was proven throughout the season. You take the best player on the board, regardless of position. 

I'm gonna be realistic. There were a lot of factors which led to us getting into the playoffs which didn't have anything to to with our improvement. We played in the worst division in the NFL. The door was wide open for any AFC South to win the division. It just so happens we are currently the only team in the division with a good QB. We should've won the division and we did. We played very well against the Titans in that first game and the following week against the Cowboys as well. We lucked out when we faced a disastrous Jets team with no QB and followed that up by beating arguably the worst roster in the NFL when we defeated Houston. We then faced a practice squad QB when we beat the Titans again. That was a gimme. The last three teams we faced in the regular season should all have new starting QB's next season. That was a pretty beneficial schedule for us to end the season and as much as it felt really good to finally win a playoff game, the Chargers coach gave us a big advantage when he decided to play Mike Williams in a meaningless game and get him hurt, so he wouldn't face us. Without Williams' ability to stretch the field, the Chargers are a very one-dimensional team. That aside, we played well against a weakened opponent and we got a much needed playoff win. When we finally faced a real test though, we were unable to defeat a one-legged Pat Mahomes, largely due to the lack of a pass rush. A pass rush that was supposed to be greatly improved thanks to Baalke's #1 pick in the draft. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade here, but Baalke is getting way too much credit for things that he had no control of and many of the things he did that stunted our progression are being swept under the rug. Just because we finished the year like we did, does not make up for the many errors he has committed which helped delay our progression. 

As far as Scherff, he's gonna get banged up. That is to be expected. Before he even got here, the last full season he played without missing at least one game was 2016. He is on the wrong side of 30 and his play was on the decline before we even signed him to a massive deal. Baalke should've seen this. He did this in San Francisco. He likes to spend a ton of money in free agency and then one the bill comes due, he starts gutting the team. I don't wanna do that here. We finally have some good, young pieces in place. I didn't like the signing of Scherff, but since I have no way to prove it, you just believe what you want to. I really wanted to sign Evan Engram to a 3 year deal. He was relatively cheap, had a ton of upside and was the type of TE this team had been missing since Pete Mitchell all he needed was a season where he stayed healthy. 

We are a long way from winning a Superbowl. I'll just be happy with a winning record and not screwing up another draft.

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We made it to the divisional round in the playoffs. Where do you think we should have been in the first year with the new HC?  There has never been a corner selected 1st overall or even 2nd overall, so that wasnt going to happen. You are the same guy that would of passed up Patrick Willis, Kuechly, Ray Lewis, Urlacher, etc. Him overspending if FA is one of the biggest reasons we made it as far as we did, they were all huge parts to our season run to the playoffs.  Hindsight 20/20 with Scherff being banged up a lot of the year, you are probably the same person that loved the signing and now being that he had a down year act like you disliked it.   If Baalke is the GM when we win the SB you wont be a Baalke fan?  A lot of [BLEEP] in the post lol

We should have never been in the situation where we had a first year coach. From everything I read, Baalke was in agreement with Khan to bring in Urban Meyer. Meyer should've never been in consideration for the head coaching job, much less have been hired. 

Who cares if a CB was never selected #1. Gardner was far and away the best player in the draft, which was proven throughout the season. You take the best player on the board, regardless of position. 

I'm gonna be realistic. There were a lot of factors which led to us getting into the playoffs which didn't have anything to to with our improvement. We played in the worst division in the NFL. The door was wide open for any AFC South to win the division. It just so happens we are currently the only team in the division with a good QB. We should've won the division and we did. We played very well against the Titans in that first game and the following week against the Cowboys as well. We lucked out when we faced a disastrous Jets team with no QB and followed that up by beating arguably the worst roster in the NFL when we defeated Houston. We then faced a practice squad QB when we beat the Titans again. That was a gimme. The last three teams we faced in the regular season should all have new starting QB's next season. That was a pretty beneficial schedule for us to end the season and as much as it felt really good to finally win a playoff game, the Chargers coach gave us a big advantage when he decided to play Mike Williams in a meaningless game and get him hurt, so he wouldn't face us. Without Williams' ability to stretch the field, the Chargers are a very one-dimensional team. That aside, we played well against a weakened opponent and we got a much needed playoff win. When we finally faced a real test though, we were unable to defeat a one-legged Pat Mahomes, largely due to the lack of a pass rush. A pass rush that was supposed to be greatly improved thanks to Baalke's #1 pick in the draft. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade here, but Baalke is getting way too much credit for things that he had no control of and many of the things he did that stunted our progression are being swept under the rug. Just because we finished the year like we did, does not make up for the many errors he has committed which helped delay our progression. 

As far as Scherff, he's gonna get banged up. That is to be expected. Before he even got here, the last full season he played without missing at least one game was 2016. He is on the wrong side of 30 and his play was on the decline before we even signed him to a massive deal. Baalke should've seen this. He did this in San Francisco. He likes to spend a ton of money in free agency and then one the bill comes due, he starts gutting the team. I don't wanna do that here. We finally have some good, young pieces in place. I didn't like the signing of Scherff, but since I have no way to prove it, you just believe what you want to. I really wanted to sign Evan Engram to a 3 year deal. He was relatively cheap, had a ton of upside and was the type of TE this team had been missing since Pete Mitchell all he needed was a season where he stayed healthy. 

We are a long way from winning a Superbowl. I'll just be happy with a winning record and not screwing up another draft.

There is so much wrong with this post I dont even know where to start lol.  Glad you made it back O-linematters

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We should have never been in the situation where we had a first year coach. From everything I read, Baalke was in agreement with Khan to bring in Urban Meyer. Meyer should've never been in consideration for the head coaching job, much less have been hired. 

Who cares if a CB was never selected #1. Gardner was far and away the best player in the draft, which was proven throughout the season. You take the best player on the board, regardless of position. 

I'm gonna be realistic. There were a lot of factors which led to us getting into the playoffs which didn't have anything to to with our improvement. We played in the worst division in the NFL. The door was wide open for any AFC South to win the division. It just so happens we are currently the only team in the division with a good QB. We should've won the division and we did. We played very well against the Titans in that first game and the following week against the Cowboys as well. We lucked out when we faced a disastrous Jets team with no QB and followed that up by beating arguably the worst roster in the NFL when we defeated Houston. We then faced a practice squad QB when we beat the Titans again. That was a gimme. The last three teams we faced in the regular season should all have new starting QB's next season. That was a pretty beneficial schedule for us to end the season and as much as it felt really good to finally win a playoff game, the Chargers coach gave us a big advantage when he decided to play Mike Williams in a meaningless game and get him hurt, so he wouldn't face us. Without Williams' ability to stretch the field, the Chargers are a very one-dimensional team. That aside, we played well against a weakened opponent and we got a much needed playoff win. When we finally faced a real test though, we were unable to defeat a one-legged Pat Mahomes, largely due to the lack of a pass rush. A pass rush that was supposed to be greatly improved thanks to Baalke's #1 pick in the draft. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade here, but Baalke is getting way too much credit for things that he had no control of and many of the things he did that stunted our progression are being swept under the rug. Just because we finished the year like we did, does not make up for the many errors he has committed which helped delay our progression. 

As far as Scherff, he's gonna get banged up. That is to be expected. Before he even got here, the last full season he played without missing at least one game was 2016. He is on the wrong side of 30 and his play was on the decline before we even signed him to a massive deal. Baalke should've seen this. He did this in San Francisco. He likes to spend a ton of money in free agency and then one the bill comes due, he starts gutting the team. I don't wanna do that here. We finally have some good, young pieces in place. I didn't like the signing of Scherff, but since I have no way to prove it, you just believe what you want to. I really wanted to sign Evan Engram to a 3 year deal. He was relatively cheap, had a ton of upside and was the type of TE this team had been missing since Pete Mitchell all he needed was a season where he stayed healthy. 

We are a long way from winning a Superbowl. I'll just be happy with a winning record and not screwing up another draft.

There is so much wrong with this post I dont even know where to start lol.  Glad you made it back O-linematters

??????

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IMO, Baalke is deserving of all the criticism he gets. Yes, we improved, but not nearly as much as we should have. Drafting Travon Walker over "Sauce" Gardner or Aiden Hutchinson was completely ridiculous and trading back up into round 1 to take an off the ball linebacker when you already signed a premier free agent at the position and then using a 3rd round pick to take yet another off the ball linebacker still makes absolutely no sense to me. To make matters even worse, he overspent in free agency and now we have to make some costly cuts to be able to keep our best free agent signing (Engram,) who only got a 1 year deal. Meanwhile, a player like Scherff got a huge deal even though he is on the downside of his career is taking up a huge chunk of cap space despite being a disappointment. I am not, nor will I ever be a Baalke fan. I think we'd likely be better off without him.

Good God. Some players need longer to develop than others. I dont remember a huge outcry when Scheriff was signed cause we needed OL upgrades. Engram had ball security issues, a 1 year prove-it deal was prudent. We 'overpaid' in FA because you have to kick start culture change somehow, and we sucked for so long that paying more was sometimes necessary. And i suppose if we ever win the SB by 20 pts, you will blame Baalke that it wasnt 30. Or will that be Trevors or Pedersens fault?

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption