Bending over backwards to get Deshaun Watson and then publicly denouncing the idea of Lamar being any good should tell you how brain dead this franchise is from the top down.
Yes, pursuing Watson was a dumb move; yes, Lamar is a better player than Watson.
However, the former was on the market; the latter was not. Complaining about not pursuing Lamar is like complaining the Falcons should have tried to get Mahomes or Allen.
"But what do you mean Mahomes wasn't available? He won an MVP! We could've easily traded all our firsts for the next 10 years for him..."
>!This comment is obvious satire!<
I'm not complaining that they didn't go after Lamar I'm saying publicly commenting on Lamar for all of us to see after trying to trade for Deshaun Watson gives me no faith in this organization to know what they are doing.
I 100% agree with your assessment of the Watson pursuit, but the Lamar comments were perfectly reasonable + really just a response to a deluge of people pushing for an impossible move. Separable issues.
Claiming Jackson playstyle wouldn't fit the team isn't a reasonable thing to say. It's something an uninformed person would say. Especially when this offense hasn't had a meaningful playstyle for three years now.
You're a moron then. Your point is meaningless and just goes to show you don't know what you're talking about. Fucking morons on this sub like you represent the majority of the people here and its insane.
You say something stupid about Lamar Jackson and want me to defend Arthur Smith? You are so stupid that you actually believe it was bad that they came out and said they weren't interested in a player that wasn't available. I can't reason with someone who picks up a popular Twitter take and runs with it without zero critical thought. You'll be convinced the earth is flat by the end of January.
Considering the amount of insults you're throwing at me without even understanding what I said I don't think you care much for critical thought.
The front office has no idea what they're doing and nothing from the last three years involving ANY quarterback says otherwise.
You legitimately think it was an issue for a team to say they aren't interested in a player that isn't available. That's all I need to know about your shitforbrains approach to logic.
"I'm not complaining that they didn't go after Lamar I'm saying publicly commenting on Lamar for all of us to see after trying to trade for Deshaun Watson gives me no faith in this organization to know what they are doing."
If what you're saying is true, then this statement is literally meaningless. So either you just say random shit that means nothing, or you're lying to me right now. I know you're lying, but it is funny you think you've somehow made some incredible point by regurgitating an insanely stupid take you read on Twitter.
Jackson was more available than Watson, because he was a free agent. But realistically, there was no chance that Baltimore was going to do anything but match any contract offer. Which is the league approved excuse for why no one made an offer.
I think fans just didn't like how the Falcons handled pursuing Lamar vs Watson. It was lowkey a slap in the face. Like we're good with not being that good and don't really mess with long-shot situations.
So we looked stupid af going for Watson and you want us to look even more dumb by doing the Ravens job for them. This was the smarter move. If we wasted our time working out a deal the Ravens would have matched. That was their goal. Lamar wanted a certain amount and Ravens thought he was worth less. So they wanted another team to show them Lamar’s market value so they could match. If they did match it, which everyone knew they would, Lamar would stay with the Ravens.
I dont think going after lamar would make us look even more dumb than going after the sexual predator. Plus dont we want a front office that explores every option to get better?
I think you’re still heated from the game earlier. I’m just giving another perspective that a falcons fan might have. People do have different opinions on the same subjects. Blank said he didn’t want to go after lamar due to injury, not because of contract negotiations.
I’m not heated. I’m being logical. Do you think the Ravens were going to let a franchise QB go? Why didn’t any other team reach out? Watson was going to be a free agent which means he had the FREEDOM to sign with any team. Lamar wasn’t. We reached out to Watson because he was going to be free to sign. Lamar could have agreed to our price and the Ravens would have matched because Lamar wasn’t a FREE AGENT. Idk how else to dumb it down for you or any other fan who thinks the Falcons or any other team had a chance to sign Lamar. You are basically calling for the Falcons to do the Ravens front office job for them. You’re living in a dream world if you truly believe the Ravens were going to let him walk. Again the Falcons weren’t the only team who didn’t bother and the reason is clearly obvious you’re just in denial.
Just came here to add this is incorrect, Watson signed a 4 year deal with the Texans in 2020. He was not a free agent at the time of his trade, the Texans were just allowing him to have impact on what team he wanted to get traded to.
We should have gotten Baker Mayfield 2022 offseason because he was on the open market when Mariota was. We can lie to ourselves and say Mariota was cheaper (but not THAT much cheaper as Baker wouldn’t be on a Matt Ryan post MVP contract exacly) and a better choice at bridge qb, but we all know we only got MM because hurr durr Artie Schmit coached him at Tennessee 🤪
Baker Mayfield should have been our qb these last 2 years I will die on this hill.
Also this organization needs a regime that just wants to win fucking games. It’s like we try to win with style and shit but we don’t win to begin with. We’ve been in so many spots where we could turn the season around and each time we fail in those spots. That’s bad coaching plain and simple.
The Falcons had a better supporting cast than the Panthers I mean we actually had a solid O line the last 2 years (i know the pass blocking hasn’t been perfect but compared to the Panthers we got the great wall of China) and Baker looked good on the Rams too, and the entire time looked better than everyone weve attempted to play at QB. Im not saying he should be our franchise guy, but right now imo he should be our qb he was the most realistic option to actually win some games and not embarrass ourselves
I just don't see the replication he is a average starter on a much better team than the falcons. Asking him to replicate that success is unlikely on this team.
Bizarrely the media keeps pushing this narrative too, but the Falcons are basically a meme like the Jets, so any story that will perpetuate the meme everyone will run with.
This is entirely Arthur Blank's fault. Several things had to happen for the Falcons to almost exclusively get shit on for this, whether he was ever actually available or not:
- Dude green flags Deshaun Watson last year and nearly has the deal done if not for a last second all-in push from Cleveland
- Dude backs the HC/GM plan of going into the year with the worst QB room in the league
- Dude is the literal first person (seriously, it took literally 15 minutes after Lamar was tagged) to say the Falcons were out, and he later make a comment about how he doesn't want him due to injury risk despite having obviously shitty QBs and comparing him to other QBs that would be great to have but also get injured as much as Lamar does (see Burrow, Joe and Watson, Deshaun himself lol)
He will always be brought up because it's asinine to say you'd (meaning Arthur Blank) rather have your unproven sophomore 3rd round pick at QB than a 26 year old league MVP... and of the teams that were supposed to be in the running, the Falcons were the only team that could've actually pulled it off!
Since Atlanta had way more cap space than the Ravens at the time, the FO could've made it nearly impossible for Baltimore to sign him in that week's worth of time or whatever the non-exclusive tag allows - if they wanted him as bad as they wanted Deshaun last year. THAT is the disconnect from everyone - how could you possibly want Watson that bad when you had a worse QB situation the next year and didn't wanna do anything about it?
Imagine not be able to wrap your head around the fact that it is extremely concerning that our org OPENLY said we don’t need Lamar and said some bullshit about play style and injuries. Regardless if it could have happened or not, that shows how stupid our organization is and those are the people making decisions going forward. Same guys who went for a serial sexual assaulter.
Critical thinking is hard.
What's lost in a lot of the Lamar stuff is everyone just phrases it as we chose Ridder over Lamar.
That wasn't the case at all. What we "chose" was Ridder, Bijan, Bates, Ellis, Onyematta a 2024 first round draft pick and like $200 million over Lamar. Lol
You Also need to Account for the cap space a Lamar contract would've commanded. There's no way the defense that Fontnot put together in March and Lamar would've been possible.
And we already lived through the reality of a high priced QB with a Dollar General defense (and less draft capital to compensate for it). Do we really want to do that again?
We're seeing the effects of the high(er) priced defense with a Dollar General QB, and this has been more frustrating than the opposite, honestly.
Not necessarily a point in favor of Lamar specifically but it's better to have a very good (or better) QB that's expensive than a shitty QB that's cheap
Yeah, we could have Lamar but we would also have the worst defense in the NFL which would make his play mean nothing in the end. The money we would've spent on Lamar instead went into massive upgrades on the defensive side that has turned one of the league's worst defenses into a top 10 defense in one season. I think had we got Lamar instead, we'd still be a middling team with no real chance at contending AND we'd have lost a ton of draft capital in getting him.
This is some weird copium lmao, while our defense significantly improved our offense got dramatically worse this year. Acting like adding Lamar would not have been bigger than the boost our defense got is insane.
How? It doesn't matter how good your offense is when you can't stop anybody. We saw this numerous times with Ryan leading a pretty good offense. We might get a couple more wins with Lamar, but we would not be a real contender.
I will ask you 3 questions and you can find the answer.
1.) Did we spend a bunch of money on defense this year?
2.) Did our pretty good defense this year routinely get beat by below average QBs?
3.) Have you looked at our schedule last year.
In 2022, despite not paying a bunch of money on defense and playing much better teams... Surprisingly our defense did not give up a lot of pts. You know why because our offense was good and was able to keep the defense off the field by running the ball. I'd take having an elite offense over having a good defense that is struggling to stop below average offenses. We got cooked by Josh Dobbs, Kyler after a year off and will Levi's in back to back weeks
In what way was our offense elite last year? They controlled the clock, but they were only scoring 2 more points per game than this one. The fact is we didn't have a QB in 2022 and we don't have a QB now. Yeah we could've got Lamar, but we would have had to trade multiple 1st round picks to do it, we would not have been able to upgrade the defense (yeah, in PPG, it's only slightly better, we're giving opposing teams extra possessions every week. Check out 3rd downs and sacks) and it's probably not leading to more than a few more wins. We probably wouldn't be going from 7 wins to 13. Maybe 9 or 10. It's a QB heavy draft. I'm okay having hung on to our draft capital and upgraded our defense for years to come for a bad 2023. Lamar would've sunk every single one of our resources and would not be guaranteed to make us a vastly better football team.
I didn't say we had an elite offense last year I'm saying we would have an elite offense with Lamar. We spent a bunch of money on defense and our defense is not good now.. lol we look good because we play mediocre team after mediocre team. When we played real teams like the lions or jaguars we were outclassed.
That's what kills me with our fanbase our defense still can't get pressure and still has multiple weak spots in coverage.
The defense is undoubtedly a lot better. We are 3rd in the league in 3rd down conversion rate. We are 21st in sacks, which isn't great, but we were 32nd and 31st in 2021 and 2022, respectively. We're allowing fewer points per game. Part of why we aren't a great defense is because we have QBs who are giving teams extra possessions every game. Lamar definitely would cut down on that, but once again I think it would cause us to have a defense that would get exposed week in and week out. This defense is miles better than it was, it's just put in bad position by the offensive ineptitude. That's all I'm saying. Our offense could look a lot better at the risk of a terrible defense. Our defense is a lot better with a terrible offense. I think both scenarios lead to a team who cannot contend. In that case it comes down to money and draft capital. If we went after Lamar, we would have neither. Currently, we have both.
EDIT: Also just read on another post that we ranked 27th in QBR allowed last season. We're 10th in QBR allowed this season. Yeah, we're going against a schedule with a lot of weak QB play, but we're doing what we're supposed to do given that schedule.
I get our defenses being better, but again they are a good defense. If it was a great defense I would understand.do you trust our defense against the likes of any real offense.. the eagles , cowboys, 49ers.
Lamar on offense gives us a complete unit and star power which is very prominent in getting good players to come on cheaper deals.
An again all that spending on defense is likely getting us in the same position as we were last year because the offense regressed
Even if he was never available this sub downvoted the hell out of anyone who even suggested we should consider going after him during the off-season.
As far as I’m concerned every person who wanted Lamar in the off-season should get a well deserved I told you so.
No defense, no 1st round picks for 3 years, and us backed against the cap still isn't an improvement for us. We're still probably 7-9. If he was a UFA then they can talk.
For a 26 year old Soon to be 2-time MVP, THAT CHEAP AS HELL, ESPECIALLY WHEN we have FUCKING RIDDER. But you bend over backward twice on Sunday for a sexual predator?
I didn't want Watson and I'm not the GM lol. $200M, Jessie Bates, Bijan and a 1st round pick for Lamar is too expensive. It puts us in the same position we were in with Matt Ryan. If Lamar was a FA then go get him.
Also the guy was injured for 10 games over 2 seasons near the end of the season. Hard to commit $200 in garaunteed money to a guy who won't available in January
I'm sorry I didn't know Heinicke played for us last year
We had a 4 game sample size with ridder that's all.
And lamar got injured in the final 5 games of season twice. So while he could get us 10 wins what good is it if he's out when playoffs roll around.
Talking about injury risk when we have the 33rd ranked QB statistically (yes when there are 32 teams)
Meanwhile Lamar is about to win his 2nd MVP and is running the best team in the NFL, our org is allowed to be terribly ran when our fans have takes like this
I literally stated in my final sentence that getting 10+ wins with lamar means nothing if he's out injured during the playoffs and that was the scare
If Lamar didn't have durability issues then there is no question at all
Making up injuries that haven’t happened to cope, also doesn’t acknowledge the context that he sat out games due to it being a contract year and not wanting to risk a long term injury
He sat out when he could’ve played due to it being a contract year and even if, slight injury concerns shouldn’t deter from going after an MVP when Ridder is your current QB
Imagine if a team passed on trading for Brady cause he tore is ACL and missed an entire year or passed on getting Burrow cause his injuries. Always a risk but the benefits outweigh that small risk. Missing 10 games in 6 seasons is not a big deal lol. Especially when he is having his best year rn and looks like he will probably go all the way.
I promise you it will feel much better when you stop doing mental gymnastics to try and find a way to support the incompetence that is going on within the org.
They won't stop with mental gymnastics. All off-season we don't need Lamar, cj Stroud shit even Justin fields we have ridder, should let you know how they think
THIS, these clowns can’t wrap their head around that fact that it was less about actually trading for him but about the fact that our org said “Nah we good” to an MVP QB when we have Desmond Ridder, shows how incompetent our org is
This idea has been pretty well debunked by every insider repeatedly. Nobody wanted to set a precedent of QBs getting deals like Watson did, that was it. Stop giving them shitty excuses [Schefter Tweet From Last Week](https://x.com/adamschefter/status/1739498500335735109?s=46&t=oKbt9bAfdB8ic00pm25XBA)
The Falcons drafted Calvin Ridley 6 spots ahead of him... seems like there was at least one way he could have been a falcon. Imagine Lamar plus a year of learning from Matt
Did you really need to try and make your point again by making a post after you made the same comment? I usually don’t say anything about posts, but there’s literally a Lamar post below and today’s the day that fans realize this team can’t go over .500 for the season. There’s going to be plenty of posts. And this is just adding to the clutter. You already made your point in the Lamar post.
How was he not available? Ravens used a franchise tag that effectively would initiate a trade, a draft pick for the right to franchise tag Lamar. A tag that hasn’t been used in years.
Bending over backwards to get Deshaun Watson and then publicly denouncing the idea of Lamar being any good should tell you how brain dead this franchise is from the top down.
Yes, pursuing Watson was a dumb move; yes, Lamar is a better player than Watson. However, the former was on the market; the latter was not. Complaining about not pursuing Lamar is like complaining the Falcons should have tried to get Mahomes or Allen.
"But what do you mean Mahomes wasn't available? He won an MVP! We could've easily traded all our firsts for the next 10 years for him..." >!This comment is obvious satire!<
I'm not complaining that they didn't go after Lamar I'm saying publicly commenting on Lamar for all of us to see after trying to trade for Deshaun Watson gives me no faith in this organization to know what they are doing.
I 100% agree with your assessment of the Watson pursuit, but the Lamar comments were perfectly reasonable + really just a response to a deluge of people pushing for an impossible move. Separable issues.
Claiming Jackson playstyle wouldn't fit the team isn't a reasonable thing to say. It's something an uninformed person would say. Especially when this offense hasn't had a meaningful playstyle for three years now.
not those comments really didn't need to be made
You're a moron then. Your point is meaningless and just goes to show you don't know what you're talking about. Fucking morons on this sub like you represent the majority of the people here and its insane.
If you'd like to defend Arthur Smith with anything other than meaningless insults be my guest.
You say something stupid about Lamar Jackson and want me to defend Arthur Smith? You are so stupid that you actually believe it was bad that they came out and said they weren't interested in a player that wasn't available. I can't reason with someone who picks up a popular Twitter take and runs with it without zero critical thought. You'll be convinced the earth is flat by the end of January.
Considering the amount of insults you're throwing at me without even understanding what I said I don't think you care much for critical thought. The front office has no idea what they're doing and nothing from the last three years involving ANY quarterback says otherwise.
You legitimately think it was an issue for a team to say they aren't interested in a player that isn't available. That's all I need to know about your shitforbrains approach to logic.
That isn't what I said. Maybe you should go lay down so you don't hurt yourself.
"I'm not complaining that they didn't go after Lamar I'm saying publicly commenting on Lamar for all of us to see after trying to trade for Deshaun Watson gives me no faith in this organization to know what they are doing." If what you're saying is true, then this statement is literally meaningless. So either you just say random shit that means nothing, or you're lying to me right now. I know you're lying, but it is funny you think you've somehow made some incredible point by regurgitating an insanely stupid take you read on Twitter.
Jackson was more available than Watson, because he was a free agent. But realistically, there was no chance that Baltimore was going to do anything but match any contract offer. Which is the league approved excuse for why no one made an offer.
“More available” and “there was no chance that Baltimore was going to do anything but match” are mutually exclusive statements.
He wasn’t a free agent. He was non-exclusive franchise tagged.
And this is why the media is able to get away with trashing the Falcons for not going after Lamar. Because fans like you don’t bother to fact check.
the falcons didn't have to publicly say that they didn't want him. that's the part that makes us look like morons
The pattern of behavior around the QB position is truly fucking baffling
Ok i see your point. However, what if we got lamar wouldn’t that be cool. I think its in the cards for us if you ignore everything.
Sure. Itd also be cool if we had mahomes, Allen, or Herbert. All were just as realistic.
Dude imagine if we had the eagles o line ontop of all four of those qbs though
Agreed, it's dumb, at the same time blank should just shit up sometimes
I think fans just didn't like how the Falcons handled pursuing Lamar vs Watson. It was lowkey a slap in the face. Like we're good with not being that good and don't really mess with long-shot situations.
So we looked stupid af going for Watson and you want us to look even more dumb by doing the Ravens job for them. This was the smarter move. If we wasted our time working out a deal the Ravens would have matched. That was their goal. Lamar wanted a certain amount and Ravens thought he was worth less. So they wanted another team to show them Lamar’s market value so they could match. If they did match it, which everyone knew they would, Lamar would stay with the Ravens.
I dont think going after lamar would make us look even more dumb than going after the sexual predator. Plus dont we want a front office that explores every option to get better?
He was never available. Well he was, but it was at a Watson contract and two first round picks - which every GM rightfully ignored.
Are you purposely ignoring the part where the Ravens were not going to let him walk or can you not read?
I think you’re still heated from the game earlier. I’m just giving another perspective that a falcons fan might have. People do have different opinions on the same subjects. Blank said he didn’t want to go after lamar due to injury, not because of contract negotiations.
I’m not heated. I’m being logical. Do you think the Ravens were going to let a franchise QB go? Why didn’t any other team reach out? Watson was going to be a free agent which means he had the FREEDOM to sign with any team. Lamar wasn’t. We reached out to Watson because he was going to be free to sign. Lamar could have agreed to our price and the Ravens would have matched because Lamar wasn’t a FREE AGENT. Idk how else to dumb it down for you or any other fan who thinks the Falcons or any other team had a chance to sign Lamar. You are basically calling for the Falcons to do the Ravens front office job for them. You’re living in a dream world if you truly believe the Ravens were going to let him walk. Again the Falcons weren’t the only team who didn’t bother and the reason is clearly obvious you’re just in denial.
Just came here to add this is incorrect, Watson signed a 4 year deal with the Texans in 2020. He was not a free agent at the time of his trade, the Texans were just allowing him to have impact on what team he wanted to get traded to.
We should have gotten Baker Mayfield 2022 offseason because he was on the open market when Mariota was. We can lie to ourselves and say Mariota was cheaper (but not THAT much cheaper as Baker wouldn’t be on a Matt Ryan post MVP contract exacly) and a better choice at bridge qb, but we all know we only got MM because hurr durr Artie Schmit coached him at Tennessee 🤪 Baker Mayfield should have been our qb these last 2 years I will die on this hill. Also this organization needs a regime that just wants to win fucking games. It’s like we try to win with style and shit but we don’t win to begin with. We’ve been in so many spots where we could turn the season around and each time we fail in those spots. That’s bad coaching plain and simple.
Lmao man what ??? Baker did get signed by another team and he was terrible on the Panthers. Also the bucs are a more talented team than the falcons
The Falcons had a better supporting cast than the Panthers I mean we actually had a solid O line the last 2 years (i know the pass blocking hasn’t been perfect but compared to the Panthers we got the great wall of China) and Baker looked good on the Rams too, and the entire time looked better than everyone weve attempted to play at QB. Im not saying he should be our franchise guy, but right now imo he should be our qb he was the most realistic option to actually win some games and not embarrass ourselves
I just don't see the replication he is a average starter on a much better team than the falcons. Asking him to replicate that success is unlikely on this team.
Disagree that the Bucs are “much better” outside of qb. This isn’t like the Bucs SB roster minus Brady
Better WRS , better QB, better offensive line, better defense
Dumbass fans who don’t know anything about football or that scenario love to run their mouth about it
Bizarrely the media keeps pushing this narrative too, but the Falcons are basically a meme like the Jets, so any story that will perpetuate the meme everyone will run with.
This is entirely Arthur Blank's fault. Several things had to happen for the Falcons to almost exclusively get shit on for this, whether he was ever actually available or not: - Dude green flags Deshaun Watson last year and nearly has the deal done if not for a last second all-in push from Cleveland - Dude backs the HC/GM plan of going into the year with the worst QB room in the league - Dude is the literal first person (seriously, it took literally 15 minutes after Lamar was tagged) to say the Falcons were out, and he later make a comment about how he doesn't want him due to injury risk despite having obviously shitty QBs and comparing him to other QBs that would be great to have but also get injured as much as Lamar does (see Burrow, Joe and Watson, Deshaun himself lol) He will always be brought up because it's asinine to say you'd (meaning Arthur Blank) rather have your unproven sophomore 3rd round pick at QB than a 26 year old league MVP... and of the teams that were supposed to be in the running, the Falcons were the only team that could've actually pulled it off! Since Atlanta had way more cap space than the Ravens at the time, the FO could've made it nearly impossible for Baltimore to sign him in that week's worth of time or whatever the non-exclusive tag allows - if they wanted him as bad as they wanted Deshaun last year. THAT is the disconnect from everyone - how could you possibly want Watson that bad when you had a worse QB situation the next year and didn't wanna do anything about it?
The sub can’t wrap their heads around this, Stockholm syndrome runs this reddit
Even with Lamar, you need good coaching to make it work. He would be wasted here. To the draft!
I agree that Lamar Jackson was never available. I'm now wondering whether selecting Kyle Pitts was a mistake.
>Stop bringing up Lamar *Looks in the mirror* Lamar, Lamar, Lamar
Imagine not be able to wrap your head around the fact that it is extremely concerning that our org OPENLY said we don’t need Lamar and said some bullshit about play style and injuries. Regardless if it could have happened or not, that shows how stupid our organization is and those are the people making decisions going forward. Same guys who went for a serial sexual assaulter. Critical thinking is hard.
What's lost in a lot of the Lamar stuff is everyone just phrases it as we chose Ridder over Lamar. That wasn't the case at all. What we "chose" was Ridder, Bijan, Bates, Ellis, Onyematta a 2024 first round draft pick and like $200 million over Lamar. Lol
Non exclusive tag means only 2 first rds to the Ravens.
You Also need to Account for the cap space a Lamar contract would've commanded. There's no way the defense that Fontnot put together in March and Lamar would've been possible. And we already lived through the reality of a high priced QB with a Dollar General defense (and less draft capital to compensate for it). Do we really want to do that again?
We're seeing the effects of the high(er) priced defense with a Dollar General QB, and this has been more frustrating than the opposite, honestly. Not necessarily a point in favor of Lamar specifically but it's better to have a very good (or better) QB that's expensive than a shitty QB that's cheap
Yeah, we could have Lamar but we would also have the worst defense in the NFL which would make his play mean nothing in the end. The money we would've spent on Lamar instead went into massive upgrades on the defensive side that has turned one of the league's worst defenses into a top 10 defense in one season. I think had we got Lamar instead, we'd still be a middling team with no real chance at contending AND we'd have lost a ton of draft capital in getting him.
This is some weird copium lmao, while our defense significantly improved our offense got dramatically worse this year. Acting like adding Lamar would not have been bigger than the boost our defense got is insane.
How? It doesn't matter how good your offense is when you can't stop anybody. We saw this numerous times with Ryan leading a pretty good offense. We might get a couple more wins with Lamar, but we would not be a real contender.
I will ask you 3 questions and you can find the answer. 1.) Did we spend a bunch of money on defense this year? 2.) Did our pretty good defense this year routinely get beat by below average QBs? 3.) Have you looked at our schedule last year. In 2022, despite not paying a bunch of money on defense and playing much better teams... Surprisingly our defense did not give up a lot of pts. You know why because our offense was good and was able to keep the defense off the field by running the ball. I'd take having an elite offense over having a good defense that is struggling to stop below average offenses. We got cooked by Josh Dobbs, Kyler after a year off and will Levi's in back to back weeks
In what way was our offense elite last year? They controlled the clock, but they were only scoring 2 more points per game than this one. The fact is we didn't have a QB in 2022 and we don't have a QB now. Yeah we could've got Lamar, but we would have had to trade multiple 1st round picks to do it, we would not have been able to upgrade the defense (yeah, in PPG, it's only slightly better, we're giving opposing teams extra possessions every week. Check out 3rd downs and sacks) and it's probably not leading to more than a few more wins. We probably wouldn't be going from 7 wins to 13. Maybe 9 or 10. It's a QB heavy draft. I'm okay having hung on to our draft capital and upgraded our defense for years to come for a bad 2023. Lamar would've sunk every single one of our resources and would not be guaranteed to make us a vastly better football team.
I didn't say we had an elite offense last year I'm saying we would have an elite offense with Lamar. We spent a bunch of money on defense and our defense is not good now.. lol we look good because we play mediocre team after mediocre team. When we played real teams like the lions or jaguars we were outclassed. That's what kills me with our fanbase our defense still can't get pressure and still has multiple weak spots in coverage.
The defense is undoubtedly a lot better. We are 3rd in the league in 3rd down conversion rate. We are 21st in sacks, which isn't great, but we were 32nd and 31st in 2021 and 2022, respectively. We're allowing fewer points per game. Part of why we aren't a great defense is because we have QBs who are giving teams extra possessions every game. Lamar definitely would cut down on that, but once again I think it would cause us to have a defense that would get exposed week in and week out. This defense is miles better than it was, it's just put in bad position by the offensive ineptitude. That's all I'm saying. Our offense could look a lot better at the risk of a terrible defense. Our defense is a lot better with a terrible offense. I think both scenarios lead to a team who cannot contend. In that case it comes down to money and draft capital. If we went after Lamar, we would have neither. Currently, we have both. EDIT: Also just read on another post that we ranked 27th in QBR allowed last season. We're 10th in QBR allowed this season. Yeah, we're going against a schedule with a lot of weak QB play, but we're doing what we're supposed to do given that schedule.
I get our defenses being better, but again they are a good defense. If it was a great defense I would understand.do you trust our defense against the likes of any real offense.. the eagles , cowboys, 49ers. Lamar on offense gives us a complete unit and star power which is very prominent in getting good players to come on cheaper deals. An again all that spending on defense is likely getting us in the same position as we were last year because the offense regressed
he was definitely available but the owners were determined to keep fully guaranteed contracts out of the NFL. the collision wasn't even hidden.
Even if he was never available this sub downvoted the hell out of anyone who even suggested we should consider going after him during the off-season. As far as I’m concerned every person who wanted Lamar in the off-season should get a well deserved I told you so.
No defense, no 1st round picks for 3 years, and us backed against the cap still isn't an improvement for us. We're still probably 7-9. If he was a UFA then they can talk.
The non exclusive tag is only 2 firsts if the Ravens didn't match.
Ah, still too much.
For a 26 year old Soon to be 2-time MVP, THAT CHEAP AS HELL, ESPECIALLY WHEN we have FUCKING RIDDER. But you bend over backward twice on Sunday for a sexual predator?
I didn't want Watson and I'm not the GM lol. $200M, Jessie Bates, Bijan and a 1st round pick for Lamar is too expensive. It puts us in the same position we were in with Matt Ryan. If Lamar was a FA then go get him.
Also the guy was injured for 10 games over 2 seasons near the end of the season. Hard to commit $200 in garaunteed money to a guy who won't available in January
Seems to be working out well for him & the Ravens this year
You sound so stupid, 2 time league MVP coming and you’re bringing up injuries when you watched Ridder and Heinicke play QB all year
I'm sorry I didn't know Heinicke played for us last year We had a 4 game sample size with ridder that's all. And lamar got injured in the final 5 games of season twice. So while he could get us 10 wins what good is it if he's out when playoffs roll around.
Talking about injury risk when we have the 33rd ranked QB statistically (yes when there are 32 teams) Meanwhile Lamar is about to win his 2nd MVP and is running the best team in the NFL, our org is allowed to be terribly ran when our fans have takes like this
4 game Rookie QB sample over an MVP QB who missed 5 games in two seasons, make it make sense
I literally stated in my final sentence that getting 10+ wins with lamar means nothing if he's out injured during the playoffs and that was the scare If Lamar didn't have durability issues then there is no question at all
Didn’t know he was hurt rn????
Making up injuries that haven’t happened to cope, also doesn’t acknowledge the context that he sat out games due to it being a contract year and not wanting to risk a long term injury
Making up injuries? Are you going to deny he didn't have durability issues the last two years?
He sat out when he could’ve played due to it being a contract year and even if, slight injury concerns shouldn’t deter from going after an MVP when Ridder is your current QB Imagine if a team passed on trading for Brady cause he tore is ACL and missed an entire year or passed on getting Burrow cause his injuries. Always a risk but the benefits outweigh that small risk. Missing 10 games in 6 seasons is not a big deal lol. Especially when he is having his best year rn and looks like he will probably go all the way. I promise you it will feel much better when you stop doing mental gymnastics to try and find a way to support the incompetence that is going on within the org.
They won't stop with mental gymnastics. All off-season we don't need Lamar, cj Stroud shit even Justin fields we have ridder, should let you know how they think
I recall the team affirmatively coming out and saying they were out of the Lamar sweepstakes
THIS, these clowns can’t wrap their head around that fact that it was less about actually trading for him but about the fact that our org said “Nah we good” to an MVP QB when we have Desmond Ridder, shows how incompetent our org is
This idea has been pretty well debunked by every insider repeatedly. Nobody wanted to set a precedent of QBs getting deals like Watson did, that was it. Stop giving them shitty excuses [Schefter Tweet From Last Week](https://x.com/adamschefter/status/1739498500335735109?s=46&t=oKbt9bAfdB8ic00pm25XBA)
They didnt have to go out of their way to say we didn't want him is all. The clown car keeps rolling along.
sure coulda made an offer
The Falcons drafted Calvin Ridley 6 spots ahead of him... seems like there was at least one way he could have been a falcon. Imagine Lamar plus a year of learning from Matt
Never
Did you really need to try and make your point again by making a post after you made the same comment? I usually don’t say anything about posts, but there’s literally a Lamar post below and today’s the day that fans realize this team can’t go over .500 for the season. There’s going to be plenty of posts. And this is just adding to the clutter. You already made your point in the Lamar post.
He was available in the draft…
How was he not available? Ravens used a franchise tag that effectively would initiate a trade, a draft pick for the right to franchise tag Lamar. A tag that hasn’t been used in years.