It could have been us

[greediron]

Absolutely not. Our poor Oline play, lack of defensive depth and inconsistency running game takes us out of any post season success not to mention winning the superbowl. We are at least two years out of sniffing the big dance.
Very happy for Sam.

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100%

I think our D was good enough, not Seattle's level, but close.  But no way Darnold would have stayed together without a LT, constant change up front and KOC's deep drops.  Darnold was managed very heavily to keep his melt downs in check.  NE defense had him rattled, but the run game and defense of Seattle won the game for them.

[CFIAvike]

Vikings averaged more yards per carry than the Seahawks, but still ran the ball 100 times less. It's the commitment more than the talent. Plus, I'm convinced the Vikings will add a starting RB in free agency next month.

It's probably more commitment than talent.  But Jones isn't a spring chicken and Mason showed limited burst, IMO.  KOC's offense is  unfortunately predicated on hitting homeruns, and I don't feel like he thinks that's possible with our running game. Nor does it seem like he feels we have the personnel in the running game to set up homeruns in the passing game.

KOC isn't unintelligent.  He has to know that a solid running game only helps with the passing game, yet he absolutely refuses to commit to it.  I can only surmise that he feels its a personnel/effectiveness issue.  Regardless, this area of our team is holding us back

[purplefaithful]

Too bad KAM didnt dip into that deep well of RB's the last draft...Not up there with trading down and passing on Hamilton, but another nail in the coffin imo. And we still dont have that heir apparent for Harry.

Jones has been too old the last 2 years and Mason is a change of pace guy, not RB1.

No field tilters at rb + OL injuries + lack of commitment to run made it easier on D's than it should have been (and 2x as hard for JJM & Jettas.)

[JimmyinSD]

Too bad KAM didnt dip into that deep well of RB's the last draft...Not up there with trading down and passing on Hamilton, but another nail in the coffin imo. And we still dont have that heir apparent for Harry.

Jones has been too old the last 2 years and Mason is a change of pace guy, not RB1.

No field tilters at rb + OL injuries + lack of commitment to run made it easier on D's than it should have been (and 2x as hard for JJM & Jettas.)

very happy with my starting OG from the first round last year,  he had chances later, but more pressing positions to take wild swings at.

[MaroonBells]

Too bad KAM didnt dip into that deep well of RB's the last draft...Not up there with trading down and passing on Hamilton, but another nail in the coffin imo. And we still dont have that heir apparent for Harry.

Jones has been too old the last 2 years and Mason is a change of pace guy, not RB1.

No field tilters at rb + OL injuries + lack of commitment to run made it easier on D's than it should have been (and 2x as hard for JJM & Jettas.)

I know not all of us agreed that taking a back in last year's watershed RB class was important. But here was my point then (and now), and why I think we'll tap into the free agent class of backs instead of the draft. Some RBs just take some time. I'm not going to put Jeanty in that category because his offensive line was historically bad, but someone like Tre Henderson. Really good, high 2nd round talent. But even he didn't have much impact until mid-season. Assuming we move on from Aaron Jones, we need a day-one starter. It's a good free agent class of RBs with Breece Hall, Travis Etienne and Kenneth Walker III.

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Could it have been us?  Maybe.  I think there’s a lot of ifs and buts.  I think the defense was there and ready.  I’m not sure Darnold survives a whole season behind that Oline (as it ended up being due to injuries, not blaming roster construction).  Mostly, I’m just skeptical that KOC can create a winning gameplan on offense.  He’s just so one dimensional that I think it creates limitations in the offense against good teams, which is who you need to be good against.  I just don’t think a KOC run offense (as we’ve seen it up until now) is really robust enough to win 3 games in a row against playoff caliber teams.  I think you run into a good defense and they’ll take away those deep balls, Darnold would get hit a lot and mistakes would happen.  I think Seattle put Darnold in a position to succeed and it worked.  I don’t think KOC would have pivoted to an offense that would have worked.

I think winning a SB isn’t just about beating the Patriots, which was probably the most doable part of the equation, but also getting there.  I really hope that KOC can take this SB as a learning experience and learn to build an offense that is multiple and works to maximize what the players he has.

On a side note, I’ve been kind of plagued by where we should focus on the draft?  Our offense was underperforming, should we give them more help?  Or should we give Flores some quality picks so he doesn’t have to make magic out of nothing every year.  I’m much more tempted now to give Flores a couple more talented prospects and just see what he can do with them.  I'd love to see his scheme with some more elite talent.

Agree. Right now I'd like to see us keep Hock (the net savings to cut or trade him is negligible), give Brandel the center position (then draft a center in the mid-to-late rounds, sign a free agent RB like Hall, Etienne or Walker. Then just draft defense like there's no tomorrow. At least with the first three picks. A starting DL, LB and DB could add some real bite to an already good defense.

[medaille]

And good health is mostly about luck too. And the QB? I've been saying for 20 years that there are only two kinds of QBs in the NFL. Those you can win with and those you can't. And IMO the amount of QBs in the first column far outnumbers the QBs in the second. I think the last two Super Bowl victories have shown that you don't need some "elite" QB if the other pieces are there. 

About the draft, you may be right. But considering how many players are considered 1st rounders (17 according to one source), I could see us trading back slightly to pick up even more roster-building day two picks if a certain few players are not on the board at 18. 

To get another 3rd, we'd have to move down about 4 or 5 spots. To get another 2nd, we'd have to move to the end of the 1st round. Fans are not going to have much appetite for that though.

I've been saying that forever,  give me a team with the salary cap balanced to allow better quality players overall and especially in the DL and OL,  and you dont need a high money QB or RB, receivers even,  but having a JJ that can tilt a D is a huge plus, even if they dont take full advantage of the talent he's got.  Same goes for D,  get stops and pressure with a front 4 and every ones jobs behind them gets a lot easier.

I would love to see 3 of our first 4 picks go to OL and DL,  with that 4th going LB or DB.  None on QB, WR,  or RB.

Obviously, you don’t need an elite QB to win a SB, but if you don’t have an elite QB, you probably need everything else to go right, and your odds of everything else going right aren’t great.  If you bring in a Kirk Cousins, who by all accounts was in that same tier that Darnold appears to be in, how many years did we try that and just didn’t quite have enough?  An elite QB is probably carrying you to the playoffs every year, unless things are really bad, and they can mitigate the subpar play of others to a much greater degree.

That said, I think teams with non-elite QBs are much more limited by the QB’s non-eliteness than they are by the cap constraints.  I think those non-elite guys just find ways to lose games.

[JimmyinSD]

Obviously, you don’t need an elite QB to win a SB, but if you don’t have an elite QB, you probably need everything else to go right, and your odds of everything else going right aren’t great.  If you bring in a Kirk Cousins, who by all accounts was in that same tier that Darnold appears to be in, how many years did we try that and just didn’t quite have enough?  An elite QB is probably carrying you to the playoffs every year, unless things are really bad, and they can mitigate the subpar play of others to a much greater degree.

That said, I think teams with non-elite QBs are much more limited by the QB’s non-eliteness than they are by the cap constraints.  I think those non-elite guys just find ways to lose games.

you cant pay kirk his top of the game money and still build talent at the other positions.  Darnolds hit this year was cheap,  a lot of their pieces were already in place so it works.  If Kirk would have played for 20 million a year instead of the big money he got,  they could have been much more competitive with him.  as far as you elite/non elite... well if you are able to take the ball out of their hands by having a better team around him,  obviously it worked.  Sam had a 50% completion mark yesterday,  only threw for about 200 yards and he gets a ring,  about the only thing you can say is he didnt lose them the game, hardly a remark about an elite QB,  but it worked.