CharVike wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:27 pm
VikingLord wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 11:58 am
So if KOC is really doing what he says he's doing (which I have no doubt he is), then he also must know how difficult it is to find a single prospect with any certainty. Not to say he can't find a player who has more potential than another player, but so much at the QB position comes down not just to coachable fundamentals, but to intangibles that are much harder to properly assess in young players coming out of college. I'm talking about leadership. Guts. Field vision. Willingness to put in extra work above and beyond what is required of them.
Look at this upcoming QB class. People say it is a deep class at the top, but to me it looks like a pretty flat class with several players who don't really stand out relative to each other. All have notable strengths paired with notable question marks. So maybe KOC is better than most at reading the tea leaves with this group to find a guy who stands out from his peers in meaningful ways. I'd like to believe that he is. I just don't think this is an easy year to make that call. It's a deeper pool of QB prospects at the top, sure, but two factors still make it much harder for KOC to find the next GOAT at QB - he doesn't enjoy a top spot in the draft and even if he did he still couldn't draft the most obvious QB talent which is Caleb Williams. So he's got to find a less obvious talent and, barring KAM finding a willing trade partner, hope that talent falls to where he can select him.
Very tough task ahead of both KAM and KOC in this draft. I know some have pointed out that it would have been hard for KAM and KOC to have avoided being in this situation where their hand is forced at QB, but I still wish they were not forced.
If the Bears get offered enough they would trade that pick. Our 11 and 23 won't do it but it's a start.
There is no way the Bears trade the first pick, and even if they were inclined to do it it wouldn't be to the Vikings.
Besides, I don't think even Caleb Williams is a lock to become a star. Yeah, he can go off-script and make plays, but I'm not sold that he isn't just a different type of "Geoff George" at the QB position. George had amazing arm talent too, but he lacked any ability to connect with or lead a team. He was selfish as a player and a person. Also, as much fun as it may be to watch a QB ad-lib his way through a game, there is a big difference between a guy like Mahomes doing that on a good team that can absorb the mistakes he makes while ad-libbing and a guy like Mahomes doing that on a bad team that can't. Now granted, I don't know if the Bears will be a good team or a bad team this upcoming season, but if you put Mahomes on the Bears the last few years I don't know that people would be as impressed with the results.
CharVike wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:27 pm
KAM and KOC did nothing to avoid the situation that we are in. They could have kept Cousins and they wouldn't be in a forced situation.
The funniest part of that is they actually *did* keep Cousins. They just didn't want to extend him for another 2 years when Cousins was open to extending for another 2 years, and then didn't count on someone else being willing to offer him a 4 year deal coming off a serious injury. It appears they just made assumptions that proved to be untrue.
CharVike wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2024 1:27 pm
Perhaps it's Sammy and KOC will turn him into a HOFer. Steve Young bounced all over and was a bum his early career.
Very unlikely that Sam Darnold will amount to much at this point. Some QBs who don't make an immediate impact in the pros when given the chance do become serviceable starters in the right situation, and I think that is probably the best the Vikings can hope with Darnold. At the very least, the drop off from Cousins won't be as stark as it was last year when he went out with the injury. But Darnold isn't going to become the next Steve Young.
If anything, Darnold should serve as a cautionary tale for pre-draft QB evaluators. Darnold was taken very high the draft he came out. Many people were confident he would turn into an impact starter at some point. Darnold is living proof about how hard it is to make the right call at the QB position. Just look at who was drafted where in 2018 when Darnold was chosen to see how risky it would be for KAM to trade the farm to move up in this year's draft:
Baker Mayfield was taken 1st overall by the Browns
Sam Darnold was taken 3rd overall by the Jets
Josh Allen was taken 7th overall by the Bills
Josh Rosen was taken 10th overall by the Cardinals
Lamar Jackson was taken 32nd overall by the Ravens
3 out of the 5 QBs taken in the first round, including the first 2 taken, ended up not making much of an impact. 1 of them (Rosen) didn't even make it to the 2nd season with the team that drafted him. That was considered a pretty deep QB class too, with 4 of the first 10 picks in that year's draft spent on QBs.
I love the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". In that movie there is a scene where a sorcerer named Tim takes King Arthur his knights to the Cave of Cairbanur (sp?) and warns them that they'll have to get past a fierce monster that guards the cave. When they reach the cave Arthur finds out the terrible monster is a little white rabbit, at which point the knights all start to laugh and make fun of Tim for getting them all worked up about how hard it would be to enter the cave. Tim tries to warn them saying "Look at the bones!" as there are tons of skeletal remains around the rabbit, but Arthur is dismissive and sends out one of his knights to kill the rabbit. The rabbit suddenly attacks the guy and bites off his head, at which point all of Arthur's knights charge in. Some are killed until Arthur tells them to all run away.
It's funny, but it reminds me of this pre-draft process. It looks easy, and for trained professionals, it should be easy, but it's not. All of the bones lying around from past drafts prove it.
Edit: for those who want a laugh -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg