BakoSaint

Rattler and Shough are both raffle tickets with a 1 in 20 shot to be franchise QBs, at best. Its smart to take those kind of shots but dumb to watch one highlight reel from college or scrimmage and pretend that a longshot is a sure bet. Whichever of the two show the most, depending on what they show this year, we could go into next year looking at one of them as a starter who need a backup with upside, a possible starter who needs competition, or we could be looking for a new de-facto started in 2026. Even in the best of those cases, where one looks good enough to position themselves as the defacto started for 2026, its still more like they would become the next Derek Anderson, Jake Delhomme, Jake Plummer, Jason Campbell, Jacoby Brisset, Jay Cutler, Kyle Orton, Will Levis, Alex Smith, etc than a franchise QB. Some middle round pick QBs become stars. Some star QBs take awhile to develop. Some lose their first 6 games. Some enter the NFL at an older age after many college injuries. But stack all those factors and what we have are major longshots. Lets just take the shots, enjoy the show, and know that if they fail, we will have a high pick. Thats the beauty of leaving the insurance policy place by not cancelling it.

Arch is unlikely to enter the 2025 draft unless he has an amazing, likely national championship season, where he has more to lose than to gain by playing another year of college. His uncles played 4 years, but still had more to prove their senior year. But if he does win a natty, there will also be the temptation to attempt a repeat. So, its unlikely he will be available. But if your QBs fail and we have a top pick, often there are other QBs who will emerge. Neither Burrow not Daniels was considered a likely early first round pick before their senior year. There is a fair chance someone will emerge. If they don't we can use the pick on a key position player and continue to rebuild. Or we can try to find the right QB in free agency, those please not a 10 year loser like Carr was.

dizzle88

Not only are neither of these guys likely to be the franchise QB, we are also putting them behind an O line where neither Guard spot can play to even an average level.

It's a recipe for disaster.

How Ruiz still has a starting job is beyond me, he's awful

AsylumGuido

What this speaks to is the scarcity of guard talent in the NFL today. As horrible as Ruiz appears, PFF currently ranks him as the 30th best guard in the league. I feel pretty confident that if Kellen Moore believes we had a better option on our roster or available by other means they would be starting instead. And I'm not saying that's a good thing. It's just a predicament that far too many NFL teams are facing today. There have been a number of articles written recently pertaining to the dearth of offensive line talent. Most refer to the migration of the most gifted big men to the defensive side of the ball in college and even at the high school level.

In other words, we're stuck with both Ruiz and Penning until better options are found.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

dizzle88

I don't really trust PFF scores, when anyone can see Ruiz is a liability to whichever QB is back there.

He ended Brees's Career and he'll end up getting one of the young QBs injured too

AsylumGuido

I don't disagree with any of that. That's what makes matters worse. We don't have another guard to place back there that is any less of a liability. PFF rankings aren't saying he's good, but simply that all but 29 others are just as bad or worse. Most of the teams fan forums are complaining about the same thing .... their own holes on the offensive line.

AsylumGuido

Great input here from Underhill and Triplett. They talk about the importance of McCoy to the overall offensive line play, especially with young QB's. Coverage calls lies heavily upon his shoulders because the QB's simply don't have the identification abilities practiced yet. They said the two breakdowns that appeared to come by Ruiz were stunts from Fuaga's man.

AsylumGuido

In case you don't have the 40 minutes to watch the whole thing ...

neugey

QB is actually #4 on my list of worries behind ...
1) can we protect the QB (especially with sketchy guard situations)?
2) can we stuff the run?
3) are the CB's good enough to not become a major deficiency?

rezburna

We need better Guard play. That's step one. This team should be built around Kelvin Banks and Taliese Fuaga. Both QB's have added pressure due to our inability to run the football. The lack of interior push is a major factor in that. I'm praying Devin Neal is exactly what he was in a college.

Also, this team needs to push the ball down the field. That's when they seem to be a their best. They look really good when they're just letting it rip. It backs the defenders up and opens up things underneath, including designed runs and QB scrambles. This team and organization lacks identity. They need to figure out who they are and who they want to be ASAP.

"The first need of a free people is to define their own terms.” - Stokely Carmichael

AsylumGuido

Here's where Erik McCoy comes into play. Here's a good piece on countering a DE/DT stunt.

Carson Tyler

Typically it’s fairly simple. Good communication and technique amongst the Guard, the Tackle, and sometimes the Center.

You want to see them moving in unison at the start of the play, basically like robots. Their hips should be square and they should be balanced with good knee bend. Think of a simplified goal of gap integrity. Each lineman is responsible for protecting a gap in the line pre-snap and blocking a corresponding defender.

When facing a stunt, if the offensive line has good vision and can see what’s going on, then the tackle (or whichever lineman is initially blocking the stunting defensive lineman) will immediately see when the defender commits to the stunt, make a switch call with the lineman next to him, and square up the new defender who is picking up where the stunting defender left off.

In turn, the guard (or whichever offensive lineman has the responsibility of picking up the switch call) identifies the new assignment and squares up the stunting defender.

A stunt takes a bit of time to develop, when the DE makes the move and cuts inside towards a middle gap. So, it’s critical for the offensive linemen to work as a unit and stay disciplined and square to avoid overcommitting and turning their shoulders too early. The moment, say, a guard overcommits, turns his hips and shoulders at an angle, and inadvertently double teams a defensive tackle, the line is vulnerable to a stunting end who can blow by that guard down the middle.

Note that the center still has a role of organizing the line pre-snap to guard the stunt. As an example, say the offensive line is facing a 4 player defensive front, and the defense runs a stunt with both DEs crashing the middle gap and the DTs taking the corresponding edges. The Center must make a choice - square up the left DE or the right DE. Once the Center picks a side/DE, that’s a 3v2 matchup on that side of the offensive line - on the other side of the line, it’s a 2v2 matchup. Ideally the guards are on the same page and know who has the extra help from the Center.

But, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how disciplined the tackles and the guards are about switching their assignments on a stunt if a guard is being completely overpowered at the LOS before the stunt even begins. In this situation, the defensive line is going to get pressure. The offensive line is simply in no position to make a switch to pick up the stunt.

So, like every other concept in football, it’s a combination of strategy, technique, intelligence, and winning individual 1v1 matchups.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill