Ah I might have missed that.
RB room is worse in that case. So is receiver. OZ was terrific for us. OL I’d argue is worse, too.
QB should be better, WR1 eq70, 85 and 51 ual, TE about equal, Center is worse.
The hope is the offense grows under Blough and we stay healthy. One injury to Tunsil, Jayden or McLaurin and we’re in trouble. And yes, I do know you can say that about those three positions on any team… but for this team there really isn’t any hope of any of those guys goes down.
I guess Tunsil is ironically the best suited guy to go down because Conerly can kick to left and Turnstile Wiley can play RT. So we may be best equipped for that.
Jayden is ironically less of an issue than Terry. Mariota can win games.
If Terry goes down, in the current WR situation we are DOA
I know you're down on the Center thing. I personally think it's entirely overblown. I don't think Biadasz was really all that. He was also hurt all the time, played through it though. He wasn't a good run blocker, and picked some fantastic times to completely wiff on inside moves. Standig was on this one early, questioning whether there could be a move there. I don't think it will be addition by subtraction, but I'm not sure it's going to be a drop-off either. My general guess is it's going to hold about the same as it's been. But then, I was never extremely high on Biadasz. And clearly the team thought there was something really not right with the OL last year because they jettisoned both Biadasz and the OL coach. That's actually very interesting. Overall, the OL is better than in 2024 just because of the presence of Tunsil. Having a top 3 LT does wonders for an OL. Paul is competent, Cosmi is the same, and Connerly Jr. looks really good at RT.
Compare that to Coleman, Allegretti, Biadasz, Cosmi and Wylie. Tunsil > Coleman, Connerly > Wylie. Cosmi is constant. LG is going to be a push or upgrade with either Paul or Coleman. So the question is center. Even if it's a little less (and I'm not sure it's even that), then you still have a better starting group in 2026 than in 2024.
I think TE is different, not necessarily better or worse. Ertz was good in small spaces and red zone. He knew how to use his body and get open. But he was slow as a slug, got zero YAC, and didn't draw coverage away from anyone. Chig is the opposite of all of those things. I think you might see a dropoff in redzone efficiency from TE, but they're counting on a big uptick in stretching the field vertically from the middle of the field.
I absolutely disagree with you about the RB room with a caveat: the best RB we've had on the team the last 2 years has been Ekler. But he got hurt and missed more than half the games in both seasons. Somebody of his caliber is not on the roster. But was he really on the roster for the last 2 year? Only kindof. Brian Robinson is replacement level ok. Nothing spectacular. Chris Rodriguez wasn't even that good. White is better than both of them. The combination of White and Bill is better than anything we've had (Absent Ekler), and it's not really that close. And this Kaytron Allen guy might be a really suitable CRod replacement, and maybe even a better CRod. You have to see with Rookies. I think there's no question the RB room is better than 2024.
For WR, I think the passage of time has made the 2024 group look better than they were. And I think this group is as good as that group, probably better.
- OZ really didn't start doing anything of note for the team until week 14. He had 2 good games before then (Arizona - 6/85, @NYG - 2/45.) Other than that, he didn't have a single game with more than 30 yards until week 14. Then he had games for 35, 70, 85, 51. He did ok in the playoffs, though had 0 yards on 2 targets in the game in Detroit. He was good down the stretch after Noah Brown got hurt.
- Noah Brown. Week 14 is the first week Noah Brown missed due to injury. Which correlates exactly to when OZ and DBrown started to produce. Up until that point, Brown was unquestionably the most productive WR other than Terry. ** Which is probably why he was re-signed and OZ was not, though I think that was a bad decision.
- Diyami Brown also didn't do a ton up until Noah Brown got hurt, then he started to do well. And by not a ton, I mean like virtually nothing. Though his best production of the season was the playoffs, and that wasn't close, he went for 89,98 and 42 yards. I think he had more targets/catches/yards in the playoffs than he did the entire rest of the season. He also had a crushing fumble against Philly in the NFC Championship game.
- McCaffery did virtually squat, so he's not worth breaking down.
But the thought that that group of Noah Brown, OZ or DBrown was really that good is not really based in what happened. It might feel that way, but it really wasn't that way. They were ok. OZ and DBrown did almost jack diddly squat until NBrown got hurt.
Do I think this year's "other guys" in the "Terry and those other guys" is at least as good as that group? I see no reason why they couldn't be. Diyami is back, so that's a constant. They have McCaffery in year 3, Lane in year 2, just drafted what most analysts think is a guy who can start right away in Williams, they have Van Jefferson as a professional WR (think Noah Brown) type guy. In fact, Van Jefferson might just be a very slightly better Noah Brown.
What we don't have this year, and we didn't have in 2024, is any answer if Terry goes down. Which in 2024 he didn't, so that question didn't have to get answered. He did in 2025, and we had only a partial answer in Deebo. If we have to answer that question in 2026, it's a disaster.
Anyway, I don't think the 2024 "those guys" are really any better than the 2026 version of "those guys."
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I agree that's what we're hearing, and it might be right. It's also the safe bet. It also could change if they don't like what they see in OTAs and mini-camps.
