Just as conflicted as a lot of you here. Hard to swallow bringing on such a scumbag, which I think is the minimum fair term for the guy, no matter what degree of sexual misconduct you have decided he committed. But that's not what I logged in to say. I wanted to address some of the football-oriented criticism about how this was a bad move re: organizational strategy.
With Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Jackson, Herbert in the AFC, we were not getting to the SB with Mayfield. I'm very thankful we had him here in 2018, and he is a big reason for the turn-around in culture. He just has a ceiling, and wasn't gonna be the guy to take us to the next level. Don't wish to argue. I'm sure some of you are still believers. But the all22's from 2020 and 2021 convinced me, and none of your arguments will change what I saw. Only elite play on his new team would do that.
Based on that, rolling the dice with a huge payout & traded picks for an elite QB was exactly the right move as a franchise. Now this team has pieces to compete for a SB over the next couple years. After that, we'll face serious attrition, and our success will depend on the ability to grow our own talent. It could crash and burn. And of course, Watson could decide to force his way out again if the team around him falls apart. But all of that is ok, because you want to be top 5 or bottom 5 in this league, not in the middle. With Baker, we were in the middle. With a Garropolo, or Cousins, or whoever, we would be in the middle. This has the potential to put us at the top, and failing that, will send us all the way to the bottom. This is why it makes so much sense from a long-term team-building strategy standpoint.
| 
