4 minutes ago, Freshmilk said:

Should have been done at the end of the season, but they decided to extend him this past December only to cut loose 4 months later. Dombrowski is a dope. Can't believe he isn't gone as well with the past two pitiful off seasons. Phils have become a joke of an organization.

Fair point. The GM's recent moves have been lacking. We play fantasy baseball and some of the stuff he does is ill-advised.

Cap management can largely be done by AI at this point.

4 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

That tweet started wistful but ended dripping in venom

3 minutes ago, Miami said:

Fair point. The GM's recent moves have been lacking. We play fantasy baseball and some of the stuff he does is ill-advised.

Dombrowski’s issues stem from neglecting a RH power bat since hoskins went down and routinely wasting money on the roster on guys like Walker, Romano, Merrifield, Kepler and so on. this year they are paying Walker, Castellanos, Bohm, nola and Alvarado $82 mil and that doesn’t include the luxury tax on them so it’s actually closer to $100 mil. Fans get mad at Middleton for not spending stupid money, but they have spent stupid money. It was just spent stupidly. I can’t be mad at Middleton for not wanting to dish out even more money when I see my general manager/baseball operations guy continuously wasting large amounts of money. They have about $82 million on the roster this year that is worthless.

39 minutes ago, Waiting4Someday said:

Okay, so Mannion who has very little experience already will also be moving away from the system that he's coming up from... okay, I hope he isn't eating sh** by week 4.

Max Klare played in-line at Ohio State, where they run the ball a lot. He's a 2-way TE, that's why he was drafted in the 2nd without even running the 40.

Bell has 1.84 10yd/split, he's slow off the ball, he's not agile - this is not the combination that you want for OZ, as the RB will have to cut it back behind his block consistently. Yes, I see his upside in a high volume passing offense - but I thought we were trying to fix the run game schematically and that's why we moved on from Stout.

How is he moving away from his system? The teams running this system are adding the same types of players.

Klare is not a good blocker. He's a receiving TE, definitely not a "2 way" TE -- I'm not sure where you're getting this from, but Klare is NOT some in-line TE who is going to be a good blocker in the NFL. He sucks as a blocker just like Stowers. Klare is basically the same exact style of player as Stowers, just way less athletic and smooth compared to Stowers. Basically, a worse version of the same style of player.

15 minutes ago, Mike030270 said:

He had more passing yards, better comp %, and more passing yards/game than Hurts in 2025

What's your point?

Just now, greend said:

What's your point?

Simply Rodgers played better than Hurts in those categories 🤷‍♂️

I'd imagine Howie knew these were coming. Teams usually make front office changes right after the draft. Halaby is very close with Howie so he probably let him know in advance to prepare to replace him.

8 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

Dombrowski’s issues stem from neglecting a RH power bat since hoskins went down and routinely wasting money on the roster on guys like Walker, Romano, Merrifield, Kepler and so on. this year they are paying Walker, Castellanos, Bohm, nola and Alvarado $82 mil and that doesn’t include the luxury tax on them so it’s actually closer to $100 mil. Fans get mad at Middleton for not spending stupid money, but they have spent stupid money. It was just spent stupidly. I can’t be mad at Middleton for not wanting to dish out even more money when I see my general manager/baseball operations guy continuously wasting large amounts of money. They have about $82 million on the roster this year that is worthless.

True. He needs to step up his game in analytics. Would help a lot and save money too. #Moneyball.

36 minutes ago, greend said:

He's not even very good anymore.

Move on Steelers

$15M for a starting QB with his experience is a pretty good deal. Sure, he's not the best player in the NFL anymore, but if he were, he'd cost 4 times as much.

Some FAs I'd poke around at:

Taylor Rapp S

AJ Epenesa Edge

Yetur Gross-Matos Edge

Michael Jordan G

Jay Tufele DT

I don't really like where the DL depth is. You're 3 deep on the interior with Davis, Carter, and Ojomo. If one of them gets injured, there's almost nothing behind them.

1 hour ago, Waiting4Someday said:

Lemon is clearly a slot, but who is he mirroring in the SF/GB/LAR schemes. Stowers is clearly a F type, not Kittles or Kraft or the slew of Y types that the Rams are amassing. Bell is not in the same zip code as a OZ lineman.

So, to my point - it appears that Howie is collecting players that are not a match to what we thought Mannion is selling.

Howie has said he sees Lemon playing on the outside. I doubt its in any full time capacity, but maybe they think he can develop to be more like Aiyuk. On the low end you probably have a player similar to Randall Cobb if Lemon can't develop on the outside. The Eagles have a small collection of Y types they are starting with Mundt and to some degree Latu. The Bell one is a head scratcher. He's a mammoth of a human, but not quick.

1 minute ago, Miami said:

True. He needs to step up his game in analytics. Would help a lot and save money too. #Moneyball.

I would fire him at the end of the year. Tbh I’d fire him before that cause I don’t want him making decisions at the deadline because he hasn’t shown me he is good enough at evaluating prospects in trades and we are likely sellers not buyers.

But I have a feeling he is going to be back next year. If Kevin Long survived this (he has been the biggest culprits to their hitting problems) and their hitting has been the biggest issue over the last three years then I imagine because Middleton likes Dombrowski that he is going to be back. But the reason the Phillies are going to have long-term issues is because you can’t keep giving out bad contracts, especially if your farm system isn’t producing at the level to be able to absorb that. The Phillies farm system may be better than what it was previous regime but, it is still one of the bottom half in the league. You could absorb some of those bad contracts and still win/be competitive if you’re a top 10 farm system and you guys are producing. But you’re not and you’re giving out bad contracts. That is a recipe to have a long stint as bad.

8 minutes ago, TEW said:

How is he moving away from his system? The teams running this system are adding the same types of players.

Klare is not a good blocker. He's a receiving TE, definitely not a "2 way" TE -- I'm not sure where you're getting this from, but Klare is NOT some in-line TE who is going to be a good blocker in the NFL. He sucks as a blocker just like Stowers. Klare is basically the same exact style of player as Stowers, just way less athletic and smooth compared to Stowers. Basically, a worse version of the same style of player.

He thought Klare was a good blocker for the same reason that I think Dejean gets moved safety permanently

@Joe Ball

7 minutes ago, Mike030270 said:

Simply Rodgers played better than Hurts in those categories 🤷‍♂️

6 minutes ago, TEW said:

$15M for a starting QB with his experience is a pretty good deal. Sure, he's not the best player in the NFL anymore, but if he were, he'd cost 4 times as much.

9 minutes ago, Mike030270 said:

Simply Rodgers played better than Hurts in those categories 🤷‍♂️

7 minutes ago, TEW said:

$15M for a starting QB with his experience is a pretty good deal. Sure, he's not the best player in the NFL anymore, but if he were, he'd cost 4 times as much.

1. Who said Hurts was any good?

2. Rodgers is another year older, think he got better?

3. I didn't realize the goal was to have a cheap diva at quarterback

2 minutes ago, Waiting4Someday said:

Lemon is clearly a slot, but who is he mirroring in the SF/GB/LAR schemes. Stowers is clearly a F type, not Kittles or Kraft or the slew of Y types that the Rams are amassing. Bell is not in the same zip code as a OZ lineman.

So, to my point - it appears that Howie is collecting players that are not a match to what we thought Mannion is selling.

Jayden Reed, Cooper Kupp and Amon St. Brown are the types of slot WRs Lemon compares to in a Shanahan system. Stowers doesn't match Kittle but he's not far from Sam LaPorta. I don't think Bell fits the scheme but he's also not a bad mover.

1 minute ago, wussbasket said:

Howie has said he sees Lemon playing on the outside. I doubt its in any full time capacity, but maybe they think he can develop to be more like Aiyuk. On the low end you probably have a player similar to Randall Cobb if Lemon can't develop on the outside. The Eagles have a small collection of Y types they are starting with Mundt and to some degree Latu. The Bell one is a head scratcher. He's a mammoth of a human, but not quick.

Sure, you can try Lemon out there - and with the proliferation of off coverage, he might get away with some clean releases but small as you can get at X, and not exactly a burner for a Z. Yeah, you got Goedert and Mundt for this year at least - probably will have to go back to the well down the road.

1 minute ago, NCiggles said:

Jayden Reed, Cooper Kupp and Amon St. Brown are the types of slot WRs Lemon compares to in a Shanahan system. Stowers doesn't match Kittle but he's not far from Sam LaPorta. I don't think Bell fits the scheme but he's also not a bad mover.

Alright - now we just need Jared Goff, I guess.

1 minute ago, greend said:

1. Who said Hurts was any good?

2. Rodgers is another year older, think he got better?

3. I didn't realize the goal was to have a cheap diva at quarterback

The goal is to put together a team within the confines of NFL rules which can win a championship. That means finding players who outperform their contracts. Rodgers certainly can outperform that contract.

6 minutes ago, wussbasket said:

Some FAs I'd poke around at:

Taylor Rapp S

AJ Epenesa Edge

Yetur Gross-Matos Edge

Michael Jordan G

Jay Tufele DT

I don't really like where the DL depth is. You're 3 deep on the interior with Davis, Carter, and Ojomo. If one of them gets injured, there's almost nothing behind them

I like Calais Campbell, if doesn't mind moving east and chasing a ring. Gives you a quality 500 snaps all over the defensive line and will keep the youngens in check.

17 minutes ago, TEW said:

How is he moving away from his system? The teams running this system are adding the same types of players.

Klare is not a good blocker. He's a receiving TE, definitely not a "2 way" TE -- I'm not sure where you're getting this from, but Klare is NOT some in-line TE who is going to be a good blocker in the NFL. He sucks as a blocker just like Stowers. Klare is basically the same exact style of player as Stowers, just way less athletic and smooth compared to Stowers. Basically, a worse version of the same style of player.

I didn't say Klare was a blocking TE, but he has the potential to be adequate. I'm obviously not as sanguine about Stowers in that regard.

Just now, Waiting4Someday said:

I didn't say Klare was a blocking TE, but he has the potential to be adequate. I'm obviously not as sanguine about Stowers in that regard.

Why would you think Klare has any potential as a blocker? He's never shown any inclination towards doing it well. If anything, Stowers at least has the excuse that he's new to the position.