Realistic Expectations?

[Northern_Blitz]

Without Ben, what do you think are realistic expectations for the season.

At the beginning of the season, I was thinking we were probably going to be between 9 - 11 wins.

Without Ben and knowing we've started at 0 - 2, I think 8 wins would be a good result but I won't be surprised if we end up at 6 or 7 wins.

What do you think?

[Ernie]

Rudolph was more game ready than Ben first 2 weeks.. i suspect the next 2 or 3 would have been a wash so to speak.. i figure by game 6 or 7.. Ben would have knocked off the rust and the offense would have found its stride... in all likelyhood the difference (drop off) in Ben to Mason is no more than 2 games

[Sugar]

Realistic? Top 10 draft pick. I'm hopeful for much better though.

[SteelBucks]

Let me see a game first. We could be anywhere from 4 wins to 9. At this point I’m willing to forget record and settle for week to week improvement.

[flippy]

Without Ben, what do you think are realistic expectations for the season.

At the beginning of the season, I was thinking we were probably going to be between 9 - 11 wins.

Without Ben and knowing we've started at 0 - 2, I think 8 wins would be a good result but I won't be surprised if we end up at 6 or 7 wins.

What do you think?

I think you stick with your original prediction. No matter what you think about Ben, Tomlin, anyone, Mike Tomlin is going to be reminding these guys the standard is the standard and I believe he'll get as much out of a Mason lead team as he would have a Ben lead team.

We're going to look back on this year and appreciate Tomlin more than we do now.

But in the meantime, onward with firing him and everyone else

[Ernie]

I think you stick with your original prediction. No matter what you think about Ben, Tomlin, anyone, Mike Tomlin is going to be reminding these guys the standard is the standard and I believe he'll get as much out of a Mason lead team as he would have a Ben lead team.

We're going to look back on this year and appreciate Tomlin more than we do now.

But in the meantime, onward with firing him and everyone else

if thats the case.. theres no way in hell we should have extended Ben

[Northern_Blitz]

Let me see a game first. We could be anywhere from 4 wins to 9. At this point I’m willing to forget record and settle for week to week improvement.

This is pretty close to where I am too.

The good thing about it coming so early in the season is that we get a long time to evaluate Rudolph and whether he's got the potential to be an average to above-average QB in the NFL. I'm also hoping for week to week improvement.

I was pretty impressed with him coming off the bench and not looking terrible. I would have liked to see fewer picks...but I think the board's assessment of the first one is correct that it was mostly / entirely on Montcrief.

I'm also hoping that having Rudolph will end the experiment of Switzer at WR.

[flippy]

if thats the case.. theres no way in hell we should have extended Ben

All the other old QBs are on the last year of their deal - Brees, Brady, Manning, Rivers. Only Ben got extended. This deal plus the AB deal could hamstring us for a bit. But I digress.

[phillyesq]

I think the best case would probably be 8-9 wins. And that is far from guaranteed. The Steelers haven't won in San Fran since 1984. And they haven't done well on the west coast recently. There is a very real chance they go 0-3. The Steelers would have to go 9-4 just finish 9-7. I'm not sure that I see this team winning better than 2 out of 3 games for the rest of this season. They already have a razor thin margin of error, and now a backup QB.

[Ernie]

All the other old QBs are on the last year of their deal - Brees, Brady, Manning, Rivers. Only Ben got extended. This deal plus the AB deal could hamstring us for a bit. But I digress.

its going to really hamper us from transitioning

[Ernie]

we are in a tough spot for sure.. trying to build a squad around a young qb... but having the old qbs cap hit hanging overhead

[Oh wow]

Can we get out of the Ben deal if he retires?

I don’t see him coming back from this at his age.

I see us going 10-4 the rest of the way.

My confidence in youth and hunger are delusional but it’s a young man’s game.

[phillyesq]

we are in a tough spot for sure.. trying to build a squad around a young qb... but having the old qbs cap hit hanging overhead

And especially this year, with $47 million between Brown and Ben, that's almost impossible.

[phillyesq]

Can we get out of the Ben deal if he retires?

I do t see him coming back from this at his age.

I see us going 10-4 the rest of the way.

My confidence in youth and hunger are delusional but it’s a young man’s game.

They could go after 2/3 of his signing bonus. But they won't. It's just not the way this team does business. Just like the Colts didn't go after Lock.

Cap hit is about $33 million next year, IIRC, with a savings of only $8 million if he is cut.

[Ghost]

Hopefully a little adversity brings out the best in everyone. But I think its not unrealistic for them to possibly be 1-5 heading into the bye week. Certainly hope I'm way off.