NFL Open Thread: prospect inflation edition

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One thing we discuss in the latest ediiton of our NFL podcast (see below!) is the concerns about the rough rookie season that Caleb Williams is having. I roughly half-buy this apologia for Williams — nobody will confuse Shane Waldron with Andy Reid, the skill talent Chicago has is solid on paper but not a great fit for a McVay-derived system — and it would br way to early to write him off. On the other hand, I think there’s reason for pretty serious concern, starting with the fact that I’m not inclined to just quickly yadda-yadda over the fact that Waldron had above-average offenses two years in a row with Geno Smith at QB.

I am, however, going to object to this:

The quarterback billed as a generational prospect is off to a generationally disappointing start.

Caleb Williams was a good prospect, a solid #1 pick, and that’s all he was. He was not a “generational” prospect. There is by definition not a “generational” pick in most drafts. Williams regressed in his senior year — he wasn’t mentioned on a single Heisman ballot and didn’t deserve to be — and showed a lot of the problems he’s shown at an NFL level. Had the Bears taken Jayden Daniels at #1 this would have been mildly surprising, not shocking. Please stop using this word to describe every B+/A- QB prospect who got buzz before his junior year, Thank you.

And BTW one way you can tell that in the NFL tanking is an idiotic strategy is that the last genuinely “generational” prospect to actually become a generational NFL player was Peyton Manning.

Podcast transcript available here. These are time-cinsuming to produce and edit, so if you enjoy please consider becoming a Patreon. Enjoy!

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