CJ isn’t THE problem, but he’s certainly A problem.

I keep seeing people say that we've "broken CJ", but if he's already broken 3 weeks into his 3rd season then he was never the player we thought he was.

He had one of the best, if not the best rookie seasons of all time. Going into year 2, we looked to try and build the team around him. We swung on pieces for both sides of the ball and attempted to give him more to play with. It didn't quite work out the way we had hoped, but we tried for sure. The team started strong in weeks 1 & 2 and then in week 3 the cracks started to show and then we began this weird stretch where it seemed that everything around him was going wrong. We saw CJ struggle, but keep his s**t together for brief periods to pull us across the finish line. But oftentimes, he looked average with moments of great play.

We keep pointing in every direction around him to blame: the o-line, the OC, Mixon being out, Kirk being out, poor time management, and literally everything everything else. However, the common denominator is CJ. That's not to say those others things aren't a problem or that CJ is THE problem, but maybe CJ isn't THE answer.

CJ might be an average QB or he might be an above average quarterback and that's okay, but it does change how you build around him, we tried to build around a potential elite QB by giving him toys to play with while operating within a system he had already had great success in. When I reality you don't give an average guy more toys to hit their ceiling, you give them stuff to help raise their floor. Which once again, is totally fine, we have the defense that carry an average offense to several wins. We just don't have an average offense.

If CJ is truly broken though, then he was never a franchise QB, he was just a flash in the pan. Just like many other players who've done great things only to disappear into the ether (Matt Flynn, Payton Hillis, RG3, etc.)

If he's already broken then it just means he doesn't have the mental strength to be the face of the franchise and carry the load. If he's already crumbled when they're trying to figure things out around him then he's not THAT guy, he's just A guy.

I really hope that this post ages like milk next week when we start our 17 game win streak and CJ wins MVP and SBMVP. 🤘's Up.