I think you misunderstood me. It wasn‘t whether you or I think the Fins can make the playoffs. It was because you said at the end of your post “Let’s have some realistic expectations here.” Insinuating I was being unrealstic, or out there saying something to the effect that “Oh yeah, now were going to the playoffs because Tua is in.”
That’s what sort of got me on the defensive because that’s not what I was saying at all.
The truth is, there are only a few outcomes that are possible:
1. Tua plays like a rookie, flashes some talent, has some wow moments, but makes some mistakes that he hopefully learns from, we miss the playoffs, but feel good about going into next year with Tua ready to take a leap forward, and adding more firepower to our roster on both sides of the ball leveraging all of those draft picks we have at our disposal.
2. Tua plays like Herbert or Burrow, both of whom have played well enough to win, but aren’t on good teams. Although I suppose we’ll test that hypothesis when we meet the chargers, but I think we have a better team than the Bengals and the Chargers. The AFC East is in play, and they did expand the amount Of playoff teams, so in a scenario where Tua plays decent football, yes, it is possible for us to make the playoffs even going 8-8, and after the Chargers,. The schedule has some very winnable games in November until we run into that buzz saw of the Chiefs, raiders, Bills, and Patriots in December, although the patriots are looking more beatable then they were earlier in the season.
3. Tua Stinks up the joint. Personally, I think that while it’s possible, this scenario is unlikely.
4. Tua gets injured again.
Out of those 4 scenarios, you could say that number 1 is probably the most likely, but number 2, while less likely then number one is possible and not neccessarily unrealistic, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.