I told you guys that you needed to give him a break! I know for a fact that he is and will be a great player some day!! So happy for him. He just needs some time.

Great game Gaines. He's made massive strides since the preseason. Guy is super athletic.

was cooper benched? fleming looked erratic but did some nice things--the pi call was bull

Yes, he was benched for bad play. He switched to being a gunner on punts.

I'm not sure if it's just this fan base or every fan base are complete dumbasses when it comes to expectations for rookie and 2nd year players. Shit takes time.

Well you vouched and guaranteed.... It's official.

Gaines looked way better today than he did in the pre-season, really glad that he got better.

If someone is going to start or play significant snaps, I expect them to play well and better than the guy on the bench. Disagree?

Average NFL career is 3.3 years

The 3rd year is the sweet spot if said player actually develops into something.

It depends on where the franchise is in development. If the franchise isn't going anywhere in the post season than I'm going with youth and upside over experienced mediocre vets that might be a hair better.

Makes sense and you want to see improvement from year 1 to 2 to 3 regardless, but writing off rookies because they aren't heading the probowl as a rookie is stupid especially one like Gaines coming from a smaller program.

If a worthless waste of oxygen makes a post, and nobody reads it, did it really happen?

Baller

Gaines had a couple of great defenses today and seemed tone mostly solid otherwise.

Yeah, he played way better than I expected him to. He was the only one who had the speed to stick to Royal. Glad he improved.