We did not get less talented. Starting with the entire CS, the draft, and getting rid of a ton of excess baggage that came with AR.
Well let’s see…this can be an interesting discussion Defense: DL - hard to say it’ll be much better or worse than last year … JJ coming back should help some, but as we already saw with Carl Lawson a few years ago, there’s a good chance he won’t be nearly as effective as DE is an explosive “get off” position, and an Achilles tear hurts a lot…so we are not set at edge. We were weak at DT last year and haven’t made any significant additions there I don’t think, so I think the DL may be similar to last year LB - we lost Mosely, but he was already hurt and slowing down, so not a super huge loss, but again, it’s not like we made any significant additions here either. Williams and Sherwood should be good so to me this looks like another position group that will likely not be significant better or worse than the year before DB - I think the loss of DJ Reed is going to be felt a lot more than people expect…he was a very DB and we’ve replaced him with a veteran who’s not as good and a third round pick who, at least on timing, is not ideally fast enough. So to me, this area is likely a step down from the players we had last year. So all in all, I don’t see much improvement, and if anything, I can see a step backwards, in defensive personnel Offense: OL - well this should be better…essentially replacing Smith with Olu and Moses with Membou…so while Membou hasn’t played an NFL down yet, and Moses was a solid veteran, it does feel like a younger OL should be a step up from last year. Olu has to stay healthy all year, which he didn’t do last year, and Membou has to show he belongs, both of which realistically are still questions, but it feels like the answers should be positive here, so I expect a bit of an improvement on OL WR - we got worse here…no two ways about it. GW is still great. But even at his older age, Adams was productive, and as of now, we’ve essentially replaced him with Lazard. Our 1-2-3 is GW-Lazard-Gipson. GW is going to get doubled every fucking play…no one is scared of Lazard or Gipson or the new rookie who has a hard time catching the ball. Our WR room is not very good. I just don’t see a way around that…unless the rookie shows the catching bug is not real and can contribute, it’s going to be tough TE - probably a wash here…we are counting on a rookie to at least do as well as Conklin did last year, and as much as Conklin gets overlooked here, he was a decent TE…nothing world shattering for sure, but he caught the ball well when called upon, he wasn’t a penalty machine in blocking, etc. We have to hope our rookie TE steps right in, and while he seems like he may be capable of doing just that, it’s still a gamble on a rookie. Nobody is expecting a rookie season like Jeremy Shockey all those years ago or like Bowers last year. And given the state of our WR room, we could REALLY use a good receiving option at TE…we’ll see. I’ll say a wash for now but I wouldn’t be shocked to see this a bit better or worse than last year RB - wash here as we have all the same guys and it’s a solid group…I’m betting Hall has a bounce back year as I think last year was the aberration and not the norm QB - ah…THE most critical spot here, and opinions will be divided. While I agree that Fields was probably the best option for us if we were hell bent on getting rid of AR, and while I also agree that with a new rookie HC and GM, getting rid of AR was really probably the only realistic move here…I am just not sold on Fields. Yes, he will make plays with his legs that will be fun and exciting, and I’ll be happy to see it, but I also worry that those will be the best plays we get out of him, and as fun as that can be, that’s just not a good sign for your QB. I’m not sold that he’s any better than he’s already shown, which is just not good enough at QB. I hope I’m wrong here, and if I am, and we suck, then we can go get a QB next year, but even with a diminished AR, there is no way Fields is an upgrade to AR. Now, with all the personality and drama and other shit that came with AR, I get it, but Fields has not been able to be a consistently good QB so far, and we are basically banking on a rookie defensive HC and a rookie OC to get the most out of him…yeah…that’s a sobering thought to me. ST - I don’t know who will end up being our K and P, but sure feels like whomever we get at K should do better than Zuerlein did for us last year. At P I’m not so sure…I thought Morestead was good and steady, and I feel like we will take a downgrade here, and on a team that I think will struggle offensively more than most, that’s not a good thing. But we’ll see So there you have it…I don’t think we got radically better roster-wise, and at best maybe it’s a push, but the real thing that could make a huge difference here is coaching While AG is saying a lot of the right stuff, and so many here are totally buying into all this culture change stuff, the reality is that so far he’s unproven…and while I loved him as a Jet all those years ago, he is still just another in our long line of rookie defensive HCs, most of whom have failed. And we have yet another rookie OC as well, all under a rookie GM. We’ve tried this before, several times, and it’s always failed. The other way to see it is that our coaching last year was SO bad that AG would just HAVE to be better, and I’m hoping that is true. We’ll see Personally, while I think that the roster is not significantly better or worse than last year’s, I do think that a new coaching approach and just the energy that that brings, will probably get better results. The key will be if Fields performs or not…but I am looking forward to a fresh new energy…
I appreciate you typing all that out and agree/disagree with different parts. But players are in a new scheme, playing next to different players with different fits. It’s a lot less cut and dry than just player X is worse than player Y. Receiver for example - I get it, but we got Adams when we were a loss away from effectively being eliminated from the playoffs anyway. I consider the WR room to be nearly exactly the same and he actually might’ve made it somewhat worse since Rodgers locked onto him in double coverage every third down. DB - Reed was really good 2/3 years. But I’d argue Sauce was awful last year and will be in a man to man scheme where he won’t have to tackle ball carriers in zone anymore. I think Sauce returns to dominant form with Glenn coaching him. Maybe a net positive? Just a couple examples.
A lot of player roster comparisons and appreciate the effort. But is not about player to player comparisons in a vacuum. Last years team was neither coached nor game planned to leverage most players strengths, particularly on offense. The running game was often disregarded and massively inefficient, and the game plan transparent because of the damned shot gun formation to suit AR. Wilson was completely one dimensional on his route runs for the same reason. Defensively we went to hell across the board once Brick was moved up. The point is we did not coach up, and we did not game plan to enhance each players strength.
As bad as we were last season Greg the duff leg cost us 3 games and our superstar QB cost us another 3 games with 4th quarter stupidity. disclaimer, there might be a cross over of cost games between the two duffers and it is ages ago for my memory to fully remember them, the brain tries to lose the negative thoughts after a while.
Yup totally agree…I did all that just as a fun exercise to see where we stand, but my overall conclusion after that is that our roster is not significantly better or worse overall than it was a year ago, some areas are up, some are down, etc. but overall we didn’t really “overhaul” a lot. I agree that the biggest impact will come from coaching, but the truth is, we know that last year was terrible coaching, and we all hope this year will be better but as we have a rookie DC as HC, it’s impossible to know for sure that it will be, outside of the argument that says, hey last year was SO bad that AG just HAS to be better. I do think he will be, but I have nothing to base that on other than he has a good personality, he’s a Parcells guy, and just plain “hope”.
Yup…agree about it not being in a vacuum, and I feel the same way…coaching and scheme will be the big differentiator
