03-26-2020, 09:36 AM
(03-26-2020, 08:27 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Zac failed last year in one category.... play calling. He and his staff arrived at the last minute, were able to draft Williams and Pratt, and had the team right there in most of the games. Further, he got the players to buy in to the system he is implementing, and held the locker room when it could very easily have been lost. Now, we see him getting MB to bring in players to fit what he wants to do in a manner never seen before by Bengaldom. Yes, he needs to give play calling to Callahan, at least until he has more experience, but in every other aspect of being a head coach he gets an A+
Let's look at his draft picks
J Williams - N/A through injury. To be determined if he can stick at Tackle or will need to move inside to Guard as some pundits predicted.
Sample - an unconvincing start before injury curtailed his season. The coaching staff are higher on him than the fans.
Pratt - the most successful pick to date and primed to go into this season as the starter
Finley - drafted up for him, quickly benched him and now drafting a QB 1st overall.
Wren - developmental NT. How well that development has gone can be seen by how their major off-season acquisition was a NT a year older who will still be under contract when Wren hits free agency.
Jordan - developmental guard. Thrown in early and struggled. Returned and wasn't as bad. Penciled in as starter but coaching staff have far greater confidence in him than those outside the building
T Williams - disappointing
Davis - cut and didn't even make the PS at a position where you only had to be a warm body to make the 53, let alone PS.
Anderson - flashed in pre-season and got injured, which is why he was available in the first place. Worth the gamble but hasn't paid off yet.
Brown - cut and didn't even make the PS at a position where they have gone and signed 5 (five) players before the draft.
It's possible this ends up as an A+ draft but that's more of a D for now. His free agency last year was an E (only escaping an F as it's only cost us $5m in dead cap to move on from).
The only way Zac was A+ last year was if the tank was deliberate and Burrow becomes what we hope he will be.
But it doesn't matter if he was A+ or D last year, so long as he's learning and improving and not going to make the same mistakes twice. His hire was always a long time hire who was going to have to learn on the job due to his inexperience. He inherited a difficult situation and struggled.
They seem to be far more on top of stuff than last year and that's promising. Add that to the way he held the team together last year and there's grounds for optimism.
