01-01-2018, 12:31 PM
(01-01-2018, 12:15 PM)Sled21 Wrote: Best thing about Marin leaving is we won't have to hear the "Marvin won't play rookies nonsense anymore. Dennard has been kept off the field pretty much due to injuries. Jackson struggled in zone, which we play a lot, and it wasn't just Lawson out there, Malone has played, Mixon has played, rookies have always played when they are ready and can out perform the starters. The reason it takes so long for Corners to get on the field, is we have good corners in front of them. Redmond and Westerman were not going to supplant Boling, it took finally getting CO out of there and moving Boling to tackle to open the left guard spot.
I agree with some of this as far as injuries are concerned. Not sure I agree about better corners being in front of Darqueze and WJ3. Pacman, god love him, has been dropping off for the last 2 seasons. Kirkpatrick has been flat out awful for most of the season. Like difficult to believe awful.
As to finally getting CO out of there, why should it take so long? He played almost 2 full seasons at a pretty low to rock-bottom level and still never got pulled. He's an absolute non-contributor in the run game. Hell, I heard Alexander on the pregame yesterday yammering on about how he still believed in Ogbuehi, Fisher being our best OL, and the young guards only looking good b/c they were fresh and other guys were tired. For Christ's sake, man! On top of that, there's Hopkins who grades out as one of if not THE worst starting OG in the NFL. If nothing else, they could have sat him for Redmond or CW.
The biggest failing of this team in 2017 wasn't losing Z or Whit (although that was a big one), drafting Ross, or even maintaining a lame-duck coach at the top of the staff. It was an all-out failure to realize how best to utilize what they had and maximize wins with it. They flushed a season down the toilet because they had a shit understanding of the players (and coaches in Zampese's case) that they're around every day and run a hierarchal locker room rather than a merit-based depth chart.
