12-20-2020, 05:20 PM
(12-19-2020, 09:24 PM)Benton Wrote: I get the angst and anger over this season. It's been a rough two years. And just when we looked like we were about to turn a corner, things got worse.
But I've got to admit, I'm optimistic about next season for a couple reasons.
1. Burrow. He was looking good when he went down and with the way things are, he's likely to come back around the start of the season as healthy as before.
2. Coordinators. Head coaching aside (and I realize in a few posts this is going to devolve into "we ain't going anywhere with ZT driving"), one of our biggest issues has been the coordinators. I don't see any way a few of the worst aren't gone.
But the big thing is...
3. Drafting. Our last draft was the best in a long time. And not just because we got Joe. Tee is looking good. Wilson is heading in the right direction. Akeem is going to take some time, but he's going to be decent. The rest, who knows? But the last I felt like we had four good picks by the end of the season was 2013. With another high pick and ZT's second year with the draft, I think we'll do good again.
4. FA. Last offseason we were aggressive for the first time in a long time. And this year, we're 5th or 6th overall in money available. I think we'll continue the spend (we've got a while before we have to worry about big resigning contracts).
For me, it's hard to say 'head coaching aside' when talking about replacing coordinators because the HC is also the OC, and he's been very emphatic that he'll continue to call the plays. When you're as young and inexperienced as Zac, and have failed to the extent he has, the stubbornness and refusal to try another approach is pretty damn concerning and doesn't exactly give me confidence in his management skills...along with a number of his other decisions.
Then you look at DC. They talked to established guys like Del Rio and Capers, but both said not thanks. Grantham used them to leverage a new deal with Florida. It continued to go downhill from there and we ended up with Lou. My concern is that Zac had trouble landing a quality candidate for DC when he was fresh of SB and had no record. How many experienced DC's are going to want to join a 4-27-1 (potentially) coach?
It seems likely it will be another unproven guy who's just looking for a shot at DC.
I also think there's a chance he would keep Turner, who's pretty much family to him. His commitment to Turner's evaluations and recommendations has led to an extremely weird dedication to guys like Jordan and Hart. You talked about the money they spent in free agency, and I agree it was good to see them spend for a change. The problem was the 'plan' or direction, which again makes me call Zac's decision making into question. Mike said they gave Zac 'his way' so I have to believe it was Zac's call on who they went after. The fact that they spent 7% of the money on the o-line, after years of struggles there and having just taken a potential franchise QB was a complete head scratcher for me, to say the least. IMO, it was an ass backwards approach.
IDK, when it comes to the possibility of Zac being back for a 3rd season, I just haven't seen much from him that inspires confidence or even demonstrates that he actually knows what he's doing / has any real direction other than a few catchphrases. I didn't mean for my post to be so much about Zac, but it's hard to talk about the staff, the team, etc without mentioning how historically bad he's been and the fact he's the guy we have to ultimately have confidence in if he's brought back. The fact is that no HC in the SB era has ever won 4 games of less in their 1st 2 seasons and survived more than halfway through a 3rd. Zero. So, bringing Zac back (assuming they do) seems like they're just delaying the inevitable.
