(12-09-2020, 06:58 PM)Wes Mantooth Wrote: This couldn't be futher from the truth. Honestly, I'm taken aback that this thinking is attributed to me.
I really couldn't have been more clear anytime I bring up Miami. I speak to what a great job Flores has done with a worse roster. Me saying Miami represents our failings in hiring a compentent HC and staff is not at all the same as me saying I think they have a better roster.
Our roster is currently better than theirs. I've been pretty clear on that since last year. They've positioned themselves for success through stockpiling draft picks. The fact Flores is winning now shows just how good of a coach he is.
Well now you are just splitting hairs. Coaches are not just innocent spectators in personnel decisions. You've pointed out many times that Miami cut bait on their expensive veterans and did a complete overhaul, whereas we hung onto our aging vets. And you're quite right about that. In fact that's why I dispute that we have more talent on our roster.
When you're comparing talent, are you counting the likes of Geno, AJ and Dunlap? Because that's not a reasonable comparison - they don't count as "talent" anymore (I do not attribute Dunlap's situation to the coaches at all, personally, and Geno and AJ just stink now). Subtract those guys, subtract the injuries to the players we spent the most money on - Reader, Waynes, Mixon, XSF - which are also not the fault of the coaches, and what do we have left? A mediocre secondary, zero pass rush, young LBs behind Josh Bynes, a woeful OL protecting a rookie QB for half the year. Minus Burrow we don't exactly have Fitzpatrick in the cupboard.
Now, Miami has two great CBs that allow them to do a lot of things in the front seven, but this is exactly the thing you say we shouldn't do. Baltimore does it too, which is how they kicked our ass. Pittsburgh is the opposite (so perhaps you point to them as evidence), but a defensive front like theirs just does not fall out of the sky. Neither do great CBs, but we're a lot closer to having a really good secondary than we are to having a ferocious pass rush.