Chuck 54
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All these popular premises for blame here and there are minor culprits. Same WRs as last year...same QB as last year...same coaches as last year. I’m not arguing against the idea that we could find better coaches, better receivers, a better QB. That would be foolish. Outside of Zack Martin and a healthy Tyron Smith, I’m sure we could find someone better at every position on the team, but this year’s failure, while it may have risen to a wild card birth with better coaches or a better QB or a better #1 WR, never had any chance of winning the division or getting far in the playoffs under any coach or QB.
Injuries, suspensions, and personnel changes in the off season made this year’s team much weaker than last year, and I lay the ultimate blame on the front office, bad luck, and a first place schedule.
Rookies in the secondary was a good move for the future, but there were breakdowns and growing pains, right through the elimination game. No Lee led to a defense that couldn’t compensate. No Lee or Hitchins led to embarrassment. No TSmith or Leary meant less effective running and horrible pass protection.
I think it’s silly to blame the coaches or players even though all could be upgraded. The real demise was going into the season with inadequate backups at LB and LT, combined with 12 games worth of suspensions at RB, DL (not counting 16 games missed to a wasted 2nd round DE), and providing no adequate veteran secondary players to help with a more gradual rookie transition.
I blame the front office that put this year’s roster together, along with some injury bad luck as we didn’t just lose great players. We lost our best players on both sides of the ball, and our superstar kicker, and the replacements for all but Bailey were horrible. When you play a first place schedule, where there’s little room for losing games you need to win, that’s a recipe for disaster. Other teams have injuries; some have pro bowlers injured, but how many lost the two most important players on offense and the most important player on defense, played so many rookies in key roles, and had no adequate backup players at any of those positions while already playing with a suspect defense that needed an exceptional offensive performance to control time of possession to protect that defense?
Don’t view this as supporting any of the culprits who underperformed or underperformed coaching. I’m just asking which coach could have been successful running a defense with only 1 legit DT, a secondary with 3 rookies, 2 second year players, and a first time starting safety, almost all who missed time with injuries, and a stretch with Durant, Wilson, Wilber, and Jaylon Smith (at his worst) as the only linebackers. Which QBs could have taken us to the promised land without Zeke, with our underperforming WRs, while running for his life without Smith at LT.
Everything can be improved, but when you rely on your best players to make the offense and defense work, you’d better at least have adequate backups at those positions. Alfred Morris and Rod Smith are garbage as starting RBs; neither would have any significant role on any team with its healthy stater, yet they stand out as super star backups compared to what we ran out behind Sean Lee and Tyron Smith....and imagine if we’d actually had a legitimate 3rd down back with playmaking ability as a receiver and open field runner.
Whether changes are made at QB, WR-1, coach, or not, the front office should never follow a 13-3 season by replacing its entire secondary with backups and rookies (no first rounders), and without at least starting caliber backups for the few players the defense and offense rely on the most. Any other LB, any other offensive lineman, any other non-QB position, you can scheme and survive having a poor backup, but you can’t succeed with garbage behind your LT, your best defensive player, your RB, or as we saw in 2015–your starting QB. We were barely adequate at RB for six games and could have really used a playmaker as 3rd down back, but the front office blew it at the other positions. I’ll even argue they gambled unnecessarily at backup QB. Suppose Zeke wasn’t suspended, and Lee/Smith were healthy all year, and it was a perfect situation for Dak, like 2016....what if our QB had been injured? Despite all the silly hoopla over Cooper Rush’s preseason, would you have been happy to turn that 2016 team over to an undrafted rookie? It may have been 2015 all over again.
The front office is most to blame for 2017’s failures throughout all the adversity.
Injuries, suspensions, and personnel changes in the off season made this year’s team much weaker than last year, and I lay the ultimate blame on the front office, bad luck, and a first place schedule.
Rookies in the secondary was a good move for the future, but there were breakdowns and growing pains, right through the elimination game. No Lee led to a defense that couldn’t compensate. No Lee or Hitchins led to embarrassment. No TSmith or Leary meant less effective running and horrible pass protection.
I think it’s silly to blame the coaches or players even though all could be upgraded. The real demise was going into the season with inadequate backups at LB and LT, combined with 12 games worth of suspensions at RB, DL (not counting 16 games missed to a wasted 2nd round DE), and providing no adequate veteran secondary players to help with a more gradual rookie transition.
I blame the front office that put this year’s roster together, along with some injury bad luck as we didn’t just lose great players. We lost our best players on both sides of the ball, and our superstar kicker, and the replacements for all but Bailey were horrible. When you play a first place schedule, where there’s little room for losing games you need to win, that’s a recipe for disaster. Other teams have injuries; some have pro bowlers injured, but how many lost the two most important players on offense and the most important player on defense, played so many rookies in key roles, and had no adequate backup players at any of those positions while already playing with a suspect defense that needed an exceptional offensive performance to control time of possession to protect that defense?
Don’t view this as supporting any of the culprits who underperformed or underperformed coaching. I’m just asking which coach could have been successful running a defense with only 1 legit DT, a secondary with 3 rookies, 2 second year players, and a first time starting safety, almost all who missed time with injuries, and a stretch with Durant, Wilson, Wilber, and Jaylon Smith (at his worst) as the only linebackers. Which QBs could have taken us to the promised land without Zeke, with our underperforming WRs, while running for his life without Smith at LT.
Everything can be improved, but when you rely on your best players to make the offense and defense work, you’d better at least have adequate backups at those positions. Alfred Morris and Rod Smith are garbage as starting RBs; neither would have any significant role on any team with its healthy stater, yet they stand out as super star backups compared to what we ran out behind Sean Lee and Tyron Smith....and imagine if we’d actually had a legitimate 3rd down back with playmaking ability as a receiver and open field runner.
Whether changes are made at QB, WR-1, coach, or not, the front office should never follow a 13-3 season by replacing its entire secondary with backups and rookies (no first rounders), and without at least starting caliber backups for the few players the defense and offense rely on the most. Any other LB, any other offensive lineman, any other non-QB position, you can scheme and survive having a poor backup, but you can’t succeed with garbage behind your LT, your best defensive player, your RB, or as we saw in 2015–your starting QB. We were barely adequate at RB for six games and could have really used a playmaker as 3rd down back, but the front office blew it at the other positions. I’ll even argue they gambled unnecessarily at backup QB. Suppose Zeke wasn’t suspended, and Lee/Smith were healthy all year, and it was a perfect situation for Dak, like 2016....what if our QB had been injured? Despite all the silly hoopla over Cooper Rush’s preseason, would you have been happy to turn that 2016 team over to an undrafted rookie? It may have been 2015 all over again.
The front office is most to blame for 2017’s failures throughout all the adversity.
