Crown Royal
Insulin Beware
- Messages
- 14,229
- Reaction score
- 6,383
Jerry gets very little love around here, and while we are far from where we want to be, I wanted to go through some of the decisions Jones made this offseason now that we've had about 7 games to review.
The Good
The Bad
The Remains to be Seen
There is no doubt that I missed some things. None. I think I would add into the Bad an over-value of our talent, because I do think that Jerry thinks we are a little better than we are. That said, I am starting to think that more of the moves we made will end up good as opposed to bad this year. If we can have an offseason as consistent at 2013, I think we start to become a better team.
The Good
- Changing the Defensive Philosophy, going with Kiffen/Marinelli - I know, I know, Ryan is running a fantastic defense in NOLA and we have looked poor to start the year. I think the argument can be made that this goes in 'Remain to Be Seen', but I honestly do think that it will work out well for us. Marinelli has been a WIZARD at turning no-names into a serviceable unit. What I like about Kiffin's philosophy is that it is all based on fundamentals. The team may get beat by better teams, but you don't see a ton of coverage gaffes where someone was just not covered. They are really pushing the talent to play fundamentally sound football, and it seems to be getting better. I also think that there is a slight undervaluing of 4-3 personnel right now, which makes this a little better.
- The OL - I tried to find a thread last week where Jerry said that he felt that the OL had a chance to be a position of strength. We have been all over Jerry and Garrett both for cheaping out on the OL for 3-4 seasons and getting us killed. Well, a lot of us (myself included) now should be enjoying a big pile of crow. Ron Leary, Travis Frederick and Waters have really solidified the interior, and Free is in a rennaissance. THe OL IS a strength, and Jerry was right.
- Getting Depth at the DL - This may sound a little crazy, because tons of people were calling for MORE depth at the DL in the offseason. But, to give the GM credit, before training camp, we had a healthy Ware, Spencer and Crawford. Ware was as healthy as he has been in years, Spencer seemed fine and Crawford was highly valued. Since then, George Selvie, Nick Hayden, and some other guys whose names I can't even remember are taking care of business. Could more have been done? Maybe. But you can't fix everything at once, and I for one am pretty pleased that we DID fix some other areas.
- The Draft - I am going to get killed for giving this too much credit, but think about this. We have three starters who we just drafted this year. Three. Sure, Escobar doesn't look like much and we can hate that all we want, but getting three new starters in a draft is pretty darn impressive. If Webb and Holloman eventually start giving us something, I can survive with Escobar being a flop. And I'm really not prepared to call him that just yet. Also, I refuse to put not drafting Floyd as a problem just because most of our DL is injured this year. That wasn't true as of the draft, and we would be a pretty good looking team if not for those injuries.
- Rich Bisaccia - Our special teams have been BOMB this year. This is not open for debate. If I made a thread about this hire, I would expect it just to be taken as gospel and closed immediately.
The Bad
- Jay Ratliff - By this I mean rushing him back. We still don't have the full story, but what does seem clear is that he had little business running during training camp. I can't help but think that maybe holding him out a couple of weeks to a month doesn't help this team some.
- Talking Too Much - This will always be here, but we just can't go an offseason without him opening his mouth and putting more focus on the team and therefore more pressure. Just, stop. Please.
The Remains to be Seen
- Anthony Spencer - The argument could be made, I suppose, that franchise tagging Spencer was the wrong thing to do. But, at the time, I think it was the right decision. We had NO IDEA he would be injured for the whole year, and had we not done that we really didn't have too many other options. This could, actually, work out in our favor. I know you don't reward old players with contracts, but being out of football for a year could lower his demands. Maybe if we get the cap under control, he is someone we bring back in healthy for not too much next year. Unlikely, but allow me my optimism.
- Tony Romo's Contract - I personally am thrilled Tony Romo is on this team, and am very happy that he will likely end his career here. At the same time, I cannot ignore that we are in a CAP situation that is not helpful to winning. My gut tells me that this works out in the end, but I have to wonder if we really negotiated this down at all, or if we were just paying for players.
There is no doubt that I missed some things. None. I think I would add into the Bad an over-value of our talent, because I do think that Jerry thinks we are a little better than we are. That said, I am starting to think that more of the moves we made will end up good as opposed to bad this year. If we can have an offseason as consistent at 2013, I think we start to become a better team.
