Not as simplistic as obvious double-standards applied to one coach but not another.
While I can gladly acknowledge that this team has had a lot of defensive injuries, I can say the same for last season as well.
And some of the issues aren't as simple as injury.
Spencer's was not a sudden ACL tear, but a degenerative condition, one which could have and likely should have been detected earlier, like before the application of a $10 million plus franchise tag.
And the Ratliff fiasco? Anybody with a functioning set of eyes could see that coming from their couch!
And many of us know-nothing's advocated getting rid of him long before the 'brain trust' finally did.
So, as much as people want to use injuries as the sole reason for record-setting futility and as a mulligan for this coaching staff, some of their issues are very much self-inflicted and not just written off to 'bad luck'.
We don't disagree about the injuries both years but there was more to the Ryan firing than football. Or did you read that part? No one can tell anything about this defense with all these injuries. Now if you don't care about that and will just fire someone then we just disagree with that approach to personnel. People need the resources to do their job. Having said that, I had my doubts about this defense day one. There are plenty of people who played in and know this defense who say it will work with the proper personnel. Maybe. I do know that there are teams that run their defense based off the Tampa 2 and they do well. People make too much of the scheme anyway. Teams show all kinds of looks these days so the best thing you can say is the defense is 'based' on this or that. Much of the time they are in special packages some designed for the match ups that week. It is true some players do well used one way and some another. Some players are going to make plays if you put them in the game period. And some aren't. The point is you need football players and we don't have enough on D right now.
And without doing a scope of the knee you can't make any claims you 'knew' what the problem was. Some people play active sports with their ACL shredded. I can't say I've ever seen a pro FB player with that situation but it wouldn't surprise me. Most people need their ACL but it's not universal. And the major point is you can do MRs, CTs and arthrograms but you can't be sure what's going on without looking. The standard of care is to watch and see how the patient does. If they remain symptomatic and/or dysfunctional then you look and operate as necessary. Until then it's not good medicine to put a patient to sleep and invade a major joint without good reason. There is a distinct morbidity and mortality to general anesthesia and we've all seen patients get infected after a scope and that's a mess.
I already said Ratliff was a problem because we were backed into a corner of use him or pay the money. And I don't believe any one on this site knew before hand that Ratliff was never going to play this year or the situation would deteriorate to this point. If you say you were concerned he would make it thru the year then I'd be right there with you. You're basically upside down in a lease with Ratliff; you can't sell it or trade it you just have to drive it and hope it cranks up everyday.
No one here is clairvoyant. There are only a few doctors on this site. And no one here knows enough about the defense to really have a truly informed opinion of what exactly all the problems are. At least not speaking as an NFL coach or player who knows this defense well.
Put some better football players out there and you'll see different results regardless of who is coaching.
BTW, my response is not just directed to you. I don't see you changing your opinion. I will say that if you want to improve a situation then you must understand what is going wrong on more than the bottom line and you need to have some insight into solving the problem. Anyone can walk into a room, say I'm in charge and you, you and you are fired.
