The biggest complaint I had about the staff this year is they didn't seem to have a grasp on who should be playing. Which is very frustrating and it was honestly the same issue back in 2017.
The first couple games of the season Haskins was behind Charbonnet, Tru Wilson, Christian Turner, AND Ben Van Sumeren. Haskins looks like he may be our best back right now. I get wanting to rotate early, but the difference between Haskins/Charbonnet and the rest of the RBs is stark. Also, for everybody who wanted to hype up DJP and Tarik Black, the best two WRs on the team are Nico Collins and Ronnie Bell and it's not close. Nothing against any players on the team as they are all hard workers, but I actually think Gattis's offense will be better when Sainristil, Giles Jackson, and Bell are the main guys. Black and DPJ just don't seem to mesh with the offense Gattis wants to do. With DPJ I will at least say it's more likely due to missing so much time this camp.
Shea still isn't great but he's at least understanding his role and is making better decisions. I get not being a fan of Gattis, but that first 6 games, Shea just was not making the right decisions. In very limited action I feel both McCaffrey and Milton show a better understanding and comfort in the system. And while the OL may not have been great most of the season, I feel they have improved all year but Shea just gets jumpy.
Defensively, I also think they were way too slow to get Cam McGone and Dax Hill into the lineups. I also think the decision early to try and go with a 3 man front defensively was an awful decision too. Brown is still a very good DC, but I think the marriage to man D and having safeties in the slot has hurt us more than anything. Metellus and Hawkins are solid players but they should never be covering any WR in the slot let alone KJ Hamler (which cost us the Penn State game)
I was never on the fire everybody bandwagon, but I also felt that if a change was made we needed to go back to a punch them in the mouth approach. Which I feel the team has lost the last 3 years... of course I think to start the year we just didn't have leaders and now you are seeing some of the underclassmen develop into leaders (Bell, Hill,McGone,Hutchinson, Haskins, Charbonnet). But I also stand by my statement that next year you'll see a better offense from Gattis
The first couple games of the season Haskins was behind Charbonnet, Tru Wilson, Christian Turner, AND Ben Van Sumeren. Haskins looks like he may be our best back right now. I get wanting to rotate early, but the difference between Haskins/Charbonnet and the rest of the RBs is stark. Also, for everybody who wanted to hype up DJP and Tarik Black, the best two WRs on the team are Nico Collins and Ronnie Bell and it's not close. Nothing against any players on the team as they are all hard workers, but I actually think Gattis's offense will be better when Sainristil, Giles Jackson, and Bell are the main guys. Black and DPJ just don't seem to mesh with the offense Gattis wants to do. With DPJ I will at least say it's more likely due to missing so much time this camp.
Shea still isn't great but he's at least understanding his role and is making better decisions. I get not being a fan of Gattis, but that first 6 games, Shea just was not making the right decisions. In very limited action I feel both McCaffrey and Milton show a better understanding and comfort in the system. And while the OL may not have been great most of the season, I feel they have improved all year but Shea just gets jumpy.
Defensively, I also think they were way too slow to get Cam McGone and Dax Hill into the lineups. I also think the decision early to try and go with a 3 man front defensively was an awful decision too. Brown is still a very good DC, but I think the marriage to man D and having safeties in the slot has hurt us more than anything. Metellus and Hawkins are solid players but they should never be covering any WR in the slot let alone KJ Hamler (which cost us the Penn State game)
I was never on the fire everybody bandwagon, but I also felt that if a change was made we needed to go back to a punch them in the mouth approach. Which I feel the team has lost the last 3 years... of course I think to start the year we just didn't have leaders and now you are seeing some of the underclassmen develop into leaders (Bell, Hill,McGone,Hutchinson, Haskins, Charbonnet). But I also stand by my statement that next year you'll see a better offense from Gattis
