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How many IFs...

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LarryFinFan

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We have some major IFs on the this team...I consider myself an optimist, but there are a lot of questions...

IF..RW wants to/can/agrees to a contract/has the desire to/can physically come back....Will him being rotated in with Brown be beneficial or detremental to Brown ? Brown has proven he can be a great team player and share time, but RW never has had to...can he ? Will he ? How much will he be able to play if he comes back ?

IF..the CB situation can be resolved with Madison, Howard, Daniels, Roundtree, etc...What will another injury do there ?

IF..the safety situation can be resolved with Jones, Tillman, Bua, Bell, etc...None have been consistent starters, save for Jones but he is really a slight downgrade at SS for us (not that Knight was all that). Does Bua have the speed ? Can Bell stay injury free ? Can Tillman play up to his 2nd round draft status ?

IF..Boston can stay healthy, can he be the compliment to CC that we have been waiting for ? Can he play within the team concept that Saban envisions ? (he hasn't done too well in that area in the past).

IF..HH can work the miracles that we all seem to think he can, will the OL play allow AJ to develop ? We really only added McDougle (for the RT spot, where St. Clair had arguably the best year of any of our OL last year). Can Big Ben be more effective a year from his ankle surgery...afterall, he wasn't even supposed to be ready to play until midseason last year. How or who is going to upgrade the C position. McKinney ( and prior to last year, I was on the Seth bandwagon) just didn't develop into the player we thought.

IF..AJ becomes our Jake Delhomme. Gus is a journeyman QB at best. He has proven that as a STARTER, he is inconsistent. ( He has done decently in a fill in role though.) AJ was hampered by a poor OL, an offensive scheme that was designed to focus on a guy who wasn't there, an OC that couldn't call plays for my high school in rural NC, and a group of bickering offensive coaches with NO leadership or direction from the HC. Now, is what we saw from AJ (even with the improvement towards the end of the year) the AJ we will see this year, or was his play really due to those other negative things ?

IF..Saban can avoid the issues that many college coaches have when they switch over to the big leagues ? I like nearly every move he has made, but will this be enough to drag our team out of the cellar of the AFCE.

These are a few of the IFs that scare me going into this season. The offseason is not over yet, I understand, but while I see POTENTIAL improvement, I just don't feel like we'll be playing in mid January this year or next. What other IFs do you all see that I missed ????
 
LarryFinFan said:
We have some major IFs on the this team...I consider myself an optimist, but there are a lot of questions...

IF..RW wants to/can/agrees to a contract/has the desire to/can physically come back....Will him being rotated in with Brown be beneficial or detremental to Brown ? Brown has proven he can be a great team player and share time, but RW never has had to...can he ? Will he ? How much will he be able to play if he comes back ?

IF..the CB situation can be resolved with Madison, Howard, Daniels, Roundtree, etc...What will another injury do there ?

IF..the safety situation can be resolved with Jones, Tillman, Bua, Bell, etc...None have been consistent starters, save for Jones but he is really a slight downgrade at SS for us (not that Knight was all that). Does Bua have the speed ? Can Bell stay injury free ? Can Tillman play up to his 2nd round draft status ?

IF..Boston can stay healthy, can he be the compliment to CC that we have been waiting for ? Can he play within the team concept that Saban envisions ? (he hasn't done too well in that area in the past).

IF..HH can work the miracles that we all seem to think he can, will the OL play allow AJ to develop ? We really only added McDougle (for the RT spot, where St. Clair had arguably the best year of any of our OL last year). Can Big Ben be more effective a year from his ankle surgery...afterall, he wasn't even supposed to be ready to play until midseason last year. How or who is going to upgrade the C position. McKinney ( and prior to last year, I was on the Seth bandwagon) just didn't develop into the player we thought.

IF..AJ becomes our Jake Delhomme. Gus is a journeyman QB at best. He has proven that as a STARTER, he is inconsistent. ( He has done decently in a fill in role though.) AJ was hampered by a poor OL, an offensive scheme that was designed to focus on a guy who wasn't there, an OC that couldn't call plays for my high school in rural NC, and a group of bickering offensive coaches with NO leadership or direction from the HC. Now, is what we saw from AJ (even with the improvement towards the end of the year) the AJ we will see this year, or was his play really due to those other negative things ?

IF..Saban can avoid the issues that many college coaches have when they switch over to the big leagues ? I like nearly every move he has made, but will this be enough to drag our team out of the cellar of the AFCE.

These are a few of the IFs that scare me going into this season. The offseason is not over yet, I understand, but while I see POTENTIAL improvement, I just don't feel like we'll be playing in mid January this year or next. What other IFs do you all see that I missed ????
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thats alot of ifs, but i think you got just about all of them. :blowup:
 
Yeah this is what I have said in some previous posts. This is precisely why it is so hard to predict how this team will do. If a good amount of those "ifs" turn out positive we could be a playoff team, if not its back to the top of the draft.
 
There are a lot of "if's" but it looks a heck of a lot better then last season. I like this team and coaching staff better than the team of 2 years ago that went 10-6.
 
1.Ricky - Ronnie has shown that he can be effective in a two back system, we won't have to worry about him until the 5th game of the season anyways. I think the menace of thow playmakers in the backfield will definately help our passing game.

2.CB - I'm really not too concerned here, I think we'll do fine with the guys we have, Saban is a defensive genius and I believe he'll keep us playing well against the pass, maybe not in the top 3 like last year, but definately top 10.

3.Safety - Again, not too worried about the D, I think Saban will definately work his magic with these guys and they'll be decent.

4.Boston - He definately has the skills as he's shown in the past, unfortunately his being injured and out for a year may cause him to be a little slow to catch up at the beginning... I think we'll see him become a playmaker in the latter half of the season.

5.Houck - The OL unit was starting to work much better at the end of the year, and I think with Houck directing and additional time together as a unit they will be improved. I still don't see them being one of the best in the league, but definately not bottom of the barrel. I think they will be one of the best in 2006.

6.AJ - Definately the biggest "IF" IMO. I think he'll play much better, but don't look for Drew Brees #'s. I think he'll be a decent QB, but not a franchise QB. I still like his gutsy play and want to see him suceed, but memories still linger of our last QB, he had alot of heart, but just didn't have the goods to be consitent. I think AJ showed alot of improvement at the end of the season, let's just hope he can keep it up next year.

7.Saban - The difference between Saban and "other college coaches" was that Saban played a Pro style game in college, also he had NFL experience and knows what it takes to win in the NFL. I think Saban will soon be regarded one of the top 5 coaches in the NFL, I don't expect a stunning turn arround like Parcel's had with the Cowboys in '03, but you'll certainly see a much improved team this year and for many more years to come.
 
IF....Traylor can do a decent impression of TimBo.

IF.....Chester is healthy.
 
I think the difference between this year and all those if's and last year will be coaching, not just Saban, but all the coaches, from Coordinators to position coaches. We don't just have coaches, but we have teachers, and the head of them being Saban knows what he's doing. So alot of those If's don't bother me as much under this coaching staff as they would under say Dave or someone else... I don't mean to make it sound like Saban is a miracle worker and that i'm looking at this through rose colored glasses, but, I really believe in this coaching staff, and believe these players have an advantage with their teaching style's.
 
My biggest IFs are with the O-Line....we haven't made any major upgrades but I think we have a couple of nice new additions and hopefully they will be whipped into shape by Hudson Houck......we never had time to throw the ball last year and the blitzes forced AJ and Ears into make a lot of mistakes, fumbles and picks that got run back for 6. Hopefully we can correct this. :shakeno:
 
You hit it right on the nose with all those ifs. It's a tough building job because a lot of the best players on the team are getting up there in football age.

I think the biggest questions are LT, QB, safety and DT. I'm obviously hoping that Feeley can take a significant step, a large enough one where qb won't be the #1 priority going into the offseason. If he doesn't improve significantly, the rebuilding will take longer and players like Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas and Sam Madison likely won't be around when the team is ready for big things.

I didn't like what I saw from McIntosh last year. To me, he looked like a guard playing tackle and didn't match up well against speed rushers. I don't know how much of it was due to injuries and poor coaching, though. I see McIntosh as a short-term solution at best. Meaning, if the team is out of the race, Alibi may get a chance to prove himself. I do expect the line to be quite a bit better just with the addition of Houch.

I'm worried about the safeties. Unlike a lot of others, I don't expect Yeremiah Bell to make the team. He hasn't been able to stay healthy so I don't expect much there. Jones is an excellent hitter, but not good in coverage and Tillman has yet to establish himself. I really think that Saban will look to improve the secondary as a priority area next offseason.

I think the Ricky Williams/Ronnie Brown situation will be a positive one. Having two power backs will be tough on opponents, especially in the 4th quarter. That said, I hope Saban can trade Williams after this year.
 
inFINSible said:
IF....Traylor can do a decent impression of TimBo.

IF.....Chester is healthy.
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Yea, I forgot about DT...Good point...
 
Were not the only team with IFs either so its not like were going to be horrible like some of you predict.

Every team has there ifs and everyteam deals with them its all a matter of attitude determination and a little bit of luck that decides the Ifs.

look at the bills
losman- huge IF
DT- they lost there best one to minnesota
Mcgahee- Can he stay healthy(if he does watch out)
LT- Are they not in desperate need of 1

There are others and other teams have these If's also so I'm not bashing the BIlls im just using them as an example.
 
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