LarryFinFan said:
Problem with this thought is that while last season is long gone, too many of the same questions haunt us so far this season...
Is RW coming back ?
If RW comes back, will he be effective for us ??
How will RB do, particularly in the early season when RW is serving his 4 game susp ??
who cares, this years offense isn't made to run through ricky williams, the reason it effected us so much last year was because that was our entire system... now ricky is a luxary that we dont even need, if he doesn't come back who cares we have the best young RB prospect since LT playing for us now and good depth with a healthy gordon/minor/morris... our RB situation isn't relying on ricky anymore so it doesn't matter....
Will the OL be better ?? We really haven't changed much in the way of personnel, McDougle and coaches are all we changed...we still have the same guys playing LT and C that played last year...I personally think that Big Mac will be much more consistently better this year...His ankle should be completely healed by now. What about Carey ?? What about McKinney ?? Will JJ have a year more like he was supposed to have ??
well from experience alone the line would be better, as you saw last year the line progressed each game, and thats because a line needs to play together to be good and throwing together 5 more new gusy now wouldn't have been good either, now we have some chemistry, plus our guys are young and they need experience and to learn, last year was rough but they learned, now add a new dominant RT to this young line we have, and one of the best offensive line coaches in the league... PLUS the main thing with the line was that we couldn't sotp the blitz... WHY? cause we had no hot reads in our offense, we tried to have the line block more guys than they could cause our QB and WRs had nothing in the play book to get the ball out quicker during a blitz, so we were blitzed like crazy and couldn't sotp it, now with hot routes to exploit a blitz we wont be blitzed as much and our line will look better...
Will the safety position be settled. In Wanny's D, we could get away with weaker safeties... In this defense, the Ss must be overall better in coverage than what Wanny wanted. T Jones is a level below Knight (who was mediocre at best for us, as safety play goes.) Who is our other safety ??
our safetys needed to be better in wannys system if you ask me... with wanny we played no blitzing, honest and let our secondary react and make the play... now we're more for getting pressure on the opposing QB to mamke the ball come out quicker and less coverage time... we'll be fine in saftey
Will Boston actually contribute to the team this year ??
who cares another luxary, with chambers, booker and thompson with mcmike there we would be fine... if he contributes its just a bonus, but we're not relying on him....
Was the poor play of the QBs a result of the poor OL or just poor QBs ??
more like poor offensive playbook and system... if your system tells you to stay back there when your getting blitzed and no hot routes just wait for you guy to run ihs actual route, and you getting blitzed 60% of the game, your ****ed... flat out... no time for our guys to get open no clear passing lanes, plus no running game so your looking at more guys in coverage... i truly believe it was all a result of the offensive scheme, and of course some growing pains of a QB that they ALL go through... but at least he went through em and i think he'll be rady to contribute this year....
DT - Traylor has basically only replaced Bowens...that's fine...Who is going to be the other inside tackle ?? Chester ?? Maybe if he recovers ?? Carter ?? Sure reduces the flexibility of the DL if we HAVE to use him as a tackle instead of an end, like Saban wants...
we still have a young blossoming romero, and a good chance of having chester back, and carter at tackle doesn't hinder us at all with JT, bowens, roth and holliday who can also play end...
As I said...basically same questions as last year, except a few different names...
really it all comes down to schemes, look at the pats, different players, but with the schemes they win... we now have good schemes in place to have our guys be successful, and they will do just that....
now feel better ,haha....