I do want to address some of the points here.....
1. He actually improved that team that JJ built. He won a division his first year,,,,JJ never won a division.
2. JJ was the coach of the 62-7 debacle. Wannstedt, to his credit, had to deal with that psychology of that loss and the whole Marino debacle. He had to get Marino out, as Marino was washed up...way washed up. I thought he dealt with that scenario diplomatically and gracefully.
3.That Patriots game was inexcusable. But his teams had quit on him before. Look at the Monday Nite Jets game where we blew that 30-7 4th quarter lead. I would have fired him Tuesday morning. But, hey, I have standards. And it was just a week before the Pats game that the team fell flat againt Minnesota and lost a game they should've won (I think it was 10-7).
4.Jamar Fletcher? What about Jamar Allen? Same kind of loser. Saban and Wannstedt are both going to be inexplicably linked by history for both passing on Drew Brees and both taking a DB in the first round that sucked. The other guys are a complete joke, esp Taylor Whitney. He couldn't block his mother.
5.It was no disgrace to bring JF in. Fiedler was the right kind of guy to follow Marino....It was sticking with JF instead of drafting Brees that was his eventual undoing.
6. A second for AJF was hysterical, although I think Spielman might have pulled that trigger. None the less, it was Wannstedt-like....No logic, no thought process, no justification...just pure stupidity. So even though they might have been Speilman's shoes, they fit Wannstedt to a Tee.
But don't forget, Saban has his own 2nd round pick that he spent on a (seemingly so far) washed up QB.
7. I agree that RW played too dominant a role in this offense. I think anytime a team gets a top notch RB, the priority should be to get a top notch backup. Look at SD with LaDanian. They promptly picked up Michael Turner to back him up. The thinking is, LT cannot touch the ball 40X a game, but you still want to run the same offense, so get a player that can execute all the plays that LT runs. Its worked beautifully. MT is probably about a good a role player as their is in the NFL. I wish we had someone making those kind of smart decisions for our team.
8. I am cutting KA a break. If you have to get all the way down to blaming the STs coach, there is so much wrong with your team it doesn't matter. I don't think KA makes the final decision on Mare, which is our biggest ST failure. We get in position, we have a good snap, a good hold, good protection, and OM cannot execute. The coaching is there..the personnel decision is suspect.
Its like having a nasty fat ugly girlfriend, but breaking up with her because she has a bad manicure.
9. Mark Royals wasn't a probowler, but we could have overcome that obstacle. Hes like a six inch hurdle...not fun but hardly overwhelming.
10. Your last point about getting worse every year...we have another coach who is looking like is going to get us worse this year than we were last. So, watch out how we paint Wannstedt..some of those same strokes are describing Saban as well.
BTW...Great post shank.
