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Random thoughts Part one

Kyndig

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Another season ending in disappointment. As is typical of a fan of this team certainly over the past 25 years or so while we’ve mostly been stinky or mediocre, I’ve been thinking about what this team can do in the off season to get better. The trafficking of hope that the NFL draft and free agency, and sometimes the fantasy of a new General Manager and coaching staff bring every off season to a fan base who hopes that their team can return to it’s former glory which keeps fading into a distant memory. Obviously, those last two aren’t going to happen, but can this team with this leadership change course and make some changes to this team to make them a contender? What changes would those be?

In my head I’m breaking it down by Personnel/roster construction, coaching, and culture. This is based on the fact that we tend to lose games to good teams or when the spotlight is on us because of the following:

1. Lack of discipline, mistakes, & penalties.
2. Lack of Accountability because it never stops.
3. Poor roster construction in that we didn’t invest in areas like the offensive line, and or we have an old and often injured players and are paper thin on depth
4. Poor coaching decisions, adjustments, and game management.

Mike McDaniel. His first two years were promising in that he definitely helped fix Tua and unlock his potential. His offenses were exciting and it’s the most fun I’ve had watching Fins play since the Marino days. There were some things he needed to grow into but I wanted to give him a chance to do so and so I have been encouraging people to wait till the end of the season before deciding one way or the other about him. However while he has some strengths, he has some real issues that I’m not sure he can fix because it’s not who he is.

1. Accountability & Discipline. This is the biggest issue and the hardest for him to overcome and I’m not sure he can. You can’t be a nice guy and you can’t be so tolerant of repeat offenders being late and running the wrong routes and missing blocking assignments. There are too many veterans days off, they coddle players too much when they are injured, and apparently they have guys who show up late to meetings and practices and such, Tyreek being one of them. It was infuriating to hear him at the press conference basically throw up his arms and say something to the effect that “Fines don’t work.” Okay, so if fines aren’t working, how about you try something else? If it were me, I would post the rules clearly so there were no surprises and on the subject of players showing up late I’d do something like the following:

If a starter: Late once without a valid excuse, then you will be benched for the first quarter of the next game and everyone including the media will know why. 2nd offense, you will be benched an entire half. This may hurt the team, but that on you, the player who can’t show up on time to meetings. Miss a third time, and we suspend you for the next game for conduct detrimental and you miss a game check. I would imagine something like that would sort that issue out in a hurry. If you aren’t a starter, then you are demoted to the practice squad for the same offense and eventually cut if you don’t see the error of your ways and repent.

I think this “player driven” team thing is bullshit and doesn’t really work without strong leadership at the top and maybe an established winning culture already in place. I think captains have to be selected carefully, and if Tyreek isn’t traded next season, I don’t see how you can make him a captain again after he pulled himself out of the jets game and didn’t have the emotional discipline to keep his mouth shut after the game.

This is directly correlated with attention to detail and penalties and mistakes, and also with playing winning football in December and January, or simply against good teams in the national spotlight. Mentally weak, undisciplined teams collapse under the bright lights, and that’s what we have been the past couple of years.

2. Play Calling. Okay, I give in. He needs to bring in a play caller. He should stay involved in architecting/tweaking the scheme, as well as have some input into the game plan, but the entire offense would be better served if on game day he had someone experienced in the booth responsible for calling the game and ensuring the plays get in on time.

3. Fire and replace Danny Crossman asap. No reason this guy should still have his job. Special teams costs us games every year, this year was no different.

4. No more veterans days off. Everybody practices all the time and gets good reps. Don’t put old broken down players on your team who you have to rely on who cant even practice.

5. Use all available practice days and OTAs. He actually cancelled some of those this year as if this team has won anything to earn that?

6. Stop coddling injured players. They keep players out of games more than they should returning from injury. Listen to your medical staff, but also, let players play in critical games even if they are playing hurt a bit, especially if they want to. This includes Tua.

Anthony Weaver. Damn good coach. I wish he was our head coach. Would suck to have to replace him after one season.
 
So many McDaniel defenders think that he's worth keeping, and I can only assume that it's because they think he's going to magically change into a completely different person. So, when he continues to be himself (the guy who has no business running an offense or a whole team) next season, I'm just going to laugh at all of the stupid crap that is going to happen and watch as they continue to lose to the good teams and wait for Ross to fire him.
 
So many McDaniel defenders think that he's worth keeping, and I can only assume that it's because they think he's going to magically change into a completely different person. So, when he continues to be himself (the guy who has no business running an offense or a whole team) next season, I'm just going to laugh at all of the stupid crap that is going to happen and watch as they continue to lose to the good teams and wait for Ross to fire him.
The personnel issues with regards to the roster construction are much easier to fix than the discipline, accountability, and culture issues and thats really in McDaniels shoulders. He would have to change into something he’s really not.
 
The personnel issues with regards to the roster construction are much easier to fix than the discipline, accountability, and culture issues and thats really in McDaniels shoulders. He would have to change into something he’s really not.
The big problem is that not only is McDaniel not going to change, but neither will Grier. He had plenty of time and resources to build a winner, but he failed big-time, and I don't expect him over the off-season to suddenly know how to build strong trenches and not sign and overpay injury-prone and underperforming players.
 
macdaniels is a pretty good run game coordinator, that coaches under a Head Coach that keeps him disciplined and just lets him cook up whatever under that umbrella. As a head coach, he just doesn't know how to instill discipline and hard work because it comes easy for him as a yale grad, genius, fancy boy.
 
The big problem is that not only is McDaniel not going to change, but neither will Grier. He had plenty of time and resources to build a winner, but he failed big-time, and I don't expect him over the off-season to suddenly know how to build strong trenches and not sign and overpay injury-prone and underperforming players.
Grier, Mckenzie, Allen are all DEI hires.
 
The big problem is that not only is McDaniel not going to change, but neither will Grier. He had plenty of time and resources to build a winner, but he failed big-time, and I don't expect him over the off-season to suddenly know how to build strong trenches and not sign and overpay injury-prone and underperforming players.
Grier has been very good with the defensive line. The offensive line? A bit hit or miss. But I hear ya…
 
I gave McDaniel the benefit of the doubt, but as time has progressed he has not learned. In fact, it seems as though he has regressed as a coach. His game day management is horrible. It sounds like his culture is atrocious. The only thing that I can see that he does well is draw up plays ahead of time, specifically tailoring to the QB's strengths. That's not even an offensive coordinator position because he's bad at play calling during the game.
 
I gave McDaniel the benefit of the doubt, but as time has progressed he has not learned. In fact, it seems as though he has regressed as a coach. His game day management is horrible. It sounds like his culture is atrocious. The only thing that I can see that he does well is draw up plays ahead of time, specifically tailoring to the QB's strengths. That's not even an offensive coordinator position because he's bad at play calling during the game.
Yeah me too. The players seem to run all over him and it shows on game days often with all of the errors and mistakes.
 
Nice post!

A couple of thoughts.....

On McD, I haven't given up on him yet. There are plenty of things he does that has me yelling at the TV on game days, but I also think he is creative and innovative. Like you, I have enjoyed 2022 -2023 and the derailment in 2024 is going to get proven to be either a injury induced blip or a lack of growth by McD....we will know pretty early in the 2025 season which it is. I'm willing to give him the chance to show everyone he has learned and grown into the position, but the clock is ticking and now it is up to him to prove it

On the discipline issue, I don't think being firm as a coach has the same meaning to McD as it does to many of us. It is not in his DNA to be an intimidator or hardass, which is ok, if you surround yourself with people who fill that role for you. This is where an OC would be really helpful and Weaver as well. Shula used to use Mike Westhoff as his ear for rumblings in the locker room and bringing to him problems that were brewing......and it worked. I don't see McD being that guy himself as opposed to simply building up the organization to do so and then just supporting their efforts. Either way, it certainly needs to improve. In listening to the press conference, I do feel that McD understands that......the question is his ability to fix it

Again, nice job on this post!
 
I read that McDaniel figured that other coaches would adjust defenses to his offense but didn’t think it would happen that fast. That is the ultimate sign of hubris in a coach because anybody who watches the NFL knows how fast teams adjust and a blueprint is then used by the rest of the league. The Chargers and the Niners are the 2 teams that come to mind in year 2 and Mikey still hasn’t figured it out.

Penalty wise we were the 9th most penalized team this year and it is no surprise that Hill, Eich and Hunt were our top 3 offenders. Yet every week we had all 3 of these Bozos in the lineup destroying any rhythm for our offense.

Lastly going into this season with Skylar as QB2 was a disaster. Tua miraculously makes it thru last season to get him his big contract but as predicted, Mr fragile resumed his oft injured ways which doomed any chance at making the playoffs.
I have 0 confidence that Grier and McDaniel can build a roster and coach this team to a championship.
 
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