Maine-iac

Parker is a poor mans Watkins. Oh and Blesoe was still a decent QB. He made the pro bowl and then they got rid of Price, Riemersma, and Centers. That's basically 150 catches lost and we still almost made the playoffs and it's not Bledsoe's fault no one can tackle Willie Parker.

I love it when people talk like draft picks and cap room equal future championships. Tell me that last NE draft pick that came in and changed the team. We need to start by getting the coaching right. If you don't have a DC who can keep the score down and and OC who can take the talent he has and find the end zone once and a while you are going to lose the majority of the time. I'm somewhat confident that McDermott and Frazier can handle the defense but until we get an offensive coach who can put points on the board we are in trouble. Talk about O-lines and QB's and talent always swirl around but the truth is a good coach can get at least marginal results even with sub par talent.

Until they get an offensive coach I can get behind I'm going to have little faith in the process simply because I know that McDermott can't coach or evaluate that side of the ball. He hired Dennison and it was a nightmare. Then he brings in Daboll (with a career 17ppg average) and we are averaging something record setting like 12ppg. It doesn't matter how many picks or how much money, until they get a decent coach on the offensive side of the ball it will be lose, rinse, repeat. Hell if they hired Fitzpatrick straight off Tampa's roster to coach the offense I'd have more confidence at this point then I do with Daboll or McDermott.

Not picking on anyone in particular but I see the "we will have picks and cap space" thing a lot. My guess is that if you gave that homeless dude on the corner 1,000 dollars he'd spend it all on booze and be back on that corner in a few days. In the same light I have to think we'll get the next Derick Dockery and Langston Walker and draft another RB in the first round who can't run behind a crappy line with a bad OC. We'll blow through the money and trade away everyone we've drafted within 3 years.

In a nutshell they made the defense better and made the offense worse. Their first year still had enough left over talent that with help they edged into the playoffs. Clearing cap space does not equal replacing talent lost. They might be breaking even on defense. The reason that is better is better coaching. They are significantly behind on offense but also struggle because Lynn/Roman were ten times the coaches on offense that anyone currently here are.

When Beane and McDermott came on board we went to the playoffs. I'm not sold we did need any kind of a complete overhaul. We needed someone who could coach an offense and someone who could coach a defense and we only got the latter. I'm not afraid of the cap being eaten up if we had some talent because then all you need is coaching. Currently we seem to have no talent and no coaching.

Because it worked so well for Chip Kelly?

Haven't looked it up but I bet we are already paying most of that cap hit. We should have just kept him but with that said when they traded him and brought in AJM they should have at the very least stayed the course on that. Thinking Peterman should start for an NFL team is like the fool opening his mouth and removing all doubt that he is a fool. Hindsight being 20/20 we should have paid up and bought in on a higher level veteran. This team has the defense and RB to win games now. Alex Smith could have managed games with KB and Clay. Would have been a great mentor for Allen or Rosen and we could have traded him just like KC.

There's no Ken Whisenhunt here. I'm betting Cowher would have had a much tougher time bringing Ben along with our current roster on offense and Daboll as OC. I'm not even sure Daboll would be that bad with an established roster but to create a that "franchise" QB everyone is looking for you need someone a level above anyone on our payroll now.

We could have had that other Josh and a day 1 pick on the OL. It's not that I don't like Allen I just don't think the ratio of talent to the price we paid to move to get him was worth it. Especially since I don't see a QB guru on the staff.

Must be Tyrod Taylor's fault ?.

I do see some of what you are saying but counterpoint that Kupp absolutely could put up big numbers in a system like the Patriots or Saints. Kupp put up 18 catches and 302 yards while Woods was injured. Coaching and QB make a big difference. Woods and Kupp are basicaly interchangeable. Woods is miles better than anyone we are currently suiting up. That's half the reason we still had a decent passing attack without Watkins in 2015 because we still had Woods and Hogan. If we had Woods and Hogan now, neither of which is an elite number 1, we would be way better off and still not killing our cap. All that said my point is that Kupp is pretty damn good and Zay IS getting open. He drops a ton and Allen isn't seeing him. Allen should keep getting better. I am legitimately concerned Zay isn't going to stop dropping passes.

I think we've proven over and over again we can get production out of the RB position without using a day one pick. Overall better coaching will get better production. Also you don't have to use a ton of early picks to draft decent WR's. You just have to have a decent front office and scouting. No one I can think of is surprised Kupp is an excellent WR and he went in the 3rd round. Sometimes also things just don't work out. I thought/hoped Zay would be great.

People want to see Mahomes in Buffalo? Get Andy Reid to coach here and you will see Mahomes like production at the QB spot. Bring in the guy who sank Peyton Manning followed by a journeyman TE coach with a career 17ppg scoring record and you get what you get.

Brandon Tate FTW!!!! ..... even better can we bring back Kaelin Clay for the 1 millionth time.

Hasn't the book on Pettine always been to run the ball at him? He's made any number of great QB's look bad but teams have found room to run. With all that said a team that is a little over a season removed from leading the league in rushing for a second season seems absolutely incapable of getting it going against anyone.

They took a big jump when they had a big dump and got rid of Fisher. McVay is the reason that offense completely turned around and they brought in Wade Phillips who can take almost any group and make it awesome on defense. The difference is that they finally have great coaching on both sides of the ball. The significant investment in WR's didn't hurt either. Woods, Cupp, and Cooks (Watkins last year) also didn't hurt either. I'm even leaving out Reynolds who was great in the senior bowl but lost in their depth chart. We haven't made the investment in our offense anywhere near that level. I would imagine this year is already a lost cause but if they make a large investment in the offense next year and this years picks (Allen and Edmunds) pan out then we could take a nice big step forward next year. I would at this point think we almost have to or McDermott will not last.

I think people just don't understand winning. Throwing for 300 yards a game does not equal winning. I absolutely am not saying I don't want a decent passing game and goodness knows that the part of Taylor i could never defend was that he just wasn't an adequate level of clutch. He did a lot of things well or at least well enough but when the chips were down he couldn't get over the hump. It wasn't the number of yards he threw for. The same test will someday be the measure for Allen and it will have nothing to do with how many yards he throws for. As far as just wins and losses the lack of help is just as too blame as Taylor. At least half his loses had huge defensive or special teams failures and since he joined the Browns both games should have been won by the kicker and were not. Again the knock on Taylor is not taking the game into his own hands and making a few extra plays and I can't argue that but he does usually put teams in a position to win.

I purposely didn't mention Taylor. Sample size? In three seasons with THIS team he carried a winning record. Give him a decent defense and we would have gone to the playoffs three straight years. The argument made over and over again for passing yards was that it would make any game winnable and a bad defense less of a big deal. While I'm all for more passing yards and I like Allen it was crap when they were saying it two seasons ago and it's crap now. If your offense can move the ball and score points it doesn't matter how and having a good defense is always the best way to start winning games. If Allen had the exact same stats as Taylor but could throw that one clutch pass a game or 2 or 3 more TD's a year in those tight games he'd be a success and it would have nothing to do with getting a ton of yards.

McDermott calls the defense 17 to 10 Vikings. Frazier calls it all game 30 to 13.

I don't think 240 passing yards in a game where you were behind 28-6 at the half really epitomizes a mic drop moment. Edwards and Losman both won their first starts for what it's worth. Hell Manuel even had a lead going into the 4th on the Pats in his first start. Passing yards might be the most meaningless stat out there.

Joe B has Milano as the second ranked player on his season grades (only 2 games I know). The way some people complain about that kid you'd think he was the rookie LB getting abused. I really think with our rookie DT playing decent the defense really needs better playcalling and to keep the DB's healthy and they could be much better. I'm not writing Daboll off. He squeezed 20 points out of that group of players in a half (essentially). Who knows by the end of the season. What I wouldn't give for a big time receiver. Maybe Zay can finally heat up and become the guy we thought we drafted.

What we are forgetting that it could also be the new scheme. Woods might be getting abused if he was here also. The line looked and played much better in 15 and 16 and then without much change all of a sudden couldn't run block or pass block in 2017? I mean if he doesn't fit the scheme then it is entirely possible that he isn't going to look very good. That said it doesn't change the fact that he played as well or better than Woods was playing when he took over for him when he got injured.