Bear Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 I gave myself a few days before looking back on this season and deciding what I think. Here are the end of season grades how I see them. Also, what I feel needs to be done in the off-season at each position. I'll do Coaching and Defense in this post, and Defense and Special teams in another. *Note that unlike many posters around here, I do understand the fact that you CAN'T have superstars at every position! My off-season plan may be a bit more realistic if not exciting. COACHING I feel from top to bottom we have a great coaching staff. Yes, mistakes were made, but overall these guys really impressed me. Grey: Our defense once again finished second in the league, and this time they did it with 39 turnovers instead of 18. Pretty amazing when you see that we went from last in the league to first in one season! Bobby April: The difference in special teams is obvious. April has done some amazing things with that unit, and it should only get better with more time under his belt next season. Clements: The offense looked poor at times, but the play calling for the most part seemed okay. The fact that you have a QB that skips passes off the ground, WR's that drop the well thrown balls, and a RB (for the first 4 games) that just couldn't take the ball and run with it doesn't do a lot for your game plan. Execution was the key weakness in our offense, and while coaching can be partly responsible for this, I think the players are a bit more to blame. Wyche: Basically this all comes down to one thing...the line got better every game! It really think Wyche is doing his thing, and with another off-season can have these guys ready to play. MM: I think he did a really good job for his first year. He got better at controlling the game as the season wore on, and he seemed to actually learn from his mistakes!!! How refreshing is that! I bet we see a great coach next season. Grade: B+ My normal grade would be a "B", but one I raise it to a plus for one thing....2nd half gameplan changes. These guys seemed to be able to tear apart opposing teams gameplans and really come out big time in the second half. I love that! DEFENSE SAFETY With the addition of Vincent at safety I think we will have one of the best safety duos in the league. Vincent played well after moving to safety, but I think next year his play will improve drastically. With an off-season and training camp/Pre-season to prepare, he will be 100% ready to step into that spot. Milloy is Milloy. He's a great safety and a difference maker on the field. He is going to be a top notch safety for a few more years! Safety Grade: A Off-season moves: NoneI think we have enough depth at this position. These guys are not game changers, but they know the position and the scheme. As with every position, we hope that our starters don't get hurt, but if they do it shouldn't shatter the defense while they heal. CB Nate Clements is turning out to be a damn good CB. He makes some mistakes, and at the CB position one mistake could cost you a game, but he is getting better and the mistakes are getting few and far between. With a bit more focus, he is a top 10 CB. McGee is bit tougher. IMO, he spent much of the season as a below average #2 CB, and finsihed at about average. QB's took advantage of him at times, and he is often out of position. One thing I noticed was that when Vincent came back, his play stepped up. I hope that with time he can become a "good" number 2 corner. I don't expect greatness out of him, but I think he can be solid. Thomas is a very good Dime corner, and a servicable Nickel. Grade: B- I would give Nate an A andMcGee a C+ The lack of a good Nickel corner drops the grade a bit. Off-season moves: I would like to see another "McGee type CB" brought in. Obviously it would be great to bring in a great 2nd CB, but considering the way this defense played all year we can't afford to be spending a bunch of money to fix what aint broke! I just want someone to come in and push McGee for his job, and let the loser take the Nickel spot. LB We have two of the best LB's in the league with Spikes and Fletcher, and an okay LB in Posey. Yes, there is a lot of talk about Posey getting beat, but there is never any talk about his good plays. I spent a lot of time in the chat room during the games, and it I used to laugh to myself at that fact. Posey would be make some nice plays, not a word. He would miss a tackle, and he sucked. No, he's not a GREAT LB, but he is IMO, good enough. Grade: A Off-season moves: None/depth I hear a lot of people saying we NEED depth because if one of our LB's goes down we have NOTHING behind them. My question: How do you know? These guys don't get hurt much. We have backups on the team, and I'm sure they are just fine as backups go. Whats the point of bringing in more backups with about the same talent level as our current ones, just because we haven't seen the current ones play yet? D-Line Tackles SIGN PAT! With Sam Adams and Pat williams we have the best DT combo in the league. Yes, better than an old Ted Washington and over rated Sapp. We need to sign Pat again. Grade: A Off-season moves: ummm...SIGN PAT! We drafted Anderson last year for depth, and Edwards is doing just fine. I think Anderson starts playing more next season, and we can count on him to relieve the starters when needed. SIGN PAT! DE This is a bit harder. Personally, I like what we got. Schoebel had a decent season, and Kelsay looked better as time went on. Everyone said we needed a pass rushing DE, then the combination of Aaron, Kelsay, and Adams took care of that. Now I see posts saying we need a run stopping Defensive end! We had the 7th ranked rushing defense in the league. HELLO...we can't have stars everywhere! Grade: B- Off-season moves: None/Depth ]Defensive Line Grade: B+ DEFENSIVE GRADE: A Hey, second ranked D in the league...can't ask for much more. Comments: If there was a problem with the defense it was that they seemed to come up short when it was all on the line. They let New England run all over them, and obvioulsy screwed the pooch against backups in Pitt. This really doesn't worry me so much. Most of the changes that need to happen are on offense, and with a better offense we won't expect our defense to be so damn perfect. I have total faith in this defense, and they will be fighting for the number one spot again next year! OFFENSE Coming soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 not bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beerball Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Nice recap. You mention Wyche, but I think you mean McNally in the coaches section. What do we know of Wyche? Little was written about him during the season outside of preparations for the Cincy game. Can he work his QB magic again? MM is going to be a good one in my estimation as well. Some of the little things got away from him during games, but I really like his demeanor, and he will get better and better. JG stood on his own two feet this year. No Greggg, no LeBeau and he did well. The three fourth quarter drives against were killers, but he will continue to get better and better and better. Thomas is a RFA I believe. I don't know if much effort goes into re-signing him. He may not get much attention, and thus fall back to us, but an upgrade at CB for nickle/depth is necessary. Great recap, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bear Posted January 7, 2005 Author Share Posted January 7, 2005 Nice recap. You mention Wyche, but I think you mean McNally in the coaches section. 196771[/snapback] Oops, you're right. My bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 If there was a problem with the defense it was that they seemed to come up short when it was all on the line. They let New England run all over them, and obvioulsy screwed the pooch against backups in Pitt. This really doesn't worry me so much. Most of the changes that need to happen are on offense, and with a better offense we won't expect our defense to be so damn perfect. I have total faith in this defense, and they will be fighting for the number one spot again next year! OFFENSE Coming soon 196745[/snapback] I think your right on with this. I think once the offence becomes more dependable and gives up the ball and field position less the defence will magically become more consistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico Posted January 7, 2005 Share Posted January 7, 2005 Another nice read, thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deep2evans Posted January 8, 2005 Share Posted January 8, 2005 you stated with a little more focus, Clements could be a top 10 CB. he already is top 10 and has the potential to be top 3-4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts