Okay here it goes:
For the UPCOMING season
Positives:
NUMERO UNO AND THE UNDISPUTED HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION POSITIVE ON THE TEAM . . . NO MORE JAKE!
I can't tell you how many games last year deterioriated into me hoping Jake would fail, so the front office would finally have no choice but to boot his sorry ass outta town. And this was after I thought he had turned a corner the year previous to that. But Jake destroyed this team - some may say he never let his picks get to him and he always hung his head up, but you know what - YOU SHOULD BE DISSAPOINTED WHEN YOU SCREW UP AS MUCH AS HIM , and then you should do everything in your power to become better. Everything starts at the top and with Jake gone, I am psyched to finally see our offense on the field with a new leader.
2) Jeff Blake - my favorite pick up of the off-season. The guy throws the prettiest long ball in the entire NFL, and he has made some pretty unknown guys look very good in the past. Also comes in with a chip on his shoulder which I like.
3) The secondary - If this squad had a monster pass rush, they'd probably by the end of the season be regarded as one of the top units in the NFL. Individually, I don't we've ever had this much youth and talent in our starting back field and that's pretty exciting.
4) Freddie Jones - Loved him as a Charger. Love teams that can throw to the TE, because if you can get it, a good TE is a nightmarish match-up for defenses. Blake has always used the TE - made Tony McGee a Pro Bowler in Cincy if I'm not mistaken, and after he left, when was the last time you heard about him?
5) O-line: The hope that this chronically inured under perfroming line will finally become dominant and smash people six feet under. Lots of concerns here as well, but their potential is exciting.
6) Depth - The Belly of the team has been addressed in certain areas - O-line, RB (although this is a psotion of contention in my cons later), LBs - actually when I think about, maybe I'm not so sure about this one and the problems in saying we have depth will come out later in the cons.
Cons:
1) D-Line: Until this unit ACTUALLY shows me something, I will not and cannot believe the weakest part of our team has been addressed - Drafting a guy that rated out as a 2nd or 3rd pick into the starting lineup along side another group of guys that got their asses collectively handed to them all season long (well the last ten games) doesn't signal to me that we "upgraded" the pass rush. People here say they will be happy if we get ten more sacks raising the overall level to 30 sacks for the season. 30 sacks is a joke as well - an extra .5 sacks a game isn't gonna make up for the two touchdown drubbings this team took last season.
2) WR - I love all these potential, but I am a believer that potential is a word that signifies something for the FUTURE. WR has shown to be obne of the hardest positions to get accustomed to in the NFL - unless of course you are Randy Moss and personally, I don't care how good a teacher Coach Sullivan is, and considering his mind should be on matching an offense to his personel (get to this later), these guys aren't going to get the attention from HIM that they need - certainly not to make a big enough impact this season IMO.
3) The health of our O-line. None of these guys apparently are healthy right now. All of them have had health problems throughout their careers (meaning last year and before). We have never seen them be as good as we hope they can be, and well, knowing our history and apparent curse, I'll believe it when I see it.
4) RB - The way I see it, Emmitt Smith is an albatross on this team. One , the guy 34 years old. When was the last time a 34 year old RB had a great season? Two, what kind of message does this send to Marcel Shipp. RB is not a position where players learn on the job, especially a year after they have proven themselves worthy of starting material and gained a new contract. Also what fans doe you see being added to our fan base. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't season ticket sales go down again from last season. Do you think the casual fan, who never went to Card game before are going to now to see a RB three years outside of his prime? I don't.
5) Coaching philosophy - Jerry Sullivan needs to figure out what kind of team this is gonna be. It appears that it is built to be a smash mouth team, which can spread the field (hopefully with it's WRs), but a wide open offense, with a lumbering line, an aging RB, and guys who not only have to come out of college and get adjusted to the NFL, but also get adjusted to a Offense that will hpefully be as Dynamic as what the Rams had is a pretty tall order.
The fact that Mean Joe Greene and Larry Marmie are still around is joke to me as well. How many years have these guys had to do something with the talent given to them. Yes I know that talent isn't or hasn't been very good, but this team always seems to be on their heels. I have never seen any of our D-Lineman get better over time. KVB came out like a lion, got hurt, and played vailantly last year, but I never saw any growth in his game. And I don't acre if Wendell Bryant was out all offseason - a coach should be able to get someone with his talents at least to make some impact by the end of the season.
And Coach Mac - a great rah, rah guy. And that's not a negative. His passion for the game is infectious, and maybe with a group this young and inexperienced, they can buy all that stuff hook line and sinker. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a lot behind the passion in the way of game smarts. I knew we were going to lose last year in Game 1 v. Washington when we were up at half because Spurrier would make adjustments on us, and we would sit tight. Sure enough. we got blizted to hell in the third quarter and the game was put out of reach. His decision not to make adjustments against a one-legged Donovan McNabb has been gone over to death here - but my biggest concern came late in the season against St. Louis - a game I believe Mac personally lost. His call to run the ball on 3 and sixth, when all you needed was a first down to win the game coming on the heels of the two minute warning was a cowardly and Joe Bugl like move. Earlier in the season, the Saints were in the same position, with their back-up QB at center vs Tampa and the coach knew that one, with the two minute warning, Tampa wouldn't need to call timeout and two that if they got, it's the game. They passed and got it, we ran off tackle and got 2 yards. Then his clock management at the end was pitiful.
There has never been a game where I though Mac outcoached another team - save one - when he willed us to victory over Washington the week before the stadium vote. We have heard his proclamations that this year we will attack too often and have yet to see it.
6) Our Depth - This is a bit of an oxymoron. To say we have dpeth, implies that we have starters to play in front of them. Our D-line is a sieve, AND there is no depth there. At RB there is good depth, but the WRONG GUY IS STARTING AND I BELIEVE WILL GET A MAJORITY OF THE CARRIES. WR - yeah we have a lot of guys ther, but not on of them has proven one damn thing in this game. In the d-backfield, we have four solid starters, but IMO nothing behind them. At QB, we have Blake, then two guys who are in their second years (now this could be a good thing - I mean Aaron Brooks was the back-up with no experience when Blake played in NO and that has turned out pretty well.
7) The additions made to the team - My biggest fear is that each one of these additions is directly related to another position on the field. If our WRs can't adjust fast enough, the offense is screwed and Jeff Blake and Hodgins won't be able to make contributions which I think they could. Look at the Cowboys the year after their 3rd Super Bowl, when Michael Irvin was suspended the first four game - Behind a great O-Line that had won Super Bowls, Emmit had nowhere to run - and that was with recievers along with Irvin who were Super Bowl Champions. Our addition of Jackson's great, but if ther's no pass rush, he can't cover for ten minutes.
8) I think it's sweking the fact to say this was a five win team last year. Bottom line for me and the way I look at us going into this season is that we finished 1-9 and were pathetic, to the point of absurdity, doing so. That is the team we are upgrading. And that is what tempers my enthusiasm the most. Especially considering that you can play the injury card - but Boston's gone regardless - can't point to that injury - our O-Line still isn't healthy and Gilmore still isn't fully recovered. On defense, it's not like the guys we have now didn't play last year during that horrid stretch at the end of the year - they were all in there.
As far as the coming out of nowhere factor, the bottom line is this - with each one of the teams who Suprised the league, you can look back at them and see some traces of what was going to make them Great. The Rams got Faulk, already had Bruce (who had put up a 1700 yard season two yars prior), already had Orlando Pace, drafted a WR at #6 in the draft who was getting comparisons to Jerry Rice, as well as going out and getting the best QB on the Market in Trent Green. Everyone thought that team would be improved from the prior year - and when Green went down, the unexpected happened and Kurt Warner became a star.
With the Pats - they still had a lot of core guys that were on playoff teams from years previous - but let;s not id ourselves - that was one of the great coaching jobs in the history of the NFL - Bellicheck is a mastermind, was with the Giants, was with the Pats with Parcells and was with the Jets - Mac has never been recognized as such.
With the Ravens - they were pegged as one of the supirse teasm, ebacuse they went 8-8 the year before, drafted Jamal Lewis, had a top five defense they year before the won the Super Bowl and they were geeked and tuned up for their final run - not to mention the amount of first rounders who actually developed on that team - our talent level just ain't there. In addition, BIllick, while a smug f*ck, is a brilliant football mind. He created one of the greatest offenses in NFL History as well as one of the greatest Defenses.
I just don't see Mac in the same light as those coaches for one and two our Faulk is Emmit Smith, and our Bruce is Brian Gillmore.
Hopefully, you all in a couple years will be able to add the Cards to the list I just made above, but for me I'll believe it when I see it. 6-10, possibly 4-12, high end 8-8.
