you're leaving out adibi, who i'd throw into the "positive" side of the ledger (though he's obviously no world-beater). and there's nothing wrong with drafting/developing contributing back-ups. one of the things i've been arguing since 2006 is that kubiak didn't just inherit a team with zero frontline talent, he also inherited one with absolutely no depth. that's what rounds 4-7 are for. so if he's drafted 3 frontline starters, two average-ish starters and 4 solid back-ups in four years... when you consider he had nearly as large a task offensively so he's not like he could just focus on defense - i'd say that's a pretty decent %. pam anderson wasn't built in a day..... and i think part of that is because they don't really have a scheme. kubiak came here with an offensive gameplan. he knew what he wanted to do and what he needed to do it. the same can't be said of the defense and that might ultimately be his worst decision as a coach and his undoing. i think they've been trying to assemble as much talent as possible and see how it shakes out, letting the players dictate the direction. but when you get projects and take gambles.... that becomes harder to do. i *think* the defense will improve as the year goes on. i'm not excusing them but their deficiency is pretty obvious and if they can find a way to mask or even correct it... the unit *could* be just good enough to get this team to 9+ wins.
Nor was she deconstructed in a day - which is what I fear will happen if we blow this up and go in yet another new direction... Yep, that's exactly the point I was trying to make earlier... This is my hope as well. There are signs, they just need to avoid the mental mistakes and take advantage of the talent they do have and get off the field on third down... onto Sunday - here's hoping for a confidence-inspiring performance.
oh, i totally agree. you don't trash 8-8 teams and start over. all the cowher talk is mind-bottling, especially with *much* better (and equally credentialed) coaches available for what's already been built here. i'm not abandoning kubiak, but IF they need to let him go, shannahan, holmgrem and gruden are, like... a 1,000 times better choices than cowher, imo.
