I really am not sure that Chad has any future with the team anymore. His contract restructure felt more like window dressing in a cap move to avoid cutting him than anything. It sucks, because I think the world of the guy, but rebuilding tends to force some tough and impersonal decisions. If we draft a QB with the 4th overall, Chad might as well start packing his bags in advance.
I think we are goons be much better than people anticipate. I have a lot of confidense (as of now) in our front office. You can really see that they have an itelligence about them that they didnt have with Sperm here. As long as we can come out of this offseason with a decent QB I think we could have a pretty good year. Maybe its just the sunshiner in me......
i hope its leinart-less but seriously i couldnt tell you we might go for an OL or depends what we do in the draft. RIGHT NOW? id say something along the lines of smashmouth football with focus on the intermediate passing. not much different then when chad was healthy but id expect to see more houston.
It depends on who our starting qb is going to be. Once we know that then we'll have a better idea of what to expect.
I agree...I have been worrying about what seems to be a lack of concern on the Front Offices part towards rebuilding our Offensive Line. Just look at Houston. Carr is not a bad QB, but when you are the most sacked QB in the league, there is no time to do anything. Also, if Penny is the starter you better hope we have a good O-Line or else he's done for. Of course we may draft D'Brick in the upcoming draft and/or other O-Linemen.... Our time of possesion also killed us this year...you need to actually have the ball for a good amount of time to do something with it. Again, the O-Line is partially to blame, but I was never very impressed with Heimerdinger's offense either. The shotgun was a disaster and the play calling became just as predictable as Hacketts. Hopefully this new regime will breathe new life into this team, fix what needs to be fixed, give us a tighter defence, and, give us an offense that can keep the ball long enough to put some points on the board by protecting the QB and not being so predictable.
Thing about that is that Mangini's experience is with the Pats offense which did have a healthy dose of dink and dunk and even though he won't be running the offense he still seems to be molding the team in that image. The Pats offense had a lot of quick passes to take advantage of the cushions and let the receivers make plays once they had the ball. Difference between their offense and ours was that they made plays, avoided the sacks and were healthy enough to take their shots down the field when need be. While I'm happy with what they've done so far, I think there is little new in what we're actually seeing and hearing for the most part in that just like every new head coach Mangini is trying to impose his scheme and in his case he's lucky enough for the most part to be able to cut and/or trade those who don't fit the mold and bring in more people who may fit what he's looking for. I think the offense would've been better this year if healthy with the same regime. Dinger was known for 5 wide sets but when you can't block due to scheme confusion and injuries you can't afford to waste having an extra receiver since a QB on his back can't complete a pass. I'm hoping for a smart offense, one that like last years had the intention of adjusting itself to attack the weaknesses of the team they are playing. Mangini has grown up in that type of system on both sides of the ball with NE so hopefully having a head coach who coached under someone who made so many adjustments will be the attitude we see on both sides of the ball.
I think the reason no one has discussed offense, is because it is clear we have no line. No line. No line. So any suggestions that we can do anything is ridiculous. We even lost Fabini. No line. And if history proves itself, we will hand the ball to Martin.
Exactly. I think that they just used Pennington to be a 2nd or 3rd QB on the roster and maybe win the starting job for a year, but I really think that they have no future past this year. They just figured it made more sense to keep Chad for one year as a backup and then cut him than to get a brand new guy who would be more expensive and not as good.
That's why he was brought in to ease the transition, to help other players out. He is not part of the team's long term plans. This is the same type of thing that Belichick did when he started in New England. Bring in veterans who understand the system, and can teach the young guys.
