Mothman wrote:
LOL! You responded to that fast! I took that line out, thinking it might be stated too definitively, but you responded to it before I could delete it so what the heck, i've put it back in.
I'll just qualify it by saying I fear what you fear: that they've already stopped. We've seen that show before and It speaks to what I was writing about above: we're in the Spielman/Wilf era. The characteristics that have defined the team for over a decade now flow down from the top.
I recognize the correlation, but I'm not certain about the causation yet.
I hope to see the Wilfs exercise the kind of patience that we've seen in Pittsburg over the years. If they are applying pressure to 'win now', this team is probably 1-2 years out from full rebuilding mode. If they mortgaged the future in order to not have to open the stadium with a backup QB, that doesn't reassure me about the Wilfs. If Spielman invested in Bradford as a solid longterm solution, I feel a little better about it, despite my lukewarm opinion of Bradford as an NFL QB.
I didn't like Childress from the get go, and I think it was the right move to fire him, but I liked that they seemed to show some interest in continuity by retaining Frazier. It wasn't the right move, but it was a good instinct in my opinion. The problem was they had a wrong vision in the first place, and it never seemed to be a vision shared by the full organization.
Do they have the right vision this time around with Zimmer? I don't know, but I like transitioning to an aggressive defense in todays NFL. The key is to get the whole organization on the same page going forward. That means you don't try to run the cover 2 and fail to invest in LBers capable of playing it at a high level. You don't try to run Turner's offense and neglect the OT position. And now, you can't try to run Shurmurs system and not get him offensive weapons that can create mismatches. You can't run Zimmer's defense and fail to have a true, effective 3 technique, and a safety who can allow more versatility. I'm reassured by the OTs they targetted in FA that they are at least looking for personnel to match their system, and not bringing in guys like Wagner to run the system we just left behind. I have a similar take on letting Peterson walk. On the other hand, Its a slight mystery to me that they let Patterson walk as we institute an offense which could make better use of his talents, but I have heard from a couple sources that he is such a goofball that maybe it was more of a cultural/personality issue than a scheme fit issue.
I haven't drawn a conclussion on the Wilfs yet, except that they are 100 percent an improvement over the ownership group and Red McCombs.
*edit: From where they were when Zimmer and Turner came in, this team had what I thought was a great vision but a VERY long way to go in order to get the pieces to complete that vision. I wish they'd been able to show the patience to put all those pieces together and complete what would have been a perennial contender, but
c'est la vie.
Shurmur's system is clearly a short cut to try to attain production instead of excellence, and I'm not excited about it, but if they commit to the defensive vision, perhaps the pairing can be effective enough to still become contenders.