07-27-2021, 02:43 PM -
I'm getting back to the mood for talking football. The pandemic and results of it have played havoc on my schedule and stolen too much focus. Hopefully, that'll change.
So, I've been trying to honestly look at our offseason changes to think of where our roster is in relation to last year. I'll admit that my first thoughts after the Darnold trade were that we made a sideways move. That may still be the case but I'm much more optimistic now that I've looked into it more. For the purpose of this exercise, I'm still going to treat QB as a sideways move with potential. I've also thought that the pandemic last season and starting over with another QB this season have slowed the potential success of the rebuild.
OFFENSE:
THE BAD: We lost Curtis Samuel. We've all known he was an underutilized star for a long time. He was especially a monster at moving the chains on third down. We also let Mike Davis go to the Falcons. I think we'll miss him when it's 3rd and 1 and/or when we're trying to punch it in the endzone. The Falcons got a good one that I think will be a nice upgrade from an injured Gurley. Are there other offensive losses that you think will amount to much?
THE GOOD: We made positive moves to cover those two losses. We have David Moore and Terrace Marshall trying to make up for the CS loss and Chuba Hubbard trying to fill MD's shoes. Dan Arnold seems to be a major addition and Tommy Tremble is an interesting potential as well.
THE RESULT: Even assuming Darnold isn't an upgrade, I think we made significant improvement to our offense overall. Obviously, (hopefully) getting CMC back will be the biggest improvement. Here's the apples-to-apples that comes to my mind: Everything we got last year from Curtis Samuel AND Mike Davis is LESS than what we got from just CMC in 2019 (yards receiving, yards rushing, and TDs). If he returns to form, he alone replaces those two losses, meaning all of the above additions that I mentioned (Moore, Marshall, Chuba, etc) are upgrades over 2020. The real benefit, though, is the positions that were upgraded. We all know that our team runs through CMC and we also know that we were sorely lacking at TE, especially in the redzone. So, filling those two holes does much more than add stats. It completes the offensive plan. I'm thrilled we locked up Moton, but the O-line has too many question marks to guess the outcome yet. Even so, I think we upgraded the offense nicely from last year.
I'll look at D later (or let someone else if they want), but considering how many games we lost despite having the ball and a chance for a winning drive, I'm excited. We lost ALL of those, eight I think, last year. If we were able to turn half of those into successful endings this year, we'd likely steal a playoff spot.
So, I've been trying to honestly look at our offseason changes to think of where our roster is in relation to last year. I'll admit that my first thoughts after the Darnold trade were that we made a sideways move. That may still be the case but I'm much more optimistic now that I've looked into it more. For the purpose of this exercise, I'm still going to treat QB as a sideways move with potential. I've also thought that the pandemic last season and starting over with another QB this season have slowed the potential success of the rebuild.
OFFENSE:
THE BAD: We lost Curtis Samuel. We've all known he was an underutilized star for a long time. He was especially a monster at moving the chains on third down. We also let Mike Davis go to the Falcons. I think we'll miss him when it's 3rd and 1 and/or when we're trying to punch it in the endzone. The Falcons got a good one that I think will be a nice upgrade from an injured Gurley. Are there other offensive losses that you think will amount to much?
THE GOOD: We made positive moves to cover those two losses. We have David Moore and Terrace Marshall trying to make up for the CS loss and Chuba Hubbard trying to fill MD's shoes. Dan Arnold seems to be a major addition and Tommy Tremble is an interesting potential as well.
THE RESULT: Even assuming Darnold isn't an upgrade, I think we made significant improvement to our offense overall. Obviously, (hopefully) getting CMC back will be the biggest improvement. Here's the apples-to-apples that comes to my mind: Everything we got last year from Curtis Samuel AND Mike Davis is LESS than what we got from just CMC in 2019 (yards receiving, yards rushing, and TDs). If he returns to form, he alone replaces those two losses, meaning all of the above additions that I mentioned (Moore, Marshall, Chuba, etc) are upgrades over 2020. The real benefit, though, is the positions that were upgraded. We all know that our team runs through CMC and we also know that we were sorely lacking at TE, especially in the redzone. So, filling those two holes does much more than add stats. It completes the offensive plan. I'm thrilled we locked up Moton, but the O-line has too many question marks to guess the outcome yet. Even so, I think we upgraded the offense nicely from last year.
I'll look at D later (or let someone else if they want), but considering how many games we lost despite having the ball and a chance for a winning drive, I'm excited. We lost ALL of those, eight I think, last year. If we were able to turn half of those into successful endings this year, we'd likely steal a playoff spot.
This post was last modified: 07-28-2021, 07:29 AM by coffee.