(05-06-2020, 08:51 AM)hb1148 Wrote:

(05-06-2020, 06:31 AM)KodiakJag Wrote: Some of the ones predicting us to go 8-8 or better have been saying this every year since Shad bought the team.

This team is much less talented than last year, when we went 6-10.  Can Gruden make enough of a difference to overcome this?

I do not expect Yannick to play.  I believe our QB play will improve, but everything else will be as bad as last year or worse.

My early prediction is somewhere between 2-14 & 5-11, assuming the NFL schedules a full season this year.

Not so fast. We are less talented on the DL. We arguably have improved talent overall. The notable losses are Yan, Calais, Dareus, Bouye and Foles. Biggest of those is Dareus and Yan. Calais and Bouye were great leaders but where showing their age. No replacement for Dareus really and we saw his worth when he went out on injury. Yan's fans aside, he's a good pass rusher but only average against the run. We'll definitely miss him assuming he doesn't play but Chaisson will make up for the loss. Henderson will more than make up for the loss of Bouye. LB corps will not have great depth but the starters will be better, moving Jack back to his more natural position and bringing in a guy like Schobert. As far as Foles, really hard to consider him a loss.

We'll be stronger on offense. Adding Eifert and Shenault will benefit the continue growth of Minshew. Fournette is playing on the last year of his contract, he's likely to have a good year. Oliver will be back to 100%.

None of that will get us *over* .500 but there's no reason to think getting there isn't reasonable.

Campbell still played at a high level but not as good as in 2017 or 2018.
Bouye is 28 years old but has been average the last seasons. I actually expect Henderson to be better than Bouye.
Yan is meh, he is good player but far from great. If he doesn't play I don't see a big loss tbh, especially with Chaisson on the team and an improved Smoot.

Pretty funny how some people think losing Bouye will make the secondary horrible... it was already horrible with him there.

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