(02-21-2022, 11:52 AM)Mikey Wrote:

(02-21-2022, 10:47 AM)scottyg Wrote: Something that hasn't been mentioned enough, if at all on this board...  How do players and a team manage to maintain focus to perform at their best when they are surrounded by so much dysfunction?  The best players will manage under any circumstance, but we didn't have any of the best players.
Cullen did a remarkable job keeping the defense focused through the second half of the season in spite of all of the dysfunction, but the offense not so much.  Shenault wasn't the only guy that dropped way too many balls last year, and lack of focus could have just as easily contributed as anything else.

While I'm not a player, I think the stock response is that in spite of the chaos, guys are still professionals and have to put tape down of their effort. If they aren't producing decent evaluators are still going to be able to see whether that's a symptom of play around them, injury, or their own lack of effort.

And in this league, if you are lagging, you'll be replaced. So even if the coach is a hemorrhoid, or you think you're underpaid, or the QB throws 80% of your passes in the dirt, you still bust your tail every snap so that you can keep playing the game at this level.

Yes, they're professionals, but they are also young (very young in some cases) human beings, not robots.  I don't know about you, and I didn't have pro coaching to lead me (some could argue our guys didn't either), but I was in my 30's before I even began to feel the wisdom required to see the forest through the trees.  And even then seemingly made all the wrong choices! dammit!

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