(09-30-2024, 05:57 PM)Portofino43 Wrote: When it comes to the offensive line woes, I think a large part of the blame for that should go to Trent Baalke. The reason for this is that when Doug Pedersen was in Philadelphia, he had a team that was very strong in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
I live in Minnesota, and I can vividly remember the NFC Championship game the year Doug won his Super Bowl. Mike Zimmer had the #1 defense in the NFL that year, and they destroyed the Saints in the divisional game. They traveled to Philadelphia for the NFCCG, and the Vikings were favorites on the road. In the opening drive, they marched up the field on the Philly defense and scored a quick touchdown. It was looking pretty good for them at that point. After that, Doug's team overpowered the Vikings on both the offensive and defensive lines and dominated them the rest of the game. Those trench players were a huge strength for him, and no doubt, one of the big reasons Doug was able to go into the Super Bowl with a back up quarterback (Nick Foles) and beat Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and the Patriots for the championship.
This was why I was confident that the Jags would have dominant offensive and defensive line play when Doug was hired. That has not been the case, and I've heard reports that Doug has constantly been wanting to improve the offensive line personnel through the draft, but Trent Baalke neglected that area.
The blame for the weak offensive line lies squarely in the lap of Trent Baalke. You can also put a lot of blame on Baalke for our lack of a pass rush. Passing on Aiden Hutchinson for Travon Walker was a blunder of mythic proportions, and we will suffer from that mistake for years. I do like the Maason Smith pick in this year's draft, however. He is a Baalke type of pick though, in that he is a project with a ton of athletic talent who needs to refine his game.
To sum it up, as we all know, it was a big mistake not to can Trent Baalke when we got rid of Urban Meyer. IMO, he needs to be bounced from the building at the earliest opportunity.
The problem with that narrative is that Doug has plenty of input on OL personnel decisions.
They dfaft and acquire as a team effort. It is not a traditional GM over HC scenario.
Khan mandated them to do this stuff together.
Doug was in on Fortner, he was in on paying Scherff, he was in on extending Cam, he was in on starting that meat-milkshake kid we waived after he was worthless at LG.
They kept Cam around that because they were strapped with other problems to fix that year and he was the easy way out at LT.
I think Doug screwed up by wanting super athletic traits for his ZBS and Baalke conceded to provide them.
Anton Harrison and now the Morse signing are the only departures. The next regime will hopefully take a better approach to OL scheme and personnel.
