(10-30-2024, 03:25 PM)imtheblkranger Wrote:

(10-30-2024, 02:53 PM)MoJagFan Wrote: Too much lather, rinse, and repeat in this organization. We can't seem to get on board with draft and develop.

The one time they were honest they held onto the coach past it being obvious that it all was a disaster.

I hope to live long enough to see some direction pointing to success.

If Detroit can finally figure it out, we can someday too

Here's the issue: coaching can only take talent so far. It is and always will be Players not Plays in the NFL. It's very, very rare that you change coaches and instantly have a winner, whether that's as a team or as a unit of a team. We brought in Nielsen and made the following changes to the starting defense: Antonio Johnson in for Jenkins, Darnell Savage in at nickel, Ron Darby in for Williams, Erik Armstead in for Smoot (I guess? Who the hell knows at this point), and then some rookies who have barely played so far. Does anyone really believe that an offseason scheme change is going to fix the problem? Really? 

Now, they can fire Nielsen, I'm ambivalent about that, but does anyone expect a coaching change or a scheme change to fix what's broken here? I think you're kidding yourselves if you do. This team has a talent deficit, especially in the defensive line, and no amount of coaching is going to fix it. This says nothing of the two years spent acquiring players built to play 43 and forcing them into 34 then wondering why the 34 isn't working. We can go back to to a guy with Caldwell's style of "keep it all in front and avoid the big play" if we want, or we can keep Nielsen and add actual talent to the roster who can run man, or fire him and replace him with a guy with a similar scheme. In short, I don't think firing Nielsen isn't going to make this all that much better because he's not really the problem; the problem is the roster and until that gets sorted every coach is going to struggle here. The only real hope we have is that Maason Smith and Jordan Jefferson grow up and create a strong interior duo that we can supplement with an additional rotational guy. Fix the middle and you fix most everything else IMO.

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