Originally posted by TexasNiner:
I'll preface this thought with these two statements:
Preseason means nothing.
No one could have seen this off season coming in it's entirety.
Still....for all the changes, big and small, expected and unexpected, coaches and players, and for whatever we thing we have learned/seen from the preseason games and practices, both when we have played better (the Cowboys game) or worse (the Broncos game), what has really changed?
As far as I can tell this is the general state of our team:
We can run block well (especially the left side) and have depth at RB.
We can't pass block consistently at all (especially the right side) or against any elite pass rushers or complicated blitzing packages or obvious blitzing situations like 3rd and long.
Kap is athletic, can run, has a cannon and can throw a laser when he has time and an open receiver.
Kap is inaccurate when hurried or frazzled, doesn't make reads past his first or second receiver, and is too quick to want to escape the pocket.
Our top two WRs are pros and solid vets we can count on.
None of our young WRs have shown that they are NFL ready and our WR3 positions and beyond are a crap shoot of has beens and/or quite possibly never will bes.
We can't stop teams on 3rd down and still commit way too many penalties.
We tighten up in the redzone on D. (Resulting in FGs for the other team - good.)
We also tighten up in the redzone on O. (Resulting in FGs for the other us - bad.)
Our CB corps is average to solid at best and will hold up if we don't give the QB too much time to throw the ball.
We can stop the run pretty well. But our pass rush is inconsistent and often a step too late. We get pressure, but not sacks. This often leads to QBs being able to JUST get the ball off, to a receiver who is JUST open enough, to JUST make the play and JUST get the first down on a play it seems like we should have stopped.
Our Kicking game is solid.
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Is it just me or could this all have been written 1 year ago, 2 years ago, 3 years ago, etc....
For all the changes, transitions, etc... Almost nothing has changed. Some of our weakness are a bit weaker. Some of our strengths may not be as strong, but overall, it's pretty much the same old song.
Even the year we went to the Superbowl it was pretty much the same story. The one area that seems to have actually changed/improved is the return game. We finally have 2-4 players on the team who seem to legitimately have the instincts and talents to return kicks and punts, and it looks like we have solid blocking in front of them. If we had that a few years back we probably would have won at least one SB.
Otherwise for all the chaos, we are essentially the same team. Maybe a slightly watered down version, but still with pretty much the exact same strengths and weaknesses we have had for years. Even when we were at our best, half a dozen games a year were generally won by a TD or less and were low scoring games won by D and special teams with the O doing just enough. Last year (and probably this year), those games will likely not go our way instead of being Ws.
The frustrating thing as a fan is that so many have been calling for some solution to these problems for so long and the team has either unwilling or unsuccessful at any attempts to address them. There haven't been high picks for high profile players brought in as FAs or via trade at positions like Oline, CB, pass rusher or WR. The one exception is WR, but the draftees have been busts and the FA replaced our losses, so we are essentially in the same place as we were.
TD;DR: Team still can run/stop the run, can't sack the QB or stop pass rusher. Kap is still Kap. For all the changes, WTF has changed?
"...can't sack the QB..."
This, for one thing.