The airing of grievances. Sure, I'll play.
I love reading this on fan forums. It's as if we feel that we're speaking for the team officially, like we're all little GMs or something.
I'm not the GM; I'm a fan. I expect my GM to explain how something like this could happen, but I myself don't have to explain it to anyone. As a fan, I need to
understand it, to know the reasons for a collapse like this one.
Is it not plausible that injuries, while perhaps not something the GMs and head coaches of the league can lean on as excuses for poor performances, could nonetheless be
reasons for poor performance? With all the teams in the league watering down talent, is it realistic to expect teams to simply pop another one in the chamber without any dropoff?
Lots and lots of things have gone wrong this season, and if it sounds like I'm trying to give the FO and coaches a pass, I promise you that I'm not. Thompson has not stocked the OL and DL shelves properly, IMO. McCarthy, for some reason, seems to be having a harder time getting through to a bunch of kids this season than he did getting through to a QB legend that was supposed to be "hard to coach" last year. Thompson's penchant for letting proven FAs go and replacing them with either draft picks or lesser, unproven FAs bit the team in the ass this year. I expect him to shake things up this off-season and bring in some top-tier help, and I'll be first in the disgruntled line if he doesn't. I want shakeups in the coaching ranks as well -- Stock and Sanders, I'm looking at you. I want to see a strong commitment to defense, from coaches to players.
But, to swing this trainwreck back on-target, imagine if we had the following this year:
The same OL that ended last season, in the same configuration, all healthy, all season.
Ryan Grant, healthy and focused, all season.
Al Harris and Atari Bigby, healthy, all season.
CULLEN FREAKING JENKINS healthy, all season.
Imagine if just those things above were as I describe them, instead of how they really were. Do you think that possibly we might have done better this year? Maybe?
I'm asking.