I'm still quite convinced that the ZBS has been a wholesale failure in Green Bay. Mike McCarthy has repeatedly stated in press conferences that it is one of the tools in the arsenal, but that we are not a ZBS offense, per se. My biggest problem with the ZBS as it relates to Green Bay is in the personnel decisions that went hand in hand with the concept. We have built an offensive line that is suited for the ZBS through the draft. If you read draft scout analaysts, you will often find phrases like, "Best suited for a ZBS, he's on the lighter side, but is quick and finds his proper pad level and footwork, yada, yada, yada. That's what we keep getting, and developmental player is the norm. Why? Because they lack size, imo.
The loss of the ZBS coach, Jeff Jagowhatever, I think, factored in to the failure, for sure.
I also do not like one of the tenets of the ZBS, that is, the low-cut block. As you might recall, this is a block we do not practice due to the potential for injury to one of our own defenders in practice. I know it's legal, but that don't make it classy, jmo. Plus, if we ARE doing it, well, I'd just have to say FAIL, yet again, because I don't see Jarred Allen, for example, coming off the field after having been cut block by anyone on the Pack...(This is semi-jest, I think)
I sincerely wish for a complete abandonment of this scheme in one extremely important aspect... STOP drafting offensive linemen suited mostly for it... if you see in a draft report that "this guy is suited for the ZBS, yada yada yada... that spells FAIL. Cliffy and Tausch were never ZBSers...most of the rest are. I say get those linemen BIG and early, if through the draft... we'll figure out the schemes once we have the pure, raw talent and size. The ZBS CAN be run with big men, they just need to be able to MOVE...this equates to a combination found in the very early going in a draft, or through FA... not through mid-to-late rounds with semi-large men.
As to the coaching, it IS possible that they are doing a pretty good job with the talent given them. We don't have a ZBS guy, as has been pointed out. What we have is non-ZBS coaching with some ZBS football players, at least in the type of player that they are. I think a couple of 330 lb. linemen would do wonders for the perception of the coaching, again, jmo.