Play GM, fix the Skins...

Well, I would NOT go get Clements. We just got Springs back, just signed Vincent (who should replace Archuletta, AKA "toast"), and Carlos Rodgers may not even miss a game with his thumb. The free agent thing just insn't working for us. While I do think Patten and Betts/Duckett make attractive trade bait, can I play hindsight GM for a minute?? Why, oh why did we let Ryan Clark go?? We could have re-signed him for a fraction of what we got Archuletta for, kept the chemistry and a player with whom Sean Taylor played great. We could have then taken the Archuletta money and added depth to the O-line, and gotten a KICKER AND A PUNTER for God's sake!! Our special teams stink. I do believe Adam Vinatieri, Ryan Longwell, and Mike Vanderjagt were all available. And I don't think I need to go into what a bust Andre Carter has been. Local radio was referring to our pourous left side as "highway 99." Ouch. Reynaldo Wynn, come on down. If anything we should try to grab Lionel Dalton to sure up our sorry run defense, POUND THE DAMN FOOTBALL 40x a game, and oh yeah, put the #8 car in the garage. Saunders is trying to do too much. If see another gadget play on first down I'm gonna shit myself.

I agree with everything you said

i just want the defense to get better. i'm not liking AA at all.

It's too late in the season for a GM to work any real magic. In the spring, I was on this board saying that failure to upgrade at QB was a major, major risk to a team that is highly loaded. With Springs age and injury history, I'd have added CB depth. CB is just too critical in this D.

"too late".. hmmmm... Not quite yet....

Hey everybody, 1st post here. Dont even know why we worry about fixing the team because it all comes down to not having a smart GM. We are a boat without a rudder. But since we are playing GM, we need to bench Brunell IF we lose to Indy and put our future QB out there and see if he can play. Put Rocky out there and get him going. If we go to Campbell then I believe we will be forced to run the ball much more to help ease him in and limit his mistakes. Figure out where he stands for next year and then you know if your 1st round pick needs to be a QB or not. Fire nobody! Keep the same system, the same coaches. Add ZERO stars. We need run stoppers, secondary help like the Ryan Clarks and Prioleau and Walt Harris' of the world for backups to help Springs and Rogers. Depth on the line. Both of them.
And somebody explain to me how if a pitcher in MLB sucks he is either benched, sent to the pen, or to AAA. In the NFL if youre a high draft pick or a veteran or highly paid, you play. Period. Not enough players get benched or at least made to come off the bench. We need accountability by the players. Make them feel their job is in jeopardy because it should be.

It's going to be difficult to fix this team until the FO changes it's phisosophy about how to aquire players, how to pay players, and what players to pay and/or aquire. We must reverse this trend of year after year paying huge bonuses to has been players, or players with little left to warrant the way they're compensated because in so doing it prohibits you from being able to sign much needed players for depth. We can see now that after our first twenty two, there's a tremendous dropoff, and some included in our twenty two would not, or could not be starters on many teams.

I have never been a strong proponent of free-agency, it has it's advantages, but not to the extent of which we utilize it. This team need lots of fixing, but I think we start with the philosophy of team building first, and go from there. Draft your team, and use FA to to shore up selected areas that can't be addressed through the draft as opposed to constantly dumping boat loads of money into players that will deliver limited service in the long run.
Chang the philosophy, fix the team.

I'm not going to play GM because at this moment in time there's not much the Front Office can do.

Let's play coach instead. I'll be Gibbs. "Hey Al, we're dumping half your playbook and running the damn ball and getting back to power football. We'll implement more of your offense next year, but for now it's smashmouth or bust"

i second that....run the ball and run it and continue to run it...
ditch al,s playbook we will work some of your stuff into my stuff but for now i,m calling the plays again..

"too late".. hmmmm... Not quite yet....

Hess, I am all for having a positive winning attitude, being blind to what is broken is not a positive winning attitude -- that is weakness.

It is "too late" to do what a GM does -- make personnel moves that will have an impact on the field.

Regardless of the trade deadline, there is no trade that will help this team this year. That ship has sailed. Signing Vincent is about as good as it is going to get.

And oh, by the way....

The GM generally doesn't have any say in how much someone runs the ball or who starts.

The GM buys the car and the coach drives it.

Not sure what a GM can do at this point...no one left to sign and trade deadline just about gone...

The talent is here, it just has to start clicking on all cylinders. The addition of Vincent, and the return of Springs should help the blitz package, and open up some of the pass rush from the DLine. It'll also open up Taylor and Arch to do their thing.

Pound the ball hardcore with Portis, Betts and Duckett. If you have to dress one less WR (Thrash), so do it. Get Duckett in there to pound the ball. The guy can really jet for someone of his stature.

And someone tell Brunell it's ok to make a mistake or 2, because the greater the risk, the greater the reward.

ditch al,s playbook we will work some of your stuff into my stuff but for now i,m calling the plays again..

I have seen this comment more than once, and it makes me nervous. Al Saunders is a proven offensive genius. So we need to embrace the system, do whatever it takes to learn it, and everyone who does not, get the fudge out. (that's right Brunell...you heard me.)

everyone on the offense is "proven". in our case its just a matter of "how long ago?"