Big C's "Is It the Talent" Poll

As usual, there's a lot of discussion here about how we need a "real GM" and Vinny must go, and the front office is a mess, etc.

But is the main problem the talent we have, or something else?

Vote or Dmek will get all Amish up in this piece. West Siiiide!

I'm not a big fan of any of the poll choices.

My view is this, we've got talent. We had more talent than our 5-11 record indicated last year. However, I think the transition to Saunders threw things off track and put us back at square one offensively. The switch to Campbell should have come earlier, but I don't think it would have changed the final result of the season very much. Portis never got on track before being lost for the season and that was a big loss despite the stellar job Betts did in relief. Overall the offense just never got on track and I think there was some grumbling behind the scenes with players wondering why such a drastic change was needed.

Defensively we had some key injuries, guys that underperformed, and a behind the scenes clashing between some players and coaches that probably didn't help out in the morale dept. very much.

I don't think it's a cut and dry issue of personnel vs. coaching as to why we didn't win last year. It was a combo of both, with other issues mixed in as well such as injuries, making the switch to a new offense, switching QBs, and petty drama behind the scenes.

You're right sir. May I kiss your ring?

Seriously though, in a way it's sort of what I was trying to get at. That it's not so simple and cut and dry as to say we need a General Manager.

Offense:
I think our team has the talent and the coaching staff to make things happen. We've had a solid running attack (#4 last year) the past few years. What we have lacked is a playmaker at the league's most important position - QB. Moreover, we've had turnover in systems over the past few years.

Defense:
I honestly think our defense is simply aging and was hurt bad last year with injuries to the secondary and at DT.

why is it my poll? lol

I think Matty's pretty close to dead on.

It's not a coaching issue. All coaches make mistakes. We aren't at a disadvantage here.

The reason we are losing is not because the front office hasn't been trying, or because they "don't know how to build a winner", its that we invest big dollars in all the wrong places.

For all their faults though, they've done a great job identifying the issues we have. Better than the average FO in that respect. They have just skimped on their pro scouting responsibilities, IMO.

We are more talented than a 5-11 team as demonstrated by our very unfavorable close game record for a year ago.

This 2007 team will be closer in resemblence to the 2005 team than the 2006 team which is good. The defense will be somewhere inbetween the years and the offense will be the best we've seen it in awhile.

maybe I'm the ultimate homer, but i agree with Matty. offensively, in coach Saunders second season with a team, his former teams have done very well. i would be big time surprised if our offense isn't top 10 this year, our defense is definitely better then they showed last year. between a rash of injuries, and the front office miscalculations about A.A., Ryan Clark, and Andre carter( to a certain extent) i would be shocked if Greg Williams defense isn't kicking butt like 2005. i think most of us are in agreement that the skins have alot of talent. just keeping it all on the field at once was a major problem last season

and smootsmack, im glad you know your role:)

Something I have learned in life.

Problems are almost never the result of black and white type reasons.

In an innumerably variable sport like football it really can never come down to one thing or the other. Our lack of success in the past several years is a combo of bad luck, bad decisions, poor play, and bad attitude.

I think everyone in the org should share blame. For whatever reason it seems most of us want to find one or two points of weakness and fix them thinking that will turn it around. It may but we need to realize that we have lots of problems and we just haven't fixed the right ones enough to get it going.

I think every team has problems too, not just us. We just haven't dealt with them as efficiently as other teams.

I think Matty's pretty close to dead on.

It's not a coaching issue. All coaches make mistakes. We aren't at a disadvantage here.

The reason we are losing is not because the front office hasn't been trying, or because they "don't know how to build a winner", its that we invest big dollars in all the wrong places.

For all their faults though, they've done a great job identifying the issues we have. Better than the average FO in that respect. They have just skimped on their pro scouting responsibilities, IMO.

We are more talented than a 5-11 team as demonstrated by our very unfavorable close game record for a year ago.

This 2007 team will be closer in resemblence to the 2005 team than the 2006 team which is good. The defense will be somewhere inbetween the years and the offense will be the best we've seen it in awhile.

I agree. I tend to like the fact that we are going to be so overlooked again just like in 2005. I'd much rather have no expectations. We'll do better that way. I have a totally unrealistically positive feeling about this upcoming season.