Fox as HC

Agreed on the disappointing failures of Moore and Clausen...

but what "off-season talent purge"? You're not the inly person who says that, but really: who did we cut or not resign who is still playing and making any sort of impact anywhere? All I can think of is Chris Harris (I simply don't count Peppers).

Every other veteran that I can think of who didn't return is pretty much not playing anywhere.

 

Losing Vincent at RG hurt. Moose's blocking was helpful in the run game. Hoover was also big in the run game. Lewis was not a elite but he was a decent interior pass rusher. Peppers was a significant loss but one I was ready to make. Davis and Otah missing the whole season hurt. Far and away though the QB situation is what sunk us. You can not win with a really bad QB.

 

Agree on all of those you listed, especially Vincent because the OL sucked so completely...but their departures weren't a "purge", they just aged out and either retired or stopped playing. What I meant is that too many people seem to believe that JR and Hurney kicked all sorts of veteran superstars off the roster to "save money", and that just isn't true. I don't think that Vincent, Hoover, Lewis, or Moose would have come close to making it through the season physically. Lewis made 9 games and 14 tackles for Houston, Vincent made a grand total of 5 games for TB, and Hoov and Moose, of course, didn't play at all.

Now, the problem, I think, in addition to the QB fisaco you mention, is that we didn;t take the necessary steps to replace those vets with other vets. Not necessarily high-priced FA's, but simply competent vets who could pick up the reins. The "experiment" with essentially an "all-rookie" team wasn't particularly successful.

 

I think all of those guys could have played for us this year. Hoover and Moose did not play but probably could have if we had kept them. I think Vincent and Lewis do better here than they did where they went, probably a better fit in our system.

The QB problem is at least 75% of it. Even with all the guys we lost this year still here in 2009 we still sucked until Moore started playing well at the end of the season.

The team went 12-4 in 2008 with fairly weak defense. If we had found a solid veteran to compete with and backup Jake for the 2009 season I think we go back to the playoffs in 2009 and are in a lot better shape this year too. We basically blew up the team when it became clear that Jake was played out. That seems like the wrong move to me. Jake was never all that great to start with and certainly able to be replaced.

 

Well, that pretty much hits the nail on the head. The rest of the roster moves are just minor stuff in comparison.

 

where people get crossed up is the difference between "save money" and "save cap space". Remember that 09 we were hampered not only by the the Peppers deal, but also by keeping guys we may not have wanted to keep - Kemoeatu, Lewis, etc, and Jake's deal was a cap thing too. We had to extend some guys that we may or may not have kept, but definitely wouldn't have extended.

 

How many games did Fox win after being eliminated from the playoffs? He was a losing coach. He won with players who were here before he arrived and let positions like WR, QB, and DT go to hell for whatever reason. Maybe Hurney is getting a free pass at Fox's expense. Fox was the one saying that all he needs is a game manager, etc., but Jake was more than that in 2003. But to blame Moore and Clausen is not right. Moore was the #3 QB in 2009 (beginning of year) and they expect him to start in 2010? Clausen was a rookie they threw to the wolves. A scapegoat. The fans bought into it and now they want Clausen dead. Clausen was overwhelmed. He cant read quickly enough right now, but that could change. Who do we have coaching Clausen? A defensive-minded head coach, a former OL idiot OC, and a QB coach with questionable results throughout his career. We took assistant coaches from CLEVELAND! Argh.

 

I've often wondered whether Scherer was 99.999999% of our QB problem...it seems that every QB he came into contact with turned into a pile 'o shit. Even Jake didn't get consistently shitty until Scherer got his hands on him...and how did Moore get shitty so unexpectedly? The games he won in '09 weren't all laydowns. Maybe Scherer hadn't had time to ruin him yet.

I understand and agree with what you're saying about the really bad situation Clausen got dumped into here, but I'm still not sold on his "franchise QB" potential, or even his "adequate game manager" potential.

 

Remind me which QB was already here that he won with.

 

Crickets.