Quarterback situation in '08

Quarterbacks like McNabb have a short shelf life. Mobility is a big part of his game and that tends to go away with age and injury. I am not sure how effective he can be if he can no longer threaten the defense with his running. Culpepper certainly fell off a cliff when he lost his mobility and he was probably a better passer than McNabb to start with. I would rather we not spend a lot of money or trade high draft picks for McNabb. QBs who stay effective late into their careers are typically pocket passers who can get by with limited mobility.

 

Well, yeah....they're both white! McNabb....a black man.

 

Which leaves us with another worry and that's trusting that our current staff is capable of producing a good offense. It seems like every year we are "revamping" the offensive line for one reason or another and it seems likely that more "revamping" will occur this offseason. It does not seem reasonable to expect a new offensive line to gell the first year together, yet it seems we begin each year with relatively significant changes on the o-line. A part of me wonders if consistency is not almost as important as upgrading the talent level.

 

Consistently getting no push in the middle is consistency. It's also a sign of complacency at best, but IMO, it's a sign of sucking.

 

"complacency" seems to lend itself to coaching issues. So is your opinion that the "fix" for the o-line is major personnel changes and expecting better from generally the same group as the continue to work as a unit is not enough?

 

We really just need to be adequate. If the offensive line can get even a little better about opening holes, and if we can find a reliable second receiver, then we can do enough offensively to win ball games regardless of the quarterback. We have Steve Smith, and DeAngelo will hopefully be starting next year, so we have pieces. We just need improvement in a couple of areas instead of making personnel decisions that actually weaken us there for no apparent reason.

 

I don't know what the answers are honestly, but good offensive teams usually do have very good continuity on the offensive line, anchored by at least one excellent player. We've really had neither, Wahle was supposed to be the answer, Gross was supposed to be the answer, they've both been consistently good, but not elite.

Hartwig hasn't been worth the money imo, albeit Kalil hasn't looked like the answer in his short stints either. I don't really know what to do, if we can upgrade for reasonable money, go for it, I think we'll see a day 1 OL pick, maybe even a tackle in the 1st. I guess it depends on what happens with Wharton and Gross.

We have 2 legitimate explosive threats. We need to do whatever we can to exploit that. Consistency at quarterback might help with that. I feel like we stayed very vanilla offensively this year except for a couple games, and that was probably partially by design because of the QB situations. If we don't find a legit #2 WR to go along with Smith and King, we'll be in the same boat. How many passes for 1st downs were dropped by our corral of mediocrity below Smith? Beefing up the OL and getting someone who can catch the damn ball will drastically improve this offense.

I do like that we're using the TE more, but with the WRs we have, there wasn't much choice. I think King has 45 catches or so, with is better than the 30something tallied by our combined TE roster last year.

 

Really no excuses for #2 receiver, it seems year in and year out that is the one position you can fill in free agency if you just go out and do it. Always seem to be some #3's that have progressed and are ready to move up but need to move teams to do so.

Offensive line is just frustrating to me. It seems over the years we have signed the "missing link" to solidify the o-line: Skrepnek from Oakland, Lacina from Buffalo, Jones from NO, Brzenski from Philly, Wahle from GB......that was supposed to be us going out and making the "move" to firm things up and each and every time it seems we failed...with the exception of the steroid group that blocked for Davis. Is it that hard to sign and draft an elite o-lineman or are we just that bad at the evaluation process?

 

Do you think DeAngelo is capable of being a 25 carry per game back? I'd love to see it, but I certainly don't have confidence in him on the 3rd and short yardarge downs on a consistent Stephen Davis type basis. Albeit that's probably an unfair comparrison since they are very different backs. I love the running game and believe any team that can hand the ball off on 3rd and 4 or less and consistently convert gains a mental and toughness edge and becomes a difficult team to beat. Yeah, not rocket science I know, but it's the kind of football I like.

 

I don't think it's a matter of size or short yardage, he's just for whatever reason not coming with all he has on the inside stuff. The line hasn't been that good there, but Foster gets his yards inside.