When you don’t win you open yourself up to all sorts of accusations. I’ve really never understood what ‘soft’ NFL teams are. As compared to whom? Nobody who plays in the NFL is soft compared to me and the people I hang with.

I'm late to the party.

If I remember correctly, last year Ballard's attitude was a little nasty/defensive. I didn't pick up on that this year; I didn't sense the same insecurity. I can only speculate why. Perhaps he knows it's the last year, contractually, and the stress level is naturally lower? Perhaps he wanted to present the organization differently going into this offseason? Maybe he's just that confident going into next year?

We get that CIG has asked they continue to be aggressive like they were last offseason and that they have to identify ways to finish games. This is reasonable, as simple as it can be, and I think sets an objectively clear expectation for the fanbase.

Ballard's admission that the front 7 needs to get younger and faster, to me, is a new admission of failure. I think Pratt was ok but Zaire needs to be a backup/rotational guy and at the end of the day, Bucker or not, that defensive line is not producing like we need it to. I can't remember him pointing to that group specifically, ever, and admitting they're failures and it's time to move on.

So I am excited to see what the offseason looks like in that regard.