[Racehorse]

Originally Posted by ChaosTheory

Fans perception of the team 8 games into this particular season doesn't paint the full picture. But overall, yes. That doesn't mean he's aced everything. I've said all along that Pryor and LT have been his biggest failure. And he whiffed on Basham, Banogu, and Turay. There are others.

But he built the entire defense. Although it's not complete (of course we'd all love our own Nick Bosa), I like our defensive personnel. I think he nails LB, just about nails S, nailed Grover + Buckner, has gotten some good young guys at CB in Rodgers and Moore and brought in good vets like Gilmore or Xavier Rhodes before him, and our DE situation was weak and is getting better. Kwity was playing really well when he got hurt, I think Dayo will keep getting better (they're both 23), and Tyquan Lewis was under the radar playing really well for us.

We all know the story with the OL this season... meaning NOBODY understands why they have inexplicably played so poorly this year. But until now, the OL was a strength for us. We just produced the rushing champ last year.

We just lost one of my favorites in Nyheim Hines and that stings. But Ballard drafted that RB in the first place. He brought Mack in who played well for us and brought Taylor in after. We've already seen Deon Jackson play well when called. That lets me trust that he can bring guys in who can play going forward.

Receiving corps was the trendy panic position this offseason. Not unwarranted. But as wrong as he may have been trusting Pryor and Pinter... I think he may have been equally correct trusting guys like Campbell, Granson, a rookie Pierce, etc., to go with Pittman. We don't have an All-Pro, but I think we have plenty of weapons.

I look at moves he makes for this team, weigh it with the shortcomings, and it leads me to easily trust future moves.

The elephant is QB which is it's own long discussion. Here's your Rorschach, I'll just put it like this: Assume these Ballard teams are healthy and stick Luck at QB. Now compare to those 11-5 teams Luck played on under Pagano. Are we better?

Let me try to explain why I think our line looks so much worse. Rivers was adept at reading a defense, which put the line in a great position to protect him. Wentz was the opposite, and Ryan was somewhere between the two, but slow as molasses. Add in the fact that pass rushers are becoming tremendously athletic freaks, and most lines struggle with blocking. If our QB can be even remotely close to where Rivers was about reading the defenses, we will see vast improvements.