My take

[rm1369]

Originally Posted by YDFL Commish

Also I can't stand Reich's reliance on so many personnel groupings. Just stick to 2 to 3 personnel groupings that are game plan specific.

But no, he's gotta use all the chess pieces, even if many are pawns.

That may make sense if they did a few things well enough to have an identity offensively. They simply don’t. So you mix and match trying to find things that work. The team’s identity was supposed to be “run the damn ball”. JT is hurt and the line can’t consistently generate holes. So now what do you do well? Part of relying on so many young players is they are limited in what they do well. Woods catches touchdowns, but can’t fucking block. JT sucks in pass pro. Gransen is limited. Pierce looks great but is still learning. The QB constantly changes and is learning.

This is part of where I don’t think people understand the pressure Ballard puts on Reich. And I think it’s part of why you consistently have slow starts to seasons. The constant change at QB and major holes where Ballard just throws shit at the wall and expects coaches to figure it out (LT, WR, DE, etc) leads to early games essentially becomes try outs and the team searching for what the identity is going to be this year. I mean it appears the best solution at LT is Ballard’s 3rd string guy. That takes time to figure out. Should they have figured it out earlier? Maybe, but you’d all be losing your fucking minds if Kelly was starting LT, the line played like this and Pryor and the rook didn’t get a look. When the GM gives you shit options you are damned either way.