It's 2005 again

[Mr. Scot]

So over the last couple of weeks, I've been rewatching the 2005 NFC Championship game against Seattle. 

No, I didn't pull out the tape. I'm just seeing the same scenario that happened to us back then playing out all over again.

The Seahawks had figured ahead of time that the only true weapon the Panthers had was Steve Smith. Thus, all they needed to do to nullify our offense was commit to taking him out of the game. They were right, and beat us pretty soundly to make it to the Super Bowl.

(as an aside, if John Fox would have had similar thoughts about Larry Fitzgerald in 2008, that Cardinals playoff game might have gone differently...but I digress)

Now sadly, we're back in that same old situation, only this time the sole weapon is DJ Moore.

What I've seen over the last few weeks is that nobody among our skill players really scares opposing defenses outside of Moore. And if we're being brutally honest, why would they?

- The runningback position is average at best without Christian McCaffrey as a threat

- Robby Anderson has disappeared

- Terrace Marshall is a promising rookie but still a rookie learning the game

- So is Tommy Tremble, but Ian Thomas is our starting tight end anyway

- We did have another starting tight end before Thomas who was looking decent, but we traded him

So...yeah. That crazy cache of weapons we all believed we had prior to the season...it  doesn't look quite so threatening these days.

Add in that as much as I like DJ Moore, he's not Steve Smith in his prime. Unless you had an absolute lockdown corner, trying to cover Smith one on one was insane. To be clear, I think Moore is a great receiver and one of the better pass catchers in the league, but he's not that guy. He can be covered one on one and it doesn't necessarily take an elite corner to do it (at least not yet).

Basically, if you have the resources to cover DJ Moore, you can tee off on Sam Darnold and dare the Panthers offense to beat you with everybody else.

Frankly, as an opposing DC, that's a chance I'd be willing to take.

And clearly I'm not alone in that thinking.

Now, I know some are gonna clap back at this and say the real problems just boil down to Sam Darnold. Sorry, no. It's valid that Darnold has his own issues and does need to improve, but putting all the blame on him is far too simplistic and ignores the other issues. Factor in also that he's still a reclamation project. And while I agree with the decision to try and rebuild him from the ground up, if you want that task to succeed you're gonna need to do a waaaay better job of protecting him.

There will also be some who put most of the focus on Joe Brady. It's fair to say that Brady does have to take some blame here for poor playcalling. Also fair to say though that he has to work with what he's got. Trading away Dan Arnold probably didn't do him any favors, and the quality of our interior line is a major problem that isn't really his doing. Working around that line isn't gonna be easy, but again if you fail to do so you risk seriously derailing the above mentioned reclamation project and putting us back at square one in the QB spot.

So what can be done?

Unfortunately, there's no easy answer, especially when it comes to the offensive line. We've discussed options elsewhere, but none of the truly practical line options are going to be quick fixes.

Truthfully, the best, most realistic options are 1) get McCaffrey back healthy and 2) figure out what's going wrong with Anderson.

Anderson's issues are the biggest enigma of the moment. Is it "got paid" syndrome? Is it jealousy because Moore is the number one? Is it lack of connection with Darnold? Could be one of those, but those are mostly unknowable for fans 

My biggest question mark though relates to how he's being used right now (and yeah, that's a Joe Brady question). Currently, not Anderson's primary role seems to be as a deep threat guy to stretch the field. That's cool, except it hasn't been working and even when he's open our line generally isn't giving Darnold enough time to make those throws cleanly. 

Now in the past, we've tossed it short to  Anderson and let him run with it. I'd like to see more of that again. Keep him as a field stretcher for sure, but get him the ball more short as well and let him run with it. We do that with DJ Moore and we've done it with McCaffrey. Why not more with Anderson as well? I'd say it's worth a shot.

As to McCaffrey, getting him back healthy is obviously a huge deal. It's equally true that getting him back healthy is one thing, having him stay that way is another. Fair or not, the last few seasons have made some folks doubt whether we can count on that as much as we would like to. Yeah, he could come back and prove durable again, but if he doesn't then we're stuck in the same boat until somebody else develops.

On that front, yes Marshall and Tremble may develop into weapons that have to be accounted for also but that happening is probably several weeks away at best. Over on defense, Stephon Gilmore joining the fray will help somewhat, but even the most stifling defense only goes so far when the offense is ineffective.

Bottom line:  A healthy McCaffrey and an effective Anderson are the most "within reach" cures for what ails us. Yes, the offensive line needs work as well, but that's a much more difficult task.

Ultimately though, regardless of what happens next, I've mentioned numerous times that I saw this as a transitional year... and I still do. Early success got everyone's hopes up, perhaps even among those within the building, and there may yet be a good season to come.

But even if there isn't, there's no need to panic. I still think we're on the right path when it comes to building for the future.

That takes patience.

Fans don't have a lot of that, but sometimes football teams have to.

[Fox007]

With CMC in the game we have two legit weapons. We are missing the Olsen/Walls equivalent as we had Smitty and a RB back then too. Walls more for redzone dominance but Olsen to beat S/LB. Maybe Tremble can do that at some point but not now.

[Mr. Scot]

5 minutes ago, Fox007 said:

With CMC in the game we have two legit weapons. We are missing the Olsen/Walls equivalent as we had Smitty and a RB back then too. Walls more for redzone dominance but Olsen to beat S/LB. Maybe Tremble can do that at some point but not now.

Arnold wasn't Olsen, but he was good (maybe better than we gave him credit for).

I agree that Tremble has loads of potential, but it's possible the braintrust overestimated how quickly he was going to develop.

[Mr. Scot]

And for the record, I know some have said this but I'm not ready to say that extending Anderson was a bad decision yet.

[Fox007]

Well Anderson should keep the S so even if he is only threatening the deep shots its like Ginn where it can/is important. OL will give more time, deep threat guys will suffer as much as anyone with a trash line.

Marshall will be fine IMO and Shi Smith I really like too his quickness may be just what we need for more quick hitters. He hasn't done anything yet obviously but he has good potential.

[Mr. Scot]

Just now, Fox007 said:

Well Anderson should keep the S so even if he is only threatening the deep shots its like Ginn where it can/is important. OL will give more time, deep threat guys will suffer as much as anyone with a trash line.

Marshall will be fine IMO and Shi Smith I really like too his quickness may be just what we need for more quick hitters. He hasn't done anything yet obviously but he has good potential.

I'd love to see Shi Smith in there but I get the impression that Alex Erickson is keeping him on the bench.

And it's not that Erickson is doing bad or anything, but I question whether he has the potential to be as good as Smith might be.

[jayboogieman]

1 minute ago, Mr. Scot said:

And for the record, I know some have said this but I'm not ready to say that extending Anderson was a bad decision yet.

I don't know if extending Anderson was a bad decision, but it could be a poor one. They have Moore, drafted two receivers, and had a few others that weren't terrible. Anderson's cap space could have been used elsewhere. It could have went to Moore, Burns, Oline free agents, or others.

[Squid Game]

But I thought that Terrace Marshall being a great steal in the 2nd and Robby being a 1k receiver last year along with Moore was our strongest position group? 

[Mr. Scot]

1 minute ago, jayboogieman said:

I don't know if extending Anderson was a bad decision, but it could be a poor one. They have Moore, drafted two receivers, and had a few others that weren't terrible. Anderson's cap space could have been used elsewhere. It could have went to Moore, Burns, Oline free agents, or others.

I think most of the disagreement with the Anderson extension comes from people who were of the belief that Terrace Marshall was drafted to replace him.

I've seen that said. And to be fair, that was probably a reasonable theory at the time.

[jayboogieman]

1 minute ago, Mr. Scot said:

I think most of the disagreement with the Anderson extension comes from people who were of the belief that Terrace Marshall was drafted to replace him.

I've seen that said. And to be fair, that was probably a reasonable theory at the time.

Yep. Imagine the outrage if the team lets Moore walk since they resigned Anderson.

[SBBlue]

You are right, looking at the field, the receivers are not getting open.  Sam apparently likes DJ for contested catches and our opponents know that.  

The time to throw has moved from  2.6  average last year to  2.9 partially because receivers aren't getting open.

Frisman Jackson, and Joe Brady better figure this out quick or they are in for a very long season.

[Fox007]

3 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

I'd love to see Shi Smith in there but I get the impression that Alex Erickson is keeping him on the bench.

And it's not that Erickson is doing bad or anything, but I question whether he has the potential to be as good as Smith might be.

Erickson is one of those guys that is fine for what he is he seems to have clutch hands which is also something we need but we drafted Smith you have to imagine for the quickness and he also has hands and strength for his size.
 

[User Name]

Player personell being what it is, the quickest way to get right is improved scheme and play calling.

I know they won't but I'd like to see a consultant brought on to help Brady. He isn't ready to be a coordinator.

[Fox007]

1 minute ago, jayboogieman said:

Yep. Imagine the outrage if the team lets Moore walk since they resigned Anderson.

That cannot happen, for real. Not in the least...that really would be a move that'd make Hurney blush

1 minute ago, SBBlue said:

You are right, looking at the field, the receivers are not getting open.  Sam apparently likes DJ for contested catches and our opponents know that.  

Yea this is something that isn't really being talked about but it's true. Why is that? well I think a lot of it has to do with the running of the same routes like the Eagles DB said and they are sitting at certain spots flattened up and ready to drive on our routes like you say...put the game on and watch their secondary a lot of the times of our opponents. When the DB has his back level and hardly backing up and then going forward upon the pass that poo is not on the QB or WR it's the calls.