Where I'm at midseason

[Mr. Scot]

Here are some things I've been ruminating on for the past several weeks but hadn't posted till now...

QUESTIONS I HAVE

These are the things I feel haven't been answered, but I wish they would or could be...

- Was Frank Reich overruled or influenced?

Frank Reich has stated that he ultimately chose Bryce Young as the best of this year is draft, but even accepting that, we've heard rumors that Reich wanted CJ Stroud and/or Derek Carr. These are still just rumors, but they persist. It is indeed possible that even if Reich wasn't outright overruled, he may still have been nudged in a certain direction.

If this isea has any validity, then the question becomes who overruled or influence the decisions.

- If so, by whom?

The obvious choice is David Tepper. If you look back at previous draft day video, you'll see Tepper interjecting himself into the draft process, for example telling one staffer to advise a team not to call them with negative point deals. Though that might seem minor, it's still a decision that he shouldn't be part of.

- But what if it's not?

The other possibility of course is GM Scott Fitterer. Per his own statements, Fitterer was convinced on Young last year. Could he have overridden or influenced Reich to make that call? Yes, it's possible. And while it's his place to do so much more than it is the owners, It's still looking like the wrong call so far

- What are the dynamics?

Obvious leads back to a question of dynamics. Previous discussions have indicated that ultimate decision making is a collaborative atmosphere, and the character of both Fitterer and Reich would suggest such. But one or two statements made by Reich stating that personnel matters were not his call make me wonder.

Even in an environment where the head coach does not have final say, he should still have input, and bigger input on some decisions than others (more on that later)

THINGS IM CONVINCED OF

Leaving behind the areas where I still have questions, here are the ones where I feel like we've had sufficient time to get some answers.

- CJ Stroud looks like the better quarterback

It's pretty difficult to not come to that conclusion at this point, even given last week's results. Mind you,that doesn't mean Young is a bad quarterback or that he's a bust. It just means he wasn't the best choice. And mind you, this is still an early call. Both have longer careers ahead of them so the final story has yet to be told.

- Bryce should still be supported 

That said, yes we can still proceed from here with him as a starter and do everything we can to make sure he's in the best position. Truthfully, there's not much choice other than that.

And yes, we should still have faith in him.

- Who's calling the plays doesn't make a difference

Said last week that the differences had more to do with personnel than playcalling, and yesterday didn't change that. Mind you, I didn't really have any issues with most of the playcalling though I think a little more balance would have been nice.

- The offensive line needs changes

Scheme fit, deficiencies on the left, lack of offseason work, whatever you want to blame it on it's pretty clear the offensive line is letting us down and more importantly, letting Young down. The most obvious change is moving Ekwonu to guard, but even that can't happen until we've got somebody who can man the left tackle spot. Right now, we don't.

- Reich needs to be listened to

Even in a traditional GM-Head Coach dynamic, a GM might have final say over personnel matters but is still beholden to the coach who builds the systems. Frank and his people need to get the kind of players they want at the very least, and in super important positions like quarterback should really be listened to as far as particular players.

Quarterback is a position where the coach needs to have a big say, especially in offensive coach.

SO WHAT DO WE DO FROM HERE?

With some answers and still some questions, the biggest issue is what to do next. What I've got there isn't all that new. In fact, it was already known.

- David Tepper has no business making any decisions whatsoever

First, most obvious, and unchanged is that David Tepper needs to completely remove himself from any and all decision making. Yes that includes who should be fired, especially if decisions have been made under his influence. I don't trust him to make a single decision without help. Which means...

- Nothing should be done without a consultant

The flipside of the first point, Tepper needs someone in here who has the knowledge to make the decisions that he clearly doesn't. As has been mentioned before the most obvious guy for the job would be Kevin Colbert, but as long as it's somebody who has knowledge that Tepper doesn't, it'll be a plus.

Will he accept that? History suggests he won't.

If he doesn't, we're likely just spinning our wheels.

[4Corners]

Ain’t u that feller who smugly said not worry about the preseason performances and that signing Miles Sanders was good 

[TheBigKat]

13 minutes ago, Mr. Scot said:

 

- David Tepper has no business making any decisions whatsoever

First, most obvious, and unchanged is that David Tepper needs to completely remove himself from any and all decision making. Yes that includes who should be fired, especially if decisions have been made under his influence. I don't trust him to make a single decision without help. Which means...

 

until this and Nicole "baked you some cookies Bryce" Tepper are out of the day to day equation, nothing you mentioned above will matter. He may be a stock genius but he is HORRIBLE at running an NFL franchise

[CamWhoaaCam]

1 minute ago, 4Corners said:

Ain’t u that feller who smugly said not worry about the preseason performances and that signing Miles Sanders was good 

LMAO 

[mrcompletely11]

2 minutes ago, 4Corners said:

Ain’t u that feller who smugly said not worry about the preseason performances and that signing Miles Sanders was good 

and just last week was still defending Fitt and reich

[CamWhoaaCam]

You lost me at we need to listen to Frank.

 

Listen to him for what? He doesn't do anything. He collects his paycheck and goes home to his family. His shows no emotion players don't seem to care and we play bad football every Sunday.

 

It's time to reset this entire franchise. Bring Harbaugh in and hand him the keys. That's the only hope I have for this franchise. Anything Tepper touches turns to poo.

 

 

[Waldo]

Tool the oline to its strengths and not Bryce's and the offense gets better. That might be at Bryces expense if he can't adapt but honestly I would take that and not look back. Go back to a power run game and see if they can coach Bryce up. It's basically what you saw from Wilks last year and likely whoever they brought in to replace this coaching crew unless it's more of the same.

I don't think there is enough skill, time or resources to build around Bryce with his needs. Just take what you have and try to salvage the rest. They have been operating on the inverse of that and it's 100% failure and it was all avoidable in the firdt place.

[CamWhoaaCam]

3 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

and just last week was still defending Fitt and reich

Well damn!

 

Poor guy must be blinded or really likes losing.

[LinvilleGorge]

@Mr. Scot I hope you realize that you're about to be absolutely DRAGGED for espousing the very ideas that you have been condescendingly trying to shout down folks for voicing for the past weeks and months.

[WhoKnows]

When did the rumors about CJ Stroud and Reich come about? I distinctly remember articles where Reich and Fitt were both on Young as the top and I do recall hearing that while Reich liked Young the best, he also liked Richardson a lot before the draft. I remember this because it seemed like Stroud was out of the equation really early whether or not McCown wanted to play hoops with him. It seems to me that Reich preferring Stroud didn’t happen until well into the season after Young was meh, Richardson got hurt the first time and Stroud had a few great games, when the seats starting getting warm.

I truly don’t think Tepper forced Young on everybody. His point guard quotes came a couple months after Brown’s point guard mentions and as you said, Fitt in the draft process mentioning they had already zeroed in on Young a year before the draft and Fitt and Reich crowed about how sync they were at the start and end of their decisions again with no mention of Tepper at that point. People jumped on Tepper’s post draft interview explaining the choice of Young and the trading of Moore, which IMHO was spitting back out the reasonings Fitt and Co. gave him. Even the meetings with Frank were no big deal to me because that to me was a come to Jesus of why are we worse than Rhule and Wilks when he was promised a contender now that we had our QB.

That said, I don’t want Tepper making any future decisions either. Between Hurney staying, Rhule and Fitt hiring and Fitt staying, he’s bungled they key calls. If he’s helped out on personnel decisions, well he’s sucked there too.

[PappyMay]

I’m ready to move on from Fitterer. But I still think we can win 2 more games this year. I’m really hoping the cardinals end up picking #1, not us. 

[Waldo]

I liked the questions part but that's about where we split on all this.

[45catfan]

1 minute ago, mrcompletely11 said:

and just last week was still defending Fitt and reich

I'm still defending Reich, but have thrown the towel in on Fitterer.  He had one last chance to fix some of his prior goofs by dealing Burns.   He stood firm, which means he's all in on this season of which to any other onlooker is a rolling dumpster fire on a collision course with a gas station pump.  Had he invested into the future by getting capital and admitting this season is toast, at least it would have shown ownership of said past errors.

Frank inherited this mess. He's not totally blameless, but he's a lot further down the totem pole in the blame game than the scouts, Fitterer and the Teppers.

[Mr. Scot]

Just now, LinvilleGorge said:

@Mr. Scot I hope you realize that you're about to be absolutely DRAGGED for espousing the very ideas that you have been condescendingly trying to shout down folks for voicing for the past weeks and months.

Dragged maybe, but mostly by people who have nothing to say except "everything sucks". Likewise, I doubt they're going to take the time to actually read them and they or may not understand what they're reading if they do.

Also to be clear, I'm not doing that at all.

The biggest problem in the folks on here is insisting they know a thing is that they actually don't. I'm talking about things I don't know versus things I do. Likewise, I'm coming to conclusions after weeks of discussion, not the first quarter of a preseason game.

I get that people want to be able to say they were the first ones to say something. I find that kinda dumb.

I'm always going to take time to consider my opinions.