Kayoh

Dallas started the season off great. I would have grouped Kellen Moore in with Reid & McDaniels if their entire season's game plans looked in any way similar to their game plans in the first 2 weeks. Sadly they've been running more and more ever since, most likely due to influence from Zeke, Jason Garrett, and Jerruh. Regardless, they've also faced an insanely easy schedule (2nd easiest in the league after NE) so it's probably too early to tell either way. "Balance" is a myth. Line up like you're going to run and if the defense wants to defend it like a run, pass it. If the defense catches on and starts trying to play nickel against your heavy set, force them back into base with the run.

San Fran, Baltimore, Dallas, and Minnesota all run the ball too much. That might work against bad teams (which those teams have mostly faced) but it's not how you beat good teams. Therefore, it's not how you win in the playoffs and most importantly, it's not how you win a Super Bowl. Houston & Seattle also run too much but have awesome QBs who bail their play callers out. LAR & Jacksonville are too predictable with their run/pass selection. If they come out in a passing set, they're going to pass. If they come out in a heavier set, they're very likely going to run. They need to start passing more out of heavy sets and stop using 11 so **** much. Buffalo's offense sucks and I will not be told any differently. They've scored 90 points, ranked 26th out of 32.

the problem here isn't "we aren't investing enough resources into the defense" the problem is "we're investing all these resources into the offense, WHY ISN'T THE OFFENSE BETTER?" offensive play calling in the NFL is just atrocious, almost across the board. The only 2 teams that are doing it right are KC and NE.

curious what the board thinks. Here are my choices (based purely in fantasy, I know, but I'm forever a delusional optimist) with brief explanations- GM: Sashi Brown - I truly believe that no GM/scouting staff is better at actually identifying talent than any other GM/scouting staff, but Sashi's strategy of just accumulating picks and value is something that I was a huge fan of. Knowing that we already have a QB in place, his willingness to trade down like crazy and just accrue tons of draft capital with the idea being that even if you aren't better percentage wise than the rest of the league, you'll have the most picks and therefore the most hits, is very appealing to me. HC: Todd Monken - loved his decision making for Tampa in 2018 and wish he would be calling plays for Cleveland this year. The fact that he isn't a HC this year is a crying shame but that just means he'll be available to look at for the job come February. OC: Kendal Briles - I want Monken for his decision making but I want Briles for his scheme. This dude understands how to get the most out of an offense and how to take advantage of what defenses are expecting you to do on any given play. His use of play action is also something unheard of in the NFL over the course of a full season, and would rival that of Dallas and Tennessee in week 1 of this year, only over an actual full season. DC: Dave Aranda - talk about an innovator. I love his mind for X's and O's and his willingness to think outside the box and adapt on the fly. Runs a tite/double eagle defense that focuses on stopping runs between the tackles with 4 guys (a 0 tech NT, two 3 techs, and an off ball LB), forcing runs to go east-west, playing tons of nickel/dime/quarter to get his best coverage players on the field, and gang tackling. Defenses go from whatever they were doing before (usually irrelevant or middling) to elite when he shows up. Give him a team full of fast NFL talent to work with and I think he could produce something truly special.

every team's fans should want their opponents to run the ball, running is less efficient than passing in general

Truthfully though if I could put together a dream team of coaching excellence right now, I'd go with Todd Monken at HC, Kendal Briles at OC, and Dave Aranda at DC.

everybody knows you love York Rotch

Mike Leach

not surprised. IR year 1 for Carolina, then cut by a new regime that had no investment in him. He's talented.

doesn't matter how good your pass rush is if you don't have CBs that can cover for the first 2 seconds of any given play. Quick passing game is all the rage these days. 3 step drops are standard and 1 step drops are prevalent now too.

not significantly. Check this article out for more info. While QB efficiency is slightly better when leading, that could also just be explained by the fact that the lead was attained in the first place because the defense is worse than defenses that are less likely to allow opposing teams to get a lead on them in the first place. Chicken or the egg type situation.

good defense doesn't make it easier to be an efficient passer on offense

I definitely agree that 2015-current Russ is something special. The last time Matt had to deal with being as talent depleted as Russ was in 2018 was probably like 2015, and even then he had Julio. Honestly there's an argument to be made that Matt has never been on a team with as poor of an offensive supporting cast as the 2018 Seahawks.

I genuinely believe Russ is in a tier of his own as the best QB in the NFL right now. He doesn't get the volume that other guys get but he is legitimately one of the most efficient QBs in the league and he's doing it with very little OL help and very poor receiving options. Baldwin has been his only legit receiving threat since Golden Tate went to Detroit and he was a shadow of himself last season, plus now even he's gone.

when you say 5 mil a year it seems worse than it is. 35 mil vs. 30 mil, I think saying Wilson is 17% better than Ryan isn't absurd at all.

Wilson is, Ben nah

I don't even know what "AY/A Value" is and I don't follow Justis.

ANY/A takes passing yards, TDs, INTs, sacks, sack yards, and pass attempts all into account. I do like YPA, sure, but ANY/A tells you a lot more about a QB's performance.

I just disagree. He's the same dude, his play hasn't gotten better at all, and that's okay because he's a really good player. He had downgrades at OC and across the OL and his play wasn't as good. I don't get the whole "he was practically as good as his MVP season in 2018" narrative or where it comes from but it's blatantly untrue and dishonest. He had almost as many yards and TDs, sure, but he did that on significantly fewer attempts, in a season that saw a massive explosion of passing efficiency, and all that stuff matters. It needs to matter. It's okay to say he was notably worse in 2018 than he was in 2016, he was still really really good. He was just all-time great in 2016 and saying his 2018 was in any way close to as good as that season is doing that 2016 season an injustice imo.

if you were to make a ranked list of every 16 game QB season in NFL history, sorted by ANY/A, 2016 Matt Ryan would rank 2nd behind 2004 Peyton Manning. 2018 Matt Ryan ranks 31st. If you adjust for year, since 2018 had such a massive explosion of passing production/efficiency, 2016 Ryan ranks 4th behind 04 Manning, 84 Marino, and 07 Brady, and 2018 Ryan drops all the way down to 83rd. He had a good season - a really good season, even. But it wasn't anywhere close to as good as his MVP season.

oh I'm not necessarily trying to say Koetter>Sark by any means. I hate that we fired both our coordinators when the OL was hot garbage and the entire middle of the D got ravaged by injuries. But it happened and now we're probably going to be worse for it. I've accepted it and I'm okay with it.

he put up worse numbers with a worse supporting cast and a worse offensive coordinator he didn't come close to his MVP season numbers if you look past counting stats at face value stop with this narrative. It's okay to acknowledge that he had a better 2016 than 2018.

the only thing that was comparable was if you just look at the # of TDs and yards at face value without taking anything else into account. 2016: 9.03 ANY/A 2017: 6.87 ANY/A 2018: 7.71 ANY/A his 2018 was the 2nd best season of his career but to say it was comparable to his 2016 is just ignoring the fact that he put up his 2016 numbers (which were still slightly better than 2018) despite throwing the ball 74 fewer times. That's a huge difference.

lol no he didn't

he doesn't fit into my metrics since he's more of a 5 tech/3 tech hybrid inside/out player than a pure edge rusher.