PBF81

We'll see, but IMO it'll go beyond the talent and into the approach. Some would still no doubt defer that if that were to be the case.

Not arguing that I'm the least. It's a great guess that by this season's end there's going to be a lot of criticism of Brady's approach in conjunction with our complimentary football MO.

I won't disagree, but let's not lose sight of the greater point, that an easy schedule, and there's zero denying that Carolina had an easy schedule that season, makes for an easier season and when the tough games come up, teams aren't as warn out. Common sense too. NE had that arrangement in our crap division throughout Brady's tenure.

So did four other teams. They were 10-6, not 14-2. Either way, of the argument is that they beat two good teams all season, sure. It was still one of the easiest schedules of any team in the NFL over two decades. That's a fact.

Carolina played the worst offensive game of any team that Denver faced that season.

Well, OK, but one of two good teams they played all season, 1-1. And Denver's offense was awful, far worse than Arizona's. Arizona was easily the more complete team. 42 offensive points vice 10? One win all season against any team that made it past the divisional round is hardly a harbinger of greatness. 12 of their 17 regular season games were against teams 8-8 or worse and with negative point-differentials.

Correct, one team/game all season. Seattle was not tough. Denver had Manning (P) before he unceremoniously slinked off after having posted the worst season of any starting QB that season. 9 TDs, 17 INTs, and the worst rating in the league. They were all but shut out against Denver's D which was about the same as Arizona's.

Was it really a drop-off though? He was an incredibly average QB in every other season, no? ... by any measure. On that season his passing stats were skewed by three monster 5 TD games against the two worst ranked paying D teams and the 25th ranked. Those were the the best passing games of his entire career. The rest of his season was also incredibly average.

Emphasize apex. Five losing seasons out of eight otherwise. Apart from that season, Rivera was 61-62 there. His playoff track record apart from that one season is similar in futility to ours. The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. Rivera was there for 8 seasons before getting fired and going to DC they everyone saw how bad he really was. They had crazy good talent in several positions, underachieved in major ways. My primary point was that that '15 season is vastly overrated as the season had their streets paved with gold, their schedule could not have been more accommodating had the schedule makers tried to make it easier. Literally.

That Carolina season is so overrated that it's ridiculous. They had one of the easiest schedules during our entire drought era. They had not one team with more than 10 wins in their schedule, and then only two at 10-6. Not one team in their division scored more points than it allowed. That should be factors into any discussion.

More so defensively. The rules changes have favored the offense/scoring, but the size of the athletes offensively have remained about the same.

They did have a ridiculously easy schedule that season. Which could be why they had losing records both before and after that season.

It will definitely be interesting to see what our base alignments are. If we really do plan on running with a power-running game more, that will obviously limit the number of WRs on the field. There are a lot of curiosities going into this season. BTW, as is mine. All I've done is point out the inconsistencies from season to season and between the team's lipservice and reality, as well as the disconnects otherwise.

Stop putting words in my mouth please. I know what I think and say, thank you. And sorry, I didn't realize that all of the playoffs prior to last season's were under Brady, or that 13-Seconds occurred under Brady, so please pardon my ignoring of reality there. Otherwise, yes, he's been the head coach here for 7 seasons. Doesn't it stand to reason then that his fingerprints would be all over those seasons and the entirely lackluster performance in our playoffs, particularly on the defensive side? What, you're so angry now that you've lost all sense of logic? Please, stop this. Instead of whining, how about tackling some of the content in my post to oldmanfan? What, too much thinking for you? Otherwise, feel free. Indeed. You asked for info, I provided some, that's all. Always happy to engage.

Then stop it! I don't believe that I mentioned McDermott once in that post other than for the factually validated, by him primarily, reference to his definition of complimentary football and only in passing reference. That's it. The post was about Coleman, Diggs, etc. And frankly, you know what has to absolutely stop, is how he's got precious little to do with any issues that this team has, particularly in games like 13-Seconds and i the playoffs more generally. What has to stop is the incessant excuse-making and how little if any of it relates to him. These implications that his signature isn't all over this team are childish and absurd. We're the only team in the entire league that isn't defined by its head coach's overall methodology apparently. As long as you started it and we're in full disclosure mode.

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, been on the road and no time for anything fun. You are correct there, the absolute best QBs in the history of the game, at least in the modern era, were excellent if not masterful at that "all over the field," or short-medium passing game, which is referred to as the high-percentage passing game as you are aware. There's a reason for that title, ... high-percentage. LOL Your statement about Coleman making "big plays out of bubble screens" is issue-laden. To start, his bubble-screen or otherwise screen plays at FSU rarely amounted to anything significant. Again, I'll itemize all of his plays, but again, if you watch that every pass video it's beyond clear. So the question that begs itself, is whether or not, having not been successful at it in college, he'll be successful in the NFL. The answer seems obvious, and back when we drafted Watkins, who's background was similar, yet with him simply possessing notably greater speed, not even atleticism, Watkins too made a living off of bubble screens in college, which simply do not work to that extent in the NFL. Regarding your bringing the D up closer to the line statement, that sounds great, but it's also tremendously oversimplified. And Coleman isn't the type that even if he were to catch a bubble-screen pass, that he'd be difficult to run down. Again, I think you'd really get a lot from that every pass video. I've gotten the same exact feeling about him that I got from Hardy whenever we drafted him, and Watkins more recently just on a lower level. ... from that video, hard evidence. As to the "more weapons," we'll see. Numbers of weapons are one thing, but it's the quality, and as you and I often disagree, on how they are used, which appears to be a quite serious shortcoming for our offense this season notwithstanding. We'll see but my confidence is the lowest it's been since pre-Daboll. As to your last two points, the second one you are correct, we have no clue, but recognize this, if it is true, then we were seriously lied to all of last offseason/preseason/season. That doesn't sit very well, or shouldn't. Also, when can you believe these guys then, you can't. As to the first point there, Brady wanting to diversify the offense more, we'll have to disagree on that. It's clear from where a lot of us sit, that Brady's being driven by McD's Complimentary Football approach, which focuses on defense, rushing, and a shorter passing game. How do we know this, in word-salad fashion, McD's told us so. Make no mistake, Brady takes his general offensive marching orders from McD. He owes McD for the promotion, he's not going to be at odds with his overall strategy, for as lacking as it may be. Either way, let's look at the primary narrative regarding Diggs. It's that "he lost a step" last season. Let's forget for a moment that that step was seemingly lost from one game to another, essentially when Brady took over, which would be the first time in NFL history that a WR "lost a step" to that extent within a few days. If the narrative holds true, and we'll find out for certain this fall, then one would expect that among his worst (aka most tapered off) games, would be the last of the regular season. But watch this highlight video from that game, and only two plays are being referenced here, not the entire game. But check out at the 2:53 mark where he dusts Ramsey, does that jibe with the narrative? Then again at the 5:00 mark where Diggs actually had to slow down after beating Apple before making a great grab of an underthrown ball, does that fit the narrative? Also, look at how Diggs is used otherwise, that's telling too. Also, an example of what I mentioned before, that we'll get into more, look at the 4:33 mark, if Allen hits Cook as soon as he sees him break, that's a gain of 7 or 8, more if Apple misses the tackle, on 1st-and-10, but instead he waits, hoping something will open up and then throws it to Knox on the sideline. Sometimes it works deeper, sometimes not, but we're talking about him focusing on the high-percentage passing game, which would have been the short out to Cook there. The question isn't which had the better outcome, but in terms of how he'll be used this season, which was the smarter play. There are dozens and dozens of those from last season. His production absolutely plummeted from 87 YPG to 45, half of that. But most importantly, if Diggs really lost a step, it's odd that his Yards-per-Reception-Before-Catch dropped by over 30% from 8.2 to 5.6 yards, but this Yards-per-Reception-After-Catch remained the same at 3.7. Anyway, here's that highlight video;

Bummer, we could use a slot receiver. Oh come on now, "Complimentary Football." You can never have enough slot receivers or RBs. Oh, and a strong defense that always holds the fort down in the playoffs.

I wonder when the same push will occur for team ownership. Just sayin'.

All I'm suggesting is that the RR may not be the primary driver. Not making any moral or ethical judgements otherwise as implied.

How do we know that's because of the RR though? That would seem logical if people with lesser or undistinguished coaching histories have been hired, but coaches are hired because of their distinguished pay performance as coaches. No?

Allen does need to hone that part of his game, but the point is that that's not why they drafted him or have said how they wanted to use him. It doesn't take Allen to run an offense like that, in fact, many lesser talented QBs run it better than he does. My biggest curiosity is whether or not this staff knows how to put that together. We can talk about it all we want, back n forth, but the proof in the pudding will be come the season. I have my very strong doubts though based upon what we've seen on the past and Brady's games. As to that second paragraph, unfortunately we have no idea, all we know is what they tell is, and they've led to is before. It's more of less not however. Also, Beane know that there was a risk when he signed Diggs, everyone did. Same with Von Miller. High risk signings.

You just keep beating your drum though if it makes you happy. ... isn't "just discussing." Best to leave stuff like that out for genuine discussion. The benefit of a strong arm has many benefits, primary of which is to open up the entire field as options for the passing game. That's what they said about him when they drafted him. Not we like his strong arm so he can feed receivers accurately in the short-medium game. Every offseason our plan changes, there's no consistency. We draft Moss as a power rusher, but don't use him like that. We sign Hines who's prolific in receiving, and say sign him with that stated intent, but don't use him. It was ridiculous. There are other examples, including once again drafting a Moss clone in essence in Davis this year. Are we really going to a power rushing game? What about all the hype over Cook. (rhetorical) Anyway, that's a lengthier conversation. Let's stick to the core topic here. You make the statement ... "To me Josh’s arm strength is ..." That suggests that you're trying to see things a certain way. I try to lay all of my preconceived notions aside and look for evidence. We can do that, in fact, I was going to put together a montage last season of all the plays, but I couldn't sign up for A22. The highlight reels only have some of them. I'd recommend picking a game, watching it, and looking at what ALL of the receivers do, WRs, TEs, RBs, and then watch where Allen goes. You won't have any difficulty picking them out. The ones he overlooks are the ones he's going to have to start hitting this season the way things are panning out. BTW, in line with this, yesterday I just catalogued each and every pass to Coleman from last season. I'll tally them up by type, but as I originally pointed out, lots of bubble-screens. Most of his passes were caught within a few yards of the LoS. Again, I'll break it down when I have time. I stayed up way too late doing that. On top of that, here's a bonus topic. The narrative is that Diggs lost a step. I'm not seeing that, at least no so drastic that from game 10 to game 11 it plummeted, as in off a cliff, according to that narrative. But if that's true, then as the season went on, he should have gotten slower, not faster. Watch the last regular season game highlights, the @ Miami game and pay attention to the Diggs only highlights. And then tell me what you noticed? Do you have an source for every game last season? I don't think they're on youtube. If you do, let me know, I'll put together that montage video for you.

I mean I can go thru it with you if you like. It's not really subject to o opinion or interpretation. Anyway, I see that this is getting personal for you so let's end this exchange. If at a later date you'd like to go thru the video facts, let me know. I'm happy to spend the time. No one ever is however.

Look at some info & data sometime. Compare all of Allen's TD passes to Mahones et al. Watch the game videos and see who he overlooks, often missing big gains. That's not his game right now now ever has been. That "arm strength" things is a desperate grasp to defend our methodology. Ahhh yes, thank you. And when you do change him, make sure that you get someone that won't question the offensive wisdom of your defensive-mindedness.

It was my understanding that there were to be no WR questions on the exam.