2-14

Ouch.

But there's hope. I know last year was bad. It was so bad that I quit watching the games at some point because it hurt too much (fyi this was before the belcher thing; I watched the carolina game).

Think back to 2010. We went 10-6, largely because of our top-ranked rushing game. Cassel played at a non-embarrassing level because he was able to stick to only the safest decisions while Charles and Jones carried the offense. Part of why the running game was so effective was because the defenses in the league hadn't yet seen enough tape on Cassel to completely ignore him as a threat, so the box wasn't stacked constantly. Granted, this was an 8-win team that happened to face an abnormally easy schedule (even for a last place team), but it was also a YOUNG team. Typically, young players get better as they gain experience, until their bodies start to give out, at which point they peak and begin to decline.


2011. 7-9. No Moeaki, no Charles, no Berry, and tyler effing palko played a third of the season. How many teams go 7-9 without 3 of their top 5 or 6 players? Keep in mind, there were 6 automatic losses from the games Palko played in. If there were a statistically significant number of Palkos in the universe, it would be a law of physics that you cannot win a game with him. Unfortunately, you can't generalize from one example like that, so it will remain a mere hypothesis. Anyway, 7-9 is impressive when preseason/early season injuries have half your fanbase chanting "suck for luck" by week 3.

The most important part of that 7-win season (at least in terms of where we stand now) was winning 2 of the last 3 (very nearly 3 of the last 3, very nearly winning the division and making the playoffs) under interim HC RAC and waiver-wire high-end-backup QB Kyle Orton.

...

Let that sink in.

We won 2 out of 3 with the same completely inept HC we had least year and backup-caliber QB who was on a different team until recently. Haley is a decent OC, and the offense ran on the schemes he installed pre-firing. Crennel is a good DC, and the defense ran as he had run it all year, though he was technically head coach. The offense still wasn't much, but it at least seemed respectable with Orton at the helm. The defense shut down Green Bay, and nearly played well enough to get us to the playoffs.


The point of everything up until now is that there's talent on this team, and it is young talent.

2012: We start the season without one competent person on the coaching staff. We roll with the same QB who made Kyle Orton look like a potential savior. CB Brandon Carr is missed. This is still a young team that isn't going to coach itself. Surprisingly, that didn't work out well.

Now, looking forward:

We added a QB who is definitely better than Kyle Orton
CB2 shouldn't be a problem anymore
Our Coaching staff should be substantially better than anything we've had recently
This is still a talented, young team, that should get better with experience, and not worse with age, over the next few years
If we can Re-sign Asomoah, Hudson, Houston, and (if he proves himself worthy) Alex Smith over the next two years, we will not lose anyone important in that period of time (assuming the albert trade is already definitely happening, and we're drafting a tackle; otherwise, add him to the list; I think he goes because it's the difference between easily keeping those guys and probably losing one or more [we can fit in a high-end tackle contract after Hali's expires]).

I think we have an 8-10 win team (this year) that will add talent through free agency, the draft, and good old-fashioned experience every year for the next (at least) 2 years without losing anything important besides brandon albert (whether or not it is right to trade albert depends on whether or not the tackle we draft is ready to be our LT from week 1 [but damn, wouldn't it be nice to get something back instead of letting him walk next year{Or get Smith and Daniel killed so that STANZI NATION can reign supreme|yes, I'm doing quadruple parentheses.|?}?].).