One Week To Go And.....
 

Wow, what a difference 8 weeks makes in the outlook of a season. Here is what I want to see from 2017:

1. I think that the first half of the season is already pretty much loss. No Ryan Kelly, no Vontae Davis, Luck returning from injury and regaining playing form, no Clayton Geathers, picking up defensive backs off the street corner, unknown offensive RT, lingering injury to Moncrief, Hankins, Bostic, etc, etc.

2. Lots of new defensive starters who have not had time (due to injury) to gel. Understand that it takes time playing together to get good and understand that our defense is going to be....uhhhh, defenseless.....in the first half of the season.

3. With #1 and #2 in mind, DO NOT RETURN ANY PLAYER TO THE LINEUP UNLESS 110%!!!! Don't rush back anyone. Wait until completely healed AND in shape to return so that we can see what we got in the second half of the season.

4. Even down studs (Luck, Kelly, Davis, Moncrief), we can probably win 2 or 3 of our first 8 games against LAR, CLE and JAX. Let the O-Line gel and the defense gel.

5. Lets then see if we can return all of our starters and start peaking in the second half of the season and win 6 or 7 of them and possibly be viable to win the AFC South if either HOU or TEN have not run away with it by then.

6. 2017 has become a rebuilding year. We all sort of knew it would be but have gotten excited by some of the signings (mostly Hankins) and draftees (mostly Hooker). But it is still rebuilding.

Anyway, I am grealty lowering expectations for the 1st half of the season in how many games we win.

As a bonus, if we lose too many, Clappy McWoodchopper might be fired before mid-season.

Walk Worthy,

We aren't going anywhere with pagano anyway

Give Marlon Mack 15 touches a game.

I want to see competent coaching, guess I'll have to wait until next season when we have a new coach. Hopefully Andrew Luck doesn't get broken this season.

The problem with aiming for a healthy 2nd half of the season when all those guys come back is, by that time, there will undoubtedly be other just as important guys injured. That's just how the NFL goes.

With all the guys hurt already, I'm afraid it's just going to be an injury plagued season.

Although Vontae, Luck and Kelly are probably the 3 most important guys.

It's not as bad as it seems

watch us go 2-0 with Tolzien

The big concern is how many pieces Luck will be broken into by the time the other starters return. It's going to be brutal, playing from behind, rushers with their ears pinned back.

I have a sinking feeling Luck stays on PUP through Saturday and by rule he will be out six weeks.

Part of me suspects this because otherwise we would have had some more optimism or at least a bit more information from the front office about it.

I think you may be right!

This team is pretty bad. At this point I'm revising my pre-season estimate down from 7 wins to 5. It looks like Luck will be out longer and they're just too banged up at the top of the roster to win games in September.