Quote:
Originally Posted by rm1369
Ballard has checked every box ……. except QB, DE, and LT. The three most important positions to winning. That’s without getting into the debate about whether or not the WR corp is lacking (I think it is). Hopefully DE is checked now, but that remains to be seen and is far from certain. He went into the season with no DE on the roster with double digit career sacks. I honestly haven’t been able to verify it, but I have to believe the number of teams that have done that and did anything in the post season is pretty small. Especially when you consider that the guy he counted on to improve it had all of 11.5 sacks in 4 college seasons. That’s not a knock on Paye, he’s clearly talented. But that in no way addressed a major need for the season.
I can make an argument to defend most of Ballard’s individual decisions (even those I disagree with)but ultimately he is what his record says. And his methods have led to a team with holes at some of the most critical positions. I don’t necessarily blame him for the QB position, but he’s in danger of wasting all of the good things he has done due to his decisions at the three big positions.
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We have and have had way more problems than just QB:
Our pass rush has sucked for years and was in an even bigger hole going into '21 after we let Denico Autry and Justin Houston walk. So what does Ballard do about it? He drafts 2 projects, one of which wasn't going to play until the middle of the season at the earliest. Maybe Paye and Dayo might actually work out, but there was really no chance that they would be able to provide the glaring help needed in '21.
The writing was clearly on the wall a couple of years ago that AC was going to hang it up sooner rather than later, but Ballard did squat to backfill him or build depth at LT to help transition until a long term replacement could be found. We were lucky that Fisher was on the market after his injury in the '20 AFCCG, and unfortunately we found out why he was available.
Outside of MPJ our WRs are all below average at best (even TY as father time and his injury history has caught up with him). Our WR corps needed upgraded at least at WR2 going into '21, but all Ballard did was draft a late round project. Clear failure on Ballard's part that we're not better at WR across the board.
Some other lessor needs that went unaddressed going into '21:
After letting Burton walk we needed a pass catching 3rd TE. Ballard again went with a rookie project. We're in even worse shape now as Doyle is probably going to hang it up and MAC regressed big time this year.
Our secondary depth, especially at safey was pretty bad going into the year. Losing Blackmon was a huge blow, but it could have been softened if weren't relying on ageing journeyman brought in off the street and thrown into the startling lineup. Also, Ballard still needs to address CB1 (or 2) having only band aided it the past 2 off seasons with 1 year contracts for Rhodes.
Obviously you can't expect all team needs to get addressed in an off season (or even 2), but the huge gaping holes in the top 3 team needs I listed are huge failures on Ballard's part.