Mr. Scot

It's still valid to point out that this was the first year of a rebuild. (yes I know they said otherwise, but it still is; even Steve Smith acknowledged that last night) Here's the thing though... The GM doesn't determine the coaching schemes. He ideally gets players that are suited for those schemes, but he doesn't pick what schemes to use or what players to start. So now that we have a mismatch between personnel and scheme, how did that come about? Did Fitterer pick the wrong guys? Maybe, but that's kind of hard to say given that we know he took a lot of input from the coaching staff on both the draft and free agents (Miles Sanders, for example). You also have a head coach who came in stating that he believed in tooling the scheme to the players, not the other way around. That's why I say you have to see where the problem really is before deciding just to fire somebody because if you fire the wrong guy, you've only made it worse.

You could argue that they did have a system you could have dropped a quarterback into, just not this quarterback. You've got a West Coast quarterback trying to run an offense that's pretty poorly tooled for a West Coast attack. It's not so poorly built for a Coryell style quarterback, but that's not what we have.

In an ideal Coach/GM relationship, The coach tells the GM the kind of players he needs (maybe even naming specific guys) and the GM goes out and gets them. Lots of different ways that can go wrong of course, but that's the way it's supposed to work. And at least based on what's known of the guys we have in place, that's what everybody was expecting. The question is where did it go wrong...

Stephen Holder is a guy who's covered the Colts for several years. If I remember correctly he's currently with The Athletic. Nicole's connection also means he's very well acquainted with Frank Reich.

To appease the masses. Does it actually accomplish anything positive? Not really. Now if no changes are made or progress is seen by the end of the season, then it might be time to talk.

He gave up playcalling, something a lot of people believed would make a difference. It did. We got worse.

I get what he's saying, but I still find it extremely hard to judge Young when he's constantly under pressure and doesn't have the people around him to run the attack we're trying to run.

There's enough offensive knowledge on this staff between guys like Reich, Caldwell, Staley and others that such a basic misunderstanding would seem unthinkable. Yet here we are...

It's a real possibility...

Hubbard thrived last year as a straight ahead type runner though. Hell, he's arguably the best looking back we've got this year. Sure could use a healthy Shenault too, though.

Young is somebody who ought to be ideal for a WCO, honestly. But that only works if you can block for him, and if you have West Coast type receivers. We're lacking in both those areas.

He's got the kind of speed that would make him a great option to catch short passes and take them for long runs. That's a staple of WCO attacks, but I don't know that we have anyone who suits that role. At the very least, I'd expect him to be an Az Zahir-Hakim type player here.

And here's what I don't get... You've got guys like Jim Caldwell, a successful head coach in his own right, in the mix. Plus someone like Duce Staley who's worked not only with Reich but with Ben Johnson and others. And of course, Reich, who pioneered things like mesh concepts and triangle reads. How, in the midst of all that, does no one see the mismatch between personnel and approach? This especially when it was stated from the beginning that the idea was to tailor the schemes to the players?

Frank helped, at least with concepts and things like that. That's per Brown's own words. But yeah, It's not working.

There's a huge mismatch between the offensive personnel we have and the type of attack we're trying to run.

But scoring the most points in the division. Mind you, Reich is far from blameless, but I think the issues he's responsible for are different, arguably higher level. (personnel and depth chart decisions primarily)

The story with Mingo was that he made such an incredible impression on the coaching staff here that they felt like they just had to have him. He doesn't really suit a WCO though. Downs absolutely would.

He did. Brown wrote the playbook using concepts he borrowed from Reich, McVay and his own experience. From what I've seen, the play designs haven't been anything special. I don't really get a sense of him calling plays to set up other plays or anything like that either. It's possible he's doing that but I'm not seeing it.

We were scoring more points.

Personnel usage (or misusage) is, in my mind, the number one issue we have right now.

Ickey isn't a West Coast tackle. He's a great power running tackle, but a WCO tackle needs to be more agile and less heavy-footed. If we keep this approach, I could definitely see moving him to guard and either getting a different left tackle or just trying Christensen out there again.

I'm not sure it's that simple. And to be honest, I'm really starting to question whether Thomas Brown was actually ready for an OC job.

Thielen was envisioned as an outside receiver, the switch to him playing in the slot didn't come until the season started. We know they made an offer to D'onta Foreman first. Staley even said when he got here that he really wanted to work with him. After Foreman turned it down though, I think Sanders was likely suggested by Reich and Staley since both of them had worked with him before and he'd be familiar with elements of the system. My guess is they thought he'd heal quicker. That, of course, is pretty impossible to predict but it doesn't stop people from trying.

Normally can't get much from street free agents this time of year, but power / bruiser type back is one position where you actually might be able to find a decent option on the scrap heap because they're out of vogue in the current league.

One, I don't think Sanders has been healthy all season. But beyond that, the same offensive line that isn't protecting Bryce Young is blocking for him too.