My realistic plan to fix the offense……what’s yours?

[WarPanthers89]

We must get depth on our O line and MUST upgrade our WR group to give Bryce a chance in hell, and to properly evaluate the kid. Here is my realistic plan on what I would do on offense to correct the poo show we all had to witness next year. 

First: new scheme, new dream. Let’s all take a moment of silence for Franks horrific playbook to be thrown into the depths of hell.

Second: Free agency. I don’t believe we will spend our money on the line for more starters, as we already have three big contracts on the line out of 5. This will be a spot we address in the draft. We may get a depth piece for cheaper, but don’t expect  big money to be spent here. I believe we will spend our money on WR targets. One big name (as big as you can get for a free agent pool) AND one tier 2 FA WR. We only have money spent on Thielen currently and need another vet for Bryce who has SPEED.

My Plan for Tier 1 SPEED: Marquis Brown OR Calvin Ridley

Tier 2: Darnel Mooney OR Curtis Samuel 

Third: Draft. We spend our 2nd round pick on best available C/G (I pray Jackson Powers were to drop) This allows the rookie to be our key depth piece and potential starter to replace our center or guard if needed due to performance issues. 3rd round pick should be on best available Wr, TE, or O line. Remainder of draft should be BPA. 

This will leave us with a depth chart like this:

QB: Bryce Young/Andy Dalton

WR1: Hollywood Brown OR Calvin Ridley

WR2: Mingo/Mooney Or Samuel

Slot/WR3: Adam Thielen

TE: Hurst/Tremble/Possible rookie 3rd  round pick 

RB: Chubba/Miles Sanders

LT: Icky

LG: Brady C (with 2nd round rookie pushing for playing time or to start/be key swing depth)

Center: Bozeman (with 2nd round rookie being swing depth)

RG: Corbett

RT: Moton

WHAT WOULD YOUR PLAN BE?

Edited March 1 by WarPanthers89

[LinvilleGorge]

[CRA]

I think the solution is still neglecting to address the same issue I had going into last season.  If Bryce Young is your QB......a backfield of only Hubbard and Sanders is a flawed one.   Bryce needs a legit 3rd down type RB.  A legit pass catching RB.  Just because you log some catches doesn't make you one. That has to be part of the scheme.  And both Hubbard and Sanders are early down runners ideally.   Bryce had 2 GREAT guys in that role while at Bama in Gibbs and Bijan. 

[csx]

I would prioritize OL over receivers. 

[MechaZain]

1 minute ago, CRA said:

I think the solution is still neglecting to address the same issue I had going into last season.  If Bryce Young is your QB......a backfield of only Hubbard and Sanders is a flawed one.   Bryce needs a legit 3rd down type RB.  A legit pass catching RB.  Just because you log some catches doesn't make you one. That has to be part of the scheme.  And both Hubbard and Sanders are early down runners ideally. 

Sanders makes too much money to just be spelling Hubbard. Take advantage of Chuba's come up and make them a real Smash & Dash duo. Misdirection in the backfield will make everything easier on them and Young. I like your roster building ideas.

[CRA]

55 minutes ago, MechaZain said:

Sanders makes too much money to just be spelling Hubbard. Take advantage of Chuba's come up and make them a real Smash & Dash duo. Misdirection in the backfield will make everything easier on them and Young. I like your roster building ideas.

but that just brings me back to what are even doing....biggest problem last year was nothing went together.  Bad marriages. 

If Bryce Young is your QB and that is what your team is going to do....then you need a scheme and offense designed to make it work with him.  Giving him just early down runners isn't it.  Said it last year.  Asking Sanders and Hubbard to catch doesn't make them what he would need.  That's not their games. 

Same goes for the WRs. 

I mean we are in a tough place.  If we had a #1 pick I would just advocate for pulling an Arizona and drafting another QB in the first round and moving on from Bryce.  The ONLY way Bryce can succeed and the pick to work is to be all in to him and build a Bryce O.   We didn't last year.  Doubtful this year.  So what's the point. 

 

[WarPanthers89]

18 minutes ago, csx said:

I would prioritize OL over receivers. 

I tried to in the draft with our round 2 pick which will be like a late 1st. Our base starters are pretty much set. We need someone for key depth who could possibly push Brady C for playing time while being a swing key depth piece at G/C if needed. It Doesn’t make much sense to pay for a starter in free agency being that we have 3 out of the 5 starters on big contracts. We have one player we have paid at WR (Adam T) which is why it makes the most sense to me go go this route in FA. We can’t afford to miss on our 2nd round pick at WR to depend on being a starter. We need a proven guy with speed so we can properly evaluate Bryce. For all the issues Hollywood Brown and Ridley have, you know what you are getting with them and they have proven production and can stretch the field, along with solid depth in Mooney or Samuel to go along with Thielen/Mingo

[RumHam]

Draft lineman, make a splash for a number one, sign eckler for third downs.

[Stingray3030]

Honestly I see our OLine needs more as depth than starters - for that reason I would probably prefer a WR or Ja'Tavion Sanders as our 2nd round pick.  But I also am fine if we prioritize the 2nd rounder as OLine.  I also see OLine depth as much, much easier to find in rounds 3-7 than WR or TE, so another reason to go WR or TE early.  That is this year's draft....next year we go after elite players if possible.

In FA we need to go after at least 1-2 of the WR you mentioned....personally I prefer Gabe Davis or Ridley to Marquise or Mooney.  We need downfield threats and those 2 are much more of it than Marquise and Mooney.  Marquise is decent, but just don't think he fits with Mingo and Thielen like Gabe would.  I really like KJ Osborn also especially at his price compared to these guys.  But no matter which of these guys we go to in FA we should still use the 2nd pick for a WR or Sanders IMO, because all of the reasonable FA WR's we can get are solid #2's....not #1's.  We need a future #1, so if we think Coleman, Franklin, etc... are it we need to do it.

So mostly I am good with your plan

[RumHam]

i've been saying since november out of all the potential WR signings, it'll be hollywood brown, and he's like a number 3 at best.

[CRA]

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

Draft lineman, make a splash for a number one, sign eckler for third downs.

Bryce really needs a 3rd down type RB that can be on the field on early downs too.  That's what makes it work for that type QB IMO.  

I don't advocate for Eckler money.   They should just go draft one in round 3 or 4 or 5.   In this world,  you can find really good RBs in those rounds vs meh projects at other positions.  Good RB talent goes longer than other positions. 

[BrianS]

The biggest problem we have is a lack of talent across the roster.  We're old and bad.  This is what happens when you draft exceptionally poorly.  Also, this is what happens when you give away too many picks.

We need to simply draft BPA for a few years - with the exception of round 1 - and see where we end up.  If we draft well, we should end up with a much deeper and more talented team.  All of this assuming we can stop convincing ourselves in the summer that we're a playoff team.

[Khyber53]

I like your thinking but honestly, I'd worry less about a FA WR2 and look at the rather large stock of quality FA RBs that are going to be available out there. The top two will get good money but there are others that are going to be looking at the need for a 1 year prove it contract. Snag the best of them and give us something. Chuba played well for us and Sanders, honestly, we're stuck paying him the money but let the guy's roster spot go to someone else. Screw it, the guy just sucked here last year.

In the draft, this is going to sound harsh, but if there's a QB like Rattler available at 33 take it and compete for QB1 here. As much as I think Bryce got pretty well screwed by coaching, roster building and injuries along the O-line, he's still got more questions than answers. And screw the costs already sunk into the position... QB is important enough to just keep searching for the guy until we find him. If Bryce does prove it and wins the starting position again, Rattler (or whoever) can be developed as either trade bait or as a quality back up at rates that are cheaper than the going FA rates for one.

O-line will be better next year if everyone gets back to being healthy. But what we need is depth. We need to scour the FA pools for interior and outside linemen and then pick up someone in the later rounds for added depth. Most O-line candidates wash out early, this is just a fact of the game and we are going to have to just invest knowing that most won't make the grade. But some will, and we may find just the right guy for a starting position -- We have three guys on the line that aren't really young and three guys who have had injury issues. We need to plan ahead for that.

On defense, we need pressure. We need to decide whether Burns (if he stays) or Brown gets a top end running mate to push the pocket with. Are we going to be strongest inside or outside? And then we need to look at linebackers to match that decision. I hope we can retain Luvu, he's a foundation piece and I believe Shaq will be back with a vengeance (and at low costs for the next two years), but that third Will LB needs to be top end good. FA or draft, we need better than we've gotten. And no more grabbing "stars" at the end of their careers... we need to get guys who want to play not just snag a few more paychecks by flopping onto piles and calling them tackles.

Our DBs need serious help, but ain't nobody got time for that or the money or the draft picks.

We've got a kicker, we've got a punter, darned good ones, too. And maybe JJ Jansen will be willing to come back for another season. Lose him and those darned good kickers and punters are going to suffer.

poo man, it's going to take a miracle around here.

[WhoKnows]

If we don’t draft a WR at 33, I’ll be really disappointed. There’s good OT depth but I don’t see a top guy falling to 33. We could get a WR at 33 that would normally be a mid first pick due to the WR class depth. We have to take advantage of draft value especially when it’s a huge need. We fuged up last year going Mingo instead of TE in a monster deep class.