No one knows what happened in 2016 but it was far more than one thing.
In terms of Boudreau, here are the players who played better with him than they had before and in fact, since (with one exception on the "since" ):
Richardson, Turner, Smith, Williams, Barksdale. No one on that list played as well before the Rams. Barksdale was the only one if those to do anything after the Rams.
The liability from the start guy was Joseph.
The following guys played well for him when they were healthy: Long, Saffold, Wells. They combine to make 2013 overall pretty good, even with Clemens at qb for about half of it.
Among the youngsters, when they weren't playing hurt, both Donnal and Hav showed they could play.
Barnes was better in 2015 than 2016 but then that was true of everyone.
Boudreau lines played effectively when they were not set back by multiple injuries or massive across the board inexperience....or in some games, both.
The problem is, those 2 issues--or both of them at once--were the main things that happened in 56 out of 80 games. In the 24 where they were settled and relatively uninjured (last 8 games of 2012, first 12 games of 2013, last 4 games of 2015) they went 12-11-1, and that was with Clemens and Keenum starting for 9 of them.
Mostly I find in these discussions that the massive, extensive OL injuries get overlooked or (for some reason) downplayed. You can still play with lines that are THAT injured if you have Brady or Wilson at qb. Not Clemens, Hill, Davis, Foles, and Keenum though.
Personally I would not put a single thing that happened in 2016 on one cause. Not any of it. It was a multiple perfect cluster storm. BUT I would also say, as hard as it is to sort through it all, that it very well could be Boudreau did not come through in 2016.
2016 aside, most disparging I see of Boudreau, though, just strikes me as missing the real issues.
It would be like blaming Waufle for the DL not coming through like before in 2016.
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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2017 12:28PM by zn.
