Quote
stlramz
It seems every team has a few pieces where, if there was a turnaround, you could argue talent was in place.
Do you presently see a team devoid of talent?
Then why didn't Vermeil, Carroll, Noll, Landry, Walsh, Gibbs, Johnson, Bellichick and many others win in their first year?
I would say a case where a team's entire OL is intact and all but 2-3 pieces of their defense are intact and they already have their receivers, including a top one..that's not a rebuild. You find a good coach for that, add a good rookie qb (who is set up to succeed), and you can do something with it. That's just one example.
I mean it looks me like it's pretty obvious that if you're returning at least 15 starters on offense and defense then you are not starting over. In contrast, as I said, when Vermeil started winning in 99, he had only 6 players total who were there in 97 when he arrived.
But then go back to all the rebuilds. Why didn't Bellichick start winning immediately? He's obviously a great coach. If your (and this is not a direct quote but a kind of paraphrase) "all teams have talent sufficient to win with immediately" approach were true, then he should have won right away. He went 5-11 in 2000, and 11-5 in 2001. When they play the Rams in the 2001 superbowl, they start exactly 6 guys who were already there before BB arrives in 2000. Now part of that is Bledsoe getting injured and replaced, but still. On offense for example there are exactly 2 holdovers from before 2000---Brown (WR) and Woody. That means among other things that after being hired, BB replaced 4 OL and all but one skill player.
