Quote
roman18
It has to be the HC. I know players play the game, but IMO the players chosen by the coach are done so because the coach see's his vision being able to be done by those players he chooses. Same goes for the assistants he chooses. IMO there is a single key...this is not putting down the input of the players, but that input can be just as easily be a destructive force as a positive one.
McVay was a good hire and he brought in good coaches, including Kromer, Olson, and Phillips.
But IMO Shanahan is a good coach too, he just had to work with a bad team.
So part of the 2017 resurgence is McVay, who promises to be good for a long time.
But then part of it also is that he inherited a good team. If you count the 2 kickers and the returner, that's 25 basic starters. Of those, the guy starting this year who were not on the roster before 2017 include Webster, Johnson, Barwin, Smart, Whitworth, Sullivan/Blythe, Kupp, Woods, and Watkins. 9 of 25 or 36%.
Changes in the OL and at WR had the most effect.
BUT. This team is not winning unless it also has Tru, Joyner, Tree, Barron, Donald, Brockers, Saffold, Brown, Hav, Gurley, Goff, Hekker, Zuerlein, and Cooper.
That's a lot. And I left a few bodies out---but those are the key guys.
When Vermeil started winning in 99, he had a total of 6 players who were there before he signed on. When Carroll started winning in 2012, he had a total of 3 starters who were on the team before he got there, and one of those was the punter. This is obviously not remotely anything like that.
There's a lot of other factors too.
If you look back to other teams across the years who had overnight turnarounds, almost invariably it's because the new coach inherited a lot of talent. That was true, for example, of the 2012 49ers. Harbaugh walked into a situation where the team was just stocked at a lot of positions.
In fact to look at one position, the secondary, the Rams could afford to let 2 guys walk last year (Jenkins and McLeod), let 2 go this year (Alexander and McDonald), trade one away (Gaines), and put one on IR---a turnover of 6 players---and STILL have a good secondary with some depth (after adding Johnson, Webster, and Robey-Coleman). (So it's lose 6, add 3), I've never seen anything quite like that. Usually if you lose 4 starters and two other solid player (Gaines and Davis) you can't expect to be that good.
It's McVay.
It's Goff stepping up.
It's Gurley in a renaissance.
It's a lot of key starters up and down the roster.
One day I think Shanahan will be seen as a good coach and looking back at 2017 people will say, well, in his first year, unlike McVay, he inherited nothing.
....
