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leafnose
Excellent post, Merlin
I think we'll see a definitive direction chosen this offseason by the club, in relation to the OL
Again, Richmond and Jourdan in their latest 11 podcast had some solid thoughts.
Richmond, in particular thinks they've reached a point that they have to get off the pot.
They've been developing some guys for some time, have a contractual situation with Blythe, and are on the precipice of making a hard run for the Super Bowl.
Consensus suggests that you're not putting a rookie in front of Matthew this season
You've got Evans, Noteboom, Brewer, Allen, and some others that at the crossroads: Including Havs.
We won't know until probably the latter part of spring when they figure out OTAs, and the lousy virus situ.
I expect them to retain Blythe, as of now. I know that doesn't sit well with a lot of folks here, but it allows them to not upend the cart, too.
Will they haul in the BPA at IOL in the draft early? Even if they retain Blythe?
I could be drawn in or out of that stance.
But, yeah, I thought we saw a real peek at the dilemma facing Les Snead, the New OL coach, and how this season, in particular plays out.
I might be more surprised at Blythe's walking, and them going free agent. Unless there's some relationships I'm unaware of that "fits" a FA into the offensive scheme fit here.
Appreciate it. Yeah Jourdan's been great hasn't she. How nice is it to have a beat writer again who has at least some insight from the team and staff. Still mad we lost Vinny lol.
I will admit there's room for them to bring Blythe but it would be at the club's price which IMO will be backup range. When it comes to him I feel like I'm on crazy pills because he gets these good ratings from PFF but what he does is allows explosive plays. By that I mean he loses control of his assignment and he also gets bull rushed onto his QB's feet which is not something they will want to do to an older QB who they just gave up the fort for. There were a lot of plays down the stretch where we directly did not get points or key first downs because of Blythe and his assignment's effect on either Goff or Akers. All this of course guarantees we will pay Blythe starter money or something along those lines lol.
Also I think that Kromer's departure tells us change is in the wind. Blythe is just an obvious connection for me, where his poor play on top of him being Aaron's boy seems to insinuate a story.
Another thing that is going to factor in here is Stafford. The guy is a maestro with the rush and reading defenses. He's in that matured QB window where they've seen it and beat it all. So when you mention fits it seems to me that things have opened up where you have more room for error on the calls because there's a QB who has that mastery. Which means maybe you're open for a young stud who can learn from the QB a bit and you don't want other teams to jump you.
Also here's an interesting article where one of the league's best centers talks about learning from Stafford.
Edit: here's a quote from that link:
“He’s a savant when it comes to reading defenses,” Ragnow said. “Blows my mind. It got to a point, so I would make a lot of the protection calls, but he would know. He would know a call he wants to do and he would switch it—he obviously had last say—but I would make the switch and he would be like, ‘There we go, buddy. I was waiting on you.’”Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2021 11:07PM by merlin.
