My 3 offseason messages for 2021

1. The storyline this year will be a true collaboration between McVay and Stafford. Game plans through the week will give Matthew the "intent" of each play and Stafford will be able to execute that intent with a similar command as Manning and Brady did. Between series, McVay, Phillips, Stafford, O'Connell, and Carberry can adjust the plan to the defense and I expect there will be several times McVay doesn't actually call a play in the headset as much as he makes suggestions about where the opportunities may exist. McVay now is free to become less a teacher and more an innovator and problem solver. Though I pounded the table for OLine upgrades, having linemen with YEARS of experience in the system can allow for the type of continuity necessary for Stafford to make changes at the line pre snap without having to worry about which players won't understand his reads. Whereas Goff had to decipher McVay's calls and then implement them, Stafford, by the latter half of the season, will know and see the game unfold with ideas of his own that will win in ways McVay hadn't considered (similarly but less contentiously than the LaFleur/Rodgers dynamic). It may lead to a more pass happy approach but only so in games where the running game simply isn't there for them.

2. I'm actually curious to learn how McVay will adjust to how the officials have become reticent to call holding by the OLines. After so many seasons of watching AD get grabbed and arm wrapped with impunity, will he have Carberry teach the Packer's technique of "holding on every play" to improve protection? I would. Then, when the officials start focusing on calling it, AD would be allowed to feast and the opposing offenses would become helpless. Simply showing clips after every game to the refs of all the missed calls simply hasn't changed a damned thing.

3. Finally, the defense once again begins and ends with Aaron Donald. While there are several other nice players that perform their jobs adequately, AD alone is the difference between top 10 and bottom 15 all by himself even with Ramsey in the backfield. In all my years of watching football, I've never seen a team so reliant on one player for success. You can have a goalie in hockey, a pitcher in baseball, or a generational talent in basketball, but one man rarely makes THAT much of a difference when playing 11 on 11. For anyone who disagrees with me, please rewatch the last Rams game of the 2020 season. That #1 defense was shredded and incapable of getting off the field with an injured AD not performing his usual heroics. Without him, Morris would have to call a game more like the gambling Haslett than the controlled Staley.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/2021 06:14AM by Leoram.