I really thought this line was going to crash last year. We didn't even know who our starting Center was going to be until pre season sorted it out for us. I was pleasantly surprised to be horribly wrong. It all worked out. But with Whitt retiring, I went back to being worried because I knew the leadership he provided , and worried that there would be no one to step up and lead this unit, one scraped together with low picks and FAs. And now we're back to the line we had before Whitt (At least that line had Saffold). Back to the type of unit that was getting Goff killed. Now we're working with a line that's getting Stafford killed.
Funny how when McVay got here, he seemed to recognize that in order to fix Goff, he had to fix the line, so he went and got the best money could buy at the time. I was glad we finally had a coach that was going to fix our problems. He got it.
Man... what happened? I think we really got lazy in leaning on Whitt and his home gatherings and team building. We could plug in guys like Allen and be OK. The Corbet deal worked for us, and we began to expect these success stories. But McVay really rolled the dice expecting Noteboom to replace Whitt along with our interior linemen stepping up. It felt like a "cross your fingers" strategy then, and certainly looks like one now.
So, I read all the grousing about our QB (and Perkins, really folks ???), our loser RB situation, and lack of productivity at WR. But for me, it always comes down to the line. Without it, none of those perform. And our line isn't the unit of six years ago. They're nowhere near that good. I literally haven't seen this putrid of a O line in a very long time. Until that changes, nothing else will. And considering the deadline has passed and the FA cupboards are bare, that's a wrap on this season. Just no way around it.
So, we'll see what new little gadget garbage gets installed for next week. Maybe some personnel shuffling. I don't see McVay hiring or firing an assistant coach, but we'll see. None of it will matter.
Until the line is fixed, we won't be. And that won't happen until this crummy season is over.
