From top to bottom this year was poorly, poorly managed... it wasn't just Sheridan. The FA class was a joke. The players' attitudes were all garbage. The entire coaching staff lacked its previous fire.

DBs
Safe: Webster, Ross, Thomas and Phillips. If those 4 are healthy and productive its a really solid group. Clearly a solid Safety is needed, and I think you always draft corner depth- but the key with this group is health, because in terms of top talent its one of the better groups around.

Must Go: Dockery, Brown, Rouse- Dockery's reached the end of his usefulness here. Brown is useless and Rouse is a marginal guy that should be easily replaced.

Not Safe: M. Johnson and B. Johnson- I thought Bruce was gonna seamlessly replace Dockery, but his play really dipped from the beginning of the year. Michael Johnson is WAY inconsistent, but we know he has enough talent and ability that you wouldn't want to just dump him if you brought in a better coach.

LBs:
Safe: Goff, Boley, Sintim. Goff has the looks of a good player who needs a little more time. I wouldn't be averse to giving him an opportunity to start next year. Boley needs to get healthy, and be a bit more consistent, but he has playmaking speed and will be a good long range player for us. Sintim may not be a fulltime LB, but he certainly has the talent to be a contributer. Could use a solid tackling presence vs. the run to split time with.

Must Go: Pierce, Blackburn, Kehl- Pierce has reached the end. Time to start coaching. Blackburn sucks and we need to have a better utility backup. Kehl is somewhat of a disaster- we can't have a defender who's afraid to tackle. 2 years to fix that is enough.

Not Safe: DeOssie, Clark. DeOssie still hasn't shown any ability to contribute defensively, but probably stays as a snapper. Clark I don't have a ton of interest in keeping, but if he's veteran depth I suppose you could do worse.

DL:
Safe: Tuck, Kiwanuka, Canty, Cofield: Tuck is still the best defender on the team despite a down year (thanks Flozell!). Kiwi should be better than what he is right now, but he's been moved around so much that you just have to stay patient. Canty dissapointed because of his injury, and you just have to give it another go. Cofield is a decent player who should be better another year post surgery who we can't really afford to let go at this point because of our lack of overall depth.

Must Go: Bernard, Robbins. I'm sorry Freddie, but you may have reached the end here. Even if you didn't, you're too expensive to find out. Rocky Bernard, you just plain suck

Not Safe: Osi, Tollefson- Osi, you're a bit of a nitwit, but clearly you can rush the passer so shut your mouth and we'll bring you back. Tollefson- well I don't have a reason to want to bring this guy back, but as a 4th DE he's fine.

Offense:

QB:
Safe: Eli- Duh
Must Go: None
Not Safe: Carr, Bomar. Carr may want to go, who knows if Bomar is the no.3 next year. Either way the backup QB position will always be in flux untill we develop a young guy, because Carr will always be thinking about starting again if he got the shot.

RB:
Safe: Bradshaw, Jacobs. I'm down on Jacobs as the start, but hopefully his lack of explosion was more due to health and O-line issues than general decline. I think a mix of Bradshaw and Jacobs is still the way to go regardless. I think Bradshaw explodes for a huge year, like Ray Rice, if he overcomes his injuries.
Must Go: None
Not Safe: Hedgecock, Johnson, Ware, Brown- Hedgecock had a down year and we may look to upgrade if the opportunity is there. Gartrell and Ware are both worth keeping if others arent brought in. Ware's injury I think really lessened the impact he could've made this year. Andre Brown is clearly an injury ?

TEs:
Safe: Boss, Beckum. Boss is clearly on the way up and will be a great TE soon. Beckum has the tools to be an excellent complentary reciever but made no impact this year.
Must Go: None
Not Safe: Johnson, Pascoe. Darcy is at a crossroads. I like him as a blocking TE who can also catch the ball, but now he's post injury and its been a few years- so does he get the second contract? Don't know enough about Pascoe.

WR:
Safe: Smith, Nicks, Manningham, Hixon, Barden: The first two are obvious keepers. Manningham seems to be one of those guys who should be really awesome, but will always figure out a way to screw up at a bad time. I hope he proves me wrong. Hixon may be more of a question mark for some, but he's a really good return man, who can make the occasional big play as a WR. Perfect 4th guy. Barden needs to get an opportunity in year 2.
Must GO: Moss- good riddance
Not Safe: Hagan. Did ok when asked, but will have to fight for his spot.

OL:
Safe: Diehl, Snee, O'Hara, Beatty- I think a lot of people here want to move Diehl off LT, and while I'm not opposed to that, he's done more than an above average job at the position since he's been there. Beatty has the looks of guy who can be a future stud though. Snee needs to bounce back to elite status. I just don't see them replacing O'Hara because the pickings at center out there are so slim.
Must Go: No one really has to go
Not Safe: Seubert, McKenzie, Whimper, Koets, Boothe. Seubert may be better of as depth these days- he's done a great job for us, but time to move on. McKenzie doesn't need to go, but they will have to way long term cost here and the fact that Beatty may push his way into the lineup. Might be time to move on from Whimper and Koets. Boothe has done an admirable job and is probably fine, but if they moved on it wouldn't be surprising.

Special Teams:
Safe: None One
Must Go: Feagles, Tynes- I'm sorry Jeff, but you're not good anymore. Age has finally caught up. Larry- you were never good. You're terrible kickoffs and erratic kicking need to be replaced.

TMS wrote:Jacobs needs to go... the way he ran the ball this year was nothing short of disgraceful & gutless... he was supposed to be one of the leaders on this team but showed no leadership whatsoever... i'd much rather feature Ahmad Bradshaw, the kid runs w/heart, explosion & is a tough guy to tackle for a guy any size... i'm tired of Brandon Jacobs calling out of the game every time he makes contact in the hole... i want a back with big play making ability, & Bradshaw brings that everytime he touches the ball... Jacobs needs a hole wider than the Grand Canyon for him to break off any big plays... i don't want to hear any injury excuses either, Bradshaw was operating w/nagging injuries all year & still did an admirable job when he got the chance.

I'm not happy with his performance, but you have to be very careful getting rid of him. Its a 2 back league- you need another guy behind Bradshaw and Jacobs has been a terrific player for us in years past. He deserves another go. We don't always get the full story so its hard to make any judgements on injuries and the impact they may have made on his game this year. I think the adjustment that does need to be made is that Bradshaw should become the feature and Jake more of a complement.

VDesai wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:Like I said previously, Ernie Accorsi deserved more credit than he got for the Super Bowl W

From top to bottom this year was poorly, poorly managed... it wasn't just Sheridan. The FA class was a joke. The players' attitudes were all garbage. The entire coaching staff lacked its previous fire.

No he didn't and I've explained why in the past. I know enough people close to the org and have explained this in the past. The sea change in personnell only occured when Reese was promoted to director of scouting and Dave Gettlemen pro scouting, with Chris Mara taking a more active role as well. Ernie's team building prior to that was abysmal. Reese did miss on this FA class- but mostly due to injury. Canty and Boley missed half the year. Bernard and Brown were just busts. It happens- everything he did before was gold...you can't always be perfect. But the bottom line is you don't manage injuries- Kenny Phillips getting hurt- the FA's getting hurt, Tuck getting cheapshotted...this wasn't stuff they predicted. They knew Robbins and Cofield were banged up and brought in Canty and Bernard accordingly. Bernard was bad, but they couldn't predict Canty to miss half the year.

The staff is a bit of a different story. Sheridan was clearly a mistake and wasn't clever enough to overcome injuries.

VDesai 5:21 "And I sayeth that Ernie Accorsi deserveth no credit."

Reese deserve credit for the influx of talent, definitely. But there's more to building a team than scouting and talent evaluation. That talent bolstered what was already in place. This team has the fingerprints of all those dudes you just mentioned all over it and theirs alone.

So let's just say those guys deserve all the credit for a great organizational success, then they shoulder all the blame for a great organizational failure. Because that's what this year was--a huge failure.

But you know dudes, so I digress.

VDesai wrote:

TMS wrote:Jacobs needs to go... the way he ran the ball this year was nothing short of disgraceful & gutless... he was supposed to be one of the leaders on this team but showed no leadership whatsoever... i'd much rather feature Ahmad Bradshaw, the kid runs w/heart, explosion & is a tough guy to tackle for a guy any size... i'm tired of Brandon Jacobs calling out of the game every time he makes contact in the hole... i want a back with big play making ability, & Bradshaw brings that everytime he touches the ball... Jacobs needs a hole wider than the Grand Canyon for him to break off any big plays... i don't want to hear any injury excuses either, Bradshaw was operating w/nagging injuries all year & still did an admirable job when he got the chance.

I'm not happy with his performance, but you have to be very careful getting rid of him. Its a 2 back league- you need another guy behind Bradshaw and Jacobs has been a terrific player for us in years past. He deserves another go. We don't always get the full story so its hard to make any judgements on injuries and the impact they may have made on his game this year. I think the adjustment that does need to be made is that Bradshaw should become the feature and Jake more of a complement.

I am a big Jacobs fan but I am very disappointed this year. He looks like the Nigerian Nightmare in his last year in the league. That is the problem with the big backs, they have a short RB life span. I think Bradshaw will take the starting spot next year and I am really excited about Andre Brown.

NYKBocker wrote:Reasons why we had a major collapse after going 5-0.

1. Kenny Phillips going down for the year.
2. Tuck had a so so season.
3. Osi was one dimensional.
4. Kiwi did not improve.
5. DT was a bust. Coefield was the only DT that showed up this year.
6. LBers. Sheesh.
7. OL got old quick. We could not open any holes.
8. Jacobs had a bad year. He looked like the Nigerian Nightmare at the end of his career. I hope he gets his wheels fixed for next year.
9. Bill Sheridan was a wrong hire.

Good things this year.
1. The young WRs look promising. Steve Smith and Nicks are a god send.
2. Eli looked good.

Needs for next year.

1. new LB corp
2. FS
3. SS
4. OL Depth
5. Run stopping DT. I miss Norman Hand for that 1 year. Dude did not get any pass rush but the opposing team could not run in the middle.

I want to see some Reese magic again.

Pretty much spot on

Liked your pecking order. Injury excuse doesn't fly with me because the FAs were acquired for "depth." The Sheridan excuse doesn't fly with me either because he was promoted to maintain "continuity." Really thought the head coach and general manager letdown in a big way for reasons previously mentioned.

It's an uncapped year, so I hope they blow up the defense and get the right pieces. I also hope they can get the right offensive pieces to get that smashmouth identity back, because I still have questions about Eli throwing in cold, swirling wind (but hopefully the new stadium solves that problem)