Cobb and Matthews depart..... New Staff Moving Forward

oakleaf said:
I think they'll be somewhere between 6-10 and 10-6. Seriously, so many changes and variables right now I don't have any idea how well they'll do.

Letting MM, CM3 and Cobb go were three things the majority of us thought needed to happen. Plus they bolstered the Edge, added a needed Safety and OG. The right things are happening. Still a long way to go.

When leadership, people and strategy changes a team goes through several stages:

1) Forming. Morale is average, everyone is waiting to see what happens.
2) Storming. New ideas emerge, new leadership assesses talent and previous methods, and matches to new tactics, relationships develop between coaches and players as they plan how to implement. Morale does decrease here as few like change.
3) Norming. This is training (physical and mental) and implementation of new strategy. Morale is at lowest because successful implementation is difficult. But it starts to build as players/coaches become familiar with each other and new playbook.
4) Performing. Relationships are established, all are comfortable with newly implemented strategy and tactics and they begin to perform as a team. Morale improves as performance improves. The sky's the limit.

The question is, how fast do they get from forming to performing? Six months? Three years? It doesn't happen overnight.
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Will there be a learning curve sure but this this is the NFL, not the SEC, or ACC or B1G. As a player you are paid to get prepared mentally and physically before OTA's or camp. Moral should be high, you missed the playoffs last year you have something to prove and get back to the excepted level of to compete and win championships. If you dont have a chip on your shoulder and motivation to get back the playoffs and compete for a championship thats on the individual.

Its a win now league. Do you think the staff thinks it gets a 1st year mulligan? No and I hope to hell they know that and each guy in camp should have the same mindset. As I said yes learning curve but nobody gets a pass year 1
 
Packinatl said:
Will there be a learning curve sure but this this is the NFL, not the SEC, or ACC or B1G. As a player you are paid to get prepared mentally and physically before OTA's or camp. Moral should be high, you missed the playoffs last year you have something to prove and get back to the excepted level of to compete and win championships. If you dont have a chip on your shoulder and motivation to get back the playoffs and compete for a championship thats on the individual.

Its a win now league. Do you think the staff thinks it gets a 1st year mulligan? No and I hope to hell they know that and each guy in camp should have the same mindset. As I said yes learning curve but nobody gets a pass year 1
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I beg to differ. Expecting LeFleur and his staff to be highly competitive in year one is not realistic. There's a reason they give coaches a minimum of 3 to 4 years to make the transition. It takes time. The only time a coach will be fired within that framework is if he fails to reach the objectives Oakleaf mentioned. If he can't, that means he's never going to get his program to work the way it should.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the range of 6 to 12 wins, depending on how things play out on the field, and how quick guys get in sync with Matt's plan.

As far as motivation, McCarthy had this same mindset about guys have to motivate themselves. I disagree. I think solid leadership gives players the means to be motivated, by making them feel that what they have to offer is essential to success.
 
Packinatl said:
Will there be a learning curve sure but this this is the NFL, not the SEC, or ACC or B1G. As a player you are paid to get prepared mentally and physically before OTA's or camp. Moral should be high, you missed the playoffs last year you have something to prove and get back to the excepted level of to compete and win championships. If you dont have a chip on your shoulder and motivation to get back the playoffs and compete for a championship thats on the individual.

Its a win now league. Do you think the staff thinks it gets a 1st year mulligan? No and I hope to hell they know that and each guy in camp should have the same mindset. As I said yes learning curve but nobody gets a pass year 1
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I am going to also disagree with your mindset here. Realistically year one of this kind of shake up won't bear that kind of fruit. What you say sounds all great and rah rah but it's not happening. Your mindset is more like the SEC or college football rather then NFL. GB isn't the rest of the league and this is Murphy and Gutes guy not TT.

10-6 and a wildcard spot would be fantastic but I can see 9-7 or 8-8 and in year one and that just doesn't bother me at all. I will keep saying it the culture needs to change in the building and that takes time.
 
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I think the difference between what's going on in GB and most other teams that go through this same kind of thing is that GB's defense still has the same DC as last year and it's in year 2 of that transition.
The other teams that go through this are typically changing the offense AND the defense.

I still think GB may be a year away from making a playoff splash again, but I also think they will be closer than is typically the case with transitions.

And, Who Knows?...........maybe they get a little lucky and things fall into place quickly and they compete for the NFCN this year.
Not saying they will.............just, ya never know.
 
As far as next year goes, I look back to 2006 and see a lot of similarities. First time, young unproven HC. Dearth of roster depth and spotty talent overall. Older QB. That team looked awful the first half of 2006, then rallied and pulled off 4 in a row to end the season. Next year a few key draft picks took a major step, they picked up Ryan Grant who was perfect for that running scheme and bam, they had homefield in the NFCC in 2007. I can see something similar, in fact I think that's probably best case scenario.

What you don't want to see, IMO, is unpreparedness and inability to function. The roster is soft but it's not the worst roster in the game, they have some nice pieces, certainly enough to at least compete within the division. Gute had a plan to bolster the D in free agency, I have to think he also has a plan to bolster the O in the draft.
 
why should our coach not be able to turn it around in 1 year. The Bears coach did.
 
Keg Man said:
why should our coach not be able to turn it around in 1 year. The Bears coach did.
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Chicago, that's a bit of a perfect storm last year. Their division rivals were weak, and their offensive coach was able to do enough with his side and play complementary football for the defense, which had a huge morale boost from the Mack trade. Frankly I expect a bit of a drop off from them this year. D players are still there, but losing Fangio is no small thing, and teams tend to revert quickly to the mean without strong QB play, which I'm not convinced Trubisky can give them consistently.

What's limiting at this moment for ML is that it's really the same cast of characters on O for him as MM had and struggled with. Yes, we have a great QB, great WR and great LT, but beyond that they need a big time talent bolster on the OL and some of the skill positions. Don't think we can fill it all in with one draft, but one draft should certainly help.
 
Maybe I'm just a guy who thinks the glass is more full than empty. Lots of ifs, but I see a lot of potential that McCarthy just couldn't get to work in his system the way he wanted to run it. If the new guy has a system but modifies it to his player's strengths, I think we can be a lot better and surprise a lot of people - even you'se guys.

And, by a lot better, I do mean compete for the Lombardi. Otherwise, really why play.
 
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