I'm cautiously optimistic that we can win 7–8 games, but instead of fretting whether we're a good team or not, I'm going to be more interested in watching the growth of last year's rookies (JMS, Hyatt, Gray, Hawkins III), and watching closely to see if bringing in Bricillo and a couple of veterans on the o-line will improve things (hopefully, a lot)...our new defensive scheme with a new coach...and of course, the newbies getting their first taste of NFL play and how they play, especially Nabers
I like that Schoen seems to have settled into building the team stick-by-stick. I think the worst thing that happened was a great first season with a low-talented team, that might have caused Schoen to think we're "almost there" and only required some tweaking. Season two was an in-yer-face reality check, an old-fashioned, "fist to the nose" wake-up call...especially out of the gate where the Cowboys utterly humiliated us because we didn't take offseason workouts seriously enough and came completely unprepared in game one. Stings just to talk about it
So three things:
1) Schoen is forgetting about "win now", and building a foundation for the future instead of thinking we could make it to the playoffs with a few tweaks - that's a positive IMO
2) Daboll will NOT let this team have an easy offseason workout this summer and will come to game one ready to actually play like NFL players. I believe no one was more humiliated than Dabes in that Cowboy game
3) the addition of a stud ER across from Thibs will be exciting to watch and could have more of an impact on the defense than anything else
So I've got lower expectations, yet excited to see growth in players and overall play this season. If we only win 4 or 5 games, but they are close and we played well, I will be satisfied because I know we're still in building mode. We're not the Chiefs yet
I like that Schoen seems to have settled into building the team stick-by-stick. I think the worst thing that happened was a great first season with a low-talented team, that might have caused Schoen to think we're "almost there" and only required some tweaking. Season two was an in-yer-face reality check, an old-fashioned, "fist to the nose" wake-up call...especially out of the gate where the Cowboys utterly humiliated us because we didn't take offseason workouts seriously enough and came completely unprepared in game one. Stings just to talk about it
So three things:
1) Schoen is forgetting about "win now", and building a foundation for the future instead of thinking we could make it to the playoffs with a few tweaks - that's a positive IMO
2) Daboll will NOT let this team have an easy offseason workout this summer and will come to game one ready to actually play like NFL players. I believe no one was more humiliated than Dabes in that Cowboy game
3) the addition of a stud ER across from Thibs will be exciting to watch and could have more of an impact on the defense than anything else
So I've got lower expectations, yet excited to see growth in players and overall play this season. If we only win 4 or 5 games, but they are close and we played well, I will be satisfied because I know we're still in building mode. We're not the Chiefs yet