There's no doubt that the weak point on this team is the running backs and middle of the O-line. Canales wanted to get that going. It's a miserable failure. Everything else on the team is respectable. They have to fix it, but I don't have any good suggestions at the moment.
Guards and rbs can both be had beyond the first round.
rounds 2-7 starting guards(and centers) and rbs (not just starters pro bowlers) every year.
need both(or all 3) in the draft no doubt.
both positions very undervalued compared to most other positions.
iOL, QB, and DE
Get Kieft off the field and run out of pass formations. You can take it a step further and say get Otton off the field and play the game exclusively in 10 personnel.
Well, unfortunately there's no midseason draft. So for this year, I'd pick up somebody off the scrap heap. They have to be better than the combo of backups we have. Melvin Gordon is on a practice squad. Leonard Fournette is available. I don't know what shape he's in, and I know he has slowed down. But we don't need to worry about the second level burst when our guys can't get past the first level anyway. I always thought Patrick Laird was serviceable. Bowles has foregone the option of bringing in outside help this year. Even on cutdown day he didn't bring in anyone cut from other teams. They didn't draft any running backs, relying instead on a UDFA to shore up that department. So I'm guessing the philosophy is that if guys know the offense and can work together as a team we can accomplish anything. It may be time to rethink that.
Also, I thought Canales had some tricks up his sleeve he hasn't yet shown. Well he still hasn't. I didn't see a lot of creativity in the running plays. When we say the O-line has to gel, we didn't mean turn into Jello. Because it seems like the running backs are trying to run through a layer of pudding. Teams seem to be sniffing out the run. There's no daylight for the running backs at all.
My suggestion would be to spread it out, do some hurry up no huddle offense, something different obviously. I'm sure Canales is scouring the message boards for ideas, so those are mine. Give credit to the Lions for having a good defense. They did what the Bucs do, shut down the run and make the other team beat you through the air. Both teams were able to shut down the run. But he Lions were able to get their passing game going anyway, meanwhile Mayfield was airmailing everything. So I guess you sometimes have to take what the other team gives you. The Bucs couldn't do that.
I'm not sure we can even judge the RB room at this point. We know Vaughn in JAG, Tucker does not play anymore and White is still up in the air. The running game is so unbelievably predictable. They run two different inside hand offs. The IOL gets zero push. Look around the league and see some of the holes that teams open up and compare to what we have here. Not sure Barry Sanders can get much behind this OL.
Once thing i know is that Rachaad is good in space and can catch the ball. Really need to utilize him more on swing passes, check downs because those are his strengths.
Vaughn is somehow slower than Lenny
Hainsey has regressed and Maunch looks bad so far
Goedeke has improved so that's great.
I can't even name our LG without looking it up but he's trash.
White needs to be a change of pace and/or 3rd down back.
Canales needs to go tempo and spread it out more. There's this thing in the NFL where you get your best players the ball. When you run it like he did you're giving too many possessions to our weak RBs... especially 2 straight runs to Vaughn to set up 3rd and 7. So dumb...
Otton is JAG. The other TEs are not even JAGs.
Our 3 best weapons on offense just need to see the ball more: Evans, Godwin, Palmer.
Ryan Neal also should not be starting any longer. Missed tackles, poor angles, lost in coverage at times, slow etc etc
Let’s see how Delaney looks next to AWJ for an extended time.
iOL and Cade Otton. Otton has been downright AWFUL at run blocking this year. His lack of ability to seal blocks and sustain has cost us huge. He’s probably one of the worst run blocking TEs in the NFL so far. We definitely need to upgrade that.
