Mind Character

I like Driscoll a lot. He gets people blocked and scouts love him. Cole Kmet is my top guy now at TE as well. PTW has plays where he indeed has sloppy feet and displays uncoordinated balance, but a lot of such plays were in the early part of 2018. Poor balance and bad feet aren't a core component of his play traits based on my evaluation. So, we'll just have to agree to strongly disagree. We'll see how his evaluation shakes out the closer we get to draft time. I personally think it's going to remain stable unless something happens at the Senior Bowl. Right now, he has a ceiling of bottom of the 1st round and a floor of late 2nd round. Senior Bowl performance could push him to a guaranteed top 40 draft selection. We'll see where things shake out as we approached the draft and whether my evaluation or yours is in alignment with scouts evaluations.

No one that knows football has any doubts that Josh McDaniels has a brilliant offensive mind or doubts that he has a next level understanding of scheme. What is at question is leadership, emotional discipline, relational maturity, ability to resist the negative influence of power when adversity hits, and ability to work collaboratively with others when adversity hits and he's in the seat of power. Without those things, no amount of scheming and offensive knowledge will lead to sustainable winning. As great as McDaniels is, scheme-wise there are better fits based on our roster talent. That is, coaches that utilize more play action and build their scheme around zone running and blocking concepts. That to me is where our roster's strength lie. That's not McDaniels is unable to adapt his scheme to personnel but coaches have their preferences and Josh's preferences don't lend themselves as well in terms of a scheme-roster fit as other candidates. The play-action, zone run, run first, QB left and right independent movement, and pocket movement align with what our offensive players strength are. That offense is the Stefanski-Kubiak offense: https://zonecoverage.com/2019/minnesota-vikings-news/why-kevin-stefanski-might-be-the-nfls-next-great-offensive-coach/

What games make Prince Tega-Wanogho terrible? Or at least what play traits are you seeing that make you evaluate him as "terrible?" People see evaluations on players differently. His tape was consistently really good in pass pro although his struggles in run-blocking at time were real issues. His pass pro tape is representative of his top pass blocking grade in the SEC last year over Jonah Williams and this year he had the 3rd highest. Pass pro natural talent is the hardest thing to come by and develop for young Tackles. He's not a head up mashing people mover run blocking type of tackle. That's what Auburn required of him. Getting him on the move using his athleticism to block off angles and edges in a zone-run blocking scheme would maximize his abilities and make him a top overall Tackle. I've appropriately laid out what I called his various "Serious/Severe" deficiencies as well as his strengths in previous posts, but taking into account his full body of work and not just bad plays PTW selected at the 10th pick of the 2nd round, is going to be a great value pick. His deficiencies will prevent him from being selected in the 1st round. Against top competition including rushers of all types of skills he displayed consistent ability to get guys blocked in ways that project to a quality starter with developmental high quality upside?

^^^ I don't know who this guy is ... and he's not quite right, but based on picture size alone and lexicon he's dialed in ... You sir... know words ... ... I applaud thee ...

Haters gon' hate. I'd respect it if the hatin was better, more seasoned, and more refined like: The word of a Charlatans has as much worth to me as a critique of King Kai ... ... be gone Charlatan ... be gone ...

We need to finalize this Hire soon so we can finalize assistant coach positions. Kevin O'Connel and Jim Caldwell are some of the best candidates out there.

A lot of people in the NFL including former scouts Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks believe that Fleck's "Row the boat" and "cliche"/"catch-phrase"/"corny" style leadership may be perceived as inauthentic/forced/amateurish or won't fall on receptive ears amongst NFL players. He's an elite culture leader on the college level, but there's a lot of questions regarding if his brand of culture building can translate. I'm very interested to see if it can, and I think you're right that he'll be the hot name in the future. Who knows what happens in the end, but one things for sure is that Fleck would need seasoned, vet NFL types all around his staff to help maintain buy-in for his program.

Yeah ... you're probably right... lol... ...and I'm sick ...

There's a multi-verse of additional options that you're missing .. Here's one randomly selected option amongst myriads regarding who I truly am:

The "Criteria" has kind of been set by Jimmy Haslam indirectly. As long as Paul DePodesta and Jimmy Haslam are involved the "Criteria" is 1-part what the team needs; 1-part what a coach needs in order to survive the negatives of Haslam/ownership; and 1-part what a coach needs to work collaboratively with an analytics department: 1.) Team needs leadership and someone that can command respect and implement an accountability structure 2.) Team needs vision and daily habits development 3.) Team needs a coach that won't just make emotional decisions (i.e., "we're taking the ball first to prove a point") 4.) Team-Offense needs staffing/coaches to get the most out of Baker and others 5.) Coach needs to not suffer from ego tripping, ego-mania, or be susceptible to political in-fighting causing Jimmy to blow things up. 6.) Coach needs to be secure and not deterred by the provoking of political infighting or short-sighted "we might be fired" decision-making caused by Jimmy Haslam having side-talks with people that inevitably get back to the head coach and their staff. 7.) Coach needs to have an affinity for analytics or at least be willing to collaboratively work with Paul DePo or people of his status. 8.) Coach has to have the discipline to not provoke media narratives and/or the coach has to have the emotional discipline to not throw players under the buss or blame others in times of high stress. 9.) Coach has to have the depth of thinking and planning, as well as a learning program in order for the searching committee to believe they can one day create a sustainable culture of winning ---- No Candidates are perfects Candidates that by all accounts most fulfill the Criteria are: Jim Schwartz, Kevin Stefanski, and Brian Daboll. Candidates that by all accounts fulfill many of the Criteria well but are lacking severely in key elements: Eric Bieniemy and Josh McDaniels Candidates that by all accounts least fulfill the Criteria: Greg Roman and Robert Saleh

One is not the same as the other. If it's between those two, we'd all better hope it's Bieniemy. He has next level and depth of approaches in-terms of implementing accountability structures in the locker room and organization wide. He believes a team can't get to the Super Bowl or Playoffs without taking work home with them and pursuing greatness. 9 year NFL career; Disciplinarian; Has a lot of grit; Tough-minded; High-level command and leader of men traits; Can get respect day 1. Even still, he's not the best candidate because of organizational alignment, some emotional volatility, lack of affinity for analytics and sports science player development plans, and issues working collaboratively when he has some power stemming from his time at Colorado.

He ain't it by many accounts from people in the know. Really nice coach who may be there one day in the future, but not close yet. Culture/Program Builder Mentality/Traits or Next-level thinking/approach or Coordinator-wise there a numerous better candidates.

What makes him "look like that dude?" 1-year of hot name coordinator success? He's been terrible the 2 seasons prior to that. Where was the strong culture then? A good coach elevates and makes the sum be greater than the parts. His only success has come when he has premium pieces/talents all over the place. Can he lead a program and organization? Does he have uncommon traits or next thinking/approach to develop a far-reaching culture? Compared to the rest of the candidates on the list those that know him and his track record don't speak to a man having those refined attributes quite yet. If it's Saleh, it won't be worse than Greg Roman based on what trustworthy people have to say about them, but there's a lot of better candidates.

He should've never played his first year... everyone paying attention knew this... his college coaches, evaluators.... His confidence and self-belief were broken at the end of Notre Dame's season... Of all the QBs, he needed to sit but if he had to play it had to be with a group that could support him... Mahomes got the benefit of the whole year and at the outset of the season even in preseason he could barely take a snap under center... Kizer was bad and we put him in a bad situation ..

Vikings are losing this weekend ... Adam Theilen limping around badly in practice via videos. He had to get stitches in his ankle. Not a good sign. Might not play. If he does, he'll be severely limited. Stefon Diggs missed 2 days because of the flu and reportedly lost 12 pounds ... It's setting up for the Vikings to get smacked up by the Vikings... thus, freeing up Stefanski for immediate finalizing of contract ...

You can't force things because of need. If need and value match up, then it makes sense. At every draft selection point there's the opportunity to just take a player at a need position. unfortunately, when the quality of draft pool doesn't match need that means that if a GM is worth their salt they'll pass up on the need position and pick the best player available instead. Browns defensive needs: SS, FS, LB, DE, DT, The Mock-Off-season acquired a starting SS in FAs, drafted 2 LBs that I believe have high quality upside and resigned Schobert, signed Ronald Blair & retained Olivier Vernon leaving Blair/Vernon to start opposite Myles Garrett who has Chad Thomas backing him up; Signed Jarran Reed and drafted starting caliber in Ross Blacklock giving us a forceful DT rotation with Sheldon Richardson and Larry OGB; drafted imo a starter upside CB in Levonta Taylor. That leaves FS. The Browns may see Sheldrick Redwine as a solution, but likely we'd seek to pick one up via roster cut-down or some other way. Realistically can't fix it all in one off-season so I chose FS as the position we don't completely overhaul b/c Free Agency and the draft don't have great Free Safety solutions.

Not at all imo ... not for Jarran Reed ... Suspended 6 games in 2019; Started 10 games; accumulated 27 Tackles; 2 sacks; 0 TFLs He'll only likely receive a 1-year or 2-year prove it deal ... Could be 1-year worth of relatively big money based on his 2018 production... Someone could go out there and spend big money and get wild with it, but I doubt it ..

Might be all the justification Jimmy needs to not go in that direction ... Hopefully it won't factor into the decision-making if Stefanski's thought to be the best candidate... Imagine being Kevin Stefanski interviewing twice last year then interviewing a 3rd time this year just to only Not get the job ...

... I question your questioning of a lot of those ... ... good times...

I hope not. As he's a Restricted Free Agent and not a UFA along with having a lower production year, his contract will not be overly cost prohibitive. I implicitly assumed we'd keep him; likely putting a 1st round tender on him. I don't see that as a real free agent decisions but more of a procedural thing.

Mock Off-Season 4.0 Free Agency: 1.) Jimmie Ward, SS-Hybrid 49ers 2.) Joe Thuney, RG New England Patriots -- OR -- Graham Glasgow, RG Detroit Lions 3.) Chase Daniel, QB Chicago Bears (Elite Worker) 4.) Joe Schobert, LB Cleveland Browns 5.) Joe Haeg, OG Indianapolis Colts 6.) Jarran Reed, DT Seahawks 7.) Ronald Blair, DE 49ers 8.) Jeff Driskel, QB Bengals 9.) Swing/Back-up Tackle ------- Mock Draft: 1.) Jedrick Wills Jr., OT Alabama 2.) Prince Tega-Wanogho, LT Auburn 3.) Cole Kmet, TE Notre Dame 3.) KJ Hamer, WR Penn State // Denzel Mims, WR Baylor // Bryan Edwards, WR South Carolina ***4.) Traded for late late 4th Round Pick and 2, 5th Round Picks *** 4.) Ross Blacklock, DT TCU *** 5.) Levonta Taylor, CB Florida State *** 5.) T.J. Brunson, LB South Carolina 6) Antonio Gibson, WR Memphis 7.) Marcus Bailey, LB Purdue (Knee) 7.) BPA

... Bryce Treggs, Kenny Britt, Kasen Williams, Sammie Coates, returning from injury Corey Coleman, Ricardo Louis, Spencer Drango, Shon Coleman ... Kizer had all the weapons needed to succeed .. he/we should've won tons of games ... lol ... Asking a rookie QB of Kizer's variety to be a transcendent talent was non-sense

1.) Mike Tomlin 2.) John Harbaugh 3.) Pete Carroll 4.) Sean McDermott 5.) Dan Quinn 6.) Bill Belichick 7.) Mike Vrabel 8.) Ron Rivera 9.) Bruce Arians 10.) Anthony Lynn

As if there's any doubt who our next head coach is going to be... I do agree that Jimmy could've saved everyone including the candidates some time by not putting on his whole charade of a comprehensive search... But that's Jimmy Haslam for you... ... the guy that will spend tons of money and resources commissioning a study to find out who the best QB in the draft is (Teddy Bridgewater) then ask his coaches/coordinators their opinion (Derek Carr) just to say F-them I'm going with my gut and the word of an unfortunate homeless human being (Johnny Manziel). Jimmy Haslam is both villain and the person tasked with capturing/stopping the villain. He just has no self-awareness that he's Mr. Hyde b/c when he looks into the mirror he sees Dr. Jekyll. I have no doubt that this decision will follow his long-history of poor decision-making... ... all we can do and those that work for him can do is try to make the best of it after the foolishness...