Arthur Penske Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted February 1, 2021 Share Posted February 1, 2021 2 hours ago, Arthur Penske said: Confirmation. Welcome coach Drayton, I hope he's everything LaFleur believes him to be because this is a results based business. I'm excited for the new hires, I hope we get the time needed and a real off season to get the players up to speed in a new system. 2/3 of the league is going to have to get creative with contracts this year so we'll see what teams can make the most out of the back of the roster, ST will be most impacted there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted March 2, 2021 Share Posted March 2, 2021 We got our first chance to hear from our ST coach. He started off a bit robotic but opened up during the interview. He is not a guy who mumbles. I think his demeanor is good for teaching the ever changing ST room and getting guys up for the job. His X's and O's are unproven but I truly believe ST's is as much about getting your unit inspired and staying on the fundamentals. He seems like the guy to bring that based on his demeanor. If this thread goes more than a few more pages, it probably means things fell apart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuFF Posted March 2, 2021 Share Posted March 2, 2021 Most telling part of the interview was how Drayton admitted JK Scott & Hunter Bradley's "backs are up against the wall". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted March 2, 2021 Share Posted March 2, 2021 2 hours ago, MuFF said: Most telling part of the interview was how Drayton admitted JK Scott & Hunter Bradley's "backs are up against the wall". He was very upfront, which I liked, including saying having decades of HOF QB play has allowed GB to neglect complimentary football, starting with ST. He also said that was going to improve starting with him. We'll see about that but it's good to have someone who looks like they will bring accountability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatJerkDave Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 I like him watching the video. Let's hope that it works out. I will like him even better if the Special Teams are even middle of the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 14 hours ago, Refugee said: He was very upfront, which I liked, including saying having decades of HOF QB play has allowed GB to neglect complimentary football, starting with ST. He also said that was going to improve starting with him. We'll see about that but it's good to have someone who looks like they will bring accountability. I liked his interview too. Seemed like a good man, and a potentially good communicator and teacher. I didn't quite understand his linkage between QB excellence and poor QB play? Did he actually say that caused them to neglect complimentary football? I'll have to listen to it again, but I didn't recall him explaining how good QB play would cause below-average ST play. I don't really see any cause-effect connection, other than getting late draft picks every round? In terms of personnel, having a good QB so that all drafts focus on defense, not sure that would inherently weaken ST, would it? I didn't really get that. But overall I was impressed with his interview, and am hopeful that he'll be a good leader, teacher, and motivator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 (edited) 10 hours ago, craig said: Edited March 3, 2021 by craig double post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refugee Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 3 hours ago, craig said: I liked his interview too. Seemed like a good man, and a potentially good communicator and teacher. I didn't quite understand his linkage between QB excellence and poor QB play? Did he actually say that caused them to neglect complimentary football? I'll have to listen to it again, but I didn't recall him explaining how good QB play would cause below-average ST play. I don't really see any cause-effect connection, other than getting late draft picks every round? In terms of personnel, having a good QB so that all drafts focus on defense, not sure that would inherently weaken ST, would it? I didn't really get that. But overall I was impressed with his interview, and am hopeful that he'll be a good leader, teacher, and motivator. That was my take, although I could have read him wrong. Basically saying you get what you emphasize, and in GB that would be having the HOF QB being the identity of the team and possibly neglecting other areas, and definitely ST. I don't know if I follow the line of reasoning but ST has been terrible and has only had bright spots when we had dedicated specialists like Bush and Janis and dangerous returners like Cobb. He spoke on personnel, as well. Saying it's every ST coach's dream to have a GM that will dedicate a portion of the roster to the unit but that is not always the reality. Maybe a nudge to Gute or just calling it like it is, either way, pretty ballsy and I like that. Anyway, he was clearly LaFleur's guy from the beginning. Coach now has his fingerprints on all three phases and results are the only thing that count to see if he can call the right shots. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kepler Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 (edited) 3 hours ago, craig said: I liked his interview too. Seemed like a good man, and a potentially good communicator and teacher. I didn't quite understand his linkage between QB excellence and poor QB play? Did he actually say that caused them to neglect complimentary football? I'll have to listen to it again, but I didn't recall him explaining how good QB play would cause below-average ST play. I don't really see any cause-effect connection, other than getting late draft picks every round? In terms of personnel, having a good QB so that all drafts focus on defense, not sure that would inherently weaken ST, would it? I didn't really get that. But overall I was impressed with his interview, and am hopeful that he'll be a good leader, teacher, and motivator. The cause-effect connection he was talking about indicated that some folks in positions of accountability may have been "mailing it in" so to speak, because they had a hall of fame QB on the roster. And by "mailing it in" I mean not doing their best work, not that they mailed something to someone through the USPS system. Edited March 3, 2021 by Kepler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathstar Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 He was referring to how we won without complimentary football, gold jacket QBs cover up for sub par play elsewhere. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 (edited) May just have been a dumb, illogical comment. He'd earlier talked about being "a part of a program", suggesting a realistic appreciation that the roster may not dedicate many-or-any ST-specialists who have no value from scrimmage. So I liked that take. His take was to get the best out of whatever players the program allocates to him. Agree. (Personally, I'd not allocate a lot. If ST pretty much fair-caught every punt; kicked every kickoff out of the end zone and had opponent start on the 25; if we never had a penalty; but we never had a big play, I'd be OK with that. I just don't want to be giving up big plays to the opponents, as happened too often.) But when linking 30 years of bad ST program, he says they've been victim of success. You don't have to play complimentary football, and ST is on the lower end. Perhaps it's the good teams and the smart teams that are too smart to allocate draft picks, salary, or roster spots to ST-only guys. Maybe drafting at the end of every round year after year contributes. Maybe having top-end QB who gobbles up lots of cap allows less discretionary cap to ST specialists. Maybe good teams with top QB's have a few good receivers that are saved for snaps and not used for ST. (Cobb, Jordy, Adams, and Finley weren't used for ST for very long.). Maybe he feels like teams who know they can't beat you with their QB instead invest and allocate resources more heavily into ST in hopes they can steal some games, but that teams who should win with offense and defense allocate a higher percentage of resources into those? But I kinda suspect he sees some logical cause-effect factor, and didn't say that as an assault or criticism of 3 decades of Packer GM's, including Gute as well as TT and Wolf. Or of his coach MLF. But yeah, I'm guessing he isn't expecting MLF to give him Jaire for returns, or Adams for ST either, nor faulting MLF for not doing so. Edited March 5, 2021 by craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegas492 Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 The absolute best thing about Drayton is that the expectations for the specials has to be at the lowest of the low levels. We've had just so much bad specials play for oh so many years. (With the exception of Crosby.) All he has to do is get effort out of those guys and we will be improved. Heaven forbid we actually return a kickoff past the 25, or field a punt and get a 20 yard return. My key to him will be the placekicker after Crosby. He should be the guy to identify who he wants and get them acclimated to the pro game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 JK getting healthy would help, and squared away. Coming out of college, and some of the early returns, he seemed really talented and promising. But I think this season he was doing a lot of punting with a kinda bad leg. Which in turn I assume probably screws up mechanics. And makes it hard to practice and get better, because you don't want to blow out your hamstring on a Thursday practice punt, so you save your punts for Sundays, and can't really get better in between. So if he can get back to booming some long ones, I think that won't feel so "what-bad-thing-might-happen-this-time" like it did this season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacman5252 Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 I honestly think a lot of our ST issues is talent related. -The only real explosive athlete we’ve had returning in the last 6 years was Davis and his issues were more mental (he did bust a few). Irvin had a few decent returns but he is more laterally quick and hurt all the time -JK (nice kid) is a bottom tier punter (Avg 37.0) For the low price of a 3rd, Eskride would solve our return game woes. Punt team will be a camp issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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