The defense is a mess, plain and simple. There are only four players on the starting defense that should be starting in the NFL. Talib, Ruud, Jackson, and Hayes. All the other players are below average for their position.

The drafting of Freeman was an attempt to lay a foundation on offense, but as I have said many times before, the jury is still out on him. He turned the ball over an unsettling number of times, even for a rookie. The rest of the offense was paid a lot of money and couldn’t find it’s comfort zone all season. Not too much of a foundation in my book.

With the addition of ten draft picks next year, it will truly be the make or break year for laying a foundation. So, although many teams may indeed try to implement a three year plan, it would appear ours is a four year one. I say this mainly because we are left with just as many questions this year as we had last year, if not more.

What type of offense are we going to have? (Note: I know what type they say we are going to have, but I trust what comes out of their mouths about as far as I can throw a refrigerator at this point).

Is Raheem really a good D-coordinator or did the defense improve only because he had the benefit of facing three back up QB’s in a row and a Saints team that was already cruising towards a first round by in the playoffs?

Are any of the rookies drafted last year (besides Stroughter and Freeman) going to have a significant impact on the football field in 2010?

If we are not going to be players in free agency (as Dominik hinted last week), then can we honestly expect to win more than four or five games next year?

Sorry UNFNOLE, but the O is a run first offense, has been since Dungy, even Gruden had to face that fact, and the last 6 game of last season really impressed that upon the team, especially with a rookie QB and a line that was switching horses mid-stream by going back to the power-run blocking scheme from that f’d up Denver Bronco zone or should I say cut blocking scheme. There were to many changes mid-stream last season to get a real good read, up until the last 3rd of the season we didn’t know which way we were going. But it seems to have been turned around and we have found that identity, power running, roll or bootleg the QB for shots down field (basic Steeler football). The D needs help, we need a big fat athletic run stuffer to play inside with our 3T guy, we need a new corner sorry Ronde, but the production has dropped and he has lost a step, he was beat consistently all season, his saving grace was experience and natural instinct, and we need to get rid of Sabby, reminds me of a lesser Adam Archuleta which is really bad. We have 10 picks this draft, McCoy should be available at #3, the lions need a LT way more than they need a DT, Stafford took a beating from his blindside last season, so they will probably take Okung, Suh is gone to StL, so we will have McCoy fall into our laps, skip Berry, we can pick up a safety in the later rounds, we need to take a WR with our #2 pick, and another D-lineman with our 2nd 2nd rounder (did that make sense). 3-13 is really bad, but how many games were we in until the end, where a break in our direction we could have won, 3 or 4 maybe? So 8 and 8 is not out of the question with a better D-line, more experience at QB and an O-line that knows and understands their roles and assignments.

Sometimes it takes time for them to develop, but franchises do have a personality and philosophy, it may come ownership or a particularly strong coaching era, but they do have them. Look at the Giants, before The Tuna, they threw it all over the place with Tarkington, then they nose dived for 10 years, Parcels comes in and they become this power running team, which they are to this day. Dallas, JJ comes in and they draft Aikman, Irvin, and Smith, they are the same team scheme wise today with Romo, Austin, and Barber. Sometimes teams nose dive and come out of it years later with a different philosophy, the Packers are a good example, prior to Holmgren and Wolf that was a bad team who ran the ball, bring in Favre and they are chucking it everywhere, today, different management, different players same philosophy. Look at the Bucs, prior to Dungy, a bad team, Dungy brings in a defense first philosophy, the ownership buys in, the players buy in and it becomes the franchise philosophy, today what is EVERYONES main complaint about the Bucs our D sucks, we used to be the best D in football, etc., so now your fanbase has bought into the philosophy. The Bucs are a run first Offense, Gruden couldn’t change that, the dink and dunk just does not work within the Buc DNA, it just doesn’t, so we know we are run first, don’t fuck with it, get your O-line straightened out, get a big ass FB and a power back or two and run the ball.

Thank god we got the first year over with, just hope our QB can keep the ball and take the sack then giving it away I felt sorry on some of the games cause I always see our D on the field more then our O and some dum turnovers, to me I think we should do fine with the guys we have on the roster cause I think some of the good players were injurd most of them was our D-line more like DE. With them back for next season we shall see how things go out. The thing that’s funny is some of the injurd players we have never played pro longer then 4 years just hope they our not a bust. Cause that would suck