These are my thoughts on the state of the team and what should be done. I'm not going to address every position (QB/TE/RB) rather the positions I feel need to be upgraded immediately. Also please keep in mind that I haven't looked too hard at draft prospects or free agents. So this is all preliminary and once the season is done I can do a more indepth look at what I think should be done. If anyone follows basketball - they understand the big shot bob reference. Thoughts are a bit disorganized and I'll do a more organized one after the season. Most of the draft players I mention in this post are all round 2 or later. Haven't thought about Round 1 yet.

The first thing I need to point out is that our team is SOFT. Barely anyone plays with passion, desire, or fire. On Offense I say Pouncey, Landry, Tannenhill, Wallace are the players that seem to want it and win at all costs. Clay to an extent, but he is quiet. The rest of the offense is soft. Rishard Matthews had fire for the last 2 years but its dissipated this season for whatever reason. James has flashes but hes a rookie and not as confident as Landry. On defense - Reshad Jones, Jamar Taylor, Odrick and Starks. Thats it. McCain does too but he barely plays to get recognized for this. And Starks can't even back it up anymore and Odrick doesn't have the ability to stay composed with own damn team. Wake plays with emotion but it feels fake. Doesn't feel real and its not consistent throughout the game. Jimmy Wilson does but he is too busy trying to come off as tough it ends up being pointless. So we have 8 players out of 22 players that play with Fire. If anyone disagrees with me, please say who else does. Look at the Ravens, Patriots, Steelers, Broncos, Packers. Those teams have players with FIRE. We lack that. And its not on the coach to instill that fire. Look at these players from their college days. They are mostly quiet players.

I'll say one thing about the QB. Give him the 5th year option. He's shown enough this season and is top 12 in QBs this year. The next year is the year he needs to prove we should bind to him for the long term. This is his 1st year still in the system and second system he has ever learned. Needs to work on being looser out there and moving around a bit more, but I think he has potential to very good. I'm not in love with him but I think he can be our franchise QB if he keeps trending upward next year.

Everyone seems to be so focused on the head coach. I'm going to keep this simple now. The personnel issues are more important. I don't think Philbin is as bad as everyone says he is. He isn't anything special right now but he isn't terrible. The only coaches that I think that should replace Philbin are Harbaugh and Bowles (Possibly Pep Hamilton too). Thats it. No one else out there excites me. Harbaugh is a good coach. Bowles is a very good coach with schemes and relating to players. When he coached our team in the interim, I was impressed with his schemes and desire to attack the opponents weakness no matter what. He had our team set the tone rather than the other way around. He had us BULLY the opponent and doesn't take his foot off the pedal. He got Reggie Bush to rush for 200 yards with abusing the counter zone looks. Pep Hamilton is a dark horse and could be a good HC but have some reservations on him. So basically Harbaugh or Bowles.

To be honest the two losses came in the second half with both o-line and d-line playing terrible. I mean absolutely terrible. Its extremely difficult for a coach to win with poor depth, talent, and just personnel on both lines. Kacy Rodgers and John Benton are both good coaches. Both our lines suck. Its as simple as that. Look at the Bills. They have a ridiculous D-line and their O-line is about 100x better than ours. Yet they are winning with Kyle Orton and Chris Hogan leading the way. The Patriots have a cohesive O-line. Their D-line is much better than ours. Same with the Ravens. If we had excellent Linebackers to clean up that would lessen the damage but thats not the case at all.

Hickey needs to really take a hard look at both sides of the ball in terms of talent and depth.

I would honestly make Vernon a rotational player and get him off the field on 3rd downs half the game. He loses one on one battles way too much. Its almost as you can write it off as being a non-pressure on most passing downs unless he is going up an aging lineman. Wake gets doubled or chipped most of the time so thats going to be a loss. Mitchell slants way too much but last game he actually started getting pressure more often. Odrick is outrageously overrated but he does get more pressure than anyone not named Wake. Starks is going to be cut. Dion Jordan is not a defensive end. We need more dynamic playmakers along the D-line. McCain is probably the best rusher next to Wake but he rarely sees the field on 3rd downs. His burst upfield and use of violent hands is pretty rare. Hopefully we can harvest some of that talent. I would keep Shelby because hes becoming more and more stout against the run and does get decent pressure.

I would try for B.J. Raji, Cory Redding, Greg Hardy, Cedric Thornton, possibly Demarcus Dobbs and Leger Douzable. If we could get 2 of those players we already instantly improve. Jerry Hughes would be nice too but hes a RFA and don't think the Bills will let him go. JPP and Suh are choices but they may be asking for way too much. In the draft for Defensive Ends I'm taking a hard look at Cedric Reed out of Texas, Vic Beasley out of Clemson (although I have some questions on him) Shaquille Riddick out of WVU, and a former WR with Obum Gwacham out of Oregon State. Gwacham is SMOOTH. Defensive Tackles I am looking at Carl Davis out of Iowa (Definitely need to get him anyway possible), Terry Williams out of ECU, or Thomas Teal out of NC State.

Offensive line I would really put my money towards Orlando Franklin. Good starter at Guard and can swing out to RT if someone goes down. Theres other starters out there but its impossible to say without knowing the scheme. Ilupati would be terrible if we keep this scheme but great if we switch to power. Cut Garner, Colledge, Fox, and Dallas Thomas. Keep Satele, Shelly Smith, and get another depth player. You got Albert - LG - Pouncey - RG - James. If you pick up Franklin in FA you would need to fill one spot at LG who you can attack with in the draft/FA or let Smith hold it down for a while. I would look at getting Al Bond from Memphis, Rowdy Harper from Houston, Quinton Spain from WVU, or Junior Salt from Utah although he is a bit small but moves very well. If we addressed it later in the draft Aundrey Walker from USC and Greg Mancz from Toledo would be good pick ups. For depth I am sure we can get Alex Mateas out of UConn or Elliot Porter from LSU mid picks or late.

LBs I want Justin Houston, Mason Foster, maybe DJ Williams. Cut Wheeler, Trusnik and possibly Ellerbe unless he is willing to restructure. Jenkins, Misi, McCain, Tripp, Jordan, and possibly Freeney for ST depth with 2 new additions. I would consider stashing Tripp on the practice squad until he can stop getting washed out by O-line so easily. Misi should be pushed back to the outside with Jenkins and get a new ILB. If we have Jenkins, Stout/instinctual ILB , Misi we will be fine. I would consider upgrading from Jenkins and Misi, but not sure who we could get to come in right away over them. I rather stick with Jenkins since he is growing exponentially. I would consider cutting or trading Jordan unless we carn find him a spot as joker/freelancer. Draft for LB I'm going for Terrence Plummer out of UCF, Bryce Hager out of Baylor, Derrick Matthews out of Houston, Stephone Anthony out of Clemson, Mike Orakpo out of Texas St., Joseph Peterson out of Georgia St. Hayes Pullard from USC is good but he is also barely 5'11. I've played basketball against him and I'm not sure if he is even that tall.

Focus on the lines, then LB then WR then DB. We need one big WR and we would be set at that position for a long time. I like Wallace and want him to stay. Hartline needs to be cut and Gibson can be let go. Wallace, Big WR, Landry, Matthews, Veteran WR. For the draft I'm looking at Devante Davis out of UNLIV (6'3 215), Titus Davis out of Central Michigan, Austin Hill out of Arizona, and Jamal Robinson out of UL-Layfayette, Jordan Taylor out of Rice (6'6 and moves ridiculously), and William Dukes out of FAU. All of these players are big WRs. Obviously Kevin White and Amari Cooper are top of the list but doubt we will be able to get them.

CB we cut Standford, Wilson (Unless for pure ST Depth), Finnegan. Get another CB/Vet thats not about to just fall apart. Put Taylor at the slot or pick up a slot CB and use Davis and Taylor for Depth. Delmas can come back but I would also look at Moore from Denver. Use Aikens to harvest because he didn't look too bad out there as a FS last couple games. Definitely keep Don Jones for pure ST depth. He is a ****ing beast at ST. For draft I would look at Quetin Rolles out of Miami(OH), Bobby McCain out of Memphis, D'Joun Smith out of FAU, Chris Dunkley out of USF, , and Damian Swann out of UGA. All later round picks but very interested in developing them.

Again, all the players I mentioned in this post are probably round 2 or later. Haven't thought about who should go round 1 yet for us. Although if Kevin White is a possibility I would try for that no matter what.

 

I know you want Malzahn.I went to one of his QB/WR clinics when I was a senior in high school. He's EXTREMELY creative and inventive but he just didn't carry himself other coaches did and wasn't really. Sumlin, Saban, etc. Malzahn is a very good college coach. I just have a reservation about him. He was great with us college kids but I just can't see that approach with grown men working. But then again, I may be completely wrong with Malzahn.

I think Harbaugh should be the one we go for. I would be extremely happy with him.

 

Don't disagree with that but to jump to a HC position at this stage - I'm just not on the same page as of yet. I think he should make the jump to a coordinator position then bump after. He is still a bit green but the MASSIVE potential is there. I think its a pretty big gamble that could work gloriously - as in constant playoffs, top 5 offenses, physical, and tone setting. But it could also backfire and have him completely lose his players by mid-season, not able to get on the same page, and just failing. Its such a big gamble. I rather have a known commodity (Harbaugh) or someone who has shown flashes of brilliance (Bowles). Malzahn would be a 3rd/4th option but its just such a risk to me.

He did an amazing job with Tulsa and did wonders with Ryan Aplin who isn't a very good QB at Arkansas State. I also love that he is more run-oriented than people think.