Yay Optimism

I find myself wanting to keep the current system entirely intact - Zorn seems to have built a real team out of a motley crew of veterans, draft picks, and free agents. That has to be worth something. And, for all the talk of his emasculation, how is is role different from Andy Reid's? Andy Reid is an offensive coach who lets the defense do its own thing and has somebody else call the plays. No one outside of Philly is ever calling for his head.

In post-game pressers after the game, I always got the impression that Zorn was so preoccupied with play-calling that he had been unable to actually watch the game - he was always hesitant to speak to anything specific, especially on defense. The past few weeks, though, he's had his head in the game, and, though he's made some calls I've hated (kicking the field goal on third down in Dallas, icing Suisham with the 2 minute warning last week), his game management has improved, and half time adjustments are light-years ahead of where they were.

As I argue his case, I find myself more and more in Zorn's camp. Besides, what did Shanahan ever do without Elway? Why do people think of him as the second coming of Christ? Would we expect a Shanahan offense to put up more than 30 against the Gregg Williams coached Saints? Or to get more production out of second year receivers and castoffs at running back and O-line? Zorn hasn't always been perfect, but it's hard to imagine Shanahan, Cowher, Gibbs, or Belicheck doing any better on offense over the past couple games.

If the team falls apart over the next few, then all bets are off, but, if they can actually hold this thing together and finish strong against playoff-caliber teams, I say keep the team together and draft for need: O-line, O-line, O-line, and maybe RB or FS. And let's keep the playcalling parallelogram intact as well.