That's where I draw a hard line. While fans want to draw parallels between the defense last year and this year, the team essentially rebooted a lost year of establishing long-term contributors. I wrote this on Twitter three weeks back:
These major contributors continue to be out of football entirely. Karl Joseph barely has a job. Shelton Richardson continues to play the Jordan Elliott role of relief defensive tackle for the Vikings. In short, they weren't NFL caliber players.
I think you're missing my point.
That's all fine and dandy - I'm more than aware of our lack of talent last year. But that year doesn't get magically scrubbed away like it doesn't exist. It happened. And we had issues
beyond just the talent with how Woods adjusted (or failed to) during games. The lifespan of a coach is harsh and it doesn't matter if we have a lack of talent for x number of years - the results determine everything.
That's why I specifically asked where you would draw the line - doesn't matter that we had very little talent, or players are screwing up execution, or there isn't good communication. After a certain amount of time, the coach has to answer to that. But it sounds like, hypothetically speaking, you'd give Woods 20+ years of bottom ranked defenses and fault the players? Is there ever a point when you'd be like, "Okay, it has been 60 years, I'm 95 years old, Woods is 109 years old, and in these 60 years our players are still not communicating right, so the onus/responsibility ultimately must fall on the coach."
I don't think I've said allowing third down conversions is perfectly fine. I've said the offenses they faced the past two weeks will make you pay for mental errors of any kind. Dumb defensive penalty? Issues making a tackle? Blown coverage? Damn right a top ten QB will make you pay.
Now let's jump to what Real Deal alluded to - a philosophical change in defense.
If the linebackers are still missing tackles, scheme means nothing.
If defensive tackles are being called for hands to the face, scheme doesn't matter.
Defensive backs run the wrong way?
Doesn't matter which zone a defensive coordinator called.
Execution is not an aspect of the team I plan to brush away at all... I will ask if these young players would make the same mistake for another coordinator. Right now, my answer would be yes.
I get the reasons. I'm not even calling them excuses.
But I'm saying, if this continues as-is, when does accountability shift to the defensive coordinator for you? If the scheme calls for something our completely Andrew Berry-revamped defense cannot figure out... if the all-mighty and infallible scheme makes all these proven good (JJ3, Ward, Hill) and decent players (Harrison) perform worse than they ever have before, at what point do you decide that something about it has to change?
I know you're optimistic, but it seems as if you haven't truly considered the possibility that things might not work out? Should Berry revamp the defense yet again in the 2022, or 2023 offseason, or find someone that would make this talent and these players perform and deliver a respectable product on the field?
I already said where my line is. I only hope Woods can deliver, because if we're a bottom ranked defense at the end of this year then I'm not sure if he'll be our DC next year.