2011, OK that sucked, what now?

Where do we go from here? There are a few things that need to happen in order for this team to compete. The formula seems to be to dominate two of the three phases. On offense, we have a couple of things to fix in order to dominate, but we are close. Defense is really a ways away from dominating. Special teams leave a lot to be desired as well. We are pretty good on offense, not dominating. We are mediocre on special teams and D. How do we get to dominate on O and one other phase?

O-line – This could be addressed through the draft. Another way would be to help yourself and hurt a competitor at the same time. Carl Nicks from NO should be a target. If you can make the money work you help your team and hurt theirs. Even if he is signed, they will likely need another interior guy, not sure I would go into next year counting on Costa or Kowalski at C.

Returner – I am thinking of LaMichael James, he hasn’t done a lot of returning, up to this year. 14 punt returns for 137 yards with 1 TD, I think he might have a knack for it. He makes me think of Darren Sproles, who we should have signed last year. You can probably get this guy in the 3rd or so due to concerns about his size. I really don’t know much about college return guys, but we need someone to make a difference here, desperately.

Punter – I sure hope McBriar makes it back to form, but if not, we need to go to Australia and pick up another one of these Aussie punters that are all over the place. The kid from LSU is an Aussie, he might work. 45 yard average with good hang time is the minimum these days. Ought to be able to find that.

Secondary – The eternal question, pass rush or secondary help first. We will be debating this one for months, but we need both bad. In the secondary we need someone who makes plays, somebody who intercepts passes. This is the guy we should have signed this summer, Dashon Gholdson. This is another move that hurts a competitor and helps you. I really would have rather signed this guy long term and let Sensi walk. Gholdson intercepts the damn ball on occasion, something none of our guys do. I don’t know if he is cerebral enough to take over the alignment stuff, but it can’t get any worse than it was this year. This team also needs a CB or two, draft targets.

Pass rusher – See Chia’s excellent post on the topic. Would be great if we could get Campbell from Arizona, but that is unlikely. There are a number of good draft targets, would likely require a high pick though. Can’t solve all our problems in one off season, so I think we do the best we can here in FA.

New ST coach – I just see too many issues with the coaching here. Goofy punt alignments resulting in blocked kicks, see NYJ game. Yelling for a timeout in the Ari game, resulting in Garret icing his own kicker. This team needs a new ST coach. I believe the dude from the Bears has an expiring contract, sign him Jerrah.

Other Stuff – We definitely need a new back up QB. Looking at the FAs available, I’d like to see us go after Jason Campbell. The dude has played in a different offensive system every year for his whole life. He has some skills, I think with some time to learn and chill he could be a real good back up. Then we should draft another young one in the late rounds, because McGee will never amount to anything.

So in FA we target a G (preferably Nicks), a DE or OLB pass rusher, a S (preferably Gholdson).

In the draft that leaves us looking for CB (1-2), G or C, DE, LBs (both I and O), Punter, Return guy, QB and probably a few other things as well.

I really feel that if we fix the interior O-line, then the offense can really compete with anyone. So that is one dominant phase. ST is the other one I would like to see reach a dominant level because that can be done quickly, with a return guy and punter. That leaves the D, hopefully we can add enough to make it competitive. We need someone in the secondary to make some plays, if we get that I think this D could be OK, not great, but good enough with a dominant offense and ST to make this team competitive. If we are able to get another pass rusher and a playmaker in the secondary the D could be pretty good. That is a pretty big list for one off season, but it can be done.