Jonesing for Jacoby

I think part of the problem is that Bienemy, despite his fictional 'Assistant Head Coach' title, never asserted himself when it could have made a difference. Rivera wasn't going to attract a high profile OC to replace Scott Turner. Instead he got a guy with a lot of hype and promise, but who also carried a lot of baggage. I think EB had an opportunity to stand on the table and demand that the OL be revamped in free agency and the draft. Instead, it appears (as he has done repeatedly since) he did not assert himself and deferred to Rivera on all major decisions related to this offense. Note that it has not been Bienemy benching Sam Howell in the last 3 games (setting aside whether it was warranted or not). It was Rivera with EB 'agreeing with it' and stating 'Coach Ron is the HC so I follow his lead'. That passive, subservient role resulted in us getting a handful of retread OL free agents, and watching us make two highly questionable DB picks in the draft.

I think that pretty much doomed Howell from the outset.

Bienemy likes to talk like an alpha male in his press conferences. I think he loves being seen as an old school coach which is why he constantly points to how he knows and has personal relationships with all of the coaches he faces. And he loves to talk about 'coaching hard'. But when it comes to owning this offense and all of the decisions made about it both in the offseason and in-season, he's a paper tiger who has simply deferred to whatever the HC wanted. Given that HC is Ron Rivera, who has demonstrated repeatedly that his football decision-making is suspect, and not Andy Reid, that was never going to work out well.
 
To be fair Boone, we have no clue what EB has or has not been saying privately. If it were me, I'd speak my mind behind closed doors but it would be a united front in public, regardless of how I felt about the decision.
 
None of us knows anything. If that’s the criteria for posting we are all in big trouble :)
 
The shadow knows...

I learned that a long time ago
 
What we do know is EB came in and schemed to have a 23 year old first year starting quarterback taken in the fifth round match Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen in total pass attempts through a good portion of the season.

Unless Sam Howell was a special 'wunderkind' type of player coming out of nowhere (read Kurt Warner) that kind of approach was unlikely to lead to first year success, especially when balancing his need for growth and learning with the talent on hand in Washington overall.

As I mentioned in another post I don't think Kyle Shanahan or Sean McVay or Mike McDaniel would have taken the same approach to developing Howell.

Even though these coaches offenses are very productive in the passing game all three have well designed and schemed ground attacks that take pressure off the quarterback to be regularly facing 3rd and 10 or 11.

It's telling that Shanahan traded multiple high picks for Christian McCaffrey last year.

Sean McVay has Kyren Williams to support Matthew Stafford's resurgence this year.

EB never developed the run game here even though Brian Robinson to me is worth investing carries in over the course of the season.

While admitting his fumbling issues, a coach had to get more out of Antonio Gibson, if not in the running game then in the short passing game and getting him in the open field on some quick hitters.

Perhaps if the team didn't trust Gibson to the point of not playing him then support Sam with a trade deadline acquisition or plucking a speed guy off another team's practice squad to give a shot at filling that specialist role.

But we didn't do any of that.

Most quarterbacks development is not linear. A guy gets on the field, makes some plays but makes mistakes and then has to learn from them. That means losing some games.

Remember Kirk Cousins throwing all those interceptions early on when he first got the chance to play after Griffin was benched?

The Howell experiment in 2023 reminds me of that time. Kirk was expected to come in and stabilize the position with a couple of starts under his belt.

It was unrealistic. From that time in 2013 it took another 2 years for him to start putting up the kind of consistent numbers that earned him that contract with Minnesota.

Howell, again, is the victim of the ticking clock of Rivera, but as importantly, of EB as well.

That's why we need to clean house on the coaches and front office people here and let a new GM and HC come in and evaluate the roster.

There may be players here that can play a lot better than what they have shown with better coaching and support.

There are also players that have been protected by the organization who deserve their walking papers.
 
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A few EB related thoughts:

1. I blame Ron more than EB for the EB situation. Here's why: Ron hired, in year 4, a new OC with an entirely new style of offense and then gave him a 23 year old 5th round pick QB. And then, however much you want to blame EB for roster moves, Ron's FO didn't provide a functional OL. If literally every beat reporter and fan could tell the combination of Leno, Charles, Gates, Cosmi and Wylie was going to stink in July, then Ron should have also.
2. EB's offense is a pass-first Andy Reid style WCO. Which is one of the wordiest offenses in the league. Also one of the best and most consistent over the last 25 years. But it takes time for the entire offense, not just the QB to "get it." Reid has said it takes 3 years....
3. So EB was trying to implement "his" offense in a must win year with a crap OL and a young QB in a must-win situation. That's a recipe for disaster, and that's more on Ron than anybody.
4. There were times EB tried to run the ball early in games and it just didn't work at all. The number of games where we had 5-7 rushes for 10-15 yards at the end of the first quarter was astounding. You can say "stick with it" but that means you're probably going 3-out 3-4 times to start the game trying to run the ball and failing. This is primarily a function of the OL just being horrendous at blocking early in the season.
5. I don't actually think "run the ball" more was going to solve anything, because at least early in the season, they couldn't. How do you combat that? You do other things: use tempo, move the pocket, be creative in the run game, use more jet-sweep action, etc. etc. etc. If the offense could be unpredictable, then it would loosen things up for both run and pass. My biggest criticism of EB is he just kept trying to make what they were doing work better when it was clear what they were doing wasn't working. And that made the offense predictable. And in today's NFL, a predictable offense will get stopped cold. There is no more Russ Grimm telling Dallas we're running 50-gut try and stop it. It will get stopped. Defenses are too good. (Well, maybe not ours...) But in general, the key to offense is being unpredictable.
6. I think if the defense wasn't a complete and total disaster from week 1, the offense might have been better. I think everybody on offense started to press, EB being the chief among them. He was approaching every drive like "we have to score a TD and we can't run the ball, so HERE WE GO!"

I admit this bias: I LOVE the Reid offense. Once he developed a little bit, it even made McNabb, who's not a great thrower, look good. It made Alex Smith look good, and now Mahomes is phenomenal. Reid's "screw it we're throwing on every down" mentality has been criticized for 25 years. The Philly media gave him hell for it early on. And he stuck to his guns. The thing he had, though, was time. EB didn't have that time. And he showed he wasn't able to adjust to his situation.

This is in no way a full throated defense of EB. I think he has failed rather spectacularly. My biggest gripe is he never did the easy things to make life easier for Howell and the offense. Every single play seemed "hard" and predictable. It was almost the anti-Gruden of running the same play on first down for 4 years for an average of 1 yard and always being in 2nd and 9. EB ran the same quick screen on 1st down all the time for 1 yard (or an incomplete) and ended up in 2nd and 9, and then more often than not ran the ball for no yards, and was in a known passing 3rd down situation. Wash, rinse, repeat.

He wasn't good. But I do think Ron deserves A LOT of the blame for the situation. He screwed this thing up from the beginning.
 
I understand the thinking, but a few things:

There's running the ball and there's running the ball. Giving the ball to Robinson, a big, straight-ahead, downhill runner, out of the shotgun and watching him dance around in the backfield while the OL collapses and he loses two yards, repeatedly, is absolutely brutal. I would love to see a breakdown of which sets we run the ball out of when we do run it. I suspect at least half of them are out of the shotgun. Also, I would also like to know how many of our 'runs' are actually dropbacks where Howell's flushed out of the pocket and makes a break for it. Again, I suspect a fair amount. I'm sorry, but this team does not run the ball with any consistency, and it's not just because the OL sucks. We don't even attempt to put together anything resembling a competent running game. Say what you want about Scott Turner, but with a lousy OL, a marginal QB and one decent WR he was able to keep the offense at least reasonably competitive and stay in games with better teams. You want to know how to help a defense? Be top ten in time of possession per drive (last year). You want to crush a struggling defense? Be 27th (this year).

I'm totally fine leveling some blame on the head coach as well. I'm guessing Rivera assumed we would have a top defense this year, which would have taken some pressure off our young QB, and the defense was a spectacular failure. But if we are talking QBs, and who takes the lion's share of the blame for what's happened to Howell this season, I put most of it on the guy calling the plays. It was painful to watch this season.
 
... and, full disclosure of my bias: I HATE Andy Reid's aversion to running the ball. There's a reason why, after 21 years as a head coach, Reid needed literally the best QB of his era to finally win a superbowl, despite having top defenses and pro-bowl QBs throughout his career. He never learned how to commit to the run. Mahomes has now saved his legacy. Otherwise he'd be right up there with Marty Schottenheimer.
 
Henry said:
I understand the thinking, but a few things:

There's running the ball and there's running the ball. Giving the ball to Robinson, a big, straight-ahead, downhill runner, out of the shotgun and watching him dance around in the backfield while the OL collapses and he loses two yards, repeatedly, is absolutely brutal. I would love to see a breakdown of which sets we run the ball out of when we do run it. I suspect at least half of them are out of the shotgun. Also, I would also like to know how many of our 'runs' are actually dropbacks where Howell's flushed out of the pocket and makes a break for it. Again, I suspect a fair amount. I'm sorry, but this team does not run the ball with any consistency, and it's not just because the OL sucks. We don't even attempt to put together anything resembling a competent running game. Say what you want about Scott Turner, but with a lousy OL, a marginal QB and one decent WR he was able to keep the offense at least reasonably competitive and stay in games with better teams. You want to know how to help a defense? Be top ten in time of possession per drive (last year). You want to crush a struggling defense? Be 27th (this year).

I'm totally fine leveling some blame on the head coach as well. I'm guessing Rivera assumed we would have a top defense this year, which would have taken some pressure off our young QB, and the defense was a spectacular failure. But if we are talking QBs, and who takes the lion's share of the blame for what's happened to Howell this season, I put most of it on the guy calling the plays. It was painful to watch this season.
Click to expand...
One thing to note: the entire league runs out of shotgun now. You can't build a running game around being under center a significant time. Even the 49ers, Ravens and Eagles, who all run the stuffing out of the ball run out of shotgun a whole lot. Even in short yardage situations. And when it doesn't work, people grumble about it. But the entire league is doing it now, and I don't have a problem with the run formation.

I DO have a problem with the way you run from Gun. If it's a passive draw-set, where the tackles invite the DE's up field and you're basically hoping to trick the defense, eh, that will work occasionally. Jay tried to get that to work for 4 straight years on 1st downs, and it worked twice. I'll give him credit, he kept at it to prove it was stupid. EB is in love with the same damn play. If you're going to run out of gun, what the good running teams do is just run-block normally, and the RB runs the play normally. He gets the ball at the handoff rather than in motion, but it still works.

Scott Turner's run scheme was not good either. We just did it over and over and over and over and over and over.

Some stats you wouldn't actually think would be true but are:
2022:
Total rushes - 538
Total yards - 2,143
Yards per rush - 4.0
Robinson yards per rush: 3.9
Gibson yards per carry: 3.7

2023:
Total rushes - 342
Total yards - 1,542
Yards per rush - 4.5
Robinson yards per rush: 4.2
Gibson yards per rush: 4.1

Also, FWIW, Howell is credited for 44 carries for 264 yards. 6 yards a carry. Which doesn't change the math that much, and certainly doesn't change the Robinson and Gibson averages.

We're actually a better statistical running team this year than last year. The difference is we don't run the ball nearly as much. (thank God)

Scott Turner was not good for a whole lot of reasons. And he was handcuffed by some of the worst QB play in the league, I'll grant you. But he was just bad, especially at the end. The offense was Run, Run, pray you get to 3rd and short so you can run again. If not, pray bad QBX could complete a pass. The same issues I have with EB, not using tempo, not moving the pocket, not utilizing motion well, etc. to be creative hold just as much true for Turner.

EB needed to run the ball more. That's obvious. But I think context really matters. For the first half of the season, whenever they tried to run the ball in the first half, it failed, and they were behind the 8-ball because the defense would give up 17 points in the first quarter routinely.

I don't have a problem running from the gun or under center. Either can work if you can execute.

My issue has been EB can't mix run/pass well, use one thing to get to the next. And early in games, he gets away from the run quickly if it's not working at all. I think he needs to be better at making the run game work early.

I'll also say, he was stubborn with Wylie and to a lesser extent, Gates. They needed to try something else sooner. Because Wylie just stunk. So did Gates. So did Charles and so did Paul. Leno was mostly ok, and Cosmi was legitimately good.
 
Some stats you wouldn't actually think would be true but are:
2022:
Total rushes - 538
Total yards - 2,143
Yards per rush - 4.0
Robinson yards per rush: 3.9
Gibson yards per carry: 3.7

2023:
Total rushes - 342
Total yards - 1,542
Yards per rush - 4.5
Robinson yards per rush: 4.2
Gibson yards per rush: 4.1
Click to expand...

I think those are totally true. And with a 5th round pick second-year starter at QB I'd take '22 over '23 an day. I cannot tell you how many times I would hear Eagle fans in the aughts tell me how awesome Reid was at running the ball because their RBs would lead the league in yards per touch. That is like the mother of all eye-rollers.
 
The last dysfunctional season tied to the sale of the team by the league's most dysfunctional ownership group.

Ron Rivera knew this was going to be his last season in DC and the Washington offense wasn't going anywhere under Scott Turner, so he did Andy Reid, his mentor, a solid by hiring his guy, EB, to come to Washington and give him a year of visibility as AHC/OC to move forward with his career.

So, in that regard EVERYONE from Josh Harris to Rivera to all of the players knew this was a lame duck season and quite frankly the effort on the part of a number of the players (those who can actually play in the NFL) was wanting from the start of the season.

Sure Howell was trying. Robinson was trying. Cosmi was trying. Terry was trying.

But how about Chase Young? How about Kendall Fuller? How about Daron Payne?

Were these guys locked in on the season and committed to playing their best football of their careers?

Chase Young has looked really excited to be in San Francisco, although I think he is a one year rental - whether he knows it or not.

Did he ever look this enthusiastic about coming back from the injury in the offseason, camp or the preseason?

Oh wait, he boycotted the offseason work. Then he slowed rolled it during camp and the preseason games. Then he came out flat to start the year.

But he's happy now that someone else has put him in a good situation through no hard work of his own.

Typical selfish prima donna that Washington seems to love to draft and sign in free agency during the Snyder years.
 
Chase Young may be excited to be in San Fran but it hasn't changed his production one bit.
 
To be honest if I were Josh Harris I am cleaning house here in Washington.

I am not keeping ANY front office or coaches from the Rivera era.

EB can proceed with his career and find a job elsewhere. I hear that he would be welcomed back to Kansas City for re-launch of the Chiefs offense in 2024.

He may also have some chances on the open market to go to a team like the Chargers with an established quarterback.

I want to see a completely new team in 2024 from top to bottom.
 
Yep, and Gus Frerotte made the pro bowl one year as well. That shows how much these designations mean in real time on an NFL field.
 
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