Gradecard: Scott Pioli - D

[Bike]

1. Pioli should had stepped in immediately after Haley let Gaily go. That was the tell-tale sign that Haley was not the future of this team.
2. Pioli dishing out a 2nd round pick plus 60 million for a backup QB also not the brightest decision.
3. Pioli seems to be unable to separate himself from his New England connections rather than come up with his own team philosophy.

I think Clark made the wrong decision in making Pioli a NFL GM. And it shows. Perhaps, Clark might had extended the offer to Belichick, who made all the decisions while Pioli was working with him.
That said, I'll give Pioli another year to right this ship. Firing Haley is a start, but the fact remains that he was the man that hired him in the first place. I'm not too enthused about who he might bring in next.
Maybe I'm being too critical, maybe I'm just tired of sneaking into the playoffs once every 10 years, only to lose once we get there.

[AkChief49]

I think my problem with the running game this year, was the lack of ability to get the first down. Couldn't sustain drives. Although, I will blame a lot of that on the OC. Call the same play 5 times in a row and chances are it's not going to work. For a guy as big as Battle, I expect him to be able to grind out 2 or 3 years to pick up the first down, and often he couldn't. But it's over. Charles back next year, get a replacement for Jones, and work on the real problems.

Charles should be back, but will he be at full strength?
Like you said:"Call the same play 5 times in a row and chances are it's not going to work."
I think this was part of the problem for Battle. That, and Jones kept getting carries. Upgrade the O-line. Battle's avg. per rush was 4 yds./carry. Not too bad, not great but respectable. Jone's avg. was 3 yds./carry, and they were fairly even in the number of carries. Battle had 149 and Jones had 153. I agree and think we should consider another running back in the draft (not first round).

[matthewschiefs]

I think my problem with the running game this year, was the lack of ability to get the first down. Couldn't sustain drives. Although, I will blame a lot of that on the OC. Call the same play 5 times in a row and chances are it's not going to work. For a guy as big as Battle, I expect him to be able to grind out 2 or 3 years to pick up the first down, and often he couldn't. But it's over. Charles back next year, get a replacement for Jones, and work on the real problems.

Think you are spot on with that. Our rbs sucked running up the middle just couldn't do it. Yet that play was called over and over again. The runnings seemed to be much better running when they got the ball in space. Even Jones was ok at that. But I would agree that Jones has very little left if anything at all. I think Getting rb would be wise this offseason you can never have to much depth.

[matthewschiefs]

Yeah, Hali and Houston are crap!!

I no Hali only had 12 sacks and Houston as a rookie only had 5.5 and was a whole 3 tackles short of the great Brian Orakpo we better cut them this offseason or i will be pissed. What I haven't been drinking. Why are you looking at me like that.