If we could have an improvement right now with the Chiefs...

[Rain Man]

...where would it be?

Poll to follow. You get to pick one unit. And unit is a funny word when you really think about it. Unit, unit, unit. It sounds like an alien word that we got from Roswell.

But I digress. Poll to follow.

The Rules:

Assume that we could get an incremental improvement of, say 10 to 15 percent. We're not talking about replacing our unit with a Hall of Fame unit. Just a bump in performance.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

Yeah, but without big upgrades around him, how much of an upgrade at qb will it take?

Unless it's a huge upgrade at QB - none.

You really would need a Brady/Brees/Manning/Rodgers type to make chicken salad out of this chicken shit.

Wilson, Ryan, Romo, Eli, Flacco, Kaepernick; all the usual 2nd tier badasses wouldn't be able to do much with these guys.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I said it in another thread, but I was simply floored by how easily DRC was able to toy with Dwayne Bowe yesterday. It was like turning down the AI opponent speed to 80% or something in Madden; he just ran circles around Bowe.

Last night was the first night that I really watched Bowe and thought he might actually be shot. It wasn't effort - he simply has no speed at all left. He has no quickness and he's never been a particularly adept route-runner. We threw him the damn ball 14 times yesterday and they were simply easy coverage plays because he's incapable of keeping distance.

Had you asked me this question on Friday I'd have gone with the O-Line. But after watching Bowe be completely ineffective and watching Avery botch perhaps the biggest play of the night, we need those weapons at WR/TE.

Bowe also quits upon contact, which isn't normal for him. Or it wasn't.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

The biggest issue with rookie running backs are the protection calls. Does the RB know the offense, know the calls and if an audible is called, adjust?

It's not about "see what he can do!". That's bullshit.

Davis has shown the past few weeks that he has a firm grasp of the offense and he's done well in limited touches. My opinion is that he needs to see about 10 touches the next few games in order to give Charles a break.

He's a big dude with 4.3 speed with good vision. He can help the team.

I'm pulling hard for young Miles.

[O.city]

We don't have any wrs with any short area quickness, that can get open very easily.

And after watching some of it again, people want smith to throw into tight windows and such, he did yesterday, or at least tried to. Wrs have to compete for catches when he does.

[Gravedigger]

The reason I went with QB over Oline is because Alex had 4-5 seconds on all of his sacks to get the ball out or scramble out of the pocket, he didn't. Alex holds onto the ball too long because he outthinks himself and is too scared to pull the trigger. The Oline is not as bad as the WR's and QB atm. At the beginning of the year sure, but not now.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by O.city

Yeah, but without big upgrades around him, how much of an upgrade at qb will it take?

A 15% improvement from Smith would be HUGE, in my opinion.

It could be the difference in scoring a TD with a wide open Fasano, McGrath and possibly even Sherman in that one game recently. The difference in hitting Avery, Bowe and Charles down the sidelines we've been a hair off on all season. The difference in taking dumbass sacks that take us out of field goal range and stall drives. The difference in reading the defense before the snap and recognizing that you have one of the fastest RBs in the league split out wide in 1-on-1 coverage by a LB...

[O.city]

I really wish we had access to all22 footage. It would be interesting to see.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

A) That wasn't Peter King, it was just his website. Please don't mistake actual analysis for anyting King has ever written.

B) Yes, a couple of those plays he posted were pretty bad. 2 of the 4 were also extremely defensible and/or flat out intelligent decisions.

Smith cut it loose a fair amount yesterday - 12 passes over 20 yards in fact. You saw what we got for our efforts. Drops and passes batted away easily because DBs can close on these WRs so easily that anything downfield is in trouble.

Throwing downfield with these weapons is looking like a worse idea by the day. When he does it, they invariably **** it up.

Smith is what he is. What I see is a guy who has a pretty set progression. Either a designed quick read or a quick look then a checkdown. If it isn't one of those two options, he waits for a guy to break open instead of finding ways to make the ball find an open receiver.

On one deep ball (i think to Dex), he was completely covered, but he had inside position. Smith sailed it 10 yards over his head instead of maybe trying to throw to his back shoulder. On many occasions yesterday and in other games, he made a decent read but got it there a few seconds too late. But in games like yesterday, I just don't like the mentality that you have to find a wide open man to justify getting rid of the ball.

I agree that the receivers are part of the problem. But you can't convince me that our receivers are worse than when New England played with Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney as their #1 and #2 guys. Good QBs find ways to get their players open, and Smith just doesn't, and that's even with defenders stacking the box and daring him to throw.

I don't buy that he can't do better even with bad receiving talent.

[Easy 6]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I said it in another thread, but I was simply floored by how easily DRC was able to toy with Dwayne Bowe yesterday. It was like turning down the AI opponent speed to 80% or something in Madden; he just ran circles around Bowe.

Last night was the first night that I really watched Bowe and thought he might actually be shot. It wasn't effort - he simply has no speed at all left. He has no quickness and he's never been a particularly adept route-runner. We threw him the damn ball 14 times yesterday and they were simply easy coverage plays because he's incapable of keeping distance.

Had you asked me this question on Friday I'd have gone with the O-Line. But after watching Bowe be completely ineffective and watching Avery botch perhaps the biggest play of the night, we need those weapons at WR/TE.

Yeah, it sucks... we needed him to be at his very best with the weak depth we have this year, but he's playing his worst ball ever.

Avery on the other hand, routinely gets open but cant catch jack... we don't have one steady threat.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Unless it's a huge upgrade at QB - none.

You really would need a Brady/Brees/Manning/Rodgers type to make chicken salad out of this chicken shit.

Wilson, Ryan, Romo, Eli, Flacco, Kaepernick; all the usual 2nd tier badasses wouldn't be able to do much with these guys.

Not all of those guys have exactly played with badass talent. Eli and Flacco have had some pretty average receivers to throw to a lot of their careers.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Not all of those guys have exactly played with badass talent. Eli and Flacco have had some pretty average receivers to throw to a lot of their careers.

I think you're wildly understating how bad we are. Especially when you consider the amount of pressure Smith faces. Dwayne Bowe's looked a lot like Jon Baldwin for most of this season.

And you're flat wrong about Eli - that guy's has some pretty talented WRs to throw to for almost his entire career.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by teedubya

Alex Smith hasn't been horrible... his receivers and OL have been.

Disagree.

80% of his passes this season have not gone more than 10 yards past the LOS. Some of this is by design, but I cannot believe that 80% of our passing plays are specificly designed to not gain more than 10 yards. He's taking the safe, easy checkdown rather than making the read and delivering a football that one of our guys has a shot to make a play on.

Alex will ALWAYS take a 1-2 yard pass to an open checkdown over a chance at a big play where his man is one on one.

When he does go downfield (5% at 20+ yards), they are overthrown, or thrown into the dirt at the feet of the receiver.

Alex has also missed so damn many wide open receivers that its simply inexcusable to keep letting that go unaddressed.

Take the play last night where Charles lined up on the linebacker one on one. Huge matchup, and just as Charles released off the line and began to get a step on his man, Alex had already thrown the football into the dirt 1.2 seconds after taking the snap.

He never once considered Charles as an option. He certainly never made a pre-snap read, and once the ball was snapped, he never even began any sort of progression, he just chunked it into the dirt.


Alex needs all the improvement he can get. Andy's hilarious press conference comments about this being a "young team" as the reasoning for the ineptitude of the offense has seriously shaken my opinion of his ability to reason.

Alex Smith is not a young quarterback. Hes been in the league for several years now, and if he hasn't learned how to identify mismatches in coverage, and if he hasn't found the confidence to forego that safe checkdown and put the ball up downfield for his guy to have a shot at some real yardage, then he's likely not going to. He's 29 years old.

[007]

15% right now? OL

[O.city]

As bad as I think out wr threats are and tes, I think thud be great a spot lower on the chart.

Like Bowe as the roddy to the falcons Julio kind of thing.

****, I'd have really liked to have seen a move for Gordon.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Smith is what he is. What I see is a guy who has a pretty set progression. Either a designed quick read or a quick look then a checkdown. If it isn't one of those two options, he waits for a guy to break open instead of finding ways to make the ball find an open receiver.

On one deep ball (i think to Dex), he was completely covered, but he had inside position. Smith sailed it 10 yards over his head instead of maybe trying to throw to his back shoulder. On many occasions yesterday and in other games, he made a decent read but got it there a few seconds too late. But in games like yesterday, I just don't like the mentality that you have to find a wide open man to justify getting rid of the ball.

I agree that the receivers are part of the problem. But you can't convince me that our receivers are worse than when New England played with Reche Caldwell and Jabar Gaffney as their #1 and #2 guys. Good QBs find ways to get their players open, and Smith just doesn't, and that's even with defenders stacking the box and daring him to throw.

I don't buy that he can't do better even with bad receiving talent.

Oh FFS, you're really going to say "well hell, Brady did it...."?

I already conceded that a great QB can make it work with this pile of shit. But you're talking about HOFers.

No, Joe Flacco wouldn't have won a damn thing with Reche Caldwell. Matt Ryan never won shit until White and Julio showed up. But you folks would murder your mothers to get Matt Ryan in here.

Yes, Peyton Manning could win with these guys. As could Aaron Rodgers. But you're looking at a hell of a lot more than a 15% improvement to get to those folks.