Hard to come down too hard on Madison when he had Scandrick and a pile of shit in his safety crew.

Not sure what kind of coaching could've fixed those idiots. Scandrick having to be shouted down by Hobo Spirit in week 16 was just the cherry on top of that sunday.

You buy those guys books and they were just gonna eat the pages.

Right and Ron Parker as well, other than Fuller it's an entirely different crew and Ward with more experience.

Turns out Daly wasn’t a Trojan horse, after all. (What a stupid take, but at the time the DL looked horrible)

Oddly enough, he's been a good blitzer. Who the **** knew?

It's kind of like . . . time in a new system has given players a better understanding of how to play assignment-correct football. I'm shocked.

Some were claiming Spags was no different than sleeping under a tree in the AFCCG Bob.

I'm also "shocked" that it took a few games for all the new (and old) players to understand the scheme and their roles in the scheme. Completely shocking.

This is Madison’s first year here? Think you meant Thomas/Harris.

Time in the system didn't help them 'learn their roles' at all last season. The defense actually got worse as the season went on.

And so many of the breakdowns last year were so shockingly simple that it can't be chalked up to mere scheme either.

There's just more buy-in from this group of guys. And I think some of that is due to coaching the right attitude and some of it is just not having as many mongoloid reeruns out there (specifically in the secondary).

Trust/confidence takes time to develop but taking it as an article of faith that it WOULD just by having more time is a fools errand. Oftentimes it just doesn't happen.

Kudos to the coaching staff for encouraging the buy-in. And I wonder if embarrassing themselves for a few games there in the middle of the season didn't make them take a hard look at themselves, especially when combined with the Mahomes injury and a horrifying realization that this could all fall apart on them with a single play.

Correct. My bad - forgot that Madison was the guy we brought in to replace the guys we shipped out.

In either event, I don't think the coaching was the problem with the secondary. I think a bunch of selfish idiots in his defensive backfield - I mean what more do you need to say about Nelson and Scandrick that they haven't said themselves? Parker was complaining before the season even started.

If we'd have brought that same group back, we'd have had the same problems regardless of the coaching switch. I don't know that Thomas/Harris did amazing work last year but I know that there's not a hell of a lot they could've done with that entitled group of washed up malcontents.

I still stand by Mike Smith being solid last year. He had out outside LBs who played well. And he's doing really well in green bay. But the rest of the coaches are shit. Pretty unbelievable to have 2 assistant coaches who could easily be nfl DCs in the next few years.

I still think the biggest thing house brings is knowledge of the college game. It gives spags a much more creative gameplan.

Agreed across the board. We had a few Chief Fans who, evidently, thought any improvement should have been immediately noticeable, which is insane given the myriad changes.

But we also had too many folks who just assumed improvement would come.

Reckless pessimism is no less premature than cockeyed optimism. Pointing out that it's too early to judge is fair, but saying that early season concern isn't worth mentioning is also unreasonable.

Sometimes it improves - other times it doesn't. At the halfway point of the season when the team was showing regression in some key areas, it was fair to be worried. But ultimately I think the set-backs helped the team. The adversity they faced was a good thing for them.

And that's where the TYPE of coaching they brought in helps. That's when they had their chance to prove their mettle.

Guys. Guys. GUYS.

Britt Reid is the assistant LBs coach. What if he's the true mastermind behind the improvement of these players this season?

Better tackling and less whiffing major improvements on the defense.