What is really at work here?

Former players like Bettis and Ward have echoed remarks about the way the team has been going down hill the past few years.

One thing that has always been on my mind. I remember reading an article that told of after a game, Ward was walking to his car after a game (this was probably 2 years before he was cut), and he ran into Tomlin on his way. Tomlin told him something like "I want you to keep playing for another 10 years". It was never a secret that Tomlin liked Ward a lot. But then shortly after, they began to phase him out until they cut him.

They cut him after BA was fired. He would have taken Vet minimum to stay another year...just the experience and leadership alone would have been worth it even if he didn't play a down. Today we carry four TE's that never see a down, and a WR that doesn't either. An extra leader would have helped bridge the gab between new coordinators too...

Not that this says much, but I feel that there is a "higher-hand" at play here with some of what we have seen the past few years, and I think it is Art Rooney Jr. I don't think Tomlin wanted Haley, because he never wanted to get rid of BA, (who like someone pointed out earlier today, may have been the best coach on the team when he was here). I distinctly remember Tomlin commenting that BA would be back, and then a few days later BA "Retired".....and then went on to rebuild crappy teams into playoff teams....meanwhile we are losing and missing the playoffs....

I feel that Rooney has as much if not more say in the operations of the team that Jerry Jones does, but Rooney stays behind the scene and Jones does not. Dan Rooney was in charge until he left for Ireland, and honestly things have began to go downhill since.

I don't know where Colbert falls into this, other than he had some great draft picks in the first half of the last decade and some pretty wretched ones in the last half.

Just some thoughts before I go to sleep.

 

Plausible. I might have to send this into Myth Busters though

 

Yeah I remember Cohwer telling Kevin Greene "you're my guy, you'll be back" and we know how that worked out.

 

He never did want to get rid of him...I dont get it...why fire a coach off back to back 12-4 seasons...we were Top 12 rushing those two years and ben was comfortable and flourishing ...what other franchise does that to their HOF QB... im still pissed about it...

 

san Francisco, indy, Jacksonville, GB, san Francisco again, NE.

 

Time to move on, Hines was at the end of his great career. In his prime, I'd love to have every player with his heart & tenacity, but he was in the midst of diminishing as all the greats do.

BA had run his course here as well, it just so happened to coincide with the loss of a lot of our veterans. BA would fair no better considering the loss of talent that we've seen and OL injuries the past 2 years.

 

Lots of teams get rid of their OC's. Rooney wanted Ben to take less sacks and he wanted us to improve on our running game. BA didn't show an ability to do either so he was fired. When you pay a guy $100 million, you want him to stay healthy. BA was getting Ben killed. Haley was brought in to protect Ben and to re-establish the running game. While things have improved in those departments, it's still been very inconsistent.

As for Rooney getting involved and perhaps making a lot of decisions that are hurting this team, who knows. It's possible but we'll never know for sure

 

Our running game has improved? Really?

 

At times it looks improved, then at other times it's back to being garbage.

 

People need to let go of the BA woulda-coulda stuff. He's gone he ain't coming back. You're 100% right. The reason why we aren't any good is because of how far the defense has fallen off. It's a shell of what it used to be. Prime example is yesterday.the most points the fish scored all year(in the snow no less).

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: There does seem to be something deeper going on. But I believe this has been a slow decline since the run up to SB45. It's just been getting worse since then.

Next season will tell us a lot about where this franchise is headed.

But I'll still root for the team.

 

It's definitely not just the defence. Whenever we have the lead, the offence is absolutely unable to put teams away. We can't build on leads and we can't get 1st downs in order to run out the clock. We always end up giving the ball back to the other teams.

 

There is no doubt about it that this team's issues are not new. The Super Bowl vs Green Bay exposed so many holes and, yet, here we are years later STILL talking about those same issues

 

Oh I definitely know that. My point is that our defense made up for our shortcomings on the offense and now.......not so much. We would be in the same boat if BA was here,just less drama.