Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattyk
I know you love to to pile on Shanahan at any chance, but as defensive coordinator the performance of the D ultimately falls on Haslett. That just comes with the territory. He needs to get things figured out.
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I agree that Shanahan can't be held responsible for the effectiveness of the week to week defensive gameplan, but rewind half a decade to the Gibbs era, and we were just in a different category in terms of defensive ability. You didn't have to worry about the week to week defensive gameplan six years ago. Strong defense was the expectation.
The organization is different now. Defense is a struggle. It's a struggle when Haslett is on point and it's a struggle when he's doing things that don't make sense. He's going to have to accept responsibility when the unit performance is unacceptable, but I don't know if Haslett is the reason the defense has gone backwards in the last five years.
I just don't think there has been a high priority on acquiring and keeping great defensive players.
I think we have some really good defensive players, and some really good defensive prospects, and it's on Haslett to turn those guys into a strong unit, but we're also forced to rely on no-upside guys like Baccari Rambo and EJ Biggers in major roles, and that's a tough thing to scheme around.