The disease has hit me again

[freddyg12]

a dude in my office stopped by & asked about the draft yesterday. I proceeded to spend 10 minutes on what a solid draft if was for us, how JC & the O will be awesome, but that it all depends on how well the D comes together.
I started to say 10-6 or something like that, but I realized that I think that every year we're going to be good. Catching "the disease" is simply part of being a skins fan in the spring. Every year we do something, even this year we picked up Fletcher & Smoot and we're all starting to think the D will be back in the top 10.

So what I told the dude is that I see us as 7-9 at worst, but if team chemistry is rebuilt then we can win 3-5 more of those close games & have a great year. I think fans of any team have a hard time seeing things in the big picture because we spend all our time reading about our team & exaggerating every positive trait of every player & prospect. I mean is it realistic to get excited about Justin Hickman, an undrafted free agent? Probably not, but I couldn't help seeing this guy in my head speeding around Flozell Adams and tomahawking the ball out of Tony Homo's slippery right hand.

So yeah I get the disease & relapse every year. I honestly see this season as more about rebuilding the team's chemistry & identity, more than how much talent we have. We have enough talent to make the playoffs, but to me the real question is can we get back to playing inspired football as we saw in 05?