Reports are that Kubiak will be OC. Even if not, no way Munchak goes there as OC after interviewing for HC. Munchak is my guy.
It's hard to look at the current NFL landscape and see BOB as an asset. He's fine - he'll win 8, 9, 10 games, stumble into an 11-win season here or there.... But I just don't see him at the front of any curves; and, in fact, fear he'll continually be way behind them. It very much feels like Kevin McHale all over again. The Rockets had balls. The Texans have.... Clay Walkers.......
I'm sure this has been mentioned here just a few times, but look at his playoff record. Kansas City - L - 0-30 (totally unprepared from the opening kickoff) Oakland - W - 27-14 (Raiders played their 3rd string rookie QB) New England - L - 16-34 (could only manage 1 TD) Indianapolis - L - 7-21 (totally unprepared from the opening kickoff) His one win was basically a bye-week.
Mild mannered Hub Arkush ripped into BOB. Said that Watson clearly holds the ball too long, is confused by basic movement on the defensive line and is gun shy now. He said that Watson’s play has regressed and that it is a result of poor teaching and coaching by the Texans. He said that he thought Watson became gun shy because of his fear to make mistakes but that he spoke to Texans coaches and BOB purposely has made him gun shy. He said the scouts and personnel people in the NFL believe Watson’s development has been r****ded and now Trubinsky is viewed as the better prospect because of how poorly Watson has been prepared. He praised Watt’s play and called Hopkins at worst the second best receiver in the NFL. Said the offensive line is hot garbage and the depth is poor. He didn’t say much about Gaine other than he was qualified to be a GM.... BOB on the other hand? Said the offense was about as poor prepared as he has seen before. Also pointed out that Colts had a pretty strong read on when the Texans would run.
I would say the bad o-line has been proven to lead to more gun-shy/regression tendencies more than any other factor. Its also a tad harsh to say a QB who just threw for 4,000+ yards, 26TD's, 9 int, and more than 500 rushing yards as a "regressing gun-shy" QB, but if that's how high the bar is for him, then the sky truly is the limit. LOL at Trubisky being a superior QB prospect... Watson is the real deal now. Sure, if you want an axe to grind against BOB, its one more thing to blame him for... but an even halfway average o-line ends up covering up a lot of deficiencies, along with turning some basic pedestrian systems into downright prolific. The Colts do nothing exotic on offense.... but they have a tremendous O-line that was revamped in basically ONE off-season.
Hub is saying that a lot of the issues are related to Watson not being well prepared and bad habits like holding the ball too long. While the OLine is bad; a lot of those sacks are on Watson... I find that far more troubling than just a bad/terrible line.
But a bad O-line can create all those tendencies/habits that weren't necessarily a problem prior. Consistency is key... and right now, on most passing plays, nobody know what the protection will be. He himself said he's got very little time to make any sort of consistent read/adjustment (let alone, who are his weapons/targets that he's supposed to be getting the ball out quickly to.... Joe Webb?). Granted, Watson does try to make something happen nearly every time... vs just checking down or throwing it away. He's made more remarkable throws/plays as a result of those tendencies. He also has the backup ability to scramble/run... which is probably what he's thinking when it comes to trying to make something happen (which can lead to some sacks). Look, we all saw guys like Hoyer, Fitz, Osweiler, and even train wreck Mallet get rid of the ball quickly or check down in this system... and I doubt any coach out there is actually coaching somebody to take sacks.... If they fix the line, and you still see regression, people will start to turn on Watson pretty quickly. As it is, he was remarkable this year with very likely the worst O-line in the league, and virtually zero weapons besides Hopkins.
Wait, but I thought we had Julien Davenport, the best Tackle of all the playoff teams. No way we could have been the worst
The thing with Davenport is more of a "something to grow on" situation. Maybe a full season of starting will make him better in the long run.
Hub is a Chicago guy? Maybe he has sources, maybe he did hear some of these rumblings - they certainly don't contradict anything we've witnessed...but I'm dubious the Chicago guy has written a piece that positions another Chicago guy - one with seemingly far more uncertainty/questions than Watson - as the better prospect - as if anyone still views these two-years starters as "prospects." It reads like water-carrying for the Bears so they don't have to answer for passing up other, possibly better QBs in that draft.
If you have a bad oline and the play calling and preparation is such that the QB STILL holds he ball to long.... that’s even worse. Nothing Hub said rings as untrue. It fits to what we’re seeing. We’re Watsons stats still good? Yes. But not as good as the brief stretch last year - where it seems they were forced to throw in stuff that was more college like as Watson was thrown in there. More relevant... Watson is very very very good. That still doesn’t mean he can’t be negatively impacted by bad coaching and preparation. We can discuss this on and on for pages. Obviously talent will help. Obviously a great oline would do wonders. Yada yada. BOb is NOT a good coach. There’s NOTHING about his coaching you can point to and say he does great. He’s made the playoffs by virtue of (i) relying on defense, (ii) bad division, (iii) ok talent (even if not stacked at every level), and (iv) an extremely risk averse approach which minimizes how bad he is at coaching relative to good coaches. He should be fired immediately. Watson yearns for greatness. Just like Harden. And while he got slack for it, Harden got no qualms for going to management and saying this dude McHale... he’s a clown coach. For some reason organizations often get stuck not being able to see the forest for the trees. “But we just went to the WCF!! And some of the media thought he was good. Surely he’s an ok coach!” Meanwhile hard core fans on this site knew what was obvious - dude couldn’t coach. It’s the same here with B’Ob. Someone needs to get this info in Watson’s ear over and over again. You’re getting passed up. Trubisky, Mahomes, Baker, Darnhold, etc. how can you be one of the greatest ever when you aren’t even the most coveted of the last few draft classes? I think it’s up to Watson at this point to go to the organization and demand change. Doesn’t have to require firing B’Ob but definitely needs to require an OC.
