Patience

[toffee]

After 8 games, my thoughts:

Offense:

1. Our '24 offense isn't as efficient as '23.
2. Geno was clearly better in Waldron's offense.
3. Heck, our '23 OL was bad, may still be better than '24 OL. This is surprising as we have an upgrade on paper.
4. Our OL linemen's individual PPF grading is better than our OL grading.
5. On our center Wilson. I expect him to have some rust and takes time to learn our system. But heck, the more that he learned, the worse.

Defense:

1. Witherspoon clearly regressed, and he is getting worse game by game.
2. Riq was better in early season games than now, he is regressing game by game.
3. '24 front 7 looked better than '23 on paper, but worse results.
4. LB hasn't been an upgrade over '23.

To my untrained eyes, I couldn't name one area of the team that has improved over 2023, could you?

We need to be patient with young Macdonald, after all he is young and learning on the job, he also has a 6 years contract. Grubb is done in my observation, I suspect that he has lost the offense players, and he is replaceable.

 

[knownone]

After 8 games, my thoughts:

Offense:

1. Our '24 offense isn't as efficient as '23.
2. Geno was clearly better in Waldron's offense.
3. Heck, our '23 OL was bad, may still be better than '24 OL. This is surprising as we have an upgrade on paper.
4. Our OL linemen's individual PPF grading is better than our OL grading.
5. On our center Wilson. I expect him to have some rust and takes time to learn our system. But heck, the more that he learned, the worse.

Defense:

1. Witherspoon clearly regressed, and he is getting worse game by game.
2. Riq was better in early season games than now, he is regressing game by game.
3. '24 front 7 looked better than '23 on paper, but worse results.
4. LB hasn't been an upgrade over '23.

To my untrained eyes, I couldn't name one area of the team that has improved over 2023, could you?

We need to be patient with young Macdonald, after all he is young and learning on the job, he also has a 6 years contract. Grubb is done in my observation, I suspect that he has lost the offense players, and he is replaceable.

I mostly agree with you, but I'll add two things. Geno, individually, has been better in Grubbs's offense. His advanced numbers are near elite, even in bad games. The problem is that the offense, as a whole, is much worse. In 2023, we were 10th in rushing efficiency. We're currently 29th. Grubb is asking Geno to carry the offense, and we're seeing the limits of that approach with a bottom-five O-line.

I don't think Witherspoon or Riq have regressed. They look great when Seattle forces teams into obvious passing situations, but they tend to get worn down when we can't stop the run. This is one of the reasons people were skeptical of Seattle drafting Witherspoon. How much impact could an undersized nickel corner add to a defense that can't stop the run? We're seeing it. He'll make flashy plays, then get washed out for long stretches of the game. That said, fix the run defense, and those guys should bounce back.