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The biggest reason, of course and generally speaking is the guy is just plain clueless about running an NFL defense...He's a Pop Warner coach in a professional world and he just isn't cutting it. However, more specifically...
1. Edwards has no idea how to design/disguise/dial-up an effective blitz scheme. Straight upfield rushing will not cut it against the vast majority of offensive lines in the NFL, and putting 7 or 8 guys on the line of scrimmage and playing 'guess who's coming' isn't going to be consistently effective above the college level.
2. He also has no idea how to set up and/or disguise coverages. Can anybody point out one time, one single instance, where the defense lined up in man and switched to zone, or vice-versa? If a QB reads man, you can bet it's man, or the same for zone. Again, lack of experience and ability. Part of the secondary's problem I'll admit is a lack of talent, but any coordinator worth a damn would be able to able to alleviate the talent gap at least a little bit.
3. Consistently trying to make round pegs fit into square holes, specifically at OLB. Carrington, Johnson and even Kelsay ARE NOT 34 olb's so quit trying to make them play a position that they obviously can't handle. Let Moats, Batten, etc play, and if none of the 'hybrids' are good enough to secure a spot in the regular rotation at DE, then cut them loose and get some real talent on the outside because these guys just can't handle it.
4. No idea how to gameplan, plain and simple. The defense sucked early on, but that was pretty much the norm around the league for the first month of the season as unheard of passing #'s were being put up and points being spotted in bunches because offenses were a few steps ahead of the D. Hell, even our own group of UDFA's looked unstoppable most of the time. But, as the season progressed through the second quarter of games, defenses started to catch up as coordinators started to gather film, tendencies etc against the opposing O and successfully implement gameplans designed to stop the strengths of the opponents. Other coordinators are getting into their groove, ours is being left behind in the dust.
This team has needs on both sides of the ball and could certainly use talent upgrades here and there, but the biggest move Nix and Gailey could make to immediately increase their chance to win games is to jettison Edwards (Wanny can go also as far as I'm concerned) and get an honest-to-the football gods 34 defensive coordinator in here.
1. Edwards has no idea how to design/disguise/dial-up an effective blitz scheme. Straight upfield rushing will not cut it against the vast majority of offensive lines in the NFL, and putting 7 or 8 guys on the line of scrimmage and playing 'guess who's coming' isn't going to be consistently effective above the college level.
2. He also has no idea how to set up and/or disguise coverages. Can anybody point out one time, one single instance, where the defense lined up in man and switched to zone, or vice-versa? If a QB reads man, you can bet it's man, or the same for zone. Again, lack of experience and ability. Part of the secondary's problem I'll admit is a lack of talent, but any coordinator worth a damn would be able to able to alleviate the talent gap at least a little bit.
3. Consistently trying to make round pegs fit into square holes, specifically at OLB. Carrington, Johnson and even Kelsay ARE NOT 34 olb's so quit trying to make them play a position that they obviously can't handle. Let Moats, Batten, etc play, and if none of the 'hybrids' are good enough to secure a spot in the regular rotation at DE, then cut them loose and get some real talent on the outside because these guys just can't handle it.
4. No idea how to gameplan, plain and simple. The defense sucked early on, but that was pretty much the norm around the league for the first month of the season as unheard of passing #'s were being put up and points being spotted in bunches because offenses were a few steps ahead of the D. Hell, even our own group of UDFA's looked unstoppable most of the time. But, as the season progressed through the second quarter of games, defenses started to catch up as coordinators started to gather film, tendencies etc against the opposing O and successfully implement gameplans designed to stop the strengths of the opponents. Other coordinators are getting into their groove, ours is being left behind in the dust.
This team has needs on both sides of the ball and could certainly use talent upgrades here and there, but the biggest move Nix and Gailey could make to immediately increase their chance to win games is to jettison Edwards (Wanny can go also as far as I'm concerned) and get an honest-to-the football gods 34 defensive coordinator in here.
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