that said, he doesn't have a QB, so what can you expect? mike's definitely been able to do more with less, but i'm just not seeing him ready to go... if things really fall apart and it looks like last season where we're playing the wrong defense, don't have the right personnel and can't stop anyone, then yeah, i can see it.
I don't really see that happening though. they put 4 new bodies in the front 7, and at least 3 are going to help a lot (kerrigan still needs to get up to speed a bit), and the teams hasn't really gotten worse anywhere. OL is improved - rabach is gone, we've got a 6th starter for depth, and its a very fast line overall. helu torrain and hightower are better than our RBs last year, and jabar/donte beats the crap out of galloway/that other crappy guy from last year, even if hankerson doesn't blow it up.
anyways, i'm saying, with drew brees, this is a playoff team
if only... but i don't see us being much worse, the team is younger, we've got next year's picks, and andrew luck may be a possibility. so we're not set up to be awful going into next year.
QB is awful, and if this year was super important, they would had overpaid for orton and gauranteed average, but acceptable QB play for the next 3-4 years... obviously that's not the way to a superbowl though, so i'm assuming they're waiting to get their guy next year, and that mike's on board with that.
gibbs wasn't an nfl lifer, he was out for a decade, and the 2nd time around he had casserly replaced with a moron committee that didn't really do him a lot of favors. after his 2nd year, the team wasn't any better, younger, or draft pick rich then when he came.
if we go 8-8, 7-9, whatever and qb play is killing us, that's a one stop problem. I just don't see it being that dismal in 4 months, but i guess we'll see soon enough.