Certainly it weighed on the collective psyche - and I get Sparano was respected as a good OL coach. The facts are, while he was here, he wasnt. He just wasnt.twgerber wrote: ↑Mon Aug 19, 2019 12:58 pmA few pointshategreenticemase wrote: ↑Sun Aug 18, 2019 3:23 pmAs for real life - Sparano death was a very sad deal. He was very well liked and respected. Hate seeing a good, respected guy go unexpectedly at such a young age.
As for NFL/Vikes - sorry, the impact to the team has been so over exaggerated it's silly. I'd say it had very little to do whatsoever with the shit play of the OL. It was poor the year prior and was the worst in franchise history the year prior to that. That's what happens when for 5 years you don't invest in the position nearly enough, you are horrid at identifying talent for it, and suck at coaching it. Period.
Such an overblown excuse.
1) Investment - they tried and it failed continuously. They keep doing the same thing which was the mistake IMO. Investing low round picks only. Now they are finally investing in higher round draft picks. Thank goodness!
2) I don't think losing your oline coach had NO impact. The amount can be debated. They were bad the year before and even worse last year. How much was other issues besides losing Sparano? Don't know - some. I don't know what constitutes exaggeration on this point. There was a definite impact.
As long as I live I will never forget 2016 and doing nothing, actually trying nothing, to save the fucking ship from sinking. How Clemmings got past the 2nd start at LT is a mystery of God. (Dont even come back with "who were they supposed to play there, we had no one" - when the guy you are playing there is literally the worst player in the league when asked to play LT you play ANYONE else, including people off the street). He gets hurt, Hill goes in and is an instant improvement. Incomprehensible.
Almost as bad was any other year all anyone would have talked about was how horseshit Fusco was - he was brutal and simply overshadowed by the LT situation. He gets injured and BOTH guys who replaced him were instant improvements. It was unbelievable. The single worst coaching this franchise has ever had was how Zim and Sparano "dealt" with the OL debacle of 16. Turned a 12 win team into an 8 win team. Again, we had two guys better than the garbage playing RG and we didnt even know it until we were forced to. Again, incomprehensible and indefensible.
I believe our OL woes is a 3 pronged blame - first and foremost is RS. He hasnt done enough, period. He convinced Zim to keep Davidson and then didnt fire him til 2 years too late. Secondly, we have been horrid at assessing OL talent. Third, we have sucked at coaching it. Sparano was a large part of that while here.