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Originally Posted by Keith
I'd actually been mulling about Hoke's performance as well in recent weeks, especially in light of how Fred Bennett has done versus expectations this year. It doesn't speak well to Hoke, and pointing the finger at him seems appropriate at first glace. (fyi, Hoke had been pursued for college jobs during his tenure with the Texans. Not sure if anyone tried to hire him from another NFL team though.)
But a couple things... Bennett probably over-achieved in the second half of 2007, setting the bar higher than it should have been this year. Also, Hoke is sharing a significant portion of his responsibilities with Ray Rhodes. Is Rhodes cramping his style?
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Fred most definitely overachieved last year. If he was only average this year I would be OK. He has just been terrible though. I expected him to come back down to earth, but not to make a huge flaming crater when he did it.
Molden aparently hasn't developed enough in the coaches eyes to get some time at corner (though he's been good on the coverage teams). Robinson's injury makes it hard to say, but I would say he regressed as well even before the injury and Rhodes arrival. Hell, even Petey played his best early on in his career. There was actually a time when everyone liked Faggins, but the longer he' been here the worse he's got. I'm not even going to get into the consistently bad play of our safeties.
There could be absolutely nothing there. It just might be that guys like Robinson and Bennett played so well early that my expectations became too great. Whatever it is I have this feeling that our DB's played better on raw instincts than they do once they have supposedly been coached up. Maybe they can't handle the mental aspect the position in the NFL and there's not a coach that can fix it, but the one constant is Hoke.
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It's something to consider for the defense as a whole since Richard Smith has had Frank Bush around (breathing down his neck?) as a "senior defensive assistant". Is there not enough unilateral authority here for key defensive coaches?
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I have considered the too many chiefs and not enough Indians theory. I can see it on defensive side, although you would think with Rhodes limited role it wouldn't be much of an issue with him....unless what he's teaching and what Smith wants done don't mesh. I think Rhodes has been around long enough to tailor what he's working with the DB's on to what Smith is doing. Franklin could be undermining Smith's authority a little, but there's just no way to know what's really going on in the meeting room. The defense does seem to have a scatter shot approach to it though. AS opposed to saying "this is what we want our defense to do " and sticking with it...it seems like they keep trying different things every week.
You have Gibbs on the offensive side and that doesn't seem to causing a problem...although with Baby Shan already under Kubiak's wing and just the general respect level I would guess baby Shan has towards Gibbs I don't see as much room for a problem there.