This was bursting to come out with all the soccer talk, huh?

by cdawg, Wednesday, July 08, 2026, 15:29 (19 days ago) @ Mike (bart)

I speak both, so ...

Let's simplify and say that if Craig is healthy and Knapp is truly a "people mover" at guard, then even basic inside concepts should work well in short yardage. Add to that Lambert and a healthy Flanagan next to one another and off tackle/outside are in play, so there's enough variability to keep defenses off balance even when playing for run. RG will be a bit if a question mark but as long as it isn't a weakness, we should be good.

If we decide to throw against a loaded box then a healthy Faison will almost always be open. He's too quick to cover 1 on 1. Graham is an x factor here if he lives up to Spring hype, so that 2 guys that are uncoverable. Anything else is overthinking it, IMO.

On your 3) I think our defense will be dominant if healthy. We can't lose a safety and need KVA at 85%+. As you know, he is a massive variable and paired with Moore and Tae, it's too much for an offense to avoid all 3. The new DTs/SDE just need to be solid against the run and, as you note, in short yardage, where we were horrible last year.