I've been catching up on the roster and thanks to BullyPulpit and his position breakdowns, this is how I imagine the team will differ from last year.
Philosophically, this is going to be a pocket-passing QB year. I doubt we will see Barnett run for yards like Flowers, unless it's a dire situation and he's making up his own plays.
Running, this is yards on the ground with your traditional plays that we've seen. And the coaches will rotate RBs to keep them fresh.
Q: How good is our OL? Seems like we have a better line than last year at this point in the season with the starters set.
So, it's going to be interesting with no Flowers to bail us out for yards and first downs. Where is the difference going to come from? I think we'll have more accuracy on the shorter passes -and maybe even try a slant pass or two this season! We have really good receivers this year, so that should help. But with no Flower's elusiveness and legs, that's a big transition.
The thing is, we can always put in our mobile QBs and go for that QB-with legs play. Look, at 6-5 Barnett is not going to dodge anybody on the run!
Defensively, I really like our maturity at covering people in the secondary. This helps the front guys; it gives them more time. So, this is a "win" for us. I have no idea about the middle and our ability to stop the run. We might have to gamble a bit to do that -bring up people. So, I hope we take more risks and force teams into throwing the ball. When they do that, I think that favors our guys. Running it up our throat, that might be our weakness (I'm guessing here).
Our weaknesses? I'm guessing field goals and stopping the run.
Our strengths? Secondary, receivers, and accuracy when Barnett is in (but he will be a target). Hmmm... Cincy's QB comes to mind all of a sudden. I hope it doesn't turn out that way!
The OL is going to be the make-it or break-it of this year. You take Flowers out and all of that pressure now falls on the OL. We never played this style of football because we've never had OL talent to do it. Fingers crossed!