I think our Coach took his own ideas of "tolerance" about as far as he could go--and then some, in Saunders' case. He tried to bring him around, doing everything he could to give him both chances and discipline, AND kept it all low-key, too. Given the problems that Coach found when he got here, he "walked the razor's edge" with this kid, but it just didn't work out...on balance, yes, it's a loss, but more is gained than lost in the bigger picture of him leaving, as far as the TEAM is concerned, right? (And even performance-wise, that too had fallen off precipitously over time--hell, he'd dropped to back-up return-man, and when Debose kept screwing up on- AND off-the-field to an even greater degree, Saunders had his chance to climb back with the spotlight on him....and proceeded to bumble away that opportunity immediately--perhaps you remember a whole game of first letting punts bounce past him in a wide-open field to help the punter raise his average, then (after getting a tongue-lashing the 2nd time) finally CATCHING one--but fair-catching for it with 25 yards of open field in-front-of-him, THEN doing it AGAIN and MUFFING it in the 2nd half--to effectively END his chances there once-and-for-all.)
Look, it's pretty damn clear: This team was a living, breathing demonstration for the pitfalls of having a squad built BURSTING with talent but with no regard for character, maturity, drive or discipline. The time to unload the last few remnants of that mess is NOW--'cause we are about to take off for new places, where the only folks who can stop us is ourSELVES...
As for a certain sudden relative-thinness at safety (at least relative to maybe how we looked on paper BEFORE all of this), well, yeah, maybe--but I think Champ & Staff saw most of this coming, at least the possibilities, and already had plans in place--and remember, there's STILL some time before NSD: I have a feeling they'll leave little to chance when it comes to the "D" for next year, mark my words.
