I've never been a fan of Ben the human.
I was angry the day of the draft in 2004 when we took him.
But Ben the player has been special for us.
We got to see him transform from backyard sandlot make something out of nothing game manager to poised read the D adjustment making stud.
But we all knew this day would come. Sadly, it's finally here.
I know some of us don't want to admit it, but the time has indeed come.
He's not the same Ben we've come to admire.
We have a porous sieve turnstile O-Line that needs attention. 23 year old Ben was able to escape the onslaught occasionally. 38 year old Ben not so much.
Because of this, our OC was forced to alter our scheme to not run the ball much and get the ball out of Ben's hands as quick as possible.
This dramatically handicapped the team as a whole.
Most of the blame goes to our O-Line, but some also lies with Ben and our non-existent running game.
Our D looks legit and setup for the next 5 years and will probably keep us in games while we piece our O back together.
We have a solid start with the WRs.
But the quicker we can jettison the entire O-Line and Ben, the quicker we can not waste TJ, Devin, and Minkah's prime years.
I'm not trying to shove anyone out the door. The truth hurts sometimes.
I appreciate Ben and the O-Line and Conner for ALL they've done for us.
But we need to rip the band-aid off in one swoop and get back to it as quickly as possible.