He was 6-3 with Alex Smith before losing both Smith and McCoy within 2 games. If either was healthy, that would have been a playoff team. With Smith, probably a 10+ win team. We were winning ugly but there was no one strong in the division and we had mostly divisional matchups and weak teams left. There were a lot of issues with his on the field product, but he was still miles better than Ron. I was anti-Gruden during his reign, but I look back on those days more fondly now.

You forgot that we might sneak into the playoffs off of Howell’s arm.

/s - kind of but not out of the question.