I do wish that Ben would do more than kayak in the offseason in terms of getting his body ready for the season, however. Especially now that he's getting older.

Something definitely was off those first 6-7 games. I don't know if it was a lack of preseason reps, playcalling or just a lot of new faces. Probably all of the above. Rogers was MIA pretty much the entire year. Took the WHOLE year for Bryant to get back. MacDonald was hurt most of the year. JuJu was a rookie. Bell sat out and took 3-4 games to get back to speed. And that's why JJ was your #2 receiver the first half of the year. Outside of AB, all of that certainly explains your QB being off 6 inches on some of his throws.

But like I said, we have the "lazy slob" critique almost every year but I can't remember him starting slowly any other year.

I don't think it's the arm or throwing that's the issue. But, yeah, as he gets older it's going to get harder and harder to bounce back physically and use camp to get into game shape.

Would like to see him doing some footwork and running development. The Ben that did some scrambling late in the year was vintage. You have to make the defense respect that you'll run for that 5-10 yards for the first.

Exactly. Do some cardio, shed some fat. Be more nimble.

On the other hand, watching fat Ben lumber is one of the great joys of watching his late career. Always good for a chuckle.

Hopefully the “pick six” play the offense seemed to become fond of running left with Haley’s playbook...

And you think that's all he does because.... ?
You don't think he has a diet to get his body ready because...?

It go back to him saying he kayaks for off season training.

Does he do other stuff? Prolly. Why does he always roll in to camp a chubby bastard, though?

Not for me. It is possible that last year Tomlin, or Rooney, or both wanted to retain Haley, or at least didn't make their dissatisfaction/ possibility of not renewing his contract known. Therefore, BR was commenting on the current state of affairs. Maybe he was simply looking for excuses to tell the press instead of creating more perceived controversy within the organization. Maybe this year he was promised Haley would be jettisoned at the end of season 2017, thus the quick response.

He looked pretty good on a few of those late season scrambles (as opposed to the fat, crippled water buffalo he looked like early in the year).

Cardio is what non-athletes do to stay in shape. Ben needs to work with a sprint and footwork coach. One of his best seasons a few years ago I think he worked with a QB specialist for about 3 weeks in the offseason.

In August it would be nice not to see Ben's second chin on the roster in order to clear up some cap space.

Sonny Jergenson off seasons do not work in the modern NFL.