I agree with your assessment of the lack of pressure from our ends in Quinn's absence...it's hurt the D and slowed some things down for the D overall.
In the run game...there have been some successes against our D, but overall, they clean it up (thank you Barron!).
I gotta think part of the move is Waufle wanting to make some changes and wanting to see LTP and maybe look at making some adjustments to ow the ends are playing and the personnel is utilized. It's a good move I think.
(If only Boudreau could get the same effectiveness out of our OLine)
I know Boudreau is a popular target but I think the OL would be a very different unit if Jamon Brown were healthy (and Havenstein were healthy). Yes, Greg has had his inconsistencies but he's looked good when Reynolds was next to him and that continuity would have helped him imo. It's tough to expect the OL to perform up to potential when we've been starting our 3rd, 4th, and 5th string OGs for much of the year and have had our best OL (Havenstein) miss a number of games.
Injuries hit us hard.
We knew there would be growing pains but look at how they run block when Havenstein is at RT and Reynolds is at LG. Just a completely different unit. Think if we had gotten to see our guys remain healthy and develop over the season, they'd be looking a lot better now. GR would still have his issues but the OL tends to be the sum of its parts so the issues wouldn't be as noticeable with the rest of the OL playing well and in sync and us being able to help GR out.
I truly believe that if we add an OG this off-season to replace Saffold, we can have a serviceable OL. And if we replace Barnes with an upgrade, we might have ourselves a quality OL.