I dont think that ML secretly knew that they would fail and felt it necessary to lie to the fans. After Sean and Drew, I think ML was doing his best to pick up the pieces and attempted was to preserve something they believed worthy. Most fans agreed that it was OK to hire from within because at the time and still true to this day, was that DA was and is a great defensive mind. We all saw the defense come together and become dominant. So there was no argument there. There was no “sell job”. With Drew gone, JW injured, Ad being average, they felt they were a dominant Qb piece away. Something we as fans also believed. They tried extremely hard to get Watson and failed, then jumped full bore to get Carr. This also wasn’t a “sell job”. This was a normal progression. What the FO and fans didn’t know, was if DA can be a successful HC and not just a great DC. So fast forward to now, DA is still an elite Dc as evidenced by the defenses final season rankings. (tbh, I was taken back as they graded out MUCH better than I thought). So now we know it’s the offense that has to get MUCH better for this team to be successful. And they responded by gutting the coaching staff. Theres no “selling” going on. Most fans realize we’re experimenting until we find the solution. What we also realized in this process, is that DA is not the same caliber HC that Sean was. So it’s pretty clear that he’s on a short leash. With that said, DA is still an elite Dc, so he deserves a chance to rebuilt the offensive staff and see what happens. So I don’t know what fans mean when they say the feel like they‘ve been had. I don’t think it’s like they say, sold a diamond but left with rock salt. It’s more like, we’re hoping this happens, and we’ll build as we go along.