I would contend that while the OL was horrible, RW was also guilty of the scrambler's complex in that his belief in his own ability to extend the play also left open the option to hold the ball. I would also further contend that the leagues best QBs in it's history are not scrambling QBs strictly because the rather extreme option of extending the play is, in fact, NOT an option. Thus, an efficiency in pre-snap reads and quick decision making aren't just a matter of being good, but also a matter of not winding up in a stretcher all the damn time.
When I was a kid I never liked QBs. In my neighborhood, you didn't play QB unless you couldn't run or there was something wrong with your legs. You might ask a kid, "Well, can you at least throw the ball?" That changed when I first saw Randall Cunningham roll out, take a big hit to his legs, plant his arm, pop back up and throw a TD. That wasn't the normal, physically inept QB that I was used to seeing. Even in his Ultimate Weapon season; however, I never saw him play better than one season where, (I think it was Kotite) spent all of his camps with him giving him a 3 second clock. The clock was a timer for him to get rid of the ball. His passing efficiency was greater than I had seen with the possible exception of the one Vikings season. It had nothing to do with his ability outside of his brain and that whip of an arm.
The OL for the Hawks in the first 8 games was heinous, as my drill instructors used to say. But folks on this board like to play a game called blame everyone but Russell. I understand the relative roll of a QB on any given team, but the guy is not infallible as it seems that most here like to believe. He camped in those first sets of games like he had a 10 million dollar RV. It worsened due to the OL play, and he clearly became a gunshy QB in a dual cascading effect. I'll always be a RB and QBs to me have usually been the guys to screw up a game, and it took some guts to come back from that, but lets not pretend he didn't play a part in it. I've seen the improvement of the OL almost solely attributed to RW's getting rid of the ball, but that's just not real. The OL was improved by leaps and bounds and shouldn't be asked to protect the QB for 5 seconds or more. That's asinine.
That said, even though I have some concerns about continuity, I do think things will come together albeit with some rocky spots.
