He was gassed on plays..obviously not in proper condition and relying on pure talent..he could be awesome if he got his sh&$ together..great talent.
I don't know, especially after seeing Brady carve up the Texans secondary. I'm with you on pass rushers, Safeties and WRs, but look at our defense- given the rules changes that benefit passing attacks and the wide open offenses that followed I think that a defense better have some good corners- and pass rushers. And if you don't have enough of both you end up with a defense that looks like ours. We need all of the above- pass rushers, CB's, WR's and an upgraded FS. Bring on the playmakers.
I think Getting to the Qb faster has taken priority in the modern era.its the more effective way to stop lethal passing..no?
Corner isn't so much a "get this guy and you'll make a big impact" position so much as it is, "if you run out of these guys you're absolutely dead where you stand" position.
That said, there's something to be said for going the free agent route at corner. Seems like those guys make an impact. Carlos Rogers has had a huge impact in San Fran. Johnathan Joseph has had a huge impact in Houston. Antoine Winfield in Minnesota. Sheldon Brown in Cleveland. Chris Houston in Detroit. Antonio Cromartie in New York. Aqib Talib playing well in NE. Who'd have imagined Darius Butler playing well in Indy this year? Dunta Robinson in Atlanta. Dimitri Patterson in Cleveland. Eric Wright in Tampa. DeAngelo Hall in Washington. Most of these guys seemed to bug the hell out of their old team somehow, the teams that initially took them, but they just keep improving and get acquired elsewhere and help their new team solidify a unit.
That makes sense, but at the same time I would say that a CBs ability to defend a pass on 3rd and long in a clutch situation is a big impact. Maybe not with all the flash of a sack, but it's crucial. And of course they can make ints as well. I remember back in the day watching Lankford and Judson on critical 3rd and longs and thinking "uh-oh'. They just weren't great cover corners and we paid the price. Tim McKyer was a pain, but he was one of the best corners I ever saw at Dolphins training camp. Players like Don McNeal, Troy Vincent, Patrick Surtain and Sam Madison made huge impacts. Without solid corners a defense is just vulnerable, plain and simple. As per our defense, we'd better draft well and get corners AND pass rushers, not to mention a FS and the WR mess. With six picks in the 1st 4 rounds of the draft we'd better make it happen. The theme of the draft has to be playmakers, I can't really see it any other way.
But what about our secondary, the one he had a 74 passer rating against with just 1 TD and 1 INT? Take away the roughing the punter that extended a 3 & out and Brady was 19/32 for 189 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 63.2 QBR. IMO a 1st round pass rusher would bolster our pass rush to a greater degree than a 1st round corner would the secondary. Personally I'd take the pass rusher and try my damndest to sign Aqib Talib, even if it means overpaying a hair. Not only would NE likely have to spend a high pick to replace him but it might take Devin McCourty away from safety, well worthy a few extra bucks for Talib.
plus you have teams thinking they can take a talented corner, stick him in a different scheme, and expect the same results like Detroit foolishly did with Leigh Bodden. That's why I'm with you on the FA route. Besides, if Marshall can be moved to FS then we really wouldn't have a ton of money tied up in CB per se b/c some of it would be moved to safety where we're currently paying in table scraps.
Aquib Talib is a thug and I doubt that the FO will be interested in him. As to the draft, as long as we draft quality playmakers I'll be happy, and my guess is that we'll take 2 DBs and 2 pass rushers in the 1st 4 rounds.
It's the classic chicken and the egg dilemma. Is it better to have great CBs, great DEs/OLBs, or a combination or 1 and 1? My personal philosophy is whatever you do, do not get caught in no mans land. If you have a combination of 1 great DE and 1 great CB you are toast. Essentially offenses will shift their protections to the great DE and pick on the lesser CB all day. I firmly believe that you increase your strength as much as possible and then game plan around your weaknesses. If you have 2 shutdown CBs you can apply more pressure by blitzing additional players while not being as worried about being burned deep. If you have two great DEs/OLBs the offense can't effectively block both players and one of them will get in the backfield; you scheme for the passing attack on poor corners by shifting your coverage closer to the line with the safeties more shallow. You do this knowing the QB won't be able to sit back there too long before getting hit. We already have one elite OLB/DE in Cameron Wake (his age is a concern as well) so in my opinion you draft another pressure player to pair up with him for now and one that will eventually replace him.
WADR why do we need to take 2 DBs in the first 4 rounds?.... and why would you think we'll spend 4 of our first 6 picks on defense despite the offense undergoing a WCO transition and in need of upgrades? You realize the defense is playing much better than it appears on paper? Only so many times they can be asked to cover the offense's arse before cracking on a drive or two. Over the past 5 weeks our pass D has allowed only 186 ypg and 5 TDs. Two of those TDs resulted from a roughing the punter following a 3 & Out and a Reggie Bush fumble on our own 28. Remove those 2 plays and we've allowed 175 ypg and 3 TDs. It's almost like you think this unit couldn't possibly play well just b/c Vontae is no longer a part of it.
It's a fantasy to believe that any CBs, but the HOF caliber CB could stop Brady from doing the exact same thing to their team.
On the bright side he is 35. Only about 5 more years of him... Which should give us plenty of time to see what Ireland's ultimate plans are. I still feel like we drafted Sean Smith specifically to cover Burress and Moss, especially in the endzone. We drafted them after making the playoffs in 2008 and at the time I thought it was a good idea, but in hindsight I think it is a weakness to draft purely for divisional match ups.
Had a question posed to me about the pass rushers. Asked if Werner might be the smallest and/or slowest of the top tier pass rushers. I really don't think so. I think the top tier of those guys will shake out to be Bjoern Werner, Anthony Barr (if he comes out), Jarvis Jones and Damontre Moore. Of those, I think Werner will be the heaviest by a good margin. I think he'll potentially be the second tallest, behind Barr. I think he might well be the second fastest too, also behind Barr.
The thing is, it's not just Brady. You could say the same about Rodgers, Brees or really any NFL QB who is on that day. There is no defense for a perfect pass. The rules have skewed it so that the difference between a decent CB and a very good CB is minimal in terms of impact. They can all be burned fairly regularly.
You have to put Dion Jordan as one of the best pass rushers in this draft! That's who I really hope we draft in the first.
Trust me I agree. The biggest thing that has skewed it in favor of the WR and QB is the pass interference and holding calls. I am all about getting someone in the draft to get pressure on the opposing QB. I want Jones or Barr pretty damn bad.
If you're doing a top four instead of a top three, now that Anthony Barr is returning to school, you'd probably include Dion Jordan in there. However I think he's likely fourth of the four in the eyes of the scouts. I think the fight for #1 pass rusher will be between Bjoern Werner and Damontre Moore, and I think Jarvis Jones goes ahead of Dion Jordan.
I should clarify. I don't think the Under Armor portions of the process are going to be kind to Jarvis Jones but they almost certainly will be kind to both Dion Jordan and Keke Mingo, so there's a chance Jarvis sinks underneath one or both of them.
Am I the only one who thinks Nevada's Zach Sudfeld is an underrated TE prospect? Are we talking about him in the 3rd+ round if he came from Notre Dame? 6'6 255 and looks like a poor man's Tyler Eifert. Had a rough career at Nevada. Redshirted as a freshman. Injured in year 2. Backed up the talented Virgil Green in 2010. Missed 2011 with a broken leg. Finally had a chance to see the field full time this year and was impressive. Seems like a nice fit for our offense. Will definitely be watching him in the East-West Shrine. [video]http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:8699068[/video] [video]http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:8749783[/video]
Jarvis Jones is my favorite pass rusher this year, but I think and hope you are right. I would love to have him drop into our laps.
I'd take a LB trio of Jarvis Jones, Dansby, and Mosley or Arthur Brown..... with Misi rotating in. I'm tired of linebacker being a sore thumb when a starter goes down, enough so that it wouldn't bother me making Misi a backup just for good measure.
I haven't watched watched all those guys but some I have. Eric Wright, Talib, And D Hall have not played well. At all.
Question for you guys. If we win out and drop a bit more in the draft order, what chances are we look to draft an offensive weapon in the 1st? Could you see the Phins drafting say Terrence Williams or maybe Ertz/Eifert with a pick in the late teens? Also, what of Jarvis Jones spinal stenosis, does he drop in the draft? How far? Is he worth taking the risk?
I think the further we fall in the draft the higher our chances of drafting a offensive playmaker. That being said, I don't think we will fall far enough for Terrance Williams to represent a great value (I see him more as a later 1st early 2nd WR) so it will be up to Ireland to decides if he wants to reach a bit. As far as Jones, I have had similar concerns but I remember someone respected here (either Boomer, ckp, allen, etc) said it wasn't a worry.
Is that what he has? Yeah that could drop him depending on the severity. I remember that big *** tackle from Auburn, Marcus McNeil, having the same when he came out in 2006. I'm not sure where he would have gone if not for the diagnosis but he dropped to the mid-2nd when he seemed like a 1st round pick, especially the way the NFL was eating up offensive tackles in the 1st round. He played well for San Diego, but I believe his career ended in 2011. He only made it thru about 5 years worth of games I believe. I'm not sure if the stenosis is the reason his career ended or not. He seemed to be forced into retirement due to a neck issue. As we're still talking about spinal health, I would need an opinion from an orthopedist before I believe they're completely unrelated and/or that one can't contribute to the other. Stenosis can be anywhere in the spine and I'm not sure where McNeil's was.
I'm with Chris and UCF......depends on the severity. It hasn't hindered him too much to this point and the issue with McNeil had to have been exacerbated by the fact that 60 times a game and probably 500 times in practice a week he was putting fairly unnatural pressure on his spine just by getting into his stance. As for Terrance Williams, my concern would be top end speed. I absolutely could see us take the tight end in R1. That strikes me as an achetypal Jeff Ireland move. Solve the receiving problem by not going all out.
That's true. Being tall certainly doesn't help. But on the flip side of things, how much pressure and trauma would be taken to the spine of a linebacker that spends the entire game tackling giant balls of fast moving mass at really high speeds? Bad things. It's probably for the doctors to decide, but if it's true then it does actually move the needle for me a little bit. Interesting. One thing I appreciate about him is that his top end speed seems to be for real. I'm probably sounding like a broken record but in Art Briles' offense he's given a very narrow patch of grass with which to operate. They're always splitting their outermost WRs beyond the numbers regardless of which hash they line up. Williams often has to work the sidelines without much space. The only way he can do that is by threatening the corner vertically, which he does. He's very productive there. Some think of the sidelines as the defense's extra defender. If that's the case, he's had to deal with tighter double-teams than most, because of the offense. I would hope it would bode well for him when things get harder in the NFL.
From reading around, at the very least, spinal stenosis will most likely shorten his career in the NFL. It looks like he was diagnosed with a mild form of the disease, but it was still enough for USC to advised him to stop playing and refuse to clear him to play for them. UGA doctors apparently felt more confortable letting him play, and he has rewarded that with great play since. It'll be curious to see if it has an impact in his draft stock. On the other topic, which guys do you feel are options to be drafted by the Phins if they land in the teens? I thought Terrence Williams because from watching videos, he was the most impressive WR i saw from the lot. (aside from Tavon Austin, but idk if Ireland has the stones to draft such a player in the first round.)
