Taylor says he's drawing the interest of four teams.

i truly believe wake, anderson AND a rookie can replace that, porter had 9 sacks and JT had 6 ? IIRC

 

Well if sacking the quarterback was the only thing Linebackers had to do you might have a point. It isn't.

 

No, but it is the biggest impact. Coverage and run support are important but they don't impact your won/loss record as much. The biggest impact on our won/loss record next year will come from the improvement in our S, CB and QB, WR play.

 

This is hilarious how you're trying to make some kind of message board martyr out of yourself and yet you can't support your position with even the smallest fact. 'Gotta go young!' 'JT is a liability!' 'Hindering young guys, taking up a roster spot!' And then when people go after your opinion it's because we're all in love with JT, not because your opinion has no basis in fact. Once again please enlighten us all as to how this FO is going to acquire a LB corps so deep this offseason that there is no need for JT's production on the team? I'll be thrilled if the Fins FO can field a LB corps so good that a guy who can sack and pressure the QB, create fumbles, intercept the ball, and score TDs has no spot on it. That would be a pretty epic LB unit.

 

I can't agree with that at all. The Dolphins defense was bad last season but overall they had a fairly high number of sacks. So what was it that was costing them? The middle linebacker spot was just as big a weakness as the other spots, I think the Dansby signing shows the FO thinks that too. Dansby is not a sack specialist. I think all of those things compliment each other. You need someone who can do one or two of those things well and do the others at least competently. This is why Wake doesn't play more.

 

All positions work together but they don't all have equal impact. I was very much in favor of the Dansby signing and where we had a huge talent weakness but additional LBs won't have as big of an impact as WR or FS.

Just look at our defense from 2008 and compare it to 2009. What were the differences? The overall difference was that we were the 15th ranked defense in the league in 2008. That's key b/c historically that gives you a pretty good chance of being a playoff contender. You still need other things but in general, a top 15 defense is good enough.

So what were the differences between our good enough 2008 defense and our not good enough 2009 defense? It wasn't the LBs. Yes, Porter was better but as a team we had more sacks and I believe hurries in 2009. The DL was about the same. We lost Ferg for a bit, but Lankford, Starks and Soliai were all better.

The difference was the secondary where we had three new starters. Two were CBs. They were rookies and they struggled but clearly have talent so we don't need to upgrade the talent there. The third new starter was at S. Hill was not great (barely good) in 2008, but he did play a true FS. He provided a last line of defense and didn't get beat deep often. If we could get a FS that could do just that then we should be able to return to a top 15 defense. If we could get a good to very good FS we could easily be a top 10 defense, especially with the talent upgrade provided by Dansby.

The other differences were on offense, which obviously affect the defense converting, controlling the clock and by scoring. IMO Henne wasn't the problem. He was a bit of a downgrade from CP's near MVP 2008 season, but going forward he seems to have the necessary talent. The difference IMO was the loss of the big target at TE (Martin) and the reduced effectiveness of Ginn.

So if we want to garner the greatest impact from this draft then it's going to come from improving our #1 WR and/or TE and FS position.

 

wr, te & fs makes sense to me

 

jason taylor had 21 tackles and 1.5 sacks in the final 10 games.
i would expect even you to understand that those numbers are anemic
he is a liability because he disappears during the season now that he is older just like he disappeared in big games throughout his career
you need to learn that guys like these when too old to be consistent have numbers that decline each season
i would love to live by the theory that taylor will wake up one morning and be a spring chicken but i live in the real world where players diminish with age and their ability lingers away. it happens to all of them that is why we have to get younger at the position
do you know nothing about what happened to joey porter. skills disappear and if they are not replaced suddenly you are stuck with garbage backups like charlie anderson and quentin moses.
You do have some sort of love fest for taylor and that is your choice as a player fan to continue to want him on the team regardless of the fact that he was nowhere to be found most of the season. i gave you the numbers and i'll stick to my opinion that the guy is a liability as long as he is on this defense. we have to wait and see what happens but don't be disappointed and shedding useless tears when they choose to not overpay the over rated this year and go with youth. oh and if that happens i will be knocking down your door to tell you i told you so. if he gets signed you better hope he covers his *** with consistent play that we didt see in 2009. I'll be ready to discuss this while jt disappears from the nfl radar.

 

What you said was completely false. He didn't dissapear at the end of the year. He had 14 QB pressures, 2 sacks, and set the edge in the run game very well in the last 10 games.

You sound as if we're planning on signing him to a 5 year contract. We're not. Max is two years, which won't be a problem because he can still produce. He is an aging player, but his game, which is what really matters, doesn't show it.

Btw, Charlie Anderson isn't a "garbage" backup.

 

He also had 4 passes defensed, 1 Interception (was a TD but officials blew the call), and 3 forced fumbles in that same time. He was brought in to be a pass rush specialist but due to the 'injury' to Roth he was forced into not only playing out of position but he was also regulated to playing on early downs and pulled off the field in passing situations.

As for tackles As already mentioned he was playing out of position and limited in downs. Also top priority for outside backers in the 3-4 in run support is setting the edge. They don't always accumulate a lot of tackles. For example DeMarcus Ware only had 45 tackles last year. By your standards he's washed up as well. Yet we both know he is in his prime.

 

Every play doesn't have to be a highlight reel for a player to have had an impact. You think things were a mess last season, that was nothing compared to what would have happened without a vet like JT to move over to the strong side when Roth pulled his crap. Let's conveniently leave out the fact that he forced fumbles, scored touchdowns and intercepted the ball over the last ten games. How many of those things did Channing Crowder do over the entire 16 game season? Why aren't you popping into every thread telling us he needs to be dumped? Obviously in your mind players are a liability and invisible if they don't make ESPN's top ten reel every weekend. You've already revealed your personal vendetta against JT for the 2008 offseason so any further discussion about this is pointless. But we did at least finally get some kind of stat that attempts to support your argument. That's a plus.

 

when we are looking to upgrade the position why is my argument pointless
you think we wont be going OLB in the draft?
we arent sticking with status quo
that is evident

 

Of course we're looking to upgrade with the draft. I'm saying that doesn't mean there isn't a roster spot for a vet that will produce something and that we know can save us from disaster at at least one position. Whether you want to say he's invisible or not, we could have done a lot worse. He set the edge admirably for the most part, the sacks and turnovers he did get were almost a bonus at that position. I mean how much better against the run is he than Porter. Matt Roth didn't generally get sacks or force turnovers and nobody seemed to have a problem with that. People were content with him playing the run well. I understand though that people might expect a lot from you when you're headed to the Hall of Fame.