Fewell733

The Bills though had that success because of offensive dominance, the Steelers routinely have a great defense. Perhaps it's easier to build and maintain a top-notch defense, but it takes a good deal of fortune to get a truly great offense (a competent offense that is good enough to win can be built though). Seems to me the surest road to lasting success is the defense.

Birk would make a huge difference for us. We should make a run for him at least.

defense first. If you have a great defense, you're more than competitive in this league.

Draft Daddy's reasoning is the worst part - the tackle playing on the other side of Peters was our best offensive lineman this year.

the Ravens run a very different defense than what we run. Leonard wasn't very effective for us. In Baltimore his tasks are more specific, he runs more blitzes, and covers less of the field. In our 2-deep system he had a lot of field to cover as a safety and was often not fast enough to cover it. He was picked on quite a bit. That said, Ko looks like he's on his way out himself. random note - Did anyone notice when they clocked Leonard's punt return he was running 5 mph slower at full acceleration than when they clocked McKelvin earlier this year (22 to 17)?

good pickup. didn't light it up each week, but was a force some other times. Clearly was our best linebacker this year.

they fired him. edit: guess I'm wrong about firing, Jax just didn't want to keep him.

I think he's a better prospect than Bradford anyway because of his arm and ability to throw when things start going wrong. Bradford looked atrocious when pressured and unable to make a throw when moving.

there are no sure things in the draft. Mack would be an enormous reach at 11 (a bigger reach than Pettigrew) and, at that, Mayock lists him only as the 3rd best center in the draft (for what little that is worth) I think we will go DE unless there was a run in the top-10. If that happens we'll probably go LB - and get a guy like Maulauga, Laurinitis, or Currey if he falls to us, or less likely, a DT. I'd be shocked by anything else.

I don't think we should go TE in the first anyway

update - http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2009/01...c3575149665.txt Maybin says he's in the low 240s and plans on being in the 250s come the combine

well it shows that we know that particular defense better since we play it ourselves. I think it just happened to be the case that the 3-4 teams we faced were better than the teams that play more of a 4-3 tampa-2. The previous year Miami and the Jets still played the 3-4 and we swept them both.

Seattle. Kansas City. Jacksonville used to run something similar, but I don't know what they were doing this year with Greggo.

weird post. the only clear gem at this point is McKelvin. IMO he is the best KR man in the league and proved himself a very good starting cornerback. Corner looks good. Fine looks like he do some things, but he's no where near a stud. Also too early to call anybody a bust, but Hardy and Ellis didn't do much.

I think so. We need a stop gap veteran we can rely on in the mix while Hardy and Steve Johnson grow. We were at a huge disadvantage when Reed was out because there was no reliable receiver to go to, and taking away Evans is always the focus of the defense.

I don't see why not if we really wanted to make it happen for some reason. Kyle Williams might be a little short for a DE though at 6'1. Generally 3-4 DE's seem to be 6'3 or taller. Baltimore plays Justin Bannan as a DE and that works fine for them. We'd still need a true nose tackle though - putting Stroud at nose would probably be a waste of his talents, and he'd probably be only serviceable.

i watched Clady get beat repeatedly against San Diego

I like the emphasis on the lines, but I do have some problems with it. Mack would be a huge reach at 11 while pass rushing talent is still on the board and desperately needed (and won't be available in the 2nd). I like Moala or Brace cause I think we need another big DT - probably don't need 2 though in the first 3 rounds. Also we already have an offensive line that is TOO giant - we need more mobile interior lineman so that we can finally run some screen passes like the rest of the league.

at this point it doesn't look like there is a clear top defensive lineman. Someone may emerge, most likely Orakpo imo because he's both productive and a workout freak. Some people think Curry, the linebacker, is light years ahead of the pack but I'm not sure we trade up for linebacker though.

well currently he's on a golf course somewhere just like our front office.

just cause they have a guy sitting in an office somewhere doesn't mean they are ahead of anybody.

defensive success is all about the talent. that doesn't mean he won't be a good head coach though. My main thought of him is his frantically calling a timeout as his defense stuffs the undefeated Patriots on 4th down.

the 3-4 can be just as terrible as the Tampa-2. For any defense to be "great" you need the personnel. It does seem though that it is harder for the Tampa-2 to be even be a "very good" defense because it's so conservative and because it relies mainly on the front-4 for pressure, requiring top end pass rushers. I hope we at least transition to a more aggressive 4-3 style where we bring the blitz a lot more often - or even a more traditional 4-3 with another plugger DT (and with that we could be more flexible in our fronts, even occasionally showing a 3-4 look). But to be very good we need the pass rushers, whether they have their hand down or not. Without Schobel we had nothing this year and he's already into his 30s and coming off injury.

it was a blessing that they missed the playoffs leaving their coaches and front office more vulnerable to job searches. Still though the coaches aren't the ones being successful on the field. They have a great offensive system and great talent on both sides of the ball. What matters really is that we get our own house in order.

there's really a WR named Passmore? i saw a college kicker a few weeks ago who's last name was "Barefoot." I'm still waiting for a QB named Johnny Strongarm.