Andre Carter: has he shed his bust status?

I think Golston has played a role in Carter's success recently.

Does anyone else notice how GW allowed Carter to work through his struggles, while he pulls AA for sucking? I don't get it. You sign him to the richest contract for a S in history, he struggles in the first 8 games and he never sees the field again.

Talk about poor scouting. Apparently, they didn't even want the guy.

I think you could see signs of progress with AC, if anything AA was actually regressing I thought

AA was a disaster from the start and reportedly wasn't even supposed to be starting week 1.

Yeah. Carter showed something from time to time, and looked beast in camp (But christ, I didn't realize HOW BAD Jansen was. I might have looked solid in camp...)

The lack of blitzing was a byproduct of our secondary being destroyed.

Does anyone else notice how GW allowed Carter to work through his struggles, while he pulls AA for sucking? I don't get it. You sign him to the richest contract for a S in history, he struggles in the first 8 games and he never sees the field again.

Talk about poor scouting. Apparently, they didn't even want the guy.

I feel like there is a huge difference between letting Carter stay in and taking Archuletta out. Carter had a slow start, but he was still making plays here and there, until recently when he started playing like he was a freakin horse. Carter may have struggled to get to the QB initially, but you really couldn't blaim him specifically for giving up a huge play on defense. However, you could blame Archuletta because everytime he was in they'd throw in his direction because they knew he couldn't cover. Let's not forget who let Fasano, or whoever the other tight-end on Dallas is, catch that all to put them into field goal range. Can we specifically blame carter for not getting more pressure on Romo, maybe, but can we blame Archuletta for being a freakin bum and not staying with a rookie tight end, against our most bitter rival, on the most important drive of the game? Yes!
I think we should just blame GW. Every team we've face has chosen to run mostly to the weak side of our defense with Carter and Holdman. Carter is a pass rusher, and we let probably the worst line backer in the league stand behind him and try to make plays while McIntosh sits on the bench.

I must say I feel optimistic that Carter is turning into a strong player for us and possibly justifying the signing.

To me, this could be a real blessing because it means we have one less hole in our front seven. I think the key to fixing the rest of our front seven would involve the following:

1. Figure out a way to get some solid play from the ROLB spot. This is almost as confusing as when Holdman was starting over Arrington. Our season is over so why not let some of our younger players (read: McIntosh) get some playing time here.

2. Find someone who can platoon with Marshall in the middle. Maybe the person is already in our system, maybe not. We really need someone who is a run-stopper back there though because I feel like Washington is being forced to do more than cover his own assignment due to the lack of explosion from Marshall. Maybe McCune can contribute here.

3. We still need a solid, young DE. Daniels and Wynn are really in the eves' of their careers. I believe Evans is a solid back-up, but we really need to find a way to bring in a guy who can play the run and be a pass-rusher. I'm not saying I want a Julius Peppers here, but a solid young DE would be nice. Maybe this is a potential area we need to think about using the draft to address.

while i was listening on the radio, larry michaels said andre carter was playing different then in past weeks. i think that is b/c of the tom friend article where a player said that andre carter wasn't being used properly.

maybe GW is letting him play his game?

The D lately seems more vanilla, less exotic blitzing and more straight ahead rushing the QB. That's what we turned to last season when we got hot and it seems to have made a difference for Carter too. Just let them get after the QB.

I agree that Carter has looked a LOT better, but I'm still a bit worried about his run defense. They run to his side a lot, and he has trouble holding the point of attack. But he's looked good in pass rush, which is clearly why we got him.

(Yeah, I know, 11 tackles means he's doing his job in the run game. Maybe that's right. But 250 yards given up IS A PROBLEM!)

I agree that Carter has looked a LOT better, but I'm still a bit worried about his run defense. They run to his side a lot, and he has trouble holding the point of attack. But he's looked good in pass rush, which is clearly why we got him.

(Yeah, I know, 11 tackles means he's doing his job in the run game. Maybe that's right. But 250 yards given up IS A PROBLEM!)Like pretty much any speed rusher, he's going to struggle when you run right at him. So you get DTs who are good against the run to force the opposition to bounce it outside where the LBs clean up.

GW tried to get a every down pass-rushing specialist, not realizing I think that his scheme already created a pass rush, but now our run D has a hole in it (our run D on the whole this year has actually been above average, but 3 different teams have had huge games vs us).

Carter is bad for THIS scheme, but that doesn't mean we can't gut the D and create a scheme where he can be successful.