Originally Posted by GTripp0012
On Canty, I was kinda wondering what the Cowboys insiders felt about the team not attempting to retain him. There must have been some reason, because the Redskins were going to go get him before Haynesworth signed, and people have lauded the Giants for making that move. Canty seems like a guy who has some great years ahead of him, but my perception has been that the Cowboys never felt like they needed to retain him.
Olshansky is incredibly mediocre, so certainly you won't get an improvement there, but again, if Canty had a knack for being disappointing, then it's probably not a downgrade.
Overall, I just think that if your defense improves this year, the improvement almost has to come from internal sources. I mean, the talking up of Sensabaugh is a great example of how replacing an overrated player who cannot cover a lick with a scrub level replacement who can't cover a lick gives the illusion of improvement, when the only problem that was fixed is that you aren't paying Williams' salary anymore.
So those internal sources: Ratliff, Spencer, Newman, Jenkins, Scandrick, B. James, Spears, and yes, Ware, they will improve. But if these guys are just not great players, or can't do anything more than they have been doing, all the coaching changes and meaningless personnel swaps in the world aren't going to improve that defense.
I think that was the difference between the offseasons of the Redskins and the Cowboys. The Redskins got measurably better on defense, while the Cowboys ran in place (while, admittedly, shedding some dead weight they had built up). Im confident that the 2009 standings will bear this out.
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