Quote:
Originally Posted by djnemo65
I just wonder where all these threads were prior to the start of the season. I seem to remember the consensus being here and elsewhere that we were a few big time playmakers on offense on pash rushers on defense away from being at the top of the heap. So we went out and added those players. This wasnt signing Mark Carrier or Bruce Smith, over the hill veterans, for their name recognition. We were continuing our strategy of signing young free agents entering the prime of their careers. Clearly our moves this year have been disastrous, but was going out and not doing anything an option? We would have killed the front office of they had done that as well.
It bothers me more when these phony prognosticators act like they knew all along that our offseason moves where superfluous and wouldnt work, when in fact, they lined up to pick us to contend for the NFC. Give me a break.
If you look at the core players on this team, most have been acquired through trade or free agency. Moss, Portis, Thomas, Washington, Griffin, Springs. Our philosophy has been to sign free agents entering the prime of their careers, and nobody had a problem with this when we were winning.
Moreover, with the exception of Arch, the problem has been with the performance of the players we already had and the unit as a whole. If we didnt have Lloyd or Arch or Carter do you think we'd be better now? I don't.
I mean come on, Ryan Clark wasnt THAT important, was he?
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Awesome post. I couldn't agree more.
On offense I don't think anyone can really be disappointed with ARE or Lloyd. You can debate whether we overpaid in both cases, but personally I've liked what I've seen from both. Our offensive problems are due to the Oline and/or Brunell, not the guys we brought in.
Unfortunately it looks like we really f***ed up on D this year, and that's why I put most of the blame for this season on GW and/or the defensive scouting dept.
Carter hasn't generated any pass rush as hoped. Arch was brought in to bolster the run D, but I think GW overestimated our talent (and durability) in the secondary, and when Springs and Prioleau went down it killed us. Taylor's never been great in coverage. Rogers was left exposed and showed his weakness in coverage. Wright and Rumph have been disasters. I never thought I could miss Stoutmire so much.
Holdman is one year older and three years worse. And Rocky can't even take his job, which doesn't bode well for his future. Then in a must-win against Tennessee, Griffin and Salavea go down and Henry rips apart our rookie replacements for 180 yards.
Basically this is a very thin D, and a couple key injuries really showed it. But if you're putting all your eggs in Springs' health then something is wrong at the outset. We went from cap hell to cap heaven with the new CBA, we had money to bring in key players to bolster an already solid D, and we blew it big time.