Quote:
Originally Posted by O.city
Yeah, that's kind of what I come down to when looking at the draft and using some hindsight.
Frankly, I don't know that you can really know what your "needs" are until the bullets start flying and it changes every year. I think you just keep stacking as many good players in as many spots as you can and see what you come up with.
Plus with injuries and such.
My hope is that with this new coaching staff on defense we can start getting more out of less
|
I don't even need that much - I just need the whole to be at as good as the sum of its parts.
I spent this whole damn season saying "no, the D won't stay that bad because there's more talent than one of the 3 worst defenses in football..."
And I still firmly believe that. Houston, Ford, Jones, Nnadi, Bailey, Fuller and Nelson (yes, even Nelson) are all average or better NFL starting caliber players. Hitchens had certainly demonstrated that ability in the past. Sorensen had been part of solid defenses though admittedly he was likely over-exposed. By the playoffs I would've considered Ward in that average range as well. I just cannot convince myself that 2 or 3 players on a defense were so bad that they managed to sabotage the whole damn thing.
I mean sure, they can hold it back and in a matchup league they can be big problems, but still...it can't be just those 3 guys were that bad.
I keep telling myself that this defense didn't have top 10 talent last year, but its talent was enough to be firmly average. And if we can supplement it enough to make up for the almost certain loss of Houston, surely we can keep its overall talent level at/near average as a whole and can get the defense to play to that average sort of level.
And then hope we get lucky and find a way to replace Ford over the long haul that doesn't cost $16-$18 million/season...