Mattyk makes an excellent point here about Gardner- he was a menace inside for us two years ago. I guess the question is can C Griffin be that kind of player? I sort of doubt it- and I don't think Jermaine Haley or Holsey or any of the others can either. It would just be nice to see the Skins get a good young defensive lineman to develop. We haven't drafted a difference maker on the D Line ever. Sure we can rush Lavar and Washington to get pressure, but teams are much more successful when they don't HAVE to rush their backers to create pressure. The year the Bucs won the championship, everyone raved about how they could get pressure with just their front four. The same was true of the Ravens when they won it. That way, when you DO bring a backer, they REALLY don't know what to do. I just don't think it's good to have to bring backers or safeties on a consistent basis to generate a pass rush b/c sooner or later, you're gonna get burned.

To add to raleigh's point, look no further than the Panthers last year and how difficult it was to deal with their front four. Granted we're not going to have a line like that overnight, but picking up a young stud DT or DE in the draft would be a good start.

If we have a good d-line that will put pressure on the qb it will make the d-backs job easier. My pick is d-line.

If there was a Peppers type of player in this years draft it would make a lot more sense. I suppose we could trade down and pick up a lineman, mabye even two if we traded with the Patriots. Udezi would be a great pick up in the 10-15 range, earlier than that would be a stretch. I still think we take the impact player at 5, and if they want to do some dealing to get another lineman then that would be a bonus.

Keep in mind that picking up Gardener was a huge risk. He had been a dissapointment in Miami, and disruptive in the locker room. At this time two years ago, no one knew he would have such a great year and there were many doubts about the pick up.
With this coaching staff, who knows who will step up....I bet [I]someone[/I] will....

[QUOTE=SkinsRock]Keep in mind that picking up Gardener was a huge risk. He had been a dissapointment in Miami, and disruptive in the locker room. At this time two years ago, no one knew he would have such a great year and there were many doubts about the pick up.
With this coaching staff, who knows who will step up....I bet [i]someone[/i] will....[/QUOTE]
True but one thing that couldn't be questioned with Gardener was his raw talent.

We don't have anyone on the d-line currently with his kind of talent.

I disagree, Griffen has a lot of raw talent and lived up to it his rookie year but didnt play as well the last two years. I think with coaching and Daniels playing next to him that our d-line will step it up this year.

Where's the D Line help?
 

I couldn't agree more SKINSnCANES. Someone on our D Line will step up this season and be more effective than we might think. In my opinion there's no way our Defense should have slipped as far as it did the last two years. The last time we reached the playoffs our best pass rusher was Marco Coleman, who was on the downside of his tour. Ray Rhodes had us ranked in the top five, Marty's Brother Kurt had us in the top seven with perhaps less talented players at some positions. I cannot believe that two players. Daryl Gardener, & Big Daddy were enough of a loss for the Defense to dip into the 20's the past two years. It appears painfully obvious that coaching is the difference maker. Sometime's the most talented players are not the best players. "RUN THE FOOTBALL & STOP THE RUN" and many of our defensive woes will be taken care of. Third down defense, and draft the best defensive player available at # Five.

Go Skins!!

My birthday is the 22nd, yet im more excited about the draft, heh

Does anyone think that Knoble will be healthy enough to make any kind of an impact next year?

Our D-line is still terrible, thats one of the main reasons I've been really disappointed with the offseason, we really didn't solve our biggest weakness from last year at that spot.

[QUOTE=love them hogs]Does anyone think that Knoble will be healthy enough to make any kind of an impact next year?[/QUOTE]

Noble had a career threatening injury and will be lucky to start the year on the active roster. If he makes any impact it will be a plus, but this kind of injury take over a year to come back from, only to have the knee be 95%-98% of what it was before the injury.

I guess Noble is ahead of schedule and the coaches are looking forward to seeing what he can do, but I wouldn't count on him for much this year.

Yea all I heard was that hes ahead of schedule and hopefully will be able to play. We'll see as the next camp comes around what they say.