[Lotus]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

Without making this post a quote-fest a few points:
-Football is the ultimate team sport. Improving the defense will improve the offense. We've added 3 key pieces to the "4th ranked defense" (which is meaningless really) which should make a significant difference. Haynesworth pushes the middle of the pocket, which has been needed for years. Hall is a playmaking CB with great ball skills. He will get beat occasionally but will make plays as well. Orapko provides pass rush which should increase turnovers and improve field position. By default, over the span of the season, will improve the offensive production. We were top 5 in the league in overall offense but bottom third in turnovers and sacks. I'd rather be the 12th ranked defense and be top 8 in sacks turnovers than top 5 with fewer changes of the ball.

-I know I am nearly alone in this but once we past our pick at #13 and we got Oprapko, which everyone is universally happy with, so what we didn't draft an o-lineman? Would you want us to 'mortgage our future' to trade back into the end of round one or round two for Oher, Britton or Loadholt? That would cost us our '10 1st round pick. Do you want us to reach for a player graded as a 5th or 6th rounder in the 3rd just for the sake of picking an OL? The fact that very few OL (and no tackles) were taken immediately or nearly after our 3rd round pick would have meant that we immensely reached. The other point is if most of you aren't patient enough to let Rinehart develop and are calling him a bust, what are your expectations for a 5th round G or T?

I don't know, maybe I am naive but I don't get the gloom and doom going around. Damn, cheer up, it's spring time and we're 0-0. Let the preseason (at least) play out before we start firing coaches and starting over in 2010. Would the '09 outlook be that dramatically different if we had gone with Oher (who lasted another 10 picks) or traded down to pick up an additional 4, 5 or 6 (what teams were paying to move up) later in the draft?

You are not alone. I am in considerable agreement with you.

If just a couple of things had gone differently last year we might have finished 10-6. And now I think we are better. One step at a time.