Quote:
Originally Posted by Paintrain
Two quick points. There's no reason we should flail for years to come after this season. We've got a very good defensive base for the next few years. If we re-sign (or find suitable replacements for) Rogers and McIntosh to combine with Haynesworth, Hall, Orakpo and Jarmon we're going to be ok on defense.
For as terrible as the offense has been, Moss and Cooley are two weapons most teams would love to have. I am interested to see what a new staff does with Thomas/Kelly. The O-line needs to be remade and we are probably looking at a new backfield but the cupboard is nowhere near as bare as the Spurrier era.
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See, I'm not even sure we have that. All along, we've been led to believe that apart from all our failings, at least we have our D. Guess what? That's been sub-par, and the upcoming opponents are going to shred us alive.
Haynesworth was supposed to open things up for a jail-break type pass rush, and it just hasn't materialized. And how is it that adding a guy like Haynesworth has marked the
decline of our run-stopping abilities? That just doesn't make sense. Until you realize that Cornelius Griffin is winding down, and that Golston and Montgomery aren't as good as we thought. Defensive end, finally, looks to be in relatively good shape if Jarmon, Orakpo, and Wilson are as good as advertised.
Then we've got a transition period approaching with linebackers -- Orakpo doesn't belong there, Fletcher is nearing the twilight of his career, and behind that you have ... Rocky McIntosh and H.B. Blades ?? Not good.
All along I suspected that we may have a problem in the secondary, and so far I've been right. Rogers is probably gone, Smoot needs to retire and DeAngelo Hall isn't going to form much of an intimidating cornerback tandem.
So in reality, we've got good safeties and a few good DEs -- we hope anyway. There's work to be done on the defensive side too.