Rolando McClain About to Get His Walking Papers. Should We Claim Him?

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by BigHairedAristocrat

You must be confusing me with someone else. I just posted on this thread, and dont see any responses where you (or others) have gone over this with me and shown me the numbers. I havent had any recent conversations with you or anyone else debating Fletchers performance, so i dont know what youre talking about.

However, since you mentioned stats, i went to NFL.com to see where Fletcher ranked to see if i were just crazy. He definitely seems to have lost a step, but still seems to be playing at a very high level to me.

hes the 6th rated ILB in the league, according to NFL.com's "comb" stat, which combines total tackles and assists. Granted, thats only of teams that run the 3-4 defense, but if we rank him among all interior backers (ILB and MLBs), he's ranked 10th (out of all 32 teams). Granted, hes lost a step (we're used to him being #1), but i would say that number of tackles shows that he's playing at a high level. Not as high as he used to be, but still high. Interestingly, Perry Riley is ranked pretty high, too.

So what stats show that London is playing at a low level?

Granted, this was one game against the Steelers. But, from Pro Football Focus

Aging Fletcher?

In the NFL, good players can age seemingly overnight and unfortunately for LB London Fletcher, his best play may be well in the rearview mirror. He graded at -3.5 on Sunday, dropping to -11.7 for the season. Most alarming were his three missed tackles, which allowed him to not only match last year’s total of 14, but also to take the dubious distinction of the current leader in that category at his position. When he wasn’t missing tackles, Fletcher was getting wiped out at the second level in the running game, and even though he only allowed 4 yards into his coverage, Fletcher was responsible for fullback Will Johnson’s touchdown in the flat. His base numbers also benefited from a dropped pass from wide open tight end Miller. It may be too early to write off a player of Fletcher’s ability, but his play has taken a big hit so far this season.

Then there was another about his struggles covering LBs, which I can't find at the moment but is pretty evident

Then there's the fact that he's 37 years old, can hardly practice anymore and every week lately it's a "will he or won't he"

Planning to replace London Fletcher isn't "hate" it's just smart planning

[SFREDSKIN]

Who doesn't love Fletcher? He's still a very good player on the waining end of his career, he will need to be replaced when his contract is up or next year if a solid replacement is found (possibly McClain). If you don't replace old players, you will end up like Jack Pardee, fired. Pardee didn't what a youth movement, Beathard did, how did that turn out?

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Then there's the fact that he's 37 years old, can hardly practice anymore and every week lately it's a "will he or won't he"

Planning to replace London Fletcher isn't "hate" it's just smart planning

That's all it boils down to.

[BigHairedAristocrat]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Granted, this was one game against the Steelers. But, from Pro Football Focus



Then there was another about his struggles covering LBs, which I can't find at the moment but is pretty evident

Then there's the fact that he's 37 years old, can hardly practice anymore and every week lately it's a "will he or won't he"

Planning to replace London Fletcher isn't "hate" it's just smart planning

If there was one game this year I would completely discount for fletcher it's this one. This is the game after the "balance" issues where he probably had an undiagnosed concussion. That was, by far, the worst I've ever seen fletcher. Something was seriously wrong with him. I never said we shouldn't plan to replace fletcher. I said we should groom young talent to replace him... whenever we feel he's no longer the best player to start. I wholeheartedly oppose signing a pricey free agent ILBin 2013 when we have an 18MM cap hit if fletcher is still our starter. We'd be devoting too high of a percentage of our available cap to the position when there are other positions (like all 4 starting secondary players) which need upgrading more.