Bak2ThaLab
draftaddict
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historically, if we look at some of the tendencies in decision-making of administration (Payton and Loomis) as well as some of the current issues mentioned by Payton regarding off-season evaluation I would have go with:
1. We trade with the New York Jets (likely a fourth round pick) for MLB Jonathan Vilma. Of course this is based on the Saint's doctors evaluation of his long-term health (a la Drew Brees). We've seen over the course of the past two seasons that Loomis likes to trade mid-to-late round draft picks for veteran help (Jeff Faine, Hollis Thomas, Jason David, Olindo Mare). He also admitted that during the draft in the year Vilma and D.J. Williams came out, that they were desperately trying to get one of the two. Vilma's weaknesses were exposed playing in a 3-4 DEF, but I believe he would be a better, more productive fit in the 4-3 (just look at Fujita's history in previous defensive schemes - Dallas ran a 3-4 - Fujita wasn't nearly the playmaker he was in Kansas City, which ran a 4-3).
2. With the 10th pick, if he's still on the board, we draft Kenny Phillips. Payton already mentioned as a part of offseason evaluation of the team, that one of the biggest keys is fixing our propensity to give of the big play. We can rightfully blame Fred Thomas and Jason David for whiffing on may of those big plays, but Josh Bullocks and, to a certain extent, Roman Harper have consistently been out of position in their coverage assignments. They've consistently taken the wrong pursuit angles in trying to track down the wideout once he makes the catch. Moreover, as we've seen a couple of seasons ago in particular, Payton has a tremendous affinity for having mutiple safeties on the roster (wasn't it a couple of years again we had like 7 of them). Kenny Phillips is not quite the playmaker of an Ed Reed or Sean Taylor, but to their credit the U's defense as whole in those years was much better. I think Phillips is more the intelligent, ball-wak cover safety we thought we were getting when we draft Bullocks.
1. We trade with the New York Jets (likely a fourth round pick) for MLB Jonathan Vilma. Of course this is based on the Saint's doctors evaluation of his long-term health (a la Drew Brees). We've seen over the course of the past two seasons that Loomis likes to trade mid-to-late round draft picks for veteran help (Jeff Faine, Hollis Thomas, Jason David, Olindo Mare). He also admitted that during the draft in the year Vilma and D.J. Williams came out, that they were desperately trying to get one of the two. Vilma's weaknesses were exposed playing in a 3-4 DEF, but I believe he would be a better, more productive fit in the 4-3 (just look at Fujita's history in previous defensive schemes - Dallas ran a 3-4 - Fujita wasn't nearly the playmaker he was in Kansas City, which ran a 4-3).
2. With the 10th pick, if he's still on the board, we draft Kenny Phillips. Payton already mentioned as a part of offseason evaluation of the team, that one of the biggest keys is fixing our propensity to give of the big play. We can rightfully blame Fred Thomas and Jason David for whiffing on may of those big plays, but Josh Bullocks and, to a certain extent, Roman Harper have consistently been out of position in their coverage assignments. They've consistently taken the wrong pursuit angles in trying to track down the wideout once he makes the catch. Moreover, as we've seen a couple of seasons ago in particular, Payton has a tremendous affinity for having mutiple safeties on the roster (wasn't it a couple of years again we had like 7 of them). Kenny Phillips is not quite the playmaker of an Ed Reed or Sean Taylor, but to their credit the U's defense as whole in those years was much better. I think Phillips is more the intelligent, ball-wak cover safety we thought we were getting when we draft Bullocks.