A couple of surprises, and the positions on D that i believe need to be upgraded and ways to fix them (1 Viewer)

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First, Shanle shocked me and many other people. The guy has been solid, so i tip my hat off to him. In the offseason i saw him as the weaklink as many others did, but it appears payton and Williams have proved us wrong. This is why i thank god we are not coaching the team.

The running game went from non existant to a possible 3 headed monster. Bell is our workhorse, PT is still talented, and bush is our screen, toss and pr.

I see two weaklinks on our defense though.

1) Fujita. I dont know what it is, but he has not been impressive at all. He isn't attacking, and appears slow on some plays. The sam position needs to be uprgaded. Whether by trade or next year's draft we need to do something.

2) the pass rush from the de position. Grant and Smith are pretty much waisting spots. Both need to be upgraded as it appears star caps was the only thing keeping them in shape. They provide 0 push. Look at New York's DE's Tuck and Osi. They collapse the pocket and make plays. Same for Jarred Allen, etc. Our DE's are making HUGE amounts of money for LITTLE production


PLAYERS IN THE 2010 draft to keep an eye on in the early rounds

LB Rennie Curry Georgia
LB Brandon Spikes (can be moved outside)
LB Travis Lewis Oklahoma
LB Sean Witherspoon Missouri
LB Rico McCoy Tennessee

DE Greg Hardy Ole Miss
DE Brandon Graham Michigan
DE Everson Griffen USC
DE C.J Wilson East Carolina


LB and DE should be high draft picks for us.
 
First, Shanle shocked me and many other people. The guy has been solid, so i tip my hat off to him. In the offseason i saw him as the weaklink as many others did, but it appears payton and Williams have proved us wrong. This is why i thank god we are not coaching the team.

The running game went from non existant to a possible 3 headed monster. Bell is our workhorse, PT is still talented, and bush is our screen, toss and pr.

I see two weaklinks on our defense though.

1) Fujita. I dont know what it is, but he has not been impressive at all. He isn't attacking, and appears slow on some plays. The sam position needs to be uprgaded. Whether by trade or next year's draft we need to do something.

2) the pass rush from the de position. Grant and Smith are pretty much waisting spots. Both need to be upgraded as it appears star caps was the only thing keeping them in shape. They provide 0 push. Look at New York's DE's Tuck and Osi. They collapse the pocket and make plays. Same for Jarred Allen, etc. Our DE's are making HUGE amounts of money for LITTLE production


PLAYERS IN THE 2010 draft to keep an eye on in the early rounds

LB Rennie Curry Georgia
LB Brandon Spikes (can be moved outside)
LB Travis Lewis Oklahoma
LB Sean Witherspoon Missouri
LB Rico McCoy Tennessee

DE Greg Hardy Ole Miss
DE Brandon Graham Michigan
DE Everson Griffen USC
DE C.J Wilson East Carolina


LB and DE should be high draft picks for us.
just remember......we are 2-0

at this point we are nitpicking to complain about individual players' performances

grant and smith are getting pressure on the QBs but we have also been running a lot out of the 3-4....mccray is not built to be a 3-4 DE but smith and grant can play it very well.....remember that effort from the offensive and defensive lines dont always show up in the stats sheets and on top of that, we have only played 2 games

our defense is much improved and even tho we allow a lot of garbage time yardage, our defense tends to hold strong when we need them to and thats all that matters
 
Either way I agree with his assumption. Fujita is a solid tackler but we have been needing an upgrade at the Sam position for awhile now. Im please with Smith and Grant thus far. Obviouly with the interceptions we are applying some kind of pressure up front. I hope they improve their game a little more, but lets just be lucky they get the whole year off. Still early to tell but lets hope the whole unit keeps their play at this level. Geaux Saints SBXLIV
 
I don't think our DE play is a liability but I do think it's an area that, if improved, would be a huge boon to this team. We are going to force A LOT of passing this season and if we could consistently collapse the pocket and bring intense pressure then we'd be a more formidable foe. Our CBs have become very good and we have ball hawks in the secondary. Adding a young pass rushing DE next year would be ideal. That position has been a crapshoot in the draft though so I'm wary.
 
I do agree with your assessment but we'll have to worry about this in the offseason. Even if we win the Superbowl, we still have to try and get better. If you're not getting better you're getting worse.
 
2) the pass rush from the de position. Grant and Smith are pretty much waisting spots.

Agree we need a stronger pass rush from DE.

However, we play a very good running team next Sunday in the Bills. If we can stop the run, and make the Bills 1 dimensional while getting at least a little QB pressure, I will feel better about S&G.
 
Fujita would be great as a back up, but the man is getting older and a giant liability.
I wouldn't be surprised if we draft a replacement for him sometime during next years draft. DE will def be a target next year.
 
We'll be taking a DE high if the right guy is there I'd assume.
 
We should also consider that it is possible that the scheme requires Fujita to do things that don't show up on stat sheets.

I'm not saying that he is an all pro but I wouldn't call him a dog.
 
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