Lance Briggs is available (1 Viewer)

[RockyMtnSaint]

Last years draft class would like to argue otherwise - Patrick Willis anyone? We missed the chance on a lot of solid linebackers last year. Some of which were off the board before we drafted but many others were there - Posluszny (who was playing superior ball till he got hurt), Harris (121 tackles, 5 sacks, 2 ff), etc.

A. J. Hawk from the year before too?

 

[St4ever]

I look at this from a little different point of view.

What we really need on defense is a quarter back type player. we need a really strong leader. an impressive talent but more importantly an impressive leader like Brees is to the offense. without a doubt Drew Brees is the leader of our offense and not one other person on the whole team would say different, they all accept him for what he is. That is what we need on defense! does it have to be a linebacker? NO! that is always a good position to have a leader in place at though. there is not one person on our defense that you can call a true leader. I would like to think of Fujita as the person but it does not really seem like he is that strong force although he may be presently he just does not seem like he is head and shoulders above some other players like Grant, Smith, MM. We need that leader! Can Briggs be that person? if so he would be worth the large contract he would require. Who else in the free agent market can we say would be that leader? maybe we should consider them then.
Thats just my thoughts on it though.

 

[Guitarzan]

Honestly I am worried about how Briggs will do when he is not next to an all decade LB named Urlacher. He may be a stud, but someone is going to pay big bucks to find out. I look at it like a first round pick in the draft... Briggs is a gamble. He looks like a TOP player, but I'm just a little wary...

uh huh!

 

[Super Dave]

Why wouldn't the Saints be interested. He would fit our defense perfectly because Simoneau and Shanle must go. I know he will command a lot of money but we better be in the hunt at least for him. But when his name comes up you don't hear the Saints.

It's obvious Payton knows offense, but he does not know defense and he has proven that his talent evaluation on defense is suspect at best.

I am not against Briggs, but he doesn't fit our defense perfectly, due to the reason you gave... "Simoneaux and Shanle must go"... that doesn't cut it for me, I agree they have to go, but I would rather two above average LB's than one stud and Shanle... He won't make this team a better defense by himself, we still need a corner (or two, maybe 3) a DT or two and another LB, a safety...

 

[NotOnHerb]

I am not against Briggs, but he doesn't fit our defense perfectly, due to the reason you gave... "Simoneaux and Shanle must go"... that doesn't cut it for me, I agree they have to go, but I would rather two above average LB's than one stud and Shanle... He won't make this team a better defense by himself, we still need a corner (or two, maybe 3) a DT or two and another LB, a safety...

I am sorry, but so many people on this board feel like we need to completely rebuild our defense to be competitive. Am I am the only person who remembers that 2 years ago this group got us to the NFC Championship game. I am not saying we can't or shouldn't upgrade, but if I remember correctly Shanle had a solid year when we made that run with over 100 tackles. Whose to say that last year wasn't a bad year for him and with a solid MLB he wouldn't have the ability to step up his game to his previous level. I don't remember hearing too many people calling for his head last off season.

I agree we have areas that need addressing, but to come out and state we need to replace 1/3 of the defense seems to be pretty bold to me. I'm not gonna say that 1 player will make us the next "Great" defense, but 1 or 2 players could have a much greater impact than many people realize. If we had a solid MLB who could actually tackle and shed a block occasionally, maybe our safeties and other linebackers could play the game without having to watch his back the whole time.

 

[Treybad]

Only if Briggs wants to become our MLB. As a WLB he would be to expensive.

who cares what position he plays at LB, he can play all 3 or 4 of the LB positions, and 10 times better than who we have now....

 

[jesusfish]

If you think upgrading linebacker is a priority, do not wait until the 3rd round to draft one. We're going to have to be aggressive about fixing this problem at LB that we've had for a decade.