mayoclinic
Sith Apprentice
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2010
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- 9,075
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We won our 3rd SB in 2004, and then the bottom of our defense fell out:
- The OLB corps fell apart - McGinest got old and left after 2005, Vrabel started to get old and was a shadow of himself by 2008, Colvin was banged up.
- The ILB corps fell apart - Tedy Bruschi had a devastating stroke and never returned to his previous form before retiring in 2009; Ted Johnson unexpectedly retired; and the loss of Roman Pfifer left us short at cover LB
- The Secondary collapsed - Ty Law got old and then left; Rodney got old and injury prone before retiring in 2009; Asante Samuel developed nicely but then left after 2007; Eugene Wilson regressed from his 2003-2004 form and then left.
Only the DL remained consistently excellent from 2005-2009. The Seymour trade obviously had an impact, but an infusion of talent and the development of Mike Wright kept the DL fairly strong, if not quite at it's previous level.
We seem to finally be on the road to rebuilding the defense:
1. With the addition of Brandon Spikes we now have the best 4 man ILB rotation we've had since our SB years in Mayo, Spikes, Mackenzie and Guyton. Mackenzie and Spikes will have a learning curve in 2010, but by 2011 we should have a really strong and cohesive group, with a nice blend of size, speed and skills.
2. The rebuilding of the secondary seems essentially complete. The addition of Devin McCourty gives us 5 solid playmakers (Bodden, Butler, McCourty, Meriweather, and Chung, assuming Chung makes the usual 2nd year progression) and a bevy of solid role players (Sanders, McGowan, Wilhite, Wheatley, Springs).
We still need to tweak the pass rush (though hopefully Jermaine Cunningham will help, and we could add another pass rusher later in this draft) and the DL, but the defense seems to finally be the most solid that it has been since the SB years. With 4 picks in the first 2 rounds in 2011, we should be in position to add the finishing touches on rebuilding the defense to a SB caliber unit.
Guys I'd like to see us target on day 3 include:
- DE Corey Wootten or Clifton Geathers
- DE/OLB Everson Griffen or Eric Norwood (some would add Ricky Sapp)
2011 prospects who could be major additions (depending on how we address needs later in this draft) include:
- DE Cameron Heyward, Jared Crick and Cameron Jordan
- DE/OLB Robert Quinn, Greg Romeus and Jeremy Beal
I'm finally beginning to feel good about getting back to having a SB-caliber defense.
- The OLB corps fell apart - McGinest got old and left after 2005, Vrabel started to get old and was a shadow of himself by 2008, Colvin was banged up.
- The ILB corps fell apart - Tedy Bruschi had a devastating stroke and never returned to his previous form before retiring in 2009; Ted Johnson unexpectedly retired; and the loss of Roman Pfifer left us short at cover LB
- The Secondary collapsed - Ty Law got old and then left; Rodney got old and injury prone before retiring in 2009; Asante Samuel developed nicely but then left after 2007; Eugene Wilson regressed from his 2003-2004 form and then left.
Only the DL remained consistently excellent from 2005-2009. The Seymour trade obviously had an impact, but an infusion of talent and the development of Mike Wright kept the DL fairly strong, if not quite at it's previous level.
We seem to finally be on the road to rebuilding the defense:
1. With the addition of Brandon Spikes we now have the best 4 man ILB rotation we've had since our SB years in Mayo, Spikes, Mackenzie and Guyton. Mackenzie and Spikes will have a learning curve in 2010, but by 2011 we should have a really strong and cohesive group, with a nice blend of size, speed and skills.
2. The rebuilding of the secondary seems essentially complete. The addition of Devin McCourty gives us 5 solid playmakers (Bodden, Butler, McCourty, Meriweather, and Chung, assuming Chung makes the usual 2nd year progression) and a bevy of solid role players (Sanders, McGowan, Wilhite, Wheatley, Springs).
We still need to tweak the pass rush (though hopefully Jermaine Cunningham will help, and we could add another pass rusher later in this draft) and the DL, but the defense seems to finally be the most solid that it has been since the SB years. With 4 picks in the first 2 rounds in 2011, we should be in position to add the finishing touches on rebuilding the defense to a SB caliber unit.
Guys I'd like to see us target on day 3 include:
- DE Corey Wootten or Clifton Geathers
- DE/OLB Everson Griffen or Eric Norwood (some would add Ricky Sapp)
2011 prospects who could be major additions (depending on how we address needs later in this draft) include:
- DE Cameron Heyward, Jared Crick and Cameron Jordan
- DE/OLB Robert Quinn, Greg Romeus and Jeremy Beal
I'm finally beginning to feel good about getting back to having a SB-caliber defense.
