Should we be concerned about the defensive line?

Im all for Taylor, I think he'll make an immediate impact with his size and speed. I think we'll be fine with Griffin, and it would be ideal if we could sign Wiley or Tony Brackens. Though i wouldnt mind picking up Wilfork who had a good day working out for the scouts in Miami.

I am not concerned about the defensive line. We could be better, but it takes more than a year to reconstruct a lot of our team and a decimated defensive line.

The bottom line is that we made some big strides for our defensive line so far, as well as adding a pass rushing linebacker that should help LaVar get free as well.

There is only so much you can do, without hurting the team with the salary cap later on. We've done a lot, and we may be able to find some gems in the undrafted players we'll bring to camp.

It is a concern that we are going to likely lose our restricted free agents like McCants because we have less than a million under the cap if Butler makes it through. But I think we are making a good decision to make the offer to Butler. Still I don't want to see McCants go.

Let go of trung or betts before you let go mccants

Seroiusly, Trung dosent need to be here at all anymore. His Usefulness was "Speed", but Chad Morton is just as fast as he is, and can be used as our change of pace back. We deifntley need to try to keep McCants

I wouldn't worry about McCants. Gibbs always had 3 good WR's and at least one of them was a possession type (Monk = McCants), a middle ground guy who wasn't a blazer (Clark = Gardner?) and a speed demon to stretch the D (Sander = Coles).

The O is in good shape now, so lets concentrate on D. I belive if we sign a good (if not great) DE now, then they will keep the #5 and draft Taylor. If they can't get a DE through FA, expect a trade down to get Udeze and a couple of picks for backups. Our CB's look good, so Safety may actually be the one real need left, although I have a degree of faith in the guys we already have.

Remember last year it wasn't pass rush that let us down, it was the ability to stuff the run. I think the new guys give us that ability and adding Washington improves the pass rush too. One more good end to take the pressure off Wynn, would mean the only worry is safety.

From these FA moves, it appears HOF Coach Gibbs has bought into the LDS/cousinvinnie school of thought on the Draft.

Who cares about the draft? We do!
The "twins" from the FO do not when it comes to filling needs.
The Draft only hints at needs. FA fills them immediately. HOF Coach has done something that everyone thought he could not do. Master Free Agency! The one area concerning players and managers all the experts said he didn't have during his first go-around!
Next, is mini-camp, our 1 1/2 hour Draft, and more FA in June! HOF Coach Gibbs and his experienced coaching staff knows what they are doing, and can get started quicker having filled needs.

The Draft always addresses "Best Available" as opposed to needs!

I don't know who all has looked at it but in the thread posted by Ghost about the mock draft by foxsports in which we draft Mike Williams, they guess that Taylor will slip to #7 because he had a terrible workout in which he ran a slow time and looked out of shape. Now if this is true, especially about him appearing at his own workout out of shape, do we really want him? Shouldn't this bring into question his discipline and desire? I know I'm not as sure about drafting him after reading this. I think the best play would be to draft down, pick up udeze, pick up jake grove, and add young depth to the d-line. after the cuts of moore, dung, and anyone else who doesn't live up to their paycheck, the skins will have enough cap space to sign the picks and maybe pick up a couple cheap veterans after the june 1st cut date.

I meant trade down^

I agree with all your points Matty.

I'm somewhat surprised the Skins made an offer on Butler. Not that I think it's a bad move (I don't really know him), I just thought if they were going to add someone it would have been to the D line.

I can only assume one of the following:

1. They weren't able to land other D linemen that they wanted and/or they didn't really like any of the choices available.

2. They can't really cut/trade Wynn, Upshaw, Noble, Haley because of their contracts, so they figure they'll get by with those guys on the line, and instead brought in Washington to improve the pass rush from the LB position, since they were able to drop Armstead with little penalty.

3. They really like Udeze or Wilfork (or another lineman) in the draft and plan on trading down to obtain one of them.

In reality it's probably a combination of all 3. I'd very surprised if they took Taylor with the #5 pick.

GO SKINS

I agree with all your points Matty.

I'm somewhat surprised the Skins made an offer on Butler. Not that I think it's a bad move (I don't really know him), I just thought if they were going to add someone it would have been to the D line.

I can only assume one of the following:

1. They weren't able to land other D linemen that they wanted and/or they didn't really like any of the choices available.

2. They can't really cut/trade Wynn, Upshaw, Noble, Haley because of their contracts, so they figure they'll get by with those guys on the line, and instead brought in Washington to improve the pass rush from the LB position, since they were able to drop Armstead with little penalty.

3. They really like Udeze or Wilfork (or another lineman) in the draft and plan on trading down to obtain one of them.

In reality it's probably a combination of all 3. I'd very surprised if they took Taylor with the #5 pick.

GO SKINS
I like that take, Canuck. I think you're dead-on.