How will our defense hold up next year?

Are you serious? If he wasn't getting closelined every play, he'd have 30 sacks a year and countless forced turnovers.

What the refs allow to be done to him is criminal. The only time I recall it being called was that game-ending play in Dallas. I was shocked they called it.

Are you serious? If he wasn't getting closelined every play, he'd have 30 sacks a year and countless forced turnovers.

What the refs allow to be done to him is criminal. The only time I recall it being called was that game-ending play in Dallas. I was shocked they called it.

every "good pass rusher" gets double teamed . . . Orakpo is FAR FROM ELITE . . . Elite pass rushers will get past a double team . . . Elite pass rushers get held all the time, but still perform . . . I bought his jersey after his rookie year thinking he was going to be, but he has not developed a 2nd move . . . he has not gotten better at coverage . . . he has not gotten better at stopping the run . . . and we would be better off getting one rounded OLB and not simply having 2 decent pass rushers . . .

Might as well go on a mini rant in this thread:

:soapbox:
Over and over and over, fans have said, DON"T BE OFFSEASON CHAMPS, Skins need to do it the right way. Build through the draft. Don't overpay.

Well, guess what, if you build through the draft, develop your young guys, and don't grab every stinking name (regardless of level of proficiency) that appears on the UFA lists, then you may in fact need to see the play on the field to determine how well your grooming and development system works. We have invested time and effort in players like Barnes, Riley, Westbrook (if he's still on the team). Maybe they aren't elite, and you certainly need to weed out the outright liabilities. But every pickup in FA is one less player that went through our development system and one more that will later be reflected back as a sign of the same old same old. In fact even the receiver's we brought in to some degree will fight for time with our players we have invested in. Hopefully competition brings the best out, and we see progress from Hankerson, Paul, Austin etc, but on Defense, the group has been together for going on three years, rather than fretting about decline, let's hope that the development system is in place to make our players improve and see an overall improvement in defense. (Fletch is a separate topic, and I hope we get him signed back)

:rant:


I LOVED last years offseason moves. I LOVE the idea of getting younger and building through the draft, but thats not exactly what we are doing.

We drafted 3 WR's last year. This offseason we signed 2 and are attempting to sign another. While WR was by no means a strength of our team it wasnt the biggest weakness either.

We drafted 1 DB last year in the 7th round while at the same time letting our own guy and argubily our best corner walk. We also signed a younger Josh Wilson who was able to bring excitement to our defensive backfiled, much like Garcon is bringing to our wideout corps.

In 2010 Allen, Shanahan and Haslett made a major change to our defensive scheme that turned the strength of our team into the biggest weakness, and even worse in my opinion created many more holes that needed filling. The D improved in 2011 and many of the holes that were created in the previsous year's change were filled with several mid profile FA signings along with 6 draft picks that were spent on the deffensive unit.

But while the front 7 now looks and smells like a 3-4 defense lacking only a true NT, the secondary, and saftey spot in particular, has fallen apart. Meanwhile we have no draft picks until the third round to go along with our glaring needs at the RT/G positions. Hopefully we can get some late round DB's, but late round gems seem almost mythological or one year wonders when it comes to the CB and S positions.

So we cant just build though the draft, were missing 1st round picks in 2013 and 2014 and only have late round picks to spend on our defensive for this year. I dont think we should break the bank on anyone but unfortunitly we can just groom our own guys.

But while the front 7 now looks and smells like a 3-4 defense lacking only a true NT, the secondary, and saftey spot in particular, has fallen apart. Meanwhile we have no draft picks until the third round to go along with our glaring needs at the RT/G positions. Hopefully we can get some late round DB's, but late round gems seem almost mythological or one year wonders when it comes to the CB and S positions.

holy crap! i must have missed something. what happened our #2 overall pick?!?!!

So we cant just build though the draft, were missing 1st round picks in 2013 and 2014 and only have late round picks to spend on our defensive for this year. I dont think we should break the bank on anyone but unfortunitly we can just groom our own guys.

a wise man once said, don't complain about the way things are done unless you have a better idea.

You obviously take issue with the fact that, we gave up 3 picks to move up to take griffen. you specifically seem to be under the beleif that, if we hadnt made the trade, we'd somehow be in a better position to improve our secondary this year. please, propose to me, a better solution for are team where we didnt give up our 2nd rounder. what would you have had us do with our 1st and 2nd round picks that would make our team better than a franchise quarterback? please. tell us. whatis your better idea?

Don't forget Kerrigan. That bum only had 7 sacks and one pick for a touchdown last year. Worth the 16th overall pick? Nahhhhh.

Left him out. He looks like he's going to be a good player. Elite? I don't know, time will tell. We need some elite players on the defense and right now we don't have one.

holy crap! i must have missed something. what happened our #2 overall pick?!?!!



a wise man once said, don't complain about the way things are done unless you have a better idea.

You obviously take issue with the fact that, we gave up 3 picks to move up to take griffen. you specifically seem to be under the beleif that, if we hadnt made the trade, we'd somehow be in a better position to improve our secondary this year. please, propose to me, a better solution for are team where we didnt give up our 2nd rounder. what would you have had us do with our 1st and 2nd round picks that would make our team better than a franchise quarterback? please. tell us. whatis your better idea?


Relax brah.

The use of our second overall pick is a foregone conclusion. My apologizes if that needs to be repeated for you in ever reference to this year's draft.

Another wise man once said I like the dreams of the future better then the history of the past. I like to say, who dont?

Based off of historical success of 1st round QB's and some of the questionable moves this FO has made, do i think we gave up too much for Griffin? Probably. But im not against it, nor do I take issue with it. Im indifferent on it. And im excited and as hopeful as you it will work out.

If I sound like I was complaining, my bad. In my opinion forums are a place to share thoughts, form populist opinions, complain and offer praise. Unfortunately, for the time being, I am unable to point to any measurables that able me to offer praise and conviction in the management of this team. I was just trying to share my thoughts that we aint in position to build a competent secondary though the draft anytime soon.

And I don’t think I said anything to imply that our secondary would be better off this year if not for already spending our second round pick. Im just saying that our secondary wont be built through the draft….. because we don’t have the draft picks to do so, nor have we used our draft picks when available to do so in the recent past. Sure we got Gomes and Thompson, and maybe theyre the next Chris Horton and Sam Shields, not sure if that’s a good thing or not though?

At the end of theday the things I would have done differently don’t matter. At all. And if you would have done things exactly the same as our FO that doesn’t matter either. Whatsoever. My ideas, your ideas, and everyone else’s ideas of how we should build this team may be better, worse or the same as Allen’s, Shanahan’s, and Danny’s. But none of our ideas actually matter.

Fletch likely returns.

If this happens, we have basically the same defense as last year + Jarvis Jenkins, with the exception of our two opening day safeties. But as others have indicated, Landry and Atogwe did not see the field all that much last year. We've already made do without them although our safety play was problematic.

Although Gomes struggled in his rookie season, many good players do. Maybe he will raise his game.

So, in sum, there are concerns at safety but no reason to freak out yet.
WTF, LL has not had any impact other than spotty since...??? Sean?
Atogwe...nothing to see there...
It has to get better from here...
HTTR...RG3

WTF, LL has not had any impact other than spotty since...??? Sean?
Atogwe...nothing to see there...
It has to get better from here...
HTTR...RG3Also known as the John Beck argument.

Looks lost in a 3-4, lost his job to Perry Riley, and is pretty average.

Yeah, but it's nice to have average guys on the depth charts.

Also known as the John Beck argument.
There is some truth in that an improved O would bring about nice things for the D.....AND, although not SB ready this year, I do expect significant improvement in that area.