How will this defense look without Albert

Keep in mind we are talking about next year, not this year and much can change between now and then.

The Starks comment is correct because we have Johnson and Jones, two guys we didn't have last season and if one or both of those guys steps up and becomes a better player than Starks was we probably don't have the drop off with Albert gone. Also, between now and next season we will have another draft opportunity to get a DT if it looks like Albert might not be back.

I don't see the FO paying for some elder vet unless right before the season we have a rash of injuries and are desperate. If they do replace AH it will be with younger guys.

 

This thread title is interesting.

I think there's something very wrong when the performance of 10 players seems to be entirely dependent upon the eleventh's presence, regardless of how that eleventh player performs.

Who coaches a team into that kind of vulnerability? How does one coach a team into that kind of vulnerability?

 

The simple answer is we aren't.

The complicated one is to analyze what changes between 2 years ago and last year. Yes, Fat Albert stepped it up, but we also had Tony Brown to come in and help replace Starks (you can't tell me that did not help). Griffin really put a lock on the FS position, Finnegan and Harper outplayed PacMan and Reynaldo, Fowler and Tulloch were a big improvement over Sirmon, and most importantly, the offense improved its Time of Possesion, which kept the defense rested.

 

Yep, I'll admit that last year's lineup was an improvement....

 

You are not going to find another guy like AH. Few are available in the draft and we don't expect to have a high enough pick if there is one.

Still i think we can be fine. We had those great 99 and 2000 defenses with john thornton and jason fisk starting. It will be important to have a nice 4 man rotation to keep people fresh because brown and jones are under sized. Knowing that we will be losing haynesworth we will committ another higher pick and probably a mid priced FA. With jones we can actually keep 4 other DEs on the roster so really a 5 man rotation is possible.

AH has always been a real important guy because most of our DTs have been smaller players.

I have always thought that some backup 3-4 DEs would be cheap pickups to give us depth at DT because they fit well into our system. That's why i wanted nick eason a year ago.

 

It would also help if we had a stud MLB. Get two DTs that simply hold their space and a MLB who can step up and stop the run and it makes a big difference as well. With Albert out we had guys like Starks getting knocked off the ball and Fowler playing like a fairy.

 

With Kearse and KVB, the real running attack against us will have to be up the gut, so Fat Al HAS to be making plays

 

Basically what I was saying is that the three games that Haynesworth missed, Starks started, and he was atrocious, a turnstile. An average DT could have held our defense together much better than that. That's also what Haynesworth was when he came back, still playing with his injury... average. Plenty of depth available at DT right now, and on the cheap. I'm guessing you're right and we'll have to get through preseason to see if there is a glaring weakness in our depth at DT. I hope guys currently available will still be available then, just in case. Jackson is not Simon. He's big and fat, but he's still very disruptive, and one of the best run-stuffers in the game, in my opinion. His agent has reportedly been talking with the Titans. I don't see how they continue to tell the guy no.

 

Let us remember that the football genius of our time bill parcells gave a $4M+ a year contract to that DT you guys are calling a turnstile. I don't think we can blame starks alone for our problems when haynesworth was out. KVB is not a great run stopper and laboy obviously was not. Our other starting DT is only 285 lbs. We just need to be more stout all the way around. Maybe tulloch will be an imrovement over fowler and or fowler will show improvement after a year in the system. Jones gives us an extra stout run stopping DE so that helps. Having griffin starting from day one at safety helps and we expect hope to be healthy and back to form.

How different would this conversation be had we drafted balmer 24th? Balmer is a full sized DT who lifted 33 times.