We've heard a few opinions on this in another thread...and i'm curious what the rest of you think. Who's loss to the team had a bigger impact....Leon Washington or Kris Jenkins? pick one....and state your case.
Jerrico Cotchery for the few games he was out. Sanchez came totally unwound in the Buffalo game without him and it completely changed the trajectory of the season for him. The next game was the Oakland game where they totally handcuffed him and he never really got his mojo back until the playoffs. Going into the Buffalo game Sanchez had been ok or better in 4 out of 5 starts. From Buffalo onwards he had 1 good game until the playoffs.
it's a good thing Cotchery has nothing to do with this thread......otherwise i'd have to agree with your post.
Jenkins, his loss really limited our ability to put any pressure on Manning. When they ran the ball they did at will because we had no pass rush. I don't think we would have won a shoot out with the Colts so not having Leon wouldn't have made much difference. I also think losing Leon gave more chances to Greene which was definately a positive. It's also not out of the realm that Leon getting hurt also prevented teams from signing him away from us.
I selected Jenkins over Leon. Reasons - Dominant NTs are rare and tougher to replace. - the Run D and pass rush suffered. - our rush offense didn't miss a beat with Greene stepping in - Brad Smith filled in nicely as our KR
I do have to say, though, that losing Leon did contribute to the problems we're having with him right now. If Leon doesn't get hurt and DOES become a bigger part of the offense, he likely earns a higher tender and signs it by now. It also would have given more motivation to both sides to get him signed to a long term deal. Of course, it also probably means no LT. I'd say the negative impact it's had on our ability to sign him magnifies Leon's injury.
Because we had Shonn Greene I gotta go with Jenkings being the bigger loss. At the beginning of last season I expected Leon to be our best offensive weapon, but it never really turned out that way. Whether it was the way they were using him, defenses learning how to defend against him, or him just not running as hard, Leon wasn't the integral piece I thought he would be last year. Jenkins of the other hand is a beast who definitely would have opened up our pass rush a little bit more. I also think Pouha could have been used as a DE on 1st and 2nd down occasionally if Jenkins had been in the middle. Our defense would have been a little more stout and Peyton wouldn't have had so much time to pick apart our secondary. Definitely looking forward to having Jenkins back this year... hope he's still a beast.
Washington seriously isn't going to make as big as impact anymore as he used to. We are about power running now. He is under utilized here.
Putting the Buf game aside since he got hurt in the middle of it: 5 games w/ jenkins: rush D- 131 carries for 552 yds for 4.2 YPC 9 games w/o: rush D-247 carries for 884 yds for 3.6 YPC 5 games w/o D allowed 13.4 PPG 9 games w/o: D allowed 11.6 PPG
Pouha really stepped up and played well last year after Jenkins got hurt, but I still think Jenkins was a bigger loss, only because if Leon was healthy we may never have discovered how good Greene was last year.
wasn't Gholston playing in those first 4 games, junc. maybe you should factor that retard into your stat machine.
definitely jenkins even though the rest of the guys on the d-line did an admirable job of filling in for him. jenkins requires a double on every play and we have seen the ridiculous highlights he creates when he is left one on one with someone. when leon got the ball while he was healthy last year good things happened pretty much every time. i remember saying that he deserved whatever money he was asking for to anyone who would listen a bunch of times early last year but his presence was not missed by the offense the way jenks was by the defense.
Losing Leon also had the added effect of turning everyone into Thomas Jones lovers for some reason, which added to the drama.
There were a few games we could have won had we had Kris Jenkins in the front. Pouha did well as a whole, but our defense would have been much better.
more excuses. Despite your attempts to twist my argyuments I have never said we are better long term w/o Jenkins. I simply stated that both jenkins and leon are very important players for us and that the defense(coincidentally or not) got better after jenkins went down.
I'm not twisting anything, junc.....keep trying with the excuses though, it's fun to watch. I told you Jenkins was more important to this team than Leon.....and you disagreed with that. Well....the poll results thus far....tell the story. :wink:
that second miami game comes to mind. i know the two ted ginn returns were big but the dolphins still drove right down the field on the defense when they needed to in the end. that task becomes exponentially harder with jenkins in the game. pouha filled in nicely but we never saw him totally blow up plays like jenkins did multiple times per game.
