RB is definitely a place we can upgrade but it's also a position that you can find value later in the draft. Right now my dream scenario is going Notre Dame back to back with Teo & Eiffert.
Is that you BakerMaker?? If Te'o is available when we are OTC and we pass, I'll be incredibly pissed. The only issue is we drafted Davis in Rd 3 and if management feels he's the starter next year, they will probably look in another direction.
Thats assuming that Management does not feel Davis can play outside. With his speed and cover abilities I would love to draft Te'o and shift davis over. Wtih taht move we go from a very aging LB core to suddenly a younger speedy LB core. As for the elite/gamebreaker argument, I agree its purely opinion. I do not use those two words interchangeably. I agree that the truely elite player list is very short. I think if you can stick JPP on there you can add Watt as well. Both are disruptive as they come alone the D line and can beat you in several ways. to me, Gamebreakers are players on offense who can, with the ball in thier hands, single handly make people miss or simply out run them for huge gains. At the NFL level there are few who can do it with any type of consistancy.
If Davis moves outside we will probably play a 4-3 for the majority of the time. Davis is only approx 230lbs and could be too light to play outside in a 3-4. Rex likes big OLBs . Still, with Scott probably gone, the addition of Te'o in the middle with Harris would be a good start. Here's a Rex quote on liking Big defensive players, even though they're different positions. http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/jets/post/_/id/16844/is-chandler-jones-the-one-who-got-away I like McIntyre and he should get an opportunity to play OLB. Rex has passed up many outstanding OLBs (pass rushers) in recent drafts, the trend could continue. There is no question our LB group needs to get younger and faster, it's the glaring weakness on our defense.
I Davis still playing at 230? Becasue I thought he had gone up to the 240ish range. The teams site has him lsited at 235... oh well. Rex likes bigger players for sure, but is that along the lines or at LB as well? All the talk from the offseason was guys losing weight to try and get faster. Harris and Scott where the big two I remember reading about. Of our current LB's only pace and Thomas break 260. Just Harris is aboove 250. Downtin who they added today Is smaller than Maybin. We seem to be all over the place size wise, but one thing is certin, the Starting caliber guys are slow. All 4 of them.
I almost feel like this team is getting closer to be better suited to play a 4-3. LB's of Harris-Teo-Davis with Coples as the strong side end, Ellis & Wilkerson in the middle with Devito backing them up would be a great start. Would need a weakside end but that's a the beginning of a very good front 7.
There are a lot of ifs with that. Coples is clearly suited for a 4-3, and Wilkerson could be a very good 4-3 DT, but after that it gets questionable. I think Harris could play ILB in a 4-3, but I don't think he has the speed to play on the outside. Davis could play on the outside, but he has a long way to go. We also would need another OLB. We don't have one right now. I also have doubts that Ellis can play DT in a 4-3, I feel that he is more of a NT. Then we need another guy to play DE in the 4-3. So to recap, if we switched to a 4-3, we have definite needs at one LB position, and one DE position while there are questions about Davis playing the other LB position in question and questions about Ellis playing DT. I still think this team is suited for a 3-4. Harris is suited for a 3-4, Ellis is suited for a 3-4, Wilkerson is suited for either, but he does a fine job in a 3-4. Just because Coples and Davis might be better in a 4-3 doesn't mean we should switch to a 4-3. Those guys have got to adapt or get the fck out. Coples seems to be doing it and hopefully Davis can do it. The dude simply needs to bulk up. We shouldn't have to change to a 4-3 because Demario Davis doesn't want to bulk up. Not to mention, Scott, Pace and Thomas would all have to go immediately if we switched to a 4-3.
This is exactly what bothers me. It appears the FO/CS is moving towards building some type of a hybrid 4-3 / 3-4 combo. I have no idea why we're doing this or the common sense of it. Last time I checked this D was ranked 18th in overall yards/game and an even worse 28th vs the run. If we can't even play 1 type of D formation well, WTF makes this CS optimistic it can play a hybrid? And I brought up relatively the same questions about D. Davis last week -- figuring out what his full-time position would be as it certainly affects our 2013 draft philosophy. http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?p=2613353#post2613353
4 of the 5 top RBs in the NFL so far this year were drafted in the 1st round (7, 12, 24, 31) and one undrafted. For the 6th - 10th, none were drafted in the first round, one in the 2nd round (53), three in the 3rd round (73, 65, 73), and one in the sixth round (173). 11-15 shows two 1sts, two 2nds, and a 7th. Just to given an idea of how finding star RBs can really end up just about anywhere even if the first round tends to be the most successful. Of course you can find so many RBs in the 1st round who have amounted to nothing. I'd rather a stud receiver and OL. Unless there's a true beast of a pass rusher out there, I'd rather focus on offense this coming year.
You can do this for any position in the draft. The higher you pick a position the better cahnce you get a top notch athlete in there, but some late round guys are gems. With Lattimore out of the draft and us liekly drafting in the top 15 of each round we should have a shot a Bernard or Lacy in the second. If the current GM/Coach tandem returns that would go a long way toward returning to a ground and pound style. McKnight and Powell are jsut not going to cut it.
