The difference in playing time wasn't anywhere close to what you're suggesting. Anderson played in 47.6 percent of the snaps, compared to 55.8 for Carter. source I thought Carter was consistently more disruptive as pass rusher than Anderson. Anderson would get sacks but he would also get completely taken out some plays. Carter was more competitive play to play. As for Ninkovich, I like him a lot, but more as a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy. If he is their best option to get to the QB coming off the edge, they're not gonna see the kind of improvement in the defense they're hoping for.
Carter missed 2.75 games and Adnerson's role greatly increased. ^ That's a lot of snaps for Anderson that really effected his total percentage. Playing every snap but 2 over the final games as well as every snap after Carter was injured against Denver probably gave him a nice ~10% increase in his playtime for the entire season. I'll also concede I was way off on my number of 1/3 but Carter played a LOT more. He was the better overall defender, but Anderson was a superior pass rush specialist.
I don't understand why that's particularly relevant? Anderson got 3 of his 10 sacks after Carter got hurt, so he caught up in production while he was catching up in playing time. Your whole point was he produced more despite seeing the field less, but after 16 games the difference wasn't all that great. If Carter hadn't gotten hurt the playing time totals wouldn't have been so close, but isn't it reasonable to assume the production wouldn't have been so close as well? If he stays healthy the comparison is probably 12 to 8 sacks, instead of 10 to 10. Anyway, I definitely thought Carter was a better player in the pass-rush, but I don't think we're gonna agree on that. That's fine, it doesn't make either of us an idiot, we just see things a little differently :up:
