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View Full Version : Leadership and Cohesion



muse
12-29-2008, 10:53 AM
One of the defining points of yesterday's game and pretty much for the defence's season was on one particular play where EE was desperately trying to get a DB to move into position before the Chargers snap (although seemingly to no avail). And amongst the Broncos' defensive problems - from holes of talent in places to *somewhat* questionable scheming - the loss of the last defensive captain from 2005 (John Lynch) left us with no real on field leadership. I don't want to take anything away from DJ and Champ - they are the spokesmen for the team. But, to me, it's always been quite evident that they are not true leaders. Especially with DJ - he's just not the vocal type and last night everyone saw that his head went down as the game went on. The so-dubbed "leaders" of the D (Webster and Winborn) may be emotional leaders and get the D fired up (for maybe 3 or 4 plays). But there have been so many times this season when they (especially Webster) looked like they had no clue as to what they were meant to be doing which is a far cry from 2005 where true leaders like Wilson and Lynch knew where their teammates had to be and could rally the rest of the team around them when the going got tough. As a result, we saw guys like Darrent and Domonique having excellent rookie years because they were in the right places at the right times as well as being fired up by the those around them.

So, how do we solve this problem? I'm a strong advocate for fortifying the middle of the field. Maybe looking into a new DT (although I'd be comfortable with Robertson/Thomas/Peterson/Powell as our rotation next year as I'm pretty sure our DL troubles have been much exacerbated by the scheme) or DE, an MLB and a safety. One of those has to be a veteran player, a vocal guy with a high football IQ. They're hardly run of the mill, but unless we can draft someone of starting calibre with those intrinsic qualities (which is a big ask) then it's our only hope. Although injuries have done much to destabilise the D, I remember back in 2003 when we lost both Mobley and Gold for the season yet our D still held together with two undrafted guys - Donnie Spragan and Jashon Sykes - filling in for them. And they weren't great players: Sykes is out of football and Spragan is an STer for the Phish if I remember correctly. And undoubtedly playing next to Al helped them out a lot that year.

In my mind, the order of our defensive problems ranks as follows:

Scheme and Coaching > Leadership > Personnel

The last point will be hotly contested by many fans, but there is a lot of talent and potential in this team. The DL - if nurtured correctly - should come good in the next 2 years. We have good OLBs in DJ and Boss (I know many write off Boss as done for his career...but there's probably still life left in him and he did have a couple of good games before getting IRed) as Woodyard and Winborn (as a backup). Our CBs are a talented group - Bailey and Bly being Bailey and Bly. Dre's actually brought me round with his play. I wasn't his biggest fan, but he's played much better than a lot of people give him credit for. Bell stepped up admirably although he's been getting shown up every time he's asked to play 12 yards off (:coffee: ). Jack Williams hasn't shown us much, but there's potential there. The less said about the safeties the better...Barrett had a couple of good games but really got shown up against SD I thought; playing him in the box seems to waste his talents in any case. Manuel will likely stay but strictly in an ST role. I wouldn't be surprised to see us bring in an FA and a high draft pick. But no matter how talented a defence is, you can't build one without glue. And getting some glue should be the FO's priority this offseason. We've got the cap room now (we should be getting guys like Javon off the books) so whilst we will need it to resign a bunch of our young guys in the near future, we should also make one big splash.

jrelway
12-29-2008, 11:09 AM
in short, we sucked, and we suck.

claymore
12-29-2008, 11:26 AM
Leadership has been a huge concern of mine for awhile. Jay seems to have the offense now, but defensively we need a vocal guy at the MLB position. If we draft him, its going to take a couple years for that to happen.

BeefStew25
12-29-2008, 12:39 PM
Jay did not lead one bit last night.

Buff
12-29-2008, 12:41 PM
Jay did not lead one bit last night.

Jay doesn't play defense. Game was over before he had a chance to lead. (Wait, were you being sarcastic? For a second I thought you were Tubby)

BeefStew25
12-29-2008, 12:47 PM
Jay doesn't play defense. Game was over before he had a chance to lead. (Wait, were you being sarcastic? For a second I thought you were Tubby)

Dude, I am the biggest Cutty homer here. But lets not mince words. He is immature.

Pick in the end zone was huge.

Jay yelling at Eddie was lame.

And Jay needs to learn how to take ultimate blame for shit, even we all know it is never one persons fault.

Instead he throws the defense under the bus in postgame. That is shit for behind closed doors.

GEM
12-29-2008, 12:54 PM
Ummmmm...the offense knows how putrid the defense is....yet, the offense didn't do a damn thing to keep the defense off the field.

Buff
12-29-2008, 12:55 PM
Dude, I am the biggest Cutty homer here. But lets not mince words. He is immature.

Pick in the end zone was huge.

Jay yelling at Eddie was lame.

And Jay needs to learn how to take ultimate blame for shit, even we all know it is never one persons fault.

Instead he throws the defense under the bus in postgame. That is shit for behind closed doors.

Yeah, I'm with you on the maturity. He seems to lose his head at the first sign of adversity... And his postgame one word answers and eye-rolling have gotten old.

But I think pinning anything on Jay is just nitpicking... He's one of the few people on the team to actually carry his weight. We were already down 3 scores when he threw the INT.

Dude's gotta get better mentally, but we probably wouldn't be having all these conversations if our defense didn't give up 40 a game.

Dreadnought
12-29-2008, 03:33 PM
Yeah, I'm with you on the maturity. He seems to lose his head at the first sign of adversity... And his postgame one word answers and eye-rolling have gotten old.

But I think pinning anything on Jay is just nitpicking... He's one of the few people on the team to actually carry his weight. We were already down 3 scores when he threw the INT.

Dude's gotta get better mentally, but we probably wouldn't be having all these conversations if our defense didn't give up 40 a game.

Agreed - this defense puts unbearable pressure on the offense every time it gets the ball, because they know there will be no point at which the D can save this team. None.

jlarsiii
12-29-2008, 03:49 PM
What scares me about this defense is that next season could be a repeat of this season just like the movie groundhog's day. We are evidently keeping slowik which means the scheme, or lack thereof, will be back in full effect. I would love to see us draft some new talent and bring in a FA or 2 but it wouldn't shock me for us to actually do neither.

In short, the defense was horrid. Even a middle of the pack D would have helped us into the playoffs this year. Unfortunately the few talented players we have are being mis-used and the rest should really never make the field except for special teams duty.

I would love to see a more aggressive, attacking style of defense which plays to some of our players strengths, but everyone knows that is not going to happen. Be prepared for our defense to be just as craptacular next season as they were this season.:tsk: