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.
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.