Thread: Good to know our D-line is still a joke

This one comes from Don Banks of si.com:

Just wondering, but if Simeon Rice makes the Hall of Fame, will he go in as a Bronco? Talk about falling off the radar screen. After generating a few headlines this preseason when he was scouting around for a team, that wound up being all Rice produced in Denver. To be honest, I forgot he was even with the Broncos this year until, well, he wasn't any more. Denver released him the other day, and you can add his name to the list of swings and misses that Mike Shanahan has made when it comes to signing veteran defensive linemen in recent years.

Hard to argue with that one.

There are a couple bright spots in our d-line every year. By and large, Shanahanaramjamahahnana has made quite a few bad personnel decisions regarding our D-line. IMO, we have the personnel right now to make our D-line very good, it's just a matter of getting the right scheme inserted.

Hard to argue with that article though. Even when Simeon was in the game, he didn't do jack.

Originally Posted by SeeingRed

Hard to argue with that article though. Even when Simeon was in the game, he didn't do jack.

Then you are agreeing (not arguing) with the article, because that is also what it said.

Originally Posted by eessydo

Then you are agreeing (not arguing) with the article, because that is also what it said.

I'm agreeing. Denver's D line hasn't been very good the past couple of years. I've been impressed with them the past couple of games though, going back to the game vs Pitt. As it sits right now, our defense is still ranked last against the run, but it's getting better. We'll probably be bottom 5 for the rest of the year, but tha'ts because of the giant hole we dug ourselves in to earlier in the year, so some teams might be surprised when they can't run on us as well as they thought they could as the year goes on.

Originally Posted by SeeingRed

There are a couple bright spots in our d-line every year. By and large, Shanahanaramjamahahnana has made quite a few bad personnel decisions regarding our D-line. IMO, we have the personnel right now to make our D-line very good, it's just a matter of getting the right scheme inserted.

Hard to argue with that article though. Even when Simeon was in the game, he didn't do jack.

Outside of Dumervil last year I can't remember that last bright spot in DEN, Hayward and the other guy but they had a year and were gone. and then price who only played when being called out by coach and teammates.

Not much to crow about since Superbowl 8 years ago.

It all boils down to making the DL a priority mikey has been content with has beens.

The only real mistake in recent years was Warren, and that was in the fat
contract they gave him when he re-upped, not in his acquisition. The prices
the Broncos have paid in these linemen were pretty small for what they got.
Warren, Myers, and Lang were serviceable and filled some holes for a while.
Courtney Brown's contributions would have been immense, but for a career-
ending injury. Ekuban is still with them as a very good DE, although he is
recovering from injury.

Where I became , was when they gave that big, fat contract to Graham,
good as he is, after letting Abraham go on down the road. But even I was
wrong, in that they need DTs, not DEs. At least, that was the case until Moss
went down.

Regarding Rice, I thought that was a good gamble because he was the best
DE the league had seen since Reggie White hung 'em up. If he would not
have been over the hill . . . which no one could foresee, even him . . . he
would have teamed with Dumervil in making the D-line a fearsome pass-
rushing force.

One can look at any team in the league and see that personnel acquisitions
come and go. It's hit and miss. That's the nature of the beast, as they say.

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This is just my observation, but I could be wrong...

I think the fact that our defense has been consistently getting pressure on the QB all year is being severely overshadowed by the fact that our defense has been so bad against the run.

As we get better against the run, more QBs will be pressured to pass, and our defensive numbers will get better in both turnovers and run D.

Originally Posted by topscribe

If he would not have been over the hill . . . which no one could foresee, even him . . .

Tampa Bay foresaw it, and they have been much better at defensive personnel decisions than Denver over the last 10 years. They ditched him because they could see they needed to move on. What player, may I ask, who still thinks they can play would foresee their own downfall? Sometimes in life you have to look to others because you are in too deep personnaly to understand that you have given it everything you had and it is time to hang up the shoes.

Originally Posted by topscribe

One can look at any team in the league and see that personnel acquisitions
come and go. It's hit and miss. That's the nature of the beast, as they say.
-----

True, and every team needs to understand that they are better at evaluating some positions over others. We seem to have a knack at Offensive linemen, linebackers and tight ends. We have struggled with D-line, receivers. We have significantly improved with DB's since we pulled in Champ.

RB's are arguable, we have had some superstars and some servicable backs that could not thrive in any other system. So I would say that even though we have had great success there, we also have had some decent players in our system, that would have been failures in other systems (droughns and tatum bell come to mind).

Tampa can find defense, but struggles on the offensive side of the ball. So we should trust that they are dumping him for a reason, and have the sense to stay away.

Originally Posted by eessydo

Tampa Bay foresaw it, and they have been much better at defensive personnel decisions than Denver over the last 10 years. They ditched him because they could see they needed to move on. What player, may I ask, who still thinks they can play would foresee their own downfall? Sometimes in life you have to look to others because you are in too deep personnaly to understand that you have given it everything you had and it is time to hang up the shoes.




True, and every team needs to understand that they are better at evaluating some positions over others. We seem to have a knack at Offensive linemen, linebackers and tight ends. We have struggled with D-line, receivers. We have significantly improved with DB's since we pulled in Champ.

RB's are arguable, we have had some superstars and some servicable backs that could not thrive in any other system. So I would say that even though we have had great success there, we also have had some decent players in our system, that would have been failures in other systems (droughns and tatum bell come to mind).

Tampa can find defense, but struggles on the offensive side of the ball. So we should trust that they are dumping him for a reason, and have the sense to stay away.

Some very good points here.

Still, when it involves the best DE since Reggie White, it is not a bad gamble,
even if it didn't turn out well. Because, as I mentioned, had it indeed worked
out, Denver would have had a formidable pass rush.

Gambles such as that are not bad. Jerry Rice and Tony Dorsett are other
cases in point. They didn't work out as hoped, but when you consider that
they were among the greatest ever at their respective positions, you take
the gamble. I don't regret any of them.

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lol, now he's a swing and miss for Dungy ... Cory Simon anyone??

Originally Posted by eessydo

This one comes from Don Banks of si.com:



Hard to argue with that one.

No, its easy to argue with that one. Rice is getting older AND coming off of an injury. Denver signed him because he was the best thing available at the time. Its not like they signed him between signing Graham and Stokley. They signed him to a one year contract so it didnt handcuff us in any way. It was worth a shot. Don Banks is a moron.

Originally Posted by lex

No, its easy to argue with that one. Rice is getting older AND coming off of an injury. Denver signed him because he was the best thing available at the time. Its not like they signed him between signing Graham and Stokley. They signed him to a one year contract so it didnt handcuff us in any way. It was worth a shot. Don Banks is a moron.

Maybe you didn't understand the article? The point of the red highlighted part was that it was a swing and a miss on Shanahan's part because he took a gamble with Rice (as he did with the rest of the Cleveland Browncos) and it didn't pan out.

Originally Posted by SeeingRed

Maybe you didn't understand the article? The point of the red highlighted part was that it was a swing and a miss on Shanahan's part because he took a gamble with Rice (as he did with the rest of the Cleveland Browncos) and it didn't pan out.

But his point is that this wasn't a swing and miss. This was a desperation signing and Rice was the only FA available with experience and that was at least good at some point. We just brought in Rice because we have so many young players. That and the fact that our starter had gone down....

This wasn't a bad signing. We lost almost no money on it because they didn't give him much of a contract. He was just here to make sure the young guys where not horrible before we turned the reigns over to them.

You guys want to talk about it but as I see it, we are doing great on the d-line now. We need another DT and some better depth, but we have a lot of young guys that are already showing they can be good. There isn't much excuse for the Brownco's other than the fact that we had many other needs that year and got them for nothing. I am pretty sure we where also a top team in the league with them here....

Originally Posted by jhns

But his point is that this wasn't a swing and miss. This was a desperation signing and Rice was the only FA available with experience and that was at least good at some point. We just brought in Rice because we have so many young players. That and the fact that our starter had gone down....

This wasn't a bad signing. We lost almost no money on it because they didn't give him much of a contract. He was just here to make sure the young guys where not horrible before we turned the reigns over to them.

You guys want to talk about it but as I see it, we are doing great on the d-line now. We need another DT and some better depth, but we have a lot of young guys that are already showing they can be good. There isn't much excuse for the Brownco's other than the fact that we had many other needs that year and got them for nothing. I am pretty sure we where also a top team in the league with them here....

Actually now that he was claimed off waivers by INDY all we are out is/was his actual weekly checks..

Watch, he'll start playing with Indy and actually do something.