http://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2011/01/27/the-profootballfocus-com-all-sophomore-team/ Sure it's not an actual award, but the truth of the matter is we have a CB duo in place now that could rival the days of Surtain/Madison. Can we please give Jeff Ireland a little credit for once?
Now why would anyone around here want to do that? I am very optimistic about our CB situation. Nolan Caroll has also looked pretty sharp (for a rookie). Ireland is known to be a good talent evaluator and he has done a pretty good job so far IMO on draft day.
I feel confident in the strength of our secondary for the first time since the Madison/Surtain days. While we would all love to see a rangey playmaker at Safety ala Ed Reed or Polamalu, I find the young duo of Reshad Jones and Chris Clemons to be highly promising. Maybe it's because I've held onto the memory of Jones breaking up a pass in the end zone, getting his first career sack and then first career INT on 3 consecutive plays with the game on the line, but the kid has the potential to do some special things for us IMO
Ireland has done a much better job on the defense than on the offense. Phillip Merling might be the only glaring question mark, and even that isn't so bad. In fact, I would be happy to see an all-defense draft and develop a truly dominant and deep defense. I'd rather do that than do a patch-job on the offense and be mediocre on both sides.
And I think that might be a more clear indication of Ireland's worth to us. If you look at his defensive acquisitions through the draft of FA he's brought in only solid players. Davis, Smith, Carrol, Dansby, Langford, Starks, McDaniels, Wake, Misi, Clemons, Jones, etc. What we've heard, and we can only go on what we've heard, is that Parcells, Lee and Henning all had their hands over the offensive picks like White and Turner. And even the offensive guys who have stuck like Long, Bess, and Hartline were Ireland picks. Even if Sparano is fired, I certainly hope we retain Ireland.
This is my thing...There are certain things I want from players as a primary skill. I want TEs to catch the ball. I want CBs to defense passes. Everything you do above and beyond is fine...I just don't like losing sight of the primary responsibility for Sportscenter highlights.
Honestly, I can only hope we draft motivated on the best player. Not motivated by keeping a job..Which is all Tony's doing this year.
hard to give ireland credit for the past drafts when so many people had their hands in the cookie jar.who's to say it wasn't a coach on the defensive side of the ball that made those calls.don't get me wrong,i think ireland is a very good scout and am looking forward to see how he handles the draft on his own this year. i vaguely remember surtain/madison having some pretty good safeties to help them.if we get safety help for our cb duo you are right in we may have something very special on our hands.
In 2010 the only offensive player we drafted was John Jerry. The jury is still out on him, but he has potential which he showed several times throughout the season. The way he handled Suh in the Lions game was impressive. In 2009 we busted on Pat White in the 2nd and Patrick Turner in the 3rd. There's no way to mince words about it, those were horrible picks who didn't even last one year on the team. But in that draft Ireland also found two good value picks on offense with Brian Hartline in the 4th and Gardner in the 6th. In 2008 we hit a home run with Jake Long. Even if you would have preferred Ryan, that doesn't make Jake any less of a great pick. The jury is still out on Henne and Lex Hilliard from that draft. Parmalee, Donald Thomas and Shawn Murphy all washed out. This regime has drafted a total of 12 players on offense. 5 are no longer on the team (Thomas, Murphy, Parmalee, White, Turner.) 4 are starters on offense (Henne, Long, Jerry, Hartline) and 3 are back ups (Hilliard, Gardner, Nalbone.) So really they haven't been THAT bad at drafting offense, they just blew a couple of picks in big spots, namely White and Turner. Hell, even the vaunted Patriots and Colts have blown 2nd and 3rd round picks. Thomas, Murphy and Parmalee were all picked up in the 5th round or later, you can't call out the GM for a late round pick not sticking on the roster.
Well Sean yeah, Vontae i dont think dropped very many since he wasn't throw at a whole lot. But Jason Allen, and Sean Smith dropped a ton. They need to use the jugs machine also lol. DB's should be anyways.
Let's not forget about Odrick and Edds. I expect good things from both this year. We have never had so much great young talent on D, and they should all get better.
One surprising stat was Smith, who could not tackle in year one, only missed 3 last season. Davis missed 13, among the worst in the league.
Agreed, and hard to say why. I'm thinking that Davis and Smith were both unlearning and relearning with Nolan. Hard to argue with the bottom line results but, I expect both to be much better this year. They can be better than Madison/Surtain.
It's always possible that he bought into his own hype coming into the season as a hard hitting corner. It's also possible that he may have been more aggressive since he was more comfortable on the field and this aggression led to missed tackles. Who knows. Hopefully it gets figured out for next year.
NO way. Tight ends need to block, and CB's need to catch. Imagine defending one pass and on the very next play it's a 50 yard bomb for a TD. If the pass was INT'd that doesn't happen. Your team gets the ball. A tight end that cant' block who lets a blitzer in who knocks the ball loose and your team loses possession. That is unacceptable.
May not be an award, but it certianly indicates some pretty serious growth from last year. IIRC, PFF graded them both in the high 20s last year. If they continue to improve at this rate, Ireland may be able to balance out the Pat White fiasco.
If you had to narrow each position down to two responsibilities, I would say that the tight must catch and block, while corners must cover and tackle. I don't think a cornerback having good hands is a necessity.
After he knocked the **** out of Viscante Shiancoe, he seemed more interested in trying for bigger hits than wrapping up properly I think.
