I am all for drafting Gholston. I think the guy is gonna be a phenom. My question is this. Who would start at our two outside linebacker positions if he was drafted? Obviously, we would have to start Gholston immediately being the #1 pick and obviously Jason Taylor would start. So does that mean Joey Porter would be a backup?? With his huge contract?? He can not play one of the two inside linebacker slots and can not play end in the 3-4. All he can play is the weakside outside linebacker position which Gholston would be starting at. This is potentially a huge problem with drafting gholston. We would have three starting caliber outside linebackers. Clearly, after next season porter will be gone and wont be a problem. However, for next season, i think there would be some PR problems and problems with porter in the locker room if he was benched. Is there any scenario where gholston, taylor AND porter could all be on the field at the same time? I'm afraid not
You're presuming that Taylor will be around in 2008. I can see Gholston lining up at DE and Taylor at OLB, or a rotation between the two: Taylor on a pass rushing play, Gholston on both pass and run plays.
Honestly, I think if we have Gholston, like Desides said, assuming Taylor is still there, I think Porter would potentially play one of the middle spots in the 3-4. But, I think JT will be gone and thus you'd have Porter and Gholston at the outside spots and Quentin Moses the #1 backup eventually being groomed for Porter's spot. Abe Wright could potentially show something, but who knows.
Just because Parcells is onboard doesn't meen we are playing a 3-4. Capers likes the hybrid def(cheaters and ravens) play. Get a playmaker, Please?
You really think Capers is going to be around? And Mortensen reported that one of the reasons he chose us over the Falcons is that we already ran the hybrid, thus it'd be easier for him to run the 3-4.
Porter is not a problem,he is one of our best players. He has several good years left. More than Zach and JT.
all im sayin is wouldnt gholston be playing the same position as taylor? and if taylor is back which is looking more and more likely what happens to porter? crowder and thomas are playin the inside. There would be no where for porter to play. you need 3 huge dlinmen 2 insidelinebacker and 2 athletic outside linebackers. Taylor and Gholston would be your two outside linebackers. So what would happen to porter if taylor stays and we draft gholston? He cant start in this scenario. You cant bench crowder for porter or thomas for porter because you need them in the inside.
You are basing alot of this on the misinformation that appears at times like this. Of course Bill will say JT we should keep, it only increases his asking price if we do trade him. Ever noticed what happens to your trade demands when everyone knows you don't want the guy in question? And who says has to traded before the start of next season, we can do it by the 6th week if Gholston has proven that he is so good.
first of all LB is a huge need of ours, u dont NOT draft a guy b/c u have a 34 yr old palying the spot currently. look at parcells DAL team, they drafted spencer ( believe moved up for him correct me if im wrong or did they trade back a bit n get a pick? i can't rem, then they got carpenter the year before those 2 are 1st rounders, then they got ellis at LB, Ware at LB another 1st rounder, a DE in spears in rd 1 as well. u see teh trend here? and 2, who says porter is gone after next year? funny ohow a player like porter who makes plays once he got back to heatlh n undrestanding the scheme better but yet yall defend a guy like booker at wr? Porter, JT, and Gholston would be awesome for us.
Honestly, I could care less if we drafted him and had a problem of who to start. Worst comes to worst, Gholston comes off the bench and subs in and out for Porter/Taylor... I'm not going to make a decision on who to draft for the future based on next season. I LOVED Patrick Willis, but didnt want to draft him b/c I figured we would have no where to play him with Zach leading the league in tackles the year before... And looked how that worked out? Zach went out, and PWillis is the DROY... We need to draft our players for the future... not for 2008...
Taylor is alot better when he is playing OLB when he rushes and i would much rather have Chris Long then Gholston but then agian Gholston could be better i know more about Long then i dont about Gholston
I think this is all academic cos we're taking Chris Long with our top pick.One more thing, I don't think that JT can play END in a real 3-4 and I don't think he can play OLB in a real 4-3 so I think he's gone. Ozzy rules!!
i think he will stay and if we go to a 3-4 he will be our OLB and Bill already said he wants Jason Taylor to Stay with the team he is a really good player he can play alot of postions and i hope ur right about drafting chris long
Why can't Porter play one of the inside spots in a 3-4? Just because he hasn't yet done it, doesn't mean he can't. The Pats already had Colvin and Vrabel for their starting OLBs but still signed Adalius Thomas, who's best position is also OLB. So they just moved Thomas to ILB and when Colvin got hurt, they moved him back outside. When you play a 3-4, you can't have too many good LBs.
Why can't you bench Crowder for Porter? Crowder is nowhere the player that Porter is, nor has he given any sign that he will ever be. IMO, if we draft Gholston, and keep JT, thus ending up with 3 starting quality OLBs, then we move one inside, same as the Pats did with Adalius Thomas before Colvin went out for the year.
thats a very good point mrclean. That is what i was looking for. So assuming Taylor stays...and we draft gholston Our starting linebackers would look like: Gholston, Porter, Thomas, Taylor (crowder comin off the bench or when thomas inevitably gets injured) and then when taylor and thomas and porter eventially retire within the next 2-3 years... Gholston, Crowder, X, abe wright/quentin moses. So when looking at the future, we need one inside linebacker and one pass rushing stud a la Gholston. I'm all for gholston at #1. I think dorsey is solid but do we really want to spend our #1 on a 3-4 end who inevitably is a guy who just takes up defenders to let our linebackers make plays? Now i know i know before any of you go off 3-4 ends do make plays and stop the run which we definitely need a lot of help at but their main job is to take up blockers. Thats why you have 4 athletic linebackers to make the sacks and interceptions. You can get solid dts later in drafts whereas stud linebackers are a lot harder to find. Gholston is a lot more glamorous pick than dorsey or long would be because of the sack numbers which are always glamorized by the media. If gholston does post sick numbers at the combine, i can easily see him going #1 especially since the top of this draft is so wide open. If you've seen him play....you see the next Shawn Merriman
Neither of those matter in regards to Taylor. He's an OLB when we're in a 3-4 and IF we do line up in a 4-3 at any time next year, he becomes a DE. What's the problem?
i think that Gholston would be a DE not a LB we would have Porter as OLB Crowder and Thomas as a MLB and JT as our other OLB but Crowder is a much better OLB then he is a MLB crowder to me has shown that he can play
I much prefer Gholston at #1, but if Parcells is convinced Dorsey can be another Leonard Marshall, then he is also worth #1 overall. Marshall was probably the best 3-4 DE ever. He could two gap and stuff the run and on passing downs he was often double teamed, freeing up Lawrence Taylor, who he lined up next to, and still Marshall got more than his share of sacks. I'll always remember with great fondness that he knocked Montana out of the last game he ever started as the 49ers QB.
in our defense dorsey would play DE. he is too small right now to play NT in our defense. He played end in the 3-4 for lsu at times. And i said that the DT has to take up blockers b/c i knew someone like you would want to start an argument. A. i was tryin to make the point that a dt at #1 isnt as good looking a pick as a passrushin linebacker b. he would play end for us and is a tremendous player but he needs to prove first that he could play end in the 3-4 in the NFl or he needs to put on weight to play nt. ideally, he would play dt in the 4-3. however, that is not our defense. THUS, we are looking for defensive players that fit the 3-4. 330 lb NTs, 290-300 lb de's (like dorsey), 260-270 lb pass rushin olbs (gholston), 240 inside linebackers etc etc etc
dorsey would be a good pick...IF parcells thinks he will be a stud as a DE in our defense. If he doesnt...then you're looking at gholston or chris long. And personally, chris long doesnt have that "IT" and upside factor that you look for in a #1 pick. For gholston, the SKY IS THE LIMIT
And then theres the whole issue about Capers. We may not even be running the same D next yr if he's not around.
we probably wont. were going to leave the whole 3-4/4-3/confuse the offense/blitzing scheme and i would guess we will run a big, imposing, intimidating 3-4, like parcells prefers.
That's totally not true. Leonard Marshall was as good as any 3-4 DE ever and he went 6-3 and 290 lbs. How is Dorsey at 1 inch less automatically too short?
But r we in the 3-4 right now no unless we fire Capers we are going to be in the 4-3 we will sometime go to the 3-4 when JT gets up and walks around and goes in to covrage but thats it
Everywhere Parcells has been, Giants, Pats, Jets and Cowboys, they have used the 3-4 defense. It has nothing to do with whether or not Capers stays. He isn't the only one who can coach a 3-4, that's for sure.