Tyrone Culver wants to be the answer at free safety http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/06/1566556/culver-wants-to-be-the-answer.html
between Culver, Clemons, Jason Allen & the possible conversion Sean Smith w/ the return of Will Allen to CornerBack, I think FreeSafety is well covered. I'm sure we'll add another to the mix via the draft, but it looks solid to me. Coach 'em up!
Questions: Do they give Culver a shot at it now? Can he prove it? 32 total tackles last year (less than the year before)...
Culver and Clemons are big question marks, neither player has shown flashes of anything beyond mediocrity. Jason Allen? Kill me. Sean Smith has no shot of being converted. Well covered in question marks, maybe.
it is not covered at all ... but Culver will certainly get a shot - no matter who we draft. all he has to do is show it on the field.
Culver was pretty good imo last year as a nickel and dime back...havent seen enough of him tackling to have an educated opinion on the switch, but I liked what he did in coverage in 09.
Maybe not enough time to transition? If they transitioned him this year he'd have the full offseason to learn the position. Mid year might be too much of a shock I'd imagine.
IMO Culver would do fine at FS. I don't think he has the speed to be great back there, but I think he can be as good (or slightly better) than Hill was two seasons ago. Overall our defense compares very favorably against the 2008 unit that ranked 15th. 2008 depth chart RE = Vonnie Holliday, Phillip Merling, Rodrique Wright NT = Jason Ferguson, Paul Soliai, Anthony Toribio LE = Randy Starks, Kendall Langford, Lionel Dotson SOLB = Matt Roth, Charlie Anderson, Rob Ninkovich WILB = Channing Crowder SILB = Akin Ayodele, Reggie Torbor WOLB = Joey Porter, Quentin Moses RCB = Andre Goodman, Jason Allen LCB = Will Allen SS = Yeremiah Bell FS = Renaldo Hill 2010 depth chart RE = Randy Stark, Ryan Baker, Lionel Dotson NT = Paul Soliai, Tony McDaniel, Jason Ferguson LE = Kendall Langford, Phillip Merling, Ikaika Alama-Francis WOLB = Cameron Wake, Erik Walden WILB = Karlos Dansby, J.D Folsom SILB = Channing Crowder, Reggie Torbor SOLB = Charlie Anderson, Quentin Moses, Brian Johnston RCB = Sean Smith, Jason Allen, Evan Oglesby FS = Tyrone Culver, Chris Clemons, Nate Ness SS = Yeremiah Bell LCB = Vontae Davis, Will Allen I see our DL as slightly better assuming Soliai develops. The 2010 version of Starks is an upgrade over a good Holliday and Langford is about equal to the 2008 Starks. I think Soliai should be close to the IMO over rated two down 2008 Fergy. And by the second half of the season I think our run downs NTs are better than they were in 2008. I also think McDaniel is better as our third down NT than anything we were using in 2008. AT LB Wake's development is key. IMO he can be this year's Dumervil for Nolan. If so he won't be huge downgrade from Porter as a pass rusher and will be at least as good against the run (Porter's work against the run is pretty low bar). I think Anderson or Moses should be better than Roth as rushers but weaker against the run. Dansby should be a huge upgrade over Crowder and will have an even bigger impact in our nickel and dime defenses. I also think Crowder is a significant upgrade over Ayodele at SILB. In the secondary, the development of the CBs is key. If Davis and Smith progress than I see W. Allen as a vast improvement over J. Allen in the nickel spot. Bell should be the same if not better at SS and Culver should be as good or better than Hill was. And this is pre-draft and the rest of FA. I would like to add JT or another SOLB. I'm pretty sure we'll add somebody as this draft is very deep at OLB (Worlids maybe?). I would also like to improve the depth at ILB with a late round pick. If we take FS like ET or Berry early then that position becomes a huge strength. But even if we don't and take 3rd or 4th round FS I think we're improved from 2008. IMO even with no improvement we can be a 15th ranked defense. So I don't think things are as dire as some portray. IMO people are caught looking at last year and think it was a talent problem. But we were much better the year before with a very similar talent level. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't upgrade the defensive talent. Just that our defense isn't doomed if we don't draft 4 LBs or other such nonsense.
where does this speculation of converting S Smith to safety come from? that's not even a rumor. not going to happen.
man our whole secondary needs work, they are so unorganized at times, we burned on big plays too much, too many mistakes and Y Bell is getting up there in age and hes the only vet we got back there.
Raf ..... if we take your depth chart 2010 depth chart RE = Randy Stark, Ryan Baker, Lionel Dotson NT = Paul Soliai, Tony McDaniel, Jason Ferguson LE = Kendall Langford, Phillip Merling, Ikaika Alama-Francis WOLB = Cameron Wake, Erik Walden WILB = Karlos Dansby, J.D Folsom SILB = Channing Crowder, Reggie Torbor SOLB = Charlie Anderson, Quentin Moses, Brian Johnston RCB = Sean Smith, Jason Allen, Evan Oglesby FS = Tyrone Culver, Chris Clemons, Nate Ness SS = Yeremiah Bell LCB = Vontae Davis, Will Allen and add: S = Burnett in rd 2 DE = Carrington in rd 3 OLB = Lane in rd 3 (bonus for trading down) NT = Joseph in rd 4 (maybe another rd 4 pick for trading down) ILB: Chaney / Dillard or CB: Cook / Ansa or WR: White / Williams and then throw in whomever in rd 1 .... wether that be WR: Marshall, Bryant; SOLB: Morgan, Graham, Griffen; WOLB: Hughes, Kindle; S: Berry, Thomas; DE: Odrick; G: Iupati; RB: Spiller ... gives us great improvement -- albeit, i still believe we go OLB, DE or WR. on your depth chart - we don't have a suitable SOLB .... one that weighs 260+ (Moses isn't the guy, and Johnston is an unkown) and Anderson is clearly a WOLB = Lane fills this gap. S is a big questionmark ... Culver may be able to fill the gap, and Clemons is an unknown (albeit, i still think he has great potential) = Burnett can step in. picking a guy like Odrick and / or Carrington provides us some flexibility with Starks to move to NT ... at least to start the season (Merling is eh, and Baker is an unknown). Joseph provides additional depth immediately at NT, but doubt he'd be ready to go right away - which leads me back to Starks and DE. this still leaves Wake as a big ???? at WOLB ... which could be fixed with Hughes or Kindle.
Of our three current top corners, Smith is by far the worst one to consider converting. Though in reality none of them will be.
