fishgutmartyr

Pierce is very quickly turning into one of my favorite players on the team. Easily the best free agent pickup we've had. He's very much worthy of respect.

Was it 2 years ago? I guess it was, but Jackson really started coming around this year--or at least enough for me to notice. I hope my post didn't read like I was disparaging Faulk--he had a great career. I was disagreeing that the Rams had a plan in place to replace him. And clearly he was well into his decline before the Ram's drafting of Jackson bore fruit.

What the hell does his ethnicity have to do with being a thug or not? Is this a joke I stumbled into? Plax acts like a thug? He's moody, he can be a Prima Donna, but he doesn't strike me as a thug. Do you guys have a different definition than the rest of us?

I hope you're right. But right now I see two holes at WLB, and two holes at DT. That's pretty daunting going into the draft. Maybe we get a stud in the first round, maybe not. I'm sure with Pierce in there, a good rookie would be OK. But if that stud goes down, then what? Emmons on the weak side isn't exactly thrilling me.

You hit it on the head. And just thinking about Ed McCaffrey makes me weep. I liked him as a Giant, and he would have had a longer career if he stayed with us (his career-ending injury happened against us).

There's a difference between a 4th rounder and a UDFA, but then again, what round was Pierce drafted in? As far as Blackburn is concerned, I agree with you--his injury pretty much took that out of the equation. But to say a guy isn't any good because he's a 4th-rounder in a RB-heavy draft, and has one of the best RBs in the league starting and getting the bulk of the playing time, that's a bit harsh. I'm not necessarily saying that Jacobs is our star running back in the future, I merely said we don't know what we have yet. You are the only poster I recall seeing this year that believes we have zero depth at RB. That's not an attack, but a truthful observation. With the possible exception of Defensive End, RB is probably the least of our worries this year. And considering that Barber is reaching his peak production, or just peaked last season, I'm not too worried about the position for another year or two. The Rams had a backup plan? They drafted their guy last year...when was the last time Faulk was a factor?

There were also a TON of RBs in the draft last year, and 4th rounders picked a couple of positions before him played, and did ok. Fortunately, he didn't HAVE to play in Tiki's place, we had Ward to do that, and only to spell him. In the role he was given, which was desperately needed, he did well.

3 picks in the first two rounds can fill some holes...or trade one with a later pick to move up. Ward and Jacobs haven't really been used enough to evaluate them, and maybe Williams is better than both, but I'd rather get more in tune with bigger needs.

What would the Colts give up with their 30th? They just lost Edge, so they could use a running back, and in this scenario, we could still get Ryans at 30...

I'm just venting, and you just caught in the steam. I just don't have a clue what the front office is doing this F/A, and I'm getting more concerned that they don't, either. The only thing I can think of is that they are secure with Torbor, and are going to ditch Emmons for cap reasons.

1. He's slb. 2. We still don't have anyone at wlb. 3. He wasn't a standout when he was here. 4. He hasn't done much while he was gone. 5. Griesen would have made more sense. (and he isn't that great, either) 6. If he's fighting for a starting job, we are seriously fucked.

Pray for an amazing draft. :explode:

Happy to oblige. Injuries are going to happen: If Carter winds up playing, he's going down. Fine, so long as Plax and Toomer don't go down as well. I'll be ecstatic if we don't get hit with the injury bug this year. I'll be happy if the injuries are at least spread out enough that our backups aren't overwhelmed. You made a good point about us getting injured players lately.

I wouldn't have. We got in as a wildcard by winning our final game in OT at home, and having another team (I forget who, although I think it was the Saints) lose. That doesn't smack of a Superbowl team to me, but your mileage may vary. And that wildcard game was an exposure of a mediocre at best defense, that completely fell apart in the second half of that game. In 2003, we lost Whittle and Rosenthal, and went with rookies at those positions. Then Seubert went down. Pettigout played injured, because there really wasn't anyone to replace him. Then we had receivers go down, along with Shockey. Finally, Collins went down. There was no offense, and the team flat out quit. In 2004, we got killed with injuries again, among other things. I thought we played over our head at the beginning of the season, and got lucky with a rash of turnovers. Then the wheels fell off of our defense: both starting DEs out for the season, Green IR'd, both Shawn Williams and Gibril Wilson gone, and we had guys like Hand and Emmons in and out of the lineup all season. Between that and the QB situation, 6-10 wasn't really that surprising. This year, aside from Manning wearing down near the end (and I have a feeling the coaches saw it coming, but didn't expect it to be as bad--look how little Tiki was running at the beginning of the season compared to the end of the season), the whole story was in the utter decimation of the LB core. Not one of the starters that were anticipated preseason was on the field against Carolina. In fact, only Greisen was on the field from our second string. The pattern? Our backups haven't been very good until last year. And we have had a rash of injuries like I've never seen: not so much the number of injuries (although 2003-2004 were really high) but in the fact that they seem to be concentrated at one or two positions each year (2003:O-line and WR/TE; 2004:safties and D-line; and last year LB). Hopefully this year, we break the pattern.

I'm going to assume that you are just trying to get under people's skin with that comment. I mean, that Phil was considered a very good quarterback during a career which overlapped the careers of Fouts, Montana, Elway, and Marino wouldn't mean much, would it? Not to mention such slackers as Staubach, Bradshaw, Kelly, Young and Aikman. I'm not even going into who he was throwing to. You can't be serious.

I'm just worried that if we find a rookie WR with some potential but not ready for prime time somewhere in the draft or as an UDFA, that they get rid of him for this stiff. Carter had what? Three concussions in 2003? How many more before he has to call it a career? I don't see ANY upside for this guy long-term, and the best-case scenario short-term is that he finally shows something (other than "he's fast") on our dime, then turns around and leaves us with a hole two years from now. Cheap contract or not, I see this as stagnation. And I'd much rather see the roster spot used for someone to develop. Maybe Taylor's knee is healed from the botched operation his senior year.

Am I missing something? How many games has this guy played for us? If he's not on the field, any contract is too much. He played 15 games or so last season, but before then, the only speed he's shown is getting to the IR.

This would be strength vs. strength, weakness vs. weakness. Assuming the Giants had more starters in the back seven than subs, I would think our defense would have less trouble with their offense than their defense would with our offense, because our weaknesses were farther apart in ability than our strengths. This would have been a game all about turnovers and special teams. While we were ranked high in both categories, I wouldn't like to depend on that to predict one game.

Only a fool goes to Nordstrom's to buy scotch tape.

Once I finish this Canadian Mist and ginger, it's going to seem like an even BETTER idea.

I started a thread a couple of days ago about trading up for a tackle and everyone was like "we're getting a LB, and don't need to trade up" and I was like "we're going to draft more offense than you guys think, I bet," and then you guys killed my pretty thread talking about trading Shockey for a draft pick (my thread deserved a better death than that--Hitler died with more dignity). Well, suddenly we're debating WRs. So maybe my scenario isn't so far from the realm of possibilities, is it? But unless we sign a LB in FA, this is moot. Probably a DT as well, although a part of me wants to see if all the hoarding of Allen, Duckett, and Seawright was worth the time. Call me a masochist.

He was drafted as a DE. If I remember correctly (and there's no garrentee of that), he only started learning LB mid-season. That's a lot to ask from a 6th round draft pick.

I think ol' Erns is going to draft more offense than you guys think. I'm thinking how last year we were heavy on offense in FA, heavy on defense in the draft. This year we're heavy on D in FA... Again, this isn't what I hope he does, I'm just trying to figure out his strategy. If he trades up to get a LB, I'll be more than happy to join you guys in the unruly mob that would be sure to follow. I'll bring my own pitchfork.

I don't know about that one. We lost how many LBs last year in a span of how many weeks? The only thing we really could have done differently was IR Green earlier in the season.

That depends entirely on what stage your team is in. If you don't have a decent core, or your players are aging and high-priced, you don't fill holes via free agency. You draft and take your lumps, let your kids get the experience, since you're going nowhere anyway. Please see what is happening in Tennessee. In our case, I see your point. The point of this thread was to speculate if EA would do something like that, not to voice a wish. Personally, I wouldn't mind the 1st going to a LB (or trade down for more picks), draft one or two more, AND look at LBs in UDFAs. We have no one at WILL, I'm not all that crazy about Torbor/Emmons, and Blackburn could use some competition. But with Pierce running things back there, I'm not as worried about a quality rookie starting as some seem to be.