Scary

[RashanGary]

The defensive line has received significant criticism, arguably going from a position of strength last year to one of weakness.

Thompson doesn’t agree.

“I think in some respects that’s an inaccurate statement to say it’s the defensive line,” he said. “I think our guys have played very hard and we don’t have the sacks that we maybe would have expected or had last year. But they’ve played well. Again, the defense is an 11-man thing. It’s got to be orchestrated properly. And we just haven’t quite hit our stride yet.”

[RashanGary]

Holy fuck, Ted. I hope you don't believe this.

Pickett is approaching 30, doesn't work out in the offseason adn has slipped. Resigning an older guy with work ethic problems is a risk.

Kampman has one more year on his deal, will be 30 next year, shows no sign of decline and with the wide array of moves he has he should be good for a while.

Jolly could very well be a drug addict and hasn't taken a step forward

Jenkins is perpetually injured

Montgomery is the worst player in the NFL

Hunter can't play a lick of defense

Pettway sucks

Jeremy Thompson has sucked up to this point but who knows, he's a rookie.

Justin Harrell is embarassing

Cole is just a guy and that is a compliment to this group.


The whole thing has disaster written all over it. I really hope you don't really believe that they're just not coming on yet. I really hope that's not the case. I hope you're just avoiding talkign bad about yoru guys in public.

[Bretsky]

agree; very scary if TT does not see a sense of urgency to upgrade the marginal DL

[Fritz]

Re: Scary

The defensive line has received significant criticism, arguably going from a position of strength last year to one of weakness.

Thompson doesn’t agree.

“I think in some respects that’s an inaccurate statement to say it’s the defensive line,” he said. “I think our guys have played very hard and we don’t have the sacks that we maybe would have expected or had last year. But they’ve played well. Again, the defense is an 11-man thing. It’s got to be orchestrated properly. And we just haven’t quite hit our stride yet.”

JH, read between those lines. I think Vanilla Bob might be looking for work come February.

[Patler]

Re: Scary

The defensive line has received significant criticism, arguably going from a position of strength last year to one of weakness.

Thompson doesn’t agree.

“I think in some respects that’s an inaccurate statement to say it’s the defensive line,” he said. “I think our guys have played very hard and we don’t have the sacks that we maybe would have expected or had last year. But they’ve played well. Again, the defense is an 11-man thing. It’s got to be orchestrated properly. And we just haven’t quite hit our stride yet.”

JH, read between those lines. I think Vanilla Bob might be looking for work come February.

Yup. I thought TT's comments were encouraging. I think TT was saying that the simple approach is to blame it on the DL, but the problem goes deeper than that, to other players and even the coaches. If you focus only on the D-line, the problems will not be solved.

I expect changes, perhaps a lot of changes.

[Fritz]

Bretsky, if the Vanilla Bob firing goes down, will you perk up again? You seem to have become so deeply unhappy with the Packers. I know you say you don't care and you know it's about the long term future for Ted, but you really do seem pretty bummed about the whole thing.

Will getting rid of Vanilla Bob pump the life back into you? And if they throw Stock in there, will you be as excited as if two rather attrractive ladies showed up on your doorstep and offered to show affection for one another for your viewing pleasure?

[RashanGary]

Re: Scary

Yup. I thought TT's comments were encouraging. I think TT was saying that the simple approach is to blame it on the DL, but the problem goes deeper than that, to other players and even the coaches. If you focus only on the D-line, the problems will not be solved.

I expect changes, perhaps a lot of changes.

I think the cop out is to blame the coach. I think they can get better coaches, but he looked pretty smart in the first half of last year when he had a top 5 defense lead by a good, deep DL.

[RashanGary]

Re: Scary

JH, read between those lines. I think Vanilla Bob might be looking for work come February.

Good point though, I missed that.

[packrat]

We should know by now you can't believe anything TT says. He is never going to say anything that could hurt his team or give the competition any information. And he shouldn't. Measure Ted by what he does, not what he says.

[b bulldog]

Sure wish TT would have had some balls to move up and grab Mario. I do hope everyone now understands how much more influential a stud DE can be over a lb, and an average one at that.

[b bulldog]

Games are won in the trenches, not at the lb spot.

[RashanGary]

Games are won in the trenches, not at the lb spot.

I think you're right on iwth the trenches thing. We probably would have lost out on Jennings, Spitz, Hawk and others to move up and then we would have paid a shit load of money for a guy that we weren't sure if he was committed to being the best but I agree he should put more attention to the trenches. I just disagree that moving up was as easy or as sure of a thing as you say it is.

[Patler]

Re: Scary

Yup. I thought TT's comments were encouraging. I think TT was saying that the simple approach is to blame it on the DL, but the problem goes deeper than that, to other players and even the coaches. If you focus only on the D-line, the problems will not be solved.

I expect changes, perhaps a lot of changes.

I think the cop out is to blame the coach. I think they can go better, but he looked pretty smart in the first half of last year when he had a top 5 defense lead by a good, deep DL.

But he didn't just blame the coaches. That's the point. When a defense performs as as shabbily as this one has recently the problems are wide spread. The D-line and linebackers have been mostly poor, and the safeties have been inconsistent, decent at times, bad at times. The coaches have to take some blame for the holdover players in the line and at linebacker under performing from last year. Beyond that they don't seem to have changed much in adjusting to current conditions.

If TT limits his "fixing" to the D-line, it won't be enough.

[RashanGary]

Re: Scary

If TT limits his "fixing" to the D-line, it won't be enough.

I agree. I may have misread waht he said because I was looking for something a little more reassuring as far as him noticing how poorly they've played. He said the DL wasn't all of hte problem, which is to say it is part of the problem (without going into degrees of fault). I really hope he recognizes it though. I do think it's the biggest part of the problem.

[Lurker64]

I don't recall an NFL coach, general manager, or other honcho ever saying something like "Yeah, our tackles are playing like shit" to the media, whether or not it's true. There just doesn't seem to be a reason to do so, short of "appeasing the fans".