BJ Raji 2013 grade from Jersey Al

[PaCkFan_n_MD]

Perry is definitely a fish out of water at OLB. I'm seriously hoping they move him to DE next year and find a way to bring back Neal and Shields.

I feel like living in a fantasy world for this post...Tag Raji and trade him with our second for someones first. Then draft Clinton-dix and Mosley round one.

................Burnett.........Clinton-dix

Shields........................................... .Williams
Hayward..........................................H yde
House

....................Hawk....Mosley (Lattimore)
Matthews...................................Neal (Palmer/Mulumba)
................Perry...Draft pick...Jones (Daniels/Worthy/Boyd)

Defense fixed! Okay back to real life now.

[pbmax]

Raji is not good at doing what Capers asks him to do. We already know that Capers won't change the scheme and the Packers won't change the DC.

Even if Raji is better than whomever we could replace him with, he's not $4mil or $6mil a year better, so he's gone. Bye bye, Raji. Thanks for 2010.

He has adjusted it, moving Raji out of the nose and 5 tech DE while playing a lot of his 3-4 Eagle Oakie, which puts Raji at a 3 tech.

But Capers is asking him to 2 gap and occupy a blocker before moving upfield and he is terrible at it.

[pbmax]

We're going to be having this same conversation next year - and Capers still won't be fired.

The team could stop buying round pegs and buy some square ones. Raji is easy to understand as the Packers early 1st round pick. Huge, fast, quick, athletic and strong. Hard to pass up that package. Not the best fit from his profile but Thompson was retooling to a 3-4 on the fly and he got two pretty good pieces in the first round. If he's not back next year, he had two great years, two poor and one average. Not the worst way to spend a first contract. You want to do better at 9, but that's the way it works out.

[wist43]

I loved the Raji pick... I wanted him or Orakpo. Raji wasn't a wasted pick at 9 - in his first couple of years he was used properly, i.e. as a 1-gap penetrator and disrupter. He generated pressure, collapsed the pocket, and garnered decent sack numbers for an interior d-lineman.

Then of course Jenkins walked, TT did nothing the help the defense in the '11 draft, and Capers decided that Raji should be something he isn't - a 2-gap, space occupying, run stuffer. Raji has been junk ever since, and our defense has sucked ever since.

Seriously, the problem is Capers - and it is all on Capers.

We simply cannot evaluate any of the defensive personnel as long as they are cast into roles that not only do not maximize their skill set, but in fact do the opposite. It would be like asking me to sit down and write a sentence left-handed, and then complaining that it is sloppy and unreadable - never considering that I'm strongly right-handed, and my left hand is all-but useless.

I don't put the blame on any of the players. Capers has to go.

[mraynrand]

Then of course Jenkins walked, TT did nothing the help the defense in the '11 draft, and Capers decided that Raji should be something he isn't - a 2-gap, space occupying, run stuffer. Raji has been junk ever since, and our defense has sucked ever since.

Seriously, the problem is Capers - and it is all on Capers.

If it's all Capers, then why blame TT? Maybe Capers was just stuck with the square peg fitting the round hole that TT didn't fill. In the salary cap era, this kind of thing has been known to happen.

[Fritz]

Ted has drafted some weird defensive players, considering the type of defense they run. Raji is one, and Jerel Worthy is another. The dude's best traits - the quick penetration, the upfield movement - do not fit the profile of the kind of defensive lineman they need for Capers. I suspect Raji and Worthy both could do pretty well in a more traditional 4-3.

Ted's not fitting the player to the system, I believe.

[smuggler]

I've become more and more convinced we should take Nix. Time will tell...

[bobblehead]

Ted has drafted some weird defensive players, considering the type of defense they run. Raji is one, and Jerel Worthy is another. The dude's best traits - the quick penetration, the upfield movement - do not fit the profile of the kind of defensive lineman they need for Capers. I suspect Raji and Worthy both could do pretty well in a more traditional 4-3.

Ted's not fitting the player to the system, I believe.

I don't buy it. 2010 we were coming off the 4-3 and had a ton of miscast guys....still the D was good and we won the superbowl. Losing Collins, aging Woodson, losing Bishop were bad blows.

[Joemailman]

I don't buy it. 2010 we were coming off the 4-3 and had a ton of miscast guys....still the D was good and we won the superbowl. Losing Collins, aging Woodson, losing Bishop were bad blows.

2009 was the first year of the 3-4. That was the rookie year of Matthews and Raji.

[bobblehead]

2009 was the first year of the 3-4. That was the rookie year of Matthews and Raji.

don't trifle me with details!!

[Fritz]

Obviously I have been and am a big supporter of TT's, but at the same time I do wonder what he's doing when he drafts guys that clearly don't fit what Capers is trying to do. I mean, I kinda get Raji - you had a shot at a very talented big body, and those don't come around, but what about Worthy? And he really seemed to put all his safety eggs in the McMillan basket.

I just don't quite understand why he's not drafting big bulls later in the draft to eat up blockers and space, and using earlier picks on safeties and linebackers.

But it's easy to type behind a keyboard, so all this is just some casual fan's random observation. Maybe Worthy will turn into the next Cullen Jenkins and maybe TT will draft a safety in the fifth round who will be great immediately.

[bobblehead]

I just don't quite understand why he's not drafting big bulls later in the draft to eat up blockers and space, and using earlier picks on safeties and linebackers.
.

Sounds an awful lot like CJ Wilson...except that MM and Capers left him inactive all year.

[Fritz]

Good point. I wonder why his playing time fell off the map.

[Joemailman]

Good point. I wonder why his playing time fell off the map.

I think Wilson was basically replaced by Jolly. He was only active for 8 games all year. He could be back more prominently next year if Jolly is done.

[bobblehead]

I think Wilson was basically replaced by Jolly. He was only active for 8 games all year. He could be back more prominently next year if Jolly is done.

Except that he likely will go to a team that uses him.