Projected team strength and weaknesses

Seems like I remember Spoon running with a guy when he got a couple of those picks. He was stride for stride with a guy not sitting back in a zone.

As for Morgan our run defense seems to be better with him in the game. He has speed and talent but can not stay healthy. You would expect him to be better in coverage given his ability but he is not great.

If Davis is either a WLB or SS then we probably should not have drafted him. We have Spoon and Minter at those spots and could use help in other areas. Maybe the plan is to slide Spoon over and let Davis play WLB. That might work.

 

While Pass protection has alsways been the aspect of the game that Morgan struggles with, I think some of his inability to be better at it could stem from his lack of playing time due to injury.

I think Davis was taken with two thoughts in mind. There was a legit concern that Fields would be out and Minter's contract expires at years end, and he had an off season last year. But I've ALWAYS thought if Davis was intended to be a LBer that he'd be at Will and Witherspoon moved to Sam. Its also possible that the Panthers only had intentions of bringing back one of the two between Morgan and Spoon (probably the cheapest) and then Davis would be a starter w/ Fields, and whoever was the other LBer.

 

I am still wondering if we would have been better served to take Derrick Johnson and plug him in at SLB. I can buy the idea that only one of Morgan/Spoon will be back. If it were me it would be Spoon returning. He will be cheaper and is not hurt so often.

I guess we could be planning on letting Minter leave after this season. If Davis can play SS well enough in coverage to make that work then it might be a good long term type move.

 

I don't think so. I could check, I have all the games burned to DVD, but I don't care to as I'm pretty sure that you're wrong. Even if he did, it's generally not disputed that Witherspoon is average or below in coverage.

Davis is one of those two and we've known it all along. No legitimate scouting report on the internet said anything different, although some less reputable sites and rather ignorant columnists suggested he could play any linebacker or even free safety. As for why we drafted him, why is it that before the draft people say you should take the best player available and then afterwards we always want need? I didn't think we would take Davis because we have no place for him to play in 2005, but both Witherspoon and Minter are unrestricted free agents at the end of the season.

I made the suggestion about Witherspoon at SLB as a possibility, but it doesn't really sit well with me. Davis is a great hitter and I'd love to get that on the field, but Witherspoon is not much better suited for strongside than Davis. But I guess we really don't have much of a choice than to play someone out of position with Fields gone. Short and Draft are capable of playing the position, but not necessarily at a higher level than an ill-suited Witherspoon.

No. I understand the tendency of fans to be apologists and look for excuses to explain away shortcomings of certain players, but Morgan just sucks in coverage. It doesn't make him a bad overall player, it just means he has a weakness. Morgan has had far more than enough games in college and the NFL to be as good as he's going to be.

Not that it's a terribly original or clever idea, but I honestly didn't see anyone besides me saying that until recently. Most people said he'd either play SLB or FS.

And as for Derrick Johnson, he is bigger but I'm not sure he's any better suited to SLB, and I think Davis is the superior player over the long-term. Johnson isn't particularly strong and doesn't play a physical game, so he'll probably line up at weakside for Kansas City.

 

I love being able to look towards the future in the first, instead of having no choice but to fill immediate needs.

 

Spoon had picks against:

Oakland
San Fran
New Orleans (first game)
St Louis

You might want to check your DVD. I am pretty sure at least once he was running with a back down the middle of the field and snagged a pick.

 

You might want to check your wording. You said "he got a couple of those picks" while covering a guy in man. And it's not like I said he didn't get any of his statistics in those situations. To be specific, I said "most of Will's PDs and Ints came from tips and zone, not from covering backs or tight ends."

In either case, we're quibbling over semantics. The fact is that Witherspoon isn't good in coverage. End. Of. Story.

 

Agreed. He's a guy who fills assignments, no more. I think they got a handle on that in the 2nd half of the year and directly pushed him toward what he needed to be doing, since he wasn't showing pass instincts. He's not the cover guy I expected him to be when drafted.

I still think he could be a strongside guy. He's not as big as you'd want, and theoretically you want to shield that guy of anyone - there's plenty of reasons to put him at WLB, not the least being that he's more instinctive than our current two incumbents or the other two potential starters.
That said, I still think that he's worked best on the strong side all these years, and could hang it in the NFL. I think he could fill gaps, and I think he could crash the outside the way that WW and Morgan can't. Might be a killer blitzer, hard to say. Of the three, it's possible Morgan's the best strongside player, or Davis - Witherspoon the least. The problem, though, is that WW is basically a middle linebacker who's small - he's never really acted like a weakside guy, either. He's a thinker, not a react guy. So it's hard to say, really. You certainly would never put WW or Davis inside, if you could help it, since you mentioned something about someone thinking Davis could play ILB? That'd just be off.

But it's all conjecture till they get on the field. I saw years of Mark Fields laboring at WLB in what was probably an ill fit, because he could run a 4.4 - but it seemed like he played better at SLB.



Speaking of which there was an NFL Films show on last night that was older - 93, 94 maybe. Maybe earlier. Had some film on how to tackle, and it seemed like half of their clips were Sam. I miss him.



No. I understand the tendency of fans to be apologists and look for excuses to explain away shortcomings of certain players, but Morgan just sucks in coverage. It doesn't make him a bad overall player, it just means he has a weakness. Morgan has had far more than enough games in college and the NFL to be as good as he's going to be.

People like black and white. Personally, I like that we took a high potential football player, rather than a workout warrior or an ultra-safe, low reward player. I think they'll find a spot for him. I think that fans, as a whole, want the need players, but the BPA suggestions give a stronger abstract to do things they feel are exciting.

 

Theoretically any of our linebackers could play any of the three, but the reason I'm more comfortable with Witherspoon playing SLB than Davis is that playing Davis at SLB completely negates his strengths. He's not going to blow up plays if he has to jam the tight end or take on blockers on a run. He's much more effective in space, which is how he was used at Georgia. If he's going to be on the strongside of the field, it should be as a safety and not a linebacker. Meanwhile Witherspoon won't exactly stand people up either, but he's solid fundamentally and we wouldn't really be wasting talents by using him to eat up blockers.

I'll be very interested to see if we go with the ill-fits or the lesser talents (Short/Draft). I've been disappointed in Short since I agree with you that he was solid in New York, while I just wonder if Draft has enough left to contribute. Short is the most suited to the position, having started there for the Giants and possessing all the requisite size, but he just needs to play better.