Washburn To Eagles? (Now confirmed)

I'm pretty sure not being drafted in the first place is already a motivator before he joined us...

His good year was his third actual full year, so it wasn't like he waited until he was 30 to start producing, and he very well could have been motivated by money, but he did have similar numbers his second year in Cincinnati, so who knows. I'm just glad we didn't pay the guy, and I'm pretty sure not a single person here did at the time.

 

I'm not the type to put all blame on coaches either...or also give all credit to for that matter, but it's no coincidence the guys I listed all overachieved under Washburn. Do I think our d-line is in complete trouble now? No, Washburn will do his thing, but there still has to be some talent to begin with. Do I think we need to stop being cheap by picking up someone else's trash year after year and hope? Do I need think we need to start going after proven playmakers over workout warriors? Yes and yes, with or without Washburn.

We have yet to see the best of Jason Jones, and we will if we upgrade at DT. Jones is a bit of a "tweener" and that's what's preventing him from dominating at a specific position. Undersized at DT and won't be the most explosive guy at DE. A good move would be to try to get back Big Al while he's cheap and then we can start Jason Jones at the end and also use him as a wildcard weapon where he plays both inside and outside depending on the situation and match up, I think he'll thrive under that.

 

We have drafted pretty badly on the Defensive Line, and the FAs we pick up have a higher hit rate than our draftees.

See the FAs we pick up expecting to contribute: Brown, Ball, KVB, Babin, Haye, Kevin Carter

vs. Hayes, Ford, Marks, Jones, Haynesworth, LaBoy, Schobel, Odom, Rien Long, Kearse, Mahelona


Picking up people's trash is the only reason we have had some of the decent D-lines that we've had. The only drafted D-lineman we have drafted that's overachieved is Jones. Haynesworth had enough duds of years to say his one great one hardly made him worth it.

 

You just help proved my point. Why always hope? Why not buy production...even occasionally instead of always trying to squeeze a dollar out of a dime? Have our 5 Rudy's taken us to the promised land yet? Oh wait...we picked up a big name midseason and didn't even use him.

 

Is there any Defensive lineman we could have drafted that would have gotten us to the promised land yet??? For most of the 2000s, we've had decently high draft picks.

And you can't buy production as easily as it seems. The Raiders tried to do that with Moss, it didn't work. The Saints tried to do it with Ricky Williams, it didn't work, The Redskins try to do it every year, and always come up short. You don't just pay a star, and win a Super Bowl.

One of the best QBs of all time (Brady) matched up with one of the best WRs all time (Moss) couldn't win a Super Bowl.

 

If you see contradictions, then you also believe Big Al is equivalent to Justin Gage and Ryan Fowler. I'll give you a more accurate example of a contradiction, well more like a oxymoron: "Big Al is 100 dollar million trash."

Trust me, it's no coincidence even in 07 (not his contract year), we had the 5th best defense. Not only would it be a significant upgrade, his ability to draw double teams makes his impact go beyond his own numbers, he instantly makes everyone better. Like I said, Jason Jones gets better, along with everyone else on the line, and guys won't have to be in coverage for eternity. Tell me, how many 300 yard passers were there against us again...

Trust me, it can only help.

 

Dude. When did I ever...EVEN IMPLY we should spend like Washington or that it was easy? Do you not understand the word "occasionally"? If you don't know our reputation of being incredibly cheap, then you must not have followed this team for very long. What is even your argument? Never spend again and hope every year we find a KVB, Babin, Tony Brown, etc...

And you're picking out names from a hat, anyone can do that. I'll pick 3 plus 1 more, watch:

Saints - Brees, Pats - Rodney Harrison, the greatest d-linemen and one of the greatest athletes in Reggie White with Green Bay and Neion Deion with Dallas. Now, keep in mind those are just Super Bowl winners, the list can go on and on about gaps that needed to be addressed that got them, oh so close, immediately the following season... T.O and the Eagles, Favre and the Vikings. Now the remaining 4 teams this year: Peppers and the Bears, Woodson and the Packers, Farrior and the Steelers, Edwards/Holmes/LT and the Jets. And you can't even discredit the Moss/Pats deal, sure they were the better team that lost because of a once in a lifetime catch, but they're the only team to ever go 16-0 in a regular season, and Moss and Brady both broke records once held by Marino and Jerry Rice, lol for even trying to disacknowledge those accomplishments.

Look at us, the one recent offseason when we actually shopped a little and picked up, Mawae, Hope, and Thornton... 2 years later, we have our best season in the last 7 years.

This issue goes for any weak areas of the team, not just defense, Justin Gage was our prize acquisition one year when we desperately needed a receiver, lol. We don't have to spend like money grows on trees, but are you REALLY satisfied with not spending...something and getting the same results? You seem like a Fisher guy, so I'll explain it in numbers. Ready?

"Typically, you have to pay more to get better players. Better players means better team. Better team means better chance of winning. Typically is majority. Majority is higher probability." Confused about that last part, no worries, here's an example:

You have 50 beans. You mark 30 of those beans red. You put all beans in a jar. Shake. You take one out without looking. It's red. Now did you pick a red bean because it was impossible to not pick a red one.... No. You picked a red one because the <b>majority</b> of the beans were red which gave you a <b>higher probability</b> of selecting one. O-M-Goly, it's "Crash", it all connects, yah! If you wanted a red one, you win! If not, then :(

So what did we learn today, kids? Better is also good not just better! Say what? Yeah, I know, pretty deep stuff, I might have confused myself there.

Now just imagine all that in a condescending tone and we're good, bra.


Ok, in all seriousness though, you wanna make an omelette, break a egg. Can you honestly tell me if we only sign Chris-3rd string with 2 career sacks this offseason and draft Work out-warrior# 17 from MIT in the 2nd round, and didn't at least give someone like Asomugha even a tweet, you'd throw a party?