What if we picked up Adalius Thomas and turned him into a pure DE

is he good at DE?

 

Really?

Really? This is what we gave us since going 0-5 (so this is us over an 8-3 stretch)...in reverse order.

vs Pats 40 points (24.1) = +15.9 points
vs Bills 29 points (18.8) = +10.2 points
vs Jags 17 points (23.2) = -6.2 points
vs Hous 20 points (16.7) = +3.3 points
vs Colts 17 points (26.7) = -8.3 points
vs Giants 21 points(22.2) = -1.2 points
vs Philly 13 points (24.9) = -11.9 points
vs Ravens 27 points(22.1)= +4.9 points
vs Jags 37 points (23.2) = +13.8 points
vs Hous 22 points (16.7) = +5.3 points
vs Wash 22 points (19.2) = +2.8 points

avg points given up? 24.1 (265 points in 11 games)
avg points scored by our opposing offenses? 21.6

In 7 of the 11 games we gave up MORE points than that team avg's (not good defense) and the Philly game may be a bit of an aberration as they lost Culpepper in that game and backup players even of Garcia's caliber usually struggle with virtually no practice snaps during that week.

Keep in mind this is swaying the stats in our favor by taking out the first 5 games and even in an 8-3 run we still have less than an avg D!!!!

What you're asking for is to have a good-great player at every defensive position in order to have a solid D??? There is a coaching problem...plain and simple. Yes we have some flaws with certain players, but Schwartz is not protecting his players weaknesses and playing up their strength. How good a LB would Bulluck be if he had to play SOLB and attack blockers in the hole all the time...probably not nearly as good as if you put him in a position to roam and use his strengths (speed, athleticism, coverage and tackling abilities) to make plays. More avg players like Hill have strengths and weaknesses too. Hill can stay with people, but he's not good at playing the deep ball but is better in underneath routes. So why doesn't Schwartz put a safety over top of him...especially on 3rd and long plays? Same with LT. He's better at coming forward than taking a proper deep angle to the ball. So on third and long, why is he playing a deep middle or 3rd of the field when you can invert the coverage on 3rd and long (having Pac drop to a deep half field or deep 3rd with LT playing a zone closer to the LOS so if someone catches the ball short, we can tackle him before the first down....if LT covers deep, he has to be able to stop a 60 yd bomb to Marvin Harrison one on one and he can't do it). That's not LT's fault, that's Schwartz's fault for exposing a player's weakness in a spot where he can protect him! This also happens in how they align the DL in which they could do a better job protecting Bulluck, but don't.

In my upcoming blog, I actually grade out players and you'll see some generic mistakes most are making...which are coaching issues.

Gut

 

Lets just get a real DE, idc, trade, FA, draft, fix the problem

 

Gut, that was a great post, I just want to point out a few minor things (very minor, overall it was great analysis) I think you mean McNabb, not Culpepper when you're talking about the Eagles game, and NEVER refer to Thompson as 'LT' people argue that Ladanian Tomlinson doesn't deserve that nickname (I don't, but others do) so I can assure you that Lamont Thompson is nowhere near deserving of being refered to as that.

As I said, those were very minor points, I pretty much agree with your general idea.

 

I still think that he would be an absolute monster at MLB for us.

 

MLB, DE, OLB, he is a great player (or tool) and will be very welcome here, I'm not sure the Ravens are gonna let him go easy though...

 

Hehehe...

Thanks for the compliments. Yes, I meant McNabb. I was re-watching the LSU/Notre Dame game and thinking about how Jamarcus Russell reminds me of Culpepper but he looks like he's bigger than Culpepper.

And I'd never use LT to refer to Lamont in a generic forum, but since neither LT (56) nor Ladainian play here, I'm comfortable using it. I live and grew up watching LT (56) play. No other player of any position that I'm aware of forced a team to create a new offensive system just to deal with him. I don't mean they added a few plays...Gibbs created a new offense to combat LT (56). In fact, LT was so good that when they drew up diagrams of plays, the skins players were O's, the Giants defenders were X's except for LT who was labeled as 56!!!

Gut

 

I agree with GUTs basic assesment that although Adalius Thomas could be a great addition our DC would under utilize him.

 

Remember bryan cox?

He wore #54 and played for the dolphins, bears and jets. He was like urlacker today but not quite as good but they played him at MLB on run downs and rushed him like a DE on passing downs. A real difference maker in his prime and he made 3 pro bowls..

I think thomas could do that.

As for making him a fulltime DE? If he knew he had to do that he wouldn't sign with us. I'm sure he wants to play LB and might not even want to play for a 4-3 team at all..