My wish list is Peterson, A top-notch nose, and if neither of those are available, Von Miller. He's got a chance to be a 3-4 outside linebacking beast. He's a Texas kid, a local college kid, and would be great. A linebacking core of Demeco, Cushing, Barwin, and Von Miller would be excellent. Couple that with Mario and Antonio Smith at ends, and we're a secondary and a nose away from having a great defense.
There is no way Peterson drops down to us....I'd be shocked if he goes out of the top 5 honestly. However, I'm guessing that both Prince Amakamura and Von Miller are both available to us. If that's the case, I really wouldn't be opposed to either one, but being an Aggie, I've gotta a little bit of a chubby for Von. The guy might be a little undersized, but fortunately in the 3-4, speed can mask size on the outside. I think having Miller and Barwin coming around the edges with Mario and Antonio on the ends has the potential to give opposing QBs nightmares. If we can address the pass rush and safety in the first two rounds, and nose tackle through free agency, we MIGHT just see this defense go from a bottom-feeder to downright decent in a VERY short amount of time.
Sorry for the double post, but along with nose tackle, cornerback needs to be addressed in free agency as well. That is all.
The thing with that is, who's to say offenses won't just run 3 WR sets all the time and put us in the nickel, basically rendering the 3-4 ineffective. If you try to stay in the 3-4, you either have an OLB or a safety covering the slot, which is disadvantageous. We've got to have all the parts ... safety, corner, and pass rush ... to become decent. I'm all for drafting Miller, but we better address corner and safety too.
McClain was referencing the 2009 payroll. http://content.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/salaries/totalpayroll.aspx?year=2009 McClain claims that the "official" numbers for 2010 haven't been released. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on that one. Like I said, I've seen unofficial number that put the Texans pretty low for last season, but I've heard that those can be unreliable.
The Bleacher Report has Ike Taylor as the 35th best FA out there right now and predicts he will sign with the Texans.
The 2009 numbers would include the 12.5 million dollar signing bonus given to Antonio Smith and franchising Dunta Robinson for one year (9.95) million. They are probably much lower down the list this year.
Interceptions are really not a great measure of CB's this year, as QB's just don't challenge them when they don't have to. Revis and Nmandi had 0 INT's this year.
^ Wow. That is brilliantly sad and astonishing at the same time. You can tell the Texans don't use any sort of statistical analysis when it comes to evaluating their performance, seeing as how Kubiak is still around with all of those numbers against him. I think the most telling is 9 wins against winning teams in five years. Less than two wins a year are against good teams, while we beat up on average and bad teams to get the other 6 or 7 wins. That really tells you all you need to know.
The only stat I think he dun goofed on was the "0 teams with lower average 1st round draft picks since 2006 without a playoff appearance". That seems off with teams like the Lions, Browns, 49ers, Bills, and so on. He might have manipulated those numbers since some of those teams didn't have draft picks in some years, thus throwing off their average. What he should've weighed was records, not draft pick slot.
I think maybe the stat is supposed to imply no team that has picked under them in the draft has been as bad. As if to point out that despite the fact that they picked at a higher draft pick spot than all those other teams, those teams still are drafting better players and going to the playoffs. I'm guessing though. Maybe he was saying "lower" as in "lower in the draft i.e. 10 vs 5" instead "lower number i.e. 1 vs 5".
It's a just guess though. If he meant it the way you (and I) initially read it, he has to be wrong. Cleveland had a 10 win season so maybe they had a draft pick that was low enough to mess up their average, but Detroit, San, and Buff don't see possible to me.
I find the stat on the bottom left that he has the lowest winning % of all active NFL head coaches to be both astonishing and hard to believe at the same time. There's got to be at least one head coach hired in the last year or two that just had a sucky year and that's all they have on their resume.
The amount paid per win vs. Belichick is stunning. One number he should have included was the 2010 record against teams NOT playing their backup QB. That would be 3-10. Also, the 1-4 career record after the bye week is pretty telling. I saw something in the comments section that says coaches with a minimum of 50 games. EDIT: yeah, read the VERY fine print at the bottom.
The figures that stand out to me are the .333 win % vs the division; the .243 win % vs winning teams; and his .463 overall win % ranking dead last among active head coaches (minimum 50 games).
