Sounds like McNair knows he is taking a HUGE gamble with Kubiak so he is going to try and give him all the pieces he needs for success. I like both potential targets, you add a top 10 pick to the defense and it could turn quickly.
Sign Ike Taylor, have a top 10 pick to add a piece to the defense, get back Barwin and Ryans...thats a huge upgrade from this current defense. We saw what happened when we replaced Dunta with Kareem....reversing that and bringing in Ike will have a dramatic impact.
We should switch to a 3-4 just to get Okoye's lame *** off our team. This dude a top 10 draft pick and is basically invisible with the exception of one or two plays a game. I don't want to talk to bad about Okoye, seems like he's a great guy off the field but imo he doesn't seem to have that dominant defensive beast for a DT drafted in the top 10. The investment of him has really been holding this team back and I think we got Earl Mitchell to light a fire under him, I just hope he's gone. Best for both parties really. With that said CB, DT/NT if we switch to 2-4, and a cover safety. Ike would be great, but really we just need depth out there. Kareem should really play much better his 2nd year, we just need to get guys like McCain off the field. Watch previous games you'll see Brice gets on the field and is and has been always the worst corner on this team and that's saying a lot.
Terrible move, but not surprising cause Smith and Kube are horrible co-GMs. There are severak corners available via free agency that are better than Ike. 1) Champ Bailey 2) Johnathan Joseph 3) Carlos Rogers But we are going after a Steelers system corner who has neither the numbers nor the big performances to become a top free agent target. BTW Larry Fitzgerald said hi going through the middle. Y-IKES!
2nd best WR in the league does a quick slant against the dumbest deep 2 coverage in super bowl history and burns the entire team...Y-IKES!!! Joseph is getting franchised and Rogers is a headcase that lost PT to Philip Buchanon.
btw...lol@system corner when Johnathan Joseph did all his work with the Bengals having that beastly pass rush....then when it goes away...he's the main target for QBs. But "system"!!! Asante Samuel was a system corner too, they said. haaaaaaaaa
Steelers coaches love Ike Taylor. McFadden, the other corner, is like a bottom 5 CB in the league. No way they let go of their #1 guy without a backup groomed to take over, Tomlin's not Simple Gary.
It all sounds good...but i have absolutely no faith in this organization's ability to follow through to make it happen. Who's in charge of going out to get him? Who do we send to lure him in? Rick? Gary?? If it happens, that's a definite step in the right direction from a personnel standpoint....I'll be surprised if it happens. How many threads have we had about specific free agents we wanted to land here only to get nada?
Maybe they will feel some urgency since they are bringing Kubiak. The fan base is at an all-time pissed off state so maybe they feel like they need to bring in a top notch FA. I have my doubts though.
I have no doubt they'll feel urgency. They see the iceberg up ahead. I just don't trust the guys driving the ship.
Gary Kubiak: "Looks like an iceberg up ahead. It's expecting me to steer around it, better try to go under it."
Actually, the thought process goes...Gary Kubiak: "The iceberg knows that I know that I want to run around it, so I will pass under it instead" - good strategy.
Yeah, I agree with you...there seem to be so many ways to improve this team, but the people leading the team are clueless. The urgency will be there, but we'll end up bringing in 3rd tier free agents as band aids. I have zero confidence that we'll go out there and do some nice damage via free agency. Im still in shock that the same people that made decisions for this team last season...are still going to be making decisions next season. Complete fail.
This is why concepts like "urgency" and "fieriness" are unadulterated BS. The only thing that matters is execution.
What veterans were "shown the door" other than Dunta? Surely you can't be suggesting our 13th ranked defense was propped up by Jeff Zgonina and Tim Bulman...? Fred Bennett and Jacques Reeves...?
Robinson, Reeves and Zgonina all played legit roles at their positions and were substantially better than some of their replacements in 2010. Moreover, the other part of the parallel to 2005 was in the leadership department. The 2005 season was the first without guys like Jamie Sharper and Aaron Glenn, and it showed up big time. No one's saying that players like those five were studs. But they were all generally mediocre (slightly above average, in some cases) and brought experience and leadership to their positions. In both years, the Texans went almost exclusively young, with several players who simply weren't ready to contribute. The difference between mediocre and horrible at a position can mean just as much as the difference between mediocre and good. One of the Texans biggest flaws, historically, has been their lack of significant FA activity all on the belief that their own players will magically "develop".
Propped up, no. But when you downgrade the secondary the way you did, and then downgrade your DL rotation the way you did (2nd stringers are important, esp on the line!), it has a bigger impact than you think. I'm not saying who they cut were on par with Sharper and the other guy, whose name is escaping me. The parallels to me are that after a year when the defense finally got some swagger and put together some excellent play (and coincidentally was the best year so far in terms of team W-L for each coach), it was badly mismanaged in terms of personnel over the offseason and the next season was a huge disappointment.
