Fox/Hurney

When I draft a linebacker with the 14th? Sure. When I draft a safety with the 14th? I expect him to be able to play the position.

Gross isn't a bust, but he plays like you'd expect a second rounder to play. 7th overall? Fuck no. He's been good before. Still think his rookie season was his best. I dont know how much blame goes to us switching him every goddamn year and week, but hey. He is not a dominating player.

 

Gross needs to get meaner and stronger. He's got the smarts, I think.

Another thing about our drafts is we've taken a handful of guys who would have been seniors, they are generally not gonna dominate as rooks and take a little longer to become effective.

I think we've planned for it okay with the biggest exception being counting on Morgan (who, btw, Fox just said on Panther Talk is not coming along as fast as they had expected).

The failure to treat the safety position with much draft respect over the last four years is baffling and is coming home to roost.

 

I can't say that I disagree, which is unfortunate, as Hurney is the one who more deserves to go and more needs to be replaced.


Regarding Gross, I heard on an NFL Network interview during the '06 training camp (I think) about how much he hated to lift weights. He sure plays like it. If the people in charge made cold, objective, dispassionate decisions then I think Gross would be walking. But we've shown time and time again that we'll grossly overpay for mediocre players considered to be leaders of their offensive units.

 

For real? Fucking shit, man. Certainly expains a lot.

 

Agree. Of course, if they just wanted a guy to plug into WLB, they could've had that player. Just like with this year, really (you could say they could plug Posluszny in at MLB, I guess. I viewed all of them as WLB, including Timmons, who I still don't get going that high).

Beason excelling passes doubt on the Davis pick, yes. Davis still has a lot higher upside than Johnson, and has been better than Johnson, but regardless they had a couple openings coming up, and plugged Davis into the one they felt he fit best after a year. I don't think people really expected he was going to beat out Witherspoon, and when safety wasn't going to work out, then the year's situational. Since then, he's been good, but this year he's stepping it up.

 

Fixed that for ya.

 

I've been so busy watching others, Beason, Gamble for some reason, and paying attention to the line and the safeties, who really ARE improving, I have practically ignored Davis. So he's been good this season? Im embarrassed for not knowing, but I dont.

 

2nd in tackles behind beason

He's been very good in coverage at times, especially against the TE. He did get caught almost faceguarding Clark, and was a half step behind Crumpler, it's not an exact thing, but he's been good underneath and has been rangy. Oddly enough from the 'active' discussion, Davis has played at the line a few times, though more in the early games than the last few. Still don't like him there.

 

Check that, I do remember being overall impressed with his coverage. But yeah....good enough.

Second in tackles behind Beason, huh? Awesome. Wondering if Beason stands a shot at DROY.

 

He's been solid overall. Made some mistakes in coverage, but pretty decent at tracking people down in space.