Albert Haynesworth

Wonder if it makes sense to make a run at him with the money we were going to spend on Peppers. He would absolutely shore up the middle of our line, but he's a hot head like Smitty so maybe that would disqualify him from our interest. Add him to our Dline and maybe we can get by with BRayton, Johnson, Taylor at end....

He's from S.C so maybe he'd like to come "home" to play in front of family and friends.

pros? cons?

 

Definite cons include having his best years in contract (though I don't put as much stock into that) and him possibly being as dirty and unremorseful a player as I've seen. That's a lot to put into a guy you're going to pay near tens of millions per year.

He's undoubtedly a force, though, and he did state we were a team he'd like to play for (though, geographically).


Make no mistake, we'd need an end with or without Haynesworth or another top DT. Peppers isn't by any means the only thing on this defense but we can't stand pat by any means on what we have. We don't have nearly the sack production without him, and while I disagree that there's no way we'll be as good on defense (I mean, holy overreaction, it's not like we finished 2nd in the league - we were 18th in yards), we'd need to use the money we'd expect to spend on one player and use it to make that defense overall better.

 

So says the guy who didn't even watch the team enough to know that Kemoeatu plays LDT, not RDT. If you take Defense X and subtract one of the most talented defensive ends in the league and certainly that defense's only pass rushing threat, then there's almost no chance for that defense to be anywhere near as good as they were before. No matter who they get, that player will not be Julius Peppers because players that talented almost never become available in free agency. Therefore the defense will have less talent in 2009 than they had in 2008. Certainly if Peppers was coming off of another 2.5 sack season then you could argue that we'd be as good or better with someone else, but he was the only consistent source of a pass rush on this team. Take that away and our secondary suddenly becomes even more exposed.


Paladin:
I don't think there's any way that Haynesworth gets away from Tennessee, as he hasn't indicated that he wants to leave and the Titans have plenty of cap room to pay whatever he wants. If they don't reach an agreement by mid-February then he'll undoubtedly be franchised.

 

They set incentives last season when he signed the tag, he met them, so he can't be tagged again this year.

 

Ah, you're right. Great point. In that case I'd certainly want us to try and sign Haynesworth, but I doubt we can outbid Tennessee and other teams. He's as good as Jenkins in his prime, though with some of the same personality issues.

 

uhh, yeah, you're right. I never watched the games at all. I don't know what football is and so on. You should carry the Kemoeatu mistake around with you every day, keep it warm, and cuddle it. This is how concerned you are with the level of discussion on this board, right? It takes you an old grudge, a couple personal attacks, and dismissal before you can start talking about football and we're two posts into an argument.

So the team's going to lose Peppers, and then roll over and play dead from there? No, I doubt it. I'm not saying definitively they'll improve overall, but the ideal of a franchise losing one player and using that money to become a better team overall isn't terribly far fetched, and the ideal of us improving on one of the worst defensive rankings under John Fox's tenure is more something I'd anticipate than not anticipate.

This year's defense was fairly talented, other than the rest of the DL. They underachieved.
It's also a lot to assume that we'll just automatically lose talent across the board because of one player. It may happen, it may not. To state definitively about talent level or eventual production is at the least hasty.

That doesn't make Peppers less talented or his replacement easier. If Peppers averaged 2.5 sacks a year, sure. But sacks don't equal defense anymore than production and talent are direct relationships with no other variables.

he recently named around four or five other teams that he'd like to play for. I don't know that it says directly "he wants to leave", but they had to franchise him twice to keep him so he's taken two opportunities to not sign a long term contract with a team that really wants to keep him.

 

Most are ignoring the fact that, despite not having Joe Montana, we had, in my view, the most dominant rushing attack in the last half of the 2008 season, all while rotating shit at RG.

I like that to stick, no matter who starts for us at RDE.

 

I like Julius Peppers. I never bought him as a loafer, even as the 2007 season disaster is being rumored to be about his motivations. It'll be a ************ trying to replace him if we must, and the whole time I won't want to do it.

I don't believe he's really being held back. I don't like any player who's supposed to be a leader, but doesn't communicate to his head coach about not buying in.

I also just can't buy that it's a definite situation that the defense, the team, the state will roll over and die because of one player. I mean, hell, we were better defensively in points, yards, takeaways last year with Peppers' 2.5 sacks, a meager offense, and worse special teams than we were this year with a better offense that made up 20 spots higher in scoring, one of the best running games, and better field position and Peppers' 14.5 sacks. It's counterintuitive, sure. That we didn't get the best that this defense had, despite better production from Peppers, means we don't predict things based on one player definitively.

 

It's a hard mistake to understand. Someone who said that Otah played left tackle wouldn't have a lot of credibility when talking about the offense.

As I said, what's done is done and the team has to try to make the best of a bad situation. We're not going to replace Peppers' talent certainly, and at least next season we're not going to replace his production either. They'll undoubtedly try to make moves and maybe some scheme changes to generate more pressure from other places and attempt to minimize the impact of Peppers' absence as much as possible. As Abusive notes, the team will still have a potent offense (not only the running game but obviously Steve Smith), so I imagine the strategy will be to win games on offense and try not to lose them on defense instead of the other way around as in previous seasons.

Stop pretending to be stupid. Obviously we're going to have less talent on defense if we don't have Peppers. You don't lose arguably the most talented defensive end in the league and then be as or more talented on that side of the ball. To quote G.O.B. Bluth, "Come on!"

 

Defense is one of three phases. Our special teams appears to be heading to a good place, and the core of the offense is set. Well, except for that whole QB issue. Don't fuck up the fry machine, Jake.

We need a Bert Berry or a Suggs. Or, we pay Pep and tell him to fuck his mother.