Schedule

Hayden sure wasn't last year.

Camp will sort things out.

I also thinnk we might see more of Brayton at DT - although I don't know if that's a plus. But he has more than a year exp. Ditto Peppers at DT.

The key is rotation, b/c we tend to rotate those guys. We've got talent / experience in:

Peppers
Johnson
Brayton
Kemo
Lewis

We have a high pick in Brown. That's 6. Peppers and Brayton have played both spots, so that gives us some rotational depth. We could move things around to be:

Brown / Brayton / Peppers / Johnson.

That's not ideal, but it demonstrates versatility. And that rotation allows Kemo / Lewis to rest on passing downs. Maybe the versatility they always harp about for oline is going to come around for DL.

Beyond that, we seem thin. I don't think that losing Darwin Walker and GAry Gibson is a concern, though. And in rookies we have Corey Irvin and a 342 lb meatloaf named Lonnie Harvey. You never know with rookies.

Camp........

 

this team is very young and has been for a few years. We're pretty well set up to coach youth better than vets, between the 07 and 09 changes.

 

I heard from a guy at minicamp that Brayton was much thicker this year. So maybe he's accepting his situational left end role and part time DT role. Given the way Meeks used DL in Indy, getting bigger at end isn't really an ideal reaction to being counted on as a starter for more snaps.

But whether he can be a good run stopping DT is still obviously in doubt. A 290 lb former end can be athletic at DT, and rush fairly well, but we have rush. The one DT we added is a penetrator, a rusher. Maybe the rush defense will succeed in flowing to the ball, to penetrating, but it can't fit that to success versus every team.

 

as for not having winning seasons back to back, I saw a stat on Jeff Fisher the other day - people seem to regard him as some fantastic coach and he's only had 6 winning seasons of 15.

Granted that's not something to shoot for, but 3 in 7 isn't that fucking bad.

 

I was refering to our entire history, not just the Fox tenure.

 

Good points about flexibility and experience at DE. When you look at the DT situation you have to figure in using Brayton and Pep at DT too - agreed. Meeks might be able to come up with some schemes to take advantage of the DE talent to make up for the lack of experience at DT as Meat suggests. I think that we will still be looking to pick up some experience at DT at some point before the season begins.

 

Peppers has been used at DT and even had success there but not enough that i want him inside on anymore than a few passing downs a game.

 

Using Peppers inside on passing downs against undersized offensive guards can create a huge advantage for our defense, but otherwise, it's pointless. Most guards are powerful enough to hold him at bay from that position.

 

He's still better than Nick Hayden.