Quote:
Originally Posted by Idgit
Wow, Eskimo. Can't say I agree with, or even understand, your assessment of either CB. Players and coaches have commented all year long about the quality of the improvements to the secondary and it's effects on the defense. Neither was a swing-and-a-miss. And, in particular, the premium we played for Carr is what happens when you have to shop for a number one CB in FA.
I don't love having to overpay at a position of major need, but that's what happens when you're shopping for quality at that position.
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I expected great play for the investments made and I don't think we have received great play from this pair of CBs. I don't think they have been particularly bad. I just don't think they have been all that great.
Part of my problem with the CB play is how regularly they have been burned when we blitz. Ryan is rarely blitzing this year and when he does his CBs get butchered with alarming regularity. This suggests to me that the defensive improvement probably has more to do with the play of the LBs in coverage and the overall play of the secondary as a whole versus the elevated play from the CBs. Go back and look at the 2009 season when Wade was running the show and you'll see how often we left TNew and Jenks on an island and how often they responded when tested. The problem with that defensive unit was how woeful Brooking and Bradie James were and the lack of contribution from the DEs in the pass rush.
I do agree that we are better than we were last year but that is probably more due to how bad TNew and Jenkins were playing at the end of the year from all their injuries.
It'll be interesting to see what kind of performance Ryan can get out of this defense going up against all these rookie QBs over the last half of the season. I am hoping for some confusion (for the QB and not in our secondary) leading to some turnovers. Washington always play us tough and we often have struggled against scrambling QBs but maybe we'll be better with Sims and Carter patrolling the middle.