Yeah, I guess my problem is the people here who seem to want them to fail.
Our OL is alot of young guys now, and I for one, hope they come together and gel without us having to spend alot of resources again (2 1st rounders in 3 years is alot of resources). What we need to be thinking about next year is our Betty White of a DL and our lack of talent at safety.
Our DL is desperate for the youth (Hayden...really), and if you have to keep 6 safeties that means you don't have 2 that are any good. Yet thread after thread is about putting more resources into the OL, ignoring the rest of the team. Rather be optimistic, and if Free and Parnell can actually do something then we can concentrate on other issues on this team for a change. I feel alot more confident in them than I am in our safeties or DL depth.....and with pass rusher being a premium position, you can write down our first rounder being a pass rusher next year cause its a huge need thats hard to find.
I don't think anyone wants them to fail, rather they recognize that they aren't any good. Most of us gave them a chance, even though weren't happy. We gave the front office the benefit of the doubt, and it came back to bite us pretty badly.
As I said before, even if Leary works out, we will still be in the position of needing to address guard or tackle, simply from the standpoint that we need a huge influx of depth let alone the fact that Doug Free will be on the last year of his contract next year. Rather than wait until after Free or Parnell have gone away and then being forced to start a rookie, we should get a rookie and let them come in a compete with Free or Parnell, depending on what position we draft, be it guard or tackle. Most quality offensive lines have a sixth man, who can come in and start in case a starter is injured, we don't even have five quality starters at this point. We have two that we think we can count on for sure.
Defensive line is a huge issue going into next year, this is true, but that doesn't mean we don't still need to address the offensive line. Who knows what Marinelli can do with the guys that we have now. Who was Henry Melton in 2010? Just a 4th round draft pick with 2.5 sacks. Hell maybe we resign Hatcher, maybe Bass develops, and then there is always Crawford, who will be coming back from IR. Defensive line isn't nearly as dire as people would make it out to be, at least not yet. We'll know a lot more there at the end of the season. Offensive line on the other hand has been a consistent issue.
As for having six safeties, you as well as many others are conflating the issue there. We don't have six safeties. We have four safeties and two special teams players specialists that happen to be "safeties". It has nothing to do with the safety position on defense.
Will Allen is a stop-gap veteran. Barry Church is a starter. They want Wilcox to be a starter at some point, but he isn't ready for that yet. They also liked the potential that they saw in Jeff Heath, but even then he is predominantly likely to be a special teams player.
Wilcox could very well be the starter by week 8. And if that is the case Allen is probably gone next year, unless he comes in at a minimum rate. Even then they would probably like to bring Matt Johnson along if he can stay healthy.
Are any of these players going to be pro bowlers? Probably not, but we don't need them to be. The defense is actually altogether in a pretty good position to have a serious impact.
