Cowboys bringing in Michael Huff for a visit Monday

[PJTHEDOORS]

I'm not disagreeing with you on that aspect. Defensive Line is definitely an area of need as well as OL, S as we all know. As long as we improve any of those three areas I am not going to complain much. It is going to take more than a year regardless of what we upgrade. If I had to choose one area on defense, I would say that Safety is more of a concern. Matt Johnson/Barry Church is scary.

I shouldn't have said Ratliff is done. Just that I don't expect him to be the guy who constantly gets in the backfield and brings that pressure. If he can, I will eat my words and apologize. I like Ratliff, hope it was the injuries that set him back, and not his game. But we need youth at DT.

 

[CowboysBravesSpurs]

Sure Defensive line is fine. Ware and Spencer, undersized DE's. Ratliff, declining player who isn't what he use to be. Hatcher, a DE moving to DT. Ya, no worries.

LOL ware & Spencer undersized? Please, they were both good DEs in college. Lol doubting ware? Dont ever doubt ware.. & your acting as if Hatcher moving from DE to DT is a transition of someone like Jared Allen or Trent Cole moving to DT. Truth is MANY 3-4 DEs can play and excel at DT in the 4-3. & Ratliff will be dominant if he can stay healthy. I can think he'll play better as a 4-3 DT. Same with Hatcher, I think he'll play better in this system considering how he strong & fast he is. OL & Safety are in worse condition..

 

[PJTHEDOORS]

LOL ware & Spencer undersized? Please, they were both good DEs in college. Lol doubting ware? Dont ever doubt ware.. & your acting as if Hatcher moving from DE to DT is a transition of someone like Jared Allen or Trent Cole moving to DT. Truth is MANY 3-4 DEs can play and excel at DT in the 4-3. & Ratliff will be dominant if he can stay healthy. I can think he'll play better as a 4-3 DT. Same with Hatcher, I think he'll play better in this system considering how he strong & fast he is. OL & Safety are in worse condition..

Who cares about college. Ware is 254 lb. Spencer 250. To me, that's undersized going against tackles who are over 300 lbs.

 

[XxTDxX]

This would be a great pick up.. I think regardless we will draft a safety but this allows us to take BPA and not have to reach for a safety at any point.. Huff can cover ground and plays the ball pretty well.. Would be a great move.

 

[RackofRibs]

I think a Huff signing still allows for you to draft a safety. It just may not be in the 1st round this year.

Anyone mind explaining to me why Huff was moved to Corner as opposed to safety? He was probably still their best corner but the move from free safety to corner is a rather odd one. And then he's cut 2 years after signing his deal?

They bargain shopped at CB with ron bartell and shawntae spencer. They sucked/got injured and moved Huff to cb

 

[Clove]

I liked Huff coming out. I'm sure he'd be an upgrade from what we had.

 

[JBell]

Yes please.

 

[9darter]

Depends on what kind of money he wants. But this could be a good move. I'm still drafting a safety, though.

 

[Alexander]

Who cares about college. Ware is 254 lb. Spencer 250. To me, that's undersized going against tackles who are over 300 lbs.

They will be the smallest sets of ends in the NFL if their current listed weights are correct.

 

[Galian Beast]

They will be the smallest sets of ends in the NFL if their current listed weights are correct.

Not much smaller than the Patriots defensive ends.

 

[dantheman41]

They will be the smallest sets of ends in the NFL if their current listed weights are correct.

Spencer was listed at 265 two years ago. I'm sure he will go back to that size again

 

[Alexander]

Spencer was listed at 265 two years ago. I'm sure he will go back to that size again

That is still below the average weight of the starting ends league-wide.

If you couple that with smaller defensive tackles in Hatcher and Ratliff, it compounds the concern.

The run defense will be something that will have to be closely watched. What made Kiffin's defenses in Tampa work was that he did have a penetrating tackle in Sapp and big space-eating nose in McFarland. That is why it is pretty clear to see why there is a bit of an issue with the current personnel.

The defense is designed to keep linemen off of the second level. If the line cannot support the run effectively, the linebackers will be eaten alive. There is a need for a little more size.

This article asked some of those very relevant questions:

http://bloggingthebeast.com/2013/03...-the-rest-of-the-4-3-teams-around-the-league/

I do not see how anyone can feel the line is "fine for now" as it looks currently.

I would draft one tackle, perhaps two if at all possible, both on the larger end of the spectrum.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

Who cares about college. Ware is 254 lb. Spencer 250. To me, that's undersized going against tackles who are over 300 lbs.

They can rotate guys. The Giants had 3 pass-rushing DEs who were about the same size as Ware and Spencer (JPP, Tuck, Osi) and nobody complained about that. Ware and Spencer can be moved around. We can still run a lot of sets with a big guy like Hatcher or Crawford playing SDE.

 

[CyberB0b]

Is Huff really all that and a bag of chips? I would rather draft a young guy and solidify the position for several years, not put a band aid on it and have to address it again in a year or two.

He is a stop gap. I would say he is slightly better than Sensabaugh.

 

[The Natural]

Is Huff really all that and a bag of chips? I would rather draft a young guy and solidify the position for several years, not put a band aid on it and have to address it again in a year or two.

Like others have said it just means they wont target a Safety in the first round. So in other words, yes we will have to address this again in a year or two

 

[TheFinisher]

They can rotate guys. The Giants had 3 pass-rushing DEs who were about the same size as Ware and Spencer (JPP, Tuck, Osi) and nobody complained about that. Ware and Spencer can be moved around. We can still run a lot of sets with a big guy like Hatcher or Crawford playing SDE.

JPP is 6'6 280 and Tuck is 6'5 270.

Ware is 6'4 254 and Spencer is 6'3 250.

Big difference.

 

[Doomsday101]

I would love to sign Huff to a 3 year deal. As for the draft this move would just prevent Dallas from reaching for a safety. We can still draft one but at least we will not be in a position of having to draft out of need.

 

[ufcrules1]

Sure Defensive line is fine. Ware and Spencer, undersized DE's. Ratliff, declining player who isn't what he use to be. Hatcher, a DE moving to DT. Ya, no worries.

Thank you for the common sense post. Yeah, dline is just fine.. we just had a hard time getting to the QB last year. I'm sure that will change with most of the same guys out there though.

 

[Wayne02]

They can rotate guys. The Giants had 3 pass-rushing DEs who were about the same size as Ware and Spencer (JPP, Tuck, Osi) and nobody complained about that. Ware and Spencer can be moved around. We can still run a lot of sets with a big guy like Hatcher or Crawford playing SDE.

Wrong, just wrong. Please research before posting.

 

[Bowdown27]

I liked the idea of picking up huff still decently young and can work well with kiffin in this style of defense. And also seems to lead us more likely to draft olinemen in the first round *fingers crossed*