I was disappointed in his production but I am willing to see him under a different coaching staff before thinking re-signing him was a mistake. There was justification for re-signing him at that time and few to no options in not doing so.
Let's take the entire defense, not just that one player. Did any player perform up to expectations? We had expectations for Lawrence, Woods, Hill, Collins, Vander Esch, Smith and the entire secondary except the evil Jeff Heath, who actually played gutsier and harder than any player on the team.
Now, we're looking at the same situation with the best DB who will demand top 5 money as we did last year with the DE. What are the options?
Is it likely that every player on the D would should show some type of regression? I want to see one DC in charge, one voice and then take a better look at this. I think there is talent there and most of those players are better than what I saw this past season. I don't usually lay it off on coaching but it was the entire D.
I know one thing and it applies to everything we do that requires leadership, we have to believe in the leaders. Marinelli was more concerned about limiting mistakes than utilizing skills and maybe he had good reason but every player has to prove he can play at this level.
This goes back to Parcells excuse for not running the true 3/4 and that BDBD. He stated that the 3/4 is a D dependent on every player winning his one on one battle and he didn't have the players and he never got them.
