AsthmaField
Outta bounds
- Messages
- 26,489
- Reaction score
- 44,544
Thanks man... always nice to hear that someone likes some of the things I write on here.
Good post too. You should post more often.
As far as Carter goes, I understand the angst. I do. But there are a few things that mitigates any unease that I feel about him:
First, remember this year he wasn't even starting part of the time. Marinelli preferred Wilber and Hitchens over Carter at SLB. When players started dropping like flies at that spot, Carter had to play and he did better than he had been, but still made mistakes. Marinelli hates mistakes. They drive him crazy and it comes as no shock that Carter was never a Marinelli favorite. Throw in that Carter was never crazy about contact and it is no wonder that Rod didn't mind seeing him leave. Marinelli is a great D coordinator though and he eventually found a few things that Carter did pretty well, but he limited what Rod wanted to do IMO.
Secondly, the Sam OLB in Marinelli's 43 scheme isn't a difficult position to fill. It just isn't. A middling free agent pickup like Durant would more than capably fill in at SLB for Carter. Jimmy Johnson knew those guys were a dime-a-dozen and Marinelli knows they are too. Hitchens came in and played very well for a 4th round pick, but a big part of that is that OLB in the Dallas defense isn't a difficult position to play. It is in large part instinctual (something Carter lacked big-time) and as long as you have a pretty good athlete who is a natural LB, you will get more than adequate play there.
So, I don't consider Carter (or Durant for that matter) to be much of a loss at all, and if you pay attention to how the Cowboys reacted to their free agency status, I don't think the team thinks so either. They likely value Hitchen's more highly than either Carter or Durant, and they'll likely draft a guy who can come in and contribute like Hitchens did last year.
On top of that, I think they'll find a free agent (besides Rivers) that can come in and compete at the position as well... and do so at a more than reasonable price (43 OLB's just aren't very expensive).
Rolando McClain is a bit of a different animal than either Durant or Carter IMO. I think the team would like to keep him but with some questions off the field, they don't want to go very high. Ro brings an attitude that is good for the D and is very, very physical. I know it is early but I think the team would like to bring back McClain for MLB and move Lee outside with Hitchens opposite him as the 3 starters. Then, they can maybe sign another low priced OLB candidate and draft another Hitchens type in the draft.
I'm not saying I'm right and you're wrong... it could be the complete opposite of that... but I think they have a plan in place for LB and I think part of that plan was to let Carter go, offer Durant a low contract and let him go if he wants more and then get some other guys to play in their spots because the team didn't think they did anything that was anywhere close to irreplaceable. I think they'll have a few candidates for those spots and then they'll let them fight it out in camp and see how it shakes out. At MLB, if McClain is reasonable with his demands they'll bring him back. If not, they'll play Lee there, let Hitchens move there if Lee gets hurt and have an OLB to replace Hitch if Lee does get hurt.
Just my two cents.
