RM's Mid-season Grades: Defense

[Snakester]

Very good writeup Rugby! On the D-line I would like to see us draft FSU DE Tank Carridine in the second round to be the replacement for either Eason or Holiday. I agree that David Carter seems to be hitting that sophmore slump for some reason. Hopefully he comes out of it for the second half of the season. Pretty much your whole writeup is spot on, good job!

 

[Chopper0080]

Warmack looks good for sure. I think he goes late first round. I would like us to take one of the tackles with our first round pick and then if we wanted Warmack trade back up to get him. I really think though that if we take say Lewan with our first pick we then could shift Levi Brown over to either guard spot. If we were to trade back up and take Warmack as well our line could look like this.

LT Taylor Lewan
LG Chance Warmack
C Lyle Sendlein
RG Levi Brown
RT Bobby Massie

While I like some of the prospective OTs in this draft, I really have a difficult time seeing the Cardinals drafting one in the first round. More than that, I am one of the strongest posters on this board that fails to see how Levi Brown translates to an NFL guard. Facts are we have money, a 4th round pick and a 7th round pick invested in our OT position. I don't see us going younger at that position. Upgrading at OG seems like the most feasible option of improving the unit as a whole along with improving our QB position. Our top needs right now look like they will be QB, OG, ILB, OLB, DE, CB, & S.

 

[anks106]

You give 16 of the 23 players a grade of C or worse but the Defense gets an A-

That seems odd.

I was expecting the response to this to be that once you weight the grades for the amount of playing time (most of those 16 are backups) you approach that grade.. but he only gives 1 player on the defense higher than an A-...

 

[kerouac9]

While I like some of the prospective OTs in this draft, I really have a difficult time seeing the Cardinals drafting one in the first round. More than that, I am one of the strongest posters on this board that fails to see how Levi Brown translates to an NFL guard. Facts are we have money, a 4th round pick and a 7th round pick invested in our OT position. I don't see us going younger at that position. Upgrading at OG seems like the most feasible option of improving the unit as a whole along with improving our QB position. Our top needs right now look like they will be QB, OG, ILB, OLB, DE, CB, & S.

Forget about it, Chopper. It's Chinatown.

In this case, "Chinatown" means the zombie idea that Levi Brown would be a good guard in our Power-O system.

 

[Duckjake]

Forget about it, Chopper. It's Chinatown.

In this case, "Chinatown" means the zombie idea that Levi Brown would be a good guard in our Power-O system.

Then there is "BoysTown" which means the zombie idea that Levi Brown has suddenly become a very good Left Tackle in our 3 yards and a cloud of dust passing offense.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

Then there is "BoysTown" which means the zombie idea that Levi Brown has suddenly become a very good Left Tackle in our 3 yards and a cloud of dust passing offense.

No that is not true.

K9 doesn't think Levi Brown has become a good LT, it is just the rest of the league has gotten worse, and Levi Brown has maintained his status quo.

 

[Chopper0080]

No that is not true.

K9 doesn't think Levi Brown has become a good LT, it is just the rest of the league has gotten worse, and Levi Brown has maintained his status quo.

and this is what I agree with. Levi Brown is an average NFL LT. Nothing more and nothing less. The idea of replacing an average LT with a highly ranked rookie LT sin't improving our offensive line, especially when you have weaker players at OG and OC.

If I ranked our OL by talent, this is how I would rank them

1-Levi Brown - OT
2-Bobby Massie - OT
3-Lyle Sendlein - OC
4-Daryn Colledge - OG
5-Rich Ohrnberger - OG
6-Adam Snyder - OG
N/A-Nate Potter - OT
N/A-Senio Kelemete - OG

So, if I want to upgrade my offensive line, I upgrade the interior because that is where I will get the most improvement. It isn't that our OT position is great, it is that it's better off than our OG and OC position.

 

[Snakester]

While I like some of the prospective OTs in this draft, I really have a difficult time seeing the Cardinals drafting one in the first round. More than that, I am one of the strongest posters on this board that fails to see how Levi Brown translates to an NFL guard. Facts are we have money, a 4th round pick and a 7th round pick invested in our OT position. I don't see us going younger at that position. Upgrading at OG seems like the most feasible option of improving the unit as a whole along with improving our QB position. Our top needs right now look like they will be QB, OG, ILB, OLB, DE, CB, & S.

I feel our number one need is a probowl LT. I think Massie will be fine at RT. The last few games he has done well and seems to be getting better each week. As far as Levi Brown I think he would be a probowl guard. His whole skill set screams dominating guard. Also by drafting a top left tackle we kill two birds with one stone. We can replace Snyder at RG. That would give us three top-knotch O-linemen and we would have Snyder as a backup.

Right now I see our biggest needs as a Kurt Warner QB. Which will be impossible to get so scratch that off the list. OLT which we can get by taking one of the big three in Lewan, Matthews or Joeckel. OLB one that is a 10 to 15 sack a year guy. CB- I would love to see us sign DRC back next year. DE- I like Tank Carridine in the second round. S- Safety will just have to wait another year unless we sign a bigtime guy in free agency and I don't see that happening.

 

[Chopper0080]

I feel our number one need is a probowl LT. I think Massie will be fine at RT. The last few games he has done well and seems to be getting better each week. As far as Levi Brown I think he would be a probowl guard. His whole skill set screams dominating guard. Also by drafting a top left tackle we kill two birds with one stone. We can replace Snyder at RG. That would give us three top-knotch O-linemen and we would have Snyder as a backup.

Right now I see our biggest needs as a Kurt Warner QB. Which will be impossible to get so scratch that off the list. OLT which we can get by taking one of the big three in Lewan, Matthews or Joeckel. OLB one that is a 10 to 15 sack a year guy. CB- I would love to see us sign DRC back next year. DE- I like Tank Carridine in the second round. S- Safety will just have to wait another year unless we sign a bigtime guy in free agency and I don't see that happening.

Levi Brown struggles with lateral movement and his strength is locking onto a defensive player. How does this make him a great candidate to be an OG? OGs need to be able to slide either way, disengage from blockers and pick up faster blitzing LBs and S's. Levi Brown struggles with speed and counter moves which translates to his limited lateral movement skills. Levi Brown is not an OG.

 

[kerouac9]

Levi Brown struggles with lateral movement and his strength is locking onto a defensive player. How does this make him a great candidate to be an OG? OGs need to be able to slide either way, disengage from blockers and pick up faster blitzing LBs and S's. Levi Brown struggles with speed and counter moves which translates to his limited lateral movement skills. Levi Brown is not an OG.

You're going to exhaust yourself trying to knock down this assertion every time someone makes it.

You must be registered for see images attach

There are systems where Levi Brown could be as adequate a guard as he is a tackle. Maybe. There's no system where Levi Brown is a Pro Bowl-type guard.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

There's no system where Levi Brown is a Pro Bowl-type tackle as well.

 

[kerouac9]

There's no system where Levi Brown is a Pro Bowl-type tackle as well.

No one's said any differently.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

No one's said any differently.

I didn't say they did. Just felt like throwing that out there.