There were very good things said about Larry Chester by the media but as he's still recovering from an injury that perhaps he should be recovered from already, they've quieted on him. I know I don't have the same view of him that I did a while ago, when we first signed him and saw what he could do.
One thing the guy who wrote the article forgets is that back in 98 and 99, Brock Marion was played closer to the line of scrimmage. In 2000 I believe we moved our safeties to playing strict cover two with no help for the front seven. In 98, the iron triangle had help and Brock Marion was a BIGTIME tackler (124 tackles in 1997, 98 tackles in 1998, 86 tackles in 1999). Under Jimmy we were much more committed to stopping the run and even though we were VERY confident in our front seven (Bowens + DG in their primes, Zach, Mixon, Robert Jones back when he was good, Rodgers solid...) we still gave them help with Brock Marion. Every now and then as a result we got beat deep (even Madison, mostly Buckley). With Bates' arrival we got away from that and in some ways we're better and in others we're worst. #1 pass defense in the league, run defense not so hot. Goal is to get our front seven to where we could play strict cover two but I don't think we're there yet...