Originally posted by ckparrothead
I don't think we'll be "just fine" counting on guys like David Bowens, Jay Williams, and Grigsby to make the DL as dominant as it should be. Remember that Bates' defense is very D-Line driven. QBs have to feel pressure or else our man to man coverage doesn't hold up very well. We're a step slower in the secondary now that Marion is so old and Madison is losing his abilities...with Knight as our other safety.
People said we would be "just fine" with Lorenzo Brommell coming in to replace a departed Trace Armstrong. We weren't. Neither Mixon nor Brommell could get consistent pressure and Jason Taylor ended up with only 9 sacks. We got lucky that we stumbled on a guy of Ogunleye's caliber otherwise our D could have suffered for years. Back in 2001 though was when our secondary was in its PRIME. Surtain was still the league's best kept secret, Madison was playing in All-Pro form, Marion hadn't quite lost the step that he has now, and Brian Walker was still our safety and that boy could run a whole lot faster than Knight can. Even so, our turnovers suffered a lot...Surtain had 3, Madison had only 2, Walker only had 1, and Marion chipped in with his usual 5. Thats a far cry from 2000 when everyone in the secondary had AT LEAST 5 interceptions and Walker had like 7. If our turnovers suffered at least our coverage didn't as much. But now we've got a secondary that are, with the exception of Surtain, ALL a step slower, and they all are gamblers. You take away some of their passrush and all the sudden you'll see teams passing all over us.
This year I think JT had an off year you could see it at the beginning of the year. I mean over the first 10 games he had a total of 4 sacks. But Ogun was wrecking so wild on teams that it pulled JT out of his slump...over the last 6 games JT had 9 sacks as people started to take notice of Ogun's 10 sacks in 10 games. Even so, Ogun's production didn't drop off as teams entered a kind of pick your poison frenzy that resulted in just more pressure on the QB...Philly notwithstanding. If our D wasn't exactly at their best overall in the back half of the season, maybe this newfound pressure from both sides resulted in us not having as many defensive lapses in the 2nd half of the year as we are usually prone to having. I mean in 2002, down the stretch, we allowed Minnesota to keep a time of possession WAY better than our own, and we didn't get pressure on NE either and they also kind of had their way on offense time of possession-wise. This year, like I said philly game notwithstanding (MNF is just weird for us, always has been, always will be), and a horrible team performance against Tennessee notwithstanding, our D hung in there. I remember after we lost to New England 0-12, Len Pasquarelli or Pete Prisco I forget which one actually STOOD UP for us, saying that watch out because this doesn't look like your typical Dolphins team...he said I know people will be like "oh the dolphins lost in december again" but he said he watched that game and the Dolphins D hung in there tooth and nail every second of the NE game and its a far cry from what he's use to seeing of the Dolphins D in december when they "just give up"
Lose Ogunleye and it might be back to Dolphins D like usual, strong in september, nowhere in december. If thats the case, we had better make DAMN SURE that we're putting together a top 10 offense over on the other side of the ball, and just getting ourselves a Vernon Carey who may or may not make a difference as a Guard this year, won't do it.
Now if we used the extra picks to pry our way up to select Larry Fitzgerald while still getting Drew Henson for a 2005 2nd rounder, that would be something completely different...