Baz - I certainly respect what you have to say.
Left Coast - I'm certainly not an apologist. You should see me in Canephins' chat room on a Sunday calling out guys. But I know what I see on the tapes. Whilst I respect what DCH has to say, I'm afraid neither you nor I nor him know what the coaches think of the play of these guys, other than what they tell the media. I'm a journalist. I know how clubs or politicians, etc let the public hear what they want to hear. They also know that players get motivated when stuff goes through the paper. If I'm Morlon or Jamar and I read after the 2002 season that Miami is going to upgrade at CB and LB, then I know that I need to step it up. The best motivation in the world comes sometimes when the coach never sees the player.
What I do think however is that for a guy who cost us a 1st rounder and a guy who cost us a 2nd and a 3rd rounder, they haven't YET played up to the levels that we think they should. But they certainly haven't played down to the levels that most people claim that they have. I think, as I stated, both need to continue to improve, but if their rate of production improves as it has done over the past 2 years, then they will be fine. Watch the Denver game to see how perfectly the funnel works. Now Greenwood had a superb game in that match-up, but no-one wrote about him. But when you break it down and look at what he did, it was as good a performance by a scheme LB that I saw all last year. Now, whilst I also said that he had to improve still and whilst I readily agree that the funnel broke down at times last year, the majority of times it broke down was because the runs went to the weak side - Miami's weak side, where the three worst tacklers on the defence reside - Rodgers, Madison and Marion. Rodgers got caught up in way too much traffic at times, especially in the Buffalo game at PPS to stop Henry getting to the outside - why - 2 receiver sets to the weakside, or getting the TE to stay and block Rodcgers out of the play every time so that the tackle has to be made by the pursuing LB - Zach. When Henry got to the edge, behind Reuben Brown, the first two players he faced were Madison and Marion - who wins that battle?? Faulk was getting open because of brilliant scheming by Charlie Weiss, sending 4 receivers into the pattern, with multiple looks and keeping Faulk into block and then flaring him out or running him on shallow crosses and he was coming out to the weak side most of the time - Rodgers' neck of the woods. Like I said, I think the guys need to improve, but I think it's a shame that they are the whipping boys for the defense when it's clearly not their fault.
As for why we signed Terrell - well, we need 4 good corners. We had Sam, Pat and Terry Cousin. We still drafted Jamar. we play against a NE team that runs multiple WR sets and has TE's that can run like WR's. Buffalo had three great WR's and a big TE who can make plays down the seams. All have backs that come out of the backfield and have great hands. You need 4 good corners. If Sam got hurt, it's Jamar and Pat and the nickel back is suddenly Omare Lowe who has never played. You need 4 guys.
