AZ54

I think Wolfe already squats around 400lbs, how much more strength does he need? Bottom line is he loses out because of physics, 170lbs (180 with pads on) just won't win many battles when a 300lb lineman gets his arm on you. Wolfe could reduce those problems going through the line if he'd just take a lower stance, instead he seems to always be upright when he hits the hole. At his size he ought to be able to dive through the tiniest holes for at least a couple yards. Hopefully the coaches work with him on that this year and hopefully Ron Turner works on his play calling when Wolfe is on the field and uses him more in space.

I think Ced stays and gets another shot next year, however, read on. Wolfe stays because he gives us something in open space that nobody else on the roster except for Hester can, just quit running him up the middle all the time. Wolfe's first down on a 3rd and 25 play was great to see. We are loaded with good special teams players and our GM tends to draft more of them every year, or even sign a FA for just that purpose so it will be AP who is on the bubble. I expect to see a Tiki Barber type RB on the roster to compete with Ced for the starting role. A guy with more quickness and speed to make the back cuts, get to the outside etc. Julius Jones could fit that role for us. I expect we'll be heading to training camp with 4 RBs competing for 3 roster spots and depending on where we draft a RB, or what we sign in FA anyone of the 4 could get cut. If we draft a guy in the first 3 rounds or put out a big signing bonus to an FA then I expect Ced competes with AP for a job. Put me in for DRAFTING A FB or grab one via FA. I agree with Nfol in that we either get a true road grader except to add that I'd also be glad if we get a guy who can block acceptably while also being able to do something with a handoff or screen pass. McKie is just ok at both roles, our FB has to excel at something.

I don't know how you can draw conclusions by watching a few highlights. Although I respect your opinion, watch a complete game like the upcoming bowl game. I was far more impressed with Brennan in games that I was by Flacco. Brennan does have a weird release but it's very quick, about 1/3 the time it takes Kyle Orton to windup and throw. He's also accurate even under pressure. He did get a lot of pressure and had to scramble a lot against Washington State, which he does better than any QB on our roster. He also threw a lot of dumpoff routes in that game, in fact it seemed like that was 25-30% of their plays, inside and outside screens. He also threw a beautiful deep pass that hit his WR in stride straight down the middle of the field. That sidearm release might keep him from being effective in a West Coast offense since it will be easier to knock down his passes but his quick release would fit the system. I'm not sure why you feel he can't read a defense as he seemed to do that well enough in the two games I saw but there's a big difference between reading college and NFL defenses and there's no way we can know that about any college QB until they get in an NFL game. I'd like to hear your thoughts on why. It remains a legit concern for me especially given the average level of competition he's faced in college. Please don't compare him to Tommy Chang just because they went to the same school. Chang never had any arm strength and never looked anything like Brennan while running the same offense. It's not the overall numbers like passing yards that matter to me because that is related to the system, it's his accuracy and arm strength. Typically QBs in a spread offense have weak arms and just hit guys on quick slants and short outs and the yards come on the run after catch. Hawaii will run more deep outs and come back patterns. I'm looking forward to seeing how he plays in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia. HONOLULU (AP) -- Tired of his prolific passer being labeled a so-called "system quarterback," Hawaii coach June Jones on Monday pointed to another star quarterback running a system: Florida's Tim Tebow. Jones said the key difference, however, is that his record-breaking quarterback, Colt Brennan, runs an NFL-style offense while Tebow runs a "college system." OAS_AD('TopRight');var tcdacmd="sa=a;sz=3;ad"; "My quarterback has been labeled a 'system quarterback' for three years," Jones said. "He is the best passer in college history. He is. There is no question about it. Tim Tebow is in a system."

Hey we ran that WR bubble screen for a total of -15 yards today!

If Turner stays at least fire the Oline coach. I gotta get some satisfaction (i.e accountability) out of this horrible offensive play this year.

Drafting Peyton Manning would make a lot of GMs look pretty good.

I'd rather fire Heistand before Turner, perhaps first half. Then in the 4th quarter go after Turner.

I agree Wiliams doesn't have enough speed to cover the deep middle anywhere close to what Urlacher can but you have to look at the net gain or loss. If Urlacher on the outside is as effective as Briggs (or better) and Williams is a better run defender in the middle than Urlacher then the dropoff in coverage might be more tolerable. The biggest problem I'd have with this is the fact our safety play has been very spotty this season. If we had great safeties behind the MLB then this would be an easy call but if we pull Urlacher out of there our pass defense in the middle is going to be worse than it was this year. That's a scary thought.

Forgot Berrian against San Diego in the opening game. Dropped a sure TD from Grossman when he was wide open on the left sideline.

I only got to see Woodson once this year and he looked like he has trouble reading defenses or was otherwise just clueless and inaccurate on some plays. Could have been just one bad game but based on that I'd be very disappointed if we spent such a high first round pick on him. I'm curious to hear what others who got to see more of him think of his skills.

Maybe we can give Moose one of Lovie's "veteran days off" this Sunday and get Hass onto the field?

That's what teams did to us all year long and still folks railed on Ced. I realize Ryan Leaf's little brother sucks as a QB but I also know that Stewart didn't show much burst when he did have holes and ran tentatively in the hole. He wasn't much good fighting for yards after contact either. He did look good with Dixon in when he had huge holes to run through. We already have 3 RBs on the roster who can do that.

I'm ok with dumping Moose and replacing him with Bryant but if you think Bryant is much better than Berrian you'll be disappointed. If we lose Berrian we'll have no choice but to go after Bryant. I watched a lot of Oregon football this season and Jonathan Stewart just doesn't impress me that much. He's a good RB but I didn't see him do anything any different than Ced did this year. Once Oregon lost Dixon, Stewart became invisible. No way I'd take him before any Rd 1 or Rd 2 Oline talent.

Regarding the defense; it seems we've finally learned that it's ok to scheme and take away something from the other team. Against Minn we stacked the box, 8 and 9 guys in there to shutdown the run and it worked. Against GB we played a little closer to the LOS with our DBs to take away the quick slants, we also dropped guys into coverage (Alex Brown) to further confuse Favre's reads. With Babich on the hotseat is he finally learning to adapt instead of just sitting back and running the same basic system? Against Minn it was nice to have Vasher back but he was out against GB and still we played well on D. OTOH we didn't have Briggs against GB and we still played well. We're also using DTs that came off the street. So the improvement can't be assigned to just having a starter back on the field.

He loses value in the open market if Jamar Williams plays well in his place because teams will start to think his numbers are more based on the system he plays in rather than his individual skill. He's still going to get a big paycheck no matter what. I'd rather see Williams play so we know what we have to do in the offseason...try to sign Briggs or stay pat and save the money.

I didn't say you can have an inept offense with a great defense (see Chicago Bears '05). The point was it's tough to pay the big bucks on both sides of the ball and typically, depending on what falls to you in the draft (or if your GM knows how to pick talent), you tend to have more dominant players on one side or the other. How often does a team have top 5 offense and top 5 defense? Usually it's one side that's top 5 and the other is middle of the road. This year we have two teams with both sides ranked top 5: New England and Indy. One of them is about to make history.

I agree, we have two solid CBs and it's not worth it to mess that up. McBride looks like our future nickel CB. We can all speculate that Tillman would be good at safety but there's only one way to find out and if we put him there and we're wrong, we just created two holes. I do think Manning is playing better at FS but he still not reading pass plays early enough to break up enough passes. His run support has been better with bigger hits but at times he takes poor angles. He gave up the big run the Packers had today by diving into the left side for some reason. There's been improvement over last year, yes, but hopefully he can improve again next year. The coaches should have never put him at CB, that practice time in camp when we was practicing both positions didn't help. At the time I agreed it seemed like a good idea because it was hard to rely on McBride or Graham but hindsight's 20:20. I'd like to see Graham at CB next week but I'd also like to win so that probably won't happen.

If Briggs departs via FA don't we get a compensatory pick based on how high his salary is?

IMO the future is more about discovering if our current players on the depth chart can win in this league. Losing means you get a better draft pick but it also means you have more holes to fill. Holes can also be filled by FA and that has nothing to do with losing. In fact, if you want to be more attractive to a FA it's better to be a team that they know is just a few players away from competing for the Superbowl.

A guy plays his position with all of two games of experience and what exactly was the dropoff from the "best WILL in the league"? I'm not saying Williams played as well as Briggs but it's logical to think that with a few more games experience he won't be that far behind. I didn't see enough of a dropoff today to warrant giving Briggs the big money that we can use to fix the Oline.

Jamar Williams was in most of the time if not the entire game while Briggs was inactive. I didn't.

More good news. There was one play this game that made me think Turner has improved and that was the TD play where we brought a TE in motion and he stopped in the backfield leaving a TE, FB, RB behind the QB then we play action fake and pass to Clark in the back corner of the endzone. Then it made me wonder where that play was in the first quarter when we had first and goal and went 4 and out. It's time for a new OC.

What's great to see is our D is returning to form. If not for DManning's mistake in the first half where he overran a play and gave up the TD they were solid. DBs, LBs all had their hands on teh ball throughout the game, just couldn't hang on and there were some decent hits.

You can cut Moose now as far as I'm concerned. Dropping passes like that mean he has no business being our starter and for the money he's making I don't need him as a backup. I don't care what Buffone says about the league being all about scoring points. This is just the lastest fad. Great offenses come and go (see StL). Great defenses come and go too. The Ravens and Bears have had a lot of success with their great defenses and average offense. Maybe if we had Tommie Harris on the field in the Superbowl we might have won that game. I'm content to continue with the great defense and work on building a good offense to complement them. Add in great special teams, which we have, and we're giving ourselves a great chance to beat anyone. That's the way our team has been setup with Urlacher and Harris being our two best players. The Colts setup their offense first and defense second because of Manning. You go with what you got and right now it's the D.

I have no problem with the trade because I felt at the time, and still do, that Payne is a better player than Harris. McGowan had shown some decent instincts inside the box as well and played better on special teams than Harris. We need that out of our 5th safety. Sometimes the dice don't roll your way even though the odds are in your favor. Now making the assumption that Arch would be better, I'm guilty of that as well.