ALP

it seems that our OLB corps this year will be very specialized....

Cain will be in there to primarily rush the QB, so passing downs
Ninkovich sets the edge well, hell be in there on obvious running downs (hes better at this than woods i believe)
Woods will fill in when one of these two is out

Hopefully Cunningham can see the field, i assume 1st on passing downs, so alongside Cain...Crable i do not see setting the edge, and dont see him supassingCunningham either

if the kid doesnt prove something this TC, i think hes gone....

Ideally, by the end of the season, Crable and Cunningham are beast OLB's, who can set the edge, rush the passer and play coverage, with Cain coming in on passing downs and Ninkovich on running downs, making woods only injury insurence

the chances of the above happening however are slim to none, but its our best situation atm considering the cieling for guys like Cain, Woods and Ninkovich isnt very high, but the cieling for Crable and Cunningham are complete unknowns

__________________
Last time I lived in New England the Pats became a Dynasty

Then I moved away and they haven't won since

...now I'm moving back, and a Lombardi I predict

nickw308810

While our OLB is nowhere near where we would hope it to be, I think there are some interesting prospects on our roster.

We know what we are getting with TBC and Woods, Ninkovich is still young at only 26, Crable has looked great in preseason action, Cunningham has some potential. Bruce Davis was a 3rd round pick in 08 by the Steelers and very productive at UCLA, and Dane Fletcher and Marques Murrell were very productive at smaller schools.

A lot of question marks, but at least some room for hope for once.

mgteich

Let's see. Crable isn't playing and Ninkovich doesn't have much to add. It seems that there are two roster spots that will give us little, if any production.

Yet, you say that no one is available that it better than the nothing that Crable gives us, and the little that Ninkovich gives us.

It is clear to me that Burgess (or another JAG) should be able to beat out at least one of them.

With regard to trades, how do you know that no one significant is available to trade for?

emoney_33

I don't get why people keep saying this. TBC was NOT a pass-rush specialist last year. He played the run and set the edge pretty well last year, much better than people around here give him credit for. TBC will continue to play a lot of snaps and is a solid all around OLB. The question is what to do with the other OLB slot.

__________________
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who do not.

bucky

Don't underestimate MG's ability to throw up Crable-related threads. I can count 3 off the top of my head in the last couple of weeks - all having some sort of "Crable and Woods", "Crable, Ninkovich and Woods", "Crable and McKenzie", "Crable vs. Vrabel", etc.

Right now, mg is waay ahead of Crable already. And Crable's been around for 2 years!

Marqui

Or maybe you're the one that's way overrating him.

emoney_33

BB as well I guess.

__________________
There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who do not.

HEY BRO! WHAT UP?

But who is there to sign?
It won't shock me if Crable doesn't make the team. However, the Pats didn't sign anybody significant and drafted only one potential OLB.
Burgess is pretty worthless. One of the worst trades since Duane Starks.
I don't know, it's just a guess. It rarely happens.

JackBauer

While I agree with a lot of the posts you make, you're the one who called him "useless on the field 90 percent of the time." So I'm not sure how much credibility you have on this particular evaluation.

mgteich

The patriots usually engage in at least a couple of player trades a year. Last year, we traded for Burgess and Smith and traded away Seymour.