Dez Bryant vs Devin McCourty

BB made the right call here. There's no real need to overthink this.

Bryant's probably been the better player, so far, but McCourty had a fine rookie season and looked very promising at safety after the switch last season. McCourty filled the bigger need for the Patriots, and he didn't have the baggage Bryant brought with him.

When it comes to the 2010 draft, the bigger issue, to my mind, comes into play with Cunningham. Missing on him, when there was so much talent left in the draft, is where I'd be focusing my questions.

Deus Irae said:

BB made the right call here. There's no real need to overthink this.

Bryant's probably been the better player, so far, but McCourty had a fine rookie season and looked very promising at safety after the switch last season. McCourty filled the bigger need for the Patriots, and he didn't have the baggage Bryant brought with him.

When it comes to the 2010 draft, the bigger issue, to my mind, comes into play with Cunningham. Missing on him, when there was so much talent left in the draft, is where I'd be focusing my questions.

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I think Jermaine might have panned out had NE stayed in a 3-4, but as is it was definitely a whiff. Even if you want to give him a pass for an older pick not matching the new scheme, you have to then give him a strike for not seeing the potential for that change coming.

Deus Irae said:

BB made the right call here. There's no real need to overthink this.

Bryant's probably been the better player, so far, but McCourty had a fine rookie season and looked very promising at safety after the switch last season. McCourty filled the bigger need for the Patriots, and he didn't have the baggage Bryant brought with him.

When it comes to the 2010 draft, the bigger issue, to my mind, comes into play with Cunningham. Missing on him, when there was so much talent left in the draft, is where I'd be focusing my questions.

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I'm in agreement with this. I think the evaluation of who's better could be argued either way, but even if one were to concede that Bryant is definitely the better player, I have a hard time criticizing draft picks when both players turned out to be good. We're not talking about Dez Bryant versus a bust here, we're talking two players who have both made the pro bowl and offered significant value to their respective units.

As you said, criticizing the Cunningham pick in that draft is valid because he ended up giving them very little and is no longer with the team. But once the standard becomes "Not only do they need to pick a good player, but they have to pick the absolute BEST player available at that spot", that's when it jumps from warranted criticism to an unrealistic expectation.

Dez Bryant would have had the same struggles that the Chads had here and everyone would be *****ing about our defensive backfield.

That this is even a debate boggles my mind. McCourty is one of the most important players on this team but you people have been ******ed by fantasy football or something.

Not this again :bricks:

Didn't read the whole thread, but refresh my memory...does McCourty still have a personal assistant/babysitter to keep him form coming unglued in malls and other real life situations????

I forgot the part where Devin beat his mother...that 's the kind leader we need on this team....put mom in her place.

http://z6mag.com/sports/dez-bryant-...arrest-for-assaulting-his-mother-1613835.html

patsinthesnow said:

Maybe I'm a homer too, but I'm not sure it would be 95% to 5%.

It's essentially a top 10 Safety vs a top 10 WR, with both having top 1-5 potential. Dez was insane the 2nd half of the year, and McCourty was a great safety his first year at the position. The ceiling's are high for both of them.

When you throw in McCourty is a defensive leader/captain/great locker room guy, and Dez isn't one (putting it lightly), its not a clear cut choice.

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Yep, you are a homer, McCourty is not a top 10 Safety. He can cover pretty well but is soft as hell (can't tackle) and is not physical enough to cover TEs.

cstjohn17 said:

Yep, you are a homer, McCourty is not a top 10 Safety. He can cover pretty well but is soft as hell (can't tackle) and is not physical enough to cover TEs.

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Then again, you called McCourty "average" so I'm not sure your evaluation is worth much.

It's funny that you call him soft as hell and claim he can't tackle, because that's clearly something you just made up out of whole cloth.

cstjohn17 said:

Yep, you are a homer, McCourty is not a top 10 Safety. He can cover pretty well but is soft as hell (can't tackle) and is not physical enough to cover TEs.

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cstjohn17 said:

Yep, you are a homer, McCourty is not a top 10 Safety. He can cover pretty well but is soft as hell (can't tackle) and is not physical enough to cover TEs.

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Ha ha ha! Wait until you see the contract extension that McCourty gets straight from a grinning Bill Belichick. I'm sure, though, that your talent evaluation is much better than his.

cstjohn17 said:

Yep, you are a homer, McCourty is not a top 10 Safety. He can cover pretty well but is soft as hell (can't tackle) and is not physical enough to cover TEs.

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??? He's not a Rodney Harrison, Bernard Pollard, Adrian Wilson (in his prime) kind of head cracker, but sure-handed tackling is one of his strengths.

JackBauer said:

Then again, you called McCourty "average" so I'm not sure your evaluation is worth much.

It's funny that you call him soft as hell and claim he can't tackle, because that's clearly something you just made up out of whole cloth.

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At least we agree on the validity of each others opinion. The guy is pretty good but he is not elite. This was my bad for swimming upstream against the Kool-Aid Tsunami.

Hopefully he goes out and dominates, I would love to be wrong.

Sicilian said:

??? He's not a Rodney Harrison, Bernard Pollard, Adrian Wilson (in his prime) kind of head cracker, but sure-handed tackling is one of his strengths.

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That's because theses players are STRONG safeties and not FREE safeties. Strong safeties are more physical and have more run stopping responsibilities, while free safeties tend to be more nimble and better in pass defense.

Of course, cstjohn17 clearly has no idea what he's talking about since he is complaining about McCourty's lack of physicality. McCourty's tackling is fine for a free safety, but he clearly is not going to be a bone cruncher. McCourty is a ball hawk, and a darn good one.

cstjohn17 said:

At least we agree on the validity of each others opinion. The guy is pretty good but he is not elite. This was my bad for swimming upstream against the Kool-Aid Tsunami.

Hopefully he goes out and dominates, I would love to be wrong.

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It's fine to have an opinion, good or bad, about a player. It's quite another to make up things about them to justify your opinion.

JackBauer said:

Then again, you called McCourty "average" so I'm not sure your evaluation is worth much.

It's funny that you call him soft as hell and claim he can't tackle, because that's clearly something you just made up out of whole cloth.

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Yeah, that is a bizarre complaint since Devin was graded out as one of the best run stopping CBs in the league, and someone that NE used as run force all the time.

He also is a free safety, which is something that seems to have been overlooked by cst. As FSs go, Devin is a very good run defender.

Deus Irae said:

BB made the right call here. There's no real need to overthink this.

Bryant's probably been the better player, so far, but McCourty had a fine rookie season and looked very promising at safety after the switch last season. McCourty filled the bigger need for the Patriots, and he didn't have the baggage Bryant brought with him.

When it comes to the 2010 draft, the bigger issue, to my mind, comes into play with Cunningham. Missing on him, when there was so much talent left in the draft, is where I'd be focusing my questions.

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Yes, Cunningham was really the only real question mark pick of the draft and that was a player who Belichick fell in love with even against Urban Meyer's advise. The Pats should have taken Sean Lee in hindsight, but Lee was as much of a head scratcher as Cunningham was at the time of the draft.

Rob0729 said:

If you aren't a Jets fan, you are a troll. All you ever do is come on this board and tell everyone how much this team sucks and how incompetent Belichick is. If you ever posted a positive comment about the Patriots, the entire Internet would implode from the shockwaves.

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Clearly you lack the ability to distinguish between critique of the team and criticism of the fan. At some point, try going deeper than "if that's how the Patriots do things, then it must be the right way." Like this discussion. At what point did McCourty achieve such lofty status in the league that he now gets judged an elite safety. I particularly enjoyed the stat some fan offered up regarding his high tackle numbers. Might have something to do with all those catches his WR responsibility made on his watch. The Pats have had one of the worst pass defenses in the league the past 3 years and McCourty has been on the field the entire time. Sorry again....but I just don't see an elite player making game changing plays. With Bryant, I do.
As far as the blind homerism you seek from me, well....sorry.....I just can't be that simplistic about NE or about anything. Would it make you feel all warm and cozy if occasionally I said something like...."Golly Gee Brady threw a really tight spiral that was just wicked awesome. Pats in the Bowl!" There you go. Lock it in your skull so I don't have to play Blind Homer more than necessary. Maybe I will just type: Refer to Rob0729's 26,000 posts for foam finger analysis.

borg said:

As far as the blind homerism you seek from me

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Anything other than the blind hatred you post would be appreciated. It will never happen though since you are obviously just a troll.

MAYOnnaise said:

Anything other than the blind hatred you post would be appreciated. It will never happen though since you are obviously just a troll.

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You really have to admire the diligence, though. 3,161 posts of troll pablum...

I'll still take McCourty. If Dez stays on the field for 16 games this year and produces to his potential, that might change, but even then it probably won't. Somehow, I doubt the Pats would have been fans of a guy who they had to hire a security guard to tail him just to keep him out of trouble.