PatsBoy12
Pro Bowl Player
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- Mar 25, 2009
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This is such a sensitive topic because of the way this is shaping up with the Big Three (and Sheard and Ninko to a much lesser degree). Here's my stab it:
A) I'll start with Butler since this thread is about him primarily (though the order of importance could be argues ad nauseam). So you've apparently found this gem of an UDFA, right. He is so immense in the fourth quarter of the SB for the entire second half. He's batting down deep balls that were being caught when Arrington and Ryan were in the game, he has the awareness to tackle the receiver after what was another insane catch (as if we needed another one) and then makes perhaps the biggest play in SB history! What does he do for an encore, you ask? He goes out, after the team lost Revis, and performs better than Revis by playing out of his mind against some of the best the game has to offer.
B) You got Hightower. He showed two seasons ago how important he is to this team. This is a guy who many were beginning to grumble about. I was starting to read "bust" talk, and not the kind found in Canton. Everyone remember's Butler's interception, and rightfully so. But how many conversations have there been about the play before it? You know . . . the one where Hightower takes down Lynch with the same shoulder he busted earlier in the same game? Yeah, that play was just as important. It just wasn't the final play of the game. Had it been, we'd be discussing it in the same vein as the Butler INT. Hightower transforms the D. It was evident multiple times last season where the run D was atrocious without him, and an almost immovable object with him. Go back and watch what happened in the DEN game after he went down. That game alone illustrates his importance. And as if he wasn't good enough, we went ahead and became better in man coverage when asked to do that. He has only gotten better with each season, starting when Mayo went down with the first season-ender. Which leads me to the caveat. High has shown a propensity to get injured. He plays through the pain because he's a warrior, but he has missed time multiple times. If you are going to pay someone top notch money, then you kind of want him on the field a lot. I'm not willing yet to label him, but he's knocking on the "injury prone" door.
C) And then there's the freak. Every few years a guy enters the league who seems like he was bred for nothing else in this life or the next. He's the kind of physical specimen that you speculate has to have been created in a lab or is on something (sadly). He's so physically gifted that those of us who have played a sport on a semi-serious level can't help but feel a little envious . . . man, what we would do if we could play like that! And that guy is on your team. He makes plays all over the field and the run D instantly becomes a stout force when he's in the game. And he's not even the biggest LB you'll find. Yet he takes on blocks, blitzes as well as I've seen any MLB (since its usually 4-2-5) in the league in the last five years (I know there's a few really good guys to consider). He can blitz the gaps, rush from outside, stop the run and, to a degree that still needs some improvement, he can cover well enough. He's smart - just as smart as High - and they both share the same great instincts. He's YOUNG. We could have this swiss army knife for many years to come! He plays all four downs, is gifted with incredible physical gifts, is smart and keeps his head pretty low off the field.
Now, imagine they all want top dollar for their respective positions. Wow, I don't envy Kraft, BB and the financial guys. That's pretty tough. Still, I believe we can make it happen. And that's not just wishful thinking.
A) I'll start with Butler since this thread is about him primarily (though the order of importance could be argues ad nauseam). So you've apparently found this gem of an UDFA, right. He is so immense in the fourth quarter of the SB for the entire second half. He's batting down deep balls that were being caught when Arrington and Ryan were in the game, he has the awareness to tackle the receiver after what was another insane catch (as if we needed another one) and then makes perhaps the biggest play in SB history! What does he do for an encore, you ask? He goes out, after the team lost Revis, and performs better than Revis by playing out of his mind against some of the best the game has to offer.
B) You got Hightower. He showed two seasons ago how important he is to this team. This is a guy who many were beginning to grumble about. I was starting to read "bust" talk, and not the kind found in Canton. Everyone remember's Butler's interception, and rightfully so. But how many conversations have there been about the play before it? You know . . . the one where Hightower takes down Lynch with the same shoulder he busted earlier in the same game? Yeah, that play was just as important. It just wasn't the final play of the game. Had it been, we'd be discussing it in the same vein as the Butler INT. Hightower transforms the D. It was evident multiple times last season where the run D was atrocious without him, and an almost immovable object with him. Go back and watch what happened in the DEN game after he went down. That game alone illustrates his importance. And as if he wasn't good enough, we went ahead and became better in man coverage when asked to do that. He has only gotten better with each season, starting when Mayo went down with the first season-ender. Which leads me to the caveat. High has shown a propensity to get injured. He plays through the pain because he's a warrior, but he has missed time multiple times. If you are going to pay someone top notch money, then you kind of want him on the field a lot. I'm not willing yet to label him, but he's knocking on the "injury prone" door.
C) And then there's the freak. Every few years a guy enters the league who seems like he was bred for nothing else in this life or the next. He's the kind of physical specimen that you speculate has to have been created in a lab or is on something (sadly). He's so physically gifted that those of us who have played a sport on a semi-serious level can't help but feel a little envious . . . man, what we would do if we could play like that! And that guy is on your team. He makes plays all over the field and the run D instantly becomes a stout force when he's in the game. And he's not even the biggest LB you'll find. Yet he takes on blocks, blitzes as well as I've seen any MLB (since its usually 4-2-5) in the league in the last five years (I know there's a few really good guys to consider). He can blitz the gaps, rush from outside, stop the run and, to a degree that still needs some improvement, he can cover well enough. He's smart - just as smart as High - and they both share the same great instincts. He's YOUNG. We could have this swiss army knife for many years to come! He plays all four downs, is gifted with incredible physical gifts, is smart and keeps his head pretty low off the field.
Now, imagine they all want top dollar for their respective positions. Wow, I don't envy Kraft, BB and the financial guys. That's pretty tough. Still, I believe we can make it happen. And that's not just wishful thinking.
). But it still doesn't change the fact that he is the lesser of the blows to sustain if you can't keep all three. This has the potential to really suck.
