Mark Anderson scares me.

[MaineMan]

Yea I still think he's a lot better than Ninkovich, who is extremely mediocre to me.

Really? Nink's role is much more than "pass-rusher", and yet he still got 6.5 sacks in the regular season and 1.5 against Denver. He's certainly had his share of QB hits and pressures, PLUS he has a few PDs, 4 INTs and almost three times as many tackles as Anderson.

He's actually slightly ahead of where Vrabel was at the same point in his career (and Vrabel was playing opposite McGinest).

So, "mediocre"? I'm sure BB would be overjoyed to have a SECOND OLB who was as "mediocre" as Nink has been.

 

[MaineMan]

And I don't get why some pats fans have to act like Ninkovich is a much better player than he really is. In reality Ninkovich is not a consistent impact player other offenses have to game plan for. No one's afraid of him. I think he's a nice rotational OLB to use in certain situations, but he's certainly not elite or "invaluable" or un-upgradable. I agree he's probably the best the Pats have to work with now though.

Nink: 74TT, 6.5 sacks

Matthews: 50 TT, 6.0 sacks

BTW, Matthews couldn't set the edge against the run if he was allowed to use a Jersey Barrier. Teams "game plan" for Matthews by running right at him. Actually, right past him.

Ninko's "impact" is that he does everything solidly. Whichever side he's on is going to be pretty well-defended against pretty much everything for all three downs. It's his solidness that allows these other specialists to do their thing with far less risk to the overall defensive effort.

It would certainly be nice to have a defense completely staffed by "impact players at every position, but, (A) in case you haven't noticed, that's very difficult to do, and (B) virtually every "impact player" seems to have some serious, ongoing vulnerability in one phase of his game or another. In reality, guys who do everything as solidly and consistently for all three downs as Ninko has been doing are even rarer than the one-trick ponies who are regularly featured in highlight reels. And every defense needs at least a couple of those guys. The Pats were very lucky to have had Vrabel. To be able to follow up with Ninko is like hitting the Lotto.