aabtec said:
Since Richard Seymour is look to be the highest paid DE in the league are there any DE's that we could draft to replace him ?
A good question aa, fan optimism aside, BB/SP should be shopping for his replacement, if only to upgrade the entire D-line by having Seymour bookends. What we need to keep in mind with any player is their unique abilities. Sey is one of a kind, we may get someone who is a little better at drawing double teams in passing situations, or someone who shuts down the run game like Ty does on his side. We shouldn't expect another Sey.
There are two players currently on the team who could take on Sey's every down role today: Wilfork and Green. Vince was the primary 'individual' who did the most to turn the run game around when he made the adjustments BB worked out mid-season. He is very quick off the ball and very strong, he collapses the pocket and given a green light on passing downs can shoot gaps quite well. He's just starting to bring his game to dominating level - expect big things. Green is rated as one of the top third down specialists in the NFL (D-Line), he gets panned by some of our media luminaries (Freudian slip, I initially typed that as lunimaries....) but playing hurt alongside a poor performing Wilfork and in front of a shaky LB crew he stands out on tape as consistently solid in his ability to defend his gaps and command double teams. Where Oakland's LT was consistently kicking Sey's behind one-on-one, Green forced Oakland to commit a TE on most plays (not an exact parallel because Sey moved inside to help Vince who was being raped by C Jake Grove, but Sey wasn't drawing double teams
until he moved inside. Both Vince and Jarvis would make Sey's LDE spot competitive.
Hill gets negative reviews due to high expectations, valid from a talent standpoint, but unfair when you look at Warren, Wilfork, and Green who also started slow and developed. His pass rush doesn't collapse the pocket the way Sey's does, but his run game is solid. I get the feeling (and it's just a gut impression watching tape) that he would start surprising people if he was in the regular rotation - similar to what Vince did over the course of this season - at the moment he is still a little hesitant, something that applying the techniques repetitively in an actual game situation would correct.
As far as the draft: Haloti Ngata, Oregon. Nobody else I've looked at comes close for size, strength, quickness and balance in the run/pass capabilities. He goes to the Jets, Bills, Browns, etc. before BB gets a shot at him. I have no fantasy of his slipping far enough for BB to make a play on him.