Pardon me for intruding into this moralistic drama, but its occurred to me that many of the hypothetical line ups for the secondary don't include Patrick Chung. I find it amazing, although pretty typical for the "I want it all and I want it now" fan base we've evolved into recently, that the guy who was undoubtedly the best defensive back we had last season (when healthy), is now not even considered an afterthought by so many.
Patrick Chung might never morph into the elite safety that we all had hoped, but he's a good one when he asked to to do the things that are within his skill set. The sudden anger and hatred that he seems to engender (like Edelman's) is both irrational and uncalled for.
But unfortunately this is the kind of fan base that we've become. We no longer have patience for anything but universally perceived excellence. No mistakes allowed (which is ironic since they play a game where even the best players make a dozen or more mistakes a game),
I look forward to when Gregory and Chung return to the team. Their return will have a far greater impact on the defense than what Talib will bring (even though I think his arrival will help the team a lot going forward)
I've got to disagree with you on this one, Ken.
I've always been pro-Chung, and I don't think I'm particularly representative of the "I want it all and I want it all now" mentality, as you put it. But Chung has been egregious as a deep coverage safety going back to last year, and his return would not help the deep pass hemorrhaging that's been going on.
We haven't had anything even remotely resembling a decent deep safety since BB cut Brandon Meriweather. That's the #1 need for the secondary - a guy with the range, vision, ball skills, closing speed, processing capability, instincts, tackling ability, selflessness, discipline and communication skills to guard the deep part of the field, coordinate the secondary, and make everything work. Earl Thomas does that so well for Seattle. Dashon Goldson - who we should have signed in 2011 when he visited - does that very well for SF. Meriweather had most of the physical tools to do the job, but he was too undisciplined and selfish to play that role effectively for BB.
James Ihedigbo, Sergio Brown and Josh Barrett obviously couldn't play that role. Pat Chung undoubtedly has talent, but not for that kind of role. Tavon Wilson has shown in his brief career that he both has talent and that his talent isn't particularly suited to that kind of role. Steve Gregory has not shown that he has the talent to be a full time starter in that kind of role.
To make matters worse, the Pats' CBs have had significant deficiencies which underscore even more the need for a good deep cover safety. Leigh Bodden's injury and Darius Butler's failure to develop cost greatly. Devin McCourty is a VERY good zone CB but a developing man-press CB. Ras-I Dowling has shown flashes of man cover skills, but can 't stay on the field. Alfonzo Dennard is just beginning to emerge. Arrington and Moore have been quite limited.
The return of Pat Chung may upgrade our safety personnel a bit, but it fundamentally changes none of this. And keeping Chung in a deep FS mode only exacerbates the hemorrhage.
The acquisition of Aqib Talib, in contrast, changes the equation dramatically. Not only is Talib a significant upgrade at CB - especially in press-man coverage - but his presence allows the Pats to move Devin McCourty to FS, and keep Talib and Dennard outside. McCourty has ALL of the attributes of a great deep cover FS that I listed above. I think he could be as good as Earl Thomas and better than Goldson once he gets used to the position. That also allows Chung and Wilsonto play a role more suited to their skill set.
Patchick summed a this up much more succinctly in another thread:
Patchick said:
IMO this trade is not simply a question of individual talent added. It's a tipping point situation: adding that one extra press-style CB should allow schematic changes to make the whole defense more aggressive.
So if Talib is merely "pretty good," his IMPACT could well be "great."
I'm not anti-Chung, but I don 't see how his return could possibly have the same potential impact.
Of course, whether Talin gets his ***** together and has this kind of impact is a different matter altogether.
