gruntbygod

Um, they have Burgess, and pass rushers are wayyyyy easier to find then elite DT. Gholston is a better 3-4 player anyway's

Professor

I see them using more 3-4 this year as they started to use it a bit last year. They have depth problems all along the line and I agree that pass rushers are easier to find overall than elite DT's, but not on the level of Gholston, IMO. I actually have Howie's son going to Raiders in my most current mock. No matter we agree that Dline is going to be picked.

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Da Swami

Depth problems all along the line?

I agree we need a DE but were one draft away from being a factor again.

Professor

outside of Kelly (if he stays healthy) and burgess, there is nothing. Richardson is average at best. Who is there after that? You let chris clemons go another strange move.

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gruntbygod

I can see letting Clemons go, the dude only had good year. Its a risk signing guys who had big walk years

Professor

you're right, I would much rather have no one

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gruntbygod

Well why pay Clemons after on decent season when you can draft a pass rush specialist in the 3rd or 4th round for much less? Clemons is a role player, a situational guy. Rebiulding teams dont give those guys new contracts

Professor

he signed a 5 year deal. the first 3 years are only for 2.8 million total. I am sure the raiders could have afforded that after the guy only played in 37% of the snaps and still got 8 sacks. He was also an emerging player for the skins before an injury slowed his progress there. It's not like they would have had to give him that much money.

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gruntbygod

But its still more than they would have given a draft pick to fill that role. Now if was an established team, I would be saying different

Edit: And Im not about to play devils advocate for the Javon Walker deal, D-hall, ect.....So dont go there

Da Swami

So now we need to scrap the whole line because the unit had an off year stuffing the run and lacked a pass rush?

You crack me up.

Richardson is a good fit in the base defense as a DE but yeah, we need more depth. Letting Clemons go wasnt a bad move since it freed up cap space. We had no depth last year and couldnt rotate fresh bodies.

Do I need to remind you that the draft isnt even here yet?

Expect Al to move a back and a db to get some picks back. I do not think we will be drafting at #4 this year.

We signed former Lions DE Kalimba Edwards this morning too. Hes an interesting prospect. He has upside and is a tremendous athlete. How that pans out remains to be seen.

Much is made of these guys on draft day and they are all one man wrecking crews coming out of college. At least they are hyped that way but in the pros, they have a learning curve and an adjustment period. Just like Gerard Warren, maybe he never lived up to the hype he got but hes still a damn good player. He wasnt a good fit in a 3-4 as a DE or a NT which is why hes been moved around. Both

If these guys can do a servicable job, this unit is going to be much better this year. Most of our problems stemmed from a lack of pass rush off the WSDE spot, so we moved Kelly outside and got no gap penetration with Sapp playing the undertackle penetrating DT spot.

Moving Kelly back inside will make a huge difference and now we just need to add depth at DE and maybe DT and were good to go. Winning the battle up front means winning matchiups upfront with 7 bodies and forcing the offense to use 8 since one DT absorbs two blockers.

If you can win the battle upfront without dropping any back seven defenders in the box, youre going to be much better.

In 2006, we won the battles up front because T Kelly absorbed two men playing DT.

Moving Kelly back inside makes this defense much better and thats why he got the big bucks.

Now had Kelly gotten away?

But Clemons?

Lets not exaggerate our defensive line troubles chicken little.