Who had them highly rated?
They've looked average for the most part this season. They've had their moments though, so there's hope that they'll become more.
Mitchell has been a bit of a disappointment to me also, in that teams are still able to run to the outside (something he was brought in to remedy), plus we still don't do a great job of generating much of a pass rush, particularly from the outside (again, the reason he's here). As for Ellison "always" sucking, he was actaully pretty good in his rookie season. In fact, he was the most consistent LB we had that year, and that includes Crowell. Posluszny has shown flashes, but needs to put it together and really begin to terrorize opponents. It would help for Stroud and Williams to do a better job of holding up @ the line, but Pos has the ability to get in there and make something happen even if they don't.
Stroud needs consistency and Williams needs......well, he needs to get started. Missing Schobel? I guess, but the team misses the overall ability to pressure QBs and force bad throws even more. They didn't have that even w/ Schobel in the lineup. Like I said before in another thread, fix the problem.