Phillips was our best D-lineman on the team this past season. I can't understand how some people don't realize that. just keeping it simple, stats and eyeball test says he was.
Lawson sucks, Hughes isn't as good as people think he is, Murphy isn't great either, and Lotulelei sucks also, and Oliver isn't gonna be what everyone thinks he's gonna be ( no, i'm not an Oliver fan - one of the few people that disliked the pick), I hope I'm wrong on Oliver, but he's undersized, and cocky. I'd take 6'5" 340+ lb D-linemen over 6'1 <300 lbs linemen everyday.
One thing that really confuses me, is that some of you don't want to resign Phillips, but totally wanted OBD to sign Lawson to his 5th year contract last off-season ($10+ million). Phillips had just about the same number of sacks (9.5) in this year alone, than Lawson put up in his first 3 years here (10). He had 6.5 this year. You guys wanted to pay someone who hasn't done jack for 3 years, $10+ million, but sit there and say, 'hmmm, I don't really wanna pay Phillips $10 million a year, even though he played way better than Lawson, or Hughes, or anybody for that matter. But I'll be more than happy to shell out $10 million to a guy like Lawson who hasn't done a thing.' wtf people?
Now, would I pay Phillips $10+ million? I'd give him $8M - $12M a year over 4 or 5 years. Hell, Kyle Williams was getting around $10M a year over his last 3 years here. And Phillips has more sacks and more TFL's this past year, than Williams had his last 2 seasons here.