Tortured Soul

None of us are thrilled about Jauron, but was there anyone out there that much better?

Welcome to the Wall. I like the idea of a 3-4, especially watching Pittsburgh these past two weeks, but we don't have the players. These are the sizes of the lines of the two most successful 3-4's in the league now: Pit (Smith, Oelhoffen, Hampton) - 922 lbs. NE (Seymour, Warren, Wilfork) - 935 lbs. And the current Bills (Schobel, Kelsay, Adams) - 872 lbs. And Adams is the fattest of the nine players. Also, Pit and NE have a big linebacker to go along with the line. McGinnest is 270 - bigger than Schobel! Posey could fit that role for us potentially. If you want to go 3-4, we need Mario (290's) in the first, and we probably have to move Denney into the starting lineup (he's 292), but then you put your best lineman (Schobel) on the bench. The team TD designed is for a 4-3.

I think the answer is that Sherman was just not that impressive, as has been discussed in other threads. But if you want to play up the GM-power control angle, consider Modrak's position. It sounds like he has increased duties this year, further squeezing Marv into a box.

That's what I've been trying to say. Face it, the options this year just weren't very good. (I still don't think that means we should keep Mularkey for another year just for better option later, though). Just look at the assistants hired this year - Childress, Kubiak, Peyton - these were all guys who were talked of as candidates for years but always got passed over for the Lewises and Crennels. Bottom line: TD and MM or ML and DJ? Maybe we should make that into a poll.

The Turkish Press is in Michigan. I think the funnier part is that it's an AFP wire story.

I'm not sure if you meant this as an argument for Jauron or against Sherman, but I read it as the latter.

You now why we're reacting now and not after the season? Because we don't get to see how he does and then decide if we want to pay for our season tickets.

Third in Coach of the year voting the year he was FIRED by the Bears. 579250[/snapback] Wow. He went 7-9 that year!

The queston that has to be asked - if Herm is worth a fourth, what would we give up for the Heim? I'd give a day two pick.

You're crazy, But... If your goal is to get Mario and Ngata, what I would do is target the 5th pick, because the Jests will take Da Brick. They've invested to many 1sts in DE's recently. That'll make it easier to trade since it will be out of division. But GB may be complicated if we hire Sherman, becuase there might be bad blood - we don't know. I think if we could trade Clements for a first, and package it with a second and third, we may be able to get it. Then, if possible, drop a few picks before selecting Ngata and grab back a third. Mario and Ngata would be sweet.

Credentials are just one part of it. But that's why you have interviews - to find out more tyhan just a stat sheet can show you. has Sherman peeked as a first-round playoff coach, or can he do better? Which coordinator can build a team, etc.?

First off, I support this guy. I'm just playing devil's advocate. But I think the key to understand is that we like Sherman because he has the most wins, not the fewest flaws. Imagine if we wrote off Belichik coming off his Cleveland stint because of his record. Or Shanahan coming off a rocky Oakland stint. Or cowher because he was only a special teams coach. Or Holmgren (when hired in GB) because he was inexperienced. And Dungy? I don't know. He seems a lot like Sherman to me - wins with talented teams that shouldn't necessarily be credited to him and doesn't win when it counts. Is anyone really impressed that Dungy won 13 games with the talent Polian assembled? But I digress. I don't think Sherman is a slam dunk, but he is the best available - by a narrow margin.

Good stuff. There's no way Landry gets six losing seasons now without getting fired. I think a key thing to look at, though, is the situation they're coming into. I think, for example, Shula inherited a pretty good Colts team. Parcells inherited a talentlesss Giants squad, etc.

He has not been impressive in the playoffs, has never been known as a creative head coach, wants more power than he should have (according to some reports) and inherited the key player to his four playoff seasons. There is a case against this guy, you know.

Really? What was the big moment of Norwood's career?

Yeah, everybody messes up sometimes. But not everyone messes up at the big moment.

His last season in Buffalo he had 3.5 sacks in very limited time and looked good doing it. He should've been kept. He was signed away after having seven sacks. That's the right answer.

I didn't read this post as a Sherman vs. Jauron thing. I thought it was more Sherman on his own merits. Another problem is he just never struck you as a good coach. I don't remember anyone saying, "Wow, the Packers won 12 two years in a row. That Sherman is a hell of a coach." Maybe they should've, but they didn't. At least with a guy like Fassel, there was that one Superbowl year that people agreed he did a great job.

To answer your question, a person who doesn't want Sherman is not too impressed with his postseason record, thinks he inherited a playoff-caliber team (or at the very leat, the best QB in the game), and won many of his games beating up on the Detroits and Chicagos of the world. I'm not one of those people, though.

Best line of the day

No, not that much more.

2-4 in the playoffs, no Superbowls. I'm in the Sherman camp, but regular season wins are not worth much without titles. NFC North titles? Wow, he beat Matt Millen.

I don't know enough about that. Do you have a list of flops? My argument was a bit more hypothetical. Assuming equal grades on a DT and OT, I think the DT has higher value. Then, you can discuss specifics. Supposedly, Marv is still well-connected and takes pride in his connections.

Since there'snothing else going on in Billsland today, I followed up on a hunch about playoff teams this year having many recent 1st round DT's. From 2000-2004, 18 DT's were drafted in the first round and an amazing 10 of those were in the playoffs (out of atotal of 22 playoff DT's). Here they are, with current team, year drafted, and draft number: Tommy Harris, Chi (04-14) the pick after Evans Marcus Tubbs, Sea (04-23) the pick after Losman Vince Wilfork, NE (04-21) Corey Simon, Ind (00-6) Casey Hampton, Pit (01-19) Gerard Warren, Den (01-3) Chris Hovan, TB (00-25) Marcus Stroud, Jax (01-13) John Henderson, Jax (02-9) Wiliam Joseph, NYG (03-25) Three of those players - Hovan, Warren, and Simon - are not with the teams that drafted them. Not coincidentally, the three teams that drafted them weren't in the playoffs. I think it's fair to draw a few conclusions from this. 1. Good teams invest in defensive tackles. 2. Defensive tackles are easy to grade. Good ones pan out at a high rate, and when they do not succeed, it is often a product of their situation. This is also true of offensive tackles. (Albert haynesworth and Kevin Williams are other recent examples of recent DT's that have performed well. 3. While there are ten recent 1st round DT's in the playoffs, there are only two recent 1st round LT's (Chris Samuels and Levi Jones). And yes, there are older ones, such as Walter Jones and Tarik Glenn. So, when it comes to possibly trading up for Da Brick or possibly trading down for Ngata, without even factoring in additional picks, I think there's a good case that it makes sense to pick a DT.

Don't you have to factor in compensation for Ricky Manning, which will probably be a 1st rounder?