[Drek]

Originally Posted by dragondawg

1. Was Jarvis Moss worthy of a round 1 pick? Personally, I was not sold on Moss from what I had read of him. He didn’t have enough time last season to prove me wrong, but I’m unsure that Moss is going to pan out. We need him to.

Moss does not need to pan out. Dumervil is already a very good weak side pass rusher. What we need is for one of Moss or Crowder to become a solid strong side end, against both the run and the pass. Crowder is a safe bet to be solid, while Moss is a shot at greatness. He looked pretty impressive in limited game time last year, when basically no one even knew the system. He's added a good amount of weight and should be much more physically capable of playing in the trenches for '08. There is no guarantee he'll be a stud, but I wouldn't be surprised if he wows us all.

2. Will Marcus Thomas meet his potential this year? Shanahan said — often — that Thomas would’ve been a top ten pick if he hadn’t gotten thrown out of school. Technically Thomas is a character risk, but the stories I’ve heard suggest he was a good risk. This summer’s incident in Florida is iffy, but if he gets it as a learning experience and stays on the straight and narrow, good. But that has nothing to do with his on field performance. What does is the fact that he missed most of his senior year, and wasn’t in great football shape last year. It wasn’t until the end of the season that he started to come on, and by then there were other problems.

By the end of the season last year Thomas was our best DT, and playing at a league average level if not better. He might not be a stud but its a safe bet he'll be a solid starter at this point, and that alone is a big step up for our DT position.

3. Will Dewyane Robertson work out? He’s a low risk buy — chances are we’ll not pay more than a 6th rounder for him even if he’s a monster — but from my perspective, we need him to be Gerard Warren, only better. On paper, he can be. The guy is 26 years old; we could get another 5-8 years out of him. If his knee doesn’t get worse. But he’s had that knee the way it is for 5 years, and has managed to play on it, and miss very few snaps. If things change now, that’s going to be bad for him, but he renegotiated his contract and he has to be looking for an opportunity to get a better one.

We need Robertson to be Dewayne Robertson. He can stuff the run pretty well, that is all we need out of him. We've got good corners, solid DE options, and enough talent at linebacker to make a difference. We need our DTs to stuff the run and let our run defense get back into the middle of the pack in the league or better.

4. Is Hamza Abdullah worthy of being a starting safety? This is a big worry spot for a lot of people. Sure, we have Lynch, but Lynch is just a touch slower than he once was, and he was never a fast safety. Smart, yes. Hard-hitting, yes. Able to read the play before it happens, absolutely. But sometimes what the safety needs to do is get to the ball, and get to it fast, and that’s not going to be Lynch’s strong suit. But aside from Lynch, we’ve got…Marlon McCree, who was often considered a weak link on the Chargers, and Abdullah. Last year he showed some promise, but he’s a worry spot.

Josh Barrett is hands down the most gifted safety on the team and I'm willing to say he'll be the best safety on this team period within a year or two. Hamza might not be starting quality, but McCree is. Charger fans b**** about him now on his way out the door, and he did struggle some last year, but before that he was a solid safety. Also Marquand Manuel is an above average backup. We're better off at safety than what you portrait.

5. Will Niko Koutovides make it as a starting middle linebacker in this league? There are some very good excuses for him not starting. Those excuses are Lofa Tatupu and perennial Pro bowler and they go in the same sentence. So the fact that he was a backup behind Tatupu doesn’t actually mean that much. But here’s the thing: Seattle went and drafted Tatupu knowing they had K2, so does that say something? Or does that just say something about him when he was a rookie, and that was 4 years ago? Or is it just that Tatupu was the kind of player you simply take, regardless of who you have. Sometimes “Best Player Available” is actually taken. Also, he has been a special teams ace. That actually says a lot; despite the fact that he was behind Tatupu, he never gave up. He didn’t demand a trade, he didn’t lose heart. He played for years behind Tatupu and contributed where he could. If nothing else, we know he has the heart and leadership qualities to be the Mike. We need to know if he has the on-field skills to be the Mike. Shanahan thinks he does.

He started several games for Seattle at MLB when he was just a rookie and did a solid job with more being asked of him than what we will. I have no doubts about Koutouvides' ability to play the MLB position on 1st and 2nd downs and I don't see any way he is given more responsibility than that. Fill the gaps, make the tackles, that is all he needs to do. He proved he could do that as a rookie, just not as well as one of the top 3 MLBs in the game today, Lofa Tatupu.

Here’s a bonus SIXTH question for you: Is Bob Slowik’s system really good enough for the NFL? Slowik hasn’t had success as a defensive coordinator in this league, yet. This will be his fourth chance. Now, he has the advantage of having been there. He has the support of the team, right now. And his system isn’t too different from what the team ran in 2006 and prior. But can he do it?

From Slowik's biography on the Bronco's site.

Slowik led an aggressive Bears defense that finished in the top half of the NFL in total defense in five of his six seasons. Despite not having a single Pro Bowl player from 1994-98, his defense allowed an average of 312.8 yards per game to rank eighth in the NFL during his time with the club.

In his first season with the Bears in 1993, three of his defenders—defensive end Rich Dent, safety Mark Carrier and cornerback Donnell Woolford—earned trips to the Pro Bowl. Collectively, Slowik guided the 1993 defense to the No. 4 ranking in the NFL by allowing only 290.8 yards per game. Led by Carrier and Woolford, Slowik’s pass defense ranked No. 3 in the NFL in 1993 and gave up only 176.1 yards per game.

He was ousted after only a season as DC in each of Cleveland (their first year, when they had no talent, and he still managed to get their pass defense in the top 10) and Green Bay (who brought in Bates in a fashion not too different from what we did last year).

Last time he was given a real shot though he had the Bears D doing very well. Add our superior defensive talent (Champ is better than anyone he had with the Bears, you could make the argument for DJ and Dumervil) and the fact that almost all our players re still familiar with the previous system which isn't too far removed from what he runs and we have little reason to doubt that he's capable of the job.