Does Te'o get his job back?

[sandiego17]

BTW this baseball game is pretty great. 11th inning for play in playoff game is amazing.

Crazy.

All things being equal, the ending that results in a bunch of raider fans upset works.

[Panamamike]

Donald is seemingly a stud, but that price would have been steep to move up. But yea, Verrett IMO is a bigger upgrade for this unit this year. We had to do something about the secondary.

Now I just hope TT can retain Flowers and keep the key pieces of this unit intact. Our young guys are starting to show some improvement (even the red headed stepchild of the board Reyes).

Donald is a good player for sure. BUT, had we had the chance to draft him, or moved up for him, we have to change our entire scheme around a rookie. To me, that is just not feasible. He will be a very good, and maybe great Penetrating DT, like the guy in Cincy who is much better ( Geno Atkins). Can Donald, and his DL mates hold up vs the run? The jury is still out on that, but he gets penetration and can attack vs. The pass. He is ideal for a team that plays a 4-3 and has OTHER good players on the DL that allow team to attack without blitzing. I am not convinced we have the supporting cast to do that, nor the LB makeup to play a base 4-3. I am also not convinced he can stand up to direct attack up the middle. The small sample size says that they are struggling so far with D supposedly loaded on the DL.

[Beerman]

Not really worried about the whole 4-3 3-4 thing to be honest. We mainly play out of an even front so it's not a big deal. I'm all about having disruptive players on the D line (one of the reasons I haven't been as critical of Reyes as some others). I like D lineman that can penetrate and get upfield. In my mind the NFL has become all about those game changing, impact plays. They are few and far between, but when they happen it can win a game for you. Those plays generally aren't caused by the run lane clogging slugs of the past decade. Yea you need one or two of them on the roster for certain snaps, but I'm not about to spend top picks for them. I'm fine bargain shopping for those big plugger types.

I wasn't always of this mindset, but hey gotta adjust with the times right!

[Panamamike]

Not really worried about the whole 4-3 3-4 thing to be honest. We mainly play out of an even front so it's not a big deal. I'm all about having disruptive players on the D line (one of the reasons I haven't been as critical of Reyes as some others). I like D lineman that can penetrate and get upfield. In my mind the NFL has become all about those game changing, impact plays. They are few and far between, but when they happen it can win a game for you. Those plays generally aren't caused by the run lane clogging slugs of the past decade. Yea you need one or two of them on the roster for certain snaps, but I'm not about to spend top picks for them. I'm fine bargain shopping for those big plugger types.

I wasn't always of this mindset, but hey gotta adjust with the times right!

I agree vs the slugs, but there would be a requisite change in LB. They key being ML. We do not have a LB on the roster to fill that slot. Nor do we have his backup. It is not just the starters, but their backups and the characteristics required for specifics of the different positions that we do not have. FWIW, 3-4 and 4-3 defenses require different skill sets of LB more so than DL. That is what I meant by having to change the scheme and thus players on the roster. Donald is NOT suited to play a 3-4 scheme. He is ideally suited, and a GREAT prospect in a 4-3.

[blahblahblah]

As someone who has been very critical of Reyes, I am much happier with his play this year. I think a lot of that is because we're playing a lot more even fronts, the rest is because he abandons his responsibilities less than last year. A couple more plus games and I'll be willing to shut up for awhile, but it's hard because last year was one of the worst I've ever seen at the position.

[Panamamike]

There are generally two types of 4-3. One has two huge DT and a free flowing MLB to cover sideline to sideline and make plays, while left free in the middle. Example Urlacher with the Bears. He was undersized but fast as hell and a sure tackler. The few years he struggled was when they did not have the space eating DT to protect him and allow him to flow. The other type has quick penetrating DT, but a MLb that has more size and can shed and make plays, while allowing the OLB to attack. Again, I am not sure we could play a 4-3 with Donald with our current roster makeup. Perhaps we could, but I would not like to take that chance unless we were in a total rebuild, which we lost defiantly are not.

[blueman]

But that's the point - we play a 4 man front a lot (the majority, even?) of snaps. Donald or a player like him would fit very well for us IMO.

[Beerman]

We play a 4 man rush 70% of the time. He would be just fine.

As far as the MLB, like I said, it doesn't matter since our base alignment is the nickel basically. It's basically just adding another DT to the rotation with Reyes and Liuget. Palepoi has been getting about 20 snaps a game and doing pretty much nothing with them. Those are the snaps that would go to whatever DT is brought in. Lissemore still getting his 20 or so at NT.

He would really be a luxury to be honest and I don't really see us spending a top pick on a DT unless they don't plan to resign Reyes (who I think they will - he's still so young).

[blahblahblah]

Our 4 man front has Reyes at LDE a lot. Lissemore at 1 tech NT, and Liuget at 3 tech UT, with the weak OLB sliding into the 7 or so.

[blueman]

Yeah, I'd much rather be rotating in Donald than Palepoi. In a perfect world, lol (like we still have Verrett).

[Panamamike]

There were two players I wanted to add to our D, if all things lined up. I would have like a guy like TUITT on the DL (or a similar player..size and spee/quickness) and the kid that dropped to SF as a late flyer out of SF Aaron Lynch. He had some red flags, but a fifth is what those are for. I prefer versatility on our D. We play a lot of mixed fronts. Donald does not have the versatility IMO. I truly hope we address this next season. Our DL depth is not the strength I wish it to be. Less snaps, but more effectiveness for each snap. Only so many picks to go around. But adding versatile guys ot our front 7 will make our D much more dynamic. BTW both of these guys are providing good returns to their teams so far. I do not advocate spending a high pick on a 2 down run stuffer. The game has changed too much in the past decade.

If you doubt that this is what I wanted, or the style of D i prefer, feel free to look at the pre-draft threads. I named Lynch as a late pick, Tuitt in the second (but very happy we got a true OLB as they are RARE coming out of college without conversion).

Again, in our style of D, versatility is more important IMO.

[chris9341]

For someone who says they don't follow Jenkins career you sure do bring him up a lot.