How much longer.......

[Carson]

Originally Posted by papabear

I don't think anyone does, especially at Safety. Look at it this way though...any upgrade at Safety probably comes at the cost of another upgrade (or at least a shot at an upgrade) for another position. It wasn't like Smith only had two holes to fill when he got here.

So true, when you spend a pick on a DB then you neglect the LB or DE spot. To answer another question, I think we do have a quality OLB. He's #59, and he's playing out of position. It still burns me that we passed up on Patrick Willis. I hate to give up on Amobi, and I won't since he's still the youngest player in the NFL, but can you imagine how much better our defense would be if they'd selected Willis instead of Okoye? Putting Pat Willis at MLB, and moving Demeco back to his natural positon (OLB) would really have put this defense in a better position to succeed. Ryans was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year at OLB. He's a natural on the outside using his instincts to make plays. Now, he's doing a valiant job eating blocks and stuffing the run, but it will shorten his career long term. Maybe Okoye turns into a great player - I certainly hope so, but Willis could've made this team better. It's personnel decisions like this that I hope become a thing of the past.

[coloradodude]

barrett,

Not to pick on you but you need to remember that when Smith took over, the Texans had been run into the ground by one Charles Nelson Casserly. Our beloved franchise was in serious salary cap trouble.

Now combine that with the absolute FACT that Casserly had staffed our team with bad players, many of which couldn't find employment on other teams once cut. So because of the need to replace the personnel AND being in salary cap trouble, Smith has been in a dilema.

In order to upgrade personnel you need to spend the money. So he had to prioritize by position. As a result, overall, our team is descent in talent right now. We don't have a ton of superstars but, here we go, what would a Jeff Fisher do with our existing defense? Would we be giving up 30 points a game? No way.

A good coach can find a way to make descent players better. A good coach can make very good players go to the playoffs.

And don't give me a hard time about Fisher because I could've used a number of defensive minded coaches or their assitants. He was used to make a point.