Draft needs coming into focus

[papabear]

Originally Posted by dalemurphy

For me, one of the problems with drafting Lbs high this season is that, barring injury, a team rarely uses more than 4 over the course of entire game-sometimes only the three starters (depending on whether there is a nickel replacement). Meanwhile, though a base defense has only 2 CBs, almost every game you will see 4 CBs get extensive playing time... Similarly, though we start 4 DL, it's likely that 7 or 8 make an impact in a game.

So, while Adibi and Diles have some questions, I think their promise is enough that a high round pick on a LB may only marginally improve the team. Meanwhile, a high pick at DE, DT, CB, S all can significantly improve the team, even if the starters stay healthy and the rookies are unable to unseat them... If we draft Cushing in round one, it's possible that he doesnt beat out Diles or Adibi and therefore will only see the field because of injury or because he's been pressed on the field due to his draft position and salary cap number.

That is a good point. It's one reason I can't get excited about drafting SLB in the first round...unless he's going to be your rush end in nickel situations. As much as we like to bitch about the secondary we we're terrible against the run last year as well. I think a real NT, as opposed to the UTs we force into that spot, would do more to upgrade the run defense. The problem is it sure seems like Kubiak wants this defense to be made up of versatile interchangeable parts type guys. It doesn't matter anyway because it doesn't seem like there are any run stuffing NTs like that in this draft who will be there at 15. Even the best rookie NT's is going to have a hard time handling that role. As long as we re still allowing 4.5 yards per carry to the opposition upgrading the secondary won't help much because they are always going to be in third and short type situations. If we can upgrade our run defense by drafting a OLB at 15 that should have a cascade effect on the rest of the defense. If we can put teams in more 3rd and long situations that should allow the defensive line to be more aggressive in those situations, which should help the secondary as well.

I really like Adibi, but he had trouble keeping his weight up last year and staying healhy. Hopefully a year of NFL off season training will help take care of that, but if we can upgrade that spot fine. Even though I really like Adibi's potential. Diles is the kind of guy I like to root for because it was a big win for him just to stick on a roster, much less work his way up to starting lineup. There were times early in the season that I thought he was playing the best of all the LB's. It's a feel good story, but that shouldn't stop us from upgrading his spot...especially since that was a pretty nasty injury he had last year and there's no way to know how well he'll come back from it.