Originally posted by OnTheClock:
Originally posted by Hopper:
Harbs just said Tank had a procedure after the season to clear out scare tissue in his knee. He said he couldn't straighten out his knee before the surgery.
Well that's reassuring. ...There is a reason many of us are not convinced our DL is as "set" for the years to come.
* Justin Smith is 35 and said himself he's not sure he'll be able to do this anymore after this coming season.
* McDonald is rock solid, but he turns 30 this year himself and has been nicked up fairly often.
* Carradine has yet to even step foot on the field for a game -- no one should assume how good he'll be, if any, until we see him play.
* Dial dressed for only three games. He made 1 tackle. 1. He's the 4th string NT/DE. Totally unproven.
* Jerrod-Eddie showed a fair amount of both promise and versatility, but he's still developing and the drop-off was still obvious when he was in, as opposed to the regular starters.
So after our aging starters, all we have really is one big clump of question marks. I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to go into the season with all those eggs in one basket. It's my opinion we must draft a DL in case Carradine isn't healthy. TJE showed promise, but there was still a noticeable drop-off between him and the starters. If McDonald or Justin get hurt, I want a player in there who gives me more assurance than our current backups.
Which is why, question marks aside, this team is clearly set to be fighting for scraps in this division. A long with the S.O.S. we're going to need some of these question marks to turn into some serious exclamation marks. The Seahawks are sitting at the top of the division and the Rams have the second over all and one of the best defensive lines in the league.