Aldon Smith vs. DeMarcus Ware

Ware is an awesome player and probably game planned a lot more than Aldon due to the talent on the 49ers defense. There is nowhere to go when you play us except over the top. That said Aldon is past him now and I wouldn't have Ware in my top 5 defensive players either....

JJ Watt, Willis, Aldon, Von Miller, then a bunch of otther players could fall here. Justin, Bowman, Revis, Ngata....

Originally posted by buck:
DeMarcus Ware and Aldon Smith both had a torn labrum and both had surgery.

I have no idea which injury was more serious, but Ware also had a problem with his elbow.

edit: I know that Ware is getting older and that may mean he is slowing down, but I do not understand your point about their ages when they came into the league.

Ware had a torn hamstring, fractured wrist, hyperextended elbow plus the torn labrum.

Rather than compare the output of two players, one in his second year and the other in his 8th year, it seems natural to compare where they were in the early parts of their career. Both players had immediate impact. But Aldon is considerably younger. You could argue he is ahead of the curve.

For him to match up with Ware's career achievements over time, honestly, Aldon will need to lose about 10-15 lbs and work on lateral explosiveness IMO. We'll see.

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:
Ware had a torn hamstring, fractured wrist, hyperextended elbow plus the torn labrum.

Rather than compare the output of two players, one in his second year and the other in his 8th year, it seems natural to compare where they were in the early parts of their career. Both players had immediate impact. But Aldon is considerably younger. You could argue he is ahead of the curve.

For him to match up with Ware's career achievements over time, honestly, Aldon will need to lose about 10-15 lbs and work on lateral explosiveness IMO. We'll see.

I did not know the extent of Ware's injuries.

I do not have access to the same stats from Ware's early years.
But, the comparaison from last year does give us at least a clue about where they are now.

Excellent post Buck!

I think Ware is asked to do more because he has to. Our D is more talented than Dallas.

Who is better is a close & tough call - both are excellent and it's fantastic we have a young Aldon who hasn't come close to peaking.

Good drop. Let's hope he has the same longevity that Ware has had. Aldon had the better season but still to early to compare careers.

Until reading this Buck, I just assumed. Really nice post.

Originally posted by GNielsen:
Thank you for shattering pre-conceived notions with real numbers and not opinions. I appreciate that. Let me add that Smith has 33.5 sacks over the last two seasons compared to Ware's 31 and they have a very similar number of tackles over that period - Smith 80 and Ware 81 - remembering that Ware started twice as many games over the past two seasons.

Originally posted by LasVegasWally:
Excellent post Buck!

I think Ware is asked to do more because he has to. Our D is more talented than Dallas.

Who is better is a close & tough call - both are excellent and it's fantastic we have a young Aldon who hasn't come close to peaking.

Originally posted by lamontb:
Good drop. Let's hope he has the same longevity that Ware has had. Aldon had the better season but still to early to compare careers.

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
Until reading this Buck, I just assumed. Really nice post.

Thanks guys

I am building files on each offensive and defensive position for the last two years--the Harbaugh years.
As I progress, I will post the information that I compile.

Originally posted by buck:

Originally posted by Disp:
From what I've read, the knock on Ware is that a lot of his sacks and impact come in garbage time. Comments from Cowboys fans basically indicate that he racks up his numbers after the game is out of reach and he doesn't show up enough when the team needs a stop,

Dallas fans might be a little disgruntled by team not making the play-offs in a while. I would take your friend's criticism of Ware with a grain of salt.

Cmon man, I would never be friends with a Cowboys fan. I have more self respect than that! It's just the critique I've heard several times over the past couple years from sports writers and some Cowboys fans, that Ware seems to disappear in big games and gets a lot of his sacks when the game is basically over. I don't follow the Cowboys at all, so can't say for sure whether it's true or not, and I'm definitely not trying to say he's not one of the best pass rushers of the past decade, because he definitely is.

Originally posted by Disp:
Cmon man, I would never be friends with a Cowboys fan. I have more self respect than that! It's just the critique I've heard several times over the past couple years from sports writers and some Cowboys fans, that Ware seems to disappear in big games and gets a lot of his sacks when the game is basically over. I don't follow the Cowboys at all, so can't say for sure whether it's true or not, and I'm definitely not trying to say he's not one of the best pass rushers of the past decade, because he definitely is.

Sorry about assuming that you had a friend who is a Cowboy fan. My bad.

1. Aldon has Justin.
Now I'm not one of those guys who says Aldon gets all of his sacks because of Justin. But to act like Justin doesn't play a big role would be naive. Ware doesn't have a Justin Smith on his defense.

2. Double teams
The 49ers simply have too much talent on their defense. Who sees majority of the double teams on D? J smith. When teams gameplan for the cowboys it seems like their objective is to take Ware out of the game. While teams still do gameplan against aldon, they can't put as much focus into stopping him like they can ware, and ware still makes plays.

3. Pass defense.
While the cowboys might have the edge on corners, we still have the better overall pass defense. Our guys do a better job making it difficult for the opposing receivers to get open, thus giving aldon more time to get after the qb. We typically don't send heavy blitz. Credit should be given to our guys on D for being able to get so much pressure with only 4 guys. Teams typically aren't able to escape from Aldon either because we usually do a good job collapsing the pocket.

4. Overall defense
We put Aldon in better situations to get after the qb by A. forcing them into more 3rd and long situations and B. making teams more 1 dimentional on 1st and 2nd down because they know it's going to be hard to run the ball on us. (ex. week 1 against GB) Our run defense gave up less than 30 ypg than the boys.

I was not aware the severity of the injuries to ware either but that should also tell you what kind of player he is to still be effective with all those nagging injuries. Maybe that also explains why it looks like he lost a step.

It is my opinion that Ware is better in coverage and against the run. I don't care what PFF says on the matter. There are too many variables. Aldon is better at getting after the qb but some credit has to be give to the rest of the defense and the coaching staff. I don't think the same can be said for dallas' defense or coaching staff seeing as how they just got rid of ryan. I know you disagree but I don't mind, my opinion hasn't changed.

Aldon might just be the best passrusher to ever come into the league. What he has done in 2 years is nothing short of amazing. He has the highest ceiling out of any OLB in the history of the game IMO maybe even any linebacker period. The fact that he had to transition to LB and that he came in pretty young means he still has a lot of growing to do. He also could be one of those guys that tears it up his 1st couple of years and fizzles out. Let's hope that isn't the case.

I am ecstatic that we have arguably 4 or 5 (depending on who you talk to) best players at their positions in the league. And if you were to tell me that Aldon had the best shot to be the best player on our defense when he was drafted, I probably (like most 49er fans) would have told you your crazy.

Originally posted by AUniner:
Ware is an awesome player and probably game planned a lot more than Aldon due to the talent on the 49ers defense. There is nowhere to go when you play us except over the top. That said Aldon is past him now and I wouldn't have Ware in my top 5 defensive players either....

JJ Watt, Willis, Aldon, Von Miller, then a bunch of otther players could fall here. Justin, Bowman, Revis, Ngata....

I find it funny that you would put a guy coming off a major injury as a top 5 player. I think Bowman, Justin, Willis and Aldon are all phenomenal players but there is no way my top 5 would have 4 49ers in it.

No surprise there..................

As Pass Rushers, they are both bad a$$, but that's all they are. neither could cover well but I think if both were used exclusively as DE pass rushers, they would be at the top plus JJ WATT

Smith is better now and will only get better given his young age , D Ware is a great player but i feel that Aldon is going to surpass him and is just a better natural talent.

Originally posted by regulator530:
Smith is better now and will only get better given his young age , D Ware is a great player but i feel that Aldon is going to surpass him and is just a better natural talent.

I think he is going to surpass him as well. The key word being going, not quite there yet.