petitions positions.

I missed the sarcasm in your first post.

Which is as good as he’ll ever be. Considering how hoss-like our other LBs have been, and considering how Kubes loves to stick with under performing players way longer than he should, I don’t think we’ll look to upgrade at that position in this upcoming draft.

to make up for the lack of posting by 50% of your named writers, not to mention the dearth of words from you or Jake. I’m a helper. It’s what I do.

with the slight change of “good” to “adequate.” But I think upgrading that position should be on the team’s radar as it evaluates free agents. *cough*Derrick Johnson*cough*

that we could do worse and that he’s not the worst out there. No argument at all. I just think that we (meaning Smithiak) should not let ourselves think he’s better than he actually is, because that might make us pass on an affordable upgrade. That’s all.

Thanks for doing the legwork, though.

its kinda hard to make a list to rank him unless your list has only weakside linebackers in a 4-3 and takes into account the number of snaps they get. Comparing him to all linebackers regarless of of that isnt going to be much of a comparison.

Again, you are pretending like all snaps are created equal. DeMeco is playing, basically, every single defensive snap, including nickel and dime packages. So comparing his total passing defense numbers to Diles’ totals is misleading at best and nonsensical at worst. The relevant comparison would be how often DeMeco is targeted (and his corresponding defensive numbers) on first and second downs (or, at the very least, when he and Diles are both on the field).

Second flaw: You can’t credit Diles with 56 tackles only on running snaps unless you are implying that he made zero tackles on the passes that people caught while he was covering him. Nor can you credit him with all 56 tackles purely on run plays unless you are simultaneously implying that he has not made a single tackle all season when the ball was completed to the receiver someone else was covering, which would also be very poor play on his part if you consider the number of short crossing routes that are thrown in a typical game. You flippantly dismiss this concern with your disclaimer without realizing the enormous flaw in removing all passing plays before you divide by total tackles. (Really, this second flaw is probably the most annoying part of your argument; you are purposely distorting the math and pretending like it doesn’t matter because you gave a little disclaimer.)

Third flaw: 15 targets? Really? Whomever was counting either (a) just pulled a number out of thin air or (b) didn’t count the passes that are thrown to a receiver because Diles will have primarily responsibility for tracking him down (think swing passes, short screens, etc.). Not counting those gives a pretty misleading picture, especially because one of Diles’ biggest flaws is his attack angle that leaves him grasping at air on swing passes to fast RBs.

Flaw the fourth? You keep pretending like the team plays a ton of nickel D, thus Diles is off the hook for a lot of what’s happened. Simply not true. We played a ton of nickel (understandably) against the Colts, but, otherwise, it’s been a fairly standard amount. Meaning that, to the extent your premise is based on Diles not being responsible for what happens on third down, it’s inherently flawed, both because there are times he’s on the field on third down and because his poor play on first and second directly impacts what happens on third.

Flaw five: 41 solo tackles in 15 games. Meaning less than three times per game, Diles is the first person to the ball carrier and makes the tackle. Spin that however you want, but given that the distribution of plays to our left and right has been right in line with league average, even if you give Diles the benefit of Mario eating up plays that other WLBs would have to make, that’s still not impressive. Again, as I said in an earlier post, count the number of plays in the game books that are a run to Diles’ side that end in a tackle by Pollard or Quin.

Flaw six: A 4-3 WLB is generally the quickest of the three LBs. Diles is not even close. A 4-3 WLB is generally the best coverage LB on the team. Diles is not even close. These facts don’t seem to alarm you simply because, I suppose, Diles doesn’t cost a lot. Well a Ford Focus is pretty cheap, but that doesn’t mean I’d want it half the cops in town driving them instead of a car that can actually do all the things they need to do. (Strained analogy.)

and rec’d

you implied an opinion that Bush thinks he cant rush the passer, Im implying an opinion that hes simply the 3rd best rushing linebacker.

The team hasn’t played THAT much nickel.

I’m pacing myself to hit my prime in about 30 years.

And pretty much all Jack Nicholson movies