Sophie's Choice: Corner, Safety, Or Nose Tackle

we got stars in the front 7 and GQ will be at least average.

I would be against considering his age but c’mon man.

does that mean that we don’t believe Wade Phillips when he says that he loves Earl Mitchell?

GM Rick Smith on the team’s strategy in free agency: "Without trying to divulge what our game plan is, I would say that generally speaking we’re going to be as aggressive as we always are," Smith said. "We’re chomping at the bit."

We have lots of bodies at CB, but Eric weddle glover quin safety combo is sweet

I voted for CB… I think that Wade can make do with what he’s got at NT… I think that we have some talent that can be re-purposed for safety. But CB is kinda’ the top of the speedy food-chain and you just have to bite the bullet and PAY for that resource or shut up and stop pretending to care about winning.

Now safety or CB… I’ll go CB because safety can be filled much more easily.

With Nnamdi on the market, he’s the “best player available”. We have a need, we have the revenue, and with his experience, hopefully he could make the ones we have actually look somewhat like NFL corners. I would love to have a couple of SS/FS’s because we really have no depth there at all. But if we’re talking a big signing, I’m sticking with CB. And also, since the NFL seems to make us play Oakland every single year now, it would be nice have him on our team and hear the boo’s when he goes back to Oakland.

And with that meaning one of these in the respective order (not even considering Nnamdi, too unrealistic) :

Jonathan Joseph
Carlos Rogers
Chris Carr
Antonio Cromartie
Ike Taylor
Josh Wilson
Richard Marshall
Drayton Florence

I think Quintin Mikell would be a very good player in Houston. He’s very good against the run and he’s improved in pass defense the last couple of years..

FS: GQ
SS: QM

Whichever position we sign should make Quin move to the other one

I would politely disagree with him that Free Safety is a bigger need at this point than strong safety, being that Quin is supposedly moving to FS, and most would assume he could at least adequately fill that void. I would also wonder why he had not heard about that possibility yet.
Secondly, I would ask him what his coaches thought, as I am not a professional coach, nor a professional evaluator of NFL talent.
Assuming he still wanted my opinion, I would suggest a starting level or better CB, as we still have major wounds to lick after thinking you can put babies out on the islands and get away with it in today’s league.
Now, were strong safety to be an option, I’d seriously consider that as my answer, as that would likely be a much cheaper option, leaving more in the coffers for the other positions.

We do not know that GQ will be a good FS – most of us think he will – but we don’t know. What we do know – if we move him, the best CB we know we have (if he stays) is Jason Allen. That is still scary and why I voted CB. I would love to get all three (if the NT is a true space-eating NT)

Then keep quin at CB, and sign Eric weddle. Like Patrick said, Kareems best asset is his tackling

Is she a safety or a nose tackle?

and still get Nnamdi

Considering in prior years, excluding last year when our CB’s sucked, we have managed to field a few competitive units on D by plugging in who we had at safety and on the line while having decent CB’s(Dunta in his prime and Reeves).
Get a shutdown CB and let Wade do his thing with what we have now and we should be all right.

Optimism is a wonderful thing until the regular season starts.

Simply because if Wade is really trying to improve that pass rush, he won’t be running EMFM and Cody out there every play. But, I figure they’ll go after corner. And this is fine by me as well.

Since moving Quin to FS seems to be a foregone conclusion now, we definitely need a #1 CB. I’m less worried about the Safety position since Wade’s comments indicate he doesn’t need an in-the-box safety, meaning he will basically field 2 Free Safeties. I could see Jason Allen, Troy Nolan, or even Shiloh Keo being sufficiently competent at these spots. Also, the CB class is deeper than the Safety class, thereby relatively cheaper I hope (then again, Demand is sure to be higher too).

Also, a CB means we have the option of not throwing Kareem, or even Harris, to the wolves again. Not so immediately, at least.

As for NT, Wade seems to really like Earl Mitchell.

I could make it if we came out of free agency without a Safety. I prob would drink myself into a coma if we didn’t pick up at least one veteran corner.

Bring in someone with championship experience to teach up these young CBs we have, not to mention he’d be more cost effective than Scrabble

I’d prefer it to be somebody who is used to having a terrible pass rush in front of them. This is why I’m not as high on Taylor as some.

Quin is moving to a safety role in Wade’s defense leaving our #1 cornerback as Kareem Jackson. While I think Jackson will improve in year two, I don’t want him covering #1 WRs. Get someone to stabilize the corps and bump everyone down to the appropriate level. I don’t expect Scrabble, but I’d at least like to hear they offered him 3 years at $10-15 mil per season….if Joseph or Wilson or Marshall or someone of their ilk is the consolation prize, fine….but I want to see them go after the cornerback.

Anything else is an expected disappointment

What do you think about Cromartie?

Corner its the single biggest need we have,gq will help alot and k-jax I think, as well as the rest of our D were made out to seem worst tjan they are. We have a real dc now. Not just one of garys pic nic buddies.

NT is fine. I think Mitchell will be good enough, considering Wade really, really likes him.

GQ’s best position is FS. Even if he has a shitty first year there, he can’t handle not playing Nickel CB.

Because of GQ’s inability to play outside CB, we have to get another CB. I think Harris will be a very good Nickel CB, Kareem will hopefully have a solid year, but then we have a hole. I like Jason Allen. I think he could be a decent #2 CB, but Kareem needs to be #2 this year. We need a CB. Ike Taylor is a guy we should consider. He’s around 30, so he’s not too old, but he’s young enough to give Kareem more time to develop against weaker competition at the #2 spot.

The pipedream is obviously Scrabble, but we aren’t getting him. Smith doesn’t have what it takes to bring in an elite FA like Scrabble. However, I think he can bring in Ike.

Worst case scenario is that we get nobody. Kareem stays as our #1 CB, which isn’t life-altering, but it’s not good. I thnk Jason Allen will be the #2 CB, with Harris and Roc being the Nickel and Dime CBs. I honestly do not have a problem with Allen being the #2 CB. I have a problem with Kareem not being the #2 CB, because he needs to be. He’s not ready to cover the other team’s go-to-guy every game. That’s why we need Ike Taylor or Scrabble. Not because of Harris or Allen being mediocre, but because K-Jax needs to be #2, and he can’t be #2 with Allen and Harris on the team. At least not this year.

I don’t want just any safety. In all honesty not one of can predict what sort of safety GQ will be. I want an elite safety. After Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu, who else is considered elite? Ike Taylor is an O.K. corner. Still better than anyone on the roster right now, but really he’s maybe slightly above average. Troy Polamalu makes him better. I can’t name a Ravens DB. Ed Reed makes them all better. He missed 6 games this season and still tallied 8 interceptions.

A great safety makes everyone in the secondary better.