Paint It Black by Alex Chavez
The Mailbag
I am impressed at the intelligence of many of our readers. Some of the arguements and ideas that I receive in my Inbox as responses to an article I write could themselves have been a complete article on par with the best ones we read here at this site. So without further ado I give you three of the best I received during the holidays.
In response to System vs Talent -
"Your article has amazing timing. I think many Raider fans are wondering...does our system require too much talent? Do we end up having to dedicate more money certain ways? Maybe the man [coverage defensive] philosophy is sound but can it be financed and coached? We need a system to plug in players."
--- Rod Borba
Rob made a great point that I hadn't put enough thought into. Think about how expensive it is to run a solid man to man defense. The Ravens were able to do it for a few years, shelling out the big bucks for Chris McAllister, Duane Starks, Rod Woodson, Ray Lewis, and Sam Adams. As a result, they didn't have much money left for the offense, yet were still able to win big for a few years and make it worthwhile. However, the players aged and were either let go to free agency (couldn't be re-signed) or became old and lost a step. And when a team has big bucks invested in players, it becomes harder to get rid of them once they begin their physical decline and start hurting the team.
This expensive man to man coverage defense cost us Charles Woodson, Roderick Coleman, Eric Barton, and Grady Jackson. Certainly some of those guys no longer wanted to be here, but the bigger issue was that we had no similar players to insert and take their spots successfully. It took us five years to find our next Woodson in Asomugha. We still haven't found a young pass rushing defensive tackle like Coleman. And we've been short one outside linebacker for half a decade now. What's the alternative?
We can look at the top teams like Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and New England. Those franchises are above average year after year because they can economically duplicate success season after season without tying up too much money on any one player. Their systems work with solid non-superstars in the mix. We see the revolving door of outstanding Steelers linebackers, Patriot wide receivers, and Colt defenders. Many of these players cash in and move on to other teams, never again to duplicate their success in their previous system. Recent examples include cornerback Jason David (Colts to Saints decline), Joey Porter (Steelers to Dolphins decline), Reche Caldwell and Wes Welker outperforming expectations once they latched on with the Patriots (where the system is as important as Brady), and David Givens and David Patten becoming nobodies once they left.
The Colts received compensation for letting David sign a 4 year 16.5 million dollar deal with the Saints this last off-season. They then replaced him with a cheaper alternative, didn't skip a beat in their pass defense, and torched David for 3 touchdowns in the opening week of this season. Those teams can let expensive free agents float away, then just pluck a few more middle to late round rookies, sign a few inexpensive free agents, coach them into the system, and repeat their team success. And when it's time to go for broke (Patriots 2007), the team has more than enough cap space to splurge. Efficient, cheap, intelligent.
Our defensive system is none of those. We did find a gem in our run system that will allow us to save money on linemen and running backs. Our defensive system, unfortunately, is a whole different issue. This is why some fans want to change from strict man-to-man to the Tampa 2, Cover-2, or a 3-4 where linebackers are the key to the defense and can also be replaced cheaply. Yet Al Davis, in all of his intelligence, still wants to out-athleticize every other team with man to man defense and a vertical offense. This was easier to do in the 1970s and early 80s. Not so much now.
Basically, to run our defense effectively, we need above-average players at almost every position. This takes years to do, if it's done at all, and costs quite a bit of money. We will see if Davis is able to do it, or if he will allow someone to talk to him about the effectiveness of the zone or 3-4 systems.
Other worthwhile emails:
"Discipline, discipline, discipline. They can insert any defense or offense, but until they gather enough players who understand discipline they will not win. So many times last season we saw the same problems repeated by the same players because the lack any sort of discipline. Barry Sims...Cornell Green...our wide receivers...false starts...lining up off-sides. also the coaching staff needs to coach with discipline. How many times was it necessary to call time out because there wasn't enough time to change the play at the line of scrimmage because it took to long to send in the play? It was nothing more than a lack of discipline."
--- Richard Ghera
In response to the 2008 Offense article:
"I agree with just about all of your comments except the following below. I'm not versed in the contract stipulations of trades or releasing players, and my comments are based strictly on results.
O-Line - I think the last 4 games are critical for this group. The Line is starting to gel and work better together. It will be interesting to see how they fair against a tough remaining schedule. I like Sims as an individual (does a lot in the local community, etc), but he gets constant help from TEs or RBs. To your point, he may be our best option next year while a young rookie taken in the draft develops and competes for the spot. Gallery will continue his development with coaching continuity. Gallery has benefited from playing next to Newberry, learning from a tough veteran. I would like to see Newberry retained and have him compete with Chris Morris. The coaching staff seems very impressed with the play of McQuistan, who will compete for either right guard or tackle next season. He may take over right guard from Carlisle, who has been consistent. Right tackle may be the spot for a free agent until Henderson further develops."
"WR - I don't think Porter will be back. A glaring indication of serious change at this position came after the Chicago game when Kiffin seemed insulted that the Bears maintained a base defense against the Raiders' 3 wide sets. We don't have any explosion at WR. What's the deal with Higgins? A third round pick who has seen limited playing time. Curry will be the only returning WR."
---Robert Kotur
On the upcoming draft:
"I, too, have been thinking that we need a dominant DT to improve our defense. I felt we should've taken Haloti Ngata from Oregon instead of Michael Huff 2 years ago. He has done pretty well in Baltimore, freeing up their active LBs to make plays (could've worked here in Oakland as well.) That being neither here nor there, I agree that Dorsey will be off the board by the time we pick at #3 or #4. I do think, however, that Ellis from USC is a legitimate pick for us considering his talent and our need."
---Dean Meddaugh
Thank you Raider fans and keep your thoughts coming. Here's to an intelligent off-season.
Alex
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