What scares me the most about losing Big Red and others

[Largent80]

Don't forget about Bobby Wagner being a leader. The hard part for me about losing Red is after his early injury problems and having to endure Mora, Pete came along and found a way to use Red. Seeing him progress for all these years and earning his contract has been a treat.

Glad he got a ring out of all of it.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Not scared one bit. This team will be in contention for another title next year.

 

[Hawks46]

It's a valid concern, as Red contributed a lot of veteran leadership. I think we miss the intangibles more than the on the field performance.

I don't see a change in philosophy. A few reasons why:

We have one of the most dominant defenses in recent memory. At least in the last 10 years. You don't tinker with that when it works so well.

They cut Bryant for a couple of reasons, price and amount of snaps he played/value at that price. It doesn't mean they went away from that position, or that personnel grouping.

You replace Bryant with either a cheap FA addition (which you honestly can't plan for...you can plan for a guy, say Houston from the Raiders, but you can't plan on how much he costs), or depth. We have Brooks, Williams and Scruggs. Now that Scruggs weighs over 300 lbs, he'll hold up.

Bennett played most of the snaps anyways (see the comment on value/snap). So, Bennett will still play more snaps (or at least an equal amount at that DT spot) so he won't wear down. Even if we did go lighter, we have a solid DL rotation, so lighter guys can hold up if they're not on the field all the time. Holmgren's team (specifically the 05' defense) didn't have the depth we do. We would rotate guys out, but it showed.

We've also shown an ability to locate talent at almost any level of the draft and plug it in to our defense. Bryant isn't a hard talent to replace. Guys like Bennett, Thomas, Sherman etc. are a lot harder to replace, so you cut the guy you know you can find cheaper and easier and pay the guys that are harder to replace. I'm not too worried really.

 

[JMR]

I believe Gregg Scruggs is going to play a lot in '14.

Yep, and both McDaniel and McDonald can play the five technique.

Maybe if we're running a 3-4 (which we did several times in the SB) those 2 can play the 5, but in a 4-3 alignment they definitely look like 3 tech type players.

 

[Anthony!]

:240039: we lose one guy and people are freakin out already lol. Have a little confidence our front office knows what they are doing man

Well to be honest there are certain players that if we lost them I would be concerned. Red it no one of them.

 

[Chapow]

I believe Gregg Scruggs is going to play a lot in '14.

Yep, and both McDaniel and McDonald can play the five technique.

McDaniel and McDonald are both free agents though and very well might not be on the team next year.

 

[McGruff]

We may very well change our philosophy, but thats because while Pete has some general overarching themes in his defense, he also is committed to fitting the defense to the strengths of the players.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

It's a valid concern, as Red contributed a lot of veteran leadership. I think we miss the intangibles more than the on the field performance.

I don't see a change in philosophy. A few reasons why:

We have one of the most dominant defenses in recent memory. At least in the last 10 years. You don't tinker with that when it works so well.

They cut Bryant for a couple of reasons, price and amount of snaps he played/value at that price. It doesn't mean they went away from that position, or that personnel grouping.

You replace Bryant with either a cheap FA addition (which you honestly can't plan for...you can plan for a guy, say Houston from the Raiders, but you can't plan on how much he costs), or depth. We have Brooks, Williams and Scruggs. Now that Scruggs weighs over 300 lbs, he'll hold up.

Bennett played most of the snaps anyways (see the comment on value/snap). So, Bennett will still play more snaps (or at least an equal amount at that DT spot) so he won't wear down. Even if we did go lighter, we have a solid DL rotation, so lighter guys can hold up if they're not on the field all the time. Holmgren's team (specifically the 05' defense) didn't have the depth we do. We would rotate guys out, but it showed.

We've also shown an ability to locate talent at almost any level of the draft and plug it in to our defense. Bryant isn't a hard talent to replace. Guys like Bennett, Thomas, Sherman etc. are a lot harder to replace, so you cut the guy you know you can find cheaper and easier and pay the guys that are harder to replace. I'm not too worried really.

Well I'm starting to get nervous because there isn't any news or even rumors of what they're doing.