Bennett Hypothetical

I love Michael Bennett. He may be a situational player, but his versatility and high energy is unreplaceable. However, we were the number 1 scoring defense without him and our offensive line (particularly pass-pro) was below average. With a dominant OLINE we can change the dynamic of our offense and go hard after another superbowl (hell, we might be able to repeat with an average OLINE).

Anyways, what are the board's thoughts. If you could EITHER resign Bennett OR bring in a good OLINEman (perhaps BAlbert) which do you do?

Certainly the draft plays into this as well (better to draft a DLINEman or an OLINEman early?). Thoughts?

you can always draft an Offensive lineman to improve it. Lineman are easier to find than Dlmen. We won a Super Bowl with an average/ above average line play. IN the playoffs the line was a lot better in pass protection than the final quarter of the regular season.

You can have the best OL in the world and if Harvin is injured, you won't be able to shift to an offensive dominant philosophy with little speed at the skill positions for defenses to quit the massive blitzing.

Better off trying to keep your defense dominant and praying RW can keep miracles going with great field position then addressing OL without adding game changing speed that defenses can be forced to respect if Harvin is injured.

Our oline needs to be our #1 priority IMO. We don't want Wilson's career cut short because he's constantly getting banged up. He needs better protection than that. If it means losing Bennett to get a better olineman, I think the loss on defense would be far less than the gain on offense. I also think younger defensive players can impact a team sooner than offensive players can. So I'd be down for a decent FA Guard if there is one available.

jlwaters1":19c5xhhj said:

you can always draft an Offensive lineman to improve it. Lineman are easier to find than Dlmen. We won a Super Bowl with an average/ above average line play. IN the playoffs the line was a lot better in pass protection than the final quarter of the regular season.

Click to expand...

Yah, can't disagree more. Improving the oline is easily our biggest area of need. I love Bennett but losing him doesn't automatically make our defense hopeless. There are other, albeit less appealing, options. Also, we were the number 1 scoring D without him.

Expecting a draft pick to solidify a weak pass protection unit is silly.

I hope we resign Bennett, but if he walks and we use that money on some value signings on the dline, allowing us to revamp our oline I'll be happy.

Bennet being discussed here

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