WR with Housh? Defensive line?

Are they any FA O-linemen worth worrying about this year?

Oo, oo! I know, we’ll get a third kicker! Rackers, ftw!

My sense is Hill is on the upside, and Peterson on the downside. Without knowing much about Peterson’s contract (in particular how much is guaranteed), it would seem to me that the right move is to sign Hill, and release Peterson. Then do what you said. No?

Ooooh…. so much saved cap space. Draft an LB in the middle rounds for the future and for special teams depth. Spend the $ on, oh, I don’t know, a big free agent DE or DT?

I like both Hawthorne and Herring, though the latter guy does seem injury prone.

I’m no expert at football evaluation, but I didn’t notice a big drop when DD stepped in. I was really happy when we resigned him, and he seemed to be an effective replacement when he came in. Are both Herring and Hawthorne an upgrade?

with the platoon approach. First, it makes your defense more predictable and more exploitable. They can exploit the faster, weaker guy with run plays and the slower stronger guy with pass plays. And who are you going to use on marginal downs? They can key on whomever you use on those plays and do the same thing, running or passing depending upon which guy you put in.

Second, the platoon approach might as well be called, the lack-of-every-down-linebacker approach. You are going light on talent at the position and whenever you do that you are betting the farm on your talented guys staying healthy. If Lofa or Julian go down, there goes the season. Do you really want to bank everything on those two staying healthy?

Seattle ran a platoon years back when Levon Kirkland played in the middle. Eventually, Kirkland got phased out as teams just started throwing at him on first and second down. Offenses can dictate—or at least have a major influence on—what you can do defensively with their pace, personnel, and formation. Smart OCs, when facing a true platoon, will just run at your pass defender and make your run defender cover the pass. I don’t like the idea of a platoon at LB. I don’t mind playing several LBs. We did that in 2005 with Kevin Bentley. But that’s not the same as having a “run specialist” and a “pass specialist,” which is how I understand this post.

I can support a position that says “I’m not gonna spend a lot on this linebacker,” but not having run and pass specialists. Rather, we could just name Herring or Hawthorne the starter (or draft a guy, or sign an undervalued FA) if Hill is too rich for our blood. DD Lewis went from undrafted free agent gem to starter as Chad Brown faded. Leroy Hill was a third round steal who eventually supplanted Lewis. So, it shouldn’t shock anyone if Herring, Hawthorne, or both play well enough to make us forget about Hill the way many of us have forgotten about Chad Brown.

However, I think we need to look for a starter to play all three downs.

I think you open the position up at camp between Herring, Hawthorne, and Laury and see if one of them wins it outright. Depending on how that goes you divvy up the PT. My suspicion is that there is talented depth at LB for us, even if the names aren’t big at this point. Look where Koutovides and Bentley are now. I think Laury/Herring/Hawthorne plus maybe a late rounder should do the job. 3rd best linebacker on the team is a very non premium position that can be subbed out to bring in a talented nickel back like Wilson anyways.

I was never enamored by Hill. He could lay a pop if he got the opportunity right in front of him, very Kawika Mitchell-esque but he rarely reacted intelligently to a developing play to put himself in position. This is not my original observation obviously. If the market for him is as hot as some of us will suspect it will be, then I support saving the money for bigger needs.

I like Crabtree a lot, but Branch looked great at the end of last year and if we brought in Housh we would have a very dynamic receiver duo. Burleson was killing it early against the Bills, I really thought he was going to break out last year (not insanely, but appreciably) so thats a possibility too. That would free us up come draft day.