We certainly have that sort of trajectory going . . . here’s hoping the Hawks can skip the Bavasi years.

This guy doesn’t need to be a playmaker, he just needs to be a wide body to fill up space. The last time I remember our playmakers reside in our LB corps and Patrick Kerney (hopefully Lo Jack soon as well), not our interior line. It seems to me that what we need out of our tackles is to hold the line on rushing downs and help collapse the pocket on passing downs, allowing our LB’s to make the plays (much like a 3-4 with a hefty nose tackle). Cole certainly has the physical stats needed for such a position.

I also have a little bit of faith in our new coaching staff. They just spent countless hours over the past several weeks evaluating all the free agents AFTER creating their new scheme and playbook. They obviously are looking specifically at players that will fill the needs of their new defense. I for one am going to wait on making a judgement on Cole until after we see him in action.

“Cole is a short, stocky player with good strength to anchor at the point of attack. He has bounced back nicely from his injury in 2007 to be an effective backup in the trenches for the Packers’ defense. He works with a natural center of gravity and good hand use to keep blockers from getting up on the Packers’ linebackers. Cole is more of a run-stopper than pass-rusher, but can push the pocket effectively at times. He hasn’t developed his pass-rush moves or counters very well during his four years in the league, but he has done a better job getting in rush lanes and getting his hands on some balls. He could start in a pinch, but is better suited as a solid backup. Cole is somewhat-one dimensional, but interior defenders are tough to find and he will likely be retained in the offseason.”

emphasis mine

<http://insider.espn.go.com/nfl/fa?playerId=4870>

i’m on the lookout for good news about this signing, but it looks like we overpaid. bummer.

I get all the arguments against Cole, but then again, it’s difficult for me to claim I know something more than the coaching staff does. I highly doubt that Ruskell, Mora, Bradley, and Quinn thinks this guy is just “fat” and “sucks”. They obviously did their due diligence and sees something in him that justifies the signing. Let’s give them a little faith…

It’s certainly not to look like we’re “doing” something, because no one seems to think the guy is a capable starter.

And if he’s so terrible, he’s not actually going to help, is he?

Ruskell and co. must actually think he’s worth picking up. Why? Do they know something we don’t?

…an interesting graphic in the wake of the Albert Haynesworth signing, about whether spending tons of money on a defensive tackle is worthwhile. If I remember the conclusion correctly, last season the teams with the top 5 highest paid DTs won exactly zero playoff games, and historically that’s not unusual. Point being, I’m not excited about the Cole signing either, but I’m not sure it deserves the level of histrionics currently on display in this thread. We didn’t break the bank here, it’s only $5 mil guaranteed over 5 years.

At this point I don’t think the problem with our defense is a lack of talent, we have a lot of it (Kerney, Mebane, Jackson, Lofa, Peterson, Hill, Trufant, Grant). The problems are 1) underperformance of a lot of that talent, and 2) bad defensive schemes in the past few seasons (all out blitzes at the worst times, corners playing 10 yards off on 3rd and 8, general lack of imagination, etc). I hate BRuss too, but he was by no means the only source of suck on our defense last year. The good news is that #2 above tends to cause #1, and that we have a complete turnover of our defensive coaching staff this season. Hopefully that new staff doesn’t suck, and uses the talent we have to their maximum potential. If that happens, replacing Rocky Bernard with Colin Cole shouldn’t be a disaster. It’s just the first off-season move; give the front office a chance and see what the end result is before you cry ass-rape.

Over-paying and generally mismanaging the back end of the roster is a fairly common issue, even for good GMs. That’s where they often show their vanity, spending money on guys without a lot of talent, but who make up for it with quote-unquote—football IQ/veteran savvy/Favre-like moxy. It becomes an even worse problem at a talent-thin position.

Sucks for us, but probably isn’t fatal. We have $5mil less now, which probably is not the difference between contending and not contending. It probably does mean, however, that Red Bryant—who was something of a bargain where we got him—had better develop enough so that the coaches HAVE to play him. I shudder to think of a rotation with Terrell and Cole at the tackles.

Having said all that, overall Ruskell has generally gotten it right with his drafts and with the lion’s share of his major moves. But, every personnel exec has an area where he’s just bad. This is Ruskell’s.