Yannick named AFC Defensive Player of the Week

[Jeremy408]

3 hours ago, big_palooka said:

Hendrickson is the surprise here for me. Questioned how he'd play leaving the Saints defense. He's lived up to his FA status.

Yeah me too I definitely thought he was going to be a free agent bust. 

[Geezy]

3 hours ago, big_palooka said:

Hendrickson is the surprise here for me. Questioned how he'd play leaving the Saints defense. He's lived up to his FA status.

same, he screamed FA bust. 

From what i head from Saints fans was he mostly got clean up/coverage sacks on a very good defense and his numbers were bloated. But you know how salty fans get when they lose players. Theyll say anything to lessen the sting

Edited October 28, 2021 by Geezy

[Mr Raider]

25 minutes ago, Jeremy408 said:

Mine too. I always thought it was funny how after we signed him, people on here were saying that his success was based off of Calais Campbell. And then after that Josh Allen. Completely ignoring the fact that he's never had less than eight sacks in a season regardless of what team he played on and who was around him. 

It's hilarious how when we signed somebody depreciates their value the eyes of our Fanbase and then all of a sudden they're not as good LOL. 

Right? It's funny because in a lot of aspects of my life I am more pessimistic by nature, but when it comes to the Raiders I try and be as objective as possible but tend to be a glass half full type of guy. Despite the franchise rarely rewarding that recently. 

That said, Yannick was one of those guys where I was just confident he would make a huge impact. It wasn't a situation where I had to do a lot of mental gymnastics to see the bright side. When a guy comes in his rookie season and gets you 8 sacks and 47 sacks through 5 years It's safe to say in my eyes that guy can get after the QB. Sure Campbell was a terrific player and certainly benefited Yannick, but that's just football. When guys have a decent or strong supporting cast It's easier to get the absolute best out of them. When they have little surrounding talent even the best players are going to struggle. 

It wasn't like I thought hey we should sign Yannick and surround him with subpar talent and he'll be enough individually to overcome that. Which seems to be the outlook of some fans. They think you're signing guys to be elite right now and long term regardless of whether there is any quality talent around them inside a quality scheme that gets the most out of players. Like obviously you don't want to sign a guy to big money if they were a one hit wonder or only had good success in a situation where they were just surrounded by elite talent everywhere. But still, you are signing guys with the idea that they will bring high level play individually, but you also understand you will have to surround them with other talented players around them. Its like yeah, Campbell did help Yannick, but Yannick also helped Campbell. And while we may not be signing Yannick and prime Campbell, the plan when signing him should still be to add him as a piece and identifying and adding other pieces that can help him play his best football and vice versa. If you are looking for a guy that will be elite regardless of scheme, situation, role, or surrounding talent, I have some bad news. Theres only a true few of those ever to ever have played. And you don't dind them on the free agent market lol.

I felt like Crosby flashed so significantly year one and to a lesser degree year two with very little around him that if we added another pro bowl caliber rusher on the opposite side we will see just how great both guys can be. And I am firm in my belief that when it comes to the secondary in the NFL it is going to go as the pass rush goes. You can have a secondary full of studs but if you can't get any pressure, good luck fielding a good passing defense. So I had the mindset of getting one of the better pass rushers to hit free agency in recent memory, pair him with a guy in house that can get you double digit sacks entering his third year and having little talent around him through his first two, and the secondary will improve just on that fact alone. And if you can put Abram in a role that fits his skills, land a rookie like Moehrig who hasn't had the typical severe highs and lows most rookie safeties have, and get a reliable veteran or two in the CB room the defense could easily become at least a league average unit. 

I did like the Thomas signing and thought Jefferson could be a sneaky good interior player, and while I thought Yannick paired with Crosby would make the interior better just because of what they can do, the interior still was my biggest concern coming into the year. I didn't want to see two talents like Crosby and Yannick wasted with QBs just stepping up in the pocket consistently. Although I was comforted some by the fact that Bradley has had solid defenses without having a great individual interior rusher. 

Yannick just made too much sense as the biggest individual impact player we could sign that would have ripple effects throughout the entire defense. Once Bradley was hired I was even more steadfast in that belief because he showed he could put him in a position to succeed. I was SUPER critical of Gunthers defense from personnel decisions, amount of reps for certain players, and mainly the overall scheme that IMO required finding two high end safeties (when finding one is hard enough), good man corners, and an elite interior rusher. But for that system to provide quality play you have to find elite play at perhaps the hardest spots to find quality play (DT, CB, S). And then when injuries inevitably hit you can't have guys come fill in in a pinch and be successful because the system is so complicated and requires so many players to do numerous things well while knowing multiple positions roles in every situation. 

I am of the opinion on defense simple=successful. You obviously want to disguise things and not be overly predictable and dial up some unique things in big spots to throw opponents off. But defensively you want guys thinking as little as possible and instead playing off instincts. It allows less room for communication errors, it allows guys that have to step in due to injuries to play fast because they aren't asked to know all these complex assignments, and just overall it allows for complimentary football where the entire defense is playing as one. 

At least at first. And then once that is established with a core of guys that have been in the system for a while you can add more to their plates. Yannick wouldn't have been as good as he has been for us through 7 games in Gunthers system. Abram would still look like a bust. Moehrig would likely be struggling a lot more. Hobbs would probably be playing some stupid role or not on the field, Hayward would likely look washed. Nobody at DT would be playing as well as they are because Gunther wouldn't let Crosby and Yannick do what they do best. 

The second Gunther got the axe I thought ok, go get Yannick if he's available. Any DC that isn't downright negligent will be able to use him well. But once Bradley was hired it made entirely too much sense not to make it happen. 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Mr Raider

[SimonGruber]

3 hours ago, big_palooka said:

Hendrickson is the surprise here for me. Questioned how he'd play leaving the Saints defense. He's lived up to his FA status.

I had the same questions I didn’t want him for that reason. A few people pushed for him in here forgot who

[SimonGruber]

39 minutes ago, Jeremy408 said:

Mine too. I always thought it was funny how after we signed him, people on here were saying that his success was based off of Calais Campbell. And then after that Josh Allen. Completely ignoring the fact that he's never had less than eight sacks in a season regardless of what team he played on and who was around him. 

It's hilarious how when we signed somebody depreciates their value the eyes of our Fanbase and then all of a sudden they're not as good LOL. 

I don’t remember that at all I know Ravens fans on Twitter were saying he’s not that good but I don’t remember anybody here did if so I missed it 

[Jeremy408]

2 hours ago, SimonGruber said:

I don’t remember that at all I know Ravens fans on Twitter were saying he’s not that good but I don’t remember anybody here did if so I missed it 

 Oh yeah it was definitely prevalent around mid to late March

[raidr4life]

On 10/27/2021 at 11:11 AM, drfrey13 said:

We have 5 large overpaid players next year (Drake 8, Ferrell 10, Nassib 9.6, Littleton 15.7, Kwiatkoski 8.2).  Cutting them would save $10.4 which would give us $63.  If we extend Carr, Waller, Ngakoue, and Max it will cost around $40 million a year extra on top of what we are giving them next year.  There are a few small contracts we can cut but we will have the core of the team locked up.  Problem is that to improve we would have to start drafting well. Hoping Gruden was the issue there and maybe next time Cable pounds the table for an offensive linemen Mayock will be able to point him to the chair in the corner while grown men speak.

As for guys coming off the books we have a lot of low tier contracts ($2-4.5 million) coming off the books.  Morrow, Hankins, Mariota, Richard, Wright, Carlson, Jefferson, Thomas, Heyward, Incognito, and Jones.  Ingold, Parker, and Peterman are going to be FAs also.

i think you extend morrow to a not too big contract to play littleton spot for less money

[drfrey13]

1 hour ago, raidr4life said:

i think you extend morrow to a not too big contract to play littleton spot for less money

I like Morrow as a back up but I am not sold on him as a starter unless we need to sign a cheap alternative.  I did not like giving him $4.5 million this year.