Merlin's Magic Week Two: All About The Lines

We are way to far out to project a 2009 draft. However, it's always fun to speculate. RT and RG are usually not first round needs. So, MLB is a reasonable thought. Laurinitus or Maualuga would look good in a Chief's uniform. xxxlp, good thought on prospects not living up to hype in their senior year. A young Willie Lanier with Dorsey and Tank in front of him could have a big impact.

Top tier players don't always live up to their hype their senior years, and subsequently fall in the draft.. I don't think he'll go top 3, at least, and my money currently is on St. Louis picking up Oher numero uno. After the last two years have decimated their O-line, they definetly need help there. I'd venture to say they look even worse than us at this point. They've got too much talent to suck that bad.

Laurinitus would have been a top ten pick last year, so...

I love me some Ray Maualuga, too. The next Ray-Ray?

I think attempting to project who will fall where in the upcoming draft is a little bit silly at this point but yes ESPN's Chris Steuber currently pegs Laurinitus at #1.

Wow, Laurinitus is slated to go possibly number 1? I can't see that happening like.. at all. Yowza.

MasterBlaster:

Laurinitis will be a top 5 pick, perhaps even the #1.
Maualuga will likely be in the top 10.
I expect Alex Mack to be a middle to late 1st rounder.

Three more positions that we have to prioritize in the '09 Draft:
WR
TE
DE
SS

Depending on who is available and what our picks are, my order of priority and current preferences are:
OL - Oher, Luigs, Mack, H. Johnson, Loadholt, Boone
ILB - Laurinitis, Maualuga, Ellerbe
QB - Cantwell, Bradford, Stafford, Freeman(?)
TE/WR/DE/OLB/SS - best available

Interesting analysis xxxlp. My plan B on QB is Brohm 3rd stringer now for GB...wonder what kinda deal we could get on him. Actually in a perfect scinereo we would get Quinn like I said and Brohm with a 3rd or 4th round pick. I think that would take care of our QB quandry. What are your thoughts on taking Alex Mack in the high second or reaching into the bottom first for him? From what I hear, he is a tallent that only comes along every few years. Unless we burn our hight 1st round draft pick on a RG or RT, nothing else is blowing my skirt up to shore up the right side of the O line. Anyways it just makes me cringe to burn a high draft pick on a RG or RT. In light of that...I think Alex Mack should be our second pick target.

I like Brady Quinn a hell of a lot more than what we have and would have in '09.

Anderson sustained a concussion, and isn't playing well. I think by the end of the season he (Quinn) could be starting, or at least playing significant time there, I doubt they'd want to trade if that's the case. Brodie was a 3rd rounder coming out, and is 0-7 as a starter. He's also been injured badly enough to where he's missed time, 3 out of those 7 games. If anything, we'd be lucky to get a 6th or 7th round pick for him. Wishful thinking on your part there to think we'd give him up in place of a 2nd round pick.

Depending on how the Browns do this year (they haven't looked good thus far) we wouldn't be trading that far down to switch them spots. It'd be better for us, as I don't think Maualuga or Laurinitus would fall TOO far in the draft. At least the one I want, the tougher, hard-nosed rough-tackling MLB in Maualuga.

Also, I'm not sold on Brady Quinn. It sure was alot of hype that put him as a top 6-7 pick or whatever it was. He was picked in the 20's. I don't care what the team needs are.. you simply don't fall that far down if you are indeed a franchise QB instantaneously. Someone would have snatched him up. Finally the Browns said F it, 'the Chiefs will take him, and we only have Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson..' they rolled the dice, but before they could find out how they landed, Anderson stepped up for them. We still don't know how good this guy is. I personally don't like Timmy T. but I also don't feel comfortable trading a ton for Brady, either.

We also don't need 3 linemen. Maybe two, and most likely, one. More for depth never hurts, but not with super high picks right off the bat. Those can wait until we have less glaring holes elsewhere, before we get major depth at certain spots. I agree we need a HIGH MLB pick. LOLB should be somewhere from 2nd to 4th, depending on who's avaliable. Somewhere in that 2-4th round slot, we also need to grab a DE OR a DT. We could also stand to nab a wide receiver or a corner to replace Surtain, should he be leaving after this year. Now I wouldn't mind picking up a QB late in the draft, as well, if nothing else, so we can get competition for Thigpen so he can (hopefully) lose out and be booted. And hell, if nothing else, maybe the QB we picked up late, would look like a Matt Cassel, should our starter go down, instead of looking like Thigpen. Just kidding, with our playcalling, he's screwed.

MASTERBLASTER MASTERPLAN

Ok...ive been working on this since the Raiders dibocal, but havent had a chance to post it.

I've worked out what we should do in the 09 draft.

Ok...our major holes for 09 are as follows

MLB, LOLB,
C, ROG, ROT,
QB

Ok...that is 6 major problems...here is the solution

First, we swap 1st round draft picks with the browns. We will be in the top 5 and they will be in the middle to bottom middle of the first round. Thats worth a good 700-1000 points right there. They lost about 1350 points with the initial trade with cowboys for Quinn.
We also give up a 2nd round draft pick in 2010 for Quinn. That should be around 1350 points. Instead of the 2nd rounder in 2010 we could also trde Croyle to the Browns. We would get our Franchise QB and the Browns would get a solid backup QB for Anderson. I think this could really work.

By trading down we get a QB in the 7 million price range instead of the 35 million price range a 1st round QB high draft pick would cost. Plus Quinn has a year of experience in the NFL..ready to go. Oh...and hez worlds better than rolling the dice on Tbow or the other dude.

The Browns are also in an aquard position choosing in the middle to late middle position. Their positions of need are going to be gone by the 12th round. Swapping would really work for them too.

Also, trading down to the middle/ lower middle draft position puts us in great position for either Ray Malegula or Laurinitas. It wouldn't be a reach and either are stud MLB's. So, its like this....

xxx QB Brady Quinn (only a 2nd pick in 2010 burned
1st MLB Malegula or Lorinitus (Stud MLB)
2nd C Alex Mack (phenomonal Stud C)
(maybe even reach up for him here in the
bottom 1st)
use 3,4,5,6,7 to adress RG, RT, OLB

I really hope that Barry Richardson steps up when he is ready...that would fix another of our problems.

So tell me what you think, I know 09 draft doesnt fix ALL of our problems. But I think this strategy maximizes our fixes in 09.

*Long Post*

I think I'm more worried about our DT's than our DE's, at the moment. Dorsey has struggled mightily, in one on ones. That just shouldn't be happening. Tank, while being semi-consistent, isn't up-to-par just yet. During the pre-season and the Pats game, our DE's actually stopped the run very well, considering what we've had the last couple years. I don't think ANYONE stopped the run in the Raiders game, so I can't give compliments at all, there.

Left side of the line is fine, and at the very least, we have depth there, with Herb Taylor. Still wanna know what the issue is. I think Adrian must have sucked Herm off for a spot on the line or something. For him to just plain get owned that badly, and still be on the line, alongside another weak part, in McIntosh.. it's just fascinating.

Merlinn, I don't know if you can call 300+ yards passing, and multiple touchdowns in a game 'average'.. Even with a depleted line, and NO running game, Peyton put up numbers better than 75% of the league's QB's, easily. Shit, I'd be happy with 200 yards, and two touchdowns out of our QB. Hell, not only would I be happy, I'd probably dance so enthusiastically at the sight of our QB doing that, that I'd need to go to the ER.

JaMarcus is basically Daunte Culpepper.. hhhuuugggeee arm, and the big fella can run when he's pressed. The thing is.. like you're saying right here in this article, LINES ARE IMPORTANT. When you're starting Robert Gallery, it's like us starting Adrian Jones. 99999.25/100000, it is the line that makes the QB, not the QB that makes the line. If you have people like Gallery or Adrian Jones on your team, the QB will struggle more than with someone else there. It doesn't help him that he also doesn't have a consistent high-point WR (like Culpepp' had with Randy Moss.) Nor does he have an above average TE to fall back on.

If we want to learn how to win, we should take a page from the Titans. Their starting QB went down, they still found a way to win. They don't have very good WR's. They still found a way to win. Their TE's are in no way on the same level as ours. They still found a way to win. Their RB's are close, but not quite on the same level, as our RB's are. They still found a way to win. They have a young defense, including a young secondary (Finnegan is a badass, fo sho.) Yet they still.. you get the point. We're CLOSE to the same team as them, only we should be.. Nay, we ARE better in areas of our team. Yet we're 0-2. They're 2-0. The difference? Aside from them having a better O-line, at least C-RG-RT wise, is playcalling. If you'd watch a Titans game, they MIX IT UP. Playaction on first down, followed by a run, followed by a 4 wide set, with their fast RB's split out in the slot. My God, we could do the same freakin' thing. Kolby has good hands, JamChar has shown he can catch, and he's fast as hell. We need the right utilization of our guys before we can succeed.

Fantasy oriented discussion now: If Playaction scored 122 and didn't win, it wasn't so amazing then, eh? That's no disrespect to him, but I'd take 12 points and a WIN than 122 points and a loss. And no props to Mangino for edging him out? Weak. Props Bodies by Mangino for scoring 123.

Sea of Red indeed has a badass roster. I don't want to face him *folds up into the fetal position.*

Lobo has 16 transactions, but if you'd look at the transactions page, you'd understand why. Guys like Deuce McAllister aren't doing crap. (I have one of those guys in Chester Taylor.) I figured he'd have a decent year. Fred Taylor likewise. Nate Burleson is out for the season. I've traded him twice. On a sidenote, I've actually sent trade offers to just about everyone in the league at the point, after only two weeks.. Most of them I either cancelled, or they weren't accepted, but had they all gone through, I'd have like 22 transactions.. There isn't anything wrong with having transactions, it's part of the fun of fantasy. You never know who will do well, or who will fall on their face, and cost you a win.

I just find it a bit.. how to put this delicately.. idiotic? Yeah, sure, that you bash on fantasy trades, when trades are happening in the NFL, even this week. Real life teams have transactions. Fantasy teams have transactions. It may not be your game, but be respectful of how other players play. You may not like that Playaction31 hoarded ( I don't know if you can actually call it hoarded, as it was only 3 guys) defensive players, and traded them off.. but you can't deny that it WORKED for him. He has a better team because of it. You play it your way, Merlly, we'll play it ours.

As for the trade that happened recently; Keary Colbert, the ex-Panther turned Bronco, is now a Seahawk. I was going to pick him up, seeing as how he'll have instant playing time (the Seahawks have 6 of their own top 7 wideouts OUT with injury) and he could be a decent addition. But then I thought about it.. and I was scared that you would bash me for having too many transactions, so I decided to just ride out the storm with my guys... Ha! Puuuuhhleaase.

I tend to be more patient with Herm than most, but I think he is full of crap when he is talking about the line. Our problems on the line last year and this year have very little to do with cohesion. They have everything to do with the guys playing. Cohesion isn't going to keep guys from running untouched around DMac, and its not going to make Jones any stronger. I also think we may be looking to hard at the play calling. If you can't properly execute, it doesn't matter how good the call is. A few years ago, everybody knew we were going to run left, but they couldn't stop it.

it was said that lj was supposed to go out on a screen when damon got hit, saw the defender and came back late, per herm

Merlin.....I thought the idea was to try and improve your team when you can. Or maybe you think that I should have started Nate Burlson all year even though he is on IR.

I think Peyton was just rusty, but, yeah, he needs Jeff Saturday back. He and Addai. He did start to come around at the end of the Vikes game.

If the QB can scramble, like John Elway, Mike Vick or Steve Young, I take Team B. Or even if he has a quick release like Brady or Manning or Marino or Warner in his prime. QB is just that crucial. That's me, though. Apples and oranges.

The first problem is clearly offensive play calling. Then the O-line.

Adam,

Of course your right about QB play being the most important part of the team. My point is that you start with the lines and build from there. Let's take a hypothetical. Who has the better year. Team A has the line you mentioned with, say Trent Dilfer at QB. Team B has the 2007 Chiefs line with any QB you want. I'll take Team A any day.

Just to reinforce the point. I forgot to mention this is the article. How ordinary does Peyton Manning look this year? Most of that is due to his line.

We are supposed to be rebuilding. Why not put Richardson at right guard and Herb Taylor at right tackle. Let Sackintosh and Jones be the not very capable back ups.
Taylor is better equipped to handle pass protection and Richardson could help with the run. Richardson may be green, but what do we have to lose? Although I think Richardson is more physically suited to play right tackle, Herb Taylor could step in and play right now. That is why I would put Taylor at tackle rather than Richardson.

Alright, sure, I hear you.

But all we need to add is a DE and a lineman or two, if neither Barry or Herb pan out, for the right side of our offensive line.

Quarterback is the most important position in the NFL. Period. Why were the Dolphins so bad last year? Quarterback play. You can have Munoz-Allen-Dermontti-Shields-Ogden in their primes blocking for the bozos we put under center, yet it won't make a damn bit of difference. It's like having the body of a Maserati but a four-banger engine. Gotta have someone WORTH blocking for back there.

I stand by my calls on Vick and Roy.

I do agree with your assessments of where we are strong and weak on the lines, though.

And I'm not even sure Damon did really get hurt. We've all heard the rumor.

Nice piece, Merlin. Keep waving that wand...