Merlin's Magic, First Quarter Review

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Merlin’s Quarterly Review

Well, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the wonderful performance of the team against Denver. A strong running game and a spirited defensive performance coupled with a nice advantage in turnovers resulted in the first win of the season. Although wins/losses is not a big deal this year, this was huge. Hopefully, it is a confidence builder.

Now, onto the review. Going into the season, I was not too concerned with wins/losses, but I wanted to see a lot of growth going into 2009. The Carl/Herm show was deemed safe until then. The fly in the ointment was the early season schedule. After the Pats, the next three games were all winnable. I was concerned that we would be 2-2 or even 3-1 and I would be writing articles saying we were not as good as our record. Well, that just didn’t come to pass.

After four games, I no longer consider Carl/Herm safe for next year. Now I know Carl does not have a contract for next year, but it is still early. The reason is the horrible performance against the Falcons and the Raiders. When your team looks like it does not belong on the same field with two low rung teams, it sends out alarm bells. The performance against Denver has helped quite a bit, but the facts are the facts. Continued growth is needed to secure the current regime. That means everyone, even Bill Kuharich, who I give most of the credit to for our improved drafting.

Right now, we are five players short of being a good playoff team. The positions are QB, RG, RT, Rush DE and MLB. We need three solid players and two pro-bowl level players out of these five positions. Some of the answers may already be on the roster. Let’s go through them and see where we stand.

QB: This is still the biggest question on the team. Unfortunately, Brodie got hurt again. When he is healthy, he has to start. We need to find out if he will be our franchise QB. He has all the tools and has progressed well. However, he has to stay healthy. Damon showed last week that he is a solid backup QB. However, he is not the future. Thigpen has shown that he is not ready for the NFL. Will he ever be ready?

RG: This is a hard one to evaluate without the game films. Is Adrian Jones the answer? Right now, I do not know.

RT: D-Mac may be at the end of his career and Barry Richardson hasn’t been active yet. Is Herb Taylor the answer? I would love to find out. Albert’s injury has lessened the growing calls for Herb at RT.

Rush DE: Tamba Hali has been unimpressive so far. If he can’t turn it up and if Johnston doesn’t develop, we could be looking here early in the draft.

MLB: Right now, Pat Thomas does not look like a good MLB and Nap Harris is appearing on milk cartons. This could be a major consideration early in next years draft.

2009 Draft

RG and RT generally are not first round needs. I would love to be able to look at drafting someone like Rey Maualuga in the first round. His speed, strength, aggression and mean streak would look really good in red and gold. However, depending on what happens with QB and rush DE, we may have other needs to fill.

Other Notes

Brandon Carr should start the rest of the season. He has looked good and we are gaining nothing by sitting him.

Nick Novak has the kicker job, but it’s not a firm grip.

Whoever found Eric Walden deserves a prize. That man is a beast on special teams.

Mike Cox looks to have solidified the FB job.

Fantasy Notes

My fears about riding Marion Barber came to pass as the Bears got smacked around by the revolving door that is the Bobblehead roster. Good job, Lobo

Merlin

Adam:

I agree, Dimitri has been good on specials. He is someone we need to keep an eye on for player development. A good team needs two good and one decent corner. Can Dimitri be that third corner for us? If not, another CB might be a later round draft need. I am not with DD on this one. I think it would be a mistake to look at a CB in round one.

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Adam Best

Damn, you beat me to the Walden mention. Well done, Merlin. What about my guy Dmitri Patterson, though? It was he who kept Spencer Larson from recovering that onside kick. He and Pollard about killed Andre Hall, too (or maybe it was Young?). Man, that was a hit.

KCMizzou

Moore is a S T U D.

Double D

Merlin - It seems to me that Morgan has kind of disappeared since the preseason and McGraw, in addition to his history of injuries, has been hit and miss other than on special teams. Besides, a little competition wouldn't hurt Page and the rest of those guys. Where I'm going with this I guess is that if a kid like Moore, out of Mizzou (checking my gag reflex), fell to us as a value pick it might be hard to pass him up. On OL, I like what a guy like Alex Mack could do for us, and then slide Niswanger over to RG. The good news is it looks like there will be pretty good crop OL available in the '09 draft so I wouldn't want to overlook anybody that might be available in the first or second rounds.

Hell, I could even see taking CB Malcolm Jenkins with our first pick depending on where we pick in the draft - Surtain won't be around forever.

Maualuga & Laurinitis are already pegged as the #1/#2 picks on a few draft boards so as much as I'd love to have either, we may never have a shot at either. Besides, way too early to predict anything about who will be where in the draft at this point - mainly just speaking in generalities right now.

DD:

I am surprised to see you list safety as a need. With Pollard, Page and Morgan we look pretty set there. How do you break down the Safties we have? When you say OL as a need, are you talking about one or two needs there?

Hawks:

IMO, Maualuga and Lauranitis are very close right now. I give a slight edge to Maualuga because I like his mean streak, but both are fine players. Either looks like a good choice for us.

hawks4life

I'm with D on not having any balls thrown there way but if there not open how can you throw it to them. Lauranitis should be who they go after in the first but i hope no one expects a draft like last year because it's not as deep due to all the juniors who left last year. Still they need to get a big FA guy at WR in Boldin and Roy Williams from Detroit won't be resigned and grow some balls and make a deal for a reliable QB who can grow.

randy5k

Well my major decision for the 2009 season is if I am going to get season tickets again in the same place I love , upgrade to better, but more expensive seats, move back to cheaper seats, or watch em on TV. Any suggestions? I could take about one more bad year.

Is the problem at WR really with Darling, Webb, and Franklin or is it because they have yet to get any balls thrown their way?

As far as I'm concerned Brodie's evaluation is on life support. The fact that he went in the first game and so far is looking at missing about a third of this season due to injury does not bode well for his prospects as a franchise QB. An important part of his evaluation, and even Herm has said this, is his availability and he's frankly not performing very well on that front. As far as picking up a QB in the draft, I can only pray we would not be foolish enough to waste a 1st round draft pick on that position this coming April.

MLB, OL, OLB, DE, S, and TE(maybe) are at the top of my list for 1st and 2nd round picks.

macdawg

Good read, Tamba has been a disappointment thus far but I'm confident Johnston will develop some at DE and with some more blitzing of LB's, I'm more concerned with MLB position.

My list would also include a WR. Even if Franklin develops into a solid number two a good offense always needs 3 solid WR's and IMO we only have D-Bowe. Darling & Webb should just be 4th & 5th guys on the WR depth chart used only in kick returns, injury replacement, and of course 4 & 5 WR sets. It would be wise to either get a better free agent WR next off season which we'll certainly have cap room to do or invest another top three pick in a WR.