Mick063":9fwqsthy said:
You gotta ask yourself.
After two seasons, is he playing like a first round pick? Is he disciplined? When was the last time he made a memorable, impactful play? I'm talking about a positive play, not a memorable, impactful play that gives the opponent a first down during a third down stop.
Personally, I think he is out when his contract is up.
The last impactful play he made was the interception in the Rams game in October of last season when he made a spectacular diving catch while in perfect coverage. But that's been it. He literally disappeared in the playoffs, got less than 20 snaps in the SB. Last season, he missed the first 4 games for PED's. This year, he's coming off hip surgery. Unless he has an immediate turnaround, we're not picking up his option at the end of the season, but I suspect he'll still make the club. It's pretty hard to throw in the towel on a #15 overall, even on a team that is as deep as we are.
I was equally disappointed in James Carpenter's performance at the same point in his career, and he seems to have turned things around, made me eat my words. But Carpenter's problems were mostly physical and easier to correct by getting his fat butt in shape. Irvin's problem isn't something that can be corrected in Gold's Gym like Carp's was. He isn't a good run stopper (was that little Danny Woodhead that Irvin bounced off of?), and his pass rushing skills are still very vanilla. He seems to get decent pressure and can usually force the QB off his spot, but he gets locked up with a lineman and can't spin or swim to get out of it. He's still a raw, unrefined talent.
I've been waiting 3 years to see him progress into the pass rushing terror we were promised when we drafted him. He had 6 sacks in the first half of his rookie season and hasn't shown any improvement since. In the meantime, we've heard every excuse in the book that attempts to rationalize his meager contributions.