kearly":3a0oia54 said:
It was a great draft class. Most of the value came from player development. Irvin needed a position switch and three years of coaching to become a good player, Wagner developed from a "glue that holds the defense together" LB to a star, Turbin went from a mediocre 3rd down specialist to a borderline starter, Lane, Sweezy, Kearse, etc. And then you have the one guy who was born to be a star in Wilson, the power ball number of the 2012 draft.
Bruce won't have his 5th year option kick in until 2016. I'm not sure they'd use it anyway, it's not cheap. If they were chill with that kind of money I think they would just sign Irvin to an extension instead. I think the team will use 2015 to evaluate Irvin vs. Pierre-Louis.
I think the most amazing thing about Pete's player development program is that he is capable of turning some dim bulbs into savvy football players. Byron Maxwell doesn't sound like a nobel laureate when he interviews, but when he's playing corner he's the wiliest sumbitch on the field. Starting to see a little of that "game smarts" with Bruce Irvin too.
Nice post, our ability to develop players is unparalleled, I think part of it's that we offer one of the shortest bridges from college game in our ethos. There's so much pressure on guys coming out to make an instant impact or they'll be labelled as a bust, but we provide an atmosphere where they can feel comfortable, where they're not thrown into the fire but are given the opportunity to develop naturally, and eventually turn their weaknesses into strengths.
We hear so many interviews where our players are saying that the coaches just 'let them play', we don't overcomplicate it for them, we pick them on their strengths and let them play to them.
It's something which has certainly been evident with Bruce, who previously being used exclusively as a pass rusher because of his weakness against the run, is now turning into a very well rounded linebacker; something I certainly could not foresee.
It also went down similarly with Golden, though I expect we probably would have liked a slightly more immediate impact.
Perhaps not the greatest example but Carpenter would very possibly be out of the league by now had he been drafted by some other teams. Our patience and willingness to develop his strengths at the guard position (after allegedly drafting him as a tackle) will likely net him reasonable second contract (or a lot more than he'd have made not playing football), though it will probably be for another team.
And Brandon Browner's another guy who we gave the opportunity to thrive. After leaving he even voiced how appreciative he is of this organisation in allowing him to earn his nice salary.
We truly are spoilt by this FO, and I myself feel a little guilty having only supported them properly for not much longer than five years. Some of you guys have been here since the start and sucked it up through the 90s.