With Thurmond coming back to the team this week. What do you suppose are the odds that he unseats Tru as our nickleback. I think Thurmond is ideal for the spot though his injuries have kept him down. To me the Tru's best days are behind him and he's been ok this year, but clearly he's the weakest link in the secondary.

Who would you prefer?

I hope Thurmond can bring that spot to a higher level.

I just want him to stay healthy. He has such potential, but it's extremely difficult to unlock it when he's spending all his time on the IR.

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My single greatest contribution to the board: "42-13" (formerly 24-14)

When healthy he has played very good for us. The question is if he can stay healthy.

Can't really say. I mean last season, Sherman was the number 3 guy with Trufant as the Number 1 guy, things change quickly in the NFL. Coming off injury can have it's own challenges though, but with Trufant having back issues recently (likely making his play look more declined than it really is) he could fill the spot out better.

According to Pete in his presser, he said it's unlikely Thurmond plays this week because we don't get a full week to practice. I'd look for him to be available for the Lions game

Let 'em compete and may the best man win.

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I hate nickleback. oh umm, yes! if healthy he could be a better option.

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Don't change a thing. We have struck upon a magical formula in our secondary and it would be foolish to take a rusty player, coming off of a very nasty injury (not even the worst he's endured in his football career), and expect him to supplant a 10 year veteran who has been playing some pretty good football.

Yes, Trufant had Welker catch some balls against him. Who DOESN'T have Welker catch a few balls against them?

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Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

He is hold back the legion of boom - skater18000

I Tru as an insurance for WTIII, we are fortunate to have Tru as a #3. On other teams he would be a 2, hell a 1.

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"Tracy Porter lost his manhood when Marshawn stiff armed him" some dude on youtube.

Personally i'm fine with Trufant, but if its viewed as a problem I have a very simple solution to our nickel cornerback and its an ex-Oregon Duck, but its not Thurmond.

Cliff Harris, currently a free agent, would be a great nickelback, imo.

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You sure he'd pass an NFL drug test? I'm not.

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My single greatest contribution to the board: "42-13" (formerly 24-14)

I dont know. And he's an idiot. But on the field he's great. And his attitute and swagger would fit in perfectly with our current group of DB's.

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Nickelback is AWESOME!

But yeah, full competition, always compete and may the best man win. Tru's the wiley vet while Thurmond is the youngster with potential. Should make for great drama.

A real quastion though would be who goes once T3 comes back? There's lots of potential in the CB stable that I'd hate to see go; Maxwell seems to be a good up and coming corner with cover skills who makes big contributions on special teams, Jeremy Lane seems to be one of those prototypical "Pete Carroll style" press corners (but is a big work in progress), and Danny Gorrer also has lots of potential as a cover corner with speed to burn. Unfortunately we already have 6 corners and T3 would make 7. That's a full bus. Somebody has to go.

My money would be on trying to slide Lane to the PS. He's only dressed for 3 games according to .com. That should be low enough to protect his PS eligibility (though I don't profess to know how that works at all). Then next year if T3 proves to be both healthy enough and capable enough to take over the nickel corner spot full time, I imagine we let Tru ride off into the sunset (but if T3 still appears to be fragile, I bet they keep Tru around as insurance).

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My milkshake brings all the turtles to the yard.... damn right... and men's room Drakkar... damn right... and men's room Drakkar.

Trufant's pretty good, I wouldn't mind him staying. But Thurmond's pretty talented too and he's younger (and faster, I assume) so he might be able to force the issue. In short I have no idea. So I'm just going to flip a coin...

It says Thurmond will take over. This is my official opinion from now on. Bank on it!

Yes.

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Not this week.

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"lol" @ Cliff Harris....

That guy is a trainwreck off the field, and not remotely close to being in the Pete Carroll wheelhouse of 2nd chances.

I think Thurmond will probably overtake Tru at some point when he gets back into full game speed/shape. No prob with that, Tru will continue to be a leader and mentor to those young guys and contribute wherever he's asked to.

I could see Walter taking Tru's spot at the nickleback spot, but not right now since he will just be coming off the PUP list and need some time to shake the rust off.

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Rush and The Tragically Hip have nothing on Nickelback and Justin Bieber. Those two are truly Canada's national treasure (it sure as hell isn't poo-teen).

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Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

He is hold back the legion of boom - skater18000

Cliff Harris can't hold WTIII jock, don't understand the love he gets from UO fans. He's slow(4.7), skinny and gambles way to much to be an NFL starter.

For those watching on TV, you may have seen what I saw. About mid 4th quarter Pete walked up to Tru and had a discussion with him for about 30 straight seconds with lots of hand motions and everything else. Tru was nodding the entire time and not saying much back, but seemed to be soaking up the coach-up.

After that I was like, "Hmmm.... I wonder what Pete just did... did he go to strictly man on Welker with Tru?" Because the announcers kept talking about our zone and how they were finding the soft spots.

Did you notice how Brady's passing wasn't the same the last half of the game, and in particular the 4th quarter? After that discussion it didn't matter where Tru was lined up he was always up tight on Welker and would follow him in motion and wherever he went on the field. Pete seemed to just say that we were running that typical defense we play and Trufant was just going to ghost Welker. The next couple of drives Tru was on the guy the entire way. They weren't able to create the mismatches they were getting earlier where Welker was finding soft spots in the zones, or getting himself matched up on a LBer.

I think it probably should have happened earlier, but I think Pete just figured the defense would shut him down, and it wasn't working as well as he wanted (although they did keep him out of the endzone after the beginning which was good). It is one reason why I think Pete is so great at adjusting. He sees things, and he's not afraid to make them happen. He put it on Tru. Tru made it happen.

Let's not forget that he's been injured and after a serious back injury it can take a while. But I can almost guarantee he walked out of that game with a bit of his confidence and old Tru stick like glue swagger he had when he was younger. He did really well. Watch the last few drives and how tight he was on Welker who is probably the most slippery slot receiver in the league. The fact that Tru was able to keep him in check at the end tells me that he'd be fine the rest of the year. There aren't many better than Welker and if handled him... he can handle anybody.

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R.I.P. Dad. I miss you. You will never be forgotten
1/12/39 - 8/7/08