Ask Revenge of the Birds

Jefferson was playing well until the last two weeks, Marshall has been decent. He has two picks but they were both on tipped passes.

The Defensive line is still solid with Dockett and Campbell, Dan Williams and David Carter has been a nice rotation at NT as well.

With the linebackers, Daryl Washington is probably the best player on our entire defense right now. Paris Lenon and Clark Haggans are average, Joey Porter looks like he is completely over the hill.

Expect to see rookie Sam Acho start at one of the outside linebackers spots like he did last week, hopefully second year man O’Brien Schofield will start at the other one (he was backing up Acho and Haggans last week). They both had a sack on Flacco on Sunday.

The front seven has done well in run defense for most of the season, pass rushing has been the main issue, but getting Acho and Scho in there last week seemed to help with their improved athleticism over Porter and Haggans.

Wilson is showing his age. He is starting to become a slight liability in coverage, but man, he can still deliver huge tackles.
Peterson and Jefferson are both young and inexperienced. Jefferson was playing well the first few weeks and has fallen off a bit. Peterson, as you noted, has definitely stepped up, Mike Wallace said that he is going to be a great corner after our game with the Steelers. Marshall can be beat by speed guys, see Wallace and Torrey Smith, but should be serviceable against your #3 receiver.
Our D-line has some of our most talented players, IMO, but unfortunately, in a 3-4 defense, their talents as pass rushers aren’t used as much. Campbell and Dockett have been solid. Williams has been inconsistent, but shown flashes of good play. He could be seen as a bust, but i think with a normal NFL off-season, he will be able to improve. David Carter, our sixth round pick this year, has provided excellent value, i really like him going forward.
Our LBs are both too young, and too old. Porter and Haggans don’t have that explosion you need from your OLB in a 3-4. Porter has done miserably, Haggans has played decent. Schofield and Acho are our other two young OLBs. Hopefully you’ll be seeing alot of them on Sunday, they are good pass rushers. Haven’t played as much as us at ROTB would like, but they aren’t fully comfortable with the system.
Washington has been our Defensive MVP. He makes tackles all over the field, and is aggressive and reacts quickly to plays. I can’t say enough about how impressed i am with him. Lenon was solid last year for us, i believe he is a defensive captain, doesn’t to anything to wow you but will do his job.

A lot of people seemed to think that he could just be plugged in right away and play like a pro bowl QB. The success of Newton and Dalton doesn’t help either. But they also had two months more than Kolb had to learn their playbooks after the draft, work with QB coaches they hired after the draft to learn the offense, and do player organized workouts with their teammates.

Kolb is learning a difficult system, and really nobody here besides Warner has been able to run it correctly since Whiz came here so I’m not surprised he is having a hard time learning it right away. I believe in him and I think he will be vastly improved next season.

Of course, plenty of people have already given up on him and want to go with Skelton or #SuckforLuck

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XDXrPfCkzA&feature=youtu.be

At times, and called for Skelton, but that was out of pure frustration. He still needs a full Off-season before being labeled a bust, and he’s shown flashes of brilliance. Also, Fitz is being double and triple covered mostly, which means Kolb has to throw elsewhere. Luckily, Doucet, our (un-official) #2 WR has a TD in the last two games, and he’s Kolb’s current #1 target, so hopefully Defense’s will ease up on Fitz, and allow the Kolb-Fitz tandem to develop. And of course, let’s not forget that our O-line is built for the run-game, which means he gets mediocre to no protection whatsoever, which definitely doesn’t help.

If we’re in a position to draft Luck or Barkley, I could see the FO trading the pick away, and reaping in picks/players/whatever, just like Cleveland did with the Falcons for Julio Junes, except bigger. If the Saints were willing to trade away all their Draft picks and more for Ricky Williams, who knows what a team will give up for Luck/Barkley?

Horton blitzes constantly and the guys still don’t get there consistently. I had such a huge man crush on Von Miller during the draft because of how well I though he could fit in at 3-4 OLB, we could use someone like him here right now.

Peterson looks like a good choice so far though. At least Whiz didn’t pass on someone named Peterson again like he did in 2007….

Outcoached and outplayed for the entire second half.

They’ve had trouble closing out games this year.

Dropping a lot of passes, and he isn’t getting open.

Doucet has been solid though as a slot guy. Kind of a very poor mans Anquan Boldin with his size and the way he is used here.

The rest of the guys are young and very inexperienced. We really miss Steve Breaston right now, the guy made so many clutch plays and he just knew how to get open.

and then getting this mess of inexperience and drops.
Doucet – i see him being an effective slot receiver, but at the moment, he being relied on too much. We will need a true #2 guy to alleviate some of the pressure on Early. I’m a big fan.
Roberts – Great athletic ability, has all the tools to be a serviceable receiver, but is plagued with a bad case of the drops. He doesn’t consistently get separation either. I’m starting to lose faith in him, but he is still young.
You don’t really have to worry about our other wide receivers, Demarco Sampson, Stephen Williams and Chansi Stuckey, there nothing special.
Housler – He could be a match up problem. Good size and speed out of the tight end position. He does have good hands, but hasn’t shown it yet in his rookie season. he could have had two touchdowns but Kolb overthrew him. I really like him.
Heap – may or may not play. everyone knows what he brings, good blocking and good receiving, just too many injuries to be effective.
King – he’s leading our tight ends in scoring, but not because he is a better athlete. Just happens to be in the right place at the right time. He’s is more of a blocking tight end.

I also had this picture of the inaccurate one as my avatar for a while

OL is the biggest need for me.

Kalil from USC and Martin from Stanford are some of our top targets. A lot of people like Vontaze Burfict too.