02-01-2022, 06:18 PM
(02-01-2022, 10:42 AM)Sled21 Wrote: Sweet Lou, Louie Cioffi, Mark Duffner, Al Golden, Marion Hobby, Steve Jackson, Jordan Kovacs, Robert Livingston, Ben Martin.
Most of those names we never hear or talk about, so I wanted to give them all a shout-out. We've all heard the complaints about Lou, starting with "Taylor only hired him because no one else would take the job" to he "flat out sucks". There are still several posters who want him gone. There is still a poster who insists the defense is only good because Mike Brown bought this defense. But let's look at that. Our much improved Linebacker corp. is mostly all due to players we drafted and developed here under Lou and Al (Big shoutout to Al Golden), so take them out of the equation if you will, and that leaves the D-line and Defensive Backfield where we brought in this "store bought" defense. Here are the Free Agents:
DJ Reader
Larry Ogunjobi
BJ Hill
Trey Hendrickson
Vonn Bell
Chidobe Awuzie
Mike Hilton
Trae Waynes
Eli Apple
Ricardo Allen
Trey Flowers
Vernon Hargraeves
Take Waynes out of the conversation, because he can't get on the field due to injuries. In my opinion there are only two players who came in and performed "as advertised" and that's Mike Hilton and DJ Reader. And that's because both of these players came in and were already performing at an elite gangster level making them one of the best at their respective position. How Pissburgh could not value Mike Hilton is incomprehensible. We knew what we were getting when we paid Mike and DJ. While Larry O, Bell, Chido and the rest were very good players when they got here (Larry O was being played out of position), every single one of them on this list has prospered and become better at their position under this system and under these coaches. Chido is now in the conversations about best corner in the league. And for players like Apple, the improvement has been drastic. He's gone from 1st round bust label to someone QB's better be hesitant to throw ar. I don't know if there is an award for "Best defensive staff" but this crew would definitely get my vote.
Nice. Yes, these guys all deserve major props for what they have done with these players.
