The Linc - WR holdouts, Gaither v Bradley, AFL folds, & is twitter a threat?

made me feel way better.

I find Twitter generally moronic, but I can support almost anything that punctures coaches’ deeply held conviction that they are protecting the nuclear codes from the KGB. It’s football; there’s less at stake here than in the average Planning Board meeting.

…and I respect Football Outsiders to a certain degree, but going from Stewart Bradley to Omar Gaither is a MAJOR, MAJOR downgrade. Here are my reasons why…

- Bradley never came off the field. Stayed on in the base D, the nickel, dime, etc., and was the player that not only relayed the plays to the defense, but also called out all the pre-snap adjustments. Now you have a situation where Gaither (or Mays, or whoever) will not be in a role where they never come off the field, and the resulting potential confusion could lead to issues. For example – 4th quarter, 3rd and 7, Mays/Gaither comes out of the game, the QB calls an audible and the offense resets to a new formation, and now all of a sudden Quintin Mikell is now forced call out adjustments after not having done so all game? I formerly dismissed that the defense would suffer significantly because of the losses of Jim Johnson and Brian Dawkins, but this loss is huge.

- Gaither (as the statistics will show) has very similar numbers to Bradley. However, the main reason Gaither lost both of his starting jobs was because of his unwillingness to take on blockers. Bradley was incredible in that regard, and I just don’t see Gaither stoning Chris Snee or Madison Hedgecock in the hole and bottling up running plays. Bradley’s value in this regard will never show up on a stat sheet. Gaither’s athleticism is nice, and maybe he makes some plays, but it was his toughness that cost him his job… twice.

- On a side note, “tackles” is a pretty useless stat. Guys on bad teams usually lead the league in tackles because their defenses can’t get off the field. Of the 10 leading tacklers last season, anyone want to guess how many went to the playoffs? 2. 2 out of 10. That’s it.

Now don’t get me wrong… I like Omar Gaither, just not as a starter. I like him as a guy that can fill in mid-game for any one of the 3 LB positions. But to go into a season with Omar Gaither as the starting MLB as opposed to Big Stew… Huge difference. The only silver lining (and it’s not an especially shiny silver lining), is maybe we find out Joe Mays is a player.

Yes, Im going to defend him. How can Vick get about 2 years, and Plax could get 3 and a half at least? Shoting yourself in the leg is worse than KILLING a bunch of dogs? Huh?