Veterans "in danger"

He didn't look good. One of you local boys has to go give blood and ask him why he stunk and what are the plans with him for this year. Discipline should go, lot's of hot blood to give. :lol: Make sure you give the blood before you tell him he stunk :stuck_out_tongue:

Or maybe his hands were tied because we’d already lost so many coaches (Elizondo, Creehan, Martino) and he didn’t want to destabilize things even further by canning his D.C.

You could be right, though. Time will tell.

If you look at where the money was spent and recruiting priorities went this year it is clearly with defensive personnel. My guess is the team feels they need other attributes on defense and it looks like size and agression is what they have paid special attention to. In Burke's defense this is the first year where he has a real input on personnel so this is a very important year for him as it will dictate what kind of season the Als have on the field.
This is a nice positive spin and I will happily drink this Kool-Aid until the season starts and I have a chance to see whether Burke getting his cookies translates into a better, more aggressive defensive unit. :) Last season, I got so sick of all the checking off at the line, particularly on second and long. I hate to use the NFL as a comparison here, but teams like the Eagles and the Ravens will absolutely pummel you with exotic blitzes if they get you in third and long, not drop back into soft zones with a three-man rush and give up 15 yards through the air time after time. That's what I want to see on second and long: some cohones.

What’s the status on McElveen? Is he still with us or working out with NFL teams? If he’s in the mix, I think we’re fine using him, Bowman, and Stewart as the ends. Where I think the real fun will start is in the interior: Haywood, to me, is a nice upgrade on Claybrooks, and he and Keron Williams should have a field day generating pressure up the middle. For my money, nothing is more disruptive to a quarterback than pressure up the middle, except for a blindside tackle who can’t do his job. :wink:

The second and long conversions were frustrating and I guess we got spoiled for years with Montreal’s defense for many years. The 2002 GC champs defense allowed 19.7 points per game and the 2008 team 23.5. It’s just that last year there was one team that was just a bit better… looking back Burke wasn’t as bad as you may think.

Actually, I don’t even think the defense was the reason we lost to Calgary. Our offense choked in the second half. But there is no reason the D can’t improve this year. Sure, we gave up comparatively fewer points, but we were very soft against the pass percentage-wise in a passing league. Our strategy seemed to be: check off, let the receiver make the catch, then tackle. Not really aggressive. The fact that our D-line was something like second in the league in sacks despite our crappy pass coverage is a testament to how well they played. If we can improve our coverage this season, the D-line should be a massive pass-rushing threat.

I believe the linebackers and defense backs let the team down in the GC. Calvillo and company spent most of the second half on the bench.This team can be a winner if they upgrade in this problem area..

Brad Banks and Reggie Hunt have been released.

The current 46 active players include only 3 import LB and 1 NI; I know that they could still make changes.

I don't question Jim Popp and coaching staff but I have a few concers.

Richard

Any word on Samuels?

From the Als site

The following players have been released:
1 - Hunt, Reggie, LB
7 - Banks, Brad, QB
19 - Green, SJ, WR
47 - Brown, Ivan, DE
49 - Mohring, John, LB
79 - Ortiz, Sean, DT
83 - Nickson, Chris, WR
84 - Thomas, Marco, WR
95 - van Sichem, Stan, LB
96 - Prince, Martavius, DT

The following players have been added to the injury list (one week):
4 - Santos, Ricky, QB
16 - Samuels, Stanford, DB
32 - Jennings, Chris, RB
60 - Woodruff, Andrew, G
62 - Steenbergen, Dylan, T

The following player has been added to the inactive list:
21 - Imoh, Mike, RB

The following player has been added to the suspended list:
66 - Thind, Gurminder, G

The team's practice roster will be announced tomorrow.

Looks like they're hiding Samuels on the IR for the time being. Interesting. I too am very surprised at all the import LB cuts. Hill, Hunt, Hall, Abbate, Mohring all gone ... so our starting 3 looks to be Cox-Emry-Ferri with Guzman presumably getting some MLB time.

Same here… Very little experience, no depth, some gambling going on there…