Bruce Smith deserves one more year!

[inmate running the asylum]

Bruce Smith deserves one more year! Especially with his reduced salary for next year. I mean the guy is a class act and in spite of a lousy team year, Smith won two games for us this year with timely sacks. Especially this Dallas game.

Smith also got 6 of his 9 sacks over the second half of the season, and considering that he sat out the preseason because of knee surgery on both knees, he deserves some credit.

I am all for drafting a DE with the #1 pick in 2003, but we do not have another DE on the roster, close to Smith's 9 sacks.

So there! :laugh:

[Mad Mike]

Damn straight! Where are the Bruce haters now?

[Symbol]

I'm not a Bruce hater, and I feel that he should be back next year.

[Zen-like Todd]

I have to go in the Bruce Hater category, because before the season started, I predicted that he'd rack up 10 sacks. He was one sack away from getting on my good list.

BTW, was Daryl Gardener a beast today or what? He was just manhandling people in the middle of the line. We HAVE to get him resigned, pronto.

[Art]

Not only Gardener today, TCO, but Powell was all over the place. Amazing defensive line performance today.

I'm not a Bruce hater I don't think, but, I think I'm a Bruce realist. Bruce simply doesn't seem to have enough left to play every down like he does now and consistently perform. He can perform a little for us and that's great. But, let's make him a situational player. Let's find another young guy there who can carry down the majority of the snaps and let Bruce be fresh and allow him to make an impact on every snap he's in there.

[Zen-like Todd]

Not only Gardener today, TCO, but Powell was all over the place. Amazing defensive line performance today.

Seriously. That Powell cartwheel was mighty impressive.

[Ignatius J.]

The answer to the bruce smith dillema is clear.

We need a true right end to replace bruce ... every down. We keep wynn though, and rotate bruce in with wynn. This keeps arrington out of a four point stance. Wonder if smith would go for it?

-DB

[Tommy-the-Greek]

I think we need to give the majority of the snaps to L. Jackson and use Smith on 3rd and long situations. We must resign Gardener and rotate him Powell, Cowsette and Dotson if he comes back healthy enough to play another season. Has anyone heard anything about Dotson and his status? What about R. Jones and Stai as vet depth for next season on the "O" line. And I am hoping that Big Tre uses the next 6 months to get himself in football shape so he can play and start for a few more years.

[inmate running the asylum]

Yea... too bad we didn't start Carl Powell at the beginning of the year at DT. He has 3 sacks for the year to Big Daddy's BIG FAT ZERO.

Big Daddy was a bust this year, considering that we have been paying him around $4 mil per year for the last several years.

He has ballooned up to 355 lbs now or more, and has eaten himself off the team. :laugh: Maybe he will eat himself out of the league. :laugh:

[DeathByLinebacker]

Bruce is still a liability against the run and he will be yet another year older next year.

[Mad Mike]

Art. Im a Bruce realist as well but he's still contibuting and he can contibute next year as a situational player. I was refering to those who were badmouthing him so bad before the season began. More than a few called him a bum. To them I say.... Pthhhhhhhhhhh!

[Larry]

inmate,

I think it was bulldog who pointed out that Daddy's doing exactly what Marvin wants him to: "Take up blockers and space". I think (although I'm not a good enough analyst to be cartain) he's one reason our run D's gotten steadily better.

(I haven't focused enough on him to decide if he's in that category. But, I usually like 'dog's opinion on these matters, so he must be an expert).

Players like that (like my pre-Darrel-favorite-Skin, Dave Butz) don't make highlight reels, they don't make sacks, they don't even make tackles. All they do is:

• Suck up a double-team, which allows man blocking for the other linemen.
  
• Make the offense run somewhere else. (Since, between the DT and two OLs, there's too much beef to run in there), and
  
• Let the MLB react as needed, behind him.
  

As to Bruce:

We obviously need to get somebody else: Not because he stinks but because he's old. We'll obviously need to replace him in a year. We may need to replace him Week 1.

An idea I had:

Bruce gets a vet. min. contract, which he can void when he breaks the record. (Of course, the way he's playing, we might want to come up with some money for after he breaks the record). If he gets the record Week 1, then he's got 0.5M for one week's work.

(OK, so it's a goofy idea).