Who's tha Man?
 

Ok. Time and time again, I have read, where Payton is looking for a defensive "playmaker". Now when I think of a defensive play maker, names like Champ Bailey, Brian Urlacher, Brian Dawkins, and Ray Lewis come to my mind. My question is, WHO in the draft, or in free agency, do you guys see, as fitting this description? Best educated guess? Because that's who we need to be concentrating on. Not six playmakers, but one major catalyst, that would make this defense alot better, just by himself. Any names?

RE: Who
 

I really believe it would be Asante Samuel. We NEED another DB who is a shutdown playmaker. This is the guy for that. Mckenzie is not AS BAD as he looked sometimes, and that will show if we can get a star on the other side to help. So well that is my pick. I thought long and hard about Briggs being DA MAN, but I believe he would fall third on theTotem Pole due to our needs. 1) Shutdown corner 2) Big 'Ole runstuffing DT 3) Playmaking LB.

RE: Who
 

hmm the man?????/ tuff question based on a weak FA market this year and a weak draft overall.
LBers have a better history of "The Man" title.
Tuff to say a CB would turn things around and get the title "the man". I can not think of a CB in NFL history to do that. Not even Champ or Sander did that. It was the situation they fell into.
Right now a combination is needed. at least 2 to change things.
so i am going to hold out till the first round of cuts are complete.

RE: Who
 

Can we all agree that we really only need 3 "high profile" players to solidify our D? If we re-sign Grant then all we need is MLB, DT, CB that is a far cry from what we needed last year QB, WR, OL, DL, WLB, SLB, MLB, CB, S, P, TE(WOW did Payton ever do a good job.) Here's to next season!

RE: Who
 

I'd feel comfprtable with Samuel, Clements, or Bly at cb. Napoleon Harris is an interesting prospect. I am not quite certain how he performed in Minnesota after being traded for Moss though. Fletcher and Edwards would help also at MLB. They might be a little old, but they can still play. They can play both the run well and the pass well. As far as a DT is concerned, I am not sure of what is available.

RE: Who
 

From a dominant "the man" perspective I think 2 names come to me first: Lance Briggs and Adalius Thomas. While I don't think Thomas' style fits our scheme there is no denying he's a big play machine. Briggs is more suited to our defense but I really like Fujita in that role. Asante Samuel is the biggest need for us and I think he and McKenzie make for a drooling pair of covermen IMO. Get Harper back healthy and reduce the role Bullocks needs to play all over the deep field and we have a formidable starting secondary. I'd love to see us grab someone like Revis then as he is a good character guy, one of the better man coverage CB's available and would be a great nickle guy until McKenzie wears out his welcome.

Our LBers are reasonably solid and I think we can make do with what we have by using our 2nd rounder on a future MLBer to split time with Simoneau or whomever gets the nod in the middle.

RE: Who
 

I like Briggs too and with Harper coming back and a great FA CB pick up we will have one of the best defenses in the league. The offense will be unstoppable next year.

RE: Who
 

You would have to look at a situation like Indy's with Bob Sanders. The defense didn't really get going till he got back from injury. As soon as he did, it looked like a completely different team defensively. He seems to be the linchpin, in holding those guys together. Like Merriman, in SD.