As bad as we have been, Look at some of the other draft nightmares that other teams endured. Case in point, Ryan Leaf, Akili Smith and Tim Couch. At least we didn't pay much for th junk we picked. Except Sully of course, and i am hoping he does something this year. Payton will not put up with lazyness so if Sully does not show some magic, he is OUTAHERE!

:bananajoy: This is Sully getting pounced on by Payton in Minicamp. :airguitar:

Here's a problem I have -

Apparently, Payton doesn't like something about D. Smith character wise/off field and has put him on the trade block. We all saw that he was productive last year, which *must* mean he worked hard to be a productive NFL player.

Now, Sullivan has never done anything on the field, and has always been mentioned as being lazy and not doing the work it takes to be a productive NFL player, yet he's not being mentioned as trade bait.

Having said that, yes, of course, I realize he probably doesn't have much value to other teams in a trade.
My point is my frustration with the Smith trade talk and the safety retardedness, along with nothing of addition in the draft at DT (and please, don't give me Hollis Thomas) and nothing of value currently at the position on the roster.

Jeremy, it does sound frustrating on the surface. But don't you think Payton sat down and had a face to face with each and every one of the players by now? Don't you think he might know something about the situation he is not telling? We already know how big he is on good Character players. Maybe he sees Smith as a growing tumor that will become malignant soon and will rid the team with Cancer. It doesn't matter how good he is. Case in point - T.O., and to a lesser extent, Turley. We didn't get rid of Turley because he was not good. We got rid of him because he was talking CHIT about all the management of the team and you JUST CAN'T let that chit go on or it WILL DESTROY YOUR TEAM, GUARANTEED. As much as it hurts, we have to give Payton a chance to show us that he knows what he is doing. He is Brand New and has not yet proven that he is Hazlike.

Where the hell is Alfred Fincher? I haven't heard anything about the guy since we drafted him!!!

This is bad news. I was hoping that James Allen would live up to his talent level this season and allow Simmons to move to the inside (where he had his best years with the Seahawks) and get Colby Bockwoldt out of this starting lineup.

I never expected Fincher to be any more than a special teams contributor. I guess we're stuck with Bockwoldt, even though he's awful, and I am still confused as to why we didn't take a LB in the second round. But I don't want to get whodi started, so I'll leave it at that.

If Bockwoldt is so awlful... I'd hate to ask what you think of Allen, Hodge, Fincher, and Watson because he's easily outperformed every single one of them.

WBL we are okay. like safety, we have a ton of them. I still would like to see Watson get a shot here.
MLB will be better than last year. but that is just IMO and Bockwoldt is better suited here.
SLB starter upgrade was key but now we need a backup. key here is quality backup.
Wish we had the Panthers philosiphy and built the best DL in the NFL to make up for the the weaknesses at LB.

some free agent options
Tommy Polley UFA 4 6-3/240 Florida State Baltimore released Sun, 16 Apr 2006
Peter Boulware UFA 9 6-4/255 Florida State Baltimore Fri, 17 Mar 2006
Quinton Caver UFA 5 6-4/241 Arkansas Dallas
Chad Brown UFA 13 6-2/245 Colorado New England

He will NOT be missed..ahh byye byeee

Yes, Bockwoldt is aweful...and he fits in the same category with all the other guys you mentioned, they would never start for any other team in the NFL, yet they all started for the Saints.