All good points but I would like to add a few more....
1. As tough as our schedule COULD BE, it all starts in the AFC East. Jets have a new coach and QB questions and I doubt Favre will want to come back to a locker room with players that don't respect him. We should be better than them next year.
Buffalo could and should improve as they have the talent to do it but when you have trouble winning with obvious talent, other things are at play that usually haunt a team until you find that winning chemistry...as we know all too well.
NE will be the key and they will be dangerous again with Brady at the helm. Their Defense is getting old and can be beat by our offense but their offense can kill anyone. We have to plan for this and gear up with a play maker in the secondary to counter Welker and Moss and get more pressure on the QB with more pass rush in addition to Joey. We need a corner that can eliminate one receiver or one side of the field on his own and make Brady afraid to throw near him (Nnamdi) so the rest of the DB's can protect the rest of the field.
2. As for the rest of the League, we need to have way better play from the offensive line and be able to play against the top defenses in the league as we play Pit, Tampa, Tennesse, Atlanta, Carolina and San Diego who will be good again with Merrimen back.
We were a victim of circumstance this year as we lost two valuable starters in Thomas and Smiley. We will definitely be better next year. Especially when we add a better Center. We will also have a new Line coach which should help.
3. We are not as far away as some would believe and could remedy this by adding just a few players.
Last year in free agency we added Chad Pennington, Randy Starks, Ernest Wilford, Josh McCown, Chris Crocker, Charlie Anderson, Justin Smiley, Reggie Torbor, Boomer Grigsby, Keith Davis, Nathan Jones, David Kircus, Joey Thomas and Sean Ryan...not to mention...Andy Alleman, Al Johnson, Joey Haynos, Brandon London, Davone Bess, Nate Garner, Brandon Frye, Erik Walden, Tyrone Culver and Courtney Bryan.
That's 23 players not including trades for Akin Ayodele, Jason Ferguson & Anthony Fasano.
Forget the massive surge of last year. We don't need to do that again. Forget signing most of the 2nd and 3rd tier players and concentrate on top tier players like....
Jason Brown, Nnamdi Asomugha, Vernon Carey, Yeremiah Bell and Julius Peppers (LOL
.
Mixed in with second tier players like Jahri Evans (G) and Renaldo Hill.
Fill in the blanks thru the draft....we need two ILB's and a FS early like Laurinaitis and Clay Mathews and Louis Delmas and a WR.
Trade Satele and Wilford to someone in a package deal..like KC.
I can't wait to see what we do. 80 days until the draft!
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