Or perhaps moving DJ to MLB and keeping Woodyard on the outside…….

We need speed and the ability to cover a slot receiver man-to-man from a FS. Neither Woodyard nor Barrett could do that, and both are SS types, if Woodyard is even that. He needs to be on the field, but it will need to be at LB.

He may be fast, but he doesn’t appear fluid enough. I really hope that he becomes our strong side LB, he can cover a TE and he seems to get through traffic. I think he will be a consumate professional for years to come, as a LB.

Ed Reed should be the mold for an NFL safety…how sick is that man!!

I think we all agree that Woodyard needs to be on the field—but what does it take to convert a linebacker to a safety.

For the short term this year—I would like to se DJ move to the middle and just keep Wesley at the weekside position.

I’d prefer Woodyard at LB. No doubt about it. I’d lso prefer two coverage safeties, and a better run stuffing front seven.

All that being said, if Woodyard were to play at SAF, I would see his LB talents better put to use as a SS. SS’s are closer to LB’s in terms of skill sets, though still very different. At the very least, if we put him in the box (as a safety), we would essentialy have a real 4th LB.

Let’s see how Barrett continues to develop this year, as well as Fox. This is the year to try out guys and give them some playoff experience. By next season, we need to have our positions settled. Training camp ’09 will be awesome for several positions!

I would prefer woodyard being at lb as well….i dont mind moving dj back to the middle but i think we draft a mlb next year…move woodyard to sam and keep dj at weakside….

therefore i really really really want Taylor Mays on this football team next season.

Starting D next season

                                               Barrett Mays

Bly Bailey

                              DJ Spikes Woodyard

                    Dum THomas Robertson Moss

HT can he play the other side as effectively if this hypothetical Christmas wish came true?

I see us stocking up on quality prospects rather than mortgaging the farm for big name free agents. We’ve done well with high-character “football players,” and I hope to see that trend continue. Let other teams distract themselves with overpaid egos.

Regarding double-W, if he can’t take on SAM or SS, what about the idea of trading him or DJ? Not my favorite option, but, depending on the draft and FA pick-ups, it may give the team the most long-term value.

We talk about Woodyard at saf, Sam and Will. How about MLB?

Over the offseason, they give him an intensive on the position. So far he seems very bright as well as a heck of an LB. I understand why Sam is a strech for him at his size, and the hips issue at Saf can’t be overlooked. We have a huge hole at MLB.

I love Larsen’s upside, and I’m not opposed to him at Mike at all. Haggan? Perhaps – but he reminds me of Winborn in that he’s been long on the line as a good to great STer, a perennial backup at LB. Both seem like they are almost good enough to start, but its an almost. I think we should draft a Sam – some good ones this draft.

Larsen is injured or I suspect he’d start. But NIko and Webster seem to have shown that they aren’t up to the task. Woodyard? Just a thought. Feedback?

I need to understand this a better – I’m sure the knowledgeable people here will help.

I agree that the ultimate would be to have a player like Ed Reed or Polamalu playing safety that can do it all. Given that we might have to make set our sights a bit lower than this for next year, I want to understand a bit better the pros and cons of Woodyard playing safety.

The pros (as I understand them) are that he is a playmaker, hits hard and is a good tackler

The cons are that he might be limited in coverage, where he is not fast or agile enough

To me that description sounds a lot like John Lynch and he did ok for us!

I am not saying that I disagree with the people wanting him at linebacker, I just need to understand better why his weakness in coverage rules him out at safety in so many peoples eyes

I think WW could play safety.
The broncos had him on Dwayne Bowe a couple of times on the weekend, and hes a pretty big, strong and GOOD WR.
WW is an athlete and a player, and his desire would make anything possible. I feel he oculd be a safety.

I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at college Safeties lately, so I thought I’d jump in late (just saw the thread).

It may sound attractive to move WW but it’s hard to justify the move at this point, when we’re going to be adding Safeties (at least one) in the upcoming draft.

There’s an obvious psychological tendency to want to put WW on the field somehow, but the best solution — however unsatisfactory — seems to be to allow him to develop further in a reserve LB role. Having a quality backup (for now) isn’t a bad thing, and he’ll probably see some reps at LB while also captaining the STs. And the possibility of needing him in case of injury (like this year) shouldn’t be trivialized. Another factor that should be considered is the rest of the depth situation at LB currently. I really have to wonder if Webster, Green, and Koutouvides (and others) are going to be with the team for much longer. LB depth should be a concern rather than an area where we’re looking to take away emerging talent.

There are number of interesting Safety prospects out there, in both 09 and 10. We can still move WW over to S for reps in the off-season but he would be competing on even ground with DBs who’ve played the position for years. I’m not opposed to the idea of moving WW, but rather, I’m attempting to put it in the proper context.

I let myself get distracted from Barrett himself, whose emergence was, after all, was part of the point of my original post. It impacts what happens at safety next year. Several knowledgeable people have seriously doubted the feasibility and wisdom of moving Woodyard to safety, but Barrett’s emergence nonetheless leaves us better off at that position that we were a short time ago. We still need to focus on safety in the draft, but if Barrett continues to improve that gives us a headstart in upgrading the position. At the very least, if we luck out and draft a couple of superstuds, he looks to provide quality depth at a position that has been defined by mediocrity. He also illustrates, along with the surprising play of Josh Bell, how well the Broncos have handled their young secondary players. Perhaps we’re seeing the benefits of Slowik as teacher. Barrett opened the season as a development project that, due apparently to effective coaching and a higher than expected upside, is now beginning to bear fruit. This may be the most visible manifestation of a pattern with our Slowik-led defense, young players allowed to develop at their own pace gradually maturing into surprisingly effective contributors. It suggests that not only good teaching but patience is an attribute of our defensive staff.

It’s is early, but I’m beginning to be hoepful that Barrett may turn out to be the diamond in the rough that the Broncos had in mind when they drafted him. Maturing a little later isn’t a problem. With his size and speed, if you can do well on Gonzales you can learn the position. It would help us greatly if we only needed to draft one safety position.

just repeating myself. as per my recent rant, do not take him off the field. when larsen is healthy, i hope he gets back to mlb. dj on the weakside. this is our best possible playoff unit, in my opinion. all 3 can tackle, and stuff the middle pretty well, my biggest concern for this season

It was a great (and rec’d) article but your comment was just as interesting:

Barrett continues to improve that gives us a headstart in upgrading the position. At the very least, if we luck out and draft a couple of superstuds, he looks to provide quality depth at a position that has been defined by mediocrity. He also illustrates, along with the surprising play of Josh Bell, how well the Broncos have handled their young secondary players. Perhaps we’re seeing the benefits of Slowik as teacher. Barrett opened the season as a development project that, due apparently to effective coaching and a higher than expected upside, is now beginning to bear fruit. This may be the most visible manifestation of a pattern with our Slowik-led defense, young players allowed to develop at their own pace gradually maturing into surprisingly effective contributors. It suggests that not only good teaching but patience is an attribute of our defensive staff.

HT made the point early on about Slowik’s talent as a teaching coach. As we watch our team mature (bolstered by amazing young talent) can we really doubt that Slowik’s ability to develop a D is worth another year or more at the position? Barrett learned while on the PS, but at every position on the D we have fellows who have grown into their positions and assignments over the course of the season. I’d have to give kudos to Slowik for this.

Folks, I’ve got some good news about the draft. The team has righted the ship so fully that we now have every reason to expect an excellent draft in the Spring, We all know the story, and MHR has chronicled it well. For most of Shanny’s time here, they’ve drafted atrociously. MHR stopped the reviews with the 2002 season, so that’s where I’ll pick up. It immediately becomes clear that the team hit rock bottom in the 2003-2004 drafts and shifted its philosophy. Something changed in the approach in 2005, and our boys now alternate B- and solid-A drafts.

Let’s Review. The beginning of the story is much, much worse than you remember.

2003, the Wall-to-Wall Bust:

George Foster
Terry Pearce
Nick Eason
Quentin Griffin
Bryant McNeal
Ben Claxton
Adrian Madise
Aaron Hunt
Clint Mitchell
Ahmad Galloway

Yikes — bring back the glory days of 2001, when we at least go Ben Hamilton!

2004, D.J. and the Duds:

D. J. Williams
Tatum Bell
Darius Watts
Greg Jones
Jeremy LeSueur [sic]
Jeff Shoate
Triandos Luke
Josh Sewell
Matt Mauck
Brandon Miree
Bradlee Van Pelt

That’s one stud, one 1,000-yard season, and nine washouts

Overall, that’s two drafts and three contributors (if you’re generous enough to include George Foster and Tatum Bell). Now the 2005 draft is often maligned, but given that they had no first rounder, they did quite well. To me the shift is clear: Shanny jettisoned the high-risk/high-reward approach in favor of making sure he nabbed some good contributors. We’ll never know how good D-Will might have been, but the striking thing here is that the guys they drafted were solid, versatile and (because they drafted them instead of signing free agents, CHEAP).

2005, The Turning Point:

Darrent Williams
Domonique Foxworth
Maurice Clarett
Karl Paymah
Chris Meyers
Paul Ernster

2006: Jay, BMarsh, Sheff, Elvis, Kuper. If only Shanny hadn’t cut Hixon….

2007: Ryan Harris, Marcus Thomas, and two lame DEs (not great but, that’s four picks two starters, and good upside — a nice risk/reward ratio).

2008: Awesome. Throw in Woodyard and Josh Bell and it’s even more awesome.

Folks, this is a long way of saying that the team has now drafted well for four drafts in a row…. after drafting atrociously for pretty much Shanny’s entire tenure. The front office doesn’t talk about the changes, but clearly they’re taking a different approach.

Looking ahead to patching up our D., I no longer worry that about squandering picks. In fact, they’ve become so good at unearthing productive NFL players that the only reasonable thing to do is use the extra 2009 picks to move up — if you keep drafting five or six starter-quality players every year, you’re going to end up cutting a lot of good draft picks.