Fill it in house with Larsen or Woodyard. Draft a lower round guy, or make a move for Dobbins

Do something out of leftfield, like take Mays in the first round and convert him to backer

I also don’t think that we need to look outside of who was playing ILB last year. Woodyard seems like a great possibility, or I wouldn’t be surprised if Haggan slides in.

If we would have drafted Maualuga instead of The Phonz last year we wouldn’t be wondering.

When Spencer Larsen was given a chance to start his rookie year because of injuries, he was all over the field. I really think he can step in right away and play. This move also means that we will have to draft an ILB in April. If McClain isnt there at 11, I really like Jamar Chaney from Miss St. He ran a 4.51 at the combine (faster than Moreno) and is a 3 down ILB who will be available in the 2nd or 3rd round.

First things first, let Larsen lose the job as he has paid his dues.

How much did the changes in personnel in DL affect the release of Davis?
Let’s say that Jamal Williams and Justin Bannon start with perhaps Ronald Fields as the three down linemen. Those three could occupy at least four if not all five OL.
IMO now the ILBs necessary skills rate tackling #1, pass coverage #2, pass rush #3, and shedding blocks #4. Wouldn’t that upgrade Larsen and Woodyard for that position more than Haggan?
Just asking?

I’d say 2 easy high value, low cost options in draft are as follows;

1. Micah Johnson – Kentucky!
2. Jamar Chaney – Miss St

I have to admit(as an anti raider) that Morrison would be an excellent fit, and of course our new DC (Wink) knows him better than everyone else, and who supported his drafting by the Raiders!

I am not ready to say this was a bad move, as weakness in the middle is one area that many of us have questioned, but my pause for concern is that the more disruption you have on a team, the less likely that the professed team emphasis will really stay and take hold in the locker room. Loyalty is a two-way street and the more players sense that they are temporary cogs in the machine, the less likely they are to buy completely into the program.

Many of the free agent fixes and signings are of a finger in the dike nature and are short term solutions. The really good programs don’t have all that much turnover.

Let’s see how this plays out. I am taking a wait-and-see attitude this year and am hoping to chill out on the coach in his sophomore year.

BB – I viewed the release of Davis as partly considerate. I think they knew that he did not fit the versatile skill set that they were looking for in ILB. I also think they loved his locker room presence – leadership, discipline, attitude – and would have kept him for that and a situational role.
However, I also think that they thought that he could play more productively somewhere else and released him early to give as much chance as possible.
The NFL can be brutal in the business sense and sometimes you can only do so much to be gracious.

But I am pulling for Larsen. I just like players like him who seem to take an average or even somewhat limited base level of talent and turn it into something that is pretty useful through effort.

I like your take on Haggan. Didn’t mean to say that I ruled him out as the ILB.
Mostly, I see him as one of 4 quality OLBs on our team (one of the more solid positions on the team IMO) – Dumervil, Haggan, Ayers and Reid. (Still waiting for Moss to wake up and don’t know anything about Atkins)
Moving one inside means we have to find a replacement.
Many people don’t seem to think that either Woodyard or Larsen are the answer.
(By the way, I think DJ will benefit from the larger front.)
I just asked and got that response.
It means that either we move one from OLB, Kelley Braxton or Nick Greisen are possibles, we pick up another FA, or we fill the position in the draft. Moving one from OLB is the least risky, so I agre with you about that.

This is where Shannahan went wrong when making decision with his defense in my opinion. Here is why.

1) I know we have Dawkins, but Andra Davis is one of those defensive leaders you can count on and young guys look up to
2) When Shannahan was around he got rid of these “older” guys and went younger and it got us no where
3) Shannahan got rid the likes of Wilson Gold and Lynch when they could have served us a lot better that what we had in return because of LEADERSHIP
Our defense went in the crapper after we let go of defensive leaders like Al Wilson and John Lynch. They were the faces of our defense.

I know Andra Davis isn’t amazing but he brought a lot of intangibles to the table and I don’t think it was a good move in my opinion.
Guys like Bailey, Dummervile, and Williams are not the leader types, great players but they don’t rallly a team when they are down or give any leadership to young players.

And don’t give the last game vs KC as an example of how he faulted because the whole team quit on that game besides jabar gaffney. We weren’t going to the playoffs anyways and weren’t going anywhere in the playoffs if we did.

Last year in the draft everybody spoke about how slow Rey Maualuga was and one thing or another, he ended up getting drafted in the second round! The guy looks like a pretty good linebacker to me! This years Rey is Brandon Spikes!

It looks like we’ll have 2 first round draft picks this year (Marshall trade) so lets trade back, gain some extra picks and select Spikes in the late first early 2nd round! The guys a feral tackler and a real leader.

If you don’t agree then maybe Sean Weatherspoon in the mid to late first!

Kirk Morrison has been a Raiders fan all his life! Don’t know if he’d really want to come to Denver!!!
Woodyard is too small for a full time 3-4 linebacker

Should Larsen end up playing mostly at WILB, if Hillis is gone or not cutting it at FB, a massive TE might work as a blocking back. Or Hochstein. I think that they want to fill in house first.

Drafting Spikes certainly could be a possibility. He is ranked at 40 on CBS Sports rankings. I used to think that he wouldn’t work with this defense – I have changed my mind on that. However if our draft order and amount of picks remain at 6, we will probably pick a LB in later rounds.

Sean Weatherspoon is listed as an OLB on the CBS rankings. Is that right, or can he play ILB as well?

Woodyard was a huge tackler in ’08. He seemed to struggle last year. Will be interesting to see what happens to him.

Watching this team reload is very interesting.

The DL gets blamed for not controlling the line of scrimmage, but in a 3-4 (or 5-2 actually) the DL is supposed to tie up blockers for the LBs to handle. You can’t blame a bad run defense on the DL when most of the players are LBs. The LB play last year was terrible. Davis’ lack of mobility and inability to shake of blockers and play the correct gaps was shocking. Even worse was DJ, who for some reason gets a pass from criticism because he gets so many tackles – from BEHIND! The guy takes the wrong gap all of the time, can’t take blockers on and make a tackle but uses his athleticism (I hate that word) to make enough plays to fool people that he’s a contributor. Larsen is too stiff and slow, and Haggan is a good rotational player but not a starter. The Broncos will draft two pure LBs in the draft and another hybrid LB/DE. Look for them to pick up some tough instinctive players in rounds 2-5.