I could care less about titles and nomenclature. I care about who is on the field. And we played a BUNCH of nickle this year and that meant WW/DJ at LB and von at DE. So its not like he wasnt playing.

Woody just wants to play every down so he can make a name for himself and get the $$$ that goes with it. I can’t knock his hustle either. Hopefully they can find a way to keep him around.

the guy is outstanding!

Woodyard just shows really well

I can not understand the hate for DJ on this site sometimes. I love WW. He is a very good weakside backer. But DJ is better. As BroncoMath points out, every coach for the last 5 years has thought so.

I also agree with Triz’s comments about how we actually lined up on the field, when Mays went out and WW came in. DJ was basically playing the middle and WW was playing the weakside.

I’d like to see DJ move back to the middle with WW playing the weakside full time. The only time DJ struggled at MLB was when out DT’s sucked. With the big space eaters we have now doing the job like they should, DJ will be much better.

if they were, Wood would have the job by now. How could anyone argue? Surely Fox would start Wood over DJ if he were the better player.

There isn’t a thing in this rant that I agree with.

What pro bowl did DJ make?

And he routinely makes mistakes that should not be made by a linebacker above the junior high level. Not so much this year, but every year before, just watching the pursuit angles he takes on ballcarriers is incredibly frustrating. He’s always trying to “catch up” to the runner instead of taking a good angle and using proper technique to make the tackle. Sure, he makes a lot of tackles, but too many seem to come 12 yards downfield. Of course, everyone gets caught out of position at times, but for DJ it seemed to happen a lot throughout his career.

So he isn’t the best role model, I don’t think that is what he’s paid to be. And he certainly isn’t the first pro athlete to be called those things, whether they be true or not. The issue – to me – is that people want to crucify him for his off the field activities, but what exactly has he done that has been so extremely terrible? DUIs? Please. If we are going to convict the guy in the court of public opinion we should at least have our stories straight.

Are we cutting / trading him because he is a poor player on the field, or because he is somewhat considered to be a “problem” player off of it? And someone above said he doesn’t deserve his contract, essentially. Well, neither does Doom, Champ or any other of our pricier players based on the way last season ended. It just seems to me that for whatever reason, DJ has become the scapegoat for the defense. If anything, he should be praised. He’s switched positions year in and year out, had a different DC every year and still he makes pro bowls. But I forgot, those don’t matter.

I think these are best stats evidence put down in this whole stream. Any evidence to go against advancenflstats?

Also I will put in the two cents of recalling McD ( a dirty name around here I know, but many also are now pretty happy with his drafting which is talent evaluation) raving about DJ as one of the best LBers he coached and many people not realizing how many things he does for the team. How many comments then were posted on this very website that they didn’t remember McD ever saying those types of comments about his players

DJ is in the game all day long. These stats are misleading. Especially when it’s a run play and Woodyard is on the sideline.

lol

He’s been the best we’ve had over the last 5+ years at linebacker. DJ can be a tone setter with some of his monstrous hits. And he isn’t the only one awful in coverage on our team, and even in the LB corps. Why does everyone feel the need to single out one of our best players as frequently as possible? And here’s a thought. If DJ is one of our best players, which he is, AND he has all the deficiencies that you and others say he has, then what does that say about the talent level of the rest of our team? And having said that, how does it make any sense to move one of our most talented players?

“All he does is make tackles 9 yards down field.” Because we haven’t even had a remotely decent defensive line in front of our linebackers until this past season, when it was borderline average. We still aren’t close to where we need to be along the D-line, and every year we pass it up in the draft. I keep hearing how we need more help there, and how we are supposed to address it in the upcoming draft, only the draft comes and we walk away with safeties, linebackers, receivers, running backs etc. and to tell the truth, I don’t doubt it will be any different this year.

I’ll be there.