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ABQRam
Here’s another reasonable argument.
QB salaries are skyrocketing for a reason. Teams realize that QB’s, especially top QB’s, are worth their weight in gold. You cannot be a winning team in today’s NFL without at least a decent QB. Just look at the QB’s in the playoffs every year.
Players at other positions are very important, of course. But Job One for any GM is to first get a QB. Job Two is to keep him healthy and happy.
Agreed 43. I always feel the need to preface what I'm about to say with "I love Donald and love to watch him play"...but...not many teams have won a Super Bowl without a quarterback who was at least somewhere between a B+ and an A-. Not saying it hasn't happened but it doesn't happen often. On the other hand, how many times has a team won a Super Bowl because they possessed a "transcendent talent" at defensive tackle? How many great defenses have been great because of a "transcendent talent" at tackle?
I have to be honest about something that bothers me. Donald has played 4 years and his acknowledged talent at his position has never translated into the RAMS having even a top 10 defense! Why is this? It's not has if the RAMS have had terrible players on defense in fact, quite the contrary, they have been very solid at most positions (you can't have a pro bowler at every position). Last year with Donald the RAMS defense finished 19th in the league! We were 28th against the run which I think is telling because that really needs to be stopped at the LOS. 28th! How much worse against the run should we be without Donald? An objective person would have to lean to a lot worse (although we could only drop 5 spots to 32) without a "transcendent talent" on your D-line. If Donald sits and we don't drop to the worst (32nd) then how valuable is a "transcendent talent" at DT against the run? For anyone who thinks I'm being sarcastic, I'm not...it's an honest question.
We were ranked 13th against the pass last year (couldn't even get into the top 10 in either category). But once again, without a "transcendent talent" at DT we should be worse...so how much worse, even giving a conservative estimate. Should we maybe drop to 20th? And overall, how much worse should the RAMS defense be? I think it would be fair to say that if Donald's value is what Donald and his agents believe it is we should drop from 19th to the bottom 25%, 25 or worse.
But I don't believe that is going to happen even if Donald sits, I believe we will improve in both run and pass defense even with our inexperienced group of LB's. And I definitely believe we will be better against the pass. So the question becomes what is the value of the DT position on defense even if you have a "transcendent talent" at the position?
This year the salary cap is $177 mil. How much does a team allocate for offense and defense? Let's say 55% offense and 45% defense just to have some numbers to work with. So that gives the team roughly $97.5 mil for offense and $79.5 million for defense. If you give one player on defense $25 mil of that it leaves you with $54.5 mil for the rest of your defense. I don't see how you ever will get a top 10 defense giving one player almost 33% of the money allocated for defense.
I don't know how much money the team allocates for offense and defense, I'm just thinking out loud regarding the value of different positions on defense. I'm also thinking out loud regarding how our defense will play with our new DBs, inexperienced LBs, and a DL that will have only one starter from last year if Donald sits. And if this happens and the defense improves does this say something about the overall value of that particular position on defense?[/quote]
Several things.
QB contracts are not skyrocketing. All positions go up as the cap goes up but like always, qb gets more.
In terms of the position. You can't measure AD as a "DT" because he is an elite DT, which is a different animal. The last one before AD retired in 2007. A DT of that caliber changes whole defenses. My definition of an elite DT is that they draw attention in blocking schemes which means they free up others, AND they make plays anyway. So last year no one faced multiple blockers more than AD and he led the league in qb pressures anyway, and that's in just 14 games.
Teams don't allocate amounts per unit because when you hand out the big contracts, you do it according to the talent you have on hand, you don't have some kind abstraction in advance saying what it should be. A bad GM like Zygmunt would do it that way. So for example he dictated in 2003 that the Rams could not take Troy Polamalu with the 12th pick because according to his calculations you don't pay a safety 12th pick money. (!!!)
And what is the value of an elite DT? It is INvaluable. No offense can afford to have the defender who starts closest to the ball be disruptive, so they have to dedicate resources to countering that. And then do, and as I said he makes plays anyway. You can't put a simple ordinary value one that.
List all the elite DTs in all of NFL history. It's a short list. I doubt anyone could convince the teams that had those guys that they weren't really that important. Talking about guys like Greene, Olsen, Lily, Page, Randy White, Sapp, Randle etc. Go tell all those teams that an elite DT didn't do much for them.