As a Fowler detractor I'll take the bait.
I see Fowler as a career 6-8 sack guy who cashed in cleaning up for AD. Like someone else said, playing in that situation he should have scored more than 11.5 sacks. 5.5 of those came in 2 games, one of which we still lost. I was frustrated as heck watching him repeatedly run past Wilson in our first game vs Seattle. To pay him the big money would have been a poor use of funds. To his credit the guy was very good at stripping the ball.
Is he a bad player, no. Overpaid, yes. Can we replace hem, well that's the question.
Why the faith on OO? Well, because he's on the roster. Because he had similar size and college stats as Fowler.
Polite has all the physical tools to be a nightmare EDGE, except he has yet to prove that his brain is as impressive. (Actually I don't even know his roster status)
With the signing of Floyd I can see Ebukam moving to Fowler's spot as well. He's may not be as good a pass rusher as Fowler but I think he's a more complete player. (Fowler 3.6 tackles a game)
If we can get 5-6 sacks from each of those guys we'll break even on last years production.
