Fair enough Mitten. Holmes DID many CB moves in 2023. Signing Moseley to a deal despite recovering from an ACL injury. Signing Sutton to a deal which I supported at the time. Branch and Deuce were safeties/nickel guys if you want to think of it that way.
I supported the drafting of Gibbs, Campbell, LaPorta and Branch but I was kind of pissed we didn’t address outside CB. I wanted TWO CBs in the draft in 2023 and we came away with none. Once Witherspoon was gone I get the moves. It HURT watching Gonzales go one pick before we were on the clock but I also LOVE the Jack pick. In rd. 2 once Joey Porter was gone the board didn’t flow well for CBs for us. I LOVE the Branch pick but I thought CB was weak coming into 2023 as I never felt good about Moseley and Jacobs was ALWAYS a concern for me.
Now, Holmes shored up CB despite having to send Sutton packing. I am good with this whole situation overall. I LOVE me some Arnold and Rakestraw!
In hindsight, the only issue I have with Holmes’ 2023 DB binge is the Sutton signing.
Sutton is not a very good M2M CB. He is actually pretty good in zone coverage.
Did Holmes and AG not communicate when signing Sutton?
Or did AG decide mid-season that he was going to let his true self come out and blitz and play M2M?
If Holmes had known that AG was going to change what he wanted from his CB’s he probably wouldn’t have signed Sutton.
It seems they were on the same page this offseason and every CB signed or drafted is at least comfortable if not very good and experienced at playing a lot of press M2M coverage.
With Moseley out to begin the season and now with Dorsey being carted off at practice, our depth is suddenly challenged to the point Vildor and/or Gilmore could be on the final 53 come September.
at first, I was poking fun at the 288 -year , thing~~~~then @jane_doe -said “the beauty of void years.” which is also humorous…in the way of “void years” yeah I guess if we kept players for 280+ years…lol.
Keep in mind we made a ton of changes in 2023 and everyone felt the same way last offseason. But…. I’m expecting this offseason to have a considerable upgrade at CB. I’m not completely convinced that safety isn’t a weak link.
I firmly believe that Davis will be our CB1 to start the season. He’s a very good man coverage CB. But he is a liability in Zone. He’s average to below average as a Zone CB. Which is why I believe we will see even more zone this year than last year. Especially early on.
Robertson is a solid addition who can play both NB and outside. I believe him and Rakestraw were brought in to give us sub package versatility. Robertson allows us the freedom to bring Arnold along slowly.
Branch is still my favorite player in this secondary and I think we’ve barely scratched the surface of his capabilities. He’s a better NB than safety but our weaknesses at safety may force us to move him to safety and use Robertson or Rakestraw as our NB.
Arnold will be starting across from Davis full time at some point during the season but I think early on he splits time with Robertson. I suspect AG brings him along slowly and won’t ask too much early in the year.
Mosely was one heck of a player before injury and I’d like to think he can at least contribute down the stretch for us. If he can still play at a high level it wouldn’t shock me if he’s a starter by seasons end.
Safety is the real concern. Maybe Branch helps shore it up or maybe Brandon can provide a quality rotational piece. Overall I think we could use one more solid contributor there.
With AG and Townsends experience coaching secondaries, plus the amount of talent back there. There’s no reason this group shouldn’t be drastically improved.
