It's hard to figure out how good Lance Briggs actually is. On one hand, he's a 26 year old, two-time All Pro. But Warrick Holdman was pretty good too when he played next to Brian Urlacher. Could it be that anyone who lines up at weak side linebacker next to Urlacher in the Bears cover-2 will find success? The Bears better hope so because their plans beyond 2007 don't involve Briggs.
It's a decision the Bears had to make with somebody after so many of their starters have become stars the past two seasons. You can't keep everyone in the NFL nowadays, and Briggs is the player the Bears have chosen to let go. If it wasn't him, then it'd be Charles Tillman, Tommie Harris, or Nathan Vasher. It's sad because the Bears unearthed Briggs in the third round out of Arizona not long ago, but cap constraints will make this his final season with in Chicago.
We can worry about how good Jamar Williams is going to be at a later date, because right now, the Bears should be thankful they have Briggs for this season, a season where they should be major contenders to win the Super Bowl. It's disappointing that they can't keep everyone, but Briggs will be a major prescience this year because of the franchise tag. And that's all that matters: this season. The Bears really don't need to be looking beyond that for too long; they have a good chance to do something special this year and need to take advantage of it.
What the Bears do have, for this season at least, is two Pro Bowl linebackers starting for them. There isn't a duo in the NFL nearly as tenacious as Urlacher and Briggs, and they'll once again be the backbone of one of the best defenses in the NFL. There numbers aren't amazing like some of their peers, but it's because of the system they play in. Both stars defer numbers (and in Urlacher's case, money) to win, and that's what the Bears have done the past two seasons, and what they should do again this year.
Throw Urlacher in virtually any other system, and there is zero chance to gets zero sacks last year. He'd be good for 12 or more every season is they ever blitzed him, but he's too valuable in the cover-2 as a defender to pressure the quarterback. That's what the d-line is for, remember? It's almost a shame, really, that we'll never know what Urlacher's numbers would been had he played in a more aggressive defense, but it's not as important as a winning a championship, which the Bears could do this year.
While I'm going to wait to the end to give you my prediction on how the Bears season will end up, I'm going to try to give you statistical projections for every major player. Here's what I got for the linebackers this year this year:
Urlacher: 138 tackles, 2 sacks, 3 interceptions
Briggs: 133 tackles, 1 sack, 3 interceptions
Hillenmeyer: 51 tackles, 2 sacks
(AND JOIN THE NFL PICK'EM LEAGUE)
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Comments
Word on the street is that you drank 3 mike's lemonade then passed out in your own pee watching The Notebook.
Okay, I joined your pick 'em thing on Yahoo. It's an interesting fantasy game, and I know next to nothing about how teams are stacked up this season, so I'm expecting to get about 12 points the first week.
Of course, I could be hustling you guys.
Yeah I wouldn't be surprised at all if Erin just beat the piss out of everyone. I'm horrible, so everyone should beat me easily.
And Bruce, I pretty much agree with you. Briggs has the opportunity to make plays in the system, and he does. He sheds blockers pretty well, so i don't know if running at him is ideal, but i get your point for sure. It'll be really interesting to see how he does in the future, because if still has so much of his prime left.
I think it has a lot to do with Urlacher. I may confuse you but try to follow me, I will probably end up confusing myself. I think the Bears have "programmed" Briggs the proper way to provide him with opportunities to shine next to Urlacher. They have created gameplans where his responsibilities are limited and he is able to be aggressive and little else. Since Urlacher is so strong in the middle he forces plays to Briggs and Briggs simply doesn't wiff that much. In run situations he is assigned on outside contain and he doesn't have to scrape across the line or read and decide between plugging a hole or going outside. (beauty of the Cover 2) Opposing teams aren't able to free up a blocker in the form of a pulling guard or center because the offensive line HAS to put the center on Urlacher to be effective and keep his speed from being a factor when HE scrapes across the line to pursue. If I had the personnel I would run a stretch cutback out of the power I similar to the bread and butter play the ravens used when Jamal Lewis was in his prime. I would run it at Briggs, freezing him in his gap while putting the center on 54. The fullback would engage the backside contain (Hillenmeyer at this point if run AT Briggs) and try to bust int he secondary off of the fullback. Briggs doesn't scrap as well as Urlacher so this would be a harder play for him to make from the other side when his initial assignment was playside contain. My team (the Colts) didn't have that personnel, so they used the passing game to isolate Briggs in the Super Bowl. They ran Dallas Clark up the seam behind him and had him break his routes inside to keep Urlacher from cheating up (Clark was lining up in the slot not as a tight end). They then used the space created to spuirt out backs into the gap between the d-line and linebackers. Rhodes and Addai caught a lot of balls for 5 and 6 yards right in front of Briggs and he was never able to adjust. In his defense, when he stayed closer to the line Manning went to Clark to draw him back out again, but he was still unable to adapt. I think a better player, Like a Rosie Colvin, could have made those adjustments because I see him do it every year when the Colts make their trip to Boston. In the running game the Colts tried to keep it simple because they didn't have that personnel I spoke about earlier. They opted to instead run the center right onto Urlacher and send the back in after him on quick hitters to the middle. Briggs and Hillenmeyer both had good and bad moments in these situations. Credit where it is due, Jeff Saturday was a huge part of the Colts running game in the Super Bowl.
On the original topic, I too wonder about Briggs. I don't think he should get a big contract from the bears. The cover 2 can sometimes make stars out of weakside linebackers who might not otherwise be that good. Cato June is a great example of a pro bowler who isn't that great but had his days in the cover 2. i think that is the case with Briggs. Some of the salary he is asking for could probably be better spent on the other side of the ball without letting the defense suffer too much. Sorry about the length, like the blog and saw something I thought i could comment on so I dove in.