This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Threre's chat that Edwards could be cut after June 1st. Nothing is concrete, though.
I'm pretty firmly in the camp that it was a nagging knee injury that occurred early last season that hampered his 05 numbers.It really was minimized initially, then three weeks later this little blurb popped up in the San Diego newspaper in November.
Despite what Edwards says a torn meniscus is going to affect your leverage and agility. He did have surgery in January.I'd downgrade Edwards a little. Lower leg injuries in guys over 30 usually signify the beginning of the end. And Edwards' sack numbers may decline with the emergence of Shawne Merriman (although they weren't with Steve Foley...). But I certainly wouldn't sell him cheap without more than a PFT rumor in hand.
Edwards has one year left on his contract, and he's a bit of a malcontent. (He complained about his contract publicly every chance he got last year.) If the Chargers can get a first-day pick for him, I think it would be a fantastic move. Otherwise, he's gone after the 2006 season anyway.
) Hanik Milligan, by the way. He just hired Rosenhaus as his agent. He's got one year left on his contract, and may be planning to hold out this year. The Chargers are shopping him and would probably take anything they could get for him.
I don't think anyone out there will give up a 1st day pick for a 33 year old LB who makes decent money. I didn't realize he was a malcontent though. Guess that changes things a bit if he's being disruptive. I still think they'd be much worse off in 2006 without him than they would be with him. It's not like they are going to be able to do much with the money they'd save from trading him now anyway.
Maybe Phillips caught her dancing with Dhani Jones in the street.
Maybe their decision to let DeQuincy Scott go will come back to haunt them. He's a very solid pass rush specialist, and I would think that their confidence in Philips was part of what allowed them to let him go.
That's why the move to trade Edwards doesn't make any sense to me.The draft is supposed to be very deep in LB this year and the smart play imo would have been to draft Edwards replacement this year, let him play special teams and fill in for injuries. Since the draft is deep and both Edwards and Godfrey have one foot out the door maybe draft two ILB's.
Per KFFL
This is accurate. After Hodge and Jackson there are no other blue chip ILB types, although guys like Hawk and Ryans could probably be very good inside.
Ah, thanks for the correction.I don't follow college football at all to be honest and just go by what I hear from the national talking heads on the subject. I was under the impression both ILB's and OLB's were deep.
It would be interesting to find out how those percentages compare to other ILB's last season. Regardless, the article also states "a season in which he played the final 10 games with a torn meniscus (knee) that required offseason surgery". It's hard for me to fault a guy for putting up stats that are under par if he's playing through an injury in the first place. Edwards has missed ONE game his entire career.I realize in the article it states "among linebackers, Edwards ranks 61st in sacks and 36th in tackles for loss over the past seven seasons" but that also penalizes him for not being used much as a blitzer. I've always felt he was strongest in coverage.
link:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/charg...18chargers.html
A study of his tackles last season showed that 67 (44 percent) were made after an opponent had gained three yards or less while 37 (24 percent) were made after an opponent had gained six or more yards.
Yeah, I'd also like to know what percentages other top-shelf LB's have in regards to yardage allowed per carry. The article made the impression that a 24% clip of 6+ yards is terrible, but I know of no numbers to substantiate this impression.With 1/2 of the NFL teams averaging 4.0 yards or more per carry in '05, one would have to assume at least 24% of the carries went for more than six yards, right??It would be interesting to find out how those percentages compare to other ILB's last season. Regardless, the article also states "a season in which he played the final 10 games with a torn meniscus (knee) that required offseason surgery". It's hard for me to fault a guy for putting up stats that are under par if he's playing through an injury in the first place. Edwards has missed ONE game his entire career.I realize in the article it states "among linebackers, Edwards ranks 61st in sacks and 36th in tackles for loss over the past seven seasons" but that also penalizes him for not being used much as a blitzer. I've always felt he was strongest in coverage.
link:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/charg...18chargers.html
A study of his tackles last season showed that 67 (44 percent) were made after an opponent had gained three yards or less while 37 (24 percent) were made after an opponent had gained six or more yards.
Maybe I'm just being a myopic Edwards fan but if anyone is trying to call into question Edwards quality of play over the past seven years I'm going to call BS.
link:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/charg...18chargers.html
A study of his tackles last season showed that 67 (44 percent) were made after an opponent had gained three yards or less while 37 (24 percent) were made after an opponent had gained six or more yards.
Give me a break.
That Edwards struggled to get off blocks last season? 
over.
... )
I agree with Edwards that he's been underappreciated for years. But comparing himself to Ray Lewis and Zach Thomas for salary purposes based on total number of tackles is misleading.Edwards makes a lot of tackles because teams run at him a lot. Teams run at him a lot because they can move the ball by doing so. Edwards' best statistical game last year was in week 16 against the Chiefs when he had 16 tackles. Sixteen tackles is good, right? But in fact it was a poor game for Edwards. Every time the Chiefs needed to convert a third down, they ran at Edwards. And Edwards made the tackle . . . after the first down marker. He gave up 9 first downs on those 16 tackles.
I certainly wouldn't want to trade him based on his on-field performance. He's a very good player and adds a lot to the defense. The only reasons I'd trade him are (1) he'll be gone after this season anyway and it's better to get something for him rather than nothing; and (2) to quote from the article linked to above, "And teammates privately lament his frequent gripes about being underappreciated."
My comments . . .Edwards will not be released, as AJ Smith has stated pretty clearly. Why would he be? He's got a year left on his contract at a very reasonable price, and he's still a good player.
That site is popping up in all my searches. I've learned to ignore them. They do not pay sportswriters. Their contributors are pretty bad, mostly just fans playing sportswriter on the internet with no real contacts. They get fans/wannabe writers to submit content on the hope they (the writer's) can build an impressive enough portfolio to someday be real sportswriters. The post draft commentary has been beyond lame, unfortunately. Back to our regularly scheduled Charger LBs talk.
This drives home an observation I made a few weeks ago.Donnie was
when the Chiefs essentially cut him loose some years ago.
I don't know how it compares to other LBs, stat-wise. It's probably worse than average or it wouldn't be mentioned, but I don't know.The problem that's reflected by the stat, however, is that Edwards often makes contact near the line of scrimmage but is then dragged several yards downfield before making the tackle.
That wasn't the case, though. Many of his tackles resulted in first downs. Against the Chiefs last year on Christmas, for example, Edwards had 16 tackles, which sounds impressive. But those 16 plays resulted in over 100 yards and nine first downs. On seemingly every third down play, they ran at Donnie and got the first.I understand what you're saying, though. The stats themselves don't tell the whole story. About that, you are certainly correct.
