Vrabel to Back Up Gildon

From the PG this AM:

Vrabel plays behind Jason Gildon at right outside linebacker, and while Gildon led the team with 8 1/2 sacks last season, he had only one over the final seven games.

"Jason played more plays than anybody else," Archer said. "Jason had a lot of sacks early in the season and kind of regressed for whatever reason; maybe he wore down.

"We're constantly looking at why these things happened. And you noticed the productivity went down for whatever reason. Maybe he did get worn down, so we can keep fresh people in there."

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People wonder why I get so down on Cowhead. And then ya read this article.... Archer talks like the staff was trying to figure out a solution to the problem in the Balkans, fer chrissakes. Gildong was obviously struggling as the season wore on, but NOT ONCE was he EVER, EVER removed from the lineup for even a SINGLE play the ENTIRE season. NOT ONCE. This is not brain surgery. Unless a player is a Pro Bowler and a workout fanatic, like Lloyd was in his prime, there is no earthly reason for a player to take EVERY SNAP of a 16-game season.

At any rate, I applaud the move of Vrabel to LOLB -- Lord knows that Gildon NEEDS some competition, and Gildon NEEDS someone to give him a break for at least several plays per game. It says here that Vrabel will be far stouter against the run than the weakling Gildon, and will actually apply more pressure on the QB than Gildon.

The article also had this tidbit:

"We talked about kind of doing more of the things we had done when Dick [LeBeau] was here," linebackers coach Mike Archer said. "Not comparing anything, but using fire zones a little more. I think we want to be a little more aggressive."

Bingo!! WHY did it take 2-plus YEARS to figure this out?? WHY did we have to wait until The Vanilla Man, Jim Asslet, departed, before re-employing the SUCCESSFUL tactics used by Dick LeBeau, who was 1 of the chief original architects of this defense?? Again, this points out the blatant coaching deficiencies of one Field Goal Bill, who is unable to see & grasp the obvious.