Posted Thu Apr 3rd by Jonathan Douglas
So, it’s official… DJ Williams is moving.
Moving, that is, to the weak side LB position despite his fantastic statistical first year in the middle.
As I’ve said in the past, I think this is a huge slap in the face of an athlete like DJ, who at the bare minimum deserved to compete for the starting MIKE spot after last year’s success.
However, yesterday Mike Shanahan clearly stated that he intends to unceremoniously demote DJ…
“It’s tough to be thrown into a position and be great at it. I thought he did a good job. You look at all the tackles he had, but I just don’t think it was really natural for him.” — Mike Shanahan 4/3/08
TRANSLATION: MIKE LB is a tough job and DJ was only ‘good’ at it – not great.
Hmmm… So, if leading the NFL statically at your position in your first year isn’t good enough can someone please tell me what we’re expecting from our players?
Let me ask this question: If we had, say, a fullback that was asked to take over at RB one year. And, let’s imagine that he lead the league in rushing yards and/or touchdowns scored in that first year at RB.
Can you honestly imagine Shanahan saying anything like he did here to DJ? Wouldn’t the fanbase of Denver jump up and down demanding that Shanahan NOT move this player back to FB the next year?
To fully explain my position:
I’m not opposed to moving personnel around. I like Niko. I like Boss. I liked how DJ developed last year and what he did despite a horrible defense up front. But I also like thinking about the havoc DJ could cause on the weak side. I would be happy if we find a way to get all three of these LB’s on the field next year.
My concern is the fact that Mike Shanahan thinks part of the solution for 2008 is moving DJ from the middle. That implies that Shanahan believes DJ at MIKE was part of the problem last year — and I flat out deny that 100%. It worries me that Shanahan could think this, because that indicates he hasn’t really figured out what went wrong last year and how to fix it this year…. and that’s scary, folks.
Am I making too much of this? Someone, poke some holes in my logic, please.
Published on 04/03/2008 at Thu Apr 03 20:44.
Tagged: D.J. Williams.